Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAY

INTRO: Excitement without direction is unhelpful, even dangerous.

(like dynamite without a carefully prescribed use)

Direction with equipping is useless.

(Go level this huge hill so we can build here.

- With what, our fingernails?)

Then even with clear direction and plentiful provision, the workers need frequent reassurance that they are aligned with the right objective.

(frequent confirmation & communication to review the command of Christ in Scripture)

As Jesus departs from his disciples, he offers them all the confirmation they need.

That same assurance and clear direction and provision are available to us as well.

Last time in these same verses (beginning at v. 36) we emphasized reassurance.

There is a clear focus in Luke’s account on the reality of the resurrection and how it fits in God’s plan.

Here’s a quick summary of our previous study:

Review: All the Reassurance We Need

Proofs of Physical Resurrection (vv.

36-43)

In vv.

36-43, Jesus offers them proof that, although he has a glorified body, it is a physical one.

They can touch him and see the scars.

He also eats some fish to reinforce the point.

Not only would you not be able to touch an apparition, but a spirit would not eat.

Jesus physically rose from the dead before ascending again to heaven.

Scripture Reveals God’s Perfect Plan - Christ’s Suffering & Vindication + Gospel Proclamation (vv.

44-47)

In vv.

44-47, Jesus opens their minds to understand clearly from the Scriptures that his crucifixion and resurrection was God’s plan and that this message now becomes their purpose.

Important four our study today still too is that, from Scripture, Jesus says that their witness to the meaning of Christ’s work is also part of God’s plan.

We spent most of our time in vv.

36-46, but then briefly also noted how that confirmation (that reassurance) is still important as the passage continues.

But now as our exposition shifts to vv. 47-53, the primary emphasis also shifts slightly from confirmation to commission.

As we continue today, this is what I think Luke wants you to know: Not only does the resurrected Lord give us all the assurance we need, he also gives us all the direction we need, and all the provision we need, so that we can trust that Christ is at work on our behalf and that we can worship him and obey him with joy and praise.

[transition]

All the Direction We Need: The Commission

As Jesus opens their minds and instructs them (vv.

44-47), he demonstrates from the Scriptures that this was God’s plan, highlighting three elements: His suffering (crucifixion) , his resurrection, and the proclamation to all the nations of repentance in his name for forgiveness of sins.

The transition comes in the latter part of this instruction, where he is both explaining (that God’s plan for their proclamation of the gospel is revealed in Scripture), and he is at the same time commissioning them to do it.

(vv.

47-48)

Let’s look first at the statement in v. 48 and then go back to what they are intended to preach (to proclaim, to tell others).

You Are Witnesses

We can rightly call this simple statement a commission by connecting it to the early part of Acts, where the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts have clear overlap.

The Luke-Acts commission also broadly parallels the succinct commission recorded by Matthew (quoting something Jesus had said to his disciples at a post-resurrection appearance in Galilee, sometime during this 40-day period after the resurrection):

That is probably one of the most well-known texts to NT Christians (people of faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ), and for good reason.

Those are our clear marching orders.

***

In our text in Luke 24, What is it that they are witnesses of?

What are they proclaiming?

(back to v. 47)

Gospel Proclamation

That Christ died for sin and rose again on the third day, and that his work (his atoning sacrifice and vindicating resurrection) provides forgiveness for those who repent AND reveals his true identity as supreme Lord.

The Scriptures revealed that this was God’s plan, and Jesus says it is the way by which men can be restored to God.

Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is what makes possible “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Repentance means to have a change of heart and mind, abandoning former dispositions (sin which you now regret) and turning toward a new way (that does not depend on self and sin, but on God’s grace).

That’s why repentance is such an integral part of faith in Jesus.

One can’t genuinely have faith in God through Jesus Christ if they still love their sin or think that they can achieve rightness with God by their own self-worth or self-work.

Forgiveness of sin comes to the one who by faith rejects sin and self and turns to Jesus.

Furthermore, salvation is also only possible “in his name”: the Lord Jesus Christ.

The significance of his name is not like saying his name is magic.

No, it means trusting in his person.

And what person is that?

The second person of the God-head, God the Son, who became a real man (Jesus of Nazareth), but not just any man: the promised Messiah (the Christ).

This same one who was already fully God also completed the perfect work of God by his obedience in sacrificial love for the good of others to the glory of God, and therefore… Php 2:9-11

Jesus Christ is… Lord (Paul declared that Jesus’ obedient sacrifice and vindication and glorification reveals his true identity).

Another important note about this commission then, back in Luke 24:

The Particular & the Universal

One part is narrow/particular, another part is broad/universal.

Forgiveness by repentance can come only through Jesus (“in his name”), but that offer is to be proclaimed universally—“to all nations”.

(Beginning right where you now are, in Jerusalem, where it took place.

— like the ripple effect in water, propagating outward from the initial point of impact, the event itself)

As a servant leader among you, ***

So we have clear marching orders, all the direction we need about what our mission is.

But do we have what we need to carry it out?

Jesus promises them power by the presence of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the mission.

(v.

49)

All the Provision We Need: The Holy Spirit

Since the Holy Spirit is not named in v. 49, how do you know the “promise of Father” Jesus refers to is the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers?

Again, Luke’s sequel in Acts explains:

… which was something Luke recorded John saying back in Luke 3:16.

So we understand that this is indeed the…

Promise of the Holy Spirit

The Apostle John records Jesus giving them some preview information about the Spirit’s coming and work in his final discourse with the Twelve in the upper room (on the evening of his Passover meal with them).

And the coming of the Spirit will be further…

Proof of Christ’s Sufficiency

In fact it is Jesus, the text says, who has authority from the Father to send the Spirit.

“And behold, I am sending the promise of the Father upon you.”

This same Jesus in whom they now have their confidence fully confirmed, because he has proven his power and authority in his resurrection from the dead; he will send the Spirit.

And the presence and work of the Spirit will further confirm that the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to make us right with God and to keep us until the his return.

Since the Holy Spirit will be the power they need to carry out the task of making disciples among all the peoples of the earth, Jesus tells them:

Don’t Try to Proclaim Without His Power

He commands them to await the Spirit’s arrival before proceeding with the mission.

Don’t try to take on this task with your own meagre resources.

What a good thing for us to remember!

Instead, you will be clothed with power.

[Illust.

- Picture being clothed with power.

IronMan’s suit.

Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk.

Only much more powerful than that… and REAL.]

Let me add this note for the modern evangelist.

The Holy Spirit is infused in every part of biblical evangelism.

True evangelism (proclaiming good news—which means to spread the good news that God has offered a relationship with himself to sinful humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ)… true evangelism is from God, about God, and accomplished by God.

You have nothing to say except what the Holy Spirit has revealed in God’s word, the Bible.

Even your own testimony infused into gospel proclamation, which is right and good, is actually about God and not about you—God’s plan, Christ’s work, and the Holy Spirit’s regenerating you.

Our task then is to faithfully (obediently) proclaim, but not as if we save people.