In Jesus Holy Name April 6, 2008
Easter II Redeemer
Text: Luke 24:13-35
“Experiencing the Presence of God”
He is risen! He is risen indeed! The word of the angel spoken at the empty tomb of Jesus tells us that God has, in His Son, gives us hope for the most hopeless situations
Hopeless situations. In 1948, Harry Truman was running for the Presidency of the United States. His was, quite frankly, a hopeless situation. Every public opinion poll predicted that his opponent, Thomas Dewey, would give Truman a through drubbing. Newsweek went to the top 50 political pundits in the country and asked for their opinion. They agreed: Dewey would have a hundred more electoral votes than he needed. The Fort Lauderdale Daily News published a prediction which said that Dewey would get 62 percent of the vote…at least.
Life magazine featured a full page picture of Dewey with the caption, “The new President travels by ferry boat over the broad waters of San Francisco Bay.” The Kiplinger Letter, a favorite among businessmen, had an article on the economic policies of the Dewey administration. Truman’s re election was hopeless. The Manchester Guardian carried a report entitled, “Harry S. Truman… Study of a Failure”. And of course, the Chicago Trib had already gone to press with an edition which headlined, “Dewey Defeats Truman!”
It was a hopeless situation. On election night, Dewey in New York wrote his acceptance speech, while Truman, in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, ate a ham sandwich and drank a glass of milk. Both listened to the news reports. At 6 o’clock in the evening, it was reported Truman had been defeat4ed. At 10 o’clock, Truman was still going down in flames. At midnight, the report came out that Truman was ahead by 1,200,000 votes, but he was still going to lose the election. At 4 in the morning, Truman was awakened by a Secret Service agent who told him he was ahead by two million votes, but the experts were still convinced of his defeat.
The events of that night tell us that Truman’s hopeless situation wasn’t nearly as hopeless as people and the candidates had been led to believe. Truman won. Dewey lost, along with the pollsters.
Hopeless situations. I recall the times when babies were born and everybody knew their situation was hopeless. Everybody that is, except the good Lord and the baby. Today some of those infants who “weren’t going to make it,” have children of their own.
Life has taught the optimists among us that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation…. There are only people who have given up hope.
That was certainly the story 2000 years ago, on the Sunday night after Jesus had been crucified.
“Two disciples were walking down the dusty road to the village of Emmaus. Their talk concerns the crucified Jesus. Their words come slowly. Their faces carried the sadness of grief and loss. Eyes down cast. Shoulders carried the weight of lost hope.
“I can hardly believe it. He’s gone.”
“What do we do now?”
Just then a stranger comes up behind them and says, “I’m sorry, but I could not help over hearing you. What things are you talking about?” (God Came near M. Lucado p. 87)
This event on the Emmaus road is a great story. It tells us about an encounter with the resurrected Jesus. An encounter with Jesus is an encounter with God. This event on the Emmaus Road is compelling. It equals the experience of Moses before the burning bush, when he learned God’s holy name.
Have you ever wished for a similar encounter with God?
Do you wish for a mountain top experience with God?
Have you ever wanted a burning bush like Moses? Have you ever wanted God to write an answer on the wall like he did for Joseph? Then you would know for sure.
1) How does God speak to us today?
2) How can I know when God is speaking to me?
3) Can God be just as real for me as he was for the disciples on the Emmaus Road?
The Emmaus road. A fascinating scene. Two sincere disciples recounting the events of the crucifixion. God in disguise listens patiently. His wounded hands buried deep in his robe. He had just gone to Hell and back, to give hope heaven to earth and these two were worried about the political situation in Israel. (God Came Near M. Lucado)
This encounter with the living God, on the Emmaus road lays the ground work for my first question. “How does God speak to us today?” “How can I know when God is speaking?” What does an encounter with God look like, feel like?
In the past, God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, and the bush did not burn up. (Exodus 3:1-6) In that spectacular encounter with God… Moses knew he was on Holy Ground.
When Jesus spoke to the wind and calmed the storm the disciples encountered God. (Lk 8:25) “In fear and amazement they asked one another, ‘Who is this man?’” “He commands the wind and water and they obey him?” Later in Matthew 14 when they experienced Jesus walking on the water…and when he entered the boat…”they fell down and worshiped him… “My Lord and God.”
God has always been speaking to his people. Today, he speaks by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will use the Bible, prayer, circumstances and other believers.”
