Good morning. I invite your attention to the
Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24. The Gospel according to Luke,
24th chapter. My text will be verse 27. We will reach
it in a moment. My subject is Christ in all the
Scriptures. Let me begin reading in verse
number 13 after this introduction. Jesus had been crucified, buried. His disciples did not understand
at all. They were not expecting this
death. They were not expecting it to be over as it now appeared
to be. Many of them are confused. And
we're going to read about two of them right now. Verse 13,
Luke 24, 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus from Jerusalem, which
was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs, seven and a half
miles. They're walking, folks. They're
walking. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them, walking there beside them, the three of them together.
And their eyes were holding that they should not know him. They
did not recognize him, folks. By some means of God, they did
not recognize this man who is now walking with them. And he
said unto them, What manner of communication are these, that
ye have one to another as ye walk? And you're so sad. What is this sad communication
between you? And one of them, whose name was
Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Are thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem? More precisely, he said, Are
you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things
which are come to pass there in these days? And Jesus said
unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty indeed, and
word before God and all the people, how the chief priests and our
rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and have crucified Him.
But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed
Israel. And beside all this, today is
the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women
also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher.
And when they found not his body, they came, saying that they had
also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchers,
and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not. And Jesus said to them, O fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to
enter his glory? Now my text. And beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them and all the
scriptures, the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto
the village Emmaus. whether they went, and Jesus
made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained
him, saying, Abide with us, spend the night here with us, for it
is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And Jesus went
in to tarry with them, and it came to pass, as he sat at meat
with them." Now watch carefully and visualize it in your mind.
Jesus took bread, a loaf of it there, on the table, broke it
with his hands, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened
when they saw him break the bread. Remember, their eyes thus far
had been darkened so that they did not recognize him. He's Jesus. They knew him. These were his
disciples. They did not recognize him. until
he put the bread in his hand and broke it. And then he vanished out of their
sight. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose
up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven
gathered together and with them that were with them, saying,
The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they
told what things were done in the way, that is, the way from
Jerusalem to Emmaus, and how, now watch this, he was known
of them in the breaking of bread. They did not recognize him, until the hands that had holes in them
from the spikes of the cross broke that bread and handed it
to him. They undoubtedly saw the holes
in his hands. He realized it's Jesus and he's
gone. He's gone. And they went back
to Jerusalem to tell the story. Although you can well imagine
that the trip back to Jerusalem was a whole lot faster than the
trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus. He's risen! We saw Him! He broke
the bread. It was Him we recognized Him.
But look at my text, verse 27. He expounded unto them and all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. You need to know this
about Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was renowned
as a teacher. He's many things but the people
knew him as a teacher. A leader of the Jewish Sanhedrin,
who at that time was not a believer and was a member of that body
that opposed Jesus, came to Jesus one night and said, We know that
you are a teacher come from God. They knew it. Even Jesus' enemies
knew he's a teacher come from God. He generally was addressed
by the distinguished title teacher when people saw him on the street.
Teacher. The rich young ruler called him
good teacher. And he was. He was a good teacher. We know this by the reaction
of his hearers on various occasions. When he finished the Sermon on
the Mount, the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught
them as one having authority and not as the scribes. When Jesus spoke, there was authority
in what he said. We read in Luke 4.22, all bore
witness of him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. Gracious words. When Jesus spoke,
you heard of grace, and you heard it graciously and gracefully.
In Matthew 13, 54, they were astonished and said, where did
this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? He's the
carpenter's son. Where did he learn to talk like
this? Where did he learn to teach like
this? Mark 12, 37 we read, the common
people heard him gladly. It's good when the common people
hear you gladly. And then the Sanhedrin sent soldiers
to arrest him because he was teaching and the soldiers came
upon Jesus while he's teaching. They listened and then they turned
back and went back to the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin said, Where
is he? We sent you to get him and bring
him back." And they said, no man ever spoke like this man.
