Easter Sunday

Luke 24

Divided into a few sections:

• The Empty tomb
• The road to Emmaus
• Jesus appears to disciples
• The Ascension.

We’ll be focussing on Jesus appearing to his disciples / They’re frightened, they’re startled / imagine how you would feel / If you had seen someone who you thought was dead.

So Jesus shows them that he’s not a ghost / He shows them that he’s real / He shows them his hands / He shows them his feet / He lets them physically touch his flesh / So that they can know that he’s not a ghost / He even eats in front of them.

And then in verse 44 he says something very interesting to them.

Vs 44. “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.”

In other words. I told you about this. I told you that I’ve come to fulfil the law.

I told you that I’ve come to fulfil what the prophets have said / I told you that I’ve come to fulfil the Old Testament / It’s not like God had a plan that went wrong / I better send my son /  Jesus was God’s plan all along / So Jesus had come to fulfil what the Old Testament had said.

It’s frustrating to see sometimes how the disciples didn’t seem to get it. Even though they had Jesus teaching them / And in verse 45 we read that he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

vs 46. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, (47) and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Jesus is teaching Biblical Theology here. How the Bible fits together. How Christ is central to all Scripture / Jesus could open their minds to understand the scriptures / so that they could understand the law and the prophets, and also the Psalms / Basically the Old Testament.

But also, he was reminding them of what he taught them / I’ve been with you / We’ve been spending a lot of time together over the last couple of years / I’ve told you a lot of things / Well, now all the things that I’ve told you should start making sense.

Look at verse 46 again:

vs 46. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, (47) and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (48) You are witnesses of these things. (49) I am going to send you what my father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high”.

So something big is about to happen / gospel is about to spread / Once Jesus ascends to heaven / The Holy Spirit comes, and empowers the disciples / And they go and spread the gospel / You can go and read through the book of Acts to see how it spread / There was some heavy opposition to the gospel spreading / You see some of the disciples getting persecuted by the authorities /  authorities saw this movement as a threat / the gospel was a threat / They were on the brink of a revival that was going to sweep through Jerusalem and spread through Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth / So that is what is going to be happening /

 Let’s remember what has just happened / Jesus has just risen from the dead / The disciples are scared out of their minds / Jesus alleviates their fears / He then opens their minds to the Scriptures / And specifically that he is the fulfilment of the Old Testament / And if you go back to the beginning of chapter 24 / When the women take the spices to the tomb / The stone is rolled away / Jesus’ body isn’t there / And there are 2 men in clothes that gleamed like lightning / And they say something very interesting to the women.

vs 5. . . . . “Why do you look for the living among the dead? (6) He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: (7) The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again. (8) Then they remembered His words.

We need to pay careful attention to that / Because they use the term Son of Man / In fact they refer to Jesus using this term / And this term, “Son of Man” was a term that was used in the Old Testament / One of the places we see it used is in Daniel And in Daniel chapter 7, he has this vision /  there are these 4 beasts / But there was God on the throne / Or ‘the Ancient of Days’ / And then later on in the vision he sees who he describes as “one like a Son of Man” coming with clouds of heaven / He approaches the Ancient of Days / And is led into his presence.

And Daniel chapter 7 vs 13 tells us that

7 vs 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

He is being empowered to rule / He is being sworn in / Appointed / And people from every nation, every language worships him.

Another reference to the Son of Man is Psalm 80

Psalm 80 vs 17. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

Now that it looks like that Psalm was written in the midst of Israel being invaded / If you read the Psalm you’ll see it looks like this could be the end of God’s people as a nation / But yet you have this in verse 17: Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the of man you have raised up for yourself.

I’m not sure if the Psalmist knew exactly how this was going to play out in the future / He probably didn’t know the details of how Jesus would come / But he knew there was some of kind of hope for God’s people in this Son of Man.

Daniel in His vision / knew that the Son of Man was going rule / be given authority / would take his place at God’s right hand.

So getting back to Luke 24, you’ve got these men in gleaming clothes at the tomb / Who tell the woman that Jesus isn’t there / He has risen / They then refer to the fact that what Jesus had told them is being fulfilled

look again at verse 6 of Luke 24.

