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If you have your Bible this morning,
let me invite you once again to turn to the Gospel of Luke,
Luke chapter 24. We are in this final leg of the
journey through the Gospel of Luke, and we're looking at some
of the few precious final scenes that we have that Luke has recorded
on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And we started this last
time, there was just too much to get to. And so we return to
it today. I'm going to read, I think it's
the same passage that I read last Sunday from Luke 24, verses
44 through the end of the chapter, verse 53. Let me invite you as
you're able to stand in honor of the reading and hearing of
God's word. Luke chapter 24. beginning in verse 44, as we
are in the upper room on the first Resurrection Sunday, and
Jesus speaks to the apostles. Luke records, And he said unto
them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were
written in the law of Moses, and in the and in the Psalms
concerning me, then opened he their understandings, that they
might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things. And behold,
I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.'
And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up
his hands and blessed them And it came to pass, while he blessed
them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And
they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen." May God bless again the
reading and the hearing of his word, and let's join together
in prayer. Gracious God, as we take up once
again the scriptures and we open them, we ask that you would provide
for your people from the hidden manna of your word that which
we need, that which we hunger for, sustain, nourish your people
through your word. Gracious God, give us illumination
through the power of the Holy Spirit. Give us eyes to see.
Give us ears to hear. of minds and hearts to comprehend. We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen. And you may be seated. Well,
again, we are coming, drawing to the conclusion of our trek,
our journey through the Gospel of Luke. And we are once again
observing through this miracle of the scriptures, through Luke's
inspired writing down this account, we are observing and hearing
ourselves as if we were present that very day on that first resurrection
Sunday. We are hearing our Lord's final
instruction when he is bodily present with the Apostles, some
of the final instructions that he gives to the disciples before
he will ascend to the Father and until the time when he will
come in his glorious second coming and we will once again as disciples
hear directly his voice. Remember, Jesus had appeared
to The disciples ended up a room after the two disciples whom
he appeared on the road to Emmaus had come. They reported what
had happened to them. And while they were still speaking, Jesus
himself appeared in the midst of the disciples. And you remember
first that Jesus had shown them his wounds from the cross. I
recorded there in verse 39, as he said, behold, my hands and
my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see for a spirit,
half not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And we noted
previously that Jesus did not want the disciples to think that
he was an apparition, a spirit. There was a an early heresy called
dosaism, where some believe that Jesus had not been fully a human
being. And here he is. He is taking
that misunderstanding away that he has a glorious resurrection
body, a body of flesh and bones, a transformed body. He is the
first fruits of the resurrection. And then secondly, remember in
verse 42, he had taken part of a fish and from the honeycomb
and he had eaten, he had ingested this food, again to prove and
to show that he was not an apparition, that he was inhabiting his resurrection
body. And then finally, I noted last
week, he began a third set of proofs, and this set of proofs
was an example of something that we still have contact with today.
The third set of proofs that he gives, aside from his body,
the wounds and his eating of food, the third set of proofs
that he gives come from the scriptures themselves. As he opens the Old
Testament scriptures and shows how he has fulfilled in his living,
in his death upon the cross, in his burial, in his resurrection,
and even in his appearing. And even, as we'll see today,
in his commissioning, how he is fulfilling everything that
was written about him within the Old Testament Scriptures.
And we see this begun as we looked at it last week in verse 44,
as he said, These are the words which I spake unto you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the
Psalms concerning me. We noted last time how this really
what he was really saying was in the whole scope of Scripture.
In the Torah, in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Ketubim,
or the Writings, exhibited by the Psalms. As the Jews saw the
Old Testament Scriptures in those three parts, the Torah, the Prophets,
and the Writings, Jesus said, I'm there. I'm in all the Scriptures. All the Scriptures point to me.
