1. "In the final hours of this fleeting year, 2023 may still become a significant year in your life. I wonder, have you considered that this could be the case?"
2. "Even the largest oaks must begin with small acorns. I pray that these studies in Luke’s Gospel this year will be just those kinds of seminal studies for many of you as you’ve sat and considered who this Jesus is."
3. "It’s interesting: this risen Jesus does not present new mysteries. This is not like a Gnostic appearance, where the special inner knowledge is given just to those who have this spiritual experience, goodies hidden from the masses. No, what Jesus does here is explain the truths that have been revealed for centuries in the Scripture, and he simply opens their minds to understand them; he wants these truths to go to the entire world."
4. "The disciples’ surprise is not the kind of thing that Luke would have invented if it hadn’t been real. It wouldn’t have been a flattering portrayal of the leaders of the Christian movement to portray them as not expecting or even believing in the resurrection of Christ. But that was the truth."
5. "Friends, no amount of knowledge alone will give you faith. You will not have faith apart from knowledge, but knowledge alone is not faith."
6. "One way to explain a moment of enlightenment is that split second when you’ve been lost in thought, staring at something, dimly aware of other objects but oblivious to everything else. Then, in a moment, you ‘come to,’ and everything around you seems to come to life. When really, of course, it’s none of those things that have changed; you’ve changed in your perception. That’s, I think, what the experience of conversion could be well described as."
7. "This is what we’ve become stewards of. As we’ve received the message ourselves, we now are to give it to others. We become secondary eyewitnesses by reading of this and by having our own sins forgiven as we repent and believe in Jesus Christ ourselves. So this mission continues through us."
8. "If you’re here today as a Christian, that is because Christ did not return 100 years ago. You have the patience of God to thank. This delay has meant salvation for some hearing my voice this year."
9. "Christ’s ascension showed his atoning work was complete because he wouldn’t return to his heavenly home unless his work here were done. This was part of Christ’s journey from the tomb to the throne of heaven."
10. "Sometimes when people talk about Jesus, they make it seem like all that matters is his teaching. But I know that none of what Jesus taught is more important than what Jesus did when he hung on a cross for the sins of all of us who would ever repent of our sins and trust in Him."

Observation Questions

1. Luke 24:36 — What is the first thing Jesus says to the gathered disciples (“Peace to you”), and why might Luke want us to notice His greeting at this moment?
2. Luke 24:37–40 — How do the disciples initially react, and what specific proofs does Jesus offer (hands, feet, invitation to touch) to address their fear and doubt?
3. Luke 24:41–43 — Why does Luke include the detail of Jesus eating broiled fish in front of them, and what does this imply about the nature of His resurrection body?
4. Luke 24:44–45 — How does Jesus summarize the Old Testament (Law, Prophets, Psalms), and what does He do to the disciples’ minds?
5. Luke 24:46–47 — What two central events (“suffer” and “rise on the third day”) and what two central announcements (“repentance” and “forgiveness of sins”) does Jesus say “are written”?
6. Luke 24:50–53 — What happens at Bethany, how do the disciples respond, and where do they go afterward?

Interpretation Questions

1. How do the physical proofs (touching Jesus, seeing His wounds, eating fish) challenge the notion that the resurrection was a merely “spiritual” or subjective experience?
2. Why does Jesus insist that all Scripture points to Him (Law, Prophets, Psalms), and how should this shape the way we read the Old Testament?
3. In what sense does “suffering then glory” (v. 46; cf. 24:26) summarize both Jesus’ path and the expected path of His followers?
4. Why are “repentance” and “forgiveness of sins” inseparable in Jesus’ commission, and what does the phrase “to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” teach us about God’s plan?
5. What does the ascension signal about the completion of Jesus’ work and His ongoing ministry for us, and why is worshipful joy the fitting response (vv. 50–53)?

