The Plan and Purpose of God

Luke's Gospel explains that after Jesus appeared to the disciples, and offered proof of his resurrection, he led them in a study of the Bible. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains that understanding the Bible is the only way for us to make sense of all that's going on in the world around us. Luke chapter 24, and we'll be looking at the section that begins at verse 44. Left to our own conclusions.

Simply viewing material or reading material without explanation and without clarification is actually dangerous. And the great need of the hour is the need that was marked in the lives of the disciples here in this little section. They were, you will remember, a jumble of emotions. They were vacillating between faith and fear. They were essentially reflecting on the resurrection and, of course, on the sufferings of Christ, and they were asking, What is this? And Jesus very graciously tells them what it is. In fact, he says in verse 44, This is what I told you while I was still with you. And then he says in verse 45, This is what is written. Now, of course, he is simply offering to this larger group the same approach that he offered to the two disciples on the Emmaus road, the story of which is chronicled for us further up the page.

Now, it was very gracious of God to do that for them, because it's a big help to us as well. Because we didn't meet Jesus walking down Euclid Avenue. We haven't had a face-to-face encounter with the Lord Jesus. We didn't meet him in the street. He didn't come up to us in Starbucks and say, Hey, I'm Jesus.

Who are you? We have met Jesus where? We have met him in the Scriptures. We have been pointed to him in the lives of those who know him, but ultimately, our verifiable data is in this book. So here on this particular occasion, with the opportunity to simply say, I am he, he seizes the chance to give them a study of the Bible and thereby establishes a pattern that he's going to follow, and he's following it right here, when in the evening of the following week, with a crowd gathered, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, he appears among them, he speaks peace to them, he responds to their panic, he provides them with proofs, and into their bewilderment he says, This is what I told you, and this is what is written.

You see, what they needed is what we need. Verse 45, he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Unless he opens our minds, we can't understand the Scriptures. Oh, we can understand the language and the syntax with a knowledge of English. We know the difference between nouns and prepositions.

We know what is history and poetry and things like that. But it does not come home in a life-changing way except by the power of the Spirit of God. And many who were here this morning can testify to that. I read the Bible as a child, or I went to a study and I came to church, or I was attending this event.

And I really wasn't making much of it at all. And somehow or another, the Scriptures opened up to me. And I saw myself. And I saw Christ.

And my life was changed. Well, that peculiar dimension of God's revelation is not something that simply brings us to faith. It is something which sustains us in the faith. And the great need this morning, for many of us, is simply that our minds would be opened so that we could understand the Scriptures. You see, we need constantly to have our minds recalibrated by the Bible if our emotions are not to lead us astray.

Jesus takes these emotional, disturbed, vacillating followers of his and turns them to the safeguard of Scripture. Now, is that not right? You've got the text in front of you.

Is that what he's doing? This is what I told you. This is what is written. Now, what does he say? He essentially gives to them four things.

And I want to tell you what they are before I get to them so that you can know we're at least making progress. First of all, he says, let me enunciate for you the plan of God. Let me tell you, secondly, about the purpose that I have for you. Let me make clear to you that you are the personnel involved in the purpose. And let me finally tell you that there's no point in even making a stab at this idea unless you have the power of the Holy Spirit clothing you from on high. So there we have it. First of all, the plan—look at it with me.

Jesus is essentially giving to them the big picture, the whole scheme of things. Remember, how I told you while I was still with you. Isn't that an interesting little phrase? This is what I told you while I was still with you. Well, he's with them. Yes, but he isn't. He isn't. He is no longer with them as he was with them. Now he is just visiting them. He is about to be completely gone.

We're coming to the ascension in just a moment. But what he's saying is, things have radically altered. I was with you. We were together for all that time.

I'm no longer with you like that, but you will remember when we were together for all that time. This is what I told you. And we have gone time and again back to chapter 9. My Bible almost opens to the verse.

I turn to it immediately there, and there's no marker in it. 9.44, listen carefully. He said to what I'm about to tell you, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. But they didn't understand what this meant.

It was hidden from them, so they didn't grasp it, and they were actually afraid to ask him about it. And now he says, this is that. Let me just pause there and make the point that if we don't know that, we can't understand this.

You see? So if you take the this of a dramatic piece without the that of the unfolding drama of redemption, you say, What is this? And until we understand that this is that, we're at sea.

And that's actually where a few of us are. This—my suffering, my resurrection—they're all part of God's great mural of salvation. The past and the present and the future are all fitting into God's drama, the scream of things.

The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ was not supplied by God to correct a defect in the system. As if somehow or another everything had gone wrong, and God looked from heaven and said, Oh, this thing is totally out of control. I'm gonna have to come up with a plan. Now, what we discover is that it was God's plan from all of eternity taking into account the drama which he knew would unfold. And God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit determined within the framework of eternity, if I may say so reverently, who would do what. And they came to the conclusion that the plan of salvation would emerge from God the Father, the procuring of salvation would be as a result of the work of the Son, and the applying of salvation to the lives of those who repent and believe would be the work of God the Holy Spirit.

