Christ, from Beginning to End

I think in many ways, though very different, but in many ways, the opportunity that our elders have and our members have at our churches is much like what you all have. in Charlottesville, where you have people who are desiring to come here to learn and then be launched out to the ends of the earth, where you see them as opportunities to form and train little missionaries that would go upon their way. Our town is able to host a Air Force base. It is one of three Air Force training, pilot training bases. So if you have ever flown on a commercial airline, there was a really good chance that their pilot was trained in Enid, Oklahoma, where a lot of young, very intense Alpha pilots come for about 12 to 18 months in order to go to Japan or Dover. or over in the Middle East. And it is just incredible to see the opportunity that we get to have as Christians to be, if you can imagine, like an arrow going through the air, just a little bit apart of that path where God would have them land.

I do want to say that I am thankful for the faithfulness of the friends in this church, the investments from many of the members who are here. And I wish, like I said before, that people could be with here as I'm with you all. Now, if you haven't yet, I want to encourage you to turn to the book of Luke, chapter 24, where I get to enjoy a passage alongside you. As I kind of transition into it, let me just pray again and ask for God to illuminate our hearts as we encounter him from his very word.

Our gracious and heavenly Father, what we know not, we pray that you would now teach us. And what we have not, we pray that by your spirit you would now give us. Our Lord to where what we are not. Pray that you would shape us and fashion us into the likeness of your son. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

A sure foundation

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces began a massive amphibian assault on Normandy, France within the era of World War II. Under General Eisenhower's command, troops landed on five beaches. They were supported by extensive air and naval operations where this crucial operation was an all or nothing last attempt to take down the Nazis. More than 150,000 troops all at once were used to the point where 4,500 died and it all happened in one day. It was an enormous undertaking, all out, all or nothing assault.

And I've been thinking about that this week, kind of running through not only the rationality of this, but also the operations of this, the logistics of this. My best friend's late dad finished his career in the US Army as what is known as a chief warrant officer. Now, I didn't know what that meant until his dad had passed five years ago. But a chief warrant officer, in part, would bridge the gap between expert theory and advice and a commander's execution for wartime operations.

They were the nerds in the back who were calculating all of this thing. I think it's really cool. Very overwhelming. So I avoided certain majors in college because of classes called statistics. Because it's just a lot going on. And here these people live and thrive off of it.

So when you think about, when you hear about things like the D-Day invasion, I'm sure you've all heard of it. You've watched the Discovery Channel. Your parents may talk about it. Every pastor has World War II stories. That's what we find ourselves in. But it was so massive, so complex, and it required so much extensive planning and coordination. Here are just some of the few practicalities. Soak this in. It began a year in advance with multiple other countries all in secrecy.

General Eisenhower was appointed and called a different titled the Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Force. There was a series of deceptive operations, creation of fictional armies, and spreading false information about landing sites to distract the Germans. Years of intelligence and analysis selected particular sites where ports that already existed, they were expanded. Roads that were already built were improved. And airfields were built for moving troops and equipment and supplies for just one risk on one day. Troops were trained newly in amphibious and beach landing.

Large scale rehearsals were done in the cover of night to simulate invasion conditions. Extensive bombing campaigns were done behind enemy lines in order to weaken the German air ability and communication networks, weather had to be perfect to the degree where D-Day was actually postponed one day. Can you imagine that guy who made that decision looking at the radar going, tomorrow might be great.

Can you imagine the tension of all this? And what did all this planning lead up to? all of this particular planning, coordination, and dedication wouldn't leave up to success achieved by sacrifice through death by many on the beach of Normandy, what paved the way for a liberation of a continent.

Now, the scriptures for our sermon this morning show the original readers then, and you and I today, the extent the planning and the execution of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apex of the joy when someone goes underwater for us. And the reason for that is because Luke, the author of this gospel, wants you to have intense. Christian, think about this. Why did Luke record this particular text?