Application Questions

1. Identify one person you know who needs to hear the good news of repentance and forgiveness; what is one concrete next step you will take this week (text, invite, coffee, prayer before speaking)?
2. Choose one specific area where you need repentance; what action will you take in the next 48 hours to turn from sin and turn toward obedience (confession, accountability, restitution)?
3. Prepare a two-minute testimony that answers: Who was I? How did I encounter Christ? What has He changed? When and with whom will you share it this week?
4. Before conversations about faith, how will you rely on the Spirit? Choose a simple practice (e.g., a daily 1:08 p.m. reminder to pray Acts 1:8 for boldness and clarity; a short prayer before calls/meetings).
5. To strengthen your certainty, which reading plan will you adopt this month (e.g., Luke 24 once per week; Acts 1–4 with a friend; one OT promise passage per week), and when will you discuss what you learn?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Acts 1:1–11 — Luke’s sequel recounts the risen Christ’s final instructions, the promise of the Spirit, and a fuller account of the ascension central to this sermon’s message.
2. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 — The Suffering Servant passage explains substitutionary atonement, illuminating Jesus’ “suffer and rise” (Luke 24:46).
3. 2 Samuel 7:8–17 — God’s covenant with David promises an everlasting throne, grounding Jesus’ identity as the Messiah and Son of David.
4. Daniel 7:9–14 — The Son of Man receives everlasting dominion, enriching Jesus’ self-understanding and the church’s hope in His exaltation and return.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Transformative Power of Significant Encounters

II. What Did Jesus Do? (Luke 24:36-46)

III. What Did Jesus Tell Christians to Do? (Luke 24:47-49)

IV. Whatever Happened to Jesus? (Luke 24:50-53)

V. The Certainty and Implications of Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension

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Detailed Sermon Outline

- Reading *The Bruised Reed* sparked a lifelong theological and ministerial influence.

- A brief encounter during a college outreach led to a 40-year marriage and shared ministry.

- The sermon series in Luke 18–24 aimed to deepen understanding of Jesus’ identity and mission.

- Luke’s meticulous research (e.g., interviews with eyewitnesses) ensures the Gospel’s credibility.

- Jesus showed His wounds, invited touch, and ate broiled fish to dispel doubts.

- Despite witnessing miracles, the disciples struggled to believe, highlighting the necessity of divine illumination.

- Jesus emphasized His role in fulfilling the Law, Prophets, and Psalms.

- Deuteronomy 18 (prophet like Moses), 2 Samuel 7 (Davidic covenant), Isaiah 61 (Messianic mission), Psalm 110 (divine kingship), Daniel 7 (Son of Man), Isaiah 53 (suffering servant).

- His death and resurrection fulfilled God’s redemptive plan for sin and salvation.

- The message is for “all nations,” starting in Jerusalem.

- Turning from sin and trusting Christ are inseparable marks of conversion.

- Their testimony laid the foundation for the Church’s mission.

- Believers are called to rely on divine power, not human effort, for evangelism.

- His visible departure confirmed His glorification and reign (Acts 1:9-11).

- Christ’s exaltation as High Priest (Hebrews 1:3) and King ensures His ongoing intercession for believers.

- The disciples returned to Jerusalem praising God, anticipating the Spirit’s coming.

- The ascension marked the transition to the Church’s era of global witness.

- Their initial skepticism and subsequent boldness confirm the resurrection’s reality.

- The resurrection is either the “supreme fact of history” or a fraudulent claim—no middle ground exists.

- Investigate the resurrection’s truth and adjust one’s life accordingly.

- Prioritize evangelism, support global missions, and live in the power of the Spirit.

- Believers await His second coming with joy, assured by His ascension (Acts 1:11).

In the final hours of this fleeting year, 2023 may still become a significant year in your life.

I wonder, have you considered that that could be the case? How about those times when you've met someone? You didn't think it was significant at first perhaps, but it turns out to be an important part of your life. I remember when I first met, so to speak, Richard Sibbes. I was a student at Gordon-Conwell up in Boston.

Richard Foster had just written a book called Celebration of Discipline, and he was lecturing at the seminary. I went and heard the lecture, went to the library across the hall afterwards, and an older church history professor asked me what I thought. I said, I thought it was fine. And then I'd gotten to know this man over the summer, and he kind of, he was very tall, he leaned down, looked at me closely, said, no, really? What did you really think?

I said, Honestly, I thought it was a shame that in an evangelical seminary people go to hear this long lecture and that Jesus is not even mentioned. The cross is not mentioned. Substitutionary atonement is not mentioned, and everybody's all excited because this book is so popular right now. The guy stood up straight, smiled broadly, he said, what are you doing your project on in my English Puritanism class? He was a professor.

I was taking his class. I said, I don't know. I thought maybe John Bunyan because he's a Baptist. He said, what about Richard Sibbes? I said, well, I've never heard of Richard Sibbes.

