Luke 24:44-53 | Proclaiming Christ

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Two books of the Bible are one long work by a single author that have been divided into two books.

Luke and Acts.

You've been looking ahead, haven't you?

Read your bulletin.

Praise God.

Written by the same man, Luke and Acts, detailed the account of Jesus' life, first in the Gospel, and then the life of the early church.

Together, Luke and Acts comprise more than 25% of your New Testament.

The Apostle Paul wrote the most letters in the New Testament, but Luke wrote the most words in the New Testament.

This morning we're going to spend our time at the conclusion of Luke's Gospel.

Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 44, and we're going to do that to set the table for a study of the book of Acts.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Now, Acts is a history book.

And you know that I am a lover of history, but that's not why I am excited to be considering this part of God's word with you.

While Acts is church history, I'm excited about it because it is part of our history.

The book of Acts is Faith Evangelical Free Church's history.

And if you call faith your family, your church home, it is your history.

But that's not the only reason I'm excited to open the book of Acts with you over the next few months.

I'm excited about it because the next year approximately will give us a unique opportunity to consider some practical theology.

Working through Acts is historical.

It tells us what happened in the very early months of the early church.

But doing that will challenge our understanding of who our God is.

It will challenge our understanding of what church is, what missions is, of God's program within history and how you and I play a role in God's program.

So we're going to answer questions like what is the church?

Who is the church?

What is missions?

We'll consider how the Holy Spirit empowers God's people.

We'll think about what deacons do and how a local church should actually carry out the Great Commission.

Now there are two crucial aspects to remember along the way.

And the first is that Acts does not give us directions or commands for following Jesus.

Now it helps us with those essential elements.

But that isn't the point of Acts.

The point of the book of Acts is to remind us of what happened.

And along the way, the what will give us insights into how we ought to follow Jesus.

The second crucial aspect to remember is not the what, nor is it the where, the why, the when, or the how.

But which one did I leave out?

The who.

The who.

We must answer the who question before reading even one sentence in Acts.

If you open your Bible to the page with the title of the book of Acts, you will likely see the publisher's edition that reads of the apostles, the Acts of the Apostles.

The most common and accepted answer to the who question is the Apostles, which is that Acts is the history of the work of Jesus' disciples who became the first apostles.

That's the most common answer that you will find, but that isn't the only potential answer.

As early as the fourth century of the church, Pastor John Chrysostom said that Acts ought to be titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

Because the Holy Spirit is mentioned more in Acts than in any other book of the New Testament.

Many others have made that same assertion.

Now I'm going to take a little bit different route and argue that the book of Acts is not about the Acts of the Apostles, nor is it merely about the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

Instead, it is the Acts of our Trinitarian God.

Because in the book of Acts, we see the work of God the Father, the work of God the Son, and the work of God the Spirit to accomplish the eternal divine intention.

Now, what is that divine intention that we see in Acts?

It's very simple.

The intention of God in the book of Acts is to create a multi-ethnic group of people that are his family.

And in the book of Revelation, we see the end result of that.

Before the throne room of God above, we see all nations, all languages, all peoples giving praise and honor to the risen Christ.

So the book of Acts shows us how God acted in time and space to accomplish that purpose, which resulted in us gathering here today.

Now the end of Luke's first book, the gospel, reveals more groundwork that was laid to prepare the way for God's acts that we find in the second book.

And you'll begin to see today and next Sunday how the end of Luke's gospel and the beginning of the book of Acts are very much parallel to one another.

There are many repetitions, in fact.

We're not going to look at all of them, but you will probably pick up on more than we point out this morning.

If you have your Bible, I encourage you to open it to Luke 24 and look with me, beginning at verse 44.

I'll read verse 44 through the end of the chapter.

Luke recounts the words of Jesus speaking to his disciples.

And he, Jesus, said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

And he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things.

And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.

And while he blessed them, he parted from them and carried up and was carried up into heaven.

And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

And they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Amen.

In this last chapter of his gospel account, Luke affirms repeatedly the reality of Jesus' resurrection.

