Alright, good morning everybody. Alright, Luke chapter 24 is where we're going to be today looking at this passage together. Not just what I read to you a moment ago, but really some of the verses after that to look at an important word that we find here in verse 7 where it says the Son of Man must. And that's kind of what I want to talk about today is that the Son of Man must rise again. We saw the things that Jesus suffered on Friday night, but we're not going to focus on those today. We're focusing on the fact today, this morning, that Jesus Christ is alive. It is probably one of the two, there's no probably to it, it is one of the two most significant events that have happened in the history of the world. The other one would be the birth of Jesus Christ. Those two are kind of like, go hand in hand with one another. But the fact that Jesus Christ rose up on the third day just like he said he was going to do, is the most significant thing in history. There's nothing else that even compares to it save the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 24, you see there in verse 7 where it says, Well, verse 6 and 7, He is not here, but is risen. Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. Let's go, Lord, one more time in prayer before we look at this today. God, thank you. You're the one who orchestrated all of this. From before the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who was slain. And Father, we just praise your name today. What can we do but just praise you for your for your wisdom, Lord, for your righteousness and God, for your justice and for your love and for your kindness and for your mercy and God, for your holiness. We thank you, God, for all of these characteristics about yourself that have been displayed and are continually preached. because of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead. We rejoice in that today. And I pray now, Father, as we look into Your Word, let us see what is here. See it, Lord, not with the physical eyes that we are able to view the words on the page, but please, God, let us see it with the spiritual eyes that we must have. And let us hear it with the spiritual ears that we must hear with. if we'll be transformed. We love you, God, because you first loved us and we're grateful today. In Jesus' name, amen. So this is a big deal because the reality is, as Paul said in the scriptures, that if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, then we have no hope in the life beyond this one. And we are, of all men, the most pitiable. But yet Christ has risen from the dead. And we saw here in Luke 24, in those two verses, that He said that this was going to happen. Luke chapter 9 verse 22, you can see it, that Jesus said there to the disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. In Luke chapter 18, 32 and 33, He told them, that he will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge him and kill him, and the third day he will rise again. So Jesus did just like he said, and it was necessary. As I was preparing this this week, I looked at that word must, The Son of Man must be delivered. These things must happen to Him. And I began to ask myself the question, why? Why must this happen? Why did this have to happen to Jesus Christ? And rather than run all over the Bible to try to find answers to that question, I stayed right here in the chapter. And that's what we're going to do today. You kind of know how this goes in chapter 24. Later on, Jesus appears to two of the disciples, not two of the eleven, but two other disciples, who were walking on the road to Emmaus. He appeared to them, and He did not reveal Himself to them. The Bible says that their eyes were restrained, in verse 16, so that they couldn't tell who He was. And He talked to them about all the events that had happened, and they reflected about the women coming and saying that the tomb was empty, that He had been raised, or that He was not there. And that there was a report that they had seen angels, and that they said that He was risen. You pick up in verse 25. This is Jesus speaking to them, and in verse 25 it says, Then He said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So I want to give you six reasons this morning. Y'all feel like writing? Is it too early to write? All right, maybe that'll help keep some of us awake a little bit. Number one, God's will must be done in verses 25 through 27. You see, Jesus goes here to the Old Testament prophets and he says that everything, he says in verse 26, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and then beginning at Moses and all the prophets. So apparently, this was the will of God. that Christ would do just what He has done, and the will of God was revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. That's the first point. The second one is this. