SPEAKER_00: But it'd be helpful for you and for me if you could have that passage in front of you as we look at it together.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be in Luke chapter 24, and so the very end of Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: As we come to an end, let me just remind you where Luke begins his story of Jesus, that he begins with probably the most clear of all the purpose statements of the four gospels we have.
SPEAKER_00: That Luke tells us that he is writing to a particular person.
SPEAKER_00: He names him as Theophilus.
SPEAKER_00: We were meant to think that he is a young Christian, someone who grew up hearing about Jesus, probably in the generation after Jesus lived.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke, he has claimed to be a historian, that he has compiled and interviewed all the historical accounts about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells Theophilus, I have written it down carefully so that you can be certain about what you believe.
SPEAKER_00: That Luke, he is writing intentionally so that we could be certain about what we believe.
SPEAKER_00: And as we come to the end here, we get to see why.
SPEAKER_00: That the certainty about what we believe about Jesus can then lead to a certain mission.
SPEAKER_00: That as we have certainty about what we believe, it leads to then a certainty about what God would have us to do, who we are, how we live.
SPEAKER_00: And so with that in mind, let's give our attention to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be reading Luke chapter 24, verses 44 through 53.
SPEAKER_00: Then he, that is Jesus, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it was written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And he led them out as far as Bethany and lifted up his hands, he blessed them.
SPEAKER_00: While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray and ask for God's help as we listen together.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we do pray that you would open our minds as well.
SPEAKER_00: Open our minds to understand this portion of your scripture and to open our eyes to see the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: By your Spirit, would you stir our hearts to believe?
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so our big theme this morning is that Luke, he wants us to have certainty about what we believe, which will then lead to certainty about what we're meant to do.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of reminds me of those situations, although they seem rare, when everything seems to line up just right in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like you're doing what you were meant to do.
SPEAKER_00: The rare moment when your identity, who you feel like you are, drives your vocation, what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Who we are lines up with what we need to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's really the sweet spot.
SPEAKER_00: It's rare.
SPEAKER_00: I think an example sometimes is young parents when they're about to be parents, and you know, before the moment, before the child comes, they often feel unprepared, not ready.
SPEAKER_00: But then so often, when that baby arrives, they realize, in a way, this is what they were made for.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe especially the mother.
SPEAKER_00: You know, having children and being a parent, it's still hard, but you realize that you were, in a way, ready without knowing it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the type of confidence that Luke wants to enable in his readers that because of who Jesus is, and we can be certain about that, because of who he is, then we can also be certain about the mission that he has given us.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be summarizing and working through that mission as nothing short of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That God's mission is to meet human beings in their need, and so to meet human beings, even the creation itself, in the sinfulness and brokenness of this world, and then to redeem it, to restore it to full value, to perfection, to full life in the world to come.
SPEAKER_00: And so the story of the redemption is bringing together those two realities: the one we know and the one we hope for and desire.
SPEAKER_00: And so our job this morning is to grow in certainty about how Jesus fulfills and embodies and empowers God's plan of redemption through us.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we work through this passage, it might be helpful for you to have the outline in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: In particular, there's a couple diagrams we're going to reference, and so if you don't have a program close by, uh maybe grab one, or there's one right outside the door.
SPEAKER_00: But we're just going to be working through this passage in three main points: all about God's plan of redemption and how Jesus brings that to fruition.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll see that Jesus fulfills God's plan, that Jesus embodies and therefore extends God's plan, and then Jesus empowers God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And so, first, Jesus fulfills God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That this is one of Luke's main points.
SPEAKER_00: That in this last chapter, Luke and Jesus, they're trying to bring this out that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament story and all the promises of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you look back down to where we began our reading in verse 44, Jesus, he's speaking to his disciples and he reminds them of the summary of his teaching when he was with them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, These are the words that I spoke to you, I was still with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so, up until this point, that everything that was written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus summarizes the Old Testament in that way: the law of Moses, what we can think of as the Pentateuch, the first five books, the prophets, really almost everything else, and then the Psalms, it's really the wisdom literature.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, all of the Old Testament was about me.
SPEAKER_00: We saw similar claims last time that as Jesus appeared after the resurrection, he was doing more than just proving that he was alive.
SPEAKER_00: In each case, he was proving that he was the answer of God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can either look back or just remember back when Jesus in disguise meets the guys on the Emmaus Road in verse 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than just showing himself to them, he says, You foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all that the scripture said concerning himself.
