Dear friends, would you take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to the Gospel of Luke 24. The Gospel of Luke 24. We have been reflecting upon the appearances of the Lord Jesus, and most recently He has appeared and indicated that He is truly flesh and bone. He is seen, He can be felt, touched, and He even eats in the presence of His disciples, and He has words to speak to them, words of life and encouragement about the direction they ought to go in living their lives. Well, before we read the Word of the Lord, let's ask God to help us understand. Would you pray with me? Father in Heaven, we come before Your Holy Word so thankful that You have spoken to us and recorded it by Your Spirit. Lord, we pray for the enlightenment that is needed to understand the Word We pray that You would instruct our hearts, that You would transform our lives, that You would shape us into the image of Your Son through the Scriptures that we read and study. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Brethren, if you would, and you're able, would you stand for the reading of God's Holy Word? I'm going to read verses 44-49, but our focus will be 44 and 45. This is the Word of God. Then He, that is Jesus, said to them, These are My words, that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. and said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Well, this is God's Word. Brethren, please be seated. As I preach the Word of God to you, I ask you all be praying for me as I'm preaching. I'm battling through the lingering effects of a migraine that came upon me yesterday. I'm not quite myself. Not feeling up to par. But I'm going to preach anyway. And I hope that the Lord will bless His Word to us. Among all the Gospels, Luke, particularly, has given us the most information concerning what took place on resurrection day, that first day when it was evident Jesus had broken the bars of death and He appeared to the church in glory. Luke has given to us three initial appearances of Jesus to Cleopas and Friend on the road to Emmaus, to Peter privately, and then the whole company of the apostles and other disciples, who apparently were gathered in the upper room. And there Jesus demonstrated to their doubting hearts, you remember, that He was real flesh and bone, and He was the victor over death, and not a ghost. But even Luke's more detailed account doesn't give us everything. the additional appearances that Jesus had made, say, to Mary Magdalene, and also to the other women on the first resurrection day. Then those other appearances over those next 40 days. He would appear to the apostles again, this time with Thomas, John 20. He would appear near the Sea of Tiberias where Peter would be restored, John 21. He appeared to the 11 disciples at Galilee and commissioned them, Matthew 28. He appeared to 500 brethren at one time, 1 Corinthians 15. He appeared to James. Jesus, his brother, likely resulting in his conversion, also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15. And then finally, what Luke will record here in the closing verses and the start of volume two of his work, the book of Acts, Jesus appears and ascends up into heaven from the Mount of Olives. Now, in telling you of all these appearances, I'm reminding you all that Jesus had many encounters with His people, thoroughly demonstrating to them over a period of 40 days, and we read of that in Acts 1-3, but revealing to Him that He is the victor over Satan, sin, and death, and He explained His work to the church. Now, one thing we've repeatedly noticed about the apostles and the others is they don't seem to get what Jesus has been saying. Their minds are dulled. Their preconceived notions cloud their judgment. And they need the Spirit of God to awaken their understanding. Well, now the time has come for the Lord to turn the lights on, to enable these preachers particularly to grasp the biblical message focused on Christ as the fulfillment of all things. And I believe what we have here in our passage is a summary of Jesus' teaching over the next six weeks or so. Luke may be giving us just a snapshot of one day, but it's clear these are the parting instructions of the Lord to His apostles. And we're going to note two things as we make our way through the text. First, see with me, word-centered devotion. Word-centered devotion. As Jesus begins to teach His apostles in these post-resurrection days, while He Himself has a transformed body, not a different body, you understand, but a body no longer shrouded with weakness and humiliation, this body has new properties, and yet with all its newness, notice that Jesus does not preach a new message. Indeed, Jesus reminds them at the outset that what He teaches them is simply what He has been teaching them all along. Look at verse 44. These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. Not a new message, just the same message repeated again. And before Jesus