Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Heavenly Father, thank you for your presence among us.
[00:00:03] Thank you. For as Jared has prayed for your love and for your grace.
[00:00:08] Thank you that you've revealed yourself to us through the scriptures and pray this morning you may reveal yourself to us again. Through your holy Spirit may I decrease and you increase. In Jesus name we pray.
[00:00:22] Amen.
[00:00:24] So I was scrolling through Instagram a few weeks ago and came across a clip. It was an interview with with Paul Rudd, McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard as they were doing publicity for their movie Ghostbusters Frozen Empire.
[00:00:43] And the interviewer was kind of getting into some questions and then asked this question.
[00:00:49] If you could go back in time and spend a day with anyone, who would it be?
[00:00:56] What answers came up in the group that you were talking about?
[00:01:00] Anyone to yell them out?
[00:01:03] Great, great grandfather. That's a good one.
[00:01:06] Mum. Mum. Some really personal ones. Yeah.
[00:01:10] Let me tell you what Paul Rudd answered because as they sat there, the three of them were like, oh, that's a good question.
[00:01:18] And Paul Rudd said, well, I know who I'd say.
[00:01:23] Jesus.
[00:01:25] That was his answer.
[00:01:29] And it was met his two co stars. McKenna Grace laughed in a way that could only be described as a guffaw. Have people heard the term guffaw before? Like an explosive laugh, like she couldn't believe he'd said such a thing. And Finn Wolfhard looked like, dude, you can't say Jesus like that's not. And but he just so nonchalantly responded to them and said this, laugh all you want.
[00:01:56] And it seems wrong to say, but he existed.
[00:02:01] Wouldn't you want to go back and spend some time with Jesus and ask him, hey Jesus, what's the deal?
[00:02:11] So Paul Rudd, he's a Jewish man, he doesn't have a lot of religious faith, but for him, the sense of if he could go back and talk to anyone, wouldn't you want a bit of clarity about who is Jesus?
[00:02:26] Like what was he about?
[00:02:30] Because the reality is I thought this was a profound answer because he did exist. You would be hard pressed to find any historian of weight in academia who would say Jesus Christ did not exist, that he did not walk that streets of Galilee, that he is a historical figure.
[00:02:56] Even historians throughout history, even those who were kind of writing about the time Jesus was in, claim that he existed. They don't agree with Jesus of who he said he was per se, but they don't doubt his existence.
[00:03:14] There's a guy, Cornelius Tacitus, he is one of the most famous Roman historians of the day as he wrote about Jesus, this is what he said said Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius.
[00:03:35] But the pernicious superstition that gives you a little bit of a window into what he thought about this Christian faith, about what Jesus had come to do, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated. I just love that word in, but through the city of Rome also.
[00:03:58] He's just speaking very matter of factly about historical events that actually happened. And he seems to have no issues speaking of Jesus as someone who existed. Obviously not a fan of the way, but acknowledged the existence of Jesus.
[00:04:16] A Jewish historian by the name of Flavius Josephus, who was one of the famous Jewish historians of the time.
[00:04:25] This is what he said in writing.
[00:04:27] At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good. He was known to be virtuous.
[00:04:36] And many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples.
[00:04:41] Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship.
[00:04:52] So again, just a very forthright retelling of events, but no doubt that Jesus existed.
[00:05:03] And so I wonder, I think Paul ruds onto something.
[00:05:08] Wouldn't you want to go back and try and figure out what is the deal with Jesus? Whether you're a follower of Jesus or not. There's an element for meles of curiosity.
[00:05:21] I think there's one kink in Paul Rudd's idea that he wants to go back, spend a day with Jesus, and he can kind of work out what the deal is.
[00:05:31] But Jesus had 12 guys hang out with him every day for three years and still have no idea what the deal was like. There are stories and there are moments where they are literally asking the question, who is this man?