He wants you right now to have extensive confidence in your very faith, a sure foundation. that the person of Jesus is the object of your faith, your belief. He's not just a symbol. He's not just a sentiment. He didn't come by accident, but he is the very person, object, who consumes all of our worship, all of our faith, all of our hope, and the certainty that Jesus is had, held, and trusted by our very souls because of his nature, his character, and sacrifice, his victorious power over sin and death. We have to remember that he is the one who was on purpose sent by you. to receive eternal life, for you to be redeemed.

Now in our passage today, these couple of verses, Jesus is shown to give particular instruction to people who didn't get it. So close, and they just didn't get it. They have an incomplete view of Jesus, which I think is an absolutely terrifying thing to think about because that means that they just don't know and therefore cannot believe in Jesus at all because they had a tainted or skewed view of who Jesus is.

So as you look at this text, I want to ask you, what would ground your faith more firmly than it is right now? What would give you more confidence as you march towards Zion with other people around you? So my goal in bringing you this is just that, to give you confidence in the reality that Christ Jesus is the Savior of God's people, and you can receive that in faith from the very scriptures that he preached from. What would ground your faith more deeply?

Christ confronts their confusion

These three verses answered that question. Jesus himself steps in to confront the confusion of his followers where he opens the scriptures. He reveals that the cross wasn't a tragic mistake. It was the central part of God's plan all along from beginning to end. Where you see firstly that Christ would come to these people in the first couple of verses actually confront their confusion. So the first thing that you see here, if you're using an outline in order to take notes, I'm at point one where Christ confronts their confusion. This particular account of Jesus is told only in Luke's Gospel. It's an eyewitness account of the resurrection.

It was Sunday, think contextually here, Easter afternoon, and we have in verse 13 where it says,

that very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that happened.

So as they made their way They're marching a slow and sorrowful way to Emmaus. A stranger actually overtook them on the road. Look at verses 15 there.

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

So what you have here is Jesus actually confronts them and shows himself to them. He appears to them, which comes across as super mysterious if you're just reading it as it's presented, where, think of it, they seem to like Jesus, but they They were confused at even who this man was.

He was right there, and they couldn't notice that it was him. They didn't recognize him. Now, what kept them from getting that it was him? You ever think about that? What actually kept them? Was it a foggy day? Did he change clothes? Did he come out of the grave taller or maybe different looking, chiseled arms? What makes them not understand?

Now, there's lots of potential options here, but it is clear that Jesus keeps himself supernaturally from being seen. Mark, after all, tells us that Jesus appeared in another form to a pair of the disciples who were walking in the country. It says that in Mark 16. And Luke, look at verse 16 there in your own text, simply says that

their eyes were prevented from recognizing him

, which is implying some sort of divine hindrance. If the disciples couldn't see Jesus, it's because, think of it, God didn't want them to yet.

So it's going to be interesting to see, okay, when does he want him to see him, and what will unfold when he wants that to happen? Jesus wasn't traveling incognito, but now as an aside part of the point here, I think this is a story of delayed recognition that actually helps you and I know, to know more how you and I can actually see Jesus for ourselves. A little bit of a delayed recognition that actually helps you and I to know how you and I can actually see Jesus for ourselves. Truly seeing Christ isn't simply physically seeing Jesus. seeing Jesus with your eyes won't assure you of your salvation. Instead, the Bible talks about believing in Jesus, you think of that preposition, believing in Jesus by seeing him in his very gospel, whether we have ever walked with him on the road to Emmaus or not.

And some people, this is where I think this is helpful for you and I to apply this to our own lives, some people actually feel more certain about their faith because they've had some kind of vision or spiritual experience. You know, you want to have a good Saturday, You wake up early before your family or friends or even your dogs wake. You go out to your little table, maybe in the living room or by the kitchen, you open your Bible, but you have to have all the secret parts there, right? You have to have your little coffee there, and you gotta have your little Bible journal, and then you gotta take a picture of it for Instagram so all your friends can see you as super spiritual in that moment because you can't really encounter the Lord Jesus Christ until you put all of your things in place. Very often, some people feel less certain about their faith because they've actually never had some kind of out-of-body experience.