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. You can go over to verse 44, and you can see here in verse 44 that Jesus said, Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me." So you see there that Jesus said, middle ways, that all things must be fulfilled. There was no plan B. There was no other option. It absolutely had to be done. And again, This passage tells us that these things were written about in the Old Testament Scriptures. The third reason that we're going to see in this text is found in verse 47. As we continue to work through this, in verse 45 it says, He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the 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 to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. All right, so all of the Old Testament scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Christ. It was necessary that Christ suffer and rise from the dead, and he tells us here And that repentance and remission of sins. So you see, it was God's will as revealed in scripture that the gospel go to all nations, that it not just be for the Jews, for the Israelites, but that it be something that goes to all the nations. That way, you know, gathered around the throne of God is going to be people from every tongue, tribe, people and nation. because they've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And if it's necessary, it must happen. Now, the fourth point is this. Witnesses must go and tell. If you look at verse 48, and you are witnesses of these things. The God-ordained means through which the gospel goes out has not changed. It still goes out through people speaking it. through people talking about what Jesus has done. People talking about what they have seen and heard now, it is by faith. For them, it was those who saw the resurrected Christ. They heard Him alive from the dead speaking, and they went and told. Let's pause there for just a second, if you'd go back and look at verse 36. I want to give you here four proofs from this text that Jesus Christ was alive. All right? Verse 36. Now, as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace to you. So there's two proofs here. Number one, the physical person, Jesus Christ, was standing in the midst of the church. Number two is he spoke to them. He was someone who was there physically. And number two, he was someone who was speaking. Those are two infallible proofs. All right? Let's keep going. Verse 37. It says, And they were terrified and frightened, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Proof number three, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead were the marks that were in his body. Not only did they see someone standing there, they thought it was a spirit, and not only did they hear someone speaking to them, But they saw in the body of Jesus the marks from the cross. Now let's go to the next verse, verse 41. But while they still did not believe for joy, it's almost like they were saying, this is too good to be true. They couldn't believe it and marveled. He said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took it and ate it in their presence. What's proof number four? He ate. He ate food right there in front of them. Four infallible proofs from this text that Jesus Christ really was alive. That's why it's important that he was seen so that others could go and tell. Let's go to our next point. Number five is this. The Spirit must be sent. In verse 49, He tells the disciples, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. So the Spirit of God would be sent to the church. We're going to see this happen. We're going to go to the chapter where this happens in just a moment. But just very quickly, we must understand that the necessity of the Spirit, why didn't Jesus just stay? Well, Jesus in His physical body was somewhat limited in His location. But when the Spirit of God would come and indwell believers, the presence of Christ would be all over the world through believers as they preach the gospel of Christ and live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only that is the Spirit our helper as we learn in John 16, that spirit that will come along beside and help us live out the Christian life, but we see also that the Spirit in John 16 will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So the Spirit's working in us believers, but He's also then convicting the world as the gospel is preached. Convicting them of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Number six is this, Christ must be exalted. We saw in verse 26 that it says, Jesus saying to those two disciples, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory, enter into his glory. And then in verse 50, we're really jumping ahead now 50 days, 40 days, 40 days. But in verse 50 it says, And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while he blessed them, that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy." The exaltation of Christ. Christ must be exalted. In order for Him to go and sit at the right hand of the Father, to ascend up into heaven, Jesus Christ had to rise from the dead. And He did that. So, six things, six reasons why the Son of Man must rise again. It's that God's will would be done. It's so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. It's so that salvation would be offered to all nations. It's so that witnesses would go and tell that they've seen a risen Christ. It's so that the Spirit of God would be sent. And it's so that Christ would be exalted. Now I want to ask you to fast forward with me to Acts chapter 2. Because in Acts chapter 2, I just couldn't get away from this chapter as I was preparing for this weekend. And in Acts chapter 2, what I want to do is kind of run through this over the next few minutes and see how these same themes, these exact same themes, come up here in Acts 2. The same things that we've seen here. And the second set of parentheses covers the verses that go with each point from Acts chapter 2. Like at point 1 there, God's will must be done. We're going to see that in verses 22 through 24 of Acts chapter 2. Does that make sense? Y'all with me? Alright, so y'all know what happens here in Acts 2. The church is gathered together praying. About 120 of them. And the Spirit of God comes and really shakes the place. It's called Pentecost. They were there on the day of Pentecost. And this would have been 50 days after Passover. Passover is