We could not arrest him. I want you to just get the point
here that Jesus as a teacher was head and shoulders above
all others. No man ever walked on this earth who taught like
he did. He delivered many discourses. He was a teacher. He taught many
lessons. There are seven of them, at least
seven of them, recorded in the scriptures. You know about the
Sermon on the Mount. And by the way, if you have a
red letter edition of the Holy Scriptures, and I commend them,
the red letter, I love it. You can look at those long passages
that are in red. They're discourses Jesus taught. There are seven of them. And
I'm not going to just give them to you right now. I can give
you the list if you wish, but seven long discourses from Jesus
that are written, recorded in the Gospels. But there is one discourse that is
not recorded. It was probably the longest message
he ever preached. and it is not recorded. It was this message that we just
read about, Luke 24. Jesus taught this lesson, preached
this message on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village
in the out district. three score or sixty furlongs,
seven and a half miles away. They're walking seven and a half
miles. Let us assume they are walking
one mile every twenty minutes. That's about normal. Twenty miles. And by the way, they're talking
So, you know, they're not talking, they're not walking so fast that
they have no breath for talking or listening. So let's imagine
every 20 minutes they walk one mile and they have seven and
a half miles to go. I believe you will find that
it took them 150 minutes to walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Jesus preached a message during
that walk that lasted two and a half hours. Two and a half hours. And they listened to every word
he said. Now what was the subject of this message? And beginning
at Moses. and all the prophets. He expounded
unto them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Moses wrote Genesis, Malachi is the last of the prophets.
In two and a half hours, Jesus Christ evidently touched on every
major prophecy or statement regarding himself in the Old Testament. My daughter asked me this morning,
what are you going to preach on? And I told her, I'm going
to preach on all the scriptures that speak of Jesus Christ in
the Old Testament. She was a bit disheartened. That's
going to be a long message. Well, it was two and a half hours
when Jesus did it. And he's the master. He's the
master, the teacher. Two and a half hours. Now, the
message is not recorded. I hope you do not think it is irreverent
of me if I say to you that when you and I are seated around Jesus
in heaven's glory, and there we are at his feet,
at the feet of the teacher, I wonder if he would honor my
request to preach that message one more time, for I would love
to hear it. I would love to hear the greatest
teacher who ever walked on earth or in heaven expound all the
prophecies of the Old Testament concerning himself. I would love
to hear that message. I will let you know this. Every
text in scripture points to Christ. in one way or another. It may
be in obscurity, but every text and scripture goes to Christ.
You may have trouble finding Him at first. It is said that
every road in England leads to London, and that is true. You may be walking along a cow
path. Follow it, it'll take you to
London. Because it eventually will come
to a horse cart path. Follow it, it'll take you to
London. For it eventually will come to
a one-lane dirt road. Follow it, it'll take you to
London. Because it eventually will come
to a one-lane paved road. Which will take you to a two-lane
paved road. Which will take you to a four-lane
paved road. And it's going to take you to
London. Because every road in England leads to London, and
every scripture leads to Christ. All right. I'm not going to hit
all the scriptures this morning. I will do this. In three chapters,
only the first three chapters of the Old Testament, Genesis
1, 2, and 3, Let's look at Jesus and see if
He's there. Beginning at Moses, that's where
Jesus began. He began in Genesis chapter 1. Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets. We're not going to hit all the
prophets. We're going to look at only Genesis chapters 1, 2,
and 3. And we're going to look for Jesus
Christ in these texts. Jesus Christ is in the Old Testament
actually, first point. Prophetically, second point. Evangelistically, third point. And typically, fourth point.
Okay. He is in the Old Testament actually. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. How did God create the heavens
and the earth? He did so in the person of Jesus
Christ. By Him were all things created. Without Him, nothing was made
that was made. Even God the Father says, the
heavens and the earth are the work of your hands in Hebrews
chapter 1. So when you read in Genesis 1
that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, that
actually is Jesus. And Jesus is there. even in the
very first verse in the Bible. There he is! In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. We read also in Genesis
chapter 3 that when he was deceived by the serpent and Adam sinned
with his eyes wide open with great intention, God came down. to pass judgment. God came down to pass judgment. To the serpent He said, upon
your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of
your life and I will put enmity between your seed and her seed. And to the woman He said, you
shall now henceforth be subservient to the man and you will endure
pain when you deliver your children. And to the man, he said, you
will eat your bread by the sweat of your brow, and then you will
return to the earth which you came. That's the judgment. That's
the judgment that was passed. God passed it. God did it in
the person of Jesus Christ. For the scripture says, the Father
judges no one. but has committed all judgment
to the Son that all should honor the Son as they honor the Father."
