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[0:00] Take out your Bibles with me please and turn to the Gospel of Luke one more time. We come to the very end, the very last passage of this Gospel that we've been walking through for a few weeks now.

[0:22] Luke chapter 24, very end. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you get to John, turn back a page. I want to read our text today and then ask the Lord to open our minds to understand the Scripture and then we'll dig into it.

[0:51] So if you're able, please stand as I read from the Gospel of Luke chapter 24. I'm going to go back a couple of verses. We're going to look at verses 36 to 53.

[1:05] But remember in Luke 24, Jesus raises from the dead. But in the first 12 verses, nobody sees him yet. They see an empty tomb, right? The women see angels who say that he's risen.

[1:18] But again, they don't see Jesus yet. And then in verse 13 to 35, Jesus joins two disciples who are walking on a road leaving Jerusalem.

[1:29] And there, they don't recognize him, but he speaks to them. He opens the Scriptures to them. Their hearts are burning within them as he opens the Word to them.

[1:42] Then he vanishes. And then he appears again. So let's pick it up at verse 33, right after Jesus, right after they recognized that it was Jesus with them.

[1:54] Verse 33, 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.

[2:10] Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. And as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.

[2:26] But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. But he said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?

[2:38] 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.

[2:53] And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they were still disbelieved, while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat?

[3:09] 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.

[3:22] 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 for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

[3:56] You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of the Father upon you. But you stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

[4:14] And 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.

[4:26] And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. So it reads.

[4:37] Let us pray. Father, we ask the same of you that you did for the disciples on that day, that you would open our minds to understand. Remove veils, remove things of ourselves that block our understanding.

[4:56] Work through your Holy Spirit, Father, to open, to reveal, to make clear, to clarify, to further encourage and strengthen us by your word.

[5:09] May we hear Jesus today. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. So Luke 24 is describing the resurrection of Jesus.

[5:27] And we see some different parts to that. But the focus in these last two passages has been Jesus showing disciples how to read the Old Testament.

[5:39] That's really been the focus. Although he shows himself to them, they see him. Well, the two didn't recognize him until he broke the bread. But as he appears now in this scene in verse 36, the focus isn't so much on his resurrected body, though he makes that clear.

[6:03] The focus is, once again, on how to read the Old Testament. As he opens the scriptures to them. And then he opens their minds to understand the scriptures.

[6:14] And he speaks again about Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. And he speaks about how all of that is concerning himself. How it all points to him.

[6:27] Something that they did not understand before. Something that they did not see before. From Adam, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David.

[6:38] All of those are shadows and pictures. Mere outlines that point to Jesus. They are patterns. They suffer. And are later exalted.

[6:49] So Joseph suffers for 20 years. And then is exalted, right? Moses is rejected by his people. Suffers in the desert for 40 years.

[7:00] And then God brings him back. And then he's exalted as the redeemer, leader of his people. David suffers for many years. Though he's the anointed one, he's not on the throne.

[7:11] He's hunted down. He's an outlaw. But then eventually God raises him up and exalts him. Those are pictures. Those are outlines of what Christ would be.

[7:24] They're just small pictures, glimpses of what the Messiah would be. So they are patterns. So now we come in this passage.

[7:35] And once again, Jesus is opening the scriptures. And now we have the phrase that he opens their minds to understand. And wouldn't you want to be there?

[7:47] To hear him go through the scriptures. And then to have him open your mind so you get it, right? So you get it. Because we've read that. Jesus, I've read that.

[7:58] I've read that. I know the story of Joseph. I didn't know that was about you. Boy, David was my hero until he fell. And then, but I didn't know he was a picture of you.

[8:10] I knew some of the prophecies. I knew some of the predictions. But there were way more than I even knew there were. I think somebody has counted 630-something.

[8:26] So he opens their minds to understand the scriptures. I love that phrase. And the question today is, does he do that for us? Does he open our minds?

[8:37] Is he opening our minds? No, he does it different. He does it different. We don't have him physically present doing that. But we have the spirit whom he sends to do that.

[8:52] So let's look. So last time we saw that Jesus was on the road. And he's with these two disciples who don't recognize him. But he's opening the scriptures. He's interpreting the scriptures.

[9:04] How all things in Moses and the prophets concerning himself must be fulfilled. He shows why it's necessary for Christ to suffer. And enter into his glory.