gives the content of those words, which concern what is written, namely the Scriptures, we should note that Jesus' declaration here sounds strikingly prophetic. If we look back, say, to the prophet Moses in particular, we remember that Moses stood before God on the mountain to hear God's Word, and then he was to deliver God's Word to God's people. And yet Moses spoke of a day when the Lord would raise up a prophet like me, Moses says, from among your countrymen. And what will mark out this man like Moses? The Lord said this, Deuteronomy 18.18, I will put My words in his mouth. Well, Jesus is about to focus our attention on God's Word, on the things written, but He starts by saying, these are My words. That is to say, I'm speaking to you all My words, but these are God's words. Because I am the divine voice to direct your understanding. I make known to you how to grasp the message of the Bible. I am the Supreme Prophet. And it's no accident that one of Jesus' names is the Word. He's the One through whom creation came into existence. He's the One about whom the Scriptures speak. He's the One who speaks new life into dead hearts and makes us understand the new life He has given. Jesus has prophetic power to communicate the will of God for our salvation. It is Jesus who rescues us from our ignorance. It is Jesus who tells us the truth that we need to hear. Jesus gives us the content, the focus of our worship. Jesus gives us the explanation of the Gospel and the hope of the glory to come. And while these men, the apostles, will go forward preaching in Jesus' name, it is Jesus who sets the parameters for preaching. Namely, to declare Jesus's words, which are written. Now, many of us know it's a trendy thing today to have a red letter edition of the Bible. In fact, the one I'm using up here is such a Bible, a red letter edition. It's become even more trendy for some Christians to call themselves red letter Christians. But I want you to notice that Jesus says the words He spoke to His apostles, the very content of all of His preaching was, verse 44, that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. In other words, Jesus' words are the Old Testament and their explanation. Now what is the significance of that declaration? Well, for one thing, Jesus is not giving secret knowledge to His apostles over these 40 days before the ascension, which constitute a hidden collection of teaching. You're really in the know if you were with Jesus during those 40 days, but everybody else isn't really in the know. No, Jesus is saying what He's been saying. And what He's been saying is the scope of the Old Testament is about Me. Or if I put it differently, you can't know me. You can't understand me. You can't grasp my mission or the unity of the Bible. You can't appreciate the promises of God coming to pass in me if you don't see that I am the heart of the Old Testament. What does this mean for us? It means very simply that the true Christian is an Old Testament reading Christian. The true Christian is an Old Testament reading Christian. For all those people who write off the Old Testament as antiquated, as unnecessary for study, as no longer important to the life of the believer, Jesus is saying, well, if you live that way, your knowledge is utterly deficient. You can't know Christ without knowing the Old Testament. Yes, the Old Testament has ceremonial and civil laws that are foreign to us, that have been abrogated, but even those things have something to teach us about Christ and His kingdom. You are malnourished at best and totally blind at worst if your diet of scriptural intake neglects the Old Testament. because you will fail to see the beauty of what God has done in sending Christ in fulfillment of His Word. It's a constant bolster to your faith to recognize God has been faithful to every promise He made with respect to Christ. And what Jesus does right here is to say, the Old Testament is talking about me. Now brethren, at least two practical applications flow from this, which I want you to think about for a second. Jesus is, as He's repeatedly done in those 15 or so It Is Written statements in the Gospels, Jesus is right here validating that the Old Testament is the Word of God. Now, I doubt that there are many among us, if any, who came in this morning wondering if the Old Testament was the Word of God. But I want you to see how Jesus validates that truth. That's important. Further, you should notice the power of the argument Jesus is making. While many accuse Christians of making a circular argument about our source of authority. We believe the Bible is the Word of God because the Bible says it's the Word of God. Well, that's true, but Jesus adds further weight here. Jesus, as the raised Son of God with power, who is over all things, now tells us the Old Testament is the authoritative Word of God. In other words, why do we believe in the authority of Scripture, and the authority