Ascended

Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

Again, what has happened?

Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

" That's what we considered last week. There's not a lot of interpretation in what they've just explained. Seems like a pretty straightforward case, where Jesus is from, what kind of ministry he had. He was very popular among the people. He was great and mighty before God. He was crucified. The significant thing there, they had hoped. They're still distraught. They've heard the testimony that he's risen. They've heard the testimony just as Jesus said he would die and rise again. But they're confessing there was hope. There's a disappointment. The assumption might be that they were wanting a redemption that was just like that of Israel from Egypt. for a political, national redemption. What they failed to see is that he came to bring a different kind of redemption. A redemption not from a political, powerful state, but redemption from our own sin. They failed to believe that he was alive and that you could be born again. But the repetition here, what happened, these events, I don't know that many people who continue to doubt that Jesus was someone who really existed. The amount of evidence that he was a man who lived and died is significant. We have to really ask, as I challenged last week, if you're not a believer, how is it the church exists? How is it that the men who were clearly so cowardly, they denied Jesus while he was still living. How is it they became so bold to be willing to die if they did not see him rise again? Were they all confused by the same sight or did they really see a risen savior that fulfilled all that they understood from the Old Testament? And then they had to go proclaim him because that's what he told them. All these things have happened as promised. The events of God are important. Our faith is based upon Jesus being born of a virgin. dying on the cross, rising again. It's important and so good for us to remember God has acted in our history. He has come to disrupt our direction towards destruction. That's why he came. We were dead, walking in our trespasses, but God made us alive. with his actions. Last week we looked at those significant actions. There's five significant movements of God and how he works towards us and for us as the creeds tell us. He was born, he was crucified, he was risen, he was ascended, he is ascended, that's what we're looking at today, and he will return. Those are the five movements of Jesus significantly for us. One is still future. Much is about what has happened, but really, Jesus is going to point to the word over and over again. It's not just what has happened, but what does it mean in light of what God has said? God is his own interpreter. Jesus goes back and reminds them of what the prophets have said. He interprets scripture for them. He opens scripture and he opens their minds. Our second point, not just what God has done, the events, but what God has said. what God has said. They already are somewhat confused by Jesus. They don't know who he is yet. We'll get there. Why they don't recognize him? We'll get there, Lord willing. Are you the only visitor, they say in verse 18? They tell him what happened and then, can you just moment for a moment to think about what's going on in their minds in verse 25? when this fellow traveler who doesn't even know what just happened rebukes them very sharply. Foolish ones. Foolish ones. Can you imagine, it's stopping their tracks. Who is this guy? Why is he talking to us about like this? Notice how clear Jesus is in this direct rebuke.

O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

We've seen Jesus say over and over again, it's necessary. Luke 22, 37, it's necessary that Christ would be numbered among the transgressors. It is necessary because God promised it. The challenge there, it's foolishness. There's soul of heart. We need to be careful not to have some kind of Greek distinction between mind and heart here. The heart is the seed of emotions, affections, thoughts. They're slow to listen and receive as God has spoken. It's a faith problem. And so what does He do when His disciples, His fellow travelers, what does He do when they have a faith problem? He points them to Scripture. He goes to the Word. Do you not understand it was necessary because God said so that the Christ would suffer before He entered into His glory? Notice there, verse 27, beginning with Moses. Why do you begin with Moses? Because it's the first five books of the Bible.

And all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures concerning the things concerning himself.

Here, the great theological lesson we all wish we had access to, Right, we've got Sermon on the Mount, we've got the final discourse. Boy, if there was one thing I could ask for, it'd be the note. Just give me Peter's bullet point cliff notes from this. How Jesus opened up all of scripture to help us see how all of it is pointing to himself. Notice verse 27, it's about him concerning himself, and in verse 44,

These are my words that I spoke with you while I was with you, that everything written about me.