Well, that's enough on the plan. Let's go to the purpose. Jesus is essentially saying, Allow me to summarize all of this for you.

All of Scripture can be understood in terms of, essentially, this threefold dimension. I'm not sure it comes out particularly clearly in any of the English translations, but each of the verbs that he uses are in the infinitive in the Greek. There are three parallel verbs. They're all infinitives.

Which, of course, you will remember from English at school—at least four of you will. But what he says here is this. He told them, This is what is written. Now, it says here, The Christ will suffer and rise, and repentance will be preached. But they're all infinitives in the Greek. This is what he's saying.

This is how it is. It is for the Messiah to suffer, to rise, and for repentance and forgiveness to be proclaimed. He says, I want you to understand this. I've given you the spiritual capacity by opening your minds, and now I'm giving you a helpful summary.

You need to get a hold of this, he's saying. Repentance—a turning from sin and a turning to God. Forgiveness—the dimensions of his mercy are made available through the gospel. And this is the ultimate purpose, the evangelistic purpose of the church. Certainly, the overarching purpose of mankind for all time is that we might glorify God and enjoy him forever, but it is the express purpose of the church while here on earth to see unbelieving people become the committed followers of Jesus Christ. And he said, If you think about what I told you, if you remember what is written, then you will recognize that this is the ultimate purpose. Now, will you notice, from verse 47, that repentance and forgiveness of sins is going to be preached in the name of Jesus to all nations, and the evangelistic program is about to begin in Jerusalem? Let me pause for a moment on to all nations. The Bible is committed to the United Nations, and no true follower of Jesus in the continental United States has come to terms with the vastness of the purpose of God until we too are committed to the United Nations. And if you take your concordance and work your way through it, you will see this is reinforced all the way along. You go to the Psalms, Psalm 2, verse 8, God says, Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the nations your inheritance.

Not America your inheritance, not the British Isles your inheritance, not the British Empire your inheritance, the nations your inheritance. Isaiah 49, the same emphasis. The servant of the Lord stands up and says, Listen to me, all you islands, and pay attention to me, you distant nations. And he's not long into his little tale, when he starts to falter a little bit and he looks around at how things are going, and he starts to doubt himself, and then he soliloquizes, and he says, I have labored to no purpose. I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. This is a waste of time, what I'm doing. Do you ever feel like that? Suddenly Isaiah 49 sounds so right, I've labored to no purpose, I've spent my strength in vain, I've done it all for nothing, and the Word of God comes to the servant of the Lord. He says to him, Hey, listen, Isaiah, chin up, chin up. Don't get so focused here.

Stand back. I've got big news for you. I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.

To the ends of the earth! See, the story's not finished yet. You come into the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2 of Luke. And some of you may even recall that when we studied the bringing of Jesus into the temple to do for him as to the custom of the law, he's taken into the arms of this old chap called Simeon.

And you know I always tell you, look in the Bible and see what you find interesting. I mean, look at it and say, This is weird. Or, This is strange.

Or, This is… What is this? You know, have you ever had anybody take a baby in their arms and say what Simeon said? I mean, people take babies and say, What a lovely baby. It's a nice color. One eye blue, one eye green. It's an interesting combination. That kind of thing.

Or looks like his dad. But Simeon takes the child in his arms, and he says, You can dismiss your servant now, Lord. Why? Because my eyes have seen your salvation. And what does that mean? Well, it's a salvation that you have prepared in the sight of all people. And it is a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and it is the glory of your people Israel. But you see, here we are today, and it looks as though the tides are weighed against us, doesn't it? And that can become very dispiriting.

Until we remind ourselves of God's plan and of his purpose. And the fact that the story's not finished and the way it finishes is wonderful. And after this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count.

From the United Nations. Actually, it says, from every nation, tribe, people, language. And they were standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb, and they were singing, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. That's how the story ends. The book of Revelation, which I'm about ready to begin, actually, to tell you the truth, I'm now brave enough to tackle just about anything after all this time—or, I should say, foolish enough to tackle just about anything—I want to tell you the whole story of Revelation in two words.

Jesus wins! That's the book of Revelation! So he says, this is what I told you, you need to understand, this is what is written, and the purpose of my suffering and my resurrection is in order that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all the nations, and the evangelistic program will begin in Jerusalem.

That's the purpose. Well, who's involved? Verse 48, here we're introduced to the personnel. You are witnesses of these things.

And he's looking at the people that are in the room. When you go to the second volume for Luke, when you go into the Acts of the Apostles, you find out, you say to yourself, well, if they are witnesses, how well did they do as witnesses? And it's a fun read. I started it myself.

I stopped after a while, but I began to do it, and then I had enough and quit. But you could go further than me. I'm not going to tell you to look these up. But Jesus says, You are my witnesses. Here's the plan, here's the purpose, and you're the personnel. You are my witnesses. So now Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost, and he begins his sermon.

And he says in verse 32, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. He must have said to himself, like, See? I knew.

