Sermon by Neil Earle, 3/26/2005
Luke 24:25: "Then He said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!'"
The book of Luke is called the most beautiful book in the world. Luke wrote two fifths of the new testament. Luke is for the human race, because it is talking about such ordinary people and ordinary events. In Luke 15 is the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost son. There are three lost parables in just one chapter alone. While Matthew is the gospel of majesty, Mark is the gospel of power, Luke is for everyone. Luke is for the human race. Like a doctor he had an interest in births and again an interest in death and an interest in the passing parade of life to the people who came in contact with the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Read Luke Chapter 24. It talks about the risen Christ and the risen Christ appears to other people and His disciples. At first the disciples did not believe the women of the resurrection of Jesus. Peter went to the tomb to see for himself of the resurrection. The darkest days of the church were after Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Jesus was an ordinary human being. He slept in a boat during a storm. He got hungry and thirsty. He was so ordinary. Some thought Jesus was a prophet and not the Messiah.
Luke 9:16-17: "Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them."
This is about one of Jesus' spectacular miracles.
Revelation 1:3, 9-18: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near....I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,' and, 'What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.'
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, 'Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.'"
This is all about Christ and the church. We are in the realm of mystery. Even Jesus died and has the keys of death and hell and He has eternal life to give to all of those who are pardoned.
John 6:54-56: "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."
Jesus is either the Lord or a liar. This is fellowship of the upper room with bread and wine.
Hebrews 9:11-15: "But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."
What did Jesus' resurrection do? Jesus' resurrection took care of all of our sins. It cleansed sin for once and for all past, present and future. The resurrection guarantees the hope of eternal life.
Hebrews 10:11-25: "And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,' says the LORD: 'I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,' then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."
There is one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ. When we pray heaven prays with us.