Old Testament Reading: Genesis 22:1-14
New Testament Reading: Acts 3:12-26
Follow the Lamb
“God Reveals Himself to Man”
Luke 24:13-35
In his book, The Hiding God, Professor Raymond Scott outlined how God chose to reveal Himself, His character, His attributes, His Deity, His power, His passion, and His plan for man’s redemption through the Person and work of God the Son, whom we know as Jesus Christ.
- Most of us would ask, “How can this be? Wasn’t Jesus born to Mary in Bethlehem? Didn’t He come into this world as a baby and grow to become a man? How could He have appeared in the Old Testament?
- The answer is in the gospel of John 1:1-14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.”
- God intentionally hid His identity from the majority of the people but revealed Himself through personalities to those who had the spiritual eyes to see, the spiritual ears to hear, the spiritual heart to believe, and the spiritual will to obey.
- Through types – men who portrayed who and what God is like by their actions and attitudes of life.
- Through symbols – tangible illustrations that pointed to the One who would fulfill their meaning.
- Through Theophanies – angelic beings that appeared as men to communicate with men.
- These revelations were made by the Son of God – the Pre-incarnate Christ – the Word of God – who became the Holy Seed in Mary’s womb – who was born our Savior – the Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Jesus never revealed His true identity to those who were just curious about whom He was.
- While He never publicly declared His Deity, He often did privately, claiming to be the Son of God 117 times.
Jesus revealed Himself to those who loved Him enough to take Him at His word and trust Him in faith without having the evidence to back that up. Jesus even thanked God the Father for hiding His true identity from the wise and prudent and revealing them unto babes.
Two things about Christ that can only be understood by divine revelation:
- The truth of Who Jesus is – the Christ, the Son of the Living God – the essential confession of faith.
- The true meaning of the cross – until a person is aware of their need for a Savior and that Jesus is the Savior they need, they will never appreciate the cross.
Background to Luke 24:13-35:
- Sunday, the day of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, two of Jesus’ disciples were returning to their home, having seen their best hope for deliverance rejected, crucified, and buried in a rock-hewn tomb.
- They had looked at Jesus as the One sent by God to redeem Israel and to set up His kingdom in Jerusalem. But how could Jesus be the Messiah if He was dead? How could they have been so wrong?
- As they talked together along their journey, Jesus appeared and began to talk with them. However, the men were prevented from recognizing Him until He revealed Himself to them in a very dramatic way.
1. Jesus Opened their Minds to the Scriptures –Vs. 25 – “O fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken!”
- Jesus “rebuked” the disciples because they lacked knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures.
- The word “fools” can be translated as “dull” or “stupid” – ignorant of essential truth.
- Unlike the Gentiles, the Jews had the Scriptures; they should have understood it, and had they truly listened to the teachings of Jesus, they would have known that He had come to fulfill Old Testament prophecies.
- Jesus rebuked them, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory.”
2. Jesus Opened Their Hearts to the Truth – Vs. 27 – “Beginning at Moses and the prophets, He expounded unto them the things concerning Himself!”
- Jesus “reprimanded” the disciples because they did not understand God’s plan for man’s redemption.
- Every Old Testament Book, from Genesis 3:15 forward, including the Psalms and the Prophets, said the Messiah must suffer and die and then enter into His glory.
- Jesus began at Moses, the Book of Genesis. and He explained to these two men how the One whom they had seen, crucified, and buried had fulfilled every Old Testament type, symbol, Theophany, and prophecy.
- The SEED of Eve would crush Satan’s head.
- The slaughter of animals and God’s acceptance of their blood sacrifice for remission of their sin.
- God’s provision of a ram to save Isaac.
- The splashing of the blood on the doorposts.
- The design and operation of the Tabernacle and the Temple, the daily sacrifices, and the Day of Atonement.
- The description of the crucifixion in the Psalms and the description of the crucified Savior in Isaiah.
- The chronological calendar of Daniel’s 69 weeks that ended on the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem.
- The prophet’s prophecy that Jesus would be betrayed by a friend, sold for 30 pieces of silver, hung between two thieves, and buried in a rich man’s tomb.
- Had these two men paid attention to the Scriptures and to the words of Jesus, they would have known Him as the Messiah: The Savior sent from God.
3. Jesus Opened Their Eyes to the Savior – Vs. 30 – “As He sat at meat with them, He took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to them!”
Luke said their hearts were “on fire” because they had heard the truth of Scripture, but they were still unaware that they were listening to the Savior.
- However, as Jesus “broke” the bread and handed it to the two men, they saw the nail prints on His wrists, and their eyes were opened to see Jesus as the Savior.
- As soon as they recognized Jesus, He vanished from their sight, and the men returned to Jerusalem to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard.
- Luke 24:35-48 – “And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.”