[00:05:57] Like when he calmed a storm while they were on a boat. Who is this guy that even the wind and the waves obeyed him?
[00:06:07] That even in all the time that they spent with Jesus and with all the teaching that Jesus gave and all the signs and the wonders that Jesus performed, they still didn't get it.
[00:06:25] If you take seriously the passage that Lurls read for us, Jesus seems to suggest that he's at a loss as to why there was any confusion.
[00:06:40] So this story that Luz has read, you can find. If you've got a Bible with you or you'd like to look it up on a device, turn to Luke chapter 24. This is after Jesus has been raised from the dead.
[00:06:53] And this little account, because it starts off with while they were still talking about this, they're talking about something that has just happened. And what has just happened is there is two disciples who are walking away from Jerusalem.
[00:07:09] They're like leaving behind all Jerusalem was where the promises of God were going to be brought to life. And they're walking away from it to Emmaus.
[00:07:20] They're dejected, they're heartbroken. They feel hopeless.
[00:07:27] Jesus, doing some of that mischief that he was renowned for, comes up. They don't recognize him. They're prevented from recognizing him. And Jesus asks, why are you so sad?
[00:07:40] They can't believe that this person has no idea of what has been going on in this particular day. So they tell him that they had been following Jesus. What an incredible teacher. They thought he would be the one to restore the kingdom of Israel. They thought he would be the one. That they had been waiting hundreds and hundreds of years for this figure known as the Messiah, this chosen one, this anointed representative who would come and establish a rule and reign of peace and justice.
[00:08:21] But he'd been crucified.
[00:08:24] He had been hung on a cross.
[00:08:30] And they're just completely feeling downcast.
[00:08:34] Jesus response to these two disciples is not what you would expect.
[00:08:43] In verse 25, Jesus says this, how foolish are you? Which seems harsh, doesn't it?
[00:08:55] Like, these are two grieving men feeling hopeless already. And Jesus hits them with, how foolish are you? And how slow to believe all that. The prophets have spoken this word foolish.
[00:09:13] It doesn't mean moronic. It doesn't mean idiotic. It means unable to understand.
[00:09:20] It's a word that kind of means obtuse. They're just not quite picking up what has been put down.
[00:09:29] Did not the Messiah, did not this one you have been waiting for have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?
[00:09:42] And then verse 27, Jesus hits them with something, says, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, this is kind of a shorthand for saying the Jewish scripture is the Old Testament.
[00:09:59] He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
[00:10:09] That for Jesus, as he goes back and he helps unpack with them the stories of the Scriptures, what he brings out is that this is a story concerning himself and that all of these narratives, all of these stories that a Messiah, that the chosen one would not die, he would not suffer, he would rise up. Jesus saying, I don't know where you got that. It was unthinkable for the Jewish people that this coming figure would not just die, but would die A criminal's death on a cross.
[00:10:53] They continue on and these two disciples ask Jesus, they don't know he's Jesus yet to stay with him. And they break bread. They take kind of the communion. Whether that's hospitality or communion, they kind of think it's communion. They break bread together. And in that moment, their eyes, his identity is revealed. He disappears.
[00:11:16] And what they're left with is this sense. In verse 32, they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us, that something was stirring within them as he opened the Scriptures and shared this story that was concerning himself.
[00:11:47] This is all very well and good, but you might be asking yourself the question, weren't we doing a series on the mission of God?
[00:11:57] How on earth does this apply to this topic that we've been unpacking of, How Jesus calls us to participate with him in his mission of sharing the good news of the kingdom to a world both locally and globally?
[00:12:16] How does this fit in?
[00:12:19] I think what we see in this passage is that as we come to the scriptures, all of the scriptures are about Jesus and his mission.
[00:12:32] And it's one of the things that I've heard numerous times when talking about this topic is, well, this word mission doesn't really make it into the pages of Scripture. It's used about seven or eight times throughout the Jewish scriptures. Like, why is this such a big deal?
