Sermon for CATM – April 11, 2010
Journeying with the Disciples – Struggling to Believe the Good News
Where were you on 9/11? Do you recall what you were doing the day or the exact time you first heard that the U.S. was under attack? What was your first response? Did you say: “Hmm. That’s odd!”, or were you in shock? I think most of us were in shock.
Trying, in the moment and afterward, to wrap our heads around what was happening as the planes struck, trying to grasp what was happening as the buildings collapsed and thousands died, and then trying to understand that this wasn’t some terrible accident, but was rather an intentional, pre-mediated effort to murder civilians.
It was all too much to get our minds around.
Big events, especially those that aren’t really expected, have a huge impact on us. I think it’s a good thing that a state of shock accompanies such events.
Even smaller personal events leave us in a state of shock. I was once in a gas-fire explosion that burned my upper body, but after the initial sting, I didn’t feel anything, other than bewildered, for at least a day.
When a bike I was riding on a country gravel road fell apart underneath me and my face hit the gravel pretty much shredding my upper lip, I felt nothing, other than stunned, after the initial impact. After surgery for over 75 stitches in my lip, that’s when what happened hit me. Those events have a huge impact on us.
Today’s Scripture passage lunges us into the confused and discouraged frame of mind that the followers of Jesus were in after His crucifixion, right as the realization was dawning on them that something amazing was happening.
The profound sorrow and, really, dismal state of affairs they truly thought they were in…well, reality was turning on them.
They had spent a couple of days bewildered at the murder of Jesus and the brutal crushing of all their hopes and dreams that hinged on Jesus.
Now, the very day of the resurrection of Jesus, later on in the day, before the news of this awesome event had spread very far, something strange is afoot, something wonderful is slowly being unveiled.
Let’s peak in together as two of Jesus’ disciples are walking to a village, a village called Emmaus.
PPT: Read Luke 24:13-49
I want to suggest that what the disciples go through on this first day of the resurrection of Jesus is similar to what happens in the life of any person who embraces faith in Jesus.
1: Struggle to Believe – On Two Levels
1st Level of Struggle: First, the disciples really struggled to grasp what had happened. This HUGE THING had happened – Jesus was dead and now He is alive.
This required a migration of sorts, genuine movement in the hearts of the disciples to be able to understand it.
They began with a good awareness of the emptiness of life in the absence of real hope, they felt deeply how vacant life was without Jesus.
The Master they had revered, loved and followed had been horribly put to death - a cruel death of the most degrading kind. Death by crucifixion was the most shameful of deaths; the victim was made a public spectacle, exposed to the jeers of all that passed by.
Only a week before, on Palm Sunday, the disciples’ hopes had risen to fever pitch when the excited crowds had enthusiastically received Jesus…but now he lay dead in a sealed tomb!
Their hopes were dashed; the dream was over! The band of Jesus’ followers was leaderless and was falling apart, with two of them already on their way home. The reports that Christ’s tomb was empty did nothing to alter their thinking; it only confused them.
Their entire world had come apart. The two despondent disciples summed up the situation very neatly, "we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel."
But now, as they encounter Jesus on the Road and later as they dine with him, the reality of the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead hits them. It dawns on them that Jesus has been staring them in the face.
They migrated or moved from a place of despair to a place of nearly unimaginable joy. They were slowly convinced through their experience of Jesus that He was, in fact, really alive, really present with them, really NOT dead…anymore.
They struggled to grasp this even though Jesus was literally right in front of them in resurrected form.
Next week we’ll look at Thomas who, despite the consistent testimony of all the others, refused to believe, he said, until he could stick his fingers in Jesus’ wounds.
In the same way that the disciples struggled with understanding and accepting what had truly happened, based on each other’s testimony of their encounters with Jesus, each of us who believes and each one who has yet to come to faith in Jesus…
has had to or will have to struggle to grasp the gospel based on the testimony of others [hold up Bible, point to congregation].
I know I first saw the gospel at work in the lives of Christians before I had learned any of the details of the gospel. The evidence of lives transformed through faith in Christ was hard to ignore, hard to trivialize.