Who's Richard Sibbes? He said, Follow me. And he took me over in the library to some volumes of works by this Puritan preacher from the 1600s. Richard Sibbes, he pulls off volume one, opens it up to the bruised reed, just hands it to me and says, Sit down and just read this. So I sat down and started reading it, and immediately I thought, oh, this is good.

And so then I went back in the time there were bookstores, and I went to the bookstore on campus, and I purchased, it didn't come in a package or anything through the mail. I mean, I purchased a physical I had a copy of the book that I had right there. I just took it with me and took it home, started reading it to Connie that night out loud, and she loved it. And speaking of Connie, I mean, there are even more personal meetings that can end up changing your life. You know, there's a sister in Christ from Colorado in intervarsity.

I just meet her briefly through a freshman outreach event. As I get to know her better, I realize I love her. And so I get to know her so much so that I then end up becoming her husband. And now we are for 40 years married. We are together so much that I can say things like, We have a great ministry to children.

We have a great ministry to children in the neighborhood, in our front yard. We have a great ministry to children in this church and in the curriculum that we write on the internet.

Even the largest oaks must begin with small acorns. I pray that these studies in Luke's Gospel this year will be just those kinds of seminal studies for many of you as you've sat and considered who this Jesus is. We've been studying this really since March of this year. We picked it up in chapter 18 with the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. And we've worked through this final chapters of the book.

Luke is really a fascinating book, worth your study as a whole. It's the longest book in the New Testament. It's 24 chapters, over 1,100 verses, over 19,000 words. He was probably writing around 60 A.D. He knew, or at least interviewed, it seems like all these people here.

He did such careful work. The first couple of chapters are where we get much of our Christmas stories from. Then chapter 3 tells us about John the Baptist, And chapter 4 to 19 is Jesus' public ministry. And as I say, we started our study this year just at the end of that, when he was on his way down to Jerusalem. And then the last several chapters, 19 to 24, are his time in Jerusalem in that final week leading up to his crucifixion.

And then three days later, his resurrection. And we broke off last week during a gathering on that final resurrection, or that first resurrection day, where an excited disciple named Cleopas met with the 11 and some other disciples back in Jerusalem. So just to remind you, we're in Luke chapter 24. If you look at the Bibles provided, that's page 885, and you'll be helped to pay attention if you bring out your Bible, open it up, and follow along. Cleopas and the other unnamed disciple that Jesus had been with in Emmaus rushed back to Jerusalem at the end of a long day where they had just seen Jesus and been with him.

And when they get there, they find the 11 all stirred up and excited. You remember this? Luke chapter 24, beginning verse 33. And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying, 'The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.' Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Well, that's where we broke off last week because there was so much to talk about.

But what we didn't notice is what happened then. Look at our text for this morning, which begins at verse 36. They seem to be all excited about Jesus having been risen. Yeah, but then watch what happens when Jesus turns up. Verse 36, as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.

And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.

And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, He said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them. Then He said to them, 'These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. That everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Luke also wrote the book of Acts like a second half of the story. And he summarizes this really in Acts chapter 1, verse 3, where he says, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. So when are those 40 days? Well, in our text, that's that verse 50, then he led them out. That then doesn't mean that moment, it's just a then.

It's a kind of paragraph break. So all those 40 days would have taken place in this narrative between verses 49 and 50, and that's where we would assume the appearances that we see at the end of John's Gospel would have also taken place. So Luke leaves us, his readers, he leaves us with three basic questions, three basic questions that I want to focus your attention on this morning. One, what did Jesus do? Two, what did Jesus tell Christians to do?

And three, whatever happened to Jesus? The initial readers of this gospel, basic information, what did Jesus do? What should Christians do? Whatever happened to Jesus? All the subsequent history of Christianity has been built on our answers to those questions.

I pray that our answers to them will be important for you this morning, and I pray that they'll make a significant contribution for some of you before this fading year is gone.

Verse 10, what did Jesus do? We'll spend most of our time here. This is most of this text, really verses 36 to 46. Let's look at it again. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled and why did doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Just pause right there. It's interesting, this risen Jesus does not present new mysteries.