All the Scriptures speak about me. And then you remember how
it says in verse 45 that He opened their understanding, or he opened
their minds that they might understand the Scriptures. And that, we
noted last week, that's what has to happen for every person
who awakens to the truth of what God has done in Christ. Christ
himself must open up their minds. He must release, restore their
minds. They don't even know that their
minds are held captive. that their minds are enslaved
to the things of this world, to worldly things, until Christ
opens their minds, opens their understanding, and they see for
the first time reality as it truly is. They see Christ in
His glory. Well, today we want to continue
to focus on these closing scenes. And there are really two scenes
that continue to be described. The first is Jesus continuing
to instruct his disciples on that first Lord's Day evening,
including his commissioning of them to preach in his name among
the nations. And we see this in particular
in verses 44 through 49. And we got started on this last
week, didn't complete it, but this is what we call the Lucan
Great Commission. In each of the Gospels, There
is a record that one of the final things that Jesus says to the
disciples before he ascends to the Father is he commissions
them. And we know probably best of
all, again, that account in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 28, 19, and 20,
where Matthew recorded that Jesus on that occasion had said, go
teach all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the
Son, the Holy Spirit, and lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. And so we know that commissioning,
but in each of the Gospels there is recorded various occasions
where Jesus gave a similar commissioning to the disciples. And this is
the one that Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
records. That's what we want to focus on. The second scene,
then, is of Jesus' ascension into heaven. And that's in verses
50 through 53. So let's see if we can look at
these two scenes. We may not get to both of them,
but we'll at least focus on trying to continue the scene where Jesus
speaks to his disciples before he ascends to the father. If we look in verse 46, we see
that Jesus continues. to teach, and he said, Thus it
is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day. And last Lord's Day, we talked
about how Christ again was opening the minds of disciples to understand
the necessity of the suffering of the Messiah, and thus it behoved
Christ to suffer. Thus it behoved, or it was necessary
for the Messiah to suffer. And again, this would have been
something that did take many Jews by surprise. They expected
the Messiah to be a political overlord. not to be one who would
come and who would be crucified on a cross. This was the scandalous
message that the first Christians preached. We preach Christ and
him crucified. That was the strange thing for
both Jew and Gentile to hear proclaimed. And we don't know
exactly which passages in the Old Testament Jesus opened. It's
likely probably he turned to Psalm 22 that begins with those words that Jesus gave
upon the cross about his abandonment. Perhaps he turned to Psalm 69,
a passion psalm that talks about the suffering of the Messiah.
Perhaps he turned to Isaiah 53 that speaks of the suffering
servant who was wounded for our transgressions and by his stripes
we are healed. but he opened their minds to
understand that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. Not only that, not only is God
sovereign over the suffering of Jesus, but also there is an
emphasis here upon simply the Father's sovereignty over the
cross itself. The cross wasn't something that
took Jesus by surprise. a part of God's plan, and this
is something Luke has emphasized throughout his gospel. We see
it, for example, Luke 22, 22, where it is recorded and truly
the son of man going as it was determined. Jesus can say again
in that chapter in Luke 22, as he's having the final meal with
his disciples, that the things that are happening to him as
the son of man are happening as it was determined, according
to God's perfect plan. Luke is also the author of the
book of Acts, and in Acts 2, he records Peter's Pentecost
sermon. And as Peter preached that first
Christian sermon, And he talked about how Jesus was crucified. He said in Acts 2, 23 of Jesus,
him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God. And so. Jesus is stressing, as
he opens the mind of the disciples again, the necessity of the suffering
of the Messiah upon the cross, his own suffering as the Messiah
upon the cross, as the fulfillment of God's perfect plan that had
been prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures. Notice also that
it is not just the necessity of his suffering and death, but
also, Jesus says that his resurrection and even the fact that it occurred
on the third day was something that had been prophesied in the
Old Testament scriptures. It's interesting when we look
in first Corinthians 15, a passage we've gone back to several times
in the account of particularly the resurrection, the appearances
of Jesus. When Paul summarized there the gospel in first Corinthians
15 verses three and following, he says, I preach to you that
which I received, that Christ died for our sins, according
to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again
the third day, according to the scriptures, even his resurrection
