Luke 24: It All Rests on Jesus, Not on You

Introduction

"It's not about us. It's all about Jesus." That is the one thing Sarah, one of the pastors at Riverside Church, wants everyone to remember from this message, even if they forget everything else. With it she closes a four-week series on the end of Luke 24, the passage where the risen Jesus appears to his gathered disciples (Luke 24:36-49).

This morning is not about pressure, burdens, or responsibility to carry. You can come with open hands, without having to become the person you think you should be, and simply look to Jesus.

To make the point, Sarah connects the text to several Old Testament passages. The context, the details, and even the time of day of these events change the way you read the story.

Outline of the Message

1. Context Changes Everything

Sarah describes the ending of the film Remember Me (2010), starring Robert Pattinson. A teacher writes the date September 11, 2001 on the board, then the camera pulls back and we discover that the character is standing at the top of the twin towers. The whole story has to be read again in a new light.
In the same way, the Old Testament sheds light on Luke 24. Fragments of those books, displayed in museums, have been dated well before the birth of Jesus: "These are not coincidences."
The events read that day take place on the very day of the resurrection, in the middle of the Passover feast.

2. The Lamb Who Died at Three O'Clock

Passover remembers the exodus from Egypt: God commands the Israelites to slaughter a male lamb without defect and to put its blood on their doorposts. That night, death passes over without touching their homes (Exodus 12).
Every year, the lamb is slaughtered "between the evenings," that is, between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke record a detail that is easy to read past: Jesus dies at about 3 p.m. "You don't get to choose the moment of your last breath when you're hanging on a cross." He dies at the hour when the lamb is slaughtered, the ultimate and final sacrifice.
For his disciples, however, all hope seems to have died with him: the man they saw as their king has been executed by the Romans.

3. The Silent Saturday

The Sabbath begins on Friday at sunset. Sarah points out that there are 39 categories of activity forbidden on that day, including any sign of public or private mourning. The disciples cannot even weep for the one they followed.
They cannot flee the city either: the permitted distance is about one kilometer (roughly half a mile). They go home, probably wondering whether they will be next.
The Bible says nothing about that Saturday, because nothing happens. Yet Jesus is about to accomplish the greatest work of his life.
"If you feel like you have abandoned Jesus, if Jesus doesn't mean anything to you anymore, the only thing that is true this morning is that Jesus has not abandoned you." Even if you can't see him or feel him, he is at work.

4. Jesus Steps Into the Ordinary

As soon as the Sabbath ends, the women go to the tomb with spices, and two disciples set out on the road to Emmaus, about ten kilometers (six miles) away. Jesus doesn't perform a great miracle: he simply walks with them in their confusion.
"It's not our responsibility." We are part of the team and Jesus uses us, but he is greater than we are. Sarah quotes the author Rachel Held Evans: "Again and again, God meets people in their ordinary, everyday spaces, not on our schedule, but on his."
For years, she invited a friend to the Alpha course, to church, and to evangelistic evenings. The answer was always no. Then a few months ago, at the pub, among friends, that friend said to her: "I want to know Jesus. Can we pray?" Nobody but Jesus had brought her to that point.
When a participant in Alpha asked her why people keep switching between Jesus and God, Sarah answered: Jesus is the Son of God, fully God and fully man on earth.
The Bible shows this often: Abraham meets God as he sits at the entrance of his tent (Genesis 18:1), Moses while tending his father-in-law's flock (Exodus 3:1), the Samaritan woman as she comes to draw water (John 4).

5. Doubts Have a Place

In the room are people who have celebrated Passover all their lives, who heard John the Baptist call Jesus "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29), and who heard Jesus announce that he would rise again. Yet they don't understand.
Even Peter, on the morning of the resurrection, doesn't run from the tomb shouting victory: he goes away "wondering what had happened" (Luke 24:12).
When Jesus appears, the disciples think they are seeing a spirit (Luke 24:37).
"I have questions, doubts, and unbelief every day. And I've learned to love that," Sarah confesses, because it pushes her to seek and to bring everything to God. We will never have all the answers: "If you do, come and find me, I'd love to know them."