[9:15] Why there was a cross that they didn't understand. They never saw that their Messiah was to suffer first. They thought their Messiah was going to be like David. In the sense of him exalting to a throne.

[9:28] And ruling on earth. Then we saw in verse 32 that they said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?

[9:40] So their hearts were burning as he opens the word, as he shows them how all these things point to the Messiah. So now, come to our text this morning in verse 36.

[9:53] Now he appears to the 11. Right? Back in verse 33. They found the 11. Wasn't there 12? What happened?

[10:05] Yeah, we have Judas, right? We lost Judas. Judas is lost. So now we have 11. And Acts chapter 1 will tell us how they get back up to 12. But we have the 11.

[10:17] The 11 apostles. The chosen ones. But then it says there's all these others that are there. These two that have returned. There are many others there.

[10:27] We will find out at the end in Acts that there were 120 in the upper room waiting for the Spirit to come. Waiting for this promise on Pentecost. So he appears.

[10:40] But Luke tells us he appears to the 11. So he opens their minds. So what do we see in this? From verse 36 through 53, what are we seeing Jesus do?

[10:54] Well, he's doing, he's giving them two confirmations is how I'm going to put it. He confirms to them, first of all, that he himself has been raised from the dead with a literal and physical body.

[11:10] Okay, that's the first part. He's going to show them. He's going to show them his hands and his feet. He's going to let them touch him. Right? He's going to confirm this is real.

[11:21] And it's really him. And then secondly, as we get to verse 44, he's going to turn back to the scriptures again. Now he's going to confirm once again to these guys that all the scriptures.

[11:34] And when we say scripture here, there wasn't an Old and New Testament yet, right? There was just scriptures. So Moses through Malachi was scripture.

[11:48] So he's giving, he's going to open the scriptures to them. All that they had known from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. He's going to confirm that he is the central and dominating focus of all the scriptures.

[12:05] The scriptures are not just a compilation of moral stories. But he's the point of all the scriptures. That the Messiah must suffer and he must be raised from the dead and that repentance for forgiveness must be proclaimed.

[12:23] That that is in the scriptures. Okay, so let's look at the first thing he does. So in verse 36, we're told that he suddenly stood among them as they're talking, right?

[12:34] As these two disciples have come back from the road and they tell, they all describe their experiences. Apparently he had appeared to Simon Peter that we don't have, we don't have a record of that, but we're told that that happened.

[12:49] So now they're, as they're talking about all these things, suddenly he appears. And we see them troubled. But what Jesus is confirming, what I want to show that he's confirming is that he himself rose literally and bodily from the dead.

[13:06] He confirms that he himself literally and bodily rose from the dead. And he's going to go to pains to show that.

[13:18] But notice he first appears that they are troubled and doubting. He suddenly appears, verse 36. Verse 37, they're startled and frightened. They're terrified. Because they think they see a ghost.

[13:31] They think they see a spirit. Now, well, so rightly, fairly, Jesus, verse 38, questions them.

[13:42] Why are you doubting? Why are you questioning in your heart? Why? Why? You know? You've already heard early in Luke 24 that the women had gone to the tomb and reported that the body was not there.

[13:56] They reported that the angel said that he was risen. But remember, as they came and report, the women came and reported it to the apostles. Remember? What? They didn't believe it.

[14:06] They thought the women are just telling some tale. Not reflecting real well on these guys. They don't believe it. All right?

[14:17] And so then we have here in verse 34. Peter's got a testimony now. He's appeared to Peter. Peter shared that.

[14:27] These other two have shared that he appeared to them. They're still wondering and doubting. They've heard these things, but they still doubt.

[14:41] So what does Jesus do? How kind he is, isn't he? He's kind. He first appears to them. What does he say? Peace to you. Not you knuckleheads.

[14:52] Right? He is very gracious to them. They're doubting. They're fearful. They're unsure. You know, they're supposed to be the guys. Right? And they're still wavering.

[15:04] And his message is peace. Peace. Settle. Easy. Excuse me. So what does he do? He shows them verse 39. So he says to them, see my hands and my feet.

[15:16] Why my hands and my feet? Right. He was crucified. Right? They saw him die. And pierce their hand means the hole from the tip to the elbow, basically.

[15:28] But he was pierced through the, nailed through the wrists to be crucified. So the scars will still be there. Look at my hands. And look at my feet. He was also nailed through his feet to hang on the cross.

[15:41] Right? Remember, pull himself up to breathe. They saw that. So they, I'm really, it's real. It's really me. What does he say?