This is not like a Gnostic appearance where the special inner knowledge is given just to those who have this spiritual experience, these goodies hidden from the masses. No, what Jesus does here, he explains the truths that have been revealed for centuries in the Scripture. And he simply opens their minds to understand them. He wants these truths to go to the entire world. Verse 45, keep going.

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.' and this was that third day. So Jesus suddenly appears to them in verse 36. He comes as quickly as he's gone. He greets them with peace to you. But then they had this interesting reaction.

In verse 37, they were startled, frightened, mistook him first for a ghost. You know, it's sort of like they were thinking, this is too good to be true. Friend, if you're here today and you're doubting whether or not Jesus rose from the dead and you're wondering, is there any good evidence for the resurrection? I would just say that here is some. The disciples' surprise is not the kind of thing that Luke would have invented if it hadn't been real.

It wouldn't have been a flattering portrayal of the leaders of the Christian movement to portray them as not expecting or even believing in the resurrection of Christ. But that was the truth. That's what happened. That was the historical fact. And so Luke reported it.

The disciples clearly were not expecting Jesus' immediate bodily resurrection. Nor does it seem at first anyway that they were very disposed to even believe in it when they saw him. So in verse 38 we see that Jesus offered them proof. And I love how tender and compassionate Jesus is here. You know, I think if you're anything like me, sometimes you can think, well, I'll give you this many chances and then I'm done.

But Jesus here at the end of this incredibly intense ministry to these individuals that he knows so well, Even standing before him after they had just been bragging excitedly about the fact that he's risen, when he's actually there, then they disbelieve. How easy would it have been for him to have been impatient at the least? But look at how kind he is. He asks them, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

And then verse 39, he invites them. To look and to touch him. Of course, he shows them his hands and his feet. Why would they have been important? Why would they be distinct?

Because those hands had been pierced, those feet had been pierced. They would see those wounds. They would know this was him. They could touch him too.

We understand from reading this and the other accounts of Jesus' appearance after the crucifixion that in his life and death Jesus had a physical body, and here in his resurrection he has what can best be called a spiritual body. This is the language Paul uses in 1 Corinthians, a spiritual body. That is, our complete redemption could only be purchased and proclaimed fully as God meant it to be by the resurrection of the whole person, including the body. But at least up through verse 40, none of this seemed to dispel fully the darkness that surrounded these disciples' understandings. Now again, if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you should realize that simply having a lot of religious knowledge is not faith.

Remember the friend that I mentioned last week who said to me when I was an undergrad, I was a pretty young Christian, he said to me, Wow, if only I had been around when Jesus was on earth, then I think I could have believed. But that doesn't necessarily follow, does it? I mean, you think these disciples who are disbelieving have personally been witnessing all of Jesus' ministry. They've heard all of his teaching. They have even witnessed his crucifixion and his resurrection.

They've literally seen him now, and yet they are still, the verb he uses here is disbelieving. Friends, no amount of knowledge alone will give you faith. You will not have faith apart from knowledge, but knowledge alone is not faith. The disciples had all this knowledge, but they didn't fully recognize who Jesus was. You can't be saved without some knowledge of Jesus Christ, but you can have lots of knowledge of Jesus Christ and not be saved.

That's why biblical Christianity has never simply been an educational movement with schools replacing churches. Literacy programs are important, but they can never replace evangelism. This is one reason why we as a church should be careful in how we take in new members. We can't simply give out some kind of proficiency test in biblical knowledge. There can be people with little knowledge but who have a sincere love for Christ and a sincere faith in him.

On the other hand, there can be people with an exhaustive knowledge of Christ and the Bible and theology but who have no affection for the Christ that they describe. No true saving faith evident in their lives. So in our own church practice, in our membership interviews, we ask for an affirmation of Christian faith, but we also want to have a testimony of Christian experience, of your own apprehension of God and of his apprehension of you. But with the disciples still unpersuaded by these proofs, Jesus offered them in verses 38 to 40, he offers them another proof of his physical reality. He offered to eat a meal in front of them.

Verse 41, Luke writes that the disciples were still wondering what was going on. They clearly believed in some sense because they were joyful, but they disbelieved. We read here in verse 41, they were responding to Jesus kind of like they had responded to the women's tale that morning when they'd come back from the tomb. And were saying that he's risen, these angels had appeared. I think they were excited and stunned and confused.