I knew I was supposed to say that. He said, Look across at one of the other apostles. Told you, we're witnesses. Chapter 5, you find the exact same thing, 32. The story of Ananias and Sapphira has ushered in persecution and so on. And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

Chapter 13, I'm sure you picked it up. Now, verse 30, God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to our people. Now, I belabor that for this very reason. Because most home Bible study groups, as soon as you get to verse 48, you are my witnesses of these things, will immediately launch into a thing about how we're gonna reach our neighborhood for Christ. Well, we are the witnesses of these things.

No, we're not. He says, You are the witnesses. To whom is he referring?

The disciple band. The people who were witnesses. Does that mean we have nothing to say? No, we have plenty to say. Well then, what are we allowed to say? How are we to witness? What are we supposed to believe and proclaim?

Well, the answer to that is very clear. We may believe and we may proclaim only the truths that we are authorized to believe and proclaim by the teaching of the twelve. And where do we have the teaching of the twelve and the friends of the twelve? In the New Testament, right?

So what is it that we are authorized to teach and proclaim? The Bible. Jesus says, I want you to understand how this fits with the Old Testament. Then he sends them out in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they give us the New Testament, and we then are guarded and guided at once again by the safeguard of the Scriptures. The safeguard of the Scriptures.

Does sola scriptura mean anything? Only the Bible. Not the Bible in the Roman magisterium.

Not the Bible in the ex cathedra statements of the pope. Not the Bible in our own little fundamentalist predilections that we like to stick in there. Not the Bible in our own little legalistic tags. Not the Bible in anything at all.

Just the Bible. And the Bible is a self-interpreting book. The Bible is not interpreted by the church. The church didn't write the Bible. The church doesn't tell us what the Bible means. The Bible tells us what the Bible means.

Sola scriptura and sola grassae. Not an infusion of God's enabling power so that we may then work our own way towards a final redemptive conclusion. But the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, a forensic thing, so that it is all outside of me—all of my salvation is outside of me in the ultimate sense—it is because what another has done for me. And then, sola fidei and solis Christos.

Do you realize, my dear friends, how far we are, how bizarre my words sound in the ears? Of vast segments of evangelical America. You're sensible people.

You must examine the Scriptures, and you must come to your own conclusions. Here I stand. Finally, you're the personnel, he says. You're the folks who are taking on the assignment. It begs the question, How are we supposed to do this?

Look at us! One minute we're believing, the next minute we're unbelieving. He said, Well, I'm going to send you what my Father has promised. Way back in chapter 11, he said, If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? He says, I don't want you to be afraid, little flock. It is the Father's good purpose to give you the kingdom. He gives his Spirit to us in order that we might be involved in kingdom business. And with this phrase, we have the end of the statements of Jesus as recorded by Luke, thus leaving the reader wondering, wanting to jump forward into the Acts to volume 2, find out how it finished.

I wonder, you know, if you could only read through Luke, and you didn't know anything else. He says, I want you to stay in the city until you've been clothed with power from on high. And then it has the story of the ascension, and the people going, Well, what happened next? Did they stay? Did the Spirit come? Did they believe?

Well, then just think about us this morning. Somebody must have come to these shores with this good news, didn't they? And the people who came to these shores with the good news must have come from some other shores. And someone must have come to those shores with the good news. And you take it all the way back, and you come to Acts chapter 1, and they're all gathered in the upper room, just as Jesus said, and they're waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to descend upon them so that they might be his witnesses to the nations and to the ends of the earth.

Well, we're done. What's our great need? To have our eyes opened. Eyes opened to see that God's great plan of redemption is vast. We need to get involved with the purpose of God, to see repentance and forgiveness of sins proclaimed. We're not the witnesses to which he referred, but we are witnesses, and we witness to the truth of Scripture. We need to take our place, and we need to rest in God's power. And we need to do so in light of the fact that one day we will be gathered around the throne of God in heaven, with the United Nations, and we'll sing of the Lamb.

Frankly, that's the only thing, one of the only things, that keeps your chin up on the average Monday. Jesus wins. Resting in the knowledge that Jesus is victorious, an encouraging word from Luke 24 and from today's message on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. In our study of Luke's Gospel, Alistair has pointed out how Scripture honestly portrays the disciples. The Bible describes their emotional ups and downs, their lack of understanding regarding the resurrection. When we closely consider these real-life accounts, it becomes clear that the stories were not invented.

They happened to real people in a real time, in a real place. The book Alive that we've been mentioning throughout this week supports the credibility of the Gospel record, particularly it shows how the events of the resurrection really happened. This book evaluates all the affirming evidence, proving that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead.

The author explores Scripture to show how the resurrection was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and then fulfilled in the New Testament. Be sure to request your copy today of this thorough and convincing defense of the Gospel. The book Alive can be yours when you donate by supporting the Bible teaching on this program. You can give online at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Hope you have a relaxing and refreshing weekend. Hope you're able to join us Monday as we'll learn about one of the most overlooked events in the Bible. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.