Jesus, the Key to Unlocking the Scriptures, II: Scripture's Point Luke 24:25-27 (reading 13-34)

*- In part one of "Jesus, the key to unlocking the Scriptures," we examined John 5:39-40 & in those verses we saw that the Scriptures point to the source of life, Jesus.

- We also saw that a key method which Jesus used to understand the Scriptures and apply them was typology.

*- Again, typology means our experience of God is typical of how the ancient authors of Scripture experienced God.

*-So, the application of Scripture is timeless & typical to all of human experience.

*- God will act in the future in the way he has acted in the past because his character is unchanging.

- In this chapter of Luke's gospel, he presents Jesus as teaching his disciples that the whole of Scripture points to Jesus.

- After Jesus spends some time with these disciples on the road to Emmaus, asking about their experience & listening to their story, he then began to engage them.

*- Let's listen again to what Jesus had to say: ²⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. ²⁶ Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” ²⁷ Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Emphasis added).

- Jesus took the time to teach these disciples not only that Scripture is authoritative, but also that the Scriptures must not be treated selectively, preferring some passages & ignoring others as the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees treated them.

- If we are to look to the Scriptures as authoritative & having authority over our lives, then we must understand that the whole of Scripture points to Jesus.

- The Hebrew Scriptures, meaning the Old Testament, are primarily about God & his actions & his mission to save the world, which is the very reason he sent Jesus.

- The Jewish leaders displayed a total disregard for the teaching of Scripture that God's Messiah &, by way of association, the true people of God are presented from the beginning as suffering servants.

- While there are several passages of Scripture throughout the Old Testament, which point to the Messiah, specifically, Luke does not point to these passages or list them.

- Instead, he points out for his readers, as the voice of Jesus, that it is all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures & that Jesus explained from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

- In the eyes of Luke & of Jesus, in the pages of the Old Testament we are presented with the problem of sin, & God's mission to redeem people, which reaches its climax in the person & work of Jesus Christ, the suffering servant.

*- A common theme which church people have heard over & over again is the idea of the suffering, death & resurrection of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

*- The apostle Paul tells us: ³ I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. ⁴ He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 1 Cor. 15:3-4 (NLT, emphasis added)

- But we also need to remember that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures in a way that was completely unexpected.

*- Why were Messiah's rejection & suffering unexpected?

- The rejection & suffering of Jesus was unexpected because of natural human tendencies.

- It is only natural for us to reject suffering. It is natural because suffering is overwhelmingly difficult & painful.

- The way of suffering is not the way that we would suspect any sane, person, someone in her/his right mind, would choose.

- If given the choice between a long, comfortable, trouble-free life of contentment & a life filled with trials & troubles & tribulation & pain & disease, I would guess all of us would choose a life of contentment over a life of pain & trouble.

- So because we can't wrap our heads around it & it sounds crazy to us, we reject it.

- I would also guess that because the Jewish leaders did it 2000 years ago, we also do it today, disregarding what the Scriptures say because it doesn't tickle our fancy or because we don't understand it or know how to go about interpreting it.

- The scribes & teachers of the law spent their lifetimes studying the Scriptures.

- They knew what was written in the pages of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, but they conveniently ignored the concept of a suffering servant (Luke LABC, p. 562).

- But the truth of the matter is: the whole of Scripture points to Jesus.

- He was a suffering servant & he interpreted his suffering as the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures.

- Jesus understood himself as the fulfillment of the law.

- What we could not accomplish, he accomplished in his blameless life & sacrificial death.

- The two commands which sum up the law and the prophets, loving God with wholehearted devotion & loving your neighbor as you would love & care for your own body, these commands Jesus kept flawlessly.

- The very things God told his people He expected of them through the prophet Micah, Jesus was able to do: Jesus acted justly; Jesus loved mercy; & Jesus walked humbly with God.

- There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus saw Abraham's lifelong loyalty & faithfulness to God as a type for himself.

- I am confident that Ruth's loyalty to Naomi typifies Jesus' concern for the widowed & others dealing with tragic loss, grief, & death.

- I am convinced that the suffering & integrity of Joseph in Egypt points to the suffering & integrity of Jesus.

- I'm certain that the suffering of Israel under their Egyptian taskmasters & their exodus through the Red Sea is a type for the suffering of Jesus & his exodus out of death into eternal life.

- I believe it's obvious that the blood of the Passover lamb smeared on the door posts & lintels & the same lamb then roasted & eaten in table fellowship foreshadows the shed blood of Christ & the meal we share in remembrance of him.

- Everywhere I turn in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, I am beginning to see Jesus.

- I see Jesus in King David, the man after God's own heart.

- I see Jesus in King Solomon, the wisest man who had ever lived.

- I see Jesus in the outcry of the prophets for justice for the poor & the oppressed.

- I see Jesus in the grief of Jeremiah over the people of Israel.

- I see Jesus in Hosea's marriage to an unfaithful prostitute.

- I am convinced; the whole of Scripture points to Jesus.

- I firmly believe that Jesus is the key to unlocking the Scriptures.

- As Luke explains to his readers: Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27 (NLT, emphasis added)

- The whole of Scripture points to Jesus.