Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Revelation that Produces Joy - Luke 24:36-53

In twenty twenty two, my wife was pregnant with our

third child. And our first two children are girls, and

with the third one, this is kind of our Hail

Mary baby, of like Google's the boy please, praying and

hoping for a boy. So my wife and I went

to her doctor's appointment for the ultrasound to find out

the gender. But unfortunately, during that time, it was early

in the year, and it was when we got hit

with a ton of snow around here, and so unfortunately

her ultrasoundtech actually got snowed in, and so that got canceled,

and we were really bummed out because we were really

hoping to look forward to find out what the gender was.

And so I sat in the car and she still

had an appointment for the follow up afterwards, and so

she met with her doctor and she's telling her doctor

how upset we both worked.

We were just like we.

Were so looking forward to just getting to the truth, like,

what is the case here?

What happened? And we had this incredible doctor.

She told my wife, She's like, well, let's run across

the room and let me try my hand and see

if we can figure out this thing out. So she

runs her across the room. They call me on the

phone so that I can kind of be a part

of it as I'm sitting out in the parking lot

just kind of listening to what's going on. And so

the one the doctor, she was looking and you can

kind of hear your talking and she goes, oh, another girl.

And I was sitting in the car like, oh, okay,

I'm accepting my lot.

I'm accepting my fate as a girl. Dad.

And it's funny too too, because I can positiona kind

of like awkwardly laughs on the other side of the

phone because she knows she.

Knows exactly what's going through my mind.

But then the doctor says, wait, no, it's a boy.

And to my amaze and enjoy mine. It was like

it was this roller coaster. I was like, come on, doc,

I'm on the other side of this phone, just kind

of listening to it. But it was it was really

exciting news it and the doctor said that my heart

was filled with joy. And not only did I get

what I had hoped for, because I think if we

just gone on and like it's a boy, like that's awesome,

but it was kind of like she had to like

shatter my dreams first, right, she had to do it

dash them to pieces to where I was like, all right, well,

still would.

Have loved that kid if they were girls.

Just to be clear, and I will say that, but

this is not a unique situation or a unique experience

to just me. There's others who have had their hopes

shattered and been confused and doubtful about the direction of

their life, maybe even just kind of in general, until

the good news of Jesus came into their life and

turned it around. And today, in our text, we're gonna

be looking at one of the very first times that

that happened. And it's a unique story because it's one

of the first times that the risen Jesus reveals himself

in the flesh and in the scriptures fully to his disciples.

So as we look at the story, we're going to

see the revelation that produces joy, the revelation that produces joy.

Would you please turn with me to Luke chapter twenty four,

and if you would believe it or not, these are the.

Last verses of Luke. These are the last verses in Luke.

And if you don't have a Bible, we have some

out on the lobby or in the lobby. They're kind

of actually a nice bible, so you should definitely go

grab one, keep it for yourself, take it home. It

is very important to us that you have God's word

in your hand, because that's what we regularly go through

here as a church. But we're gonna read this and

then we will pray together and jump into it.

Does that sound good? Perfect?

Starting in verse thirty six, As they were talking about

these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them,

peace to you. But they were startled and frightened, and

thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them,

why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in

your hearts? See my hands and my feet that it

is I myself. Touch me and see, for his spirit

does not have flesh and bones, as you see that

I have. I mean he had said this, he showed

them his hands and his feet, And while they still

disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them,

have you anything here to eat? They gave him a

piece of broiled fish, and he took.

It and ate before them.

Then he 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 said

to them, thus it is written that the Christ should

suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be

proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You are my witnesses of these things. And behold, I

am sending the promise of my father upon you. But

stay in the city until you were clothed.

With power from on high.

And he led them out as far as Bethany and

lifted up his hands. Or lifting up his hands, he

blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them

and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him

and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And we're continually

in the temple blessing God. This is God's word.

Lord. We lift you up, and we thank you. We

thank you that you have revealed yourself here in your word.

We asked that your presence would be among us, opening

up our minds to understand your scriptures, that you would

be opening up our eyes to recognize you here in

this moment. Lord, I asked that your word would go

forth and not return void. It would produce fruit in

our lives. That we would leave here glorifying you, leave

here looking more like you, being convicted, being repentant of

our sin, that we would be a people who looks

like you for your glory in Jesus name. Everyone said amen.

So as I said, this is the last portion of

text in the Gospel of Luke.

We made it. We made it. Two and a half years.