You heard powerful testimonies this morning of the Lord drawing people to himself supernaturally, powerfully, amazingly, to where you were appropriately clapped for them. Some of you have the faith story, like me, where you had Christian-believing parents, Christian-proclaiming parents, and they took you to something called Good News Club at six and a half, and you just believed. Very often we think that we either have to add something more to faith in Jesus Christ, in his gospel, or we have to remove certain things or fear that we don't have it because we don't have certain things.

But according to the Bible, salvation is by faith that is a gift from God where you're able to know, ascend, and to trust in Jesus. So if you think just practically, what does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ? You know him, you ascend or you go to him, and you trust him. as the Lord, the Savior, for what he's done and for who he is, the redeeming God. Now, nevertheless, Jesus joins their journey back in the context of the passage, and he actually asked them something. Look at verse 17.

And he said to them, what is this conversation that you were holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still,

basically asking, what are y'all talking about? And the first answer was physical. It says they were sad. What are y'all talking about? They were sad, downcast. They were discouraged, which shows, actually, I think their spiritual condition, unconnected from actually understanding what had just happened. Now I'd imagine their annoyance at this man who interrupted their sorrow, interrupted them talking to each other, interrupted them pouring out their souls towards one another. Here's a man who interrupted that.

What would rise to the top? I mean, I think I would be like, you seriously not know what we're talking about? Did you? Everyone in this context would have known what had just happened a couple of days before. Jerusalem was abuzz with news of Jesus' crucifixion and burial, and by now, with the news of his body gone, taken under the cover of night, everyone was talking about Jesus, except apparently Jesus, in this case. What are you guys talking about? Verse 18, it is just riddled with irony here, and this is how Luke writes, and it captures the gospel so well. In truth, Cleopas was the one who did not know what was happening in Jerusalem, yet Jesus knew better than anyone in his own way what happened during his Jewish and Roman trials.

He was the first person in the scenario. He knew and could testify what it was like to be mocked and tortured and to die in disgrace. He alone had felt the thorny crown upon his brow and nails driven through his hands and feet. And he also alone could describe inside of a dark tomb at the first night of the resurrection. So see the irony here of just that verse. Those who thought they knew it all actually didn't know anything about what had really happened. See the irony here, look at verse 19.

He actually clarifies their expectations

In kindness, Jesus hears their annoyed question and responds with a question, what things? So you see that he's confronting these people in their own confusion, but then secondly, I want you to see as a text develops that Christ would actually clarify their own expectations. He confronts their confusion, but then secondly here, he actually clarifies their expectations.

Where the sorrow that these disciples feel is because their view of Christ is actually unmet. Which means, practically, biblically, it was wrong. The view of Christ was wrong. But the view of Christ in their own view was mismanagement or unmet expectations.

When the risen Christ, who was a stranger to them, he asked them what they were talking about and what things had been happening in Jerusalem, they poured their guts out. And after Jesus asked his question, both disciples actually started talking at once in what turns out to be one of the longer speeches in Luke's gospel, where here, what they're told, their new traveling companion is actually written to us.

Look at verse 19 there, through a couple of verses.

And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, A man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.

Keep the context here of their looking at this man. Verse 20,

and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one who would redeem Israel. Yes, and beside all these things, it was now the third day since those things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and what they did not find was his body. And they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. And 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.

And he said to them, this is Jesus now talking, he said to them,

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

Michael Wilcock, a theologian, actually calls this speech,

The Gospel According to Cleopas.

And notice all that it includes. It includes almost all the basic facts that one would find in the gospel according to anyone. The gospel according to anyone. Yet something still seems to be missing here. In fact, one commentator says that it reads like

an unfinished creed.

Now, later we're going to confess to the Nicene Creed together. Can't wait. We do it too. Apostles' Creed. What happened if the end of that was kind of lopped off? A lot of good stuff at the top, a lot of good stuff in the middle, but what if it didn't have the end points?