SPEAKER_00: What's the point?
SPEAKER_00: The whole story, it's about me.
SPEAKER_00: And you'd need to know that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Same thing when he goes to the disciples in verse 32, their critical conversion moment, when they get it, they say, Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened the scriptures?
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is one of Luke's primary points here.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we get to verse 44, this idea of fulfillment, that everything had to be fulfilled, it's more than just come true.
SPEAKER_00: It's more than how we might use the word, kind of like fulfill our destiny, like the hero story.
SPEAKER_00: Fulfill here is to make full.
SPEAKER_00: If you care about such things, the the Greek here is the root of our word for plethora.
SPEAKER_00: Word of the day program, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like all of it, everything.
SPEAKER_00: And so the expectations and promises and plans have been filled up, flowing over.
SPEAKER_00: The cup of wrath that Jesus was going to take, emptied.
SPEAKER_00: The cup of grace filled.
SPEAKER_00: Really, this is how Luke started his story of Jesus, if you remember back.
SPEAKER_00: Luke's gospel, it's the one that has all those beautiful songs from Zachariah and Elizabeth and Mary.
SPEAKER_00: It's the one where the angels show up the most, declaring big news.
SPEAKER_00: And so Luke, out of all the gospel writers, he sets his story about Jesus within these thousands of years of redemptive history, all coming to completion in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus, we have to know in this moment, he is the fulfillment of all of God's plans.
SPEAKER_00: And so to help us kind of remember that and reflect on that, I just want to share a little bit of a survey of how you might find it helpful to think about the storyline of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so this isn't in the back of your program.
SPEAKER_00: And so the most simple way is to think of the diagram of creation, fall, redemption, restoration.
SPEAKER_00: That the Bible tells the story of creation.
SPEAKER_00: God created everything good by his power.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was the fall where humanity turned away from God and into sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of humanity's experience, even creation itself, was then affected by that.
SPEAKER_00: And then really the rest of the story is a story of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Connecting to the fall, meeting humanity in their fall and brokenness, but then promising restoration at the end.
SPEAKER_00: So creation, fall, redemption, restoration.
SPEAKER_00: But perhaps another way to think about the Old Testament story, and one that's a little bit more robust, and so in that way, might be helpful for us, is to think about what we would describe as the five marks of God's redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is just stolen from our church planning network.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is how we think about God's work in and through the church, and it's really how we see God working all throughout human history.
SPEAKER_00: That God has consistently worked in these five ways.
SPEAKER_00: From start to end, the Bible is a story of God's redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so what did it look like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there were two kind of horizontal themes running through time.
SPEAKER_00: And so kind of like parallel railroad tracks.
SPEAKER_00: Two things that were always there.
SPEAKER_00: It was God's good news, his gospel, often in the form of covenants, promises, and then his presence, often seen in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: That from the very beginning, remember when Adam and Eve fell into sin, God's first response was a promise of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: There is going to be trouble now, but one is coming who will strike the head, crush the head of the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: There is going to be a fight.
SPEAKER_00: The first gospel promise.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how Jesus, that's how God works on the rest of the Bible, always bringing his grace to people in their need.
SPEAKER_00: And yet when he did that, he always did it with his presence.
SPEAKER_00: That even though they had run away from him, he would not be separate from them.
SPEAKER_00: And so one example is that when Eve first becomes pregnant after the fall, she declares, With God's help, I have made a man.
SPEAKER_00: We're not in the garden anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God's far away, but no, she says, no, no, God is still with us.
SPEAKER_00: With his help, we're doing this.
SPEAKER_00: And so two parallel themes, always there: God's word, his gospel, and God's presence, really experienced to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And then how would God ensure that humanity would understand and experience this gracious relationship?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's where we see the three offices that work to apply God's grace and his presence in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Three offices, three positions that would try to bring God's grace to the people.
SPEAKER_00: Not all the time, not perfectly, but they were there as kind of precursors and signs and glimmers of what God might do in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And so God would send his prophets.
SPEAKER_00: His gracious word would come.
SPEAKER_00: Just as God's word formed the world at creation, so a new creation would be formed by his word.
SPEAKER_00: God would send his priests, those who would stand between, who would mediate between God and his people.