When God passed judgment in Genesis chapter 3, that was actually
Jesus Christ. God did it in the person of His
Son. Furthermore, Jesus Christ is
in the Old Testament prophetically. This is true of even the first
prophecy in the Bible in which God said to the serpent, I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed
and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and
you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3 verse 15. Now, the seed of the woman. Who is
the seed of the woman? Revelation in Scripture is always
progressive. It begins with some obscure statement,
some dark statement, and then as you read further, light is
shed upon it, and progressively, on and on, you see what it means. The seed of the woman. Seed of
the woman. There is no such thing. Seed
belongs to the man. Well, in this case, it belongs
to the woman. It's the woman's seed. How can
it be the woman conceived? Behold, a virgin shall conceive. Without a man? That's right. A virgin shall conceive. Embarrassed
son, you shall call His name Immanuel, meaning God with us. In Jeremiah 31, verse 22, there
is a very interesting statement made. God said, I will create
a new thing. Here it is. A woman shall compass
a man. Do what? A woman shall compass
a man. Lord, that's impossible. That's
impossible. It was true. Jesus was compassed
in the womb of his mother in his incarnation. And this man that was to be born
was going to be the Messiah of God's people. Matthew's Gospel
chapter 1 and also Galatians 4, for in the fullness of time
God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, to redeem those that
were under the law. No man was involved! Joseph, her husband, did not
even know her. The Scripture says, until after
Jesus is born, the seed of the woman. He is the seed of the
woman. He's in the Scripture prophetically.
Christ is present in the Old Testament evangelistically, and
this is true of the aforesighted first prophecy, Genesis 3.15.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and
you shall bruise his heel." Now, it's somewhat obscure. What does it mean? Well, I can
tell you this. We called it the protibongelium,
if you want a big fancy word for it. The protobongelium, what
it means is quite simply, the first gospel message. That's what protobongelium means. The first time the gospel was
ever preached was in Genesis 3.15. God preached it. By the way, He preached it to
Satan, letting Satan know what was going to happen. The first
time the gospel is preached, And he says to the Satan, you will bite his heel. Now what
was the heel of Jesus Christ? Well, your heel is the lowest
part of your humanity. And how was the heel of Jesus
Christ bitten by Satan? Oh, there on the cross. Those
spikes in his hands. It's the fangs of Satan, the
curse of sin holding him to the cross. And Jesus is there suspended
on that cross and Satan is there biting him with his venomous
fangs, biting his heel, inflicting death. upon the seat of the woman, but he shall crush your head." Satan has done all he can do.
He has now bitten and bitten and bitten until Jesus Christ on his cross
has been bitten for the last time. And then he shouts, in
glorious victory, it is finished! And stomps Satan's head. And crushed him. Crushed him! And the prophecy is fulfilled.
And that is the gospel. That is the gospel. Christ endured
this bruising of his heel by the satanic seed so that through
death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that
is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. And that is the gospel. I would have loved to have heard
Jesus explain it. He will explain it to us, I'm
sure, better than you're hearing it from me now. But this is so
glorious. He who preached the gospel for
the first time in the Garden of Eden explained it on the road
to Emmaus. Now my fourth and final point.
Christ is present in the Old Testament typically. For example,
The first light upon the earth which dispersed the darkness
engulfing it and provided life for its inhabitants was typical
of Christ. The earth is made, the heavens
surround it, it is in total darkness until God said, let there be
light and there was light and the darkness was dispelled. And there is darkness in this
world until Jesus Christ comes as the life of the world and
says, let there be light! And the darkness is dispelled. God commanded the light to shine
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. When you hear God saying, let
there be light, this is typical of Jesus Christ saying, I am
the light of the world and wherever I go, darkness is dispelled. The darkness cannot comprehend
it. The Sabbath rest into which Christ
entered at the conclusion of the work of creation was typical. God made heaven and earth in
six days. Then he rested. He rested not because he was
tired. He was not tired. It had been no exertion on his
part. Why did he rest? It is the rest of complacence. It is that rest of one who has
made something that is marvelous and awesome And then he just
says, cannot make it any better. I'm done. I'm done. And he rested. And God, with
regard to creation, never went back to work again. Never did. It's done. God rested. Then Jesus Christ did a work. on Calvary, you can read about
it in the fourth chapter to the Hebrews. Jesus Christ did a work in a few hours, actually three
and a half years in his life and on Calvary. He did a work
and then he said it is finished and he worked no more and then
he rested. They laid his body in a tomb
and God said, come on up here, your work is done. And he entered
into a Sabbath. Jesus Christ has entered into
a Sabbath and we are told that by faith in him, we enter into
the very same Sabbath. It's done. We do nothing to be
saved. God will not accept it anyway.
We rest in Christ. Come ye that are weary and heavy
laden, I will give you rest. And he does. It is his rest. He finished the work, and then
he went to rest, and now we went to rest in him. He's the tree
of life. There was a tree of life in the
middle of the garden, in the paradise that God made.