On the Emmaus road a change was taking place. These two disciples were experiencing an encounter with God the way it happens today…through the Holy Spirit using the scriptures.
Note the facts. V 18 one of them name Cleopas asked him. “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?” I want to suggest to you that the other disciple with Cleopas on the road was his wife. John 19:25 tells us on the day of the crucifixion of Jesus, “near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”
The visitor on the road said: “What things?” They responded: “About Jesus of Nazareth…a prophet, powerful in word and deed…he was sentenced to death, crucified and we had hoped…. He was the one who would redeem Israel”.
They did not know it was Jesus. Jesus used the O.T. scriptures. It was as if he opened the bible and said: “Look at this verse. Read the passage”. Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets he explained these things.”
What was their response when they heard the passages of scripture quoted?
V 32 “Were not our hearts burning within us...” didn’t you feel the excitement, didn’t you sense the truth…”when he walked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us.”
There it is! An encounter with God, through the Holy Spirit.
I usually want an encounter with God that is special… out of the ordinary, like Moses walking up to a burning bush that wasn’t consumed by the flames… then I would know for sure that this…. Or that…. Was truly God’s will.
Even when I review the story of the Emmaus road I say... Wow! Wouldn’t that have been a wonderful experience to physically see and talk with the risen Christ? Then by experience I could say… “Yes, Jesus really did rise from the grave… that’s the story of Thomas. Then I would no longer be afraid to witness. My prayer life would be dramatic….
Today, God still changes hopeless situations… and you know. But there is another way. Don’t we confess with Luther in his definition to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed: “I believe that I can not by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel…?”
The Holy Spirit is the One who guides you and me into all truth and teaches you all things. You and I understand spiritual truth because the Holy Spirit is working in our heart when the word of God is read or heard. It is the Holy Spirit that makes the Word of God understandable.
The Holy Spirit takes the written word of God and impresses it upon our hearts. Our eyes are opened and we see the reality of God’s word.
You and I do not discover biblical truth… it is revealed. When the Holy Spirit reveals truth or knowledge and insight about God’s character or his will for your life, He is not leading you to an encounter with God….IT IS AN Encounter with God. (Blackaby p 91)
An encounter with Jesus was an encounter with God for the two disciples on the Emmaus Road. In the same way an encounter with the Holy Spirit is an encounter with God for you and me.
(story) Years ago I was serving as Pastor in another parish. I had visited a life long Lutheran. In those years we were using the Kennedy Evangelism Explosion Program. I had asked this man (Weert N.) if he was sure he was going to heaven. He had always attended church and bible class. He was in his 70’s. His answer was “no”. I simply asked him to take out his bible and read John 6:47 (read)
In that moment his eyes were opened, his heart touched and he knew it was true. It was an encounter with God, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
“The Spirit of God knows the mind of God. Haven’t there been times when you have read the Bible and a verse jumps out at you. You underline the passage and wonder why you never noticed it before. In that moment you understand a “spiritual truth” about God. (I Cor. 1:10-15) It is an encounter with God.
When God speaks to you through the bible He is relating to you in a personal way. The Event on the Emmaus Road was an encounter with the Living God. It was to be the new pattern for God’s relationship with his people through the Holy Spirit. Today God does speak by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will use the bible, prayer, circumstances and other people in the community of faith.
Before the evening was over in the village of Emmaus these two disciples found out as millions have found out, that with Jesus as your Savior, there are no hopeless situations. They heard from the mouth of the Living God that his plan to save sinners had been accomplished at the cross on which Jesus died. He rose on the third day so that all might know that Jesus Christ has defeated death and given birth to hope beyond the grave. In Jesus, death has lost its sting; in Jesus for all who believe, for all who have repented and are forgiven, the grave has become the transition point into heaven.
It has been quite some time ago that King George VI of England addressed the British Commonwealth on New Year’s Eve. Although the King didn’t know it, cancer was eating at him, and he would die before the end of that coming year. The world’s future was then, as it always seems to be, hopeless. The King spoke these words: “I said to the man at the gate of the year, ‘give me a light that I might walk safely into the unknown.’ And he said to me, “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. It shall be to you safer than the light and better than the known.”
Let Jesus take your hand. He is the anchor in a stormy sea. Open up the scriptures and have an encounter with the Living Lord.