We made it.

We've been in this series called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth, where we've been listening to Luke's record and

carefully investigated account of all that Jesus said and accomplished

in his earthly ministry, so that we the reader can

have certainty, or whoever reads that can have certainty concerning

the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, two weeks ago,

we looked at the announcement of the empty tomb and

the fact that Jesus is alive.

You guys, remember that he good.

Last week who looked at how Jesus appeared to a

couple of his disciples who were on their way out

of town, and before revealing himself, showed them from the

scriptures that Jesus in fact fit the bill to be

the Messiah. Jesus rebuked their lack of faith and belief

in God's word, and he set the record straight by

God's word. And after he did that, he shared a

meal with those disciplesmples who had yet to recognize it

was Jesus until he broke bread with them, and their

eyes were open to see that it was Jesus. But

then he vanishes, which is kind of cool. He vanishes

and they run to go tell the other disciples. Now

while they're telling the other disciples about what's happened, and

the other disciples are telling them that Jesus had also

appeared to Peter, the risen Jesus is going to appear

among all of them. What we will see in this

text is this Jesus is going to give revelation by

sight to these disciples. He then will give revelation from

scripture to these disciples, followed by some instructions, and we'll

see from all this revelation of the risen Savior, the

joy that it produces what I believe in, what I

want to argue today is that what this text shows

us is this that revelation of the risen Christ produces joy.

The revelation of the risen Christ produces joy, and maybe

more specifically, the revelation of the risen Christ produces joy

filled witnesses.

So I've broken up this text into three sections.

We're gonna be looking at the proof of the risen Savior,

the proclamation of the risen Savior, and the praise of

the Risen Savior. So let's look at that first section.

We're gonna be starting in verse thirty six. Luke is

going to record that the disciples really saw Jesus alive.

It's really cool if everyone just can if there's a

missing body and they say Jesus is alive, it's another

thing that they're like, no, no, no, I saw him for real.

I saw Jesus alive.

So Jesus himself is going to appear to them, and

Luke is going to show the proofs that Jesus gave

now this week. I don't know if you guys know

this is Thanksgiving what he's excited I am.

Have you guys ever heard the phrase the proof is

in the pudding?

Good Jesus is giving them the clearest evidence is possible

to show them that he is truly alive.

Let's look at this verse thirty six.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood

among them and said to them, peace to you. But

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

So just like Jesus had vanished from the other disciples,

now Jesus appears among all of them. He greets them

with peace to you, which is actually kind of hilarious

because their response is the complete opposite of peace. Jesus

shows up pops in the rooms like peace to you,

and they freak out. They are freaking out because they

think they're seeing a ghost. They think they're seeing a

ghost in front of them, which makes sense because the

last time you heard anything about Jesus or saw Jesus,

he was dead and his body was missing, And now

all of a sudden, here he is in front of you.

I don't know about you. I'd be freaking out a

little bit too.

But Jesus shows them the truth that it is truly

him in the flesh and not a ghost. Look at

this verse thirty eight, and he said to them, why

are you troubled? And why do rise in your hearts?

See my hands in my feet that it is I myself.

Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have

flesh and bones, as you see that I have. And

when he had said this, he showed them his hands

and his feet. And while they still disbelieve for joy

and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything

here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

and he took it and ate before them. So first

he rightly points out that a spirit doesn't have physical being.

He's like, I'm not a ghost. I'm clearly a human.

I'm a person. Look at this.

He shows them proof.

By showing him his hands and feet, the same hands

and feet that would have been pierced when he hung

on the cross. He then tells them, which is like,

I feel like this is the ultimate proved. He's like,

if you need to, like, you can touch my hands,

touch my feet, see that.

It's actually me.

And he even asked them for something to eat and

then eats it in front of them. All of these

things which might feel like, all right, this is a

cool description, is actually proof.

It's actually proof that Jesus.

Was physically raised from the dead, physically race from the dead,

and it was something back in the day, and then

you could probably find versions of this today where people

were like, oh, yeah, maybe his spirit was still alive afterwards,

but didn't like actually race from the dead physically, not

actually bodily.

Lucas saying, no, that's exactly what happened.

He raised physically, and Jesus showed up and gave proof

of that to these disciples. So Jesus says, I'm not

a ghost, I am really risen. This is so incredible,

and it's so incredible that the disciples are absolutely beside themselves.

It's so incredible that the disciples are like they're so

overcome with joy that they have a hard time even

believing it.