and even his resurrection happening on the third day. was something
that was prophesied in the scriptures. We sometimes sometimes people
will stumble on the third day in the Jewish reckoning. Any
part of the day counted as a day. So Jesus was crucified. It varied
on Friday, so it touched part of that day. All of Saturday,
his body rested in the tomb. And then on Sunday, early on
Sunday morning, he was gloriously raised. Touching upon those three
days, we could say that it was on the third day that he was
gloriously raised. The most prominent place where
the prophecy of the three days that the Messiah would spend
within the grave before his resurrection. The most prominent place where
that is prophesied is in the account of Jonah being three
days in the belly of the great fish before his miraculous release. In Jonah 117, it says, And Jonah
was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
And then in Matthew chapter 12, Verse 40, Jesus had said, for
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. And so Jesus himself said what
happened to Jonah was a prophecy, was a prediction, was a foreshadowing,
was a type of what will happen to me. I will die upon the cross,
I will be three days in the belly of death. And then I will be
gloriously raised. This is something that Jesus
himself specifically prophesied about in his own right as the
great prophet, priest and king during his ministry. In Mark
8 31, Mark records, and he began to teach them that the Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and
of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three
days rise again. Likewise, in John, Chapter two,
where Jesus performs his first miracle, changing the water into
wine. And then he goes up to Jerusalem
and he does the first cleansing of the temple. And when he's
challenged on this, Jesus says to those who are challenging
him, destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise
it up. And of course, they misunderstand
and think that he's talking about the temple environs there. in
Jerusalem, the old temple of Solomon that had been rebuilt
during the restoration and the temple that Herod had restored.
But he wasn't talking about that temple. He was talking about
the temple of his body. Now then, with verse 47, after
Jesus has again opened their minds to understand that his
death and his resurrection on the third day came as the fulfillment
of the Scriptures, he turns then in verse 47 also to describe
the necessity as well of the great commission of the preaching
of the gospel to the nations as part of what also flows from
what has been contained in the prophecies of the Old Testament.
Again, he's continuing to talk about what was written. What
was written? It was written that it was necessary that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Now, I want to pause for a little
bit on verse 47, and I want to ponder and meditate a little
bit on the various aspects of what Jesus says to his disciples
within this single verse. Every word or phrase in this
verse, I believe, has been providentially chosen and therefore is worthy
of our meditation. Every word in Scripture is important,
right? This is why we believe in what's called the Plenary
Verbal Inspiration Scripture. Every word is important. The
phrasings are important. And I want to I think we're led
to to to learn here something about what the church is supposed
to be doing in this age. What are we supposed to do in
light of the fact that Jesus has been crucified and raised? What are we to be doing that
repentance? and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem."
Notice first the emphasis on the means for carrying out the
Great Commission. What is the means that is emphasized
here? The means for carrying out the
Great Commission is preaching. that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
in Jerusalem. He uses the verb in Greek, keruso,
for preaching, for proclaiming, and I've given a lot of emphasis
to this in the messages on Sunday night we've been doing, where
we see what happens at Pentecost. Does Peter stand up and say,
let's put on a skit, let's put on a drama, let's arrange a cantata,
let's see if we can get the right praise music arranged. No, he
stands forward and he preaches. He speaks about the crucifixion
and the resurrection of Jesus. So there is an appointed means
that God has given and it is a man standing to proclaim God's
truth about Christ from God's Word. And I don't want to belabor
the point because I think you're in total agreement with me that
this is what God has provided. And the problem with the church
today is sometimes we have gotten bored with it. We have decided
we need more, we need to jazz things up, we need to make it
more interesting, we need to supplement. But authentic converting
of men and authentic edifying of the saints comes through Terusso. It comes through preaching, proclaiming. Again, you say that because you're
a preacher. Yes, I am a preacher. I'm not
saying anything special about preachers. Preachers are just
instruments, and sometimes we babble, and sometimes we stammer,
and sometimes we say things not exactly right, but there is a
preacher standing behind us. Every time you see a human preacher
standing, what you should think of is the real preacher is the
Holy Spirit of God, and he preaches through imperfect men, but it's
this This is the God ordained means that Jesus speaks about.