SPEAKER_00: They would bring God's forgiveness and his holiness down to the people, and they would take the sin and the sacrifice of the people up to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then his king, his shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: That God would show us what it would be like for us to live under his care and protection, for his rule, his word to rule our lives, for us to trust ourselves to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's really the story of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: God's covenant, his gospel, his temple presence, and then being applied through these offices of prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know anything about the Old Testament story, you know how this story goes.
SPEAKER_00: Not enough.
SPEAKER_00: In our reading in Jeremiah, we're told what was wrong with the Old Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: It was the people.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Covenant wasn't enough for us.
SPEAKER_00: Having a physical temple to go to, it wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: We could just neglect it.
SPEAKER_00: Having a covenant of grace to just listen to, it wasn't enough because we would mistrust it.
SPEAKER_00: Having prophet, priests, and kings weren't enough because we wouldn't follow them, and then sometimes they weren't good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Most often they weren't good enough.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of that then leads to the expectation of what would God do?
SPEAKER_00: A new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus Himself would bring together all these five things.
SPEAKER_00: What is the good news of God for creation?
SPEAKER_00: His son.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know God is present in the world?
SPEAKER_00: His Son, who would come in tabernacle, literally temple among us, that's John 1.
SPEAKER_00: And what would Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He would do the Old Testament offices, He would speak to us as a prophet, He would mediate for us, intercede for us as a priest, and He would rule over and care for us as a king.
SPEAKER_00: And so all those five things come to fulfillment in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Fool.
SPEAKER_00: So let me make a couple points before we move on.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the new covenant, it was never a new plan.
SPEAKER_00: The new covenant was never a new plan.
SPEAKER_00: What this means then is that it's not like God wished he could have gotten away with the old.
SPEAKER_00: As if he could have gotten away with that and so he could have withheld his son from us.
SPEAKER_00: No, the old was only ever preparing for the new.
SPEAKER_00: The old was only ever preparing for the new so that we could see the beauty and trust the goodness that God would accomplish in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We needed to know that we needed more.
SPEAKER_00: We desperately needed new.
SPEAKER_00: And so anything less than fulfillment in Jesus wouldn't be enough.
SPEAKER_00: So that anything more that God could accomplish than in Jesus, it's not possible.
SPEAKER_00: We have it all.
SPEAKER_00: We have it all filled up.
SPEAKER_00: And so just consider this moment for yourself and for your own soul.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God has always wanted to give to you the full reality of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: He has always wanted to give to you the full reality of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That he is not withholding from you, he is not holding back, he's not waiting for you to come through, but he is eager to give to you, starting now and into eternity, the fullness of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's also acknowledge that anything that takes away from or adds to that fulfillment is less.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that takes away from or adds to who Jesus is and what he's done, it is less for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so what is the church?
SPEAKER_00: It is the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What is the Spirit is the power from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is his living word.
SPEAKER_00: The sacraments represent and apply Jesus to us.
SPEAKER_00: Worship is for and through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is by the power of Jesus into the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All it is him.
SPEAKER_00: And so to be frank, not by Mary, not by works, not by nature, not by wisdom, not by power.
SPEAKER_00: Him fully.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: He brings to the fullness all of God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so what this means then is that his incarnation, when he took on flesh and everything that follows, the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, all of that then is the embodiment, the physical embodiment of God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And this is our second point.
SPEAKER_00: This one's kind of the shorter one right in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: That Luke, he wants us to be certain that Jesus embodies God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And I add the extends kind of in parentheses because that's what Jesus' embodiment really does for us.
SPEAKER_00: It extends the redemption, but I don't want us to miss the embodiment, that there is a physicality, a personality to redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so look back at our passage.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 45, as Jesus opens up their minds to understand the scriptures, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: They come to know the embodied experience of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: As we saw last time, this was really the crux of the challenge for the disciples, for those first apostles.
SPEAKER_00: They could not understand a Savior who would have to suffer in the body.
SPEAKER_00: And so they could not expect a Savior who would be resurrected in the body.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they needed to be opened up in their minds, that the Messiah, that Jesus would suffer, that he would need to be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it this way: this is God's plan of redemption, that the promises of grace, the covenant of the Old Testament, that were pictured and physically experienced in the Old Testament system, the temple, they were then embodied physically in Jesus as the suffering savior.
SPEAKER_00: The new is not less physical.
SPEAKER_00: The spiritual and full redemption that God has prepared was more than the Old Testament shadows, yes, but not less physical.
SPEAKER_00: And so look at the results.
