THE RESURRECTION-DAY MANDATE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 4, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Resurrection Sunday Message; April 4, 2021 from Luke 24:46-49
Theme: The Lord Jesus Himself gives us a mandate to follow in response to His resurrection.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Look with me at Luke 24:46-49. It’s there that we find the words of our Lord, spoken to His disciples, on the very same day that He rose from the dead:
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:46-49).
Many of us welcome this day as a wonderful holiday. Christians all around the world celebrate—as a central tenet of the faith—that Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead. It means that He has conquered sin and death, and secured for us eternal life. Clearly, our Lord would want us to celebrate on this important day.
But if we only ‘celebrate’—and do nothing more than that—then we’re not doing everything that our Lord would want us to do with respect to this day. His resurrection for us, as believers, is also meant by Him to become our call to action.
In this passage, we are given a command by our resurrected Lord and Master. It constitutes our resurrection-day mandate.
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Now; the Gospel writer Luke—who was used by the Holy Spirit to record these words for us—was a wise physician. Because of his profession, he had a keen, observant, logical, evidence-focused mind. He has come to be recognized as one of the most careful historians of ancient times. He serves as a reliable guide to us in matters that concern this very important day—and particularly, concerning this mandate from our Lord. And so, let’s look at what Luke tells us about the events that led to our Lord giving this mandate to us.
First, after having told us the story of our Lord’s crucifixion and burial, Luke tells us about how the empty tomb was discovered. Several women who had watched and observed the exact spot where Jesus had been buried came back to the very same tomb after the Sabbath—early on Sunday morning—to finish the job of preparing His body for burial. Luke even gives us some of their names in verse 10; “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them …” They came expecting to find the tomb sealed; and instead, they found the stone rolled away from the entrance … and the body of our Lord gone.
And then, in verses 4-7, Luke tells us;
And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again’” (vv. 4-7).
These two angelic beings told them what they themselves heard the Lord say long beforehand. Luke tells us that after these women then remembered the Lord’s words, they then ran to the apostles to declare what the angels had said to them. We’re told that the apostles didn’t believe them—that it seemed to them as if they were telling idle tales and were speaking nonsense. But we’re also told that Peter ran to the tomb and confirmed that it was indeed empty—and saw the linen burial cloths lying by themselves without the body of the Lord in them.
So; Luke helps us to understand that this should not have come as an unexpected thing to the disciples. As the angels had said, Jesus told them that He ‘must’ be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
And then, Luke goes on to tell us of another amazing event that occurred that very same day. Two followers of Jesus were walking along the road on their way to a town called Emmaus. Luke even tells us that one of the two men was named Cleopas. They both were sad and confused about the things they had heard; and they talked together about the events of that day. And as they talked, a stranger came along and started walking with them.
This stranger asked them what it was that they were talking about, and why it was that they were so sad. Cleopas thought that this must be the only person in all Jerusalem that had not heard the news of what had happened. He told the stranger about Jesus of Nazareth—a mighty prophet of God in word and deed. He explained how they had placed their hopes in Him that He would be the Messiah—the promised one who would redeem Israel. But they also explained how those hopes seemed dashed when—three days earlier—Jesus had been delivered over to the chief priests and rulers of Israel to be condemned to death and crucified. And then Cleopas said that—as if to contribute even more to their astonishment and sorrow—some women came to the tomb and found it empty; and also that they said they had seen a vision of angels that told them He was alive; and that some of the disciples also went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said.
Luke reported that this stranger then said to them;
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (vv. 25-27).
Luke explained that this stranger was none other than the resurrected Lord Jesus Himself—but that His identity had been hidden from them. (And by the way; wouldn’t you have loved to have heard that conversation?—as Jesus explained to them everything that the Old Testament Scriptures taught about Himself and what He would do? What a Bible lesson that would have been!)
These two disciples still didn’t grasp who this insightful stranger was; but they invited Him to come to their home and have dinner and stay the night. And in the breaking of bread, Luke tells us that Jesus revealed Himself to them—and vanished from their sight.