The difference in people who believed over against people who did not believe was devastating to me. That difference was how they acted, how they thought so differently, how they lived with a confidence and joy that I had never experienced.
The testimony of the Bible, which I learned over time was an incredibly reliable source of information, is the most solid and convincing evidence for faith.
First, the struggle is to understand and believe that the events recorded in the Bible are accurate and true. The struggle is much less coming to accept the authority of the Bible, and much more grasping the massive change in thinking and perspective on life that believing brings with it.
So the first level of struggling to believe is wrestling with the objective testimony of the story of the Bible, the story of Jesus.
2nd Level of Struggle: The second level of struggle is wrapping my mind around the PERSONAL impact of believing.
When I came to believe in Jesus, everything I ever thought about myself, about life and about meaning and purpose had to change.
I had to accept that I had been wrong, very wrong about almost everything. I had to accept that my own selfish choices were actually sins that Jesus died for.
And I had to accept that life was NOT random and purposeless. I had to accept that I actually mattered to God.
That He loved me with such a love that He would go to the cross to prove it to me. I had to accept that God considered me significant, significant to die for. That was hard to do.
So like each of us, the disciples on this first day of Jesus’ resurrection had a lot to contend with. A lot of thinking to do.
A lot of despair and meaninglessness to leave behind. A LOT of joy and meaning and purpose to embrace.
2: Communion and Fellowship
As we read, on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus walks with the disciples. He travels with them, and they don’t recognize Him for quite some time.
There is fellowship and connection and meaningful instruction.
This of course never dawns on a person until after they have come to faith in Jesus, but well before we ever get to the place of saying “Yes!” to Jesus, He has been walking with us for quite some time.
God’s Holy Spirit has been at work in us to bring us to a place of recognizing Who God is and also recognizing our need for Him. No one has ever come to faith in Christ on their own.
Maybe you noticed that the two on the road to Emmaus were talking about what mattered to them the most, pouring out their complaint to Jesus without recognizing that Jesus was right there listening. It’s kind of funny actually when you think of it.
But I know that unless I work at being aware of God’s presence, bringing Him into the conversation so to speak, I can go on and on kavetching and complaining, so wrapped up in my problem that I forget that Jesus is right here [hand to face] and knows precisely what I’m going through, and, very importantly, cares deeply and is already, before I know it, at work to resolve the problem.
Later at supper, Jesus breaks bread with them and they have what must have been the most dramatic case of déjà vu ever. Just a few nights before they had been with Jesus in the Upper Room at the Last Supper.
The disciples were together, and together they, just a moment too late, recognized that Jesus had been in their midst. But very importantly, their eyes and hearts were opened as they gathered around the table. They together shared in the presence of Jesus in communion.
Being together was essential. Jesus revealed Himself to the many gathered. That is most often how He revealed Himself, to people as they gathered.
I hear a lot about people who are believers, but they never go to church, they don’t regularly fellowship with other believers, they don’t find themselves meaningfully connected to other Christians.
I want to suggest that this is a voluntary choice to live in spiritual poverty, cut off from the body of Christ. Of course the Bible directly speaks to this. Hebrews 10: 25 says: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…”.
The experience of the Christian life is intended by Jesus to be a communal experience. Jesus wants His community to be gathered for worship and service.
It’s good that you are here today. Make a habit of it! Your life will be enriched.
3: Literacy in the Word
As the two walked on the Road to Emmaus, they were reminded of the promises of Scripture; Jesus could speak encouragement to them because they were familiar with the Word of God; He reminded them and applied the truth of Scripture to the moment they were in.
We must immerse ourselves in the Word of God; if we would be encouraged when life gets really hard, if we would stand against the things the devil throws at us, we must get the Word inside of us.
We need to read it. Talk about it. Wrestle with it. That’s a big reason why CATM Academy exists, so that we all find ourselves equipped in the Bible so that we can thrive in life and under adversity.
So that we can grow beyond thinking just of ourselves and begin to think of the fact that we exist in order to worship and glorify God, and to serve and bless God and humanity.