The entire chapter is devoted to confirming Christ's resurrection.

Luke wants to leave his readers with that reality.

The tomb is empty because Jesus is alive.

Since this conclusion to Luke's biography of Jesus is the transition to the book we know as Acts, we can conclude the first of five essential foundational elements that we see for the book of Acts.

And the first is that the book of Acts is grounded in the reality of Christ's resurrection.

Luke chapter 24, verse 37, in the section that comes before what we just read, Luke points very clearly to the difficulty human beings have with the concept of a crucified being who was buried for three days, somehow being alive.

Luke 24:37

Verse 36.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, Peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

The resurrected Jesus makes little sense to the disciples.

Now you begin to see why this entire chapter is devoted to confirming the empty tomb and a real, live, risen Christ.

In the verses following, verse 37, Jesus dispels the doubts about the reality of his resurrection by doing something a spirit or a ghost could not do.

He ate a piece of fish.

You see, only a being with real substance could consume something with real substance.

And so Jesus proves to them, I am not a figment of your imagination.

You're not seeing things.

I can take something from your hand, I can put it in my mouth, and I can consume it, and you see it no more.

Luke then immediately shifts away from proving the resurrection to Jesus' final instructions to his disciples.

And the way that shift is made is significant.

Because the instructions we are about to hear are true and commanding because Jesus died and rose again.

What we are about to hear must impact us because Jesus died and rose again.

He is alive, having conquered death and proven it to his disciples, and therefore he now possesses all authority to command his disciples.

There is no book of Acts without the Lord's resurrection.

There is no coming of the Holy Spirit without his resurrection.

There is no church if Jesus' body is still entombed.

Luke ends his gospel account in almost the same way that he begins Acts.

That's not merely to be able to keep his readers with him in the story.

It's to demonstrate the continuity of the story, especially the truth of the resurrection and at the end of this chapter, the ascension.

The risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ empowers and directs his people to accomplish his purpose.

And that means, brothers and sisters in Christ, that Acts is our history.

So we need to be reminded that Jesus' resurrection and his ascension into heaven establish God's continuing work through his church.

First, through the apostles, through the establishment of the early church, through the continuation of the church as it continues Christ's mission.

Faith's ministry rests on the reality that Jesus rose from the dead.

Faith's hope that the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ's church is firmly rooted in an empty tomb.

Fellow believer, always return to your history.

That history of emptiness.

Your history as a daughter or son of God originates in an empty tomb.

It's proven history.

And so God's work in your life has its basis, its roots, its ground in death's inability to hold the Lord Christ in its cold grip.

It's the truth that enabled those early Christians to follow Christ to martyrdom.

If you want to hear more about that, go to Steadfast Fellowship Group.

And it's the truth that will enable you to stand against the wiles of the devil and against all of the vain philosophies of this world.

The book of Acts rests on the resurrection of Jesus.

And your faith stands firm on the empty tomb.

There's a second foundational element for the book of Acts that's expressed here in verse 44.

And that is that the book of Acts is grounded in the reality of Scripture fulfilled.

Jesus said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.

That is pre-cross, right?

Pre-toomb pre-cross.

That everything written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

So Jesus declares that his earthly ministry has one overarching purpose: to fulfill everything that was written about him.

Now that shouldn't surprise us since we've already worked our way through Matthew's biography of Jesus, right?

For in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus said, uh oh, I just messed it up, guys.

Matthew 5:17

Matthew 5, 17, thank you.

Do not think that I have come to establish or to abolish the law of the prophets.

No, that's not it at all.

I've actually come to fulfill them.

So we already know Jesus came to fulfill God's word.

Now, when we read here in the end of Luke, the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, that's a Hebrew way of using a phrase to refer to the entire Old Testament.

Everything in the Jewish scriptures had to be fulfilled.

So when God acts in Luke's next volume, we see the outworking of that fulfilled scripture.

Everything in Acts happens because everything God said about the Messiah has been fulfilled in Jesus.

This truth is contained in the description of the disciples in verse 48 as witnesses.

They saw and they experienced Jesus.