Vs 6. He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: (7) The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

Just a few chapters earlier / In Luke chapter 18, Jesus takes his disciples aside and he says to them:

Luke 18 vs 31. . . . . “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. (32) He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. (33) On the third day he will rise again.” (34) The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

So let’s try and make sense of all of this / put this puzzle together

You’ve got the Old Testament passages that point to the Son of Man / And when they talk about the Son of man / They talk about the Son of man, in the form of hope / In the form of God’s appointed / or God’s anointed who will rule at God’s right hand.

And when you look at the Old Testament passages / It’s not just a case of hope for Israel / it’s eternal hope / it’s how we should be thinking amidst all the uncertainty we’re going through at the moment / In Psalm 80 and in Daniel, Israel was in times of serious uncertainty.

when you look at that Psalm 80 / Israel was going through devastation / They were being attacked by the other nations / people were being killed / They were crying to God for help  / but Israel was in a state where they would never be the same again / Who knew if things were ever going to go back to normal for them as a nation.

Also when you think of that passage that we read earlier in Daniel / Israel were exiled / no longer living in the promised land / Were things every going to be the same for them again / Was Israel as a nation ever going to be restored?

The answer is no, at least not the way they expected.

In fact part of the point that is made if you read through the book of Daniel / And you read through Daniel’s visions / Is that earthly kingdom’s come and go / But the Ancient of Days is on the throne / And his appointed king is the Son of Man.

I think we need to take that to heart / Things may never be the same again / But the risen king is on the throne / Kingdoms come and go / Dominant nations come and go / Political parties come and go / Economic success comes and goes / But God is always on the throne.

Getting back to the puzzle that we’re busy putting together / You’ve got these Old Testament passages that speak about the Son of Man / Daniel and Psalms, and there are a number of others as well / Then you’ve got Jesus referring to himself as the Son of Man / Remember the specific conversation we looked at in Luke 18 / He tells them that the Son of Man will suffer and be mocked and insulted / And  He will be killed / And on the 3^rd day he will rise again.

At that point, the disciples didn’t understand any of this / It was one of those occasions where they just didn’t get It

Then you have the death of Jesus / Then the men at the tomb, saying: “He is not here, He is risen. Remember what he told you must happen to the Son of Man” / Then you’ve got Jesus appearing to some of his followers on the road to Emmaus / Remember they don’t recognize him. / But during that conversation in verse 27 / He explains to them beginning with the Old Testament what was said concerning himself.

Then you get Jesus with His disciples. / Telling them that everything must be fulfilled about me that is written in the law of Moses and prophets. / Now remember in Luke 18. / Before his death, he said to them what must happen to the Son of Man. / Remember they didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. / Fast Forward to Luke chapter 24 vs 45

Vs 45. Then He opened up their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

And then he goes on again to explain, the Christ will die and rise again from the dead, / And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name / Not just to Israel, but to all nations.

Jesus died and rose again from the dead. / This is God’s plan for the world being fulfilled. / This is what Israel had been waiting for. / This is what the world had been waiting for. / This is what the world needs.

without the resurrection how would we have any idea that we had hope /How could we have any hope? / In the resurrection of Jesus, we see God’s plan coming to fruition / In the resurrection of Jesus / We see that it’s not all just pie in the sky / The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope beyond this life. / Because if we put our hope in this life, we are hopeless.

Peter writes to Christians who are going through a difficult time. / And as he writes his letter he gives the greatest encouragement that anybody could give anybody going through a difficult time.

If you’re overwhelmed / Thinking about life / What’s the point of all of this? / 1 Peter 1vs3 gives us hope in the midst of suffering.

Look at what Peter says:

1 Peter 1 vs 3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy He has give us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.

When you look at the resurrection of Jesus / When you look at Easter Sunday / Do you see hope? /  eternal hope./ Kingdoms come and go. / Lifetimes come and go. / But our eternal hope is found in Christ. / That’s the fulfilment of God’s plan. / The hope of the gospel.

Our hope for eternity.

It’s in Christ.

It’s in his death and resurrection.

Do you want that hope?

Listen to the message that was to be preached by the disciples.

The message of repentance and forgiveness of sins.

 

Home Group Questions:

 

• Discuss the following statement in your group: “Jesus’ death and resurrection isn’t an afterthought, but was God’s plan all along.”
• Why is it significant that Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man?
  • Read Daniel 7 vs 13 and Psalm 80 vs 17.
• Read 1 Peter 1vs4-5: What encouragement do we find in these verses?

 

 

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