There's language in scripture. It's determined. It's a definite plan of God. It's promised, it's necessary, it must be fulfilled. What Paul says, there's a yes and amen. All the promises in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ. Christian, I really appreciate the desire to read the Bible through in a year. You should do that. But there's many ways to read the Bible. It isn't necessarily designed to go from Genesis to Revelation in that way. It isn't written in such a chronological order. There's actually different ways you can order scripture, and Jesus tells us a few of them right here. Notice in verse 44, the Old Testament has divisions. There's the law of Moses. That's the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. All of the Old Testament is built upon that foundation. Then he refers to the Psalms, or what we would call the wisdom literature, from Job to Ecclesiastes. And then you have the prophets. You've got the major prophets, the minor prophets. It's not importance, that's length. And then you have the histories, Joshua through Chronicles. The New Testament has order as well, the gospel and acts, Pauline letters, the general epistles. It's like the bigger picture, you've got the old and the new. We have to have these categories. The old contains the promises. The new is the fulfillment. The old is telling us the God who has created a clear pattern of his kindness, his grace, his holiness, his power. And then the new, we see how he's fulfilled all these promises in Christ. When we start reading through the Bible, we need to understand there's books and there's different rules for reading different books. There's different ways in which we want to read different books. We want to make sure that we understand how they relate to each other. If you're wanting to read through the Bible, I encourage you to start with something simple like a gospel. You want to read the gospel of Luke. Look for the word behold. You want to write that down. Look for the word behold. Look for sight language. If you're just going through in this text alone and notice all the sight language, Luke is drawing your attention. If you wanna read the Gospel of Mark, which is the simplest gospel, look for the word immediately. If you wanna look at the Old Testament, and you wanna know how to find Christ, three simple categories, prophet, priest, and king. What I want to do here is, not having the notes to what this grand theological lecture would be, I believe we have plenty of clues in Scripture. We have much clarity from Scripture as to what it means for Christ to have fulfilled the Old Testament. So what does it mean for Jesus to say all in verse 27 and everything in verse 44, all of the Old Testament points to Him? We can go back to the first promise of salvation in Genesis 3.15. A son will be born of Eve, and he will crush the seed of the serpent. God is going to provide a son who's going to overcome sin, death, evil, and Satan. We start to see that development of a son or seed language. We see it develop even more there with Abraham. He and Sarah cannot have a child. Well, God's promised son is going to come where the curse has already affected the womb. And that promised child is now gonna be a promised child of Abraham, and then we know later from the tribe of Judah, and then from the root of Jesse, and then he will be a son of David who will reign forever. Another category, we have the prophet, one will be like Moses, a priest forever, not someone who goes in and makes a sacrifice every year, but someone who gives the once for all sacrifice. We're longing for the fulfillment of those different offices we see in the Old Testament. But I wanna work through one particular theme, substitutionary sacrifice. This is one of the most prevalent and somehow it's one of the one that is most questioned by so-called evangelical, so-called scholarship. Right out of the garden, Genesis 3, God has to sacrifice two innocent animals to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. We already see the picture, the foreshadowing. Death, an innocent death must take place to cover their sin and shame. Well, this is heightened significantly when Abraham, that promised child, Isaac, when he becomes a teenage boy, he's put in the most impossible situation. He's told to go now sacrifice that child. He puts the wood on Isaac. They go up, his son's asking, we got everything, we got the fire, we got the knife, we got the wood, where's the sacrifice? God will provide, son. He then ties his son to the altar, gets ready to obey God because he's learned one thing, he can trust God, even though this is an impossible situation, and God says, stop. And he sees a substitute, sacrifice, caught in the bush, a sacrifice that will die in place of Isaac. Well, we could go to Exodus, the redemption we really want, where God provided the Passover lamb. The blood of the lamb put over the doorpost so that when judgment came over, God's judgment passed over Israel and everyone who had by faith obeyed and put the blood over the doorpost. Otherwise, the firstborn child would die. And then after that, God gives instruction every year priest goes into the most holy temple and provides a sacrifice, provides a lamb. And then one of the most incredibly clear passages of the Old Testament, Isaiah 52 to 53, where the suffering servant, a human is actually spoken of like a lamb, spoken of as one who will be numbered among transgressors, one who will die in the place of others. Well, those are just, that's a sampling of the significant high points of how that theme is building up in the Old Testament. And then John the Baptist, who's the preparer of the way. Do you remember what he first says about Jesus when he sees him?

Behold the Lamb of God.

There we see how all of those events, the sacrifice in the garden, the sacrifice of not of Isaac, the sacrifice of the lambs, all now fulfilled in the Lamb of God. Now, I say fulfilled. The animals that died in Genesis 3, they covered the sin. The lambs that died in Exodus, the wrath of God passed over. Notice what John the Baptist says about Jesus.

