I want you to imagine that you’re sitting down with someone you love dearly. Maybe it’s a friend, or a relative, or a coworker, or a spouse, or your child. Now imagine that you know that this is the very last conversation you will have with them in person on this Earth. Now ask yourself, what would I say to them? What would I regret not saying if this was the last time I ever saw them?
Think about this… What kind of people would we be and what kind of people would we influence others to be if our conversations were fueled by this kind of urgency? If we really began to see our interaction with others as the last opportunity to say something important to one another… then, what would we begin saying differently and what kind of impact do you think this would have on the rest of our church family, the people in the neighborhoods we live in and the people who live in the city around us?
My aim today, as we study Jesus’ final sermon to his disciples in Luke’s gospel, is to help us wrestle with the things that Jesus found to be the most urgent things to speak about to his friends. My hope is that as we examine this passage we will be influenced by an urgency to preach biblical, Christ-centered, sin confronting, repentance calling, disciple-making messages to one another so that disciples can be made from every tribe, tongue and nation in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Take a look at Luke 24:44 – 49…
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Jesus is getting ready to ascend to Heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father. His work, in the flesh, on this Earth is complete and he’s getting ready to leave the rest of the work of God’s mission on this Earth in the hands of his disciples. This is Jesus’ final conversation with his disciples in the flesh and he uses the opportunity to urgently preach a biblical, Christ-centered, sin-confronting, repentance calling, disciple-making message to his disciples.
#1. Jesus preached a biblical message… (44)
Jesus uses this last conversation with his disciples to remind them that all of the words that he has spoken to them over the last 3 years have been based on the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. The Law, the Prophets & the Psalms were the content of the Bible that these disciples had available to them at that time. And Jesus was faithful to not only preach the content of the Bible to his disciples over the course of three years but he was also faithful to preach a biblical message to them in this final sermon. This final sermon, in many ways is a summary of everything Jesus has preached in his public ministry and every last word is based on the Bible.
Jesus’ conversations were drenched in the words of the Bible. His words dripped with references to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. His conversations over a meal were intentionally sprinkled with Biblical references. The hard seasons of his life were constantly saturated with the words of the Bible. The lonely moments of his walk were soaked with the content of the Bible. Jesus knew that a person could not live on physical bread alone but that a person could only survive this life with their eternal life intact by feeding on every word that comes from the mouth of God that is recorded in the Bible. So Jesus preached a biblical message.
#2. Jesus preached a Christ-centered message… (45-46)
Preaching a sermon that doesn’t preach Christ at the center isn’t a biblical message and therefore it’s not life giving and it doesn’t open the mind or the heart to the power of Christ at the cross and the empty tomb. Christ must be at the center of all our preaching so that our minds can be transformed or opened by the gospel. I think Jesus knew that there would be many opportunities for his disciples to be tempted to believe a different gospel. Jesus knew that Satan would tempt Peter with the false gospel of comfort and self-preservation. Jesus knew that Satan would sell Judas on the false gospel of health, wealth and prosperity.
Jesus knows that we will be tempted to believe false gospels too. He knows that we will be tempted to betray our Lord. He knows that we will be tempted to trade in our hope in Christ for the hope of Earthly pleasure. So Jesus preached a biblical, Christ-centered message so that we can remember to hold fast to the hope of the gospel.
#3. Jesus preached a sin confronting repentance message… (47)
When the Bible is preached with the hope of Christ as the center of the message then people are called to repent from sin and trust in the forgiveness that is available to anyone from every tribe, every tongue and every nation who believes. Jesus wasn’t afraid to confront sin because he knew that sin is the infection that leads to death. And Jesus was happy and eager to preach repentance because he knew that repentance leads to eternal life.
This sin confronting call to repentance message isn’t just for down and out addicts or single moms or struggling married couples or lonely single people or wealthy business people or rebellious teenagers or religious churchgoers.
This sin confronting call to repentance message is for every person from every walk of life to not only hear but to believe and then to turn around and proclaim with every word and action of their lives. Jesus was committed to helping people confront their sin and respond to the call to repent and that’s why he preached this sin confronting call to repentance message to his disciples in the final moments of his ministry here on Earth.
