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Sermon preached on Luke 24:13-52 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/05/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Have you ever said, “I need that,” for something you didn’t really need? Is there something you’ve told yourself that you just can’t live without? We live in a culture that tries to sell you on all sorts of that you need that you don’t really need. But, what do you truly need? What things are necessary for your life?
Today’s passage tells us of three things we do truly need. First, this passage shows us we need the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We are glad to celebrate again today that “The Lord has risen indeed”. The resurrection is a true necessity for our salvation. Second, this passage shows us the necessity for Jesus to open our minds, even as his disciples here needed Jesus to do that for them. That is why they could believe and trust in Christ, and this is necessary for any who believe in Jesus. Third, this passage shows the need for Christ and the gospel to be proclaimed to the world. We each need to hear the message of Christ in order to be able to turn and believe in him. We see each of these needs in today’s passage. Without these three needs being met, we cannot enjoy salvation in Christ.
So then, today I will be highlighting from this passage those three needs. They will be our three points to consider today. First, we’ll consider the need for Christ’s death and resurrection. Second, we’ll consider the need for opened minds. Third, we’ll consider the need for proclaiming the gospel.
Let’s begin by considering the need for Christ’s death and resurrection. The fact that Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead is a fundamental teaching of Christianity. You would not have a Christian faith if Jesus didn’t die and rise from the dead. We could say the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection is a necessity to Christianity. Likewise, we each personally need the death and resurrection of Jesus in order to be saved.
We find this clearly stated by Jesus in verse 26. Jesus asks this rhetorically, saying, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Jesus’ suffering included several things and culminated in his death. Jesus’ glory especially includes his resurrection, though we could recognize his ascension too at the end of the chapter.
Now we can think about the necessity of Jesus’ death and resurrection from what we find in verse 44, that Jesus told them that the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Jesus opened up the whole Bible to his disciples, which at that point was our Old Testament. He showed them from the Scriptures what it foretold about him. This is also what he did back in verse 27 with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I love how this chapter brings out that Jesus showed this to them from each of the three main sections of the Old Testament. Those sections are the law, the prophets, and the wisdom literature which included the Psalms. All the sections of the Old Testament Bible foretold the coming of Jesus. In them, we see the suffering of Jesus prophesized followed by his subsequent glory.
As a pastor, this is something I particularly enjoy doing. I love to open up the Old Testament and see how the story of Christ is told in different ways throughout it. In the law, the idea of the need for a God-provided sacrifice is repeatedly taught. In the prophets, Isaiah for example, it becomes increasingly clear that one would come who would be that sacrifice for all God’s people. In the Psalms, we find many examples of suffering tied to the lineage of King David and ultimately looking to the Messiah from that line who would so suffer and die for the people. Yet, at the same time, the Old Testament foretold a coming Messiah. He would be one greater than Moses. He would be one greater than the prophets. He would be one greater than King David. He would be a royal priest that would reveal God to his people and would benevolently reign over them forever and ever. So, these two threads of both suffering and glory are repeatedly shown in the Old Testament. Jesus clearly teaches that they all spoke of him, and that the suffering had to happen first before the glory.
Now, all this is true that it was necessary for Jesus to die and rise from the dead in order to fulfill the Scriptures. But let us not miss the point that there is a greater necessity underlying that. Why did the Scriptures require this in the first place? Indeed, this was the only way God could save a fallen people from their sins. The Bible teaches that at the beginning, our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God. They chose to sin against him and plunged all humanity into what we call “original sin”. This means we are all fallen and guilty creatures. We show it in how we live our life. Too often humans live for themselves instead of in service to God. God deserves our worship, our obedience, and our gratitude. Yet, history has shown that even the most religious among us fall greatly short of the allegiance God deserves. The Bible explains that we deserve God’s wrath and curse, his eternal judgment of death and hell. Many people hate hearing that message and that only confirms they are in rebellion against God.