[15:52] See my hands and my feet. That it is I myself. Another one else. It is me. The one who was crucified. The one who led you for four years.

[16:02] The one who did all those miracles. The one who spoke to you the words of life. The one who then hung on the cross for you. Right? It is me.

[16:14] And then he says, touch. Touch and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. That's interesting, isn't it? So they think they see a spirit.

[16:27] So he's going to prove that he's not a spirit. Touch me. You can't touch a spirit. A ghost. You can't. Touch. And then he says, see that I have what?

[16:39] Flesh and bones, which a spirit does not have, but I have. So apparently the resurrected body is a real body. Which is what Paul does say in 1 Corinthians 15.

[16:54] It's a real body. It's different. It's a powerful body. It's an everlasting body. It's a different body, but it's still a body. It still can be touched. It is flesh and bone. So flesh and bone, not flesh and blood, but flesh and bone.

[17:08] I got to stop saying that because I can't say it very well. Recognize the scars. In John, in the Gospel of John, he talks about, remember doubting Thomas?

[17:20] He missed one of the first meetings and he says, unless I touch him, where, you know, unless I see. And so Jesus did kindly reappear. And Thomas is able to verify.

[17:33] Good old doubting Thomas. And so it touched my side too, where the centurion pierced my side. Recognize that not only is he not a spirit, but the resurrection is not a spirit resurrection.

[17:50] See, I think these guys thought that when you're raised, you're raised in a spirit form. So Jesus is verifying, no, I'm not. Not only am I not a spirit, it is me bodily, literally, but I am not.

[18:07] It is not a spirit resurrection. It is a bodily resurrection. It is a body. It is different. It can appear and disappear, right? But it's touchable.

[18:19] He confirms that. And then after he confirms that, notice what happens. Verse 41. Well, verse 40, so he shows them his hands and his feet. Verse 41. While they still disbelieved for joy.

[18:32] And we're marveling. Well, what is that? They still disbelieved for joy. What is that?

[18:43] Are they still unbelieving? Overwhelming. Yeah, I think it's that. I don't think they're disbelieving. I think they're just like, whoa. Whoa. Yeah. That's how far they were from understanding the resurrection.

[18:57] They had some other kind of idea. It's a real body. It's really you. And I can touch you and I can verify that it's you. Now, I don't know if all of us will bear the scars of our old body.

[19:11] I don't think we will. But Jesus does. That's how you'll recognize him in heaven. Right? When you see him, he'll let you touch him.

[19:26] What a gift. Unbelievable. I think it's, yeah. They're amazed beyond imagination. I mean, how could it be? Like we say, how can it be?

[19:37] How can it be that thou, my God, would die for me? Right? How can it be that thou art raised from the dead? Now, they had seen Jesus raise others from the dead.

[19:48] But remember, those were temporary. And this is one where he raises himself from the dead. Death could not hold him. Right?

[20:00] Death could not hold. This is the Lord of life. He submitted to it. That it could not hold him. And then, this is kind of fun, I think, verse 41.

[20:15] He asked them, got anything to eat? Really? Well, we got some broiled fish. Okay, here. And he eats broiled fish in front of him.

[20:26] What is going on? Is he hungry? Well, it's been three days, you know. Is he hungry? Probably not. But another confirmation.

[20:39] What ghost is going to eat fish? And that would be kind of weird, because you'd see it through. A literal bodily resurrection.

[20:51] And the resurrection is crucial. It is absolutely vital. And 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes that clear. If there's no resurrection, there's no gospel. There's no resurrection, we're still in our sins.

[21:04] The resurrection is absolutely vital to the gospel. We have no gospel without the resurrection. I want you to hear how John starts his first letter, 1 John 1.

[21:16] The apostles, John being one of them, were eyewitnesses of Jesus' life and his resurrection. And so listen to how John begins his first letter and describes how he was an eyewitness.

[21:31] He says, Notice that which was from the beginning. Speaking about Jesus. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

[21:48] The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life. That which was with the father and was made manifest to us.

[21:59] Notice that John believes in an eternal Jesus. That which was with the father. He was eternal and then made manifest. The father sent him to us, right? Made manifest to us.

[22:13] That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you. Why? So that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship was with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.

[22:25] And now we proclaim it to you that you might too have fellowship with us and with the father and with Jesus Christ. That you too might experience eternal life. To know Jesus is to know life.