Look at this verse forty one, and while they still

disbelieve for joy and were marveling so before he interrupts

and asked them for.

A snack, he's going to they don't even know what

to do with themselves. They're so overcome with joy that

Jesus is before them that it's almost hard to believe,

meaning it's like it's too good to be true, it's

too good to be true. But in fact it was

good and it was true. They had Jesus back from

the dead, and he was there proving it. So Jesus

here is giving them the good news in person. He

appears to these disciples who are doubting and troubled and

gives them undeniable proof to all those present that he

has really risen.

Now. I know what you may be thinking.

Was something that kind of crossed my mind, is like,

that is really cool for them, right, That's really nice

for them.

I wish Jesus would do that for me. It'd be

really nice.

Like when that makes like I feel like we think

about it, that would make it way easier to put

all my eggs in the basket and follow Jesus. I

just he shows up, says hey, I'm real. That's not

what he sounds like, probably, but it's like he shows

up and he just proves it physically. But there's two

things that I want you to know. The first thing

has to do with Jesus's plan and role for those

he's speaking to in this moment in history, but we're

gonna get to that in just a little bit. The

second is that you aren't the only person who may

struggle with believing without seeing Jesus in physical form. There

was a disciple named Thomas, right, we may be a

little bit familiar with this story, who unfortunately missed out

on this really cool event. The disciple John records the

event of Thomas's unbelief about the news, but he also

records how Jesus ends up responding to it. Let's look

at this in John chapter twenty, says, now, Thomas, one

of the twelve called the twin, was not with them

when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we

have seen the Lord write incredible news. But he said

to them, unless I see in his hands the mark

of the nails and place my finger into the mark

of the nails and place my hand into his side,

I will never believe. Like that's kind of it seems

kind of like a reasonable response. Eight days later, insane.

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas

was with them, which is actually kind.

Of funny to think about. Sorry, I'm just think about.

This, like, you spent eight days with these guys who

are like, no, Jesus is alive, and you're like you're

just hanging out with him. You're like, no, way, absolutely not.

You spent eight days in denial, so Thomas was with them,

although the doors were locked. Jesus came and stood among

them and said, peace be with you. Then he said

to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands,

and put out your hand and place it in my side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord

and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed

because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not

seen and yet have believed. Now, Thomas, who was one

of the twelve, had not been present at Jesus's first

appearance to the rest of the disciples.

Kind of a bummer, but he wasn't there. They come

and tell him this is what happens. Jesus showed up.

Now here's the deal. Like if you're Thomas, like like

it kind of feels like maybe an insensitive time, but

like are they pulling your leg?

You know what I mean?

Like, what would Thomas be thinking here? Like are these

guys all messing with me?

But Jesus comes and.

Sets the story straight for all the disciples by appearing

to Thomas. Thomas is realized that the claim of his

brothers was in fact true, and he himself believes. But

did you see what Jesus says to him? That's that's

what's amazing. Like that's that's written for us. He says,

you believe because you've seen me. Blessed are those.

Who have not seen and yet have believed.

Now a way of understanding that is this, Those who

believe and have not seen are at no disadvantage to those.

Who have seen Jesus physically.

Let me say that again, those who believe and have

not seen are at no disadvantage to those who have

seen Jesus physically.

Let me unpacked that just a little bit.

That means the joy that these disciples had isn't exclusive

to only those who were in the room at the time,

But the fact of being able to believe the truth

and have the same joy is for all whom the

Lord reveals himself to. And the reason we know this

is because what Peter says to believers when he's writing

to believers who are who are scattered about.

Listen to this. He says, though you have not seen him,

you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in

him and rejoice.

With what joy that is inexpressible.

That's like a different type of joy, right, the joy

that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

So here's the deal.

You don't have to see Jesus physically to have this

type of joy. You don't have to have Jesus reveal

himself to you physically to be like, oh, well, then

I can really believe. Peter says, hey, you haven't even

seen him and you love him. You haven't even seen him,

and you believe in him, and you rejoice with joy

that's inexpressible and filled with glory. But how does someone

believe in someone that they've never seen. It's by hearing,

hearing what the proclamation of the risen Christ. So Jesus

is now going to move into this next part where

he is going to remind them of his words. He's

going to show how scriptures spoke to all these things,

even the things that they had witnessed firsthand.

And Jesus is then going to give some instructions based

on those facts.