And so to help them, Jesus asked for food and they give him, according to verse 42, a piece of broiled fish. That would do for his purposes. He convinced them of who he was by eating in front of them. It's the last bit of evidence we see him giving. And then in verse 44 we see he asserts that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Jesus is taught in every part of the Old Testament Scriptures. Thus he mentions the three traditional divisions, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. We saw this last week up in verses 27 and 32. Now here it is again in verses 44 and 45. And the idea is simply this, that all of Scripture points to Jesus.

Jesus had always been teaching the disciples to pick up the promises they knew from God's Word and to understand that He was the fulfillment of them. Now, We don't have any more information than this other than all the gospels and what they write in the New Testament. But about this particular meeting, we don't know what scriptures Jesus specifically opened up to them after his crucifixion and resurrection. Last week I mentioned six of them, particularly that I thought he would have mentioned to the disciples at Emmaus earlier that day. I'm guessing Jesus repeated himself later that day with the whole group.

Group. So that's what I'm going to be doing now. I'm going to repeat myself. I'm going to remind you of those six passages that I mentioned last week. I'm not going to spend as much time on them as I did last week.

If you want to hear more explanation, you can listen to last week's sermon, but I am going to remind you of those six passages that I suggested that Jesus almost certainly would have taken them to to understand his fulfillment of the messianic role better. And they are these. Here we go if you want to make a list if you weren't here last week.

2 Samuel 7, Isaiah 61, Psalm 110, Daniel 7, and Isaiah 53.

Let me just go through those briefly. Deuteronomy 18, that first one, is the promise that the Lord gives to Moses that He would raise up another prophet like Him.

Jesus was the fulfillment of that. Number two, 2 Samuel 7:12 and 13 is where God promises David a son who would reign everlastingly, an anointed one. This is where the headwaters of the promise of the Messiah come from, the anointed one. Number three, Isaiah 61. This is the scripture Jesus actually read in his first recorded sermon.

Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And then Jesus sat down and said, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. He announced himself publicly as the Messiah. Number four, the one that Jesus quotes most frequently is Psalm 110, verse one.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. And this was a little gift Jesus gave to confuse people. With their current categories to help them see the way they were thinking was just not quite enough. Because you can see him do this in a number of places. One of them is in Luke chapter 20.

Jesus would put this question to people, this is a psalm of David. So then Luke 20 records Jesus saying, How can they say the Christ, that's the Messiah, is David's son? David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son? So he's beginning to introduce any idea of the Messiah as something more than merely human.

And then if you add to this number five, Daniel chapter 7, where the Son of Man appears, but he appears as a divine figure. Daniel chapter 7 is almost, you could say, a prophecy of the incarnation. And then perhaps most significant for all of these disciples to understand on that day, and perhaps most surprising for them, would be number six, Isaiah 53. Particularly Isaiah 5213 to 5312, where the servant of the Lord is praised as one acting wisely and yet, and friends, this is the key thing, we read it in Isaiah 53, that it was the will of the Lord to crush him. Why?

Well, it wasn't for any wrongdoing of his own. No, it was for our wrongdoings. That's why he would be crushed. We read in Isaiah 53:6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So putting all this together, we see that the very fact that Jesus was killed by hanging him on a tree did mean that he was in fact cursed by God. Deuteronomy 21 taught that. But that didn't mean that Jesus was disqualified from being the Messiah, just the opposite. That was in fact an essential part of the Messiah's qualification, because the Messiah had not come simply to bring physical liberation from oppressors and death, but that too would come, but initially and most fundamentally to bring a spiritual liberation from our rebellion against God in God's right wrath against us because of our sins.

See, for centuries the Jews had concentrated on this hope of the son of David to protect them and deliver them nationally, from, in this case, from the Romans. But at the heart of God's promises in the Old Testament was God's promise to show himself, as he'd said to Moses, as a God forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. How could that be? How could he be both of these things only by being a substitute. By having the Messiah, suffering servant of the Lord, who was himself sinless, but who would voluntarily place himself in our place.

The eternal Son of God was born as a man to take upon him our natures yet without sin, and to live a life of perfect trust in his heavenly Father. He would fulfill all of the structure of sacrifices that was presented in the temple, prescribed in the Old Testament, carried out regularly, but he would fulfill it all in offering of himself. That's what all the sacrifices pointed to. He would take my place. He would take your place if you repent of your sins and trust in him.