[22:40] He is the life. As John puts it in his gospel, right? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Right?

[22:51] And then the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So that's what John's... John was a deeper thinker, wasn't he? And he's talking about now in his letter the same, that same word.

[23:04] He's the word of life. He's the eternal life. And he gives to us that eternal life that we might know him. That we might know him personally. We might know him.

[23:15] We just sang of that. That we could be with him. That we might know him more. Or we might build our relationship with him more. So a real resurrection is critical for a true gospel.

[23:27] As I said, if Christ is not raised, then we have no gospel. We have... Our faith is in me. We have nothing to hope for. We are, of all men, most to be pitied.

[23:39] To believe in something that didn't happen if it didn't happen. But in fact, it did happen. And Christ verified it to his witnesses. Eyewitnesses give testimony of what they've heard, what they saw, what they touched.

[23:53] And so Jesus confirms. He takes the time to graciously show them that he did raise from the dead. That it was him himself. That it was a literal and bodily resurrection.

[24:03] So verse 44. Then we see him turn then after he eats the fish. He says to them in verse 44. These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.

[24:16] That everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. So once again, he turns to the word as the focus. To show them in the scriptures.

[24:28] In Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. That they're written about him. That Jesus Christ is the central and dominant focus of Old Testament scriptures.

[24:44] Now, I said this last week because we talked about this a little bit last week. I grew up in church and I learned the Bible stories. Did you? I learned about, you know, Joseph and the coat.

[24:55] And, you know, I learned about Moses and wandering in the wilderness. And David and, huh? The lion. David and the lion. I learned all these. They're great stories.

[25:05] And they're true stories. But I was never taught they pointed to Jesus. I was never taught that they had anything to do with Jesus. So I was kind of taught just like these apostles.

[25:17] These disciples who grew up in a Jewish culture. They were never taught that either. They were taught to look for a Messiah. Messiah would come. He would be in the line of David.

[25:28] And he would be like David. In fact, he would sit on David's throne. So that's what they were looking for. They were looking for a son of David who would sit on David's earthly throne. Which meant the Romans had to go.

[25:43] Just like David had got rid of the Philistines. The Amalites. And Carmelites. And the parasites. And the. Yeah. The cellulites.

[25:55] And all the other heights. You know. They were looking for Jesus to be an earthly physical king. Yeah. He was a physical king. And as he said to Pilate.

[26:07] My kingdom. My king's not of this world. My king's much bigger. Much bigger. Than this little place here. I'm king of kings.

[26:17] And lord of lords. And I created the universe. Not just Israel. So. He's the central dominant focus. And so he reminds them again.

[26:29] So he had told the other two on the road. But now he wants his 11 apostles to understand this. Right. So he. Note the focus. He said to them.

[26:39] These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. So he's reminding them. I already told you these things. But now I want you to really understand them. That everything. Watch this.

[26:49] Everything written about what? Me. In the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. It's. The focus is on Christ.

[27:01] It's all written about me. He is what scripture is about. Jesus is the central message and focus of all the scriptures. He is the father's design.

[27:13] He's plan A. There was no other plan but Jesus from the beginning. Everything pointed to him. And we kind of talked about that a little bit more last week.

[27:28] And we could talk more about that next week. By the way, I forgot to remind you. Next week's a review. Discussion. Because we're done. Right. So we get the final review discussion. We get to talk about all of them.

[27:42] You remember all the way back. No. We'll focus wherever you want to focus. We'll talk about these things. And we're going to do that next week. So how do we understand the scriptures?

[27:55] Okay. It's one thing that he takes them through. He walks them through all of it. But how do they get it? And how do we understand the scriptures? So verse 45 says, Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

[28:10] It's one thing for him to tell us the scriptures. It's another thing for him to open our minds, our thinking, our predisposed thinking. We have kind of this, whatever we were taught growing up, we have whatever our own thoughts were that are right or wrong.

[28:29] Now he opens our minds to actually get it. What God is teaching. He opens their minds so that they might understand.

[28:40] Now the word understand there is really important. When we did the gospel of Mark a few years back, we saw that word a lot. Because Jesus would ask his disciples from time to time, Do you understand?

[28:54] And remember they would be like, Oh yeah, yeah, we got it. The word understand means to bring together. So he's helping them bring things together.

[29:07] I like to say, connect the dots. How do I connect Moses with Jesus? How do I connect the prophets with Jesus? How do I connect the Psalms?