But there's also something that I want you to I'm

going to kind of unpact this before we even read it,

because it's very important. I want you to pay attention

to this. There's something really small, kind of tucked into

all this stuff that you might miss it if you

were just reading right through. It's also going to say

that Jesus had to or just in the same way

that Jesus had to open the eyes of those other

disciples so that they could recognize him. Here says that

Jesus opened their minds to actually be able to understand

the scriptures and his words. That's a really big deal

that what was hidden from them before Jesus is now going.

To reveal to them.

And this might seem random, it's kind of like, all right,

like why are you telling me that? Like why do

you have to say this? But it's actually really helpful

to understand something. And it's actually it's been weeks since

we've looked at this, right, We've been We've been going

through Luke for a long time now. But in the past,

before Jesus died, he told his disciples what was going

to happen to him. He told them what was going

to happen before they went to Jerusalem, and on at

least two of these occasions, Luke records that the things

that Jesus said were hidden from the disciples, let's look

at them.

Chapter nine, it says, But.

While they were all marveling at everything he was doing,

Jesus said to his disciples, this is so funny. Let

these words sink into your ears. The Son of Man

is about to be delivered into the hands of men.

But they did not understand this saying, and it was

concealed from them so that they might not perceive it.

And they were afraid to ask him and he or

ask him about this saying. So it's a it's kind

of funny, like they were kept from understanding. He's like,

but I want the words that I'm saying to be

etched into your ears. You know, you might not understand it,

but you just remember that I said this. Remember that

I said this thing.

Look at it.

Nine chapters later, verse eighteen or chapter eighteen, he says,

in taking the twelve he said to them, see, we

are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written

about the Sun of Man by the prophets will be accomplished,

for he will be delivered over to the gentiles and

will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon, and

after flogging him, they will kill him.

And on the third day he will rise us all

sitting here going like.

All right, we're tracking makes sense. I understand what you're saying, Jesus,

verse thirty four. But they understood none of these things.

They understood none of these things. The saying was hidden

from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

So in Luke's Gospel, there was a time where the

teachings that Jesus was telling the disciples were hidden from them.

But now here on the other side of them being accomplished,

Jesus is going to reveal and give the understanding of

these things to them. So other than this being a

supernatural revealing of the Holy Spirit, so let me just

say what that is, like literally God's spirit, Jesus is

helping them understand, illuminating the scripture so that when he speaks,

his people actually hear them, that they actually make sense.

I don't know if you've ever done this as a Christian, right,

there's times where you've read parts of your Bible and

they're like, I have no idea what the heck this

is saying, And then like two years later, you're reading

the same section you're like, this is the clearest most

obvious thing I've ever read. You didn't get smarter, probably, probably,

but the Lord's spirit made you pay attention to that thing.

The Lord help illuminate that thing. He said, pay attention

to this thing. This thing makes sense? And why he

does that sometimes we know and sometimes we don't know.

But it's a blessing. Anytime that I can open up

God's shipsure and go like this now makes sense.

I don't know how I saw it any other way.

It's a blessing.

It's also one of the reasons that when I open

my Bible to read it, I say, Lord, help me

understand this. That's part of my prayer, Lord help me

understand this, because without him it might be.

Falling on deaf ears.

So other than it being a supernatural revealing of the

Holy Spirit, it also makes me think of Marty McFly

and Back to the Future when he goes back in

time and he's wailing on the guitar and everyone's like

plugging the ears and like this is terrible, and he's like,

I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, right.

He's playing a guitar style that's from the eighties, but

it's in the fifties. Like until they get to the eighties,

they're not gonna get it. It won't make any sense

to them.

Take whichever explanation you want.

But it's actually really cool because we might forget that

Luke is telling us one big story, right, we take

it week by week by week, But this is a

story that Luke has been continuously writing, one big, connected

account of the facts here. And there are many little

things that have happened earlier in the book that we

may not remember or realize have an answer later in

the same book. So we might go like, what the

heck does that mean? You might read things? And I

was actually thinking about this. I wrote this into my

notes today because says, I was, really, this is something

that is.

Very helpful and practical when we're reading our Bibles.

When you read your Bible, especially for the first couple

of times, you're gonna read stuff that you don't understand, right,

So first of all, we.

Need the Holy Spirit to help us.

The other side of that is sometimes you're reading stuff

that you don't understand because you haven't finished the story yet.

You hear me, you don't understand, Like you're like, that

doesn't make any sense, and so you kind of like.

