God’s Word the foundation of faith

Sermon for the Week of Easter

Acts 10:34-41  +  Luke 24:13-35

We spent a lot of time last week hearing the Holy Week Scriptures. It’s important to know the events of Holy Week. In fact, it’s vital for us Christians to know them. But it’s just as important to know the Word of God that prophesied those events ahead of time, which is why we also spent some time reviewing the prophecies of Isaiah. This is how the Holy Spirit works faith in a person’s heart, through the Word of God, through the prophecies and through the fulfillment of them. Faith comes by hearing the Spirit-inspired words pointing to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Faith has to be founded on God’s Word, or it will never last.

Two disciples were walking toward the town of Emmaus on Easter Sunday afternoon. One is called Cleopas, who is probably the same man who is called Clopas by the Apostle John. He was Jesus’ uncle, in fact, married to Mary, the sister of Jesus’ mother Mary, who was one of the women at the foot of Jesus’ cross, together with Jesus’ mother. We don’t know the other disciple’s name, but, like Cleopas, he was not one of the Twelve apostles. They had witnessed all the events of Holy Week, and then their hopes that Jesus might be the Christ were dashed when He died. Even the reports of the women that day and of the empty tomb weren’t enough to give them hope.

Why did Jesus not allow them to recognize Him as He walked with them? Why were their eyes “restrained” so that they did not recognize Him? Because the kind of faith they would need for the rest of their life doesn’t come from seeing. It comes from hearing.

And so Jesus walked through the Old Testament with them, as He walked on the road with them, making the connections for them between prophecy and fulfillment, between shadow and reality, even as we did last week. Using the Holy Scriptures, Jesus swept out the debris in their hearts, the debris of misinterpretation that plagued the people of Israel, the notions that the Christ would appear glorious at His coming, that He would restore an earthly kingdom to Israel, that He would take up the throne of His kingdom without suffering, without dying, and without rising from the dead. As they walked, they began to see the truth, that the Christ, whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament, had to come first to suffer for sin, that He was to be like the Passover lamb, and like all the Old Testament sacrifices, shedding His innocent blood in order to keep safe all who believe in Him. He had to be lifted up on a cross, like the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert, so that all who look to Him in faith are saved from the serpent’s venom. He had to be like the tabernacle and the temple, God’s dwelling place on earth. And the temple of His body had to be destroyed and rebuilt in three days.

The hearts of those two disciples burned within them as they listened to the Word of God that Jesus spoke, and only then, after their faith was resting securely on the foundation of God’s Word, only then did Jesus reveal Himself to them and allow them to recognize Him. He didn’t first show them visible proof of His resurrection. He first led them to faith through the Word. Then He allowed them to see.

And so it is with us, too. We haven’t seen Jesus. But He has sent His Gospel out into the world, and His Holy Spirit has caused our hearts to burn as He shows us that all of Scripture was pointing to the cross and to the empty tomb of the Christ, so that we might believe in Him and be saved. That’s the message that brought us to faith, and it’s the same message and the same preaching of Law and Gospel that will bring others to faith. No programs, no activities, no gimmicks, no youth groups, no amount of training in apologetics, no Shroud of Turin will bring a single soul to be convinced of Jesus’ resurrection or to trust in Jesus for salvation. Only the Scriptures. Only the Word of God. Only the preaching that centers on Christ, and on Him crucified. And risen! According to the Holy Scriptures.

And if the Scriptures were telling the truth about the Christ’s death and resurrection, then you can be sure they are also telling the truth about Christ reigning at the right hand of the Father, and about His constant care for His Holy Christian Church and for every single baptized believer in it.

So even though you don’t see Jesus, listen to the Scriptures! Listen to the Word of God! And your faith will grow! And then, if you know someone who doesn’t know the risen Lord Jesus, don’t try to convince them with arguments and proofs. Just use the Scriptures. Tell the story of God’s Word. It’s the Holy Spirit’s only tool for bringing people to faith. And if we come to know Christ through God’s Word, then He will surely abide with us here on earth by His Spirit, until, after believing in Him through the Word, we see Him in person, with our own eyes, when He comes again in glory. Amen.