Sunday message · Luke: Jesus For Everyone series
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Message Summary
In the twelfth message of the series Luke: Jesus For Everyone, Pastor Phillip Santillan begins with the difference between a prediction and a promise. A prediction is impersonal, like a weather forecast, and either comes true or does not. A promise rests on a relationship, and the relationship shapes how it is kept. Predicting he will make his son’s game is very different from promising to be there because he loves him.
In Luke 24:13–35, two followers of Jesus walk to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection, arguing about all that has happened. Jesus joins them, but they are kept from recognizing him. They tell him they had hoped Jesus was the one to redeem Israel, but he was crucified, and all they have now is the women’s report of angels saying he is alive. Like most Jews then, they expected a military and political Messiah to free Israel from Rome. Even those who had walked with Jesus could not grasp that he would redeem through his own life, though he had told them. They were holding on to a prediction, Phil says, when the gospel is really the keeping of a promise.
Anyone unsure about Jesus is in good company, Phil says: Jesus does not throw people out for not knowing the Scriptures well or being slow to believe. He does call the two foolish and slow to believe, then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explains the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. Phil recommends Christopher Wright’s Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, which argues that the Old Testament is not merely a box of predictions but primarily the story of God’s acts in history, from which the promises arose. The two urge Jesus to stay, and when he breaks bread their eyes are opened; they hurry back to Jerusalem, their hearts having burned as he explained the Scriptures.
Phil believes many Christians present Jesus through the lens of prediction, piling up prophecies and facts and then demanding belief. Presenting him through the lens of promise would make us more like him. Jesus sought the disconnected and walked beside them. He shared life with them, entering their conversation and asking what they were discussing instead of announcing himself. He walked with them before explaining the Scriptures, because “relationship integrity always comes before the opportunity for people to repent,” and that means we need to know the Scriptures too. And he accepted their invitation to a meal, so Phil urges the church to say yes more often and make room for new friends, especially those disconnected from God.
Heading into fall, Phil shares his dream for Clarity: that the gathering of the saints would also be a gathering of the “not quite yet saints”; that it would love people without ulterior motives, starting with neighbors and co-workers; and that everyone could come as they are and, in time, discover that Jesus died and rose again so they would not have to stay as they came. He asks whether Clarity can be that church, and prays.