He could have said that repentance, remission of sin should be sung
in his name. Or should be acted out in his
name. Or there should be chalk drawings in his name. I don't
know. Or puppet shows or whatever else. Or there should be films
made. But no. What he says is that
it should be preached. It should be preached in his
name to the nation. Notice also the emphasis upon
the content of the proclamation. What is to be preached? And that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name
among all nations beginning in Jerusalem. What is the content
of the proclamation? The content, two things are listed. Repentance and remission of sins. The word repentance in Greek,
metanoia, means a change of heart, a change of way, a turning from
sin. And the word remission in Greek
aphasis can mean cancellation. It's used in a secular sense
when prisoners were released. There needs to be the proclamation
of repentance and remission or release of sins. The joining of these two terms,
repentance and remission of sins, is not accidental. True preaching
must balance in its content these two things. Our preaching must
demand repentance and it must announce forgiveness. Neglect
one or the other and preaching and our ministry gets out of
balance. If we preach repentance without
simultaneously announcing forgiveness What we get is legalistic preaching,
which accentuates awareness of sin and piles up guilt and makes
people feel crushed under the load of their sinfulness. But it never offers relief in
the good news of forgiveness. On the other hand, preach forgiveness
without simultaneously demanding repentance And what you get is
licentious preaching. Cheap grace preaching. This is the kind of preaching
that takes the account in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery
and it glories in Jesus saying, let he who is without sin cast
the first stone. But it never gets to the last
thing that Jesus says to the woman. Go and sin no more. So there must be in the content
of our preaching exactly what Jesus spells out here, the message
of repentance and remission of sin. Notice, then thirdly, the
manner of the proclamation. In verse forty seven, that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in his name. It's that little phrase in his
name that I think displays the manner of biblical proclamation. Jesus here speaks of himself
in the third person as the Messiah, as the Christ. Preaching of repentance
and forgiveness of sins should be done in his name. And I think
this has at least two explicit applications or meanings. First
of all, Great Commission preaching is to be done explicitly in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is to be done explicitly in his
name. In this sense, I think his words
here to be taken quite literally. That we are to speak about Jesus
in our preaching. You say, that's a no brainer,
Jeff. Well, maybe not so much. How many times have you heard
about missions and activities, Christian activities, that focus
merely on mercy ministry and compassion ministry that should
be undertaken by Christians. Building schools and hospitals,
teaching minds, feeding bodies. And there is a place, there is
a place in Christian ministry for doing good to all men, as
Paul puts it in Galatians 6.10. But these things are not to be
done as a replacement for or as a substitute for explicit
preaching in the name of the crucified Christ. I'm afraid
that in many places that the crying need is not for an agriculturalist. It's not for a medical physician. It's not for a well driller.
But the crying need is for a preacher to come and speak explicitly.
about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Asian missionary K.P.U. Haman
has noted that men can go to hell with better educated minds
and healthier bodies. And he writes in one book about
how he goes into the streets of places like India and how
he has shared the gospel with destitute men, men about to die. And he's gotten down with them
beside them on their deathbeds. And he said, friend, there's
nothing, there's no medicine I can give you to help your body.
There's no money that I can give you to put into your bank account.
But I have something better to give you. I can tell you about
the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for sinners. We
must preach in his name explicitly Remember what Jesus said. What
does it profit a man who gains the whole world and yet loses
his own soul? Secondly, by this phrase in his
name, I think Jesus is saying that great commission preaching
is to be done under the authority of Jesus. Preaching in the name
of Jesus means preaching under his authority. And I think this
means that preaching is to be done that is consistent with
the doctrine which Jesus taught and with the message methods
rather which Jesus used. Jesus did not preach, for example,
a health and wealth gospel. Someone may go out and they may
preach that gospel and they might even gather a large crowd of
hearers. They might even be able to fill
a basketball stadium in a Texas town. But if this doctrine is
inconsistent with the doctrine of Jesus, he is not preaching
in his name or under his authority. He is instead preaching in his
own name and under his own authority. We talked about the means and
the content and the manner. Fourthly, notice in verse 47
the audience that Jesus speaks about for Great Commission preaching.