SPEAKER_00: As the apostles, the disciples, they have their minds open to see who Jesus really is, embodied.
SPEAKER_00: What is the result?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 47?
SPEAKER_00: That repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The redemption that gets embodied by Jesus in the incarnation leading to his death and resurrection then continues, extends, in the physical ministry of the church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to miss this.
SPEAKER_00: The message of grace now gets proclaimed by the people of grace, the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: And it happens through the person, you might even say the body, the temple presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because how is it happening?
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna get proclaimed in my name to all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: You see the point?
SPEAKER_00: The plan of redemption, shadowed and prefigured in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It gets fulfilled and embodied in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so then it can be extended wherever the gracious message of Jesus goes, proclaimed in his body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: All that to say is that the mission of Jesus continues.
SPEAKER_00: Because notice the critical phases of the plan.
SPEAKER_00: It was prepared in Scripture, it must happen.
SPEAKER_00: It should happen.
SPEAKER_00: Two parts that Christ should suffer and rise, incarnation, and that the message of Christ should be proclaimed after the ascension.
SPEAKER_00: Still embodied in Christ, no longer just by his physical human body, but extended by his growing physical spiritual body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: If you're thinking I'm making too much of these connections, and it's a fair, it's a fair question, just look with me at the end of the passage.
SPEAKER_00: After Jesus ascends, verse 52, we find the disciples and they have worship, they're worshiping Jesus, and they've returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they're continuing in the temple, blessing God.
SPEAKER_00: Two things to note great joy has the root of the word for grace, caris.
SPEAKER_00: And so their great joy is the joy that comes from receiving grace.
SPEAKER_00: Who are they?
SPEAKER_00: They're the people who have been enjoyed by recipients of the covenant, grace.
SPEAKER_00: Where are they gonna do it?
SPEAKER_00: Not that they need to stay and worship in the temple, you know the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: They don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: But why does Luke tell us they're doing there now?
SPEAKER_00: Because they have now become the embodiment of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Joy in God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: Luke is making it clear for us that Jesus' ascension has made the New Testament church the place, the reality, the experience of God's grace and presence.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus continues to have a message and a mission.
SPEAKER_00: A covenant, grace, a mission, a temple.
SPEAKER_00: Where does it happen?
SPEAKER_00: In the local church.
SPEAKER_00: A message, repentance for the forgiveness of sins, a mission proclaimed in his name, the presence of God with the purpose of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what this means is that the church has a message and a mission, and we cannot do less because nothing could be more valuable and significant than this.
SPEAKER_00: So as we come to our third point, Jesus' embodiment of this redemption then gets extended out in his church by his presence with them, by his ascension.
SPEAKER_00: And so look how it happens.
SPEAKER_00: How does Jesus empower God's plan of redemption?
SPEAKER_00: Luke, he wants us to see it, he wants us to be certain of it that Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still empowering God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still at work.
SPEAKER_00: He's still doing it.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't pieced out.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just like a waiting time.
SPEAKER_00: He'll come back later and see how things are going.
SPEAKER_00: And even if we made no progress by then, he'll just kind of speed it up to the end.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what is going on.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus empowers God's plan of redemption by, big surprise, continuing those three offices of prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_00: Pre-shadowed in the Old Testament, fulfilled in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you how.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus makes the church an effective hub of redemption proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 45, Jesus has opened the disciples' minds to understand the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 48, he commissions them to be witnesses of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the church is the place of the message.
SPEAKER_00: And so the disciples are the people of the message.
SPEAKER_00: The word for witness there, it is a public or legal testimony.
SPEAKER_00: It's the idea of the apostles as eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_00: And then, secondly, we Christians, especially, especially in the corporate community of the church, we pass on the testimony of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: We have received it as like legal guards, and now we can pass it on.
SPEAKER_00: In a similar way, proclaiming there, when the repentance and forgiveness is supposed to be proclaimed, it's the idea of a public herald, a public and authorized testimony of the church, the ongoing work of Christ as prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still alive, and so he is still speaking.
SPEAKER_00: He is still alive, and so his word is alive, and his word is still life-giving.
SPEAKER_00: And he forms and transforms people through that.
SPEAKER_00: And so what this means is that Jesus is still opening minds.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is opening his word, opening minds.
SPEAKER_00: The word for open there, it's a significant one.