And then down in verse 45 we see he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. As we saw the two disciples earlier in the chapter, The ability to understand Scripture clearly comes from God. This illumination of the understanding is the work of God's Holy Spirit. I love the way William Gurnall, another Puritan, puts this in Christian in Complete Armor. He's meditating on conversion, and he says about God's ability to convert even the most surprising people, He who by His incubation upon the waters at the creation hatched that rude mass into the beautiful form we now see.

And out of that dark chaos made the glorious heavens and garnished them with so many orient stars can move upon thy dark soul and enlighten it, though now it be as void of knowledge as the evening of the world's first day was of light. God is able to convert anyone. But what's the experience of conversion like? Uh, there are a number of you I've been talking to about what it means to be converted, and I am frustrated by how it always seems to elude me, describing it well enough.

One way you could describe it, I would just say, I'm not quite sure, but this is one, one way to explain a kind of moment of enlightenment is something like that split second when you've been lost in thoughts, kind of staring at something. And then somewhat aware of the other objects around, basically oblivious to everything else. And then in a moment, you come to, as it were, and everything else around you seems to come to life. When really, of course, it's none of those things that have changed, you know, you've changed in your perception. That's, I think, what the experience of conversion could be well described as.

It's worth getting a book on, Nine Marks has a great little book on conversion. Get that, read it, see what it means to be converted. Now with their minds open, we read in verse 46, Jesus said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Friends, the most important application of this passage is to see who Jesus is. He is the Messiah.

The Messiah was prophesied to suffer and rise. He says that here in verse 46. That parallels the suffering and glory we thought of last week in verse 26. There is suffering and then glory. Thus it was for Christ, and so it would be for those who would follow Christ.

Oh friend, turn from your sins. Trust in Christ. Trust that He has paid the price for your sins. If you will only trust in Him and rely on Him. We could not gain glory if we were not willing to follow Him through shame and scoffing rude.

This is what Jesus taught that He did. Part of what Jesus did though was to answer the question also, what should Christians do? And that's what He's saying in verses 47 to 49. Look again at those verses. Luke 24:47 to 49.

And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. We read in Acts chapter 1 verse 2, Luke writing of Jesus, Until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen, whom he had chosen. And these are those commands right here in verses 47, 48, 49. That mention of repentance in verse 47 is about the big change that marks the Christian's life.

We move from cultivating sin to opposing it, from serving sin to killing it. Such repentance is the other side of the coin of true saving faith that the New Testament consistently presents as the hallmark of true saving faith. It's the kind of thing that brings great joy in heaven. Kids, if you're wondering what repentance means, ask your parents at lunch. Ask them to give you examples of when they have repented.

They would love to share those examples with you. Ask what it means to repent. What is it that should be proclaimed? Well, friends, I wrote this sermon, but I didn't have to come up with this message. You know what I mean?

So this message that I'm giving you comes right from Jesus. This particular sermon, the way I'm expressing it, yeah, I had to write this. But all I'm doing is fundamentally passing on this message that Jesus here gives to his disciples. So this is what we've become stewards of. As we've received the message ourselves, we now are to give it to others.

What the apostles were becoming eyewitnesses of, even that very Sunday, we Christians today too are also witnesses of. We become secondary eyewitnesses by reading of this or hearing of this and by having our own sins forgiven as we repent and believe in Jesus Christ ourselves. And so their mission continues through our mission as we continue on sharing that same news. Because this is news that should be told around the whole world. And even if the initial disciples had succeeded in giving the message through through the whole world, which we don't think they did, but they did a lot better than we often think they did.

It was also through all generations until Christ returns. So it would necessarily involve more than just those initial apostles. It would involve all of us who become witnesses of the truth of the gospel through our own experience of it. So this mission continues through us. I pray that the Lord God gives us witness for Him even today.

But if He gives us 2024, if He tarries, then I pray it will be a year marked by our church proclaiming this forgiveness of sins to those who do not yet know Christ. As I was praying in response to this passage yesterday and reflecting on this year that is quickly going away, never to return, one prayer that I prayed was specifically that God would stir the memories of people to whom this year I've had the privilege to proclaim the good news of forgiveness of sins in Christ's name. And I pray that God would bring them into this enduring, unending love of God for them in Christ, and that he would bring them to it spiritually, that they would be born again in new life in Christ. And I pray this for all the people who've heard the gospel from my lips this year, and that includes many of you present here today. And I also prayed that for the witness of many of my friends.