Behold the love of God who takes away the sins.

It isn't just a mere passing over, it's not just a mere covering. He takes away the sin by taking it upon himself when he dies on the cross for our sins. He's a fulfillment of all that God said he would do. When all this picture of that sacrifice, Jesus' own words,

I laid down my life for my friends.

Luke 22, 37, Jesus himself quotes Isaiah 53 saying,

it is necessary that he must be numbered among the transgressors.

There he's saying he is fulfilling all of what was promised in Isaiah. In Romans 3, in previous sins, God in his forbearance passed over, but now he has provided that once for all sacrifice so that he declares sinners justified while being just. That's a small sampling of one prominent theme, but there's so many others that we must learn how to dig into. Let me implore you one other way. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, the prophets, the Old Testament prophets, they were serving us when they were writing. So take and read, he says, and then he says something at the very end of that section. Angels longed to look into this salvation of God that you've received. Think about that for a moment. The angels who beheld the glory of God, they were always, what's going on, God? They were always wrapped up in wonder and awe and mystery and knowing God would do it, but wondering how. They longed to see what we now have. Why would we neglect pursuing, knowing more and more of what God has done? We have to understand there's one Bible. There's a New Testament, there's the Old Testament. The New Testament is contained in the Old. The Old Testament is explained in the New. If you ignore the Old Testament, you lose a foundation. If you ignore the New Testament, you lose fulfillment. We must learn how to read it. There's so many ways to read the Bible. Yeah, Genesis, Revelation, that is a way to read the Bible. There's ways that we recognize how to pick Scripture up and understand all the different parts and how these different themes play out. There's one key practice. There's one key way in which we learn how to read the Bible. It's by practicing it. You're not going to get better at reading the Bible by ignoring it. You must practice. Learn how to read it with others. Learn it with regularity. Last week, we saw the importance of listening. There's no way we learn how to listen to God if we neglect his word. and then we learn how to read it with others. So we look back and we see those 39 books, they tell us all these promises and we just barely scratched the surface of ways in which we could see how Christ is a fulfillment of them all. Now we're gonna get to something a little more challenging. How can we know? How does God help us see him? You see, so far, we've only talked about what we call the objective side of revelation, what God has done, what God has said. It's amazing to see how God is sovereign over every part of his revelation. He has perfect control over every sentence. In order to be a good communicator, we have to have the right words to use, we have to put them in the right order, and we have to know how to say them the right way. God is the perfect communicator. But he's in control of something we're not. He's even in control of how his word is received. God is perfect in communicating exactly what we need to hear. And he's even perfect and powerful to make sure we receive it. And let's face it, even if we say just the right thing, at just the right time, in just the right way, we have no power for how it's gonna be received. How many times have we said something that we thought was pretty clear, probably was even clear, but completely misunderstood by somebody? I get to see this firsthand when I'm trying to coach a marital difficulty, because one of the things I, most important thing is, what did you just hear? And you can tell they misheard everything. We so easily mishear, misinterpret. But God, when he's speaking, he isn't just giving us the most clear, perfect word. He even helps us receive it. Notice something that kind of runs this text. In verse 16, it says,

their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Then in verse 31,

their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

And then verse 45,

Jesus opened their minds to understand scripture.