Now, one of the benefits that I get to have as an elder at our church and other elders at our church is we have We have a membership class when people want to join the church, just like this church does. We have a membership interview with candidates for membership where we ask them a couple of things. We ask them about their testimony. We ask them to really define the gospel. Like, if someone were to come up to you and say, hey, I've heard about the gospel, what is the gospel in like a minute or less? You know, it freaks everyone out, but then you tell them this is coming, so they've kind of been working on it the whole time, and it's always really fascinating when it does, because everyone loves to kill Jesus. And almost everyone forgets to raise him from the grave.

So you'll go along, and God made everything, and it was good. Man sinned, and I'm sitting here being like, this is great. Make this guy an elder. This is so wonderful. And he died for our sins, and he's going to come back and judge the living and the dead. And you're like, oh, where is he? And they're like, well, he's ruling and reigning in heaven on high. But you buried him. Oh, yeah, and on the third day, he rose again. Oh, yeah, on the third day, he rose again?

Like, what is wrong with you? They spoke of Jesus's humanness, where you and I, if you've ever gone to a funeral, have to encounter the awful pursuit of man's race in life where someone dies. And this is what happens to men. We live and we die. They were just seeing Jesus in his humanness. For they didn't speak of his divinity.

Look at verse 20, his death. Look at verse 20, or 24, his death. or verse 20, I'm sorry, chapter 24, verse 20,

and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

Now, rather than blaming the whole thing on the Romans, they actually said it was the chief priests and the rulers of Israel who actually set him up to die, and as a result of their sin, Jesus was condemned, and then he was crucified, and this, this is what made them sad, because they'd hoped that Jesus would redeem his people, yet he was crucified. where these disciples said that they were looking for a Redeemer. They had hoped that Jesus would purchase their salvation by delivering them from the Romans, and all Jesus did for them was die.

So you see their confusion, and Luke's play with ironing here as he writes it for us. Yet without pausing for a breath, they spoke about the extraordinary things that happened on that day. Verse 21, three days past, where this phrase is a signal of the resurrection, reminiscent of the prophecy that on the third day Jesus would rise again. They're so close.

But for the Emmaus disciples, they weren't thinking in terms of a resurrection at all. They thought that Jesus was dead. Now, some people were saying that Jesus was alive again, but no one sees them. Talking to Jesus, they spoke of what the women would find. They didn't find where he went early in the morning. They saw an empty tomb. They told him what the angel said about the missing body, what the other disciples saw about the missing body. They didn't see it when they came to investigate it.

But note the last words according to Cleopas, verse 24,

him they did not see.

Can you imagine? their utter confusion in this moment. It is easy to empathize with them in this case. It's easy to understand why they would be thinking this, because they are looking at something that they don't have the eyes to see yet.

They had basically all the facts they needed about the cross and the empty tomb, but they had no gospel at all. It was like hearing the punchline without getting the joke. Harshly and sadly, at this point, the reality is that they didn't understand or get the gospel. They had all that, yet nothing. What they were missing is the reality that Jesus, the Christ, is fully alive.

He was risen. One person says that

the gospel without the resurrection is not merely a gospel without its final chapter. It is actually not a gospel at all.

And you've heard the apostle talk about it. If Jesus hadn't been raised from the grave, then everything you and I would be doing is completely in vain.

I remember confronted as a freshman in college by an older member in the fraternity that I was a part of where we would wake up early to have a Bible study. And I remember him just looking at me kind of abruptly. In retrospect, he's learning to find his own footing, to find his own voice in proclaiming the gospel to a younger 19-year-old like me. And he would say,

hey, if Jesus had never been raised from the grave, how would that change your life?

And I just said, well, that'd be really depressing. And he would say,

oh, I would be like the most dangerous, awful person in the world because nothing would matter.