Stop and you're like, I need to go study more.

And in other areas and you jump to a different

book rather than just continuing to read and realize.

That it actually gets answered later.

Not everything's like that, but a lot of times when

you go like, wait, I don't understand that, that seems weird.

That's not the time to shut the book. That's not

the time.

That's the time to keep it open, and go like, well,

now I got to find the answer.

Now I need to know what comes next.

So what I want to recommend to you is that

if you end up having a question while you're reading

your Bible, write it down, write it down, and then

keep reading. Anyways, this is one of those times where

something that has been kind of the groundwork has been

laid earlier, gets shown later, it gets resolved later. Jesus

had told them told them that these things would happen,

but it was hidden and they didn't understand. But now

that they have happened, Jesus is going to reveal it

to them so that they can't understand. And then he

tells them some instructions got that we're gonna now look

at the text verse forty four. Then he 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 said to them, thus it is

written that the Christ should suffer and on the third

day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the

forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to

all nations beginning from Jerusalem. So Jesus reminds him of

his words, is I remember when I said that thing?

And then like last week, he kind of reiterates this

to the rest of the disciples. Last week we looked

at how Jesus opened up the scriptures with the disciples

and proved it and said, look, everything that happened was

exactly what was supposed to have happen. And we looked

at that in depth last week, that everything that the

Old Testament says that the Messiah will be and do

Jesus is fulfilling that the Christ was to suffer and

die and then rise on the third day. And so

so far check and check Luke is recording that Jesus

had accomplished these things.

But now Jesus tells them the good news he tells

them what.

This means, and that starts to hint at the instructions

to come that this dying and rising Messiah has accomplished

something and.

The news needs to get out.

And what he accomplished was this that because of his suffering,

his death and resurrection, that repentance for the forgiveness of

sins in his name is now accomplished. Repentance for the

forgiveness of sins is now available. Our biggest problem, our

biggest problem is that we or not good with God.

And that's like the really soft nice way of putting

that we are unrighteous before Him in our natural state.

Since the fall of mankind, when we rebelled against Him

in the garden, we have been at war with God.

And what I mean is we're living our lives like

we're our own gods. And I want to let you

know something. There's only room for one. You're either gonna

find that out right now by God's grace or in

a very terrifying moment when he comes back. We're living

for ourselves instead of the purpose He created us. We

try and steal the glory for ourselves that instead belongs

to him. But God is not only the loving giver

of life. He is a just judge who will call

everyone to give an account for their lives on the

day of judgment. So when he looks at you, what

will he see? When he looks at you, what does

he see? Will you be found perfect or will you

be found faulty? Now I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna

tell you exactly what it will find. Scripture tells us

that all of us.

Have fallen short of God's glory. All of us are sinful.

And if you need proof, remember that even an unbelieva

will admit nobody's perfect. But what's really sad about that

statement is it's an admission of guilt. We say it

as an excuse. Oh, well, you know, no one's perfect.

That's a problem. You just admitted you're guilty, bro, Like

that's not a good thing. We use it as an

excuse when in fact we're condemning ourselves. All of us

have lied, lusted, stolen, dishonored others, and worshiped other gods.

We are in big trouble, and the only hope that

we have is is somehow God could possibly forgive our sins.

But listen to God's word in Romans three. It says,

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory

of God and are justified by His grace as a

gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to

be received by faith. This was the show God's righteousness,

because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time

so that He might be just and the justifier.

Of the one who has faith in Jesus. Because God

is still just.

Someone had to suffer, someone had to die for the

punishment of your sins, or else that was on you.

Either you were going to suffer and be punished for eternity,

or Christ was going to suffer and die in your place.

When you repent of your sins and put your faith in.

Jesus, believing God rose him from the dead, he will

forgive you.

He will forgive you, and he will wipe away your guilt.

You can be totally, imperfectly forgiven for all the sins

you have ever and will ever make.

That's really good news.

And not only that, but he doesn't just wipe your

record clean because sometimes that's what we think about. It's like,

all right, God gave me a clean slate. Now, hope

I don't mess it up today, and then we end

of the day crying. Right, we end the day sad,

We end the day discouraged. But Jesus, because of Jesus,

God doesn't just wipe your record clean, but he fills

it up with the righteousness of Christ.

Like, that's incredible that.

When God looks at you, he no longer sees a sinner,

and he doesn't just see a clean slate. He looks

at you and sees you covered in Christ's holiness and perfection.