[00:12:49] Big deal because all the scriptures are about who Jesus is and what he came to do.
[00:12:58] And that informs what our partnership, what our going with Jesus in his mission looks like.
[00:13:09] This is the event that picked up from when Lewis was reading that they are still talking about this.
[00:13:17] These two disciples along the mass road have gone. They've decided to go and tell the rest of the disciples because there's this rumor going around that Jesus has come back from the dead, that he has been raised and they can't comprehend it, but suddenly they see that he has been resurrected.
[00:13:37] They go and they tell the disciples.
[00:13:41] And that's where we pick it up in verse 36, while they're still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.
[00:13:54] Which it's one of those, can you imagine this scene? We're not told how Jesus came to stand among them.
[00:14:02] At this point, they're talking around as a group and Jesus, it kind of gets the vibe, pops up out of nowhere and says, peace be with you. That's got to be a startling occurrence at the very least.
[00:14:18] And this is what happened. This is. The disciples kind of feel this. They're startled, they're frightened. They actually think a ghost, that this can't be happening.
[00:14:32] They are so absolutely shocked by what seems to be happening because people don't come back from the dead, do they?
[00:14:43] I mean, for the Jewish people, there was a sense where there would come a day where the dead would rise again, and they're looking forward to this day. But that's not now, is it? All of their understandings of the afterlife and death is being turned upside down.
[00:15:05] In this moment, they thought they had seen a spirit.
[00:15:10] Jesus here says to them, verse 38, why are you troubled?
[00:15:20] Why do doubts rise in your minds?
[00:15:25] Look at my hands and my feet.
[00:15:27] It is I myself.
[00:15:30] Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see. I have.
[00:15:38] This is a moment where he is. No, no, no. This. This resurrection has taken place.
[00:15:45] The wounds that were considered shameful are now wounds that point to the power and ability of God. They are wounds that speak to this, the work that God has done.
[00:16:02] Luke records this next scene. He says when Jesus had said this, he showed them his hands and feet and while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement.
[00:16:15] So, like, literally, they feel this is too good to be true.
[00:16:20] It's gone from a startling and this is a ghost to something actually, this is Jesus. He's raised it again. They're still not 100% sure if they believe it, but now it's because this can't. Like, this is incredible.
[00:16:34] Jesus asks for a snack.
[00:16:37] Jesus says, I'm hungry. Apparently a resurrection will make a man snacky.
[00:16:42] He's given a piece of fish to eat. And here he starts to speak to the shock, to the disbelief that was going on in them when he appeared.
[00:16:57] And he does it in the same way that he ministers to the two disciples who are walking along the road to Emmaus.
[00:17:08] Verses 44 to 45. He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you.
[00:17:21] Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.
[00:17:33] And then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures, just like with the two along the Emmaus roads where he has opened their eyes to see and understand. Now he does the work of opening the mind of the disciples by going through the Scriptures. This phrase, the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms, is a shorthand again for speaking of what we call the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, the Jewish Bible, or is known as the Tanakh and so the point here is not so much that, because I've heard it numerous times. Don't you wish you could have been a part of this Bible study?
[00:18:19] Which absolutely. How great is like people wondering which verses did Jesus take them to to show this? Which chapters did Jesus take them to to unpack this? But I don't think that's quite the point considering that verses and chapter numbers came in the 13th and 15th century respectively.
[00:18:41] They were not. They did not exist at this moment in time.
[00:18:46] I love how Joel Green writes it in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke. The point of Jesus words is not that such and such a verse has now come true, but that the truth to which all scripture point has now been realized.
[00:19:07] The Tanakh is kind of the Jewish Scriptures. It's structured a little bit differently than the Old Testament that we have. And it's broken into three components. You have the Torah, which is the same, that is the law of Moses.
[00:19:22] You have the Nevim. This is where the T a N a K comes from. The N stands for Nevim is the prophets. But they structure it as in the former prophets.