SPEAKER_00: The word most literally means firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's the word that means opening of the womb, the first breakthrough.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word that is used when Jesus opens deaf ears or opens blind eyes.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word that intends divine action and intervention.
SPEAKER_00: God has done something here.
SPEAKER_00: And so one commentator has said that every believer may pray Psalm 119, 8.
SPEAKER_00: Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law.
SPEAKER_00: The God who once opened tomb darkened eyes on the Emmaus Road continues to unveil Christ in Scripture today, assuring his people that the same power which opened deaf ears and opened a Gentile woman's heart and opened the very heavens is active whenever his word is read and proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is embodying and passing on his ministry as prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He's also doing it as priest.
SPEAKER_00: That he makes the church an effective hub of the gospel experienced and received.
SPEAKER_00: And so in that way, Jesus is mediating the grace and presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is taking it from him, from God, to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can kind of think of it as a connection wire.
SPEAKER_00: A connection wire.
SPEAKER_00: Look down at verse 49.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And so the promise of the Father, it is the down payment of the experience and the reception of God's grace, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It what makes us believe and trust that everything else God said is true.
SPEAKER_00: If he gave us himself to live with us, if he's assured us of our adoption, if he's helped us believe, then he'll help us with everything else.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a good illustration.
SPEAKER_00: There's no good illustrations of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They're all limited and slightly heretical.
SPEAKER_00: But you can kind of think of it as like power lines.
SPEAKER_00: That Holy Spirit is like the power lines that connect us to the electrical power station.
SPEAKER_00: It brings the power from God to us.
SPEAKER_00: He brings the power from God to us.
SPEAKER_00: Because notice how Jesus describes the result of this promise of the Holy Spirit, this powerful connection.
SPEAKER_00: It's a powerful connection between the realm of God on high to the seemingly ordinary and limited realm of the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: You will be clothed, you down here, with the power from him up there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the work of a priest.
SPEAKER_00: A priest would mediate, bring together the power from on high with the people, even all the language here being clothed.
SPEAKER_00: That is very priestly language of the priest who gets clothed in the holiness of God and yet he brings the sin of the people.
SPEAKER_00: How do those two things go together?
SPEAKER_00: The mediation of the priest.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what is the ongoing priestly work of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That he empowers the experience through the Holy Spirit that Jesus is representing God to us.
SPEAKER_00: You can think of it this way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, even today, there's a human being sitting on the throne at God's right hand.
SPEAKER_00: Even today, there is a human being.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what he looks like, probably not blonde hair, but he looks like us.
SPEAKER_00: He looks like us, and he is sitting on the throne in God's right hand, a first fruit, a first sign that redemption is possible.
SPEAKER_00: That there was a human being who took on sin, who suffered the penalty of it, and yet has been redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: And then by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is bringing our lives into the grace and power of God.
SPEAKER_00: The priestly work of Jesus, that he's handing on to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, the King.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus makes the church a community that is formed under the rule and care of the King.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15 and 51.
SPEAKER_00: The sudden end of Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he leads them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
SPEAKER_00: And while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the story.
SPEAKER_00: And so remember the blessing of God, it's more than just saying good things, more than wishing the best, more than acknowledging the need.
SPEAKER_00: It's like when we say bless you when somebody sneezes, oh, bless you.
SPEAKER_00: You need something.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, this is the verbal blessing of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is the effective blessing of God.
SPEAKER_00: The spoken word, the intention of God that has the effect of what it means.
SPEAKER_00: To cause, to prosper, to give favor.
SPEAKER_00: It's that ancient promise given to Abraham, I will bless you so that you will be a blessing to the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's the temple blessing given to the Israelites through Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lifts up his hands.
SPEAKER_00: He says the last word, much like we try to do in our service here, that we end with the last word from God, the blessing on his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we live as a community under the care and protection and rule of God through Jesus, we demonstrate what it looks like to be both blessed by God and then by extension to be a blessing to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter says in Acts 3, just a couple of chapters later.
SPEAKER_00: Peter declares that God has sent Jesus to bless us.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how?
SPEAKER_00: By turning each of us from our wicked ways.
SPEAKER_00: What a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: What a blessing that God would turn us from our ways that would lead to death and instead put us on ways that lead to life.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we come to know and experience Jesus as King, especially as we do so in the community of the local church, we realize that Jesus has been protecting and caring for us.