of the Old Testament specifically? It's because Jesus tells us that it's the truth, and the Old Testament centers on Him. Devotion to Scripture is not bibliolatry, the worship of a book. Devotion to Scripture is good Christology, the study and worship of Jesus Christ. For what marks a Christian? John 10, Jesus says, my sheep, you could probably complete the sentence, hear my voice. And where is the voice of Christ found? It is found in the whole of the Bible, starting with the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not just a bunch of laws, a collection of legalistic duties, the details of judgment, as God is angry with His people. No, the Old Testament is the story of God's grace, the story of a coming Redeemer who will save His people from their sins. So we devote ourselves to Scripture, to know Christ, to understand His person and work, to grasp the character of Christ, the deeds of Christ, so that we might take delight in Christ. Beloved, are you studying your Old Testament? Are you thoroughly acquainted with how Christ is unveiled in the 36 books categorized as law, prophets, and psalms? And then a second application flows from this. How will you come to grasp the greatness of God's promises, the fullness of Christ, if the meat of the Old Testament is not in your diet? What Jesus does here, and I've said this about five times now, I hope you're getting the point, what He does here is preach the Old Testament. And again, I think we're getting a summary over the course of 40 days with Jesus teaching. But Jesus is obviously spending a considerable amount of time unpacking the Old Testament. Doesn't that mean preaching the Old Testament is vital for the health of believers? Doesn't it further mean that a church that doesn't preach the Old Testament is going to be supremely weak? in their spiritual understanding. This is yet another reason to have an abundance of preaching in the life of the church. Maybe we don't do what was done in, say, Calvin's Geneva. Three services every Lord's Day. Sunrise, 9 a.m., 3 p.m., not counting a catechism sermon at noon. And if you needed to be disciplined by the session, they always sent you to the children's sermon at catechism time. And then there was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday preaching until October of 1549, where the city council decided we need preaching every day of the week. And Calvin preached 10 new sermons every 14 days. Unbelievable. That's a lot of preaching. Well, maybe we don't do that. But maybe we have morning and evening worship, which is a dying trend in our day, where the church is robbing herself of the primary means of growth. In this church, we've made it a general pattern, as many churches have done throughout the history of the church, to have morning sermons in the New Testament and evening sermons in the Old Testament. Why do we do that? Well, Jesus will give His Spirit as promise to remind the apostles of His word and to guide them into truth and to teach them what is to come. That was a section of the Upper Room Discourse where it seems that He's sketching out. I'll remind you of my words, the gospel in Acts. I will explain to you how to live according to the truth, the epistles, and I'll tell you what's to come, the book of Revelation. But in addition to all that, the Lord is opening up their minds to understand the Old Testament. So when Peter preaches at Pentecost, he quotes Joel 2, Psalm 16, Psalm 110, and alludes to 2 Samuel 7 and Genesis 17. When Stephen stands before the angry mob who are going to stone him, and he preaches in Acts 7, he surveys Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 37-50, Exodus 1-14, Exodus 19-32, and then he quotes from Amos 5 and Isaiah 66. When Paul preaches in Acts 13, he surveys large chunks of the Old Testament and quotes Psalm 2, Psalm 16, Isaiah 55, Habakkuk 1. You get the point. You can't understand the work of Christ without the Old Testament. So dear friends, you neglect what you need for your soul if you aren't getting the full diet of the Scripture morning and evening as it's proclaimed to you. Because you need the whole counsel of the Word of God preached to you. Why? So that you might know Jesus. Do you want to know Christ better? Do you want to understand how God's promises are all yes and amen in Jesus? Do you want to see how Jesus is the goal, the termination, the telos of what Scripture's having to say? Do you want to know the fullness of your Savior's character and how the Father is explained in Him? Then give yourself to Word-centered devotion by steeping your soul in the Old Testament. the story of God's grace in Christ. Listen to the preached word that's occurring here, unpacking what God is doing in His Son. Now, as I mentioned before, Jesus gives three categories of the Old Testament here, which were common among the Jews. The law of Moses, Genesis and Deuteronomy. The prophets, which would include the former prophets. Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, and the latter prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the book of the 12, the 12 minor prophets. And then the third category was known as the writings, and it began with the Psalms. So that last category is given a title by its first book. In the Hebrew Bible, it was Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and finally, Chronicles. Now, we've noted before when Jesus accused His generation of being guilty of the blood of the prophets from Abel, killed in Genesis 4, to Zechariah killed, stoned to death in 2 Chronicles 24, that Jesus is using this same organizational structure, essentially saying, you guys are guilty of the blood of the prophets from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible. And it culminates in your desire to kill Me, who's the great prophet. What's the significance of what Jesus is saying here? That all the parts of the Old Testament have their focus on Christ and are fulfilled in Christ. Well, again, Jesus is telling us something simple, something He's already said to the guys on the road to Emmaus, but it's so important He repeats it. The Old Testament is about Me. Now, that doesn't mean every single passage in the Old Testament is about Jesus' work, or prophesies of Jesus' coming, or explains the suffering and glory of the Messiah, but Jesus is saying the warp and wolf, the whole movement of the Old Testament, of every section of Scripture, centers on Me. What does this mean for you? How are you to think about the Bible as you read it? Listen to J.C. Ryle. Christ was the substance of every Old Testament sacrifice ordained in the law of Moses. Christ was the true Deliverer and King. of whom all the judges and deliverers in Jewish history were but types. Christ was the coming prophet greater than Moses, whose glorious advent filled the pages of the prophets. Christ was the true seed of the woman who bruised the serpent's head. Christ is the true seed in whom all were to be blessed. Christ is the true scapegoat. Christ is the true brazen prophet. Christ is the true high priest of whom every descendant of Aaron was a figure. Let it be a settled principle in your minds in reading the Bible that Christ is the central Son of the whole book. And so long as you keep Christ in view, you shall never greatly err in your search for spiritual knowledge. But brethren, once you lose sight of Christ, you will find the Bible to be dark and full of difficulty. The key to biblical knowledge is Jesus Christ. Jesus is telling you and He's telling me, if you will be faithful servants, adoring Me and understanding My teaching, you must be immersed in the Scriptures. Brethren, are you immersed in the Scriptures? Could it be said of us, as Spurgeon once put it of John Bunyan, that you prick the guy and it's like his blood is Bible. There's just Bible everywhere if you read the Pilgrim's Progress. It's all over the place. Or as another author puts it, it's the playground of your soul. The Word of God. The very means to teach you, rebuke you, correct you, entrain you in righteousness. I introduced a hymn to you last month which we sang a couple of times. A Word of God Incarnate. And it says of the Scripture, It is the golden casket where gems of truth are stored. It is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the Living Word. Are you storing gems of truth in your own soul because you're giving yourself to Christ? Are you finding that the Scripture is leading you to love Jesus and glorify Him? We will never be a Christ-exalting, Christ-imitating, Christ-enthralled people if we don't immerse ourselves in the Word of God. May our devotion to Christ truly be Word-centered, because that's what He's calling His people to be. Secondly, see with me now. Spiritual discernment given. Spiritual discernment given. When we read the Gospel accounts, of Jesus' three and a half years with the disciples, we're always struck by several things. Jesus' miracles. How He rules nature, heals disease, banishes demons, and even subdues death. We're amazed by Jesus' authority. How He refutes the Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees, and Herodians. He makes them look silly as He handles the Word of God. But something else that strikes us is the spiritual denseness of the disciples. Now, it's no surprise that the Jewish leaders, with their pride, would be blind to Jesus and His words. But it is a surprise that those called to walk with Christ and to know Christ, even to go out and preach in the name of Christ, that they could be so thick-headed. I hope they remind you of yourself a little bit. Mark is the most severe in recording this fact with Jesus asking the apostles three times, Do you not yet understand? Are your hearts hardened?" And then as a couple of more times, how they didn't understand. Well, that lack of understanding is abundantly evident, whether it be