[29:18] And there's a lot of Psalms that are either pictures or predictions of Jesus. The prophets obviously are predictive.

[29:28] But when you talk about the law of Moses, that means Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Right? That's Moses. So Jesus is in there?

[29:42] Yeah, he's all the way there. Man, he's in Genesis. There's pictures of him. Like I pointed out, Joseph is a picture of him. Judah's a picture of him.

[29:53] We won't go into that. That's a really cool one. Right? Because he actually offers his life in the place of his brother. Right? He does this picture of Jesus offering himself.

[30:06] So we see it. If we look for it. So that's why I said he shows us how to read the Old Testament. I wasn't taught growing up or in seminary.

[30:17] I was not taught how to read the Old Testament. Well, I was taught you read only where it's so obvious that you have to give it in. But don't do the picture thing.

[30:30] So I missed a lot. After I learned this, man, we've done studies in Genesis, Exodus, and Isaiah, and other places. Ruth. You see them in Ruth?

[30:42] So he's there. Learn to look for him. Don't try to dig him out where, you know, get a picture out of every single little word.

[30:54] But look at the pictures. Look at the patterns. Right? Read the book of Acts. After I learned this, we preached through the book of Acts. And my personal goal was just to learn how did Stephen talk about Jesus in Acts?

[31:08] How did Peter preach about Jesus? And how did Paul do it? And they all do it. And they're showing different ways how Jesus is from the Old Testament. So if you want to see how that's done, read the book of Acts.

[31:20] So connecting the dots, right? Well, so he opens their minds. How do our minds get open?

[31:34] Right? I mean, I want to be where Jesus is, and I'm with Jesus, and he's going through it, and then he opens my mind. That's what I want. But I don't get to do it that way. But he hasn't left us out in left field.

[31:47] He's given us a Holy Spirit to do that. So he does take care of us. He does open our minds to understand the scriptures. So in front of the outline, I have a shortened quote from Paul in Ephesians 1.

[32:02] This is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. He says, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, watch this, that he may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

[32:17] He's not done, because Paul has really long sentences. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. There it is. Remember, when Paul says heart, he means our thinking.

[32:29] Right? The eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of the glorious inheritance of the saints? And he goes on. But it's, how do our minds get open?

[32:42] Through prayer. Through prayer. We ask God to open it, and he's going to do that through the work of the Spirit. The Spirit will open our minds. As he decides, he's not going to dump load, you know, dump truck load on you.

[32:57] He doesn't always give you everything that you want, but he gives it to you. He begins to open your eyes to understand the scriptures. And then notice verse 46 and 47.

[33:11] He says, here's the things. Verse 46, 47 says, thus it is written. So here's a summary of the Old Testament scriptures. Thus it is written. That the Christ should suffer.

[33:23] That's one thing. And on the third day rise from the dead. That's two. And third, verse 47. That repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

[33:37] All of that is in the Old Testament scripture. That Christ should suffer. That's there. That Christ should rise on the third day. That's there. Now you won't find a specific prediction from the prophets about a third day.

[33:54] But you'll find lots of pictures of third day. And then that this proclamation that you're to preach repentance for forgiveness.

[34:08] Literally that you preach repentance unto forgiveness. Okay. That's the same way that John the Baptist said it way back in Luke chapter three. He preached repentance unto forgiveness.

[34:21] He wasn't saying if you repent you'll be forgiven. He's not saying you earn it. He's saying you repent. And repentance is the right road that leads to repentance.

[34:33] To forgiveness of sins. God calls us to come to him. As we turn to him. As we come back to him. As we repent.

[34:44] Right? We turn our life to him. That leads us to repent. To forgiveness. Because then as we come to him. We know that he's a God who's merciful and kind and gracious.

[34:56] And loves to forgive sins. Right? When we seek him. So that same message we see in verse 46 and 47 is the New Testament message.

[35:08] It's the same message in the Old Testament. It's the dominant focus. So how do we apply all these things? Come to verse 48. He says now you are witnesses of these things. What things?

[35:22] What are we witnesses of? Well what were they witnesses of? They're witnesses of what they experienced. Right? What they saw. What they heard. What they touched. Right?

[35:33] As John said. So they're witnesses of the resurrection. They're witnesses of everything they heard and saw Jesus do. Right? So therefore we have the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

[35:46] Right? Those are the witnesses. Now we have their witness. But they're also witnesses of what he taught through scripture. They are witnesses.