That God would bring to saving faith all the people that they've shared the gospel with this year. Pray that God would do that. Friend, if you got news before your eyes fell asleep tonight that all of those that you had shared the gospel with this year had actually come to faith in Christ, would you have many reasons to rejoice? Would there be many who tasted new life because of your witness this year? I pray so.

When some Christians in those first decades were complaining that Christ had not yet returned, He said He would return, but He's not returned to complete His reign, Peter wrote in 2 Peter, the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises. Some count slowness, but is patient toward you.

Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. If you're here today as a Christian, that is because Christ did not return 100 years ago. You have the patience of God to thank this delay of His in not returning this year, the year 2023, has meant salvation for some hearing my voice right now. Who this year have first testified to knowing Christ as their Savior and Lord. And it may mean the salvation for you, my friend, still.

Christian, will you play your part in this heavenly relay? Giving this news, passing it on the news that saved you, passing it along to others so that they too can find repentance and forgiveness of sins. Who is there within the reach of your witness that has not yet heard the gospel? From you, but could. We need God's power to do His will.

That's true for us. It was true for them. Notice how Jesus told them here in verse 49 that He would send the Spirit promised in the Old Testament Scriptures, like in Joel 2, to come upon them. That's exactly what happens at the Day of Pentecost, and it continues to happen as new people hear the message and are converted by God's power. Oh friends, if you want to be encouraged in the year 2024, read the book of Acts.

Just keep going with Dr. Luke in your own reading. You just read one chapter a week, you'll be done by summer. And you'll see how God gave His Holy Spirit and encouraged the growth of the church throughout the Mediterranean world. Whatever you decide to be reading in the Bible, I do pray that your lives this week in this new year will demonstrate to the watching world around you this new kind of life that we can live by the power of God's Spirit. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that amazing day that we read of here in Luke 24.

This is the special obligation now that many of us who are members here acknowledge in our church covenant, like we hope to do as we share the Lord's table next Sunday morning, when we agree that there is a special obligation on us now to lead a new and holy life. We also as a church want to see what we can do to take this message as we see Jesus taught here in verse 47 to all the nations. So the primary task given to the company of His followers by the risen Lord before His ascension into heaven was the task of making the gospel known to the ends of the earth. Worldwide evangelism therefore was from the first and still is the chief task of the church militant here on earth in order that the elect community which Christ died to redeem may continually be added to and ultimately made complete. Now do you know how we work on that here?

Well Riley Barnes leads a missions reading group and he is happy to hear of your interest. If you want to start in this new year doing some reading that will be readings about this worldwide task that we have. There will be things that will help to shape you as you prepare to either go yourself or help send others whom whom we do send out as a church. We as a congregation are committed to be senders or goers in order to work to fulfill this great commission that Jesus has given to his followers. So these are some reflections on the basic questions that Jesus addressed here in his last days with his disciples when he taught them what Christians should do.

Last basic question this morning, final question, and it's sensible final question, for somebody reading Luke's Gospel. Whatever happened to Jesus? Well, look there in verse 50.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Luke describes this parting further in Acts chapter 1. Just turn over there with me for a moment, Acts chapter 1. We'll see a little bit more of this.

He refers to it in verse 2 as Jesus being taken up. And then down in verse 9 of Acts chapter 1 is the main expression about it. And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up.

And a cloud took him out of their sight. I've now told you everything Christians know about the ascension. I mean, these are all the facts that we have. Acts chapter 1, and if you look back to Luke 24, our passage, sounds very similar. Luke 24, While he blessed them, this is verse 51, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

Now, Jesus had appeared to them before and left them, but he never left them this way. You know, like with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he just vanished. Why this dramatic exit? Well, a couple of reasons, maybe. As an evidence to them that he was now going to heaven, that he would be seen no more on earth.

This is a final exit. He would be seen no more until He would restore all things. Christ's ascension showed His atoning work was complete because He wouldn't return home to His heavenly home unless His work here were done. Jesus had taught them up in verse 26 that the Messiah would suffer these things and enter into His glory. Will this be carried up?