We stand justified and righteous before God because we're in Christ.

Because Christ is what covers us. This is why Jesus

suffered and died. Look at this in Romans four. He

will be counted to us who believe in Him who

raised from the dead, Jesus our Lord, who was delivered

up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Jesus

died and rose again so that we could have forgiveness

from our sins and right standing with our creator. Before

we were rebels, but now we are reconciled and redeemed

to our God. This is what Jesus is showing his disciples.

Luke records it in a sentence, but the implications of

what he's saying, the repentance for the forgiveness of sin

is not a small deal. If you want to know that,

just go read all of Romans and you'll be like,

this really goes deep. This is what Jesus is showing

his disciples. And what's more is he's not just showing

them what he's accomplished through his death and resurrection. He

shows the purpose of this good news, and it's good

news to be shared. It's good news to be shared.

Have you ever gotten news that you couldn't share? Have

you ever gotten good news that you couldn't share? It's painful,

it's painful. I hate I hate buying my wife gifts early.

I hate love buying my wife gifts. But I hate

buying my wife gifts early because I just want I know,

I just want to tell her. I just want her

to know I got this cool thing that I want

to give you. I want to bless you with coat.

We're having good news that you're not able to share.

But my question would be, do we feel that same

way about the gospel. That hurts me. That hurts me

that I would be more excited about telling my wife

about a coat that I bought her in the way

salvation to an unbeliever, he's going to die in their sense.

That hurts.

Because this good news is supposed to get out. Look

at again in our text verse forty seven. And that

for that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins should be

proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

This good news is to be proclaimed. It's good news

that is supposed to get out. Jesus then tells them

their role and their instruction that he has for them.

So do you remember earlier how I said Jesus had

a very specific role for these people who appeared to

physically You remember that that was what twenty minutes ago.

But here it is verse forty eight. You are witnesses

of these things. You are witnesses of these things, Jesus says,

everything that has happened, you have been witnesses of.

You've seen it all. You were in ministry with me,

you were on mission with me.

You witness my death, you witness my burial, and now

you have witnessed me risen physically from the dead.

You've seen it all.

Not only that, but I've shown you that it is

all aligned with the witness of scripture. So not only

have you witnessed this off, you just saw it firsthand.

And then Jesus shows up and says, here I am

you're like, all right, see that. And then Jesus also

points the scription and says, and this is what was

supposed to happen all along, and you saw it happen.

These disciples were the first eyewitnesses. And Jesus says, I

am going to use you to get the word out.

We right here in this room, right here didn't live

two thousand years ago. We didn't so we can't witness

those events. But those people who were on mission and

in ministry with him were able to witness from the

beginning to the end all of these things.

And Jesus has a purpose for that.

He says, I'm going to use you to get this

word out, to spread the word about the things that

you have seen and experienced. You're going to get the

same word that is sufficient to reveal Christ in the

hearts of those who hear and believe, though they haven't seen.

You're going to bring the testimony. You're going to be

the witnesses. You're going to bring the word of what

has happened. And Luke, who has been writing this account

from the very beginning, that's his purpose. He's writing down

the account that had been delivered to him from the

eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, so that there would

be an orderly account of these things and certainty concerning

the testimonies. Now Jesus gives them some final instructions about

waiting until they've received the Holy Spirit before launching into

their mission of evangelism.

Look at this verse forty.

Nine, and behold, I am sending the promise of my

Father upon you, but stay in the city until you

were clothed with power from on high. So this is

that Jesus wasn't going to send them out alone, but

was going to equip them with the power of his spirit,

the spirit of the New Covenant, where his spirit is

poured out on his people and his presence is among

his people. So now from this revelation of the risen

Christ seen with their eyes, they've had revelation from his

own word about the risen Christ. We're going to see

that this revelation, this revealing of the risen Savior produces

not only joy but also joy filled witnesses.

And I needed the band to come up. Please look

at this verse fifty.

And he said to them, and he led them out

as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he

blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them

and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him

and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And we're continually

in the temple blessing God. So Jesus, after revealing these things,

eventually he takes them out and is blessing them. And

while he's blessing them, he's taken up into Heaven. Now

we could do, honestly a whole nother three hours easily

on Jesus's ascension and all the things that that means.

That I'll try and keep it short.

That the risen Savior has now gone to Heaven, where

he has taken his rightful place at the right hand

of the Father.

That's where Jesus.