The God man fulfills scriptures at every turn.

It seemed post-resurrection that as they looked back, Jesus was fulfilling scripture left and right.

And his resurrection is the capstone, the pinnacle, the climax of that fulfillment.

And so in Acts we see the faithfulness of God's people witnessing to the truthfulness of Jesus' resurrection.

And that's an essential component of our witness today.

For the essence of our message is summed up in John 20, 31, isn't it?

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And the proof of Jesus' identity is an empty tomb and his resurrection and ascension into heaven.

We don't lead people to trust in Christ without believing those crucial elements.

Isn't that what the Apostle Paul said to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15?

He says, For I delivered to you the things that were of first, of primary importance.

What is that?

Christ died.

He died for our sins in fulfillment and in accordance with the scriptures.

That he was buried, confirming his death, and that he was raised on the third day, again, in fulfillment, in accordance with the scriptures.

And then he proved that by multiple appearances, again and again and again.

This is the essence of our message.

This is the essence of our witness.

This is the message that we proclaim.

So when God acts in Luke's second volume, we see the outworking of God's continuing work of fulfillment because it must be fulfilled.

Faith Evangelical Free Church began 61 years ago as an extension of God's act to fulfill his word.

The reason you came to trust in Christ, if you have trusted in Christ, is an extension of God's act to fulfill his word.

You are here today because of God's faithfulness to fulfill his word.

So, friends, reading and studying the book of Acts is vital to your spiritual life because it reminds you of the foundation of your faith in the empty tomb.

And it spurs you to thanksgiving and to praise for God's fulfillment of his word and his faithfulness to his promises because the resurrection is real.

Now there's a third foundational element for the book of Acts.

It's expressed in verse 45.

And that is the book of Acts is grounded in the reality of a new understanding.

Look with me at verse 45.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of verse 45 to the book of Acts.

And not only to the book of Acts, but to the life of every single follower of Jesus.

All of Scripture testifies that those without genuine faith cannot grasp the spiritual realities of God's word.

There's a story about a man who was imprisoned in ancient times in a in a in a castle, and he asked to have a copy of the Bible.

And over the period of many years, he had inscribed on the walls of his dungeon cell all kinds of details about the Bible.

Here's the longest verse of the Bible, here's the longest chapter of the Bible, here's the middle verse of the Bible.

But all of those inscriptions seemed to indicate he missed the point.

You see, the unsaved mind must be divinely opened to understand the life giving nature of Scripture.

And both the Old and the New Testament witness to that truth.

For example, in Psalm 53, beginning in verse 2, we see a phrase.

That Paul picks up and recounts again in the book of Romans.

Says, God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

So there's the definition of understanding there, right?

If there are any who understand, that is, who are seeking after God.

If you understand, you will seek after God.

No, they've all fallen away.

Together they've become corrupt.

There's none who does good, no, not one.

So the reality is that without God, mankind has no spiritual vibrancy or vitality or life to be able to understand who God is and to pursue him.

The New Testament repeats that in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 4.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

The natural person, that is the person without the Spirit of Christ, doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly, they're foolishness to him.

And he's not able to understand them.

Why?

Because they are spiritually discerned.

So an old testament passage and a new testament passage that says, without God's work to grant new understanding, we're lost.

That's why I think we read in Psalm 119 and verse 18 this prayer, Open my eyes so that I might behold wondrous things in your law.

Interestingly, in the book of Acts, in chapter 16, we find this pictured for us in a beautiful way that we'll look at in more detail when we get to Acts 16.

It says, one of us who heard us was a woman named Lydia, who was from the city of Thyatira.

She was a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

John tells us, I think, what the Lord did in Lydia's heart.

In 1 John chapter 5 and verse 20, it says, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we might know him who is true.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

Now, some want to argue that that is the moment at which the disciples here became genuine believers in Christ.

I don't know that that's necessarily the case.

I'm not going to argue that point.

Because I think there are two different situations that scripture displays.

There are truths that come to mind and come to clarity when we come to faith in Christ.

That is, God giving us his spirit so that we can now discern spiritual things.