when Christ was crucified. Now, Jesus was with the disciples off and on for 40 days. And he was speaking to them, we learn in Acts chapter 1, he was speaking to them about things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Alright, so after 40 days, Jesus ascended up into heaven. So there's this 10 day buffer here where they did not have any interactions with Christ. But on that 50th day, Pentecost is 50 days after Passover, the spirit of God comes. And the Bible gives the picture there that they were like cloven tongues of fire sitting over each one of the disciples. And they began to speak in different languages. Because at Pentecost, that was one of the three holidays where Jewish men were to return to Jerusalem to worship. I think the other two are the Feast of Tabernacles and Passover. Pentecost was the third one. Well, there's people from all over the world who were gathered there right now to worship God at Pentecost. And they come there speaking their native language. They were not reared in Jerusalem, so they have a native language from their country that they speak. So they come there and they are there and during Pentecost the Spirit comes and the disciples are speaking in different languages. So these people from all over the world are hearing the wonderful works of God in their own tongue. It would have been an amazing event. And it's at this time that Peter preaches the first gospel sermon in the church. He preaches and a magnificent thing is going to happen. Many are going to be converted on this day. About 3,000 are going to be baptized. Now, what we'll do here is pick up verse 22 and we're going to see these points that I just discussed with you. The first one is God's will being done. Verse 22 through 24, it says this, Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. So the Old Testament spoke about these things. And now the Bible tells us here that what happened to Jesus was according to the determined purpose and the foreknowledge of God, all of His sufferings. And then, that having happened, the Bible tells us here that God raised Him up. And He raised Him up and loosed Him from these pains of death. Why? Verse 24. Because it was not possible that He should be held by it. Jesus could not stay in the grave. Because He didn't deserve to be put in the grave to begin with. The wages of sin is death. Jesus did not sin. Jesus suffered on that cross because of our sins. So therefore, it was impossible that he would stay in the grave as the sinless Son of God. Therefore, he came out of the grave alive from the dead, just as the Word of God in the Old Testament said that he would. The second point in verses 16, 25, and 34. I'm not going to read all of these verses in between here, but if you see verse 16, Peter in his first sermon, this goes with our second point, the scriptures must be fulfilled. Peter said, but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And there he begins to talk about the Holy Spirit coming from Joel 2. Then you go down to verse 25. And here it says, for David says concerning him. Again, this is an Old Testament quote. And I'll just read one excerpt from this, verse 27. It says, therefore, you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You make me full of joy in your presence. Let's slow down here for just a second and understand what's being said. Verse 27 and 28, David is writing this or saying this, but it's Christ who says in verse 27, For you will not leave my soul in Hades. Jesus is the my here. Nor will you allow your Holy One, Jesus is the Holy One, to see corruption. So the Scriptures had to be fulfilled. This was a quote from Psalm 16, verses 8-11. Now, if you'll jump over with me to verse 34. In verse 34 again we see a quote from David, this time from Psalm 110 verse 1. It says, For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Alright, so these are three places from the Old Testament that Peter quotes in his defense for the person of Christ and the resurrection of Christ and for the outpouring of the Spirit that would come. Alright? Now let's go to the next point. Salvation must be offered to all nations. Here we'll see this in verses 46, let's see, verse 21, verse 21. And verse 39. I'm getting the parentheses confused. Verse 21 and verse 39. At the end of this passage from Joel, notice what he says. This promise of the Spirit coming in verse 21, it says, And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Alright? Whoever calls. Doesn't matter what corner of the earth you're from, whoever calls on the name of the Lord. Now go to verse 39. In verse 39 the Bible says there, For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. So, salvation must be offered to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And it did start at Jerusalem, right here in Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost. But it didn't stay there and it wasn't limited to Jerusalem. It would be preached to all nations. Jesus said in Luke 24 that repentance and remission of sins must be preached in His name to all nations. And so it started. Now, in verse 32, we see that the witnesses would go and tell. And that's what the disciples are saying here. In verse 32, they proclaim, saying, This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Now, the next point, the Spirit must be sent, is found in verse 33. Acts chapter 2, it says, Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. So the Son of God ascends up into heaven, sits at the right hand of God, receives from the Father the promise of the Spirit, and Christ pours out upon the church the Spirit of God, the things that they