So here, we find another thing that Jesus said. He said that what happened to Him had been in fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. The prophets had written about it long before. Those two disciples said later that their hearts ‘burned’ within them as Jesus opened the Scriptures up to them.
And then, Luke tells us of a third thing that happened on that day. Those two disciples rose up from the dinner table and—that very hour—ran to Jerusalem where they found the eleven apostles gathered together. The eleven apostles told those two men that Jesus was risen, and that He had appeared to Peter. And those two men reported to the apostles that they too had met Jesus along the road, and of how He broke bread with them. And as they talked together about these things, Jesus Himself stood in their midst and said, “Peace to you.”
It may have been that He had to say peace to them in order to calm them down; because they were terrified—supposing that they were seeing some kind of spirit. But Luke—ever careful to place the evidence before us—said that Jesus told them;
“Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (vv. 38-39).
They still—as Luke put it—“did not believe for joy, and marveled”; and so, Jesus asked them for something to eat. They gave Him a piece of broiled fish; and He ate it in front of them. (Although Luke doesn’t tell us so, I suspect that He may even have handed them the fish bones.)
After proving to them that He was actually standing before them alive and in the flesh, Luke says that He told them;
“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me” (v. 44).
He explained that these were things that must be fulfilled. And then, He opened their understanding—just as He had done with the two disciples on the road—so that they too could comprehend the Scriptures.
Now; let’s consider these three events carefully. Let’s think of the things that Jesus Himself had said in them. In the case of the women at the tomb, they were reminded that He had said, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” He promised these things beforehand—long before He was betrayed and crucified. And secondly, in the case of the two disciples along the road, He told them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” It was something that had been clearly spoken of in the Scriptures—and that there was an ‘ought-ness’ to it all; because it had been promised in the Scriptures. And thirdly, in the case of the gathered apostles, He told them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” They were things that must happen. There was a necessity to it all.
This all didn’t happen just so that we can have another holiday to celebrate. It happened so that God might completely fulfill His promise to redeem us from our fallenness through the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. God the Father has kept His word. His Son Jesus has done what was needed. And now, all of this culminates in a mandate that our Lord gave—a command to be obeyed in the light of His death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection in victory. In verses 46-49, Jesus told His followers;
“Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (vv. 46-49).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; Jesus’ words in this passage teach us that we are responsible to bring the news of what Jesus has done to the whole world. We ourselves enjoy the benefit of what He has done; but it must not let it all stop there. We are not to forget the fact that, because our Lord’s work for us has been completed, our work now needs to be done in passing that same benefit on to other lost and needy people as “witnesses of these things”. And what’s more, our Lord’s words teach us that we must not try to do so in our own strength and wisdom We must trust in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit who bears witness of Jesus to the world in and through us. He is the one who anoints us and strengthens us and fits us to be the ambassadors of the good news to the world.
So; the resurrected Lord Jesus Himself gives us a mandate to follow in response to His resurrection. And our celebration of this day should include a recommitment on our part to fulfill His mandate to us!
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Look at this mandate a little closer; and consider first …
1. WHY IT WAS GIVEN.
In verse 46, Jesus said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day …” We have a mandate given to us because of a great spiritual ‘necessity’.
Do you remember back when the Lord Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized by Him? John initially refused. John thought that he needed to be baptized by Jesus rather than the other way around. But Jesus told John,
“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
There was a ‘fitness’ to it—a ‘propriety’ to it. Jesus—who had no sin of His own—willingly stepped into the waters of the baptism unto repentance for our sins because it was needful and fitting for Him to do so. He had to become fully identified with us in our need in order to pay the death penalty on our behalf. It was necessary in order to fulfill all righteousness. And that made it all necessary—the death, the burial, and the resurrection.
Think all the way back to the garden of Eden—when our first parents fell into sin. God promised in Genesis 3 that the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent; and that promise needed to be kept. In Isaiah 53, we’re told that God would lay the sins of us all upon the Messiah and that He would die in our place; and that promise needed to be kept. In Psalm 22, we’re told that His hands and feet would be pierced, and that He would cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”; and that promise needed to be kept. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus said that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son of Man must be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; and that promise needed to be kept. And in Psalm 16, it was revealed to King David that God would not leave His Holy One in the place of death or allow Him to see corruption; and that promise needed to be kept.