A tree of life. It was one. Trees of every sort,
but one tree of life. When Adam sinned, God said, don't
let him go near that tree of life. Get it away. So the cherub stood before the
tree. And then we do not read about
the tree again. until we come to the last book
of the Bible. Now watch carefully. The tree
is introduced in the first book of the Bible. Then we do not find it again
until the last book in the Bible where we find that in heaven
is the tree of life and the paradise of God with leaves for the healing
of the nations. That's Christ. He is the tree. He is the tree that is planted.
He is the tree of righteousness. His leaves give to us our health. The creation of the wife or the
first man by cross, that was typical. Before my wife came to join me
here in Montana, I told some people that one of infinite wisdom
said, it is not good for the man to be alone. Well, that one
of infinite wisdom is God. In the Garden of Eden, there's
Adam by himself, and God says, he's missing something, and I'm
going to make it for him. So God made a woman, made a woman
for him. Flesh of his flesh and bone of
his bone. Brought her to the man and said,
she's your helpmate. Likewise, Jesus Christ created
a wife. Where did Adam's wife come from? His side. His side. God opened
his side, performed surgery and made a wife. Where did Christ's
wife come from? His side. God opened his side and out flowed
blood and water and from that was created a perfect wife for
Jesus Christ. So when you read about God saying,
it is not good for man to be alone. He said, it is not good
for Christ to be alone. And he said, he's going to have
a wife. And when Christ made that first
woman, it was typical of him making his wife for himself. In the Garden of Eden, God came
down to walk with fallen man. Adam and Eve had sinned. They
found some leaves, sewed them together, probably with horse
hair from a horse tail or whatever. You know, it's not a very trustworthy garment.
And you better hope that garden is somewhere down close to the
equator and not close to Montana. But, you know, they take the
leaves and they've sewn themselves a garment. And here they hear
the voice of God walking in the garden. Adam! Where are you? God knows. God wants Adam to know that God
knows Adam is hiding. Adam! Adam did not go looking for God. God came looking for Adam. God
came down in the cool of the day. Man never went looking for Christ. Christ came down looking for
man. Mitch, where are you? He knows
where you are, Mitch. He just wants you to know that
He knows you're hiding from Him until He found you, until He
found you. It's the same with us, you see?
When you hear of God coming down to walk with fallen man in the
Garden of Eden, that's Christ coming down to walk with me and
to walk with the rest of His people. One more. So Adam sinned, and he's naked. Well, he had
been naked all along, you just did not know it until he sinned. Now he's ashamed of his nakedness.
He needs a garment, and let's face it, folks, those leaves
are not going to work, especially since God is a consuming fire. What's he going to do? And he
is seeing that there's got to be an offering
made, got to be a sacrifice on the altar. So we read that God made coats of skin and clothed
Adam and Eve. Now that's about all we're told. made coats of skin from an innocent
animal and clothed that of an Eve. But you cannot take the
skin from an animal unless you kill it and shed its blood. So God performed the first sacrifice. There in the Garden of Eden,
An innocent animal was slain, a lamb, probably. Its blood made
atonement for Adam and Eve. God took the skin of that animal
and clothed Adam and Eve. Oh, that is the gospel, typically,
because there is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world
for, well, for sinners like you two. Like Adam and Eve, you need
an offering. Jesus Christ made it. He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. His blood has redeemed
us to God, become the purchase for our salvation. We've been
cleansed by that blood. And then God takes the righteousness
of Jesus Christ and clothes us in it. removes those old filthy
garments of self-righteousness that we had, the leaves that
you and I had sown together with our free will, suppose it, and
good works. God has taken all those from
us, washed us in the blood of Jesus Christ and said, you are
now clothed in Him who was sacrificed for your sins. And that is the
gospel. Listen folks, I've been here,
okay, a little over half an hour, and we only got into Genesis
chapter 3. Jesus, in two and a half hours,
expanded unto them in all the scriptures the thanks concerning
himself. I hope, I hope he will honor
the request in heaven's glory to preach that message again.
And I want you to do this. When you read God's Word, do
not be like so many others in religion and be looking for principles
for your life or this or that or for the other. Those things
are there. Look for Christ. I want you to
look for Christ every time you read the Scripture. Look for
Christ. He's there. Sometimes it'll just
thoroughly surprise you. Whoa! You will say, I've read
this before but I did not know Christ was there until now. Well,
keep on reading. Christ in all the scriptures.
He expounded unto them in all the scriptures and their heart
burned within them. I hope your heart burns within
you as you find Christ in the scriptures. O God, our Father,
to the glory of your name and to the honor of your Son, Jesus
Christ, reveal him to us, we pray, in all your Word. Amen.