Christ In All The Scriptures

First Presbyterian Church

Wichita Falls, Texas

May 8, 2011

CHRIST IN ALL THE SCRIPTURES

Isaac Butterworth

Luke 24:13-35 (NIV)

‘He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’ (Luke 24:25-27).

‘They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”’ (Luke 24:32).

Today is Mother’s Day, and we want to express to all our mothers and grandmothers -- and to those who have had a maternal influence in our lives -- we want to say ‘thank you,’ ‘we love you,’ and ‘we sincerely desire your happiness, certainly on this day but just as certainly on all your days.’

My own mother was a remarkable embodiment of both beauty and duty. She was lovely in appearance, and I think early in her life she turned many a head. But her real beauty was her embrace of duty. She worked hard from the time she was a child until, in her final years, she could no longer work. And she did it because, in her view, it was what she was supposed to do.

When I was quite young, we did not have a car, and my mother had to ride to work on a bus. Sometimes she would have to take me to a friend’s house before going to work. I remember one bitterly cold day, standing in ice and snow, waiting for the bus. The wind cut through my clothing like a razor. My mother, who was always attentive to my needs, drew me into her embrace and wrapped her big coat around me. Never was a child so safe and warm as I was that day.

Our mothers do many things for us, especially when we are children. They establish a protective environment, they structure our days, they cook our meals and clean our clothes, they tend to us when we’re sick, they cheer us on when we face our own challenges, they comfort and support us. They also teach us. James Russell Lowell once said, ever so succinctly, ‘The best academy, a mother’s knee.’ For many of us it was our mothers who first taught us about the Savior. So, we learn about Christ from our mothers. This is not uncommon -- is it? -- for our mothers to instruct us from the Bible. When they do -- when they teach us the Bible -- they don’t just teach us the stories of Noah and the ark or David and Goliath or Daniel in the lion’s den. They show us Christ. For it is Christ that the Scriptures portray. If you read the Bible with a believing heart, you will see Christ on every page. And I don’t mean that in a sentimental sense. Truly, what I mean to say is that all of Scripture speaks of Christ.

Jesus himself confirmed this. It was on the afternoon of the first Easter, when our Lord, newly risen from the grave, appeared to two disciples traveling on the road from Jerusalem to a nearby village called Emmaus. He listened to their conjectures about the events of the last few days, how Christ had been ‘handed over’ to the authorities and how they had ‘crucified him’ and how the women had reported that he was alive, but none of the Twelve disciples had actually seen him. These two travelers on their way to Emmaus were in a fog of confusion. But the fog was about to clear. Jesus was about to make everything plain.

‘How foolish you are,’ he said, ‘and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ Then, Luke says, ‘Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’ (Luke 24:25-27). Highlight in your mind, if you will, these very words: ‘what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.’ For it is Christ we find, whether we open our Bibles to Genesis or the Psalms or the Gospels or Revelation. What we see ‘in all the Scriptures,’ as Jesus himself put it, is the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption in Christ. All of Scripture speaks of him.

I. The Bible Is the Story of Christ

Let’s look again at Jesus’ words to these two travelers, and we will see how the whole Bible really is one story and how that one story is the story of Christ. ‘...Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,’ Luke writes, ‘[Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’ (Luke 24:26).