But there's also things that the Lord opens our minds to later on in our following of Jesus.

So, for example, there are elements that the disciples could not understand until after the Lord's resurrection.

For example, in John chapter 12, we read that the disciples did not understand the things that Jesus was saying at first, but later on, after Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven, glorified, then they remembered these things and they understood them.

John 12 · chapter mention

So what does that show us?

Well, I think there are three elements here that are impactful for us.

Number one, it reveals the progressive character of God's revelation.

Adam and Eve didn't know everything about God's purpose and plan.

They knew what God told them.

Similarly, Abraham didn't know everything about God's purpose and plan.

Neither did Moses or David or any of the prophets.

They knew and understood more as God revealed more.

That's why Peter could say in his significant portion about Scripture, in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1, or verse 10, we read, concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be given searched and inquired carefully.

1 Peter 1:1

They wanted to know what kind of person is this, this predicted Christ.

God didn't reveal that to them.

Instead, they came to understand that they were serving us by laying groundwork.

So we see here the progressive nature of God's revelation, but we also see the gracious work of the Lord Jesus to grant his people understanding.

You ever come across a passage of scripture that just doesn't make sense to you?

If you haven't, you haven't read the Bible enough.

He who created your heart and mind is powerful and gracious enough to open it to understand the mysteries of Scripture.

The mysteries of God's word are so rich and so deep that you will not exhaust them in your lifetime.

But this gracious work is not simply a one-time unlocking or illumination.

It's something that God continues to do as you pour yourself into the words of your Lord.

Yes, the Holy Spirit does that initial unlocking, if you will, so that we can have the ability to grasp spiritual realities at the moment of salvation.

That's when we might say the truths of scripture start to click in our minds.

But there are other kinds of illumination as well.

Spend some time, for example, in Psalm 119.

And note how many times in that long psalm the psalm writer asks God for understanding.

Over and over he says, God, give me understanding.

The Lord loves to open people's minds for spiritual insight.

Seek him for that.

Petition him to grant you insight and understanding.

But when you do that, you need to know that you shouldn't seek the Lord's grace for understanding for yourself alone.

Because what we see here in this passage, where Jesus opened their minds to understand, is that it wasn't for themselves.

The goal of understanding is for others.

The Lord opens our minds to the riches of Scripture so that we can grasp what he's doing, his purposes, and in his intents, and then to take that and proclaim it to others.

You see, God's acts in the book of Acts are the result of this opening of the disciples' minds so that they will bear witness to God's purpose in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

And the result of that is that people from all nations might believe, repent, and be witnesses themselves.

The Lord draws us together each week so that our minds might be further opened and that our hearts might be motivated to bear witness to these things.

This opening of God's word to his people is so that others might have their hearts and minds opened.

So to have your heart and your mind opened to the words of Scripture and to not be a witness is to steal the joy of Scripture from those who might know.

There's a fourth foundational element expressed here for the book of Acts, and that is that the book of Acts is grounded in the faithfulness of proclaiming witnesses.

The book of Acts fleshes out the progress of the gospel from Jerusalem all the way to the ends of the known world at that time.

And here Jesus summarizes that movement, doesn't he?

He says, beginning from Jerusalem in verse 47.

Witnessing would begin in Jerusalem and move out from there until all nations hear of the resurrection of Jesus and call on him in faith and repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

On the one hand, Luke's second volume recounts the acts of a sovereign God.

He moves within time and space to accomplish his will in ways that fulfills Scripture.

On the other hand, Luke's second volume demonstrates the faithfulness of God's people to tell others, to proclaim him wherever they might be.

God advances his intention to create a people of all nations, all languages, all ethnicities, and he does that through faithful witnesses.

And as we'll see through the book of Acts, the method of furthering the Lord's church is through proclamation, through using your voice to tell others.

You've probably heard that misquote from St.

Francis of Assisi that goes something like this preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.

Please don't ever repeat that again.

I'll give you two reasons why.

There is absolutely no evidence that St.

Francis of Assisi said that.

Nothing in any of his records and any of his writings indicates that he said that.