had just seen there in Acts chapter 2. The cloven tongues of fire, the languages from all over the world, hearing about the wonderful works of God, the preaching of the Gospel, empowered by the Spirit, They received those things, they saw these things because the Spirit of God was poured out. Now, the sixth point that we see here, again from Acts chapter 2, that is like what we saw in Luke 24, is found in verses 34 through 36. Christ must be exalted. Here's what it says, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, the exaltation of Jesus. They viewed his ascension up into heaven and all that has happened as proof that God has made Jesus Lord and Christ. Now let's go to six results. Let's go to six results from this text that we'll see here today in the next few minutes that we have together. Number one in these six results is this. God is known. So all this has happened, these six reasons that we seem to be seeing here. I would have loved to have had seven, but I could only come up with six from the text. But God is known. Have you ever thought about how little you would know about God if Jesus hadn't have accomplished what he did on the cross and rose again on the third day? Even if he would have just stayed dead in the tomb, you might go there and worship a man's bones and say, what a great teacher he was. What a wonderful rabbi he was. What wonderful things he did. You might go there because people go and worship dead bones all the time. One time when I was in China on a mission trip, we went into a Buddhist monastery. And there, in that monastery, there was a glass box that had the bones of one of the priests that had died a long time before. And people would come by and pay homage to those bones and honor them. Not us. There may be people who go to Jerusalem and go by a cave where they think that Jesus was buried and that's fine. I wouldn't mind seeing that myself. But we don't go there and worship a man in that place. We worship Jesus Christ because He lives forevermore right now. And we worship Him as our risen Savior. And it's not limited to any location. Because those who worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And because of Jesus' resurrection, we absolutely can and we do that. We worship Him anywhere, anytime, and we worship Him because of who He truly is. God is known because of Jesus' resurrection. Not just like when he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and his fame was known. Or when the Babylonian captivity was over and they were sent back to Jerusalem. Not like David defeating Goliath or Daniel in the lion's den. This is a truth that radically impacts our lives so that we know God in His mercy, in His grace, and in His love in a way that we would have never known it otherwise. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 1 that the angels desire to look into what we get to experience and what we get to know about God. They long to look into it. Salvation, where we become sons and daughters of God. We know Him. The second thing that we see here from this is that the Scriptures are true. Those things that were said about Christ in the Old Testament happened in the life of Jesus. The scriptures are true. You can count on them. Proof is found in them of the resurrection of Jesus. God will make good on His word, either in salvation or in damnation for those who reject the gospel. Number three, salvation is possible for whoever calls. This is good news. It's a wonderful promise in Scripture. Some of you today may not be saved because you never called on the Lord in faith. The Bible tells us here in Acts 2, the Bible tells us in Luke 24 that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name to all nations for whoever calls on the name of the Lord. That promise is for you. That promise is for us. You don't need to complicate it. It's laid out very clearly. You can leave behind your self-righteousness and works and cling to the finished work of Jesus Christ. You can do that or you will surely perish in your sins. Because Jesus said, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. Unless you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who gave His life on the cross and rose again on the third day, you will. The fourth thing that we see here is that gospel preaching is powerful as we tell. Not only are witnesses sent, Witnesses sent to go and speak about what they have seen and heard. But as those witnesses go and speak of what they've seen and heard, we see in Acts chapter 2 that there was a multitude that was saved. And it's still true today that we go and preach the gospel because through that foolishness of the message preached, Christ saved sinners. That's the promise that we see. And what's the call for everybody? Faith and repentance. In that you get remission of sins. Forgiveness of your sins. See, the wages of sin is death, but it does not have to be. It does not have to be for you. It does not have to be for us. It does not have to be for those who hear the gospel. and believe it, because through that faith in the gospel of Christ, we have forgiveness of our sins. It's an amazingly beautiful truth. The fifth thing that we see here is that the promise of the Spirit is real. The promise of the Spirit is real. That promise was given in the Gospels, it was poured out in the book of Acts, and there was a transformation that took place. I want you to think about these disciples. When it came to the cross, they were cowards. None of them were trying to fight for Jesus and get him off that cross. And afterwards, they were in complete despair. They didn't know what was going