Currently sits ruling and reigning, where his name has now

been set above every other name. That at his name,

every knee should bow, and every tongue confessed that he

is Lord, that he is the risen king of creation,

who rules all creation and has authority over heaven and earth.

That Jesus has accomplished his mission to come and live

and die in our place, but was raised from the dead,

giving all who believe in him hope to be saved

and to be like him when he returns again to

judge the living and the dead. This is this is

great news. And what was the response of his disciples.

What was the response that we saw? It says that

they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

So many things that Luke's revealing in here, and it's

a big chunk, So I'm trying to condense this. Luke

has shown us that Jesus physically rose from the dead.

Luke is also showing us that Jesus was God. The

disciples worshiped him. That's a big deal.

They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

and they were continuously praising him in the temple.

Now, this is what I want to say.

This is the true response of anyone who's had the

revelation of the risen Christ revealed to them. Whoever has

had Christ truly revealed to them. Christ has made himself

known to you, and you've put your faith in him.

This is the true response worship, thanksgiving, praise, rejoicing, and joy.

I've heard a lot of people say that our joy

isn't complete until it's expressed.

Like I said earlier, good news is hard not to share.

And it's funny because, like, it's so easy to share

good news about the movie we just saw.

Oh so good. You gotta see it.

And even if someone's like, I thought it was bad,

You're like, nope, it doesn't matter.

It was so good.

It was the best thing I've ever seen. But we

won't even do that with Jesus. You gotta listen to

the song. It's my new favorite song. I've had it

on repeat.

Soone's like I can't stand that. You're like, I don't care.

This is the greatest song ever. I'll fight you to

the death about it. Not really, But well, we have

this excitement to share all of these things that we

experienced that bring us so much joy. So what about

the greatest news? What about the greatest news? Do we

treat it the same? Has it had the same effect

in our life? Do we view it the same? Have

we let our love grown cold for it. We're like, oh,

of the gospel, Yeah, it's that thing. No one really

wants to hear that. Well, no one wants to hear

me talk about the Beatles, and if you get me started,

I won't stop talking about it. But we're talking about

Jesus also.

The same goes for Jesus. That's that we want to

live our life.

That at the very least, if someone asked you about Jesus,

they wish that they hadn't if they don't believe, and

if they do believe that they are grateful that you

did tell them. Our joy isn't complete until we have

shared that joy with others. And the Bible is so

incredible because we have the letters of these disciples, these

first disciples who are eyewitnesses.

We have their letters still preserve for us today.

Found in God's word that their testimony of Jesus would

be available for us.

And no we haven't seen him, we too can still

believe and have joy. It's actually so crazy. It's so crazy.

The more I was realizing this and I can't really

go into this. I'll talk to you about later if

you want to know more about what I'm talking about.

But a lot of the letters have this excitement and

enjoyed to get the news out. And I was kind

of realizing that there seems to be a little bit

of a pattern. But look at this incredible account that

John gives us in his letters. It's like a play

by play of the text today, almost like he had

these very moments in mind when he was writing them.

Look at this first, John one, that which was from

the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen

with our eyes, which we've looked upon and have touched

with our hands. Concerning the Word of life, the life

was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified

to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which

was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also

to you. Honestly, I should have just used that to

sum up the text today.

Which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you,

so that you too may have fellowship with us. And

indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his

son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so

that our joy may be complete. Now what's interesting is

it's debated that where this says, our joy may be

complete could either be our joy may be complete or

your joy.

May be complete.

Regardless, he's saying, have fellowship with us. In the fact

that we have this eternal life and it's expressing it

and partaking it, there is this joy. So it really

wouldn't be wrong with either way to say.

Our joy or your joy the fellowship and the joy

of the good news.

So it's just so cool because he's literally like, guys,

we saw some stuff, we heard some stuff, and we

gotta tell you about it, which is exactly what we

see in our text today, and here we have a

letter of John doing just that.

So there's three things I want to give you for application.

Our main point from today's text is the revelation of

the risen Christ produces joy. So the first before we

even get to those things, what I want to ask

is what do you go to for your joy? What

things do you seek to give you joy? What things

do you hope to find joy in? Because if it's

not Jesus, it's going to fail you, it's gonna run dry,

it's not gonna last. Jesus is the only thing that

will give you lasting joy.

As believers. This is the basis of our greatest joy.

So I want to remind you.

