Christ Continues His Mission
Trinity Lutheran Church, Woodway, TX
April 19, 2026, Third Sunday of Easter
Text: Luke 24:13–35, Acts 2:36–41, 1 Peter 1:17–26
In the name of Jesus, Amen!
As we are traveling from place to place in the United States to visit congregations, I have been preaching in a series of sermons about the Mission of God, because Christian Mission is God’s Mission to save sinners. The Mission of God comes from the loving heart of God, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. We talked about God’s salvation history and the overall picture of how God carries out His mission by His Son and through His people. We talked about why Jesus’ overcoming the temptations is an important part of the mission of God. We talked about how declaring sinners righteous and granting us a new life that shall never die are the work of God, not work of man, nor work of the Law, and thus are the core of His mission to save sinners through Jesus Christ. Today, we’ll talk about how God in Christ Jesus continues His mission by His church through His Word and Sacraments. Today’s Gospel reading is after Jesus has finished the essential work of His mission to save sinners by dying on the cross and rising up on the third day. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” What is finished? Did Jesus finish His mission? Apparently a lot people think so. For them, Christian mission is like a super rich guy who buried all his treasure somewhere before he died, and then he asked his children to tell the good new to the world that whoever finds the treasure can have it. No, it not like that at all. When Jesus says “it’s finished,” it means that the sacrifice to pay the penalty of sins and the work to earn the salvation of humanity has been done. It is finished by Him so that you don’t have to do it. But, the mission of God to save sinners is NOT finished. Jesus continues God’s mission not only in His Spirit, but in person.
By this time, Jesus already appeared to the women, and Peter saw the empty tomb and would soon see the resurrected Jesus together with the other 10 apostles that night. Now in a totally different place, Jesus appeared to these two disciples on their way to a village named Emmaus. After opening their hearts and minds to the Scriptures, Jesus acted as if he were going farther because He would continue His mission elsewhere. As a matter of fact, on the very same day, Jesus appeared to different people in different places because not only was He able to do all at once for His resurrected Body transcends time and space, but also he had to continue His mission to bring Peace to the troubled and frightened hearts, strengthen the faith of the weak, and teach the disciples how to read the Bible and spread the Good News by being with them always to the end of the age.
As Lutherans, our interpretation of the Scriptures is Christ-centered with Law and Gospel rightly-distinguished. Without this Christ-centered reading, the Bible is a closed book for people and they cannot see the gracious intention and wonderful plan of God in Jesus Christ to save sinners. That was exactly the case when the two disciples walked with Jesus and talked about what happened in Jerusalem without recognizing Him. The reason that they could not recognize Him is not that they didn’t recognize Jesus’ face. It’s that they did not expect Jesus would appear to them right there and right at that moment after they knew for certain He was delivered up by the chief priests and rulers to be condemned to death and crucified on the cross. Though the testimony of those women amazed them, they refused to believe what Jesus had told them that He would resurrect again on the third day. That’s why they felt downcast and were looking sad. Neither did they believe the true meaning of the OT’s prophecies concerning Christ whom they had hoped Jesus was the one to redeem Israel. Jesus rebuked them saying, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” The Scripture that they read had prophesied that Christ, the Suffering Servant had to suffer for the sins of the people and would live forever to rule His everlasting Kingdom. However, without recognizing that the main function of the law is to show people their sins and thus the need for forgiveness, people would always regard Christ as a worldly savior who would give people the best wisdom to live a better life on earth here and now, not the redeemer who suffered for our sins and resurrected for our justification.
After Jesus fulfilling the OT prophecies by dying on the cross and rising up again, He continues His mission to save sinners by Word and Sacraments through His body – the church. That’s why Jesus went with the disciples, talked with them, and beginning with Moses and all the Prophets interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He wanted them to know, now He wants us to know that in order to receive the forgiveness of sins and the new life in Him, one has to walk humbly with Jesus who is God Himself and learn from Him the Christ-centered meaning of the Scriptures in both the Old and the New. Jesus reveals Himself and the Christ-centered message by opening our eyes of faith so that our hearts burn with His truth and the hope of eternal life. Jesus is also more than willing to live and talk with us to nourish us with His Word, His Body and His Blood, and lead us by His Holy Spirit so that we can recognize Him in His words and promises and in the wonderful works that He continues to do in our life.
As we are traveling from place to place to visit congregations, we began to have a better and better understanding of what it means for Christ Jesus to continue His mission after the cross event. Continuation doesn’t mean repetition. I preach on the same topic of the mission of God not only at different times and in different places, but also based on different biblical texts and from different perspectives. The continuity of Jesus’ mission can have a different form at a different time in a different place. Christ in the OT time was certainly different than Christ in Jesus of Nazareth who is the Word becoming flesh. And Christ who has ascended into heaven now is different than Christ in His humbleness. Jesus did not leave us alone on earth while He is “in heaven” as some people, even some Christians would believe. He ascended to heaven in a resurrected body to be given “all authority in heaven and on earth,” (Matt. 28:18) which is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:21-23). This is why when Jesus was breaking the bread and the two disciples were beginning to recognize Him, He became invisible from them. Jesus did not vanish, but was invisible. Though invisible to human eyes, Jesus continues to serve them, now serves us with His Body and His Blood. Though there are many differences, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb. 13:8)” The loving purpose of God in Christ Jesus for humanity and the mission of God to save sinners is always the same throughout the salvation history so that any people at any place in any time can have a life that shall never die through faith.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, Amen!