So the thing that we celebrate on this day was more than just an event that gives us a holiday. It was the fulfillment of God’s promises. There was—if we can put it this way—a ‘divine necessity’ to it all. And that necessity is the basis for why the Lord gave us this mandate.
And then, with regard to this mandate, notice …
2. WHAT IT TELLS US TO DO.
Jesus said in verse 47, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem …” What Jesus has completed for us is an act of redemption that it is now our duty to proclaim to the world. It must be preached in such a way as to call for a response.
Think of what the apostle Paul wrote about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. In verses 3-10, He said;
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:3-10).
And in verse 11, he adds this;
Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed (v. 11).
It’s a message that is to be proclaimed—to be preached—in such a way as to call for a response. And what is the response that is called for? Jesus Himself said it: “repentance and remission of sins”. “Repentance” means that we change our mind, and our attitude, and our inner orientation from that of rebellion against God to one of humble submission and obedience to Him. It means that we cease justifying sin and instead turn from it. And the best way to understand this phrase from our Lord is as “repentance with a view to remission [or forgiveness] of sins”. It’s the message of the good news that Jesus paid the debt of our sins for us on our behalf on the cross; and that God raised Him from the dead to prove that He is satisfied with what Jesus has done. Full forgiveness has been purchased for fallen humanity; and each individual person must respond by faith expressed in repentance. And so, we are now ‘ambassadors for Christ’;
as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).
That’s the mandate that Jesus has given because of His resurrection; “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem …”
And then, notice another thing about this mandate ; and that is …
3. WHO IS TO FULFILL IT.
Jesus told the eleven disciples, “And you are witnesses of these things.” Those who were with Him—who heard His teaching; who saw His miracles; who knew who He was; who watched as He was crucified; who could now confirm that He was alive—they were the witnesses who were to bring the message to all nations.
But was this mandate just for them alone? Jesus said that the message was to begin in Jerusalem; and it did. These apostles proclaimed it there. But it was to go beyond Jerusalem and out into every nation of the world. And that points to us. The words of Matthew 28:18-20 apply to us—indeed to all of Jesus’ followers; where Jesus said;
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
That’s the marvelous thing about the great event that we celebrate on this holiday. It’s an event that it is our privilege to preach and proclaim to the whole world—telling everyone that Jesus died for sins and has risen from the dead; and calling everyone to repent with a view to the complete removal of all guilt and the forgiveness of all sin by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
And finally, notice …
4. HOW IT IS MADE POSSIBLE.
It is made possible only by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Jesus said, in verse 49, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you …” That promise is the Holy Spirit. Just before He left them, Jesus told the disciples that He would ask the Father; and the Father would give the Holy Spirit as ‘another Helper’. The Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost.
And notice how dependent we are to be upon Him. Jesus told His disciples, “but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” He didn’t want them to try to run out into the world to fulfill this mandate in their own strength. Surely, if anyone could have, it would have been these apostles—having just spent three-and-a-half years with Him personally. But Jesus said that even they needed to wait until Pentecost—when the Spirit would be given to them. Just before He left them, He told them,
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
It was only when the Holy Spirit came upon them that the apostles were able to be witnesses for Jesus. But after He came and took up residence in them, they immediately began to preach as the Spirit empowered them—and thousands believed. As Jesus Himself had told them before He went to the cross;
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning (John 15:26-27).
So; it’s not that Jesus sends us out to keep this mandate in our own power. We couldn’t do it in our own power. We would fail if we tried. But as we rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit, He empowers us to tell the world what Jesus has done.
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So; this is a great day for us to celebrate. Jesus is alive! Death is conquered! Sin is atoned for! Because He lives, we will live also! But it’s more than just a day to celebrate. It’s a day to recommit to the great mandate that the Lord Jesus has given us:
So; in true celebration of this day, will you recommit yourself to fulfill this mandate and proclaim what Jesus has done? Just yield yourself to the Holy Spirit; and as He gives you opportunity, open your mouth and speak—trusting in His power. For as Jesus has said;
“Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
EA