Peter rebuking Jesus for bringing up the whole suffering Messiah idea, or the disciples arguing at the Lord's table, as to who among them was the greatest when Jesus is about to lay down His life for sinners, or even what the last few days have revealed, this unbelief, this doubt, this sadness and forgetfulness of God's Word on crucifixion day or resurrection day. Indeed, one might wonder, if you're really thinking, if Jesus has just wasted His time with these fellows. He's taught them for three and a half years, and they seem to grasp almost nothing. And yet now we discover that they needed a divine gift to get it, to grasp the truth. While on the one hand, Jesus blamed Cleopas and his friend, back in verse 25, for being foolish and slow of heart, not to believe all that the Scriptures had said. In other words, sin is the problem, and that sin is an individual problem. We're responsible for our failure to grasp the truth. But on the other hand, The only way the dullness of sin or the darkness that it brings can be overcome is by divine power. That's what Jesus is going to explain. Now, you may remember an illustration Jesus once gave to His people. It was a miracle, but it was a miracle was parabolic in meaning. Jesus put His hands on the eyes of a man to heal him from his blindness. And then He said, I see men like trees walking. His sight wasn't yet clear, and He required a second touch to see the truth. That's the kind of thing that's happening with the apostles. They need a second touch. They need something that goes beyond mere intellectual comprehension. They need the Spirit of Christ to illumine their understanding, to take what is hidden and bring it to light, to make it known. And that's what happens here. Verse 45 we read, Then He, Jesus, opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Now listen to how that statement testifies of the great power of King Jesus. King Jesus has the power to work within us, to give our hearts light, to take the Word of God, which would be a dark and confusing book to us, and then to shine on it so that we understand. And without this work of Christ within us, which the Scripture goes on to teach us is the agency of the Holy Spirit, But without that work, we remain in darkness. The oracles of God are themselves radiant and majestic with truth, but they are wasted on us without the Spirit's shining light. The Spirit of God, through Christ's gifts, makes the Word of God useful to our souls. 1 Corinthians 2 puts it like this, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. But when King Jesus subdues us to Himself, He grants the gift of His Spirit that we might understand. Now that doesn't mean we're going to understand everything at once. The apostles will continue to grow in understanding. But the enlightenment is opening our eyes to truth, and then full enlightenment will happen when we reach glory. But there's hope right now by divine power of true spiritual growth, of true wisdom, of being granted understanding to take hold of the truth. And surely when we hear of the disciples' previous lack of understanding, seeing that the truth was hidden from them, and now Jesus opening their minds, surely, brethren, we should all see how desperate we are for divine enablement to understand. Indeed, what could convey this point more powerfully than three and a half years of His disciples not seeming to understand much of anything? That was proof to them that the heavenly light of spiritual discernment had to be given. It wasn't an inherent ability. They had to have grace to understand. So do we. The psalmist once prayed, Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law. Is this prayer our prayer before we read and study Scripture? Do we humble ourselves before our gods, recognizing the native blindness that we all have, that we're prone to misunderstand? that we're prone to twist the truth to tie it to our own opinions, or our preconceived notions, or our cultural judgments. Do we plead with God to take away our corruption and give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of the Lord? Brethren, you are weak and needy. It's not just a form that we pray before we read God's Word in public worship. We are desperate for the work of the Spirit to come and open our eyes to truth. Because without that, we won't get it. But there's another emphasis here that's important, I think, for our day. When Jesus gives the apostles enlightenment, when His Spirit shines on them to understand, what is it that they are to understand? Is it the mark of enlightenment, of spiritual discernment to listen to the voice within? Will future preaching of the apostles begin like this? I feel that No. Or how about this? Is proof of true spiritual growth and a handle on truth you and me waxing eloquently about our spiritual experiences? About how Jesus spoke to you or detailing some inward voice through which Jesus called you. Is that what we see