And I was like, you are to be watched out for. But that's exactly right. Like had Jesus not been raised from the grave, literally nothing matters.

The flip side of that for you and I, we know that had Jesus been raised from the grave, then that should dictate everything that matters in our life. Everything, not just compartmentalized, but everything. They were missing the Christ being raised from the grave, because without the resurrection, they could not know that their sins were forgiven through the cross, or that empty tomb was God's guarantee of eternal life. And this is true of all of us.

There is no good news unless Jesus rose from the dead. If you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus, you don't believe in Jesus at all. You and I have wonderful summaries of the Christian faith. Things like the Nicene Creed, where it says,

in the third day he rose again.

Or the Apostles' Creed, where it says, toward the end

and the third day, he rose again from the dead.

Where the gospel for us, as we recite that stuff to hold on to what is true from the scriptures, the gospel is the crucifixion and the resurrection, which equals forgiveness for our sins and everlasting life in the presence of God. And it's only when we see that, that our Jesus as our crucified Savior and our risen Lord, that we actually know that he will satisfy every genuine need of every deep longing of our souls.

I am a low-grade, sad person in all of life. I get easily sad at little things and small things. Little low-grade drama where I can be having a great time, and then after I hit an amazing drive down the golf course, I wind up in a bunker, and I want to throw my club and say, I don't like golf anymore. What's the point of everything?

And my wife, who very wonderfully will be on a golf cart, you know, sipping iced tea in a glorious summer, she'll just go,

Did Jesus not die on the cross and be raised from the grave?

And I'm like, theological debates are not for this moment right now, but she will always happen. She'll always come up to me in those moments and remind me that if that happened, then you, Christian, you, Christian, can be reminded of how the one who holds everything together in his pure grip, how the one who brought his son to us, raised his son from the grave, is the same one who's encountering you in whatever sense and semblance of your life completely.

Now the reality of this is, for those of you who are here and you're not a Christian, and you don't believe in Jesus, or you might have some compartmentalized belief in Jesus, you might say he's real and that he was a man and they walked around and even some amazing things happened to him, what you need to realize is that if you don't believe in Jesus, you actually have zero hope in everything. And you have zero hope in all of your life. And I just want to say as a person, that is a really sad thing to have. And we feel for you, and we want to bring you to the water of life that says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, confess that he is the Lord, repent of your sins, and have everything in your life turned upside down to where it is actually on the right track.

Connecting the entire story

Just like you heard in the two testimonies this morning, going in a certain direction, going in a certain direction, thought I was going in the right direction, where then God summoned me to himself, and the reality of that gospel reset everything in the trajectory of my life. Because only when their false expectations on this text are stripped away can Jesus actually begin to show them the true shape of God's plan. Which leads us to the third thing, where Jesus not only confronts them, he not only encounters them, but then here he actually does the wonderful job of connecting the entire story.

I actually liked math growing up, not like high math like some of you probably learn, like people who do physics and statistics and all that stuff. I like the high school kind of math. And I was really frustrated that in my senior year I took calculus, not BC calculus, but AB calculus, the simple one, right? Numbers for jocks. But you took calculus and all of a sudden everything that you see when you add things up, subtract things away, long division, SOH CAH TOA, all those kinds of things, and then you put it in motion, you go, oh, that's what the last 12 years of math have been like? I would have loved to have the entire story put together all for me. Then I would really enjoy math, to the point where I didn't use it again, but I would actually enjoy that.

Here, what Jesus does so wonderfully is he puts all the pieces together for them so that they truly can grasp the gospel. Look at his response, verse 25, as you heard it read before.

And Jesus said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets had spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all of the scripture the things concerning himself.

Now this word foolish is obviously intended to rebuke. It's a very nice way to rebuke someone. Oh, foolish ones. Probably around junior high is when my mom would use the rebuke of,

Asher, you're acting like a fool.

Very tender, right? She didn't, it's not name calling, it's the Bible word. It's all over the testimony of that. But you feel really belittled as a 13 year old. You're acting like a fool. What is wrong with you?

