2017-12-10 Luke 24:13-27 Grand Openings (3): Open Scripture (2)

GRAND OPENINGS (3): OPEN SCRIPTURE (2) (Luke 24:13-27) Date: ____________________ Read Luke 24:13-27, 32 – Here we have 2 disciples deeply disillusioned because their own leaders have killed the one they thought to be Messiah. Yet a couple of hours later, they make a jubilant late-night trip back to Jerusalem. What took them from despair to joy, and what does that have to do with us? Last week we saw the resurrected Christ change their worldview. They had been seeing life thru a naturalistic lens that knows nothing of a supernatural resurrection. Jesus was a fine fellow, but human after all, and not up to a mission of deliverance. The stranger on the road points them differently – to a worldview founded on Scripture. The issue is authority. Every life assumes some ultimate authority which decides everything. Naturalism concedes that position to human wisdom. Jesus points toward God’s Word ultimate. Human wisdom is good, but limited. Joseph Grimaldi was a famous English comedian in the early 1800’s. So when a patient complained to his doc of chronic melancholy the doc said, “You need amusement. Go and see Grimaldi; he’ll make you laugh and that will be better for you than drugs.” The patient replied, “I am Grimaldi!” Well, that’s a problem, isn’t it? If your authority is yourself, or some other person of limited scope which all people are, you’re in trouble. You need a better authority – an infallible authority. That’s what Jesus does for these two – points them to an infallible authority! He deftly turns their world upside down; He can do the same for us. How? I. He Appeals to Scripture 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! How would you have handled this situation? I bet you’d have done the same thing I would. You’d have said, “Look, guys, it’s me! See the scars. Don’t you get it? The tomb was empty because I’m alive. Take a good look!” Wouldn’t that have been the logical thing to do? Instead – Jesus preached a sermon. He interpreted the Bible for them (v. 27). The word is διερμηνευω – word hermeneutics – the science of Bible interpretation. Here’s the Living Word interpreting the written word for these poor lost souls. Why didn’t Jesus just reveal Himself? Bc He’s showing them the sufficiency of Scripture. II Tim 2:16-17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God [God’s 1 Word as authority!] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” These guys have missed the most important event in human history bc of appeal to the wrong authority – human reason which says resurrection is impossible. Why despair? Wrong authority? Why didn’t they see The Truth [Jesus] right in front of them? Wrong authority! So Jesus points them to Scripture which is sufficient wh alone can be trusted! The lesson for us is so compelling. Every answer we need is in the Book! Even the Living Word was pointing to the written Word. That ought to tell us something. We don’t need another miracle – The miracle – the death and resurrection of a Redeemer has already happened. We don’t need a shrink. They can be helpful just as a pastor or teacher can be helpful – but only if they point to the Authority, the Word. Have you discovered the sufficiency of God’s Word? If our life is a mess, the fault is not God’s. He’s given us His Word to read, study and meditate on. Whatever our issue, the Word is our answer if we will only pursue it. Scripture is sufficient. That’s Jesus’ point! Billy Graham’s grandson, Tullian Tchividjian, says: “I’ve been a pastor long enough to know when it comes to how we think about marriage, parenting, sexual orientation, finances, politics, education, and career aspirations plenty of Xns take their cues, not from the Bible, but from gurus like Tony Robbins and Peter Drucker and Oprah and Rush Limbaugh. Therapeutic techniques, marketing strategies, and entertainment often have far more influence over how we live and think, what we like and don’t like, than does the Word of God. Just like the world, we read self-help books, watch reality TV, and pay attention to the popular opinions of the day on everything from how to have the most satisfying sex life to what we should spend our money on. We absorb the values and worldview of our culture without ever asking, "What does the Bible say about this?" You want your life on track – your joy back, the Word is not optional – it’s imperative! Jesus appeals to Scripture. II. He Appeals to All of Scripture But if Scripture is your authority, you can’t cherry pick the parts you like. That landed these 2 in despair. V. 25: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” “All” is the key! These were not Bible-rejecters. They were Bible-believing, church-going believers. BUT they didn’t believe all that it said. They were all over the parts about a delivering Messiah. But a suffering and dying Messiah? Didn’t fit their expectations! So – they ignored them. They just chose the parts they liked. Sound familiar?! 2 So Jesus corrects that. 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” “Moses”, “Prophets” and “Scriptures” – the 3-fold division of the Jewish OT called the Tanakh. Torah (the first five books written by Moses), Navi’im (the prophets), and Ketuvim (“Writings” – Wisdom literature of Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). Tanakh. So, the stranger is telling these two, “How’d you miss it? This Jesus, He’s everywhere in your own Bible -- on every page. But you ignored some. By picking only what you liked, you missed what you need most!” Lewis Carroll of Alice in Wonderland fame was the son of an Anglican minister. He accepted most of the Word. But influenced by the German higher critics [human wisdom] of his day he declared that “if the Bible really teaches the doctrine of hell, I would give up the Bible!” He had no such desire to give up on the doctrine of heaven – but you can’t have it both ways, can you? When you rip the teaching of hell out of the Bible because you don’t like it, guess who your authority is? Yourself. Human wisdom. Your own deeply flawed self is now your god. Good luck with that! These guys were slow of heart because – wrong authority! Jesus is about to turn that all around. III. He Appeals to the Christ of Scripture So in preaching a sermon is Jesus hiding? No – He’s just revealing Himself in the same way we must all come to know Him – thru the Word. So He preaches a sermon. Don’t you wish you had been there for that?! He preaches Himself from the whole of the OT. We’re not told how but we can guess. Perhaps He started with Gen 3:15. Adam and Eve have fallen into sin and death. So God says to the tempter: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Adam and Eve couldn’t know how graphically this depicted the cross. But they saw a bruised redeemer would come through their seed. When God