So then, that is ultimately why it was necessary for Jesus to die and rise again. It was necessary so that Jesus could save a people unto himself. He died as an offering for sin, that “whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”, John 3:16. He endured God’s wrath in our place, for all who are in him by faith. He essentially experienced hell on the cross as his life was given for us. Yet, Jesus’s death was not the end. In his perfect righteousness, he overcame death, having paid fully the debt of sinned we owed. He rose in glory, and then ascended in glory, and even now has gone to prepare a place for us. He will return again to bring us all into the glory he has prepared for us. The Bible says that this hope of glory is for all who have turned in faith to Jesus.
Yet, that leads us to our second point. This passage shows there is a need for Jesus to open minds. Jesus not only had to die and rise again for our salvation. But the only way any of us will ever turn and believe in him and become saved is as he opens minds. We see this in verse 45. There, Jesus opened the minds of his disciples so they could understand the Scriptures and what they said about him.
The disciples needed Jesus to open their minds to understand what the Bible foretold about Jesus. In a similar way, back in verses 25-27, those two on the road to Emmaus couldn’t understand the reports they had heard about Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus told them that they were foolish and slow of heart to believe the Scriptures. But Jesus then explained from all the Scriptures, so they would begin to understand. As they later say in verse 32, their hearts burned as Jesus opened the Scriptures. That’s because Jesus was beginning to open their minds to understand the Bible.
What we see with the disciples here is true for every single one of us. No one will be able to turn and believe in Jesus if he doesn’t open our mind and enliven our heart. The reason for this again goes back to Adam and Eve and that idea of original sin. When they chose to reject God, they didn’t just heap guilt up on humanity. They also heaped depravity on us. Their souls died spiritually in the process, and each of their descendants has ever since been born with a depraved soul. That means, you, me, and all of us, are born with a sinful nature. We don’t just need to be forgiven of our sins, we also need to be delivered from the effects of sin. One of those effects of sin is what we can call a spiritual blindness. We don’t see spiritual things clearly or understand the things of God properly. But Jesus begins to overcome the effects of sin in our heart when he opens our minds. Elsewhere, it’s called being born again.
So then, when Jesus opens our minds and enlivens our hearts, we are finally able to understand such spiritual things. We can finally see that we are sinful people under God’s judgment. But we also see that God’s grace has provided a way of escape from that judgment. Our minds recognize Jesus as Savior and Lord. We see that a life hid in him is a life of salvation. We turn and believe in Jesus and are forgiven of our sins. Jesus then continues to work in our hearts, growing us over time to have victory over sin. When he returns one day, or if we die and go to him before then, he will complete his renovating work in our souls. In other words, opening our minds is only the beginning of Jesus giving us deliverance from the power of sin.
So far we’ve seen that it was necessary for Christ to accomplish salvation in his death and resurrection. Then we’ve seen it is necessary for us all to have our minds opened in order to understand and receive Christ in faith. Yet, that leads us to our third point to now consider the need for proclaiming the gospel about Jesus. For how can we understand and believe in a message or a person that we’ve never heard about? So then, we see this necessity described in verse 47. There Jesus tells his disciples that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in Christ’s name to all the nations. Realize that this point Jesus makes in verse 47 begins in the previous verse when he is explaining to them that the Scriptures necessitate Jesus’ suffering then glory. So, Jesus is now adding this idea too. The Scripture have also foretold that after the death and resurrection of the Messiah that then his disciples will bear witness to him and the salvation offered in his name. The Scriptures foretold that this would begin in Jerusalem but extend to all the earth.