We saw this last week. Jesus three times foretold his death and resurrection. In the last two, he actually said, Luke tells us, but this was hidden from them. They weren't given understanding. We have to see some truths here. God has the ability to harden hearts. He has the ability to soften hearts. God has the ability to close the mind and God has the ability to open the mind. Now, this has all kinds of challenges with it. Challenging, right? But we're gonna hold those two truths in tension. God has the ability to close the mind and open the mind. What's actually amazing is he gives us the grace to receive him. We have to hold these two in tension because we're responsible for our unbelief. Go back to that rebuke of Jesus in verse 25. Oh, foolish ones, you're slow to believe. We are responsible for our lack of belief. And then we look up and we see that God is perfectly powerful to grant us all we need to actually believe in him. Those are the two truths we must hold in tension. I believe if we hold these two things in tension, it creates gratitude towards God. Too often I see folks who hold these things and they get upset when people don't understand something One of the weirdest things is somebody say, it's all of grace, I don't understand how you don't get that. It's all of grace. Show some grace. It's all of grace that God has spoken. It's all of grace that we can receive him. Our sinfulness causes us to have a closed mind and a stiff neck and to reject him. It is by his grace that he purifies us and allows us to receive him. He has the power to open our minds so that we can see him more fully and clearly and surely in his word. Three applications for the believer. As we've already seen, hopefully you need to read his word regularly and you need to read it with others. There are other ways to read his word, prayerfully. God, help my unbelief. God, help me to see more of who you are and your holiness and your greatness and your goodness. Help me to see my sins so that I can repent, so that I can see you and your kindness all the more. Learn how to pray from scripture. Do you want to pray God's will? Pray what he actually says to pray in scripture. You can pray God's very will by praying his word. Read his word. Prayerfully. Secondly, read his word expectantly. Expect him to speak. God has spoken. We believe in a closed canon. These are the last authoritative words that we believe the church's conscience should be bound by. God's word is closed. That doesn't mean he's quiet. He speaks. He's not silent. If you find some new revelation, repent and run away. If a new angel comes and says, I got a new revelation, run really far away. But God speaks. If you're looking for him to speak, don't go to someone who says, well, the Bible's not sufficient. No, this is where he speaks. If you want to hear the Holy Spirit, look to the words the Holy Spirit actually wrote down for us to hear. expectantly read, knowing that God speaks. Third way to read, or rather fifth, regularly with others, prayerfully, expectantly, reverently, reverently. We're going into the holy presence of God in worship to know him as he has spoken and as he speaks. with great reverence, come before him and ask, help me to know you. If you're not a believer this morning, I'm so glad you're here with us. I hope you would actually read the Bible the same way, but I wanna encourage you to hear something. I pray you would actually feel what we call conviction this morning, that the Holy Spirit would cut to your heart that you would see your sin and a need for a savior, and there's only one solution whenever you feel that conviction, when you experience that, and it's to cry out, Jesus, save me. Believe Jesus died for your sins and rose again. Here's my warning. If you feel that conviction, do not believe the lie that you can delay it and do it at your own convenience. A warning in scripture,

if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

If God has given you an open invitation, don't presume upon his grace that he's gonna keep convicting you and opening his hands for you to know him. No, repent, believe today. Why would you possibly delay? The final point, the power of God. Notice again here, verse 44, he said to them,

these are my words, I have spoken to you while I was with you.

And then everything that was written about me, the law of Moses, he explained, he fulfilled them. I want us to see that Christ's ministry was word-centered. What he said, what the prophets have said, those aren't two different things. He has come to fulfill all that was written about him. He has come to fulfill by explaining it, by doing it. Christ's ministry is by definition word-centered. And then again, verse 45, he opened their minds to understand scripture. It all starts coming together. and then he gives them a charge.

Thus, it is written that Christ should suffer on the third day, rise from the dead.

Okay, so far, nothing new, right? We've heard this about 10 times over the last few Luke sermons. It was necessary that Christ would die and rise again. As we've been meditating upon for quite a while, Thus it was written. If you're gonna memorize one simple phrase from this morning, that's it. That's that easy load ammunition you need. Thus it was written. Nothing more certain in life, thus it was written. He points back, what has happened, thus it was written, all these things have been promised, the Christ, it is necessary he die and rise again as he's revealed himself, he's appeared before them, they thought he was a spirit, he ate fish, he made it clear, no, I am the Christ, their minds are open now. But then verse 47, this is where the foundation, thus it is written, it was necessary that Christ would die and rise again. What's new?