And that's what he says to them. These two guys should have known better. It's that he was looking right at them that proved their unbelief. It's that they didn't believe that when God said something, it was going to happen. Their gospel was incomplete. Their theology of Jesus was all about his great life and what they wanted him to be for themselves. But instead, who Jesus really is, is a suffering and rising Messiah.

So this says that he proceeded to preach to them the gospel according to the Old Testament. Amazing there, the gospel according to the Old Testament. Now imagine this, when the word of God incarnate actually explained the word of God revealed. What a guest lecture. This is what Jesus did in his ministry. This is what he regularly did in his ministry. He preached the truth as revealed already. Now, a couple of facets here.

The preaching that Jesus did, you need to see it as biblical. The teaching that Jesus would have done and the preaching that he would have done would have been biblical, meaning that it is from the law and the prophets. His preaching was also very thorough, where he wanted these men to know everything that the prophets had spoken.

His preaching was also what is commonly called Christ-centered, where what that means is he preached about himself, where he's the point. He also preached what is called a gospel-centered method or a gospel-centered sermon, where he would include both the crucifixion and the resurrection, proclaiming the agonies of the cross and the glories of an empty tomb. And finally, his preaching was persuasive, where Jesus actually argued for the absolute necessity of doing his saving work the way that he particularly did it. Meaning, whatever you think a Savior should have done, he says it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and then be glorified from the grave.

Now, you and I don't have a manuscript of Jesus' sermon here. It wasn't printed off, it wasn't given to us in a blog form. If we needed to know all that he had said here, God would have given it to us for our own benefit. And frankly, it's not essential that we even have a manuscript like this because we have all of the Old Testament.

Jesus' sermons were from the Old Testament. And coincidentally, all the New Testament sermons of the apostles were clearly based on what Jesus said about what was said, which is the way that Jesus actually taught these people to preach. But in our case today, actually, Jesus gives us an outline of all that he said, where the law and the prophets or the Old Testament, later they're referred to as the law of the prophets and the Psalms or the writings, that they should read them and understand them, and this is how you and I can see Christ for how he truly is and for who he truly is.

If someone were to ask you to describe the Lord Jesus Christ, what would you say? I'd imagine a lot of you would say, I don't even know where to start because there's so much to talk about. Here Jesus gave us a framework, the law and the prophets, all running through me. What did Jesus preach?

What's the key to understanding who Jesus is? understanding his word about him, the Christ. So friend, every part of the Old Testament finds its meaning and purpose in relationship to the person in the work of Jesus Christ. Where the scripture says that he that it is only in Jesus that all things hold together. And this is true of the Old Testament as well, where you and I can read different parts of the Old Testament, or all the Old Testament as it's written and given to us, actually anticipating the Lord Jesus Christ, where we read other parts of the New Testament, actually reflecting back on the Lord Jesus Christ, but keeping him as a center of all that, where we can't fully and properly understand anything from Moses to Malachi until we see its connection to the whole gospel, meaning a cross and an empty tomb.

The sufferings of Christ

Now, what do the scriptures actually say about the sufferings of Christ? I make the big statement, Jesus makes the big statement. What do the law and the prophets actually say about Jesus? How is he pointing all these things and then bringing it back to him? And Christians, you have to know this. The most beautiful thing is that you can know this.

Remember Genesis, where in Genesis 3, you see the seed of a woman, a man of flesh and blood, will be bruised by the devil before crushing the devil's head. Remember Exodus, where the Word says that the people of God are actually carried from death through the offering of a Passover lamb. Or in Leviticus, where the Word says that the atonement will be made only through the offering of sacrificial blood. Or remember Numbers, where the word actually lifts up the sign of a bronze serpent and everyone who sees it is delivered from death. Or even in Deuteronomy 27, where cursed, covenant-breaking sinners find grace at God's blood-sprinkled altar.