[00:19:33] And that is kind of Elijah, Elisha and the story of the kings and the prophets, interaction with them. And then the latter prophets.
[00:19:43] And then you have the Ketevim, which is kind of like that drawer that you have at home that you just chuck everything in.
[00:19:50] It's kind of the Psalms and the Proverbs and Job and the wisdom literature and the laments and everything else kind of comes into this. And that is either known as the Psalms or the writings.
[00:20:06] And so when Jesus says here everything in the law, the prophets and the Psalms, what he's saying is everything in the story of the Jewish people, the Jewish scriptures, points to me.
[00:20:24] Jesus is sowing his story in with the story of the people of God that has been.
[00:20:32] And these stories are going to be weaved into the stories of followers of Jesus in the early church. Jesus wants them to know that the work that God has been doing, it's not just. It's one massive tapestry of how God has been at work from the beginning and is continuing to work among his people.
[00:20:56] And so how on earth would you summarize this story that is the Law, the prophets and the Psalms, all of the Jewish Scriptures, how would you summarize that?
[00:21:09] In verses 46 and 47 we get Jesus summary.
[00:21:14] He told them this is what is written.
[00:21:18] The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
[00:21:25] Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
[00:21:37] So Jesus sums up this story by saying that the Messiah, the one that they believed would never suffer, would not die, would establish a rule and a reign through overthrowing the Roman Empire. The ones who are oppressing, he's like, no, no, this Messiah was always going to suffer and then rise from the dead on the third day.
[00:22:01] And because Jesus has gone through death and come out the other side, defeating it, a new way has been opened up.
[00:22:13] A new way of repentance and forgiveness of sins has been opened up for all nations.
[00:22:23] That this is not just for the people of Israel anymore.
[00:22:29] And it will begin from Jerusalem.
[00:22:34] I don't know if you've read Luke recently.
[00:22:38] Everything in Luke is moving towards Jerusalem at this point.
[00:22:44] The whole direction, the whole trajectory, all the momentum is moving towards Jerusalem as the place where everything is going to happen. It's like, and I hope I've got this right, correct me if I'm wrong, centripetal force, everything is being drawn in to Jerusalem as the place where all of this stuff was said to be happening. But from this moment on, its beginning from Jerusalem, it's centrifugal. I googled this profusely because this is not my area of expertise, but it's almost like in the resurrection of Jesus, everything was moving to Jerusalem and now it's going to be shot out.
[00:23:29] It's not meant to remain in Jerusalem. It's beginning from that this message of forgiveness and repentance and, and that the Messiah has suffered and died and come out of the grave again would now start to be shared and that would go out to all nations.
[00:23:53] It's as we have been talking about, as we've. As Jared prayed today, it is local and it goes out to the nation and to the nations as well. It's like Craig goes to Indonesia. It's why Jared and Megan are preparing to go to Albania. It's that God is doing this. And this message is to shape our engagement not just in the local that's really important, but it's to go to all nations as well.
[00:24:24] And this mission that began with Jesus, I think it's really important here that Jesus says that the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name.
[00:24:39] This is what Jesus has always been about.
[00:24:43] This is what he has been about. Being that meeting place of the kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven, speaking forgiveness for people in a way they did not have to go to the temple.
[00:24:55] It was one of the great controversies around Jesus Day because Jesus just Said to people, your faith has healed you, you are forgiven. And they were forgiven. Then the Jewish leaders weren't a massive fan because there was a whole process for that being done at the temple.
[00:25:14] But this ministry that started in Jesus is then to be continued, continued.
[00:25:23] And hence this saying, you are now witnesses of these things.
[00:25:33] And so what does a witness do?
[00:25:38] A witness speaks to what they have seen and heard.
[00:25:46] That's what they are being called to do.
[00:25:50] And if you read through the Book of Acts, pay attention for how often this word witness comes up.
[00:26:00] It's everywhere. Through the Book of Acts they are continuing this mandate that Jesus has given them to go and to be his witnesses.