In short, we call this evangelism. That’s a fancy word that means to proclaim the good news, also known as the gospel. Let me also explain, though, by using the language here in verse 46. It says that repentance must be proclaimed and it connects that with forgiveness and bearing witness to Christ. Start with that word “repentance”. This is a word that literally means a change of mind, and it involves essentially a U-turn in our heart. It’s a reorientation of the heart from looking away from God to looking towards God. You see, when Christ is preached, it includes explaining why he had to die. He had to die because we humans have been living in sin. To repent, is to acknowledge that and to have a change of mind and heart that says sin is wrong and God is right. It’s to acknowledge that you need Jesus to be your personal sacrifice for your sin. We then look to Jesus and receive the forgiveness he won for us at the cross. He then calls you to live in light of that changed heart, to follow him as his disciple and to seek to set him as Lord of your life. So then, to preach the gospel is to point people to find forgiveness and a new life in Jesus. All who respond to this message, who turn and believe in Jesus, they are saved. That is truly good news when we consider the alternative without Jesus.
So then, no one can become a believer in Christ and be saved, unless they have first been told about him and the gospel. As Romans 10:14 says, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” We can’t believe in Jesus and be saved unless we’ve been told about Jesus and the gospel. The proclamation of Christ is a need for us to become saved. Yet, let us note an important extra detail here when talking about this need for telling people about Jesus. Look at verses 48-49. Before these disciples were to go spreading the gospel of Jesus to the nations, they needed to wait for God to send them “power from on high”. That is a reference to the Holy Spirit. This book of Luke has a sequel in the book of Acts. There, this story picks up and we find them doing what Jesus told them to do here. They are waiting and praying in Jerusalem until God pours out the Holy Spirit on them at the day of Pentecost. Then, the Holy Spirit would empower their witness to Christ and the gospel. The Holy Spirit continues to empower the church’s evangelism today. Related to our previous point, this is how Christ ordinarily opens our minds today. As the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit on behalf of Christ is working to opens minds unto repentance and faith. Evangelism is a ministry of the Holy Spirt working in power through the preaching of Christ and the gospel.
We are doing this evangelism today. As I stand before you now, we’ve seen three things this passage has shown are necessary for us to be saved. Fundamentally, we need Christ to have died and rose again. We then each need to hear about Christ and the gospel as he is proclaimed through the world. Ultimately, we need for Christ by the Spirit to open our minds to know him and his salvation.
As we’ve come together on this Resurrection Sunday, we rejoice that the first of these three needs has already been accomplished. Jesus died and he rose from the dead on the third day. He has conquered sin and death. This need has been accomplished and we rejoice and give thanks to God today. Yet, the resurrection of Christ will be of no benefit to you personally if those other two needs aren’t also met in your life. And so, I preach to you Christ today. And I pray that the Holy Spirit might indeed open your mind to see and trust in Jesus. This is what you truly need. You need Christ. You need the gospel.
I began our message asking us what we thought we really needed. Often what tempts us are things we have to somehow earn. We want that car or house, and so we must work hard and earn lots of money to finally buy it. Or we want that title or position at work and so we have to do what we can to impress others so we can earn the spot we think we need. Or we want that special man or woman in our life and so we have to find a way to win them over. We want success, we want fame, we want wealth, we want relationships, and we turn all those into needs, needs we have to accomplish in order to be happy or feel fulfilled. For sure, there is a form of ambition married with hard work that is commendable. Yet, we also must be on guard against covetousness due to discontentment where there is always something else we “need”.
Yet, I hope our passage today reminded you that there are some true, ultimate needs that we have. We each will die one day. We will all face the judgment seat of God. We will each need to give an account for our life. Whatever earthly things you worked for won’t be the answer on that day. No, what you will need on that day is something that you can’t earn. You will need the salvation with the forgiveness of sins that is freely offered in the name of Jesus. The Christian faith is not about works to be saved. It’s about Christ’s work to save us. We call this grace. This is what we need. We need Christ’s death and resurrection for us. We need Christ to open our heart. We need the gospel proclaimed to us. This is what you need. And you can have assurance that you have this, if you will turn and put your faith in Jesus. Maybe you are someone who only comes to church on Christmas and Easter. I pray that will change for you today. I hope that you’ve had your mind opened today to see how much you need Christ. And I hope you can then rejoice with us at how our greatest need was met when Jesus died and rose again to save us.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