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations. Among all nations. Here is where what Luke records
sounds very much like what Matthew records in Matthew 28, 19 and
20. teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to obey all the things that I have commanded
you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
This furthers the announcement that was made at the beginning
of Luke's Gospel, an account that will be read undoubtedly
in the next month on various Christmas occasions, but in Luke
2.10, the angels had announced to the shepherds, fear not, For
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be
to all people." And we have that announcement in Luke 2, and now
at the very end of the gospel, like a bookend, we have Jesus
telling the apostles, go and preach repentance and forgiveness
in my name among all nations. Our nation watched this week
those scenes of destruction in Ferguson, Missouri, and we can
see them certainly as vivid examples of sin which overflow from ethnic
divisions and rivalries. And we are reminded, once again,
as if we needed it, that there's only one solution for ethnic
division. You have to laugh sometimes through
tears when you see some of these liberal-minded progressives who
think we can solve these problems through having more seminars,
more education, more programs and so forth. No, you will not. There's only one real solution
that heals ethnic divisions, and it is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jesus said we are to preach this
gospel among all nations. The word in Greek for nation
is ethnos, the root for our word ethnic, the English word ethnic.
We are to preach the gospel among all the nations, among all ethnic
groups. Missionaries today don't talk
about going to countries, but they talk about going to people
groups, groups that are defined by their culture, by their language.
We are to preach the gospel among all nations. The Christian message
is not universalism. The false view that all men will
be saved regardless of their response to Christ. But it is
universal. It is directed to all men. And I use men there inclusively,
men and women, young and old. Notice finally, then the last
thing that Jesus says in verse 47. Beginning at Jerusalem. So, he's talking to the apostles,
he's telling them it's a fulfillment of scripture that the Messiah
has suffered, that he has been raised. It is a fulfillment of
scripture that you would go out and preach repentance, remission
of sins, in my name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And here he's telling these initial
disciples, the initial apostles, the founding apostles, that they
are to wait within Jerusalem. We get more detail on this in
verse 49, as he says to them, Behold, I send the promise of
my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until
ye be endued with power from on high. And if you've been coming
on Sunday evenings and you know the series we're doing through
Acts, we have seen there how The plan that Jesus speaks about
here is unveiled at Pentecost. And as the disciples, about 120
of them, are in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit is poured out. And
it's Pentecost. It's 50 days after Passover. There are men from many nations,
Jews and proselytes who are in Jerusalem. The Spirit is poured
out. And in an extraordinary, not
to be repeated over and over again, but an extraordinary display
of God's power, those original apostles and other disciples
were allowed to speak in languages that could be understood by these
men from the nations. So here Jesus is telling them,
you are to preach repentance, remission of sins in my memorial
nations, but you are to wait in Jerusalem until I give you
the Holy Spirit to empower you to do this. One commentator,
Leon Morris, notes the significance of this command by saying the
following. The disciples are not to attempt
the task of evangelism with their own meager resources, but are
to await the coming of the Spirit. And I think just that last little
phrase, beginning at Jerusalem, is just a reminder to the disciples
They are not to try to do this in their own power. They will
be completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit for anything
that they will be able to do or to accomplish that has any
lasting value. We then might conclude that this
last phrase addresses the resources upon which the disciples were
to rely in pursuing the Great Commission. Think back for a
second on what we've learned thus far from verse 47. What
Jesus taught the original apostles, and that then becomes a birthright
that's given to the church today. The disciples were to use the
right means, preaching. In proclaiming the right content,
repentance and remission of sins. In the right manner, explicitly
in his name. and under his authority, to the
right audience, all nations, and with the right resources,
God's power given through the Holy Spirit and not their own
power. And consider again that all this
is said in the context of what Jesus has opened the minds of
the Apostles to understand about the Old Testament Scriptures.
