Blessed And Broken

Blessed & Broken

June 2015

Have you heard the 4 Great Religious Truths

Muslims don't recognize Judaism as a religion.

2. Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

3. Protestants don't recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith.

4. Baptists don't recognize each other at Hooters.

(A Baptist pastor told me that… and I was raised in a Baptist church, so I don’t mind poking fun at them)

Some of you have been coming here for a long while,

and you know how we usually do things,

and so you're concerned right now,

because it’s the first Sunday of the month,

and we haven't done something we usually do…

What is it?

We haven't taken Communion together.

And the reason for that is

I'm going to be teaching about that this morning,

so we're going to share communion

at the end of the service today.

Turn in your bibles to Luke 24:13.

We're gonna read a story

that takes place at a time when

Jesus has risen from the dead,

but most of the disciples don’t know it yet.

They've heard rumors that

the body is missing from the tomb,

but they haven't seen Jesus yet.

Luke 24:13-35

That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened.

What had happened?

Jesus had been crucified,

he'd died and been laid in a tomb,

it looked like darkness had won the day,

it looked like Jesus turned out to be

just another Messiah wannabe,

and now he's dead,

so he clearly can’t be the son of God,

as he had claimed.

So they're talking about that…

Verse 15

As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them.

Notice, these disciples were going away from Jerusalem,

they were leaving the place

where all the disciples were waiting together

for Jesus to reappear.

And while they're going away from the place

where God told them to stay,

Jesus shows up and heads them off at the pass.

This just goes to show that

God can appear to you

even if you're headed in the wrong direction in your life.

That is good news to somebody here this morning,

because you're going the wrong direction,

but God can show up

even when you're headed the wrong way.

I thank God for all the times he cut me off

when I was headed the wrong direction,

but he had a better plan for me.

So Jesus shows up to these 2 guys,

but then it says something really interesting

in verse 16…

But God kept them from recognizing him.

I have to stop and wonder,

how many times has Jesus appeared

in your situation, or my situation,

but we didn’t know it was him,

we didn’t recognize him.

Verse 17

He asked them, "What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?"

By the way,

Anytime Jesus asks a question,

its not because he needs information.

He knew not only what the were saying,

but what they were thinking.

So the reason he asked,

is because he knew

they're going the wrong direction,

and he wants to lead them to the truth.

So

He asked them, "What are you discussing…

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces.

They were sad,

they were disappointed at the way

things had turned out,

they were discouraged and depressed.

Did you know that Jesus can appear to you,

even when you're disappointed?

Some of you this morning are sad,

you're disappointed about some things in your life.

Did you know that its often those times

when you're sad and disappointed,

and it seems like life is coming hard against you,

its often those times

when Jesus appears most powerfully in your life?

18 Then one of them, Cleopas,

Now we know why he was sad,

because his mom named him Cleopas.

Cleopas replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."

This is actually a hilarious story when you think about it.

They're telling the only guy who really knows what's going on,

Don’t you know what's going on?

You been living in a cave or something?

You must be the only one in the whole city who hasn’t heard…

But Jesus kind of plays along,

and he plays dumb…

19 "What things?" Jesus asked.

And then they start trying to teach Jesus… about Jesus.

This is so funny.

He asks, what things?...

"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. 20 But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21 We had hoped ………