Was part of his entering into his glory, even as his resurrection was, and as his reign is now and his return will be. This was part of Christ's journey from the tomb to the throne of heaven. If you wanted to meditate more on what the Lord was going to do, read through Hebrews this afternoon. Recall the study we did last year through Hebrews. There we learned that Jesus provided purification for our sins by standing as the substitute in our place bearing God's wrath against us for our sin by being raised from the dead for our justification and ascending to the heaven, to His heavenly Father and presenting to Him this accomplished sacrifice for us.

And then by sending His Spirit to indwell and remake us, to accomplish victory in our lives over the power of sin. Sometimes when people talk about Jesus, they make it seem like all that matters is His teaching. Oh, I love his parables, or I love the places where he tells about God loving the world, or the place where Jesus taught that we shouldn't judge.

I love those places too. But I know that none of what Jesus taught is more important than what Jesus did when he hung on a cross for the sins of all of us who would ever repent of our sins and trust in him. Christ is not just an ethics professor. He is the crucified and resurrected Messiah. Once a year in the Old Testament, Aaron and the high priest that followed him were to make an atonement at the altar of incense with the blood of the sacrifices.

And here we see the eternal Son of God has become the truly incarnate, truly God and truly man, and He has given Himself as a sacrifice. In our place. He lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death, was raised for our justification, ascended to His heavenly Father, thus completing the act of purification like the heavenly high priest He really is. So the essential Son of God became officially the Messiah as the Son of David, fulfilling the messianic roles of delivering His people as prophet, priest, and king. I love the last stanza of the hymn we sang a little bit ago, Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, lo, the incarnate God ascended, pleads the merits of his blood, and then the hymn's author turns to address sinners, Venture on him, venture holy, let no other trust intrude, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.

Jesus is the one these disciples were to trust in. He was the one that they worshiped, we read in the last verse. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. Like those around them, the disciples were longing for the coming of Immanuel, but for them they knew that this would be a second coming, as the angels had told them, this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you see him go into heaven. This is what happened to Jesus.

So there it is. What did Jesus do? What should Christians do? Whatever happened to Jesus? I'm thankful to have these words from Luke's conclusion and our study of them together as my final words to you as your pastor for this year.

With these words read and thoughtfully considered, I feel that much of my obligation to you and for you is met. My prayer for this series of sermons in Luke is that you've come to understand yourself more and you've come to understand the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who is the very reason you're alive. This book has shown us that Jesus is in fact the Son of God, as the Sanhedrin had charged him with claiming three days earlier. Jesus has shown himself to be The Lord, the God Himself, as the eleven had just excitedly told Cleopas, the Lord is risen! That first exciting Easter, they were just putting it all together.

Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a whole new creation was beginning out of the rubble and ruin of the fall. Jesus was beginning His reign over even death itself. Now Luke wrote this gospel for the Gentiles, for the whole world. Not surprising, he was a companion of Paul's who was especially called messenger to the Gentiles, to the nations. And so he said he wrote that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

That's why Luke said he wrote this book, that you may have certainty. Friends, it's normal to want certainty, and you can have it. Sir Norman Anderson, professor of Oriental Law at the University of London, said, Either the resurrection is infinitely more than a beautiful story or else it is infinitely less. If it is true, then it is the supreme fact of history. And to fail to adjust one's life to its implications means irreparable loss.

If it is not true, if Christ has not risen, then Christianity is all a fraud foisted on the world by consummate liars, or at best deluded simpletons. Friends, it is the truth. Investigate it. Just as Christ was calling his disciples to do that day when he had risen from the dead, he stood before them inviting them to investigate even what their eyes saw. Luke wrote this because Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven to present his reconciling work to his heavenly Father and his Spirit as a down payment of our bodily resurrection to come.

In his death is the eternal death we have deserved. In his life is our life. And in his ascension is a preview of our path. He was carried up into the heavens. He took on our flesh, we read in Hebrews, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.

Being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. And now, now we wait. We wait for the Lord Jesus to come back in the same way He's gone.

And that long journey to heaven and back for us and for our salvation began on that Sunday many years ago now, and as sure as it began, it will be completed. And all glory will be His.

Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank youk that yout have loved us.

In this most amazing way, that you have sent your only Son to be made a man, to live a life of suffering, to be crucified, and then to be bodily raised from the dead, to ascend and to present his sacrifice, and there to rule and reign until He returns. Lord, we pray that you would pour out yout Holy Spirit even on us now. Lord, in these last hours of this year, will you still give saving faith to those who wait? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.