He Must Enter His Glory • Luke 24:13-35 (Easter)

42:59 Teaching begins

Notes

On Easter morning the disciples were a mess.

They were discouraged. They were disappointed. They were afraid of the men who had killed Jesus. They could be next. No confidence, no courage about the future. They lived in overwhelm. They were powerless, ineffective. Stuck.

By the evening time that had all turned around. In one day they became excited about the future. They had a clearer understanding. They saw everything that happened in the proper context in order to rightly understand what was going on. They had hope.

This is always going to be relevant to the present minute.

Only the resurrection of Jesus enables us to understand life in 2021 and not be overwhelmed, but be renewed and established.

I’m reading in Luke 24 from verse 13 (to 35).

1. These disciples are overwhelmed by the events of the past three days.

A. Overwhelmed means subject to incapacitating emotional or mental stress. That’s what these guys have. They are reeling from shock after shock.

B. For example, they are trying to figure out what happened to Jesus.

1. He was a prophet mighty in deed. He healed the sick, He gave sight to the blind, He raised the dead.

2. He was mighty in word. He spoke about God. No man spoke like Jesus, the teaching was phenomenal. No one ever got the best of Him in a debate or a challenge. Ever.

3. We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. We thought maybe He was the Messiah. We were excited, we were electrified. We thought, this is IT! Wow, were we excited!

4. He was from God, and now He’s dead.

C. Another overwhelming aspect is our own religious leaders betrayed us and they are the ones that got Him killed. Our own government betrayed us. They are acting in their own self-interest. They put a kangaroo court together and then rammed through His condemnation with the Roman governor. And they all got away with murder. Looks like evil is going to win.

D. This is the third day since it all happened. Dead is dead. It’s finished. It’s over. We are devastated. Is any of this real? Is God really there? What was that?

E. But it gets crazier. Some women from our group went to the tomb this morning and they came back saying they saw angels who said that Jesus is alive. Some guys actually checked out the scene and it was just as the women said, but the guys didn’t see Jesus.

F. So we don’t know what to think. All that hopeful stuff is crazy. Dead is dead and there’s no getting around that.

2. They do not realise that Jesus is with them. 

A. We as readers get to see Jesus but they don’t. We feel superior because, He’s right there, you klonks!

B. But this is one of the advantages of the resurrection that they are already experiencing. Jesus is with them though they do not see Him or feel Him. He said I am with you always, even to the end of the earth. Now, in the resurrection, He is already blessing His disciples who are overwhelmed.

3. Jesus counsels them! He tells them how to figure out what is really going on.

A. This is one of the names of Jesus from Isaiah 9: Counselor.

B. Jesus is a good counselor. He knows what they really need. Not hand-holding, oh, there there, dear. They need to think sharply and accurately. He rebukes their foolishness and dullness.

1. Foolish is a word that means unthinking. They have brains but they’re not using them.

2. Slow of heart means stupid, slow to understand.

3. You know what your problem is? You guys are not thinking correctly. You are going by what you see and what you hear and what you understand. And Jesus might have gone on to say, I would expect you to be overwhelmed and messed up if that is the grid through which you evaluate life. Because you have come to the wrong conclusion and you believe what is false. No wonder you are messed up.

C. Then He teaches them the proper way to view all of life: through the Scriptures.

1. He asks them a rhetorical question that serves to emphasise His point. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? This is inevitable, necessary, must happen. All those things that you are discouraged at are actually the fulfilment of the word of God, which you are not holding on to.

2. Plus, this Counselor demonstrates He really knows the Scriptures and what they mean. He shows that this is not His little crackpot theory, but that Moses spoke of this, all the prophets, and later on, David, the Psalms speak of this, that the Messiah would suffer and afterward enter into His glory. This is the message of Scripture. It is all about the Messiah, His sufferings, and His glory. This glory begins with the resurrection of the Messiah from the dead.

3. This Counselor speaks with confidence and certainty. He knows that the word of God must be fulfilled. It is not possible that those words spoken by God, written down, preserved and protected, can return to God void, ineffectual. God speaks, but nothing comes of it? Fizzles out? Didn’t work, better luck next time? That is ridiculous. That is just stupid. You call yourselves believers? How come you klonks don’t know or believe the word of God?!

D. This Man is the example of what happens when you know and hold on to the Scriptures. He is calm, stable, confident. Those unshakeable Scriptures that must be fulfilled are the stability and clarity of this Man’s life. It is unmistakeable. This Guy is phenomenal!

E. But one more thing. They get this Counselor to stay with them. Oh, all right, I’ll stay. He stays through the blessing of the bread. Then their eyes are opened, waaaaaaaaa! It’s Jesus Himself.

F. Weren’t our hearts burning within us as He talked with us and explained the Scriptures to us? When they had the right grid to look through, they had confidence, hope, excitement at what God was doing. He really is in control! He is God! This is fabulous!

G. The difference is really remarkable. They get up in the night and go back seven miles in the dark to get back to Jerusalem to tell the guys. They are enthusiastic, peppy, energetic, encouraged, solid, certain.

4. The exposition of Scripture, by Jesus, changes everything for these disciples.

A. Before they were viewing life through their senses, evaluating with their minds what they saw and heard. That way was wrong and messed them up when things didn’t go as they expected.

B. They learned that there is a better way to view life that is correct and explains what was going on. The word of God is the only basis that explains what is happening.