All of these things find their fulfillment in the saving work of Jesus Christ. He is the son of the woman who was bruised on the cross before crushing Satan's head. He is the lamb who offered his blood for our sins and was lifted up for our salvation. And he's the covenant maker who was cursed for all of our covenant-breaking sins and who sprinkled his redeeming blood on the altar of the cross.

And friends, that's just the first five books. where people want to debate things like a creation, a flood, a tower, a lot of laws. Those things are to drive you to the one man for the forgiveness of your sins. But don't just stop there because remember the prophets. In Isaiah, the Word says a Savior will be wounded for our iniquities, our sins, and pierced for our crimes and our transgressions. Remember Jeremiah, where the Word says that the Savior will be mocked and abused, or Zechariah, where the Word says that the Savior will make an atonement for the whole land in a single day.

And that's just some of the prophets. You can do all of them if you want, and you just see the prophecies of those prophets do what? They find their fulfillment in whom? The man who was right before these confused people who were saying, we're looking for our Redeemer.

The sufferings and the death of Jesus who was wounded and pierced and abused as an offering, an atoning sacrifice for sins. And this is only part if we'd show them. It says that after Jesus began with Moses and the prophets, he went on to the rest of the Old Testament scriptures, where surely he would have recalled Psalm 22, that the word says that he will die a God-forsaken death, a dry and thirsty death, surrounded by enemies who pierce his hands and feet, and then gamble for his clothes. And this is only the first part of this gospel message, the sufferings of the crucifixion.

But remember, don't just leave him in the grave where it was necessary for Christ, according to the word, to enter into his glory. where you and I remember Abraham's faith, who believed that God would raise his son from the dead. Remember how Hebrews 11 taught that, or Jonah's sign. The man spent three days in the belly of darkness. Remember how Christ would interpret that for everyone to understand. Remember Daniel's vision, where the son of man rose to the clouds of heaven coming and glory. And friends, this is how Jesus viewed the Old Testament.

It was all rushing their hearts forward to him. or you and I might take a class or read a book on hermeneutics, the way the Bible is understood to be held together. You know, if it's like scaffolding on a building or all of a sudden a collection of bricks, how do you make that brick a wall? What's holding all that together? This is how we read the Bible through the lens of Christ, recognizing that it was about him from beginning to end, where he interpreted, look at verse 27, he interpreted You see it there, that big word, all, all the scriptures, where they were about him, where he's the ark of the covenant and the blood of the mercy seat, where he's the light on the golden lampstand and the bread of life, where he is the prophet who preaches like Moses, the priest who prays like Aaron, and the king like David, who's after the father's heart.

To where you and I encountered this, you might find yourself like them, a little bit confused, heard about Christ, you want to go to him, you would just like to be told what that is like, and here you have Christ within the redemption of Ruth by Boaz.

Christ within the selfless sacrifice of Samson, Christ within the kingship of Josiah, Christ within the miracles of Elijah, where these types, these signs, these figures of old are to engulf your heart to the one who shows himself to you on this road to these men and God's appointed revelation. Run far away from preachers and teachers who downplay what Christ uses to draw men to himself. I'm not saying this happens in Virginia, but in my neck of the woods, in the middle of America, people don't like the rules and regulations of the Old Testament, so they kind of throw them aside. And then they encounter these aggressive, confrontive books of the New Testament to where I don't want to argue about this, I don't want to argue about that, let's just talk about Jesus. to where even then, let's not just talk about Jesus, let's just talk about what Jesus said. You hear it in different ways, teaching that comes up all the time, where that sounds really nice and really Christianly, where I just want to talk about what Jesus said. What did Jesus say according to God's holy word to us?

Certainty in their faith

Isn't it amazing here to these men who didn't know Christ? He didn't point them He didn't point these men to scars on his hands, scars on his brow, lashes on his back. He didn't ask them to smell his oil anointed body. What did he give men who needed certainty in their faith? Friend, what is he giving you right now to have a sure foundation in your pursuit of the Lord? Well, he preached to them. and his preaching was pointing them to the scriptures, which pointed to himself, the only man who could ever preach like that.