And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

The good news, his death and resurrection has real meaning. It was that you might be forgiven. He died. and rose again, that you might be able to turn away from sin and be forgiven of that sin, but only in His name. He has come and completed the work of the Father, He has secured forgiveness, and now the only way to find true forgiveness is in His name. And notice, forgiveness in His name, it requires repentance. You can't look at this sin and say how horrible it is and how it makes me worthy of condemnation and I want to be forgiven, but I want to keep practicing. Repentance means we see sin for what it is in light of our Savior and we turn from it. Notice the good news is for all people. Repentance is reclaimed in His name to all nations. Well, why all nations? Why all people? Because all of us are under the same curse. All of us are sinners who are unable to actually cleanse ourselves. All of us need the one Savior. It's necessary that He die. It's necessary that we believe in Him. Therefore, it is necessary we proclaim Him. That's the charge that Christ must be proclaimed. The forgiveness of sins, the repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed. Verse 48, he continues, you are my witnesses. Now there's a way in which those witnesses that he's speaking to, the 11 disciples and everyone else in the room, they're unique witnesses. They have an apostolic witness. They were with him for three years, they saw his miracles, they heard his teaching directly, they saw him risen, they were gonna see him ascended, and there's a unique way in which they're witnesses. On another level, this is true of all who believe. that we are witnesses of his life-changing power. That the gospel, when we believe in Christ who died, it changes us. The charge is that every believer would know the good news, receive the good news by faith, and be witnesses of that good news. We would testify. We would testify that Christ alone is the Savior. Now, at some level, This should be so encouraging to think, that's my job now. I get to go tell sinners. They can be forgiven. That's a message that should be received with great joy, isn't it? But we know that when we tell fellow humans, they're sinners just like us, and there's something deep core wrong with them, and only God can help them. Well, they're either gonna respond with faith and rejoicing, or they're gonna respond with some kind of animosity. It's a dangerous calling. It's also a high calling. We're called to represent God. And the great thing he's given to us, that is a weighty charge, isn't it, church? We should feel the full weight. We're his witnesses. What we do, how we prioritize our time. What we commit to, what we discommit to, what we decommit to. What we proclaim with great enthusiasm. We're witnesses. Well, if you're terrified, remember what I said, one of those key words in Luke was? I told you to write it down, what was it? Behold. 49.

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.

Matthew, his great commission begins with, I have all authority. And it ends with, I'm with you always. In the middle, make disciples. Well, Luke here, he's, recording a different way that Jesus gives the same commission. He spells out the presence and authority of God differently though. Because he makes it clear, you're going to go and be witnesses of making disciples with my presence and my authority because I'm sending you the Holy Spirit. Wait until you have that power from on high. who will give you the words to say, who will bless you with confidence and perseverance and boldness. As we see this work, Jesus told the disciples back in John 16, one of the more interesting passages, Jesus says to them,

it's to your advantage that I go away.

In every way, that seems a little confusing, right? Wouldn't you rather have Jesus up here telling you what he was saying in this passage? But he says it's your advantage because if I go away, I'll sin the Holy Spirit. Jesus is going to go and sit at the right hand of the Father, having completed his work. Having completed his work, he's going to sin the Holy Spirit, who's going to then apply all that work. And the Spirit who now dwells within us, he changes us and brings all the blessing of God. The Spirit of Christ now dwells within us to empower us to proclaim him. The very power of God resides within you if you're a believer. The power of God to say no to sin? The power of God to hope? The power of God to proclaim him? The real question, are we following Christ, looking to his word, walking in his spirit to be faithful witnesses? The ending of Luke, this is 50 to 53.

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

It's significant. Christ, he blesses them.

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

He returned to glory, just as he said he would. And the disciples' response, they worshiped him. Only God's worthy of worship. They worshiped him. They were confused. They were lacking hope. But after sitting with Jesus after the resurrection and having their minds open and the word open, notice what a transformation.

They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

When the angels told the shepherds about what was happening, to Mary, said, I have good news of great joy. Mission accomplished. The disciples have great joy. The great joy is that he came to die for us. He came to rise again to give us new life. He is ascended to the right hand of the Father, having completed his work and now intercedes for us and gives us his own spirit, the power of God. to continue in his mission. He alone can save us. He alone can comfort us. He now invites us in the very presence of God where he is to worship him, to know him. He sends us out into this world to make him known as part of our worship. What incredible assurance we have, Christians. What God has said. What God has done. What God is doing right now by the power of his Holy Spirit. What God might do if we're obedient. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for how you have spoken for thousands of years through many different prophets. But now finally, Lord, you revealed yourself in your own son. We thank you, Lord, for these words that help us to know who you are, Father, that you sent your son so that we can now, in his name, come into your presence. And with surety know we can confess our sins and be forgiven. With surety know we can behold you and glorify you by your Holy Spirit to overcome the sins that entangle us, to be faithful witnesses to our children, to our parents, to our siblings, to our coworkers, to our neighbors. Lord, we thank you that we can see all the things you have accomplished. because of all the ways you've made such clear promises and how they're so fulfilled in Christ. Help us, Lord, to draw near to you. Father, help us, Lord, to draw near to you in the name of your Son, by the power of your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.