exchanged their fig leaves for animal skins they began to understand substitutionary atonement and they believed. Gen 3:20, before Eve bore a single child: “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” He believes God will do what He said. So does Eve. Gen 4:1: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” She thought she was looking at the redeemer. When Cain instead turned out to be the first murderer, Adam and Eve might have said, “If not Cain, then where is the Lamb who can deliver from sin?” And the stranger 3 on the Emmaus road tells those 2 disciples, “Do you see? Adam and Eve’s Lamb is Jesus. God has as last provided the Lamb who can take away sin.” Then Genesis 22 where Abe is asked by God to sacrifice his own son – a test of obedience. Isaac asks his father in Gen 22:7b-8: Dad, “[I see], the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb.” And so He does. Just as Abe is about to thrust the knife into his son’s heart, God stops him. Gen 22: 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide [Jehovah Jaireh]”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” So – end of the story? No! Abe doesn’t say, “Thank God He did provide.” He says, “Thank God He will provide.” He sees the lamb he sacrifices symbolizes some future real sacrifice for sin – “on the mount.” Abe and Isaac are in the land of Moriah where Jerusalem and Calvary would eventually be located – that mount! And Abe might have asked, “But where is the Lamb who can deliver from sin?” And the stranger on the Emmaus road tells these 2 disciples, “Do you see? Abe’s Lamb is Jesus. God has as last provided the Lamb who can take away sin.” Later, God sends Moses to get Israel out of captivity in Egypt. Pharaoh keeps reneging on promises to let them go, so the last plague called for the death of every firstborn in the land. But the death angel would pass if he saw the blood of a substitute lamb sprinkled on the door. Israel wondered, “But where is the Lamb who can deliver not from Egypt, but from sin?” And the stranger on the Emmaus road tells those 2 disciples, “Do you see? Israel’s Lamb is Jesus. God has as last provided the Lamb who can take away sin.” Under Moses God gave the Law. But He knew and the people knew they could not keep that law. They had broken every part of it in an orgiastic frenzy in front of the golden calf Aaron made for them before Moses even got down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. God threatened to destroy the whole lot. But Moses pleaded: Exod 32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” Basically Moses is saying, “Please forgive them if you can, Lord. But I know all sin must be paid for; and I’ve seen substitution. If you can’t just forgive them, let me cover for them. I’ll go to hell for them.” Wow. What an offer. 4 But it would not do. God provided a temporary solution of flawless lambs slain as substitutes. Moses was not flawless. Moses was a murderer. He could not be The Lamb. So Moses might have said, “But where is the Lamb who can deliver from sin?” And the stranger on the Emmaus road tells those 2 disciples, “Do you see? Moses’ Lamb is Jesus. God has as last provided the Lamb who can take away sin.” Then there’s David and his great sin with Bathsheba. God confronted and he finally repented – Psalm 51. “3) For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Then he says, “7) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Hyssop -- a little branch used attached to a piece of wood to sprinkle blood in temple ceremonies. So when David says, “Cleanse me with hyssop”, he is saying, “Cover me with the blood of an innocent substitute.” But questioned further, David would have said, “I know the blood of lambs is a symbol pointing to something greater. So where is The Lamb who can deliver from sin?” And the stranger on the Emmaus road tells those 2 disciples, “Do you see? David’s Lamb is Jesus. God has as last provided the Lamb who can take away sin.” The prophet Isa said: Isa 53:6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” He sees more clearly: “There is the lamb that by His sacrifice can take away our iniquities. But we’ve been waiting a long time now. And my question is where is the lamb that we’ve all been waiting for all these many centuries?” And the stranger on the Emmaus road tells to those 2 disciples, “Do you see? The Lamb for ALL is Jesus. God has as last provided the Lamb who can take away sin.” And perhaps He asked them, “So your friend Jesus was crucified?” “Yes.” “Killed as a criminal?” “Yes.” “So buried in a common pit with other criminals.” “Oh, no. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, gave him his tomb.” “Oh – so ‘they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death’ like Isa 53:9 says?” “Well, yes, I guess you could say that.” “Well, if that’s the case, isn’t it also possible that the rest of Isa 53 is true – like v. 10: ‘he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand’? How could that be possible unless He has been resurrected? In fact, didn’t He tell you that He would not only die but rise again?” “Yes, He did, now that you mention it.” “Then dear friends, don’t you Jesus is as John said, ‘The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the 5 world. Further, He has raised Him from the dead – and you’re missing the greatest reality of all time? It’s all here – in the Word. Don’t you see?!” Well, by this time, the hearts of these two are burning inside them. The stranger has turned their worldview upside down, from secular to Xn, and their authority from the limitations of human wisdom to the infinite wisdom of God’s Word and they are on fire! They see the pattern. Jesus’ death was not a hurdle to their redemption, but the means of a their redemption. They had thought Messiah would deliver them from suffering. Now they see He would redeem them through suffering. It wasn’t over; it was only beginning! The Word had said so all along. Jesus’ appeal to the Christ of Scripture changed their lives. And as He broke bread with them: 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.” They recognized Him the same way we will – thru the Word. Conc – So are you still on the road to Emmaus this morning, living without meaning or hope bc you don’t know the resurrected Christ? Or perhaps you know Him, but you’re still trying to run your own show. You need to re-think who’s the authority in your life. Pope John XXIII once admitted: “It often happens that I wake at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the pope.” And so are you – being your own authority until you submit to the Lord. He alone can take you from doubt and uncertainty to joy and fulfillment. Jesus challenge at the end of the sermon on the mount was exactly that: Mt 7: 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Be wise. Build on the rock of His Word. Let’s pray. 6