#4. Jesus preached a disciple-making message… (48-49)
When the Bible is preached with Christ at the center of the message, sin is confronted, repentance is called for and disciples who’ve been changed by the power of the gospel begin to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the disciple making process. A person hears the Bible preached. That person’s mind is opened to the hope that is found in Christ at the cross and the empty tomb. Their sin is confronted as their hearts are turned to God in repentance. And then that disciple begins to preach boldly in the power of the Holy Spirit so that other disciples can be made.
I’ve always loved the phrase that says, “you can not give what you do not have”. This is the essence of being a disciple-maker. Because being a disciple-maker is simply giving to others what’s been given to you.
You’ve been given the gift of the biblical message so you give that to others too. You’ve been given the gift of the hope of Christ at the cross and the empty tomb so you give that to others too. You’ve been given the gift of confronting your sin and listening to the call of repentance so you give that gift to others too. You’ve been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who witnesses the truth of the gospel to your soul so you give that gift to others too. This is why Jesus preached a disciple-making message.
How does this passage help us out practically?
My aim today, was to help us wrestle with the things that Jesus found to be the most urgent things to speak about to his friends. If you are a Christ-follower, if you call yourself a Christian, then you are a disciple of Jesus Christ who is called to preach biblical, Christ-centered, sin-confronting, repentance calling, disciple-making messages to other people so that other disciples can be made from every tribe, tongue and nation in the power of the Holy Spirit as you give away the gifts that have been given to you.
But, how does this passage help us out practically? How do we put this message into action as we walk out of here? Let me propose four action steps for us.
#1. Study & memorize the Bible with other people…
Studying and memorizing the Bible is vital to our own spiritual health and maturity. What you put into your heart and mind directly influences what you desire and what you do. If you nourish your heart, your mind and your soul with the junk food of pop psychology and pop culture, you will be spiritually malnourished and you will continue to walk in spiritual immaturity. So I want to encourage you to throw the junk food away and start studying and memorizing the Bible in the context of small group gospel communities.
Try using daily Bible reading plans, or small devotional books before going to sleep, or background images on your phone with Bible passages, or 3” x 5” cards on your dash, or your bathroom mirrors, or your workbench or your computer screen with short passages to read, or listen to the Bible on audio disc or mp3 or start a text message group with friends who all commit to taking turns sending each other a daily Bible verse. Use one of these or use all of these (I say the more the better) but either way I want to encourage you to study and memorize the Bible with other people.
#2. Confess your specific sins with other people…
It’s way too easy for us to be general in our confession of sin but that’s not how we read the Bible. In the Bible we hear of specific sin committed by specific people with names, who lived in a specific time and a specific place. So we should follow the same example and confess our specific struggle with sin to one another. It should be common in the church for us to hear one another confessing the struggle with pornography, substance abuse, angry outbursts, overspending, or mismanaging time, or bitterness and any other sins like these. So practice confessing your specific sins with other people.
#3. Discuss your specific steps of repentance with other people…
When steps of repentance are absent then confession is useless. The proof of godly confession is godly repentance. So after you begin practicing the discipline of confessing sin, you and I both need to openly discuss our specific steps of repentance with one another.
This might mean that single folks who struggle with loneliness and therefore fall into sexual sin need the accountability of discussing the commitment to never being alone with the opposite sex. Or maybe someone who struggles with substance abuse needs to discuss the commitment to never entering an alcohol-serving establishment alone again. Whatever your road of repentance is, it’s important to remember that repentance is not a destination but it is a slow journey that must be shared with other people. So discuss your specific steps of repentance with other people.
#4. Do all these things with other people…
Becoming a biblical, Christ-centered, sin confronting, repentance calling, disciple-making disciple is done in the context of relationship first and foremost with Jesus as our Savior but this isn’t done in isolation it’s done in community and relationship with other Christ followers. So don’t hide out in your own little world. Ask others to join you in the journey so that you have people walking with you and once that’s established and the power of the Holy Spirit is evident in your life then start inviting unbelievers into your journey too so that they can have the opportunity to become disciples of Jesus as well. So do all these things with other people.
Concluding Thoughts…
My prayer for us today, is that we would become a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow disciples who glorify God by preaching biblical, Christ-centered, sin confronting, repentance calling, disciple-making messages to one another so that other disciples can be made from every tribe, tongue and nation in the power of the Holy Spirit.