Evidence That Demands A Verdict

Luke 24:1-35

I have always been intrigued by how investigators look for all evidence at a crime scene to prove who is guilty. This morning I would like to ask each of us to consider being a crime scene investigator.

The following story is true. And while it is somewhat morbid it serves to illustrate what I want to say this morning.
Several years ago there was an TV news account of the arrest and trial of a man who had been accused of murdering his family with a knife. Neighbors had heard screaming on the night of the murders, but they had not given it much thought until two weeks later, when it was reported that the bodies of the victims had been found in shallow graves in a field outside of town.

After hearing these reports the neighbors called the police.
When the police entered the home of the victims,
bear in mind that 2 or 3 weeks had already gone by.
They found it to be immaculate. The carpets had been shampooed. the curtains and drapes washed and ironed, the woodwork polished. Every window had been cleaned; every piece of furniture polished; even the bedrooms and hallways had been repainted.

The police found no fingerprints, no blood stains, no shredded clothing, and no signs of a struggle anywhere.
This alone would have made the husband a prime suspect. No man by himself would have had a such an immaculately taken care of home. The defendant’s story was that he and his wife HAD had an argument a month earlier, and she had taken the kids and left him. He said he had no idea of where they were until he’d been told their bodies had been found.
Understandably, the police doubted the man’s story. So they brought in a forensics team that sprayed the man’s bedroom, bathroom, hallway walls, and floors with a chemical known as Luminal.
Luminal is a compound that’s designed to interact with blood, and when it comes in contact with blood, it gives off a florescent color - even under paint. The police sprayed the Luminal, waited a few moments, and then - sure enough - the patterns of blood appeared throughout the house. Neither the soap, the polish, nor the fresh paint had prevented the police from seeing the blood, even though the blood had been covered and hidden from their view.
APPLY: When CSI Investigators examine a crime scene they often are looking for evidence that isn’t readily seen. Evidence they can use in a court of law. Evidence that will demand a verdict.
This morning we’re examining a crime scene: the cross of Christ. And while some of the evidence there IS obvious other things seem to be hidden from view.
The Bible portrays the death of Jesus as a crime of passion:
it was our crime of sin…
and God’s passion for our souls
But as we listen to the conversation between Jesus and the men on the road to Emmaus (found in Lk 24 which is our TEXT for today’s lesson) we find that these two men have heard the evidence of the cross. In fact, they tell Jesus all about it. And they’ve heard the evidence of risen Christ…
Luke 24:22-23 “…some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.”
They’ve heard all this… but they don’t believe it! It’s as if there is certain evidence that has remained hidden from their sight, and this missing evidence has totally destroyed the hope these men should have had when they heard Jesus had risen from the dead.
Because these men have not understood this missing information they have come to believe that Jesus’ death was an accident. A great tragedy.
LOOK WITH ME AGAIN at Luke 24:17-21
He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces DOWNCAST.
One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
"What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but WE HAD HOPED that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
Notice… in vs. 21 they say “WE HAD HOPED” that Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel.
… but He’d been executed
… He’d been murdered
… He was dead
And this belief so demoralized them that Luke tells us their faces were “downcast” (Luke 24:17)
(pause…) Jesus lets them tell their story… and then He rebukes them. “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” Luke 24:25
It’s then that Jesus does the most unusual thing…
Luke tells us that Jesus deliberately hid who He was from them. Luke 24:16 says “…they were kept from recognizing him.”
Instead of doing what I’d have done, Luke tells us that “… beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27
Jesus went back into the Old Testament and He began with the book of Genesis and He worked His way all the way up through the prophets like Daniel and Isaiah to help these men see that God had planned this all out long before they had ever been born.
As Peter said when He told the crowd who heard his sermon on the day of Pentecost: Acts 2:23 “(Jesus was) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge…”
What prophecies would Jesus have shared with these men? I’m not sure. There are at least 48 major prophecies dealing with the coming Messiah in the Old Testament and He may have covered every one of them that afternoon… but as I only preach for about a half an hour every Sunday morning, I’m going to give you the Reader’s Digest version of what I think He might have shared with them that day.

1. I believe Jesus probably started out telling these men the story of Adam and Eve
He would have told them about how Adam and Eve had been created by God, had enjoyed the blessings of God, and walked closely beside Him every day.
But then one day… all that changed. Adam and Eve had allowed themselves to be tempted by Satan to sin and disobey.
As a result Adam and Eve lost practically everything. They became separated from God. They died spiritually and began to die physically.
But in the midst of all this tragedy, God pronounced a curse upon Satan that goes this way:
…I will put enmity (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he (the offspring of a woman) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Genesis 3:15
NOTICE, the prophecy was that it would be the male offspring of a woman (not a MAN and a woman) who would destroy the power of Satan.

2. THEN I believe Jesus could have turned them to Deuteronomy 18:15 where Moses declared:
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.”
Now there are many great prophets listed throughout the Old Testament. Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others. Many of them gave powerful prophecies and performed magnificent miracles. And yet, none of them quite measured up to what Moses did in his lifetime.