6. Wounds That Heal

To prove that he is not a ghost, Jesus doesn't perform a new wonder: "he showed them his hands and his feet" (Luke 24:40). What his disciples took for his greatest weakness becomes the sign that he is alive.
Sarah quotes Tyler Staton: "It is often our wounds that God uses to heal others, not our skills."
She tells the story of a man who had a very well-paid job and his own business. He lost his marriage and his company, ended up on the street, and then became addicted to drugs. After an overdose that nearly cost him his life, he met Jesus. Today he devotes his life to homeless people struggling with addiction. God didn't use him at the height of his career, but out of his brokenness.
Sarah admits that for a long time she was ashamed of choices she made before her conversion. Yet those are the chapters of her life that God has used the most, especially when she shares them honestly with the young people of the church.

7. For All Nations, With Power From on High

The last words of Jesus are clear: repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations (Luke 24:46-48). Talking about Jesus is not a radical idea reserved for a few churches, it is his final instruction. The mission of Riverside Church flows from it: to help people know Jesus and grow as his disciples, in Birmingham and beyond.
For the disciples, these words were radical. They had hoped that Jesus was the one who would "redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21), not the nations they wanted to be rescued from.
Jesus opens their minds to understand the Scriptures: all nations will be blessed in Abraham (Genesis 18:18), the whole earth belongs to God (Exodus 19:5-6), all nations will come and worship him (Psalm 86:9), and the servant will be a light for the nations (Isaiah 42:5-7).
Jesus begins his mission with ordinary people, many of them fishermen, not with intellectuals or religious leaders. You don't need to be a special person: it is enough to tell what you have experienced with him.
Then he adds: "wait in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). Sarah, whose strength is acting right away, humorously recounts a remark by Tim, the lead pastor: she shoots the arrow and aims afterward. Jesus says the opposite: wait for the Spirit. Not our strength, not our power, not our persuasive words.
She closes with a meditation: whether you feel too good or not good enough, whether you are running or flat on the ground, whether you have found your answers or have a thousand new ones every day, it is simply about Jesus. Come with your pride, your apathy, your questions, your sin, your doubts, your anger, your exhaustion, and your grief: these are the things that held Jesus to the cross, but they could not keep him there.

Key Takeaways

The Old Testament context sheds light on the resurrection: Jesus dies at the hour of the Passover lamb.
Even when everything seems silent, like that Saturday, Jesus has not abandoned you and he is at work.
Jesus steps into the ordinary moments of our lives, on his schedule and not ours.
Your doubts and your wounds don't stop God from acting: he often uses our weaknesses more than our skills.
The mission of sharing Jesus is for all nations, and it is lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit, not through our own efforts.

Personal Application

What weight are you carrying right now as if everything depended on you?
Are you going through a "Saturday" where God seems absent? What difference does it make to know that Jesus has not abandoned you?
What questions or doubts could you bring to God this week instead of hiding them?
Which wound in your story could God use to encourage someone else?
With whom could you simply share what Jesus has done in your life, relying on the Spirit rather than on your own words?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the hour of Jesus' death matter?

During Passover, the lamb was slaughtered "between the evenings," that is, between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sarah notes that Matthew, Mark, and Luke specify that Jesus died at about 3 p.m. On a cross, you don't choose the hour of your last breath: Jesus died at the moment the Passover lamb was being slaughtered, the ultimate and final sacrifice.

Can you follow Jesus while having doubts?

Yes. In Luke 24, Peter leaves the tomb "wondering," and the disciples think they are seeing a spirit, even though they had heard Jesus announce his resurrection. Sarah admits to having questions and doubts every day, which push her to seek God. You don't need to have all the answers, because it all rests on Jesus.

What does "wait in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" mean?

In Luke 24:49, Jesus entrusts his disciples with the mission of announcing forgiveness to all nations, but he asks them to wait for the Holy Spirit promised by the Father. For Sarah, this waiting takes the pressure off: the mission is accomplished neither by our strength nor by our persuasive words, but filled with the Spirit.