But aside from that fact, it goes against the witness of Scripture and the nature of trusting in Christ.

Salvation comes through the word of Christ and the word of Christ through proclaiming so that people might hear.

That's part of why we will see acts filled with sermons and speeches over and over and over and over again.

It's the word of mouth telling others about Jesus and his resurrection from the dead.

Through speaking, people hear the good news of forgiveness of sins through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

That's why Paul asks, how will people ever hear if no one is sent?

And how will they ever hear if no one tells them?

That means God uses people like you and me to be his witnesses.

It doesn't mean it always has to be from a pulpit.

It can be as you're sitting down at coffee in the morning with an unsaved spouse.

It could be as you're working side by side with somebody who doesn't know Christ.

It could be as you're writing a letter to a friend you haven't seen in a while.

The book of Acts is grounded in the faithfulness of proclaiming witnesses.

Friends, the fact that you are here is proof that God works through faithful proclaiming witnesses.

All He calls for is your faithfulness.

But there's a fifth foundational element expressed here.

And that is that the book of Acts is grounded in the faithfulness of the Father.

Jesus says, verse 49, Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.

But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high.

Now, if you look over in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 1, you will see that Luke picks up on this again and he repeats it so that we might see it all over again.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Verse 8 of Acts chapter 1, you will receive power from the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Now we see a little bit later in Acts chapter 2 and verse 33 that this promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Verse 33 of Acts chapter 2, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Jesus promised that God the Father would send the Spirit to initiate something new.

In John chapter 14, he said that that disciple would, that to the disciples, that the Spirit would cause them to remember everything that Jesus had said to them so that they could go and proclaim it accurately, that the Spirit would inspire them to record these words of Scripture and endow them with a heavenly power to stand as emboldened witnesses with the ability to speak of Jesus.

John 14 · chapter mention

Friends, you know this well.

Peter stood boldly before Jesus and said, All those guys might deny you, but I will never deny you.

I will die with you.

What did he do that night?

He denied Jesus.

Not once, not twice, but three times.

Peter's just like you and me.

He is a human being who struggles living in a sinful human body, but trusts in Christ and desires to follow him faithfully.

How is it then that Peter becomes such a champion and bold preacher for the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 2?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I'll tell you why.

It's because of the promise of the Father.

And it's the same promise of the Father that is given to every person who comes to faith in Jesus Christ.

So you are no different than Peter.

In that you too, because of the Father's faithfulness, can be a bold witness to the resurrection of Christ.

So how does this foundational element impact us?

Well, for one, faith would not exist as a church were it not for the faithfulness of the Father's promise.

This church would not exist.

There would be no witnesses without the empowering work of the Spirit, without the Father fulfilling his promise, there would be no opening of closed minds, no enlivening of dead hearts.

Paul tells the Corinthians that we would have no hope.

That we would be dead in our sins if the Father were not faithful to his promise.

And we would have no ability, no power to be witnesses today.

So we exist as his church, we exist as daughters and sons of the living God, and we point to Jesus together.

We proclaim Jesus together because of the Father's faithfulness in sending the promised Holy Spirit.

We lift up Jesus through his death, burial, and resurrection to one another first and to a listening world next, because of the Father's faithfulness to his promise.

Do you see why now we start with fulfillment?

The God we serve as a faithful God to his word.

And he keeps his word.

And he does that to include us in his family, so that through the empowerment of his spirit we might walk in the steps of the disciples and faithfully declare the Lord Jesus Christ.

Through that same spirit, we are kept by Jesus, for Jesus, until Jesus returns, to the praise of his glorious grace.

And we are enabled to continue to proclaim him and to offer the forgiveness of sins found in his name until he returns.

And so we see that it is God who acts.

And we respond in faithfulness.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, may we be faithful.

Lord, it's it's in a world we live that that faithfulness seems to be under attack.

We struggle more and more to remain faithful, to remain steadfast and sure.

Our eyes get distracted by the ways and the means of the world, and we don't see you.

Enable us to be focused intently and intentionally on you, the author and perfecter of our salvation.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.