[00:26:14] They are to go and proclaim. Which I think one of the important things then Jesus says is, I'm going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.
[00:26:33] But ultimately this call to be witnesses is not one that they should do in their own strength.
[00:26:41] That this is not a kind of hands in, yeah, let's go. Charge. Like the first instruction Jesus give is, wait, wait in the city, because they can't do it in their own strength. I mean, this call to proclaim actually goes right back to Luke 4, because this is why. This is the mission statement Jesus gives for his coming in Luke 4, 18:19 says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
[00:27:21] He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.
[00:27:32] This is straight from Isaiah, chapter 61, with Jesus saying, this is why I've come. He says, after he says these words, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
[00:27:44] And what immediately precedes these words?
[00:27:49] The temptation of Jesus.
[00:27:52] Right after the baptism of Jesus, where the Spirit descends upon him. He then goes into the wilderness, led by the Spirit.
[00:28:00] He comes out full of the Spirit.
[00:28:03] He says, here he has sent me to proclaim like the Spirit of the Lord is on me, like it's all for Jesus.
[00:28:12] Jesus operated in the power of the living present and the Spirit of God.
[00:28:19] So what makes us think we could do any different?
[00:28:25] Hence the instruction to wait, to wait for the empowering and the filling of his presence of His Spirit.
[00:28:40] Because it's not our mission.
[00:28:46] We're invited to participate, we're invited to join him, we're invited to walk with him and we're invited to see People come out of oppression and see people forgiven and relationships restored.
[00:29:01] We're invited to participate and walk and see all that. But it's his mission that we are continuing.
[00:29:10] And the only way we can continue it is through his empowering presence.
[00:29:20] So if we were to take a leaf out of Paul Rudd's book and spend some time with Jesus asking what his deal was, I think we would be pointed to come back to the Scriptures and see afresh, have our eyes opened to the mission of God at the heart of all the scriptures.
[00:29:49] That we would be invited to see Jesus as the anointed representative of God, the chosen king, the one who suffered on our behalf, the one who died in our place, and the one who was raised to life so that a new way could be made that we could taste and experience and walk in forgiveness of sin that comes through repentance, laying down our life and taking a hold of the new life that Jesus has for us. This is the story of the Scriptures.
[00:30:37] It points to Jesus.
[00:30:40] It points to him and the mission that he came to fulfill and that we, through his gracious invitation, get to participate in.
[00:30:56] To close, just some questions to ponder through the week.
[00:31:01] Like if someone new to faith was to come to you and say, this Bible sounds really interesting. What's it about?
[00:31:08] How would you answer that question?
[00:31:13] How does the shape of Jesus mission shape our engagement with the world and the people that we see and encounter every day?
[00:31:27] Luke 24, and the story of the disciples along the road to Emmaus. And this.
[00:31:34] There's so much to unpack. And I encourage you, if you have the time this week to take some time in the quiet, make a cup of tea or a coffee or milkshake, make your own drink whatever you want to drink and just sit in this passage for a bit.
[00:31:57] Sit in it, read it, reread it.
[00:32:01] What stands out to you?
[00:32:04] What are the phrases? What are the images? What are the movements? What are the questions? What are the words that kind of rise in you as you engage with this scripture?
[00:32:18] Let me pray.
[00:32:24] Heavenly Father, just thank you for these words. Thank you for these disciples that walked along the road to Emmaus and had this encounter. And thank you that it was recorded for us.
[00:32:37] Thank you for the Scriptures that reveal you, that are concerning yourself, that point to you and the mission that you came to live out.
[00:32:51] Help us to wrestle with. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for us as a church community, as we reach out to the community around us and say that a new way has been made out of suffering and death into new life and new creation.
[00:33:11] Would you fill us, Jesus, because we can do nothing without you.
[00:33:16] In your mighty name we pray.
[00:33:18] Amen.