C. Especially Scripture clarifies who Jesus is. Not just a prophet, but the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of Man, the One who will rule over all kingdoms. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed, Daniel 7:14

5. Today the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only perspective through which we live in 2021.

A. We are tempted to view things through our own understanding of what we see and hear. But there are problems with what we are given as truth. All the news media sound more and more like 1984, telling us what we are supposed to think, whether it’s true or not. There are fact checkers who in fact are people. And people are liars. So they fact check something about a speech, a vaccine, anything, and you can still say, really? Is that true?

B. Our government has voted itself emergency powers for the pandemic that they are reluctant to give up. They like power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Governments have plunged all of us into debt over the pandemic. Many governments have borrowed for huge pandemic spending but who is going to pay for this? And who is becoming rich because of this? Government is going to betray us increasingly as time goes on.

C. Socially we are growing increasingly loveless. All these groups that correct racism, sexism, oppression, are all bullies. Where’s the love? We are being told that gender can be anything you want. Any kind of sex between any gender, any age group, is great. We must get little children in on this as soon as possible. If anyone says no, that person is homophobic, transphobic, hate crime. Anyone who opposes abortion, or promotes common sense about sex is bullied.

D. Economically there is very little to trust in. World finances are a house of cards. We see names becoming big and influential, then it appears that they are somehow cheating and lying in order to make money, and then it all collapses in billions of pounds of debt. Somebody, somewhere has to pay for all this.

E. Speaking of the health issue, we are in a pandemic that seems to have no end. The vaccines are effective, but we are being told, don’t blow our gains with relaxation, with holidays, with living. We are being conditioned for vaccine passports to prove we are not going to get sick of covid. Now, we can drop dead of anything else, but it better not be covid. What we are being conditioned for is complete government intrusion into our lives. Something wicked is going on.

F. If our grid is informed by the media we won’t know which end is up. We don’t know who is telling the truth and who is lying.

G. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead establishes Scripture, the only safe way to look at our lives and have stability and certainty

1. That’s what the Apostle Peter says in his second epistle: 2 Peter 1:19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

2. Those of you familiar with Scripture see that as the world becomes more wicked and lawless, everything is right on schedule. Jesus Himself said this is what the world will be like before His return. The Book of Revelation shows us that there will be a one-world government that controls all its citizens and is against Christ. We see the move towards a one-world system. We see that governments are becoming more anti-Christ.

H. The focus of Scripture at the present time is that Jesus must enter into His glory.

1. It was necessary that He suffer for our sins and die. That is the first part of God’s plan.

2. It is just as necessary that Jesus must enter into His glory. That’s more than His entering the glory of heaven, as He does for us as a forerunner, so that we also may enter into that glory. It means the heavens opening and revealing Jesus as the Son of God, and us with him, in glory. Jesus will return, He will destroy all kingdom and rule, all power and authority raised up against God and His people. He will set up His kingdom on the earth which will never grow old, never pass to another government.

3. And before Jesus enters His glory the antichrist must come. He must cause everyone to take his mark on his right hand or his forehead. There will be famine, disease, death, the total pollution of all water on earth, the destruction of every green plant. Darkness and the stars falling from heaven. Plagues, war, the ruination of the whole earth. It is worse than anything ever experienced before in history. These times are coming on the earth. They are inevitable and necessary. They must come.

I. So as we look at what happens now through Scripture we remember, the Scriptures showed that Jesus must suffer for our sins. They showed that He must rise from the dead. These things have been accomplished. They also show that He must enter His glory.

6. So what? Let’s continue to look all around us through the grid of Scripture.

A. Death is not the end. There is such a thing as the historical resurrection of Jesus.

1. These men were discouraged and pessimistic because they were practical men, living in a world where when you are dead that’s the end of hope.

2. Jesus changed that. Death is not the end. Eternal life is the end. The Apostle Peter says we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Because He lives, all who are in Him are alive. Because He was glorified, we also will be glorified with Him.

B. Because Jesus is alive it guarantees the fulfilment of the rest of what must happen.

1. It was necessary that the Messiah suffer and die. It was also necessary that He enter into His glory.

2. I don’t think that entering into heaven is what is talked about. That’s important, because His entering into heaven is the guarantee that we will also enter into heaven. But at the present time the name of Jesus Christ is still a curse word. It’s still hip to ignore Jesus and blaspheme Him and disobey Him.

3. He enters His glory when He enters this world again historically. When the heavens split open and there He is, coming with the clouds of heaven and the holy angels and all the saints in glory. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because it’s no longer possible to ignore or blaspheme Jesus and their way of life is gone forever and they are wrong. Jesus really is the Lord God Almighty and they have lived against Him. They forfeit their souls now. Jesus comes to judge the earth, destroy all government and rule and reign forever in glory. To the point where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

4. That’s why we plead with people, receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Today is the day of salvation, now is the acceptable time.

C. We can’t go by what we see and hear. We have to go by what scripture says. And then we will have light to live by. Let me explain.

1. The ninth plague on Egypt was darkness that may be felt. Oppressive. No one knew where it came from, how long it would last. They couldn’t leave their houses because they didn’t know if they could find their way home. Would there ever be light again?

2. In all the houses of Israel there was light. It doesn’t say how. But it had to be more than lighting a candle. God was with them. Outside there is fear, the darkness that may be felt, oppressive. But God is working out their salvation. There is the hope, the expectation that God will bring this about.

3. When we stay in the Scriptures and they are our light, then our hearts will be burning in us just like these disciples. Scripture must be fulfilled. Jesus must enter His glory in time and history. It must happen.

4. The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? How shall I be discouraged? He accomplishes what concerns Him. He will certainly accomplish what concerns me.

Let’s pray.