on. They didn't know what to do. They were perplexed about everything that they saw on Sunday morning, that resurrection Sunday morning. But now, 50 days later, Peter is standing up in front of at least some of the people who yelled that Jesus, crucify him, crucify him. But now he's boldly proclaiming that this Jesus Christ, he is the Lord and Christ of God. The only explanation for this, and the only explanation for what the church did from that point on, is the Spirit of God indwelling them. And them seeing, having seen what, who Christ is and what he has done. The sixth point is this. The exalted Christ sits as Lord and Christ. Now, you see this in verse 36. It says, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Why did Peter use those terms? Now, if you'll flip back, in verses 25 through 28, this is where we see the Lord part, and Christ, and then we'll see it here in verses 34 and 35. He's made Him both Lord and Christ. So in other words, He's made Him Master, He is Lord of Lords, He is the Ruler, alright? He deserves our allegiance. The second part, he is Christ. He's made him the anointed one. All these Old Testament passages speak about it. Christ came and fulfilled it. Now, let's look at verse 25. For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence. Verse 29. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. Brethren, this morning, Peter interpreted what was found in verses 25 through 28 as though David was prophetically speaking about the Lord and about Christ who would come from His body as it was promised to him. And then in verses 34 and 35, again, David says, For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord, Yahweh God, said to my Lord, that's somebody besides David, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. In both of these passages, in 34-35, we see the Lord. In the first passage, we see clearly the Christ that was promised in the Old Testament. And Peter says here that he has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. So the one that the Jews were looking for is found in Jesus. And the one that you and I are looking for and need is found in Jesus Christ, the response is found in thirty seven and thirty eight. These these people, these men there heard what had happened and they called out to Peter and they said, men and brethren, what must we do? And here's what Peter said. repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You see, it wasn't just limited to the disciples. It was limited to every person who, through faith, and repentance, trusting in Jesus Christ, they would receive the remission or the forgiveness of their sins and the promise of the Spirit. All this is almost too good to be true. That Jesus did all of this, that He accomplished it. But I hope today that you realize that this all starts, salvation all begins with hearing the word of God and believing it. Now, you're not going to understand your way into it. You're not going to sit there and say, well, I just don't understand how election and predestination and salvation, how all that works together. So I'm just not ready to make a move yet. And I probably won't until I until I figure this stuff out. Do you know exactly how your car works? Like exactly? You can figure everything out on that. You still get in and drive it, don't you? or ride in it if you don't have your license yet. Do you understand how God uses food to keep you alive, food and water? Do you understand all the intricacies of that, all the medical stuff and science behind it? Even if you don't understand it, you still get a plate full of food and eat it, right? Oh, by the way, we've got breakfast over there here in just a little while. Y'all ready to go eat? Do y'all believe me that there's food over there? How many of y'all looking forward to going and eating some food here in just a moment? All right, about a third of you. Seriously, y'all looking forward to going? Go ahead and raise your hand if you are. Y'all believe me that there's food over there? Did anybody in here help cook the food? Clay, Christopher, Aaron. All right, can you guys testify that there's food over there? As far as you know, there's food over there, right? Unless a bandit came in and swiped it in the last 45 minutes and it's all gone. All right? Did anybody help set up tables and chairs? Anybody? All right. So as far as y'all know, there's an event planned over there where we're going to get together and eat some food. Is that correct? So everybody here, I hope, is going to join us. Why? Because you believe there's going to be food over there. Boy, I hope there's food over there by the time this is over with. So you're going to tell me that you're going to believe a sinful man like me, that there's food over there, but you're not going to believe the God who created you, that He gave His Son to die on the cross, and He proved it? You won't believe the message that He gives of eternal life? You see, it makes no sense that we would believe some of the things that we believe in this life, but yet reject the good news of Jesus Christ, who died, was buried and rose again. And it must happen. And it did happen. And it's good news today. I hope that you trust Christ today. Let's pray together. Then we're going to conclude our time with two songs. Father, I thank you for the truth of your word today. And Lord, thank you, God, that Jesus must do these things. The Son of Man must have done these things, and he did them. And we are grateful, God, for all that you are doing, have done, and are going to do through the powerful message of the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.