What was in the shadow in the Old Testament prophecies is now
being brought into the light in the ministry of our Lord Jesus
Christ and in the ministry of the Apostles that is stretching
now beyond. The Scriptures not only prophesied
the death and the resurrection of Christ, but they also prophesied
the Great Commission. Where, you might ask, in the
Old Testament Scriptures, do we have prophecies of the Great
Commission? Well, there are many. Let me
just point to a couple. We can look, for example, at
Psalm 2, verse 8, where David writes, Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen, or the Gentiles, or the nations, for
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It imagines a conversation between
God the Father and God the Son. Ask of me and I will give you
the nations. It's interesting if you read
Psalm 2 and Psalm 2 is often taken as a missions psalm. It's interesting in verse 9.
David writes, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. We should
be careful about taking just verse 8, because in context,
David was talking about give the nations to me as a king,
and then I will smash them because of their idolatry, because of
their rebellions. But now, seeing that Jesus has
opened our minds, now seeing in the light of the gospel, we
see that this psalm is about a God who gives to his son the
peoples, not to smash them and not to break them, but to embrace
them and to heal them and to put them together and to restore
them. Ask of me and I will give you
the heathen. Or think about in Isaiah chapter
2, verses 2 and following, the prophet writes that it shall
come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established in the top of the mountains and
shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into
it. And many people shall go and
say, Come ye and let us go up into the mountain of the Lord
to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways
and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth
the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall
judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall
beat their swords into plowshares. and their spears into pruning
hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword
against nation. Neither shall they learn war
anymore. Isaiah said one day, one day,
the mountain of the Lord's house, his temple will be on the top
of the mountains. And all the nations will come
to him. I wonder how people before the
coming of Jesus How do they understand that passage? But now that Jesus
has come, it makes perfect sense. One day, all nations, people
of all nations will be drawn to him and they will come and
the enmities that they've known because of sin will be wiped
away and all nations will come and worship before him. What
about what Isaiah said in Isaiah 60 verses 1 and 2? On to verse
3. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people. But the Lord shall rise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles,
the nations, shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness
of thy rising. Jesus opened their minds to see
that the Scriptures have predicted not only that the Christ had
to suffer and that he would rise again the third day, but also
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And then he says in verse 48,
and ye are witnesses of these things, you may know that the
word Witnesses in Greek is martires, the root for our English word
martyr, one who dies for the faith as a public witness. And
indeed, it's interesting as Jesus says this to the apostles, you
will be witnesses of these things. We know from the historical record
that many of those men did die as martyrs. The one we know of
for sure, recorded in the scriptures in Acts 12, The first of the
apostles to die as a martyr would be James, who would die at the
point of a sword inflicted by Herod. You will be witnesses,
you will be martyrs for these things. What did the apostles
do as Jesus instructed them? Let's just look at one example
that Luke also records. Look over in Acts 17 for just
a moment, and this is a record not of one of the original apostles,
but the apostle Paul, who became, who called himself the least
of the apostles, one who didn't become an apostle until after
the ascension of Jesus, when the risen Jesus appeared to him
on the road to Damascus. But we get this description of
what Paul preached. And if you look at Acts 17, the
opening four verses, it records how Paul goes to a city called
Thessalonica. We know that later he'll write
two letters to the church that develops there, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. And he goes to a place in Thessalonica
where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And listen to verse
2. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three
sabbaths reasoned with them out of the scriptures. So what did
Paul do? He opened the scriptures. And
then look at verse 3, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered and risen again from the dead. And that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is Christ. And then the response, and some
of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the
devout Greeks, the nations, a great multitude, and of the chief women,
not a few. What did they do? Well, they
did what Jesus told them to do. They went out and they preached
repentance. and forgiveness of sins, preaching
that Jesus, the Christ, had to suffer, but also that he had
been gloriously raised. And they preached it to Jews
and Gentiles, and they beckoned them to come and to believe in
Christ. Friends is our application today.