1. Moses came for the specific purpose of freeing his people from slavery

2. And Moses was sent by God to give His people a new and special covenant that would set them apart to be His Holy people.
No other prophet in the Old Testament accomplished anything like that. No matter how powerful their miracles and prophecies may have been, none had freed their people from slavery or introduced a new relationship with God to their nation. In fact no one ever did… until Jesus came.

BUT WHEN Jesus CAME
1. He freed His people from the slavery of sin
2. And He gave His people a new covenant… and set them apart to be God’s Holy people
3. Then I believe Jesus could have reminded the men on the road to Emmaus of a powerful prophecy out of Daniel 9
An angel told Daniel that “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness …. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’” Daniel 9:24-25
Most Bible scholars will tell you that these “70” sevens represent years… 490 years to be precise. Daniel also tells us that the prophecy was set in motion with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. When the edict to rebuild Jerusalem – the clock started ticking.
And according to the timetable set forth in Daniel 9 the Messiah was to be revealed around… 30 A.D.. Tell me, when did Jesus begin His ministry???
30 A.D.
4. Lastly, I think Jesus would have taken them to the last few chapters of Isaiah.
Now, until Jesus came, there were Jews who believed these chapters spoke of a coming messiah.

In Isaiah 52:13-14 God tells us
“See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness”
Then Isaiah goes on tell us more about this “messiah”/ servant – sent by God.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:3-5

Isaiah explicitly describes the Messiah as being wounded and pierced… sent for the specific purpose of taking on the sins of mankind.
In the next few verses Isaiah speaks of messiah dying. Being cut off from the land of the living.
Isaiah 53:12 “…he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
So, in other words… throughout the whole Old Testament we’re repeatedly told that a Messiah was coming.

1. And He would “arrive” at approximately the year 30 A.D.
2. He would be the offspring of a woman (not a MAN and a woman)
3. He would be like Moses – freeing His people from slavery and creating for them a new relationship with God.
4. He would suffer wounds and piercings
5. And would die for the sins of mankind.

ILLUS: Someone has gone to the trouble of counting up all the prophecies in the Old Testament that told about this coming Messiah. They discovered at least 333 details concerning the person and career of the Messiah. These details described
· Where He’d be born
· What He’d look like
· And how He’d die

One person noted that there are 48 Major prophecies that predicted details of the Messiah’s life, and that the odds of one person fulfilling those 48 major prophecies would be astronomical.
The odds of one person fulfilling all those Biblical predictions in their life would be akin to trying to find a diamond ring SOMEWHERE in the world’s oceans that someone had dropped overboard during a storm. We’re not told which body of water it fell into we just are informed that we are to search all 197,000 square miles of the world’s oceans until we find it.
The odds of your finding that ring, are like the odds of anyone ACCIDENTALLY fulfilling the 48 major prophecies about the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament.
But Jesus did it… and it WASN’T an accident.

A minister was once asked what the major difference was between Christianity and the other world’s religions. Now, many great scholars have given valuable answers to that question. But as he pondered on this question… something occurred to him.

About 500 years before Jesus was born, a man popped up in history who we know as Buddha. Buddha developed a powerful teaching that changed his life, and the lives of others. A lot of people gathered around this man and they liked what he taught. As a result, a major religion developed around this man and his teachings.

About 500 years after the birth of Christ, another man came along named Mohammed. Mohammed developed a powerful teaching that changed his life and the lives of others. A lot of people gathered around this man and they liked what he taught. As a result, a major religion developed around this man and his teachings.

And yet… nobody predicted that a man like Buddha was going to come along and live like he lived, and teach like he taught and die like he died.
And nobody predicted that a man like Mohammed was going to come along and live like he lived, and teach like he taught and die like he died.
But 1000s of years before Jesus was born, the major theme of the Old Testament was…
Somebody’s coming
Somebody’s coming
… and when He comes… this is what He’ll do, and this is how He’ll teach and this is how He’ll die.

This was the evidence that the men on the road to Emmaus had failed to understand. It was evidence that demanded a verdict. A verdict that Jesus’ death on the cross was the deliberate plan of God and that He had come to “redeem Israel” - and everyone else who would come to Him - from their sins.
But knowing the evidence was not enough. They needed to believe it, to accept it… and to build their lives around it.

CLOSE: A great artist by the name of Steinberg had taken in a beautiful gypsy girl to pose for his paintings. At the time he was working on his masterpiece "Christ on the Cross." The girl used to watch him work on this painting.
One day she said to him "He must have been a very wicked man to be nailed to the cross like that."
"No," he replied, "on the contrary, he was a very good man, perhaps the best man that ever lived. He died for others."
The girl looked up at him and asked. "Did he die for you?"
Steinberg was not a Christian at the time, but the gypsy girl’s question touched his heart and awakened his conscience and he became a believer in Jesus.
This morning, each of us is asked to ponder ALL the EVIDENCE we are given from God’s Word and then CHOOSE for OURSELVES whom we will SERVE….
Knowing the fact that Jesus was promised to come, he lived His life as a pattern for each of us to follow, and that he willingly died on the cross for each and every one of us!
The choice is yours as we stand and sing….

 

 

Sermon Contributor: Jeff Strite