[35:57] So they're to proclaim what he's just showed them. They're to take other people as they're preaching. They're to take people through Moses, prophets, psalms, and show them Jesus.

[36:09] And as I said in Acts, that's what you'll see. In Acts chapter 2 and chapter 3, you'll see Peter do it. Peter. Peter does it.

[36:21] He starts by answering this question about what's going on with all these tongues and talking crazy and what's going on with these people. And Peter starts at Joel 2. And then he gets to Psalm 16.

[36:34] And he starts unfolding, unpacking the scriptures to explain to them what's going on and who Jesus is. And as well.

[36:45] Stephen does that. Chapter 7 of Acts. Stephen does the whole history of Israel. And he shows them Jesus through the whole history of Israel. Not the whole history, but about a 50-verse summary.

[36:57] And in chapter 13, Paul starts to preach. And we see him do it a whole different way than Peter and Stephen do. So we're witnesses.

[37:10] Well, how do we do that? You know, I'm a poor witness, I think. What is our witness of? What can we witness of?

[37:23] What's a witness do? Well, the witness tells, right? If you're a witness on the witness stand, what do you do? You testify. What do you testify to? The only thing you can testify to is what you've heard, what you've seen, what you've experienced.

[37:42] That's all. Right? You've seen it on TV, which probably isn't real. You know, but they, you know, no, you can't talk about that. That's the only way you see. Right? You're a witness. So just like the apostles were witnesses of everything Jesus said and did, because they were there, we're a witness.

[37:59] What can we testify to? What are we a witness of? Our life changed. I can say this is who I was, and the Holy Spirit came. I heard this gospel, and God changed my heart, and now I'm this.

[38:13] Now I can witness that I'm this. I was this, and now I'm this. It's like the blind man said, I was blind, and now I see. Deal with it. Basically, what he said to the Pharisees, what's going on?

[38:27] I was blind, now I see. That's all I know. But we testify to what we've experienced. What I've experienced in the Word, what I've heard, what God has shown me, how God has worked in my life.

[38:38] That's what I can testify to. I can't testify that I've seen the risen Christ. I wish I had. But that's reserved to very, very few people.

[38:50] But I can testify, like you said, Ron, I can testify to my changed life. I can testify to the power of his resurrection.

[39:04] So I can know that he's truly raised because he's done things through me that I can't do, that I wouldn't do in my natural state.

[39:17] You know, like love people. Unconditional. Love people I'd rather not love. Love people I don't like. Not anyone here?

[39:32] I genuinely mean that. Not anybody here. But I've had it before. And I know you all have too. That's what makes us different as Christians, is it not? That's what Paul says in Ephesians 4.

[39:45] We put off the old and we put on the new. We actually bear with one another. When do you have to bear with one another? When they're unbearable. Right?

[39:56] I mean, that's the testimony. That's the testimony. The testimony of a godly congregation is one where when we've offended each other, we don't just go to some other church.

[40:10] That's the norm. But we stay and we work it out. And I'm grateful for the people that have been here and stuck it out with me. Because I've been confronted before.

[40:22] You know, I offended this or that. And like, oh, so we make it right. I'm so grateful that they would tell me. And not just leave, right? I've had too many leave.

[40:35] Because I offend all the time, apparently. I don't know. No. Not intentionally. That's our testimony. So interesting, isn't it? The last verses.

[40:47] Oh, well, so where do we have the power to witness? Verse 49. I'm sending the promise of the Father upon you. So stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high.

[40:58] So Jesus, remember, in the first chapter of Acts, Luke tells us that Jesus was still appearing to his disciples over a period of 40 days.

[41:12] So after Passover, 40 days. Pentecost is 50 days after Passover. So there's a 10-day gap there.

[41:23] So when Jesus leaves them here, when he ascends, right, he tells them to wait in the city. How long do they wait? 10 days. They wait 10 days. Because the Spirit, the promise of the Father, the power from on high will come on Pentecost.

[41:40] So the Gospel of Luke is Luke's first book. His second book is Acts. And the book of Acts begins exactly where the Gospel of Luke ends.

[41:58] Because watch what he says. Verse 50. He led them out as far as Bethany, lifted up his hands, and he blessed them. And while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

[42:09] And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. So there's his ascension.

[42:21] You pick up next page in the old scroll of Luke would be what we call Acts chapter 1. And he picks it up right there.