We're not going to make it to the last scene of the Ascension. We'll have to be next Lord's
Day. But as we reflect on what we have to learn from this today. I think let's go back to verse
47. I just meditate on this verse
for just a few seconds with me. How might we apply verse 47 to
ourselves corporately as a church? Sometimes the applications we
come to are very personal applications relating to our sanctification
or to battling sin in our lives It might be practical application
for our family and so forth, but this is a corporate application
to us as a church. And I think we could just go
through verse 47, and we should examine what we're doing as a
church from these words. Here are the type of questions
we might ask. First of all, are we relying
upon purely biblical means in the exercise of our ministry?
In particular, do we trust in the simple preaching of God's
Word to convert sinners and to edify the saints? Are we trusting wholly in biblical
means? Second, we might examine ourselves
corporately and we might ask, are we promoting a biblical message? Are we calling for repentance?
and proclaiming forgiveness of sins, are we preaching a balanced
gospel? It's so easy to fall on one side
or the other to preach a legalistic gospel, to crush people under
the weight of their guilt. Unfortunately, in our culture,
it's even easier never to call for any change. Never to call
for repentance, never to call for returning from sin, but instead
to to offer a cheap grace. To preach forgiveness without
repentance and without change. Are we preaching a biblical,
balanced gospel in obedience to what Jesus taught the apostles? Third, are we ministering in
the name of Jesus? Are we speaking explicitly enough
about him and do we strive to be under his authority and to
have our doctrine match with his? Fourth, are we aware of
the universal scope of the gospel? Do we understand that the gospel
is not just for the furtherance of our own personal spiritual
peace and prosperity or for the spiritual peace and prosperity
of my family, but it is a message for the nations. And then finally, we might ask,
upon whose resources are we relying? Once someone has quipped that
the Holy Spirit could be removed from the church, it could go
on weeks and months and never notice the Spirit's absence,
of course nothing would be accomplished. Are we relying upon our own resources? Or are we waiting upon the Holy
Spirit? Are we acknowledging our total,
total reliance upon the Holy Spirit to do anything of any
lasting significance, spiritual significance? In our own power? or in the power of the Spirit.
Friends, let us meditate upon this. Let us strive. Let us strive
to be obedient to the commands that Jesus has given to us through
his word. Amen. Amen. Let me invite you
to stand together. Let's pray. Gracious God, we
do thank you for These scriptures, we thank you for this miraculous
way in which we can be transported and we can be in that upper room
and we can we can hear Christ himself speaking to Peter and
James and John and to Cleopas and other disciples that may
have been in the room that weren't part of the twelve. And we can
also hear how it's being spoken to us. Father, I pray first,
if there are some here who are not believers and who are filled
with doubt and uncertainty, that you would open their minds to
be able to understand the scriptures, that they would be convinced,
first of all, of the truth of the scriptures, and they would
be convinced of how the scriptures give witness to Christ in every
part, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and how
they speak of the necessity of his suffering for our sins. And
they speak of his resurrection from the dead on the third day.
And then, Father, I pray that that you would further open the
minds of those of us who are believers to understand how that
we as the church today preaching the gospel and announcing repentance
and forgiveness of sins, we are fulfilling what the scriptures
have spoken about. And we are to be obedient to
what Christ has commanded. If there are areas in which we
have weaknesses, in which there is disobedience and failure,
I pray that you would strengthen weak knees, that you would give
us a resolve to be a more faithful church, a more faithful bride
of Christ. And so, Father, watch over us
and guide us in the ways that we should go. We ask this in
Christ's name. Amen.
Preaching in his name among all nations
Series Gospel of Luke Series
| Sermon ID | 1130141747491 |
| Duration | 51:18 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Luke 24:44-48 |
| Language | English |
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