here? No, not at all. You know, it's interesting with all the focus here in Luke 24 on Jesus' resurrection appearances, what is central to this whole chapter is the Word, what Scripture said. The thing the angels told the women at the tomb was, remember how He told you. The Scripture was the heartbeat of the discussion on the Emmaus Road. And now, likewise, Jesus is focusing their attention not on some inward experience, not even the verifying experiences that they're having of seeing Christ. Jesus opens their mind to understand the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus is not giving us understanding by the Spirit to set aside the Scripture, to place tradition or experience above the Scriptures. He gives enlightenment that you might understand God's Word, because it is the Word of God that reveals Christ. It is the Scripture that shows you the way of salvation. How we are all depraved in our sin and doomed unless God rescues us. And the Scripture tells us how the Lord intervened to save us from our sin through Jesus Christ. It is the Scripture that explains who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. How He lived perfectly and died as our substitute. How He bore the wrath of God to us and He satisfied our debt of sin before God's holiness. It is the Scripture that explains, the Father in love gave His Son, and Jesus in love, willingly as our Shepherd, laid down His life, that through Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins. Because of Jesus' work and through faith in Him, we are justified. And on the basis of Jesus spiritually attaching us to Himself by the Spirit, we're adopted. We've been reconciled to God. We have peace with God. We stand in the grace of God. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It is only the Scripture that explains these things. You will not find these things in the ranting of spiritual gurus who scarcely talk about the Bible, or couldn't explain how Christ is revealed from the Old Testament if their lives depended upon it. What is the lesson for us? It's really simple, and I'm saying it about ten times so you'll get the point. We are only made wise to know God through the Scripture. Spiritual discernment is on display. Not when we get some type of impression. Spiritual discernment is on display when we handle God's Word correctly, when we interpret God's Word rightly, when we apply God's Word to our lives and think right thoughts about Jesus. When we live by the Word of God. And what did Jesus Himself say to the devil when tempted? Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from your mouth. Does that characterize us? Do we demonstrate that we are truly the people of Christ because we follow the Word of Christ? If we don't follow the Word of Christ, what we show is we are stuck in ignorance. And what we will see with the apostles is that the doctrines that Christ enables them to understand lead to godliness. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Brethren, do we evidence true spiritual discernment? Do you live your life not by your whims, but by the Word? Do you like to think of Jesus a certain way? There's this old country song by Don Williams. I think it's written about 1980. I like to think of God above. He goes on to describe very unscriptural things like heaven doesn't wait for those who congregate. You don't need to go to church. You can just go to heaven. Do you just like to think of Jesus according to your understanding? A Jesus who never turns over tables in your life. A Jesus who never confronts you that you are in fact misunderstanding the truth of God and brings rebuke. A Jesus who is gracious far beyond your mind could ever comprehend, and He likes those people that you don't. Do you have a Jesus according to the Jesus that is the real Jesus in the Word of God? Brethren, do we think we're spiritual because we can talk good theology? Or are we spiritual because we live by the Word and it's evident in how we carry out our daily lives? Beloved, we all need Jesus to send the Spirit to illumine our minds to understand the truth. And we need to have a desire to know the Lord. May that be so. May we have this Word-centered devotion to Christ. And may spiritual discernment be given to understand Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we marvel at Your glorious plan to bring Christ as the culmination of all of Your promises. And Father, we pray that we would pay attention to all of Your Word. We ask that You would give us deep understanding Help us, O Lord, not to pursue merely intellectual or experiential understanding, but let us be those who are rooted in the Scripture, walking by every word that You have given to us for our souls' good. Lord, we ask these things because this is what is pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, and would You therefore do it as we plead with You in the name of Christ and all of God's people said, Amen.