Very often you might find, why do we have an arrangement of rooms like we do? And this isn't black and white, I'm not saying, but I'm like you all, so I can say, oh, it's pretty black and white. Why don't we have a big chunk of wood right in the middle of us, actually dividing me from you? Why don't I preach to you great advice from my life? be a short sermon. Why wouldn't I preach to you about how I've lived the up and in and you can too?

Why do we have a book between me and you? Because we've got to recognize that this very Word of God is actually mediating things between you and me, between us and Him. Where all that Jesus was saying is something unlike you and I could ever do when we uphold the Word of God. He upholds the Word of God and says, do you see me in it?

That's what he gives men. That's what he gives people to have certainty in their faith, to where if you follow his way of hermeneutics, you'll find your heart burning on the road to the cross, too, burning from the road of the grave, because every law, every prophet, every psalm, every apostolic word, every red letter in your Bible is crying out, not just for a hero, but for a crucified and risen Savior.

Our liberators have come

On April 28, 1945, a commander of a prison and his officers left this prison. A big prison, all the commanding officers of the prison, in the darkness of night, all of them left. This is a prisoner's absolute joy. They all left. And the reason that they left in the cover of night was the next morning, the 45th Thunderbird Division and the 42nd Rainbow Division and the 20th Armed Division were advancing toward Munich. with Dachau concentration camp directly in their path.

At 10.15 a.m., orders were given to liberate the Dachau camp where American forces approached the death camp minutes later. Now, one prisoner at Dachau, he was a Turkish journalist, where he later wrote of the whole ordeal.

He said,

the Americans were not simply advancing toward us, they were running, they were flying. They were mounting their weapons on captured trucks. They were using tractors, bicycles, carts, trailers, anything that had wheels on it. With the 2nd Battalion, the 222nd Regiment, the 42nd Division was coming brazenly, boldly down the highway with their commander in their lead.

These soldiers were coming after that camp in a specific, calculated form of necessary force. Described on another view of someone outside of the camp, Lieutenant Colonel Walter Flins wrote,

several hundred yards within the main gate, we encountered a concentration enclosure itself.

And there before us, behind an electrically charged fence, stood a mass of cheering half-mad men, women, and children, who were waving and shouting with happiness, saying, our liberators have come. And our hearts wept.

because they had joy of tears running down their face, because they understood what was coming for them. Friends, I hope that you understand that when you gaze upon or consume within, study for yourself and seek to understand the very words of the pages of Scripture, it is not a messy arrangement of glorious things, but a coherent, logical, beautiful domination of a soul's liberation. of redemption, where the scriptures about Christ coming for his people, to capture them, to save them, leaves the storming of Normandy and the taking over of a concentration camp as pale in comparison, as he came to deliver people from tyrannical bondage, where new life takes on immense calculation, brought upon by incredible planning and with absolute tenacity. Now, in our text, the long-awaited Christ, who came for his people to save them from their sins, submitted himself to the Father's perfect and good will by giving his actual, whole, and perfect life over as a penal, substitutionary death, where then it was on the third day, it was that same sacrifice who was raised from the dead, showing not only the conquering of the dead, not just the promise of death's conquering on your behalf, but also to showcase the glory of God, where all of it was done.

All of that was done. according to the scriptures.

There is nothing more certain than that. Friend, your faith can have all the certainty that you can ever fathom. I pray it is. Let's pray together. Our gracious and heavenly father, we thank you for this day that you have made in reminding us of your glorious truth about your son through your son's death and by your spirit bringing us the awareness of it. We pray in thankfulness for your very word which speaks so clearly and simply to us. We pray in confession that we need you to capture our hearts continually by your spirit to enjoy you. God, we pray in petition that you would grant us, that you would have us taste and see that the Lord's death and resurrection is so good for our souls, to where we find ourselves at the table, by your grace and your mercy, as your guest. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.