I want to equip you with three reasons that this

should produce joy in your life. And I want this

to be kind of a meditation, which is good reminders

in a season of finding it hard to find joy

when your thoughts maybe go sideways. Let this be of

help to take your thoughts captive to Christ instead of

turning to these other things. I want you to turn

to these things to help find your joy. So the

first reason that the revelation of Christ produces joy is

this because he revealed.

Himself to you, if you were a Christian, if you

were a believer.

One of the facts that should give us the most

joy is that Jesus actually revealed himself to us.

He didn't have to. He could have left you in

the dark. You didn't deserve it.

He showed you grace by giving you light by revealing

himself to you. It is such a good and amazing gift,

the fact that you would hear his word and respond.

Because we know people, we know friends, we know loved

ones who are heart hearted or death towards those same words,

and it breaks our heart because we're like, how do

you not see it. But we can't think that we

see because we're better. We can't think that we see

it because we're greater. The only thing that we can

confess is God's grace. Jesus is the only reason that

I hear. Jesus has revealed himself to me, and once

I see it, I can't unsee it. That you, as

his sheep, hear his words and understand them and respond

to them.

That should be our first reason. The second reason that

because of Jesus, your sins are forgiven. That should cause

us joy.

Many of us could go to sleep at night feeling

guilty and weighed down and condemned and hurting and broken

and feeling just messed up. And in one sense, that

assessment of your own life isn't wrong. It's not wrong.

When you look at yourself, you do see a sinner.

But Jesus didn't come to save perfect people. He came

to save sinners and sick people. He provided all the

necessary requirements. We put our faith in him and trust

in his finished work, and so we get to actually rest.

In that and gives us joy.

That should be what actually helps you sleep at night,

because without him, I don't know how I would sleep.

That's a reason to have joy, because we actually have hope.

Look at what Proverbs ten twenty eight says. It says

the hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation.

Of the wicked will perish. So what the wicked put

their hope in will fail them. But what we have

hoping will give us joy.

It's guaranteed. God is good for his word. And finally

that his power and promise are upon you. Yes, he

told the disciples, hey, you're gonna need waane Jerusalem. But

once that spirit started pouring out, he started giving it.

We have that today when we believe that you have

the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. God is presently with

you at all times, always with you, and he will

never leave you. And that part of this power and

promise is that He will always keep you. So when

we're also going to bed going like, I mess it

up so big today, there is no way that Jesus

had this covered.

It's not true.

We can still rest in joy and have joy that

we man, we do not deserve it. That's what we

wrestle with. Really, we just go, man, I don't deserve it.

You're right.

That's why God is so good and it should bring

us real joy. Now, I actually have a fourth bonus point.

If you want to make this joy that the revelation

of Jesus has brought to you complete, share it with

someone else. Share that joy. Share that joy with someone else.

Be a witness to what God has said, from his

word and done in your life. You may have not

seen him move physically in your life. You may see

in his body, but you have seen him move in

your life. Sometimes we're just not really good at looking

at that or looking back and going like, wow, that

you really did get me through that that was really

all you. And if you haven't yet had the revelation

of who Christ is, I pray that He's been drawing

you and revealing himself to you all through our time together.

Once again, I can't do anything to change your mind.

I can't do anything to explain it in a special

way to help, but you truly understand it. But I

do want you to consider that the fact that you're

even here is a testimony that Jesus wants to reveal

himself to you. That you are here, and that's not

an accident that you were here sitting under His word.

The good news being proclaimed. And I pray that he

would open your heart to pay attention, he would open

your eyes to see, open up your mind to understand,

and that you would repent of your sins and find

forgiveness and salvation in his name.

Jesus really died for your sins.

Jesus really rose from the dead, and Jesus really lives.

And this is the greatest news in the world, and

it should be the reason for our praise and for

our joy.

If you're not feeling.

Joyful or grateful, you need to dwell on these facts.

It is the joy that should order our lives. It's

the joy that we should share. We saw in our

text that these disciples now have their Messiah and their mission.

They're called to be witnesses to the world.

They're empowered by the spirit of their Savior, and the

end result is the fullness of joy in worship and praise.

To their Lord.

And now we two have been put on mission carrying

the word of witness, empowered.

By his spirit. And what should also be found is

his praise on our lips. His praise our lips.

And I pray that the joy that is this good

news captures your life as it did these men.

That just like them. Whether we go out or when

we gather in God's.

Presence week after week, it would be to express our joy, worship,

and praise.

To the one who has revealed himself to us. Amen. Amen,

would you please stand