[42:32] He gives more description of the ascension and more of the dialogue that happened there. And then the power of the Spirit that comes in chapter 2 at Pentecost.

[42:44] And then the preaching begins. The preaching begins. Through men who didn't get it before, who hadn't connected all the dots.

[42:57] Now they can connect the dots because Jesus opened their minds to connect those dots. And when the Spirit comes, everything's different. Everything's different.

[43:10] Acts really isn't about the acts of the apostles. The acts is really about the acts of the Spirit through the church. And so this is how Luke has ended his gospel.

[43:28] The Old Testament tells of what Jesus says, this promise of the Father. Jesus is referring to something that the Old Testament spoke about. The Old Testament scripture does call us to repent and foretells of the sending of the Spirit.

[43:44] I'm going to steal from Peter. He used Joel chapter 2 to talk about this. Joel 2.11 says, The Lord utters his voice before his army. For his camp is exceedingly great.

[43:55] He who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. And who can endure it? So that's the word of caution.

[44:06] Yet, Joel continues, Yet even now, declares the Lord, Return to me with all your heart, With fasting and weeping and with mourning, And rend your hearts and not your garments.

[44:20] Return to the Lord your God. Why? For he is gracious and merciful and slow to anger And abounding in steadfast love. And he relents over disaster.

[44:31] Return to him because he's gracious. Return to him because he forgives. Repent to him because he's gracious to you. And Joel goes on, And it shall come to pass afterwards That I will pour out my spirit.

[44:45] There it is. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

[44:59] No discrimination. He will pour out his spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens And on the earth, Blood and fire and columns of smoke.

[45:10] The sun shall be turned to darkness And the moon to blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. In other words, That's prophetic language to speak about. There's a change coming.

[45:20] There is a big change. The sky's falling on somebody. It's Israel. And there's a big change coming. And it should come to pass that everyone, Here we go.

[45:32] It shall come to pass that everyone Who calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, There shall be those who escape From the disaster that's coming.

[45:44] There shall be those who escape As the Lord has said, And among the survivors Shall be those whom the Lord calls. And that was Peter's altar call, by the way.

[45:54] He takes from Joel. Everyone who comes, Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Shall be saved. You repent. You turn to him. He will save you if you turn to him.

[46:05] He will love you. He will forgive you if you turn to him. Not just one time, But you just keep turning to him. Until he saves you. Until he changes you. That's the altar call, by the way.

[46:18] Go to him. Need a little help getting to him? I'm happy to help. But basically, you go to him. Seek him. Because he's the one that answers.

[46:29] He's the one that gives. He's the one that forgives. He's the one that will change your heart. He's the one that calls you. Is he calling you? So all of this, Joel 2, was fulfilled at Pentecost.

[46:43] Ten days later, After Jesus had ascended. When he sends the Holy Spirit from the Father. In Acts 2, Peter preached boldly. He cited Joel 2, Psalm 16, and others.

[46:57] And he explains what these things meant. And you remember how many were saved that day? 3,000 souls were saved that day.

[47:08] Did Jesus ever have such a response? Well, the clue is, These are really Jesus' converts. Peter just got to reap them.

[47:20] But that's the difference of the coming of the Spirit. All of a sudden, the hearts were changed, right? Through Peter's preaching. Preaching in Acts will proclaim Christ from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms.

[47:33] Acts shows us through that preaching that Jesus himself is the central dominant focus of the scriptures. So my last question for you. Is Christ opening your mind to understand?

[47:45] Is he helping you to start to connect the dots? Not all of them. We've got a lifetime to study. But is he beginning to connect some dots for you? Beginning to see some connections of what Jesus has taught.

[48:01] And more important than just simply understanding scriptures, are you seeing him? Are you meeting him? Are you getting to know him?

[48:12] Are you walking with him? So he's not just the point of everything so that our questions are answered. He's the point of everything so that our soul is saved, revived, changed, uplifted.

[48:31] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for your servant Luke, who you through his gifts, Lord, has given us a gospel that does give us certainty about the things that we have been taught.

[48:50] We thank you for the way you gifted Luke to write in a way that draws us in. And he writes in a way that's credible.

[49:03] He does not write like the church had it all figured out. He writes honestly that these dear disciples weren't on top of their game until you helped them.

[49:15]  And so we thank you, Father. That encourages us. Open our eyes. Open our minds. Help us see Jesus. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.