SPEAKER_00: So I hope you have this testimony as you grow in faith that you will realize that there are parts of his word that you have found challenging and hard to believe, but over time you will realize that they had only been for your good, even when you struggled by doubting them and disobeying them.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be times when you realize that God has been doing something in and through us that's more than we could have produced on our own, beyond what we could have deserved.
SPEAKER_00: That's the picture of the king who is above, who is caring for more than we could see, who is more powerful and more able.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Luke, he ends his gospel with this picture, the description of Jesus bringing to fulfillment all of God's plan for redemption.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice an amazing thing as we close.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus does it by leaving.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does it by leaving, more specifically, ascending.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is kind of like the first church planter here, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's the first church planter, but as soon as he gets a small group gathered, he gets out of there.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: As soon as it seems to be starting, he's gone.
SPEAKER_00: In John's gospel, Jesus explains why, John 14, verse 12, he says, Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this powerful moment at the end of Luke's gospel, Jesus has transitioned his disciples from doubt and denial and disappointment to a dynamic, joyful engagement in his mission.
SPEAKER_00: He pieces out and they find abundant joy.
SPEAKER_00: He brings to fulfillment all of God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And he continues to apply it to us.
SPEAKER_00: He continues to apply it to us.
SPEAKER_00: He is God's good word.
SPEAKER_00: He is God's presence with us, among us, and for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so he does God's work.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks life to us, he intercedes grace to us, he rules over us with his care and protection and correction.
SPEAKER_00: And so what this means, final application here, that this is the identity and the mission of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Augustine, one of the early church fathers, he says there is no real distance separating Jesus as head from his body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: There's no real distance.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like it to us, but spiritually, there is no real distance, no distance that could separate God's power found in the Lord Jesus to his body now in the local church.
SPEAKER_00: So we are the embodiment of God's gospel grace.
SPEAKER_00: We are the people of the message.
SPEAKER_00: We are the missional presence in the world, the outpost, not a sanctuary, not a fortress, the outpost of mission.
SPEAKER_00: And so what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: That's who we are.
SPEAKER_00: Our identity is the people of grace, the missional presence, that's who we are as a church.
SPEAKER_00: And so what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We carry out his continued ministry of prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_00: More to be said there.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, though, hopefully this is a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we often talk about when it comes to the identity of our church and what we want to do together.
SPEAKER_00: If this is new to you, hold on, we'll talk about it more as we go forward.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to close with this picture.
SPEAKER_00: You know, watching the World Cup, I know Eric and I are enjoying it.
SPEAKER_00: I think most of you are missing out.
SPEAKER_00: But some of us are watching the World Cup.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the beautiful things about this World Cup in particular is that the best players are at their best.
SPEAKER_00: The best players are really showing out.
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, as the United States loses, there's a lot of conversation, of course, about what's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: This huge country of all these people, great athletes.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we come underprepared, under-able so often with soccer?
SPEAKER_00: Well, part of the issue is that actually to be a successful soccer player requires a much different collection of abilities than some of our other sports.
SPEAKER_00: Hate to break it to you, LeBron James would not be a good soccer player.
SPEAKER_00: Messi would probably not be able to cut it in any other professional sport.
SPEAKER_00: That soccer requires some unique combination of endurance and athleticism and creativity and touch with your foot.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very unique thing to be cultivated and experienced.
SPEAKER_00: That in a way you almost have to be born for it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've seen the film Chariots of Fire.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story from 1981 from the Olympics, from this guy, Eric Liddell, who was a Christian, and basically he's struggling with what it means to be a Christian and an athlete.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's working through it, he says this amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I run, I feel his pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've noticed something about me that God has made me like this, and so when I experience it with him, I experience his pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sweet spot of discovering and finding confidence in, and therefore enjoying who God has made you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Not maintenance, not circle the wagons, not sanctuary, but mission.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray that God will build us up by the living Lord Jesus to carry it out.
SPEAKER_00: Please pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this word.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the creativity of your plan of salvation, that it is bigger and more than we could comprehend or capture.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's a story form that would invite us in, that would uh stir us to believe and trust.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord Jesus, we do pray that you would be our prophet, priest, and king, that you would embody yourself in and among our community, that we would work well for you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would form our identity in your gospel and in your presence, that we are not alone and that we were not without hope.
SPEAKER_00: And so, would you make us an outpost of mission here in Norwalk in the surrounding area?
SPEAKER_00: And we entrust ourselves to you for this work.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.