Every once in a while someone will say to me, “But the Bible is so boring!” That’s a good way to tell that people have not been reading the Word with any consistency, have not been praying as they read, and have simply not understood what they’ve read.
I’ve read through the Bible a number of times and I still read good chunks daily, quite apart from the reading and preparation that I do in order to teach. You know why? The Bible is the story of God. It is the story of the people of God. It is the Grand Story, the Mega-narrative some now call it, that defines human existence and that for the Christian, is OUR story. I think of it as MY story.
To not know the story of the Bible, to not interact with it on a regular or daily basis, is to not know who we are. And if we don’t know who we are our lives will be really quite inconsistent.
And the Bible is not dead, it is not passive, it is not dull. Quite the opposite. Hebrews 4: 12 says: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”.
Transformation into being like Jesus, the goal of every follower of Christ, happens as we open our lives to the Word of God and allow our lives to be shaped by the Holy Spirit of God.
When Jesus spoke with the two on the road to Emmaus, He was speaking with fellow Jews familiar with the Bible. And so He reminded them of what they knew already and at the same time revealed new things to them: Luke 24:27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
4: Embracing God’s mission
Friends, we can’t look at the disciples of Jesus as merely examples of how we might follow Jesus.
Their story, one of being with Jesus throughout His public ministry, enduring His torture and crucifixion, His death.
And their marvelous discovery that He had risen just as he said He would…all these things are not simply historical footnotes of interest.
Their struggle to believe what they witnessed with their own eyes and to accept what the glorious resurrection of Jesus would mean to them personally; their communion and fellowship with Jesus after the resurrection, their public witness to the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture…all these things led for them, as they must for us, to understanding our mission on planet earth.
This is how Jesus encourages and challenges His disciples: Luke 24:45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
The first question here is this: Do you want Jesus to open your mind so that you can really, truly understand the Scriptures?
Are you ready for the life-change that WILL happen when you willingly throw your life wide open to His love, to His grace, to the mighty working of the Holy Spirit of God speaking through the Word of God, speaking through the body of Christ?
That’s not a rhetorical question. There was a time when my answer to that question would have been either “No, thank you”, or maybe at best a very timid “yes”. That’s because I hadn’t yet trusted with my whole being the promises of God.
I hadn’t yet understood to my very depths that the gospel, all of it, is completely true.
Over time my answer to that question become a resounding “yes”. And that is when everything, everything opened up in my life. That’s when I discovered I was called to be a missionary, that’s when I came to this mission to serve. That was 25 years ago. 25 years that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
The promises of God are completely reliable. The Word of God is sure. Christ did, as the Scriptures foretold, suffer. He did rise from the dead.
To stand on God’s Word is to stand on truly solid ground.
The second question is this: Will you be a witness? Will you be a part of Jesus’ mission? His mission to tell the world that forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God…is readily available…in Jesus, and in Jesus alone?
This mission is one of word and deed. The deeds are acts of love and lovingkindness, offered unconditionally to everyone we encounter without exception.
We must be a people rich in loving action…and “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres”. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Our mission is one of word and deed. Loving action is not enough, though, we must realize. We have to be ready to give an account of our faith: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience…” 1 Peter 3:15-16a
Jesus left His disciples. Shortly after He spoke the words we’ve read together today, He ascended into heaven.
Jesus left His disciples…a mission to complete. If you’ve been coming to Church at the Mission for long you’ve heard me say that our church does not exist for us, for our benefit.
Our church exists for the benefit of those who are not yet part of us, those in our community and those on their way to our community from around the world (you know they’re coming).
We must be ready, church. Like the disciples who had to wrap their brains around the reality of Jesus resurrection, His triumph over the grave…we must be ready.
We must do the work of wrapping our heads around the astounding grace of God, around the story of God that we study in the Bible. We must prepare ourselves to receive all those who will come, all those we will reach with the gospel of God’s grace.
So let me ask you: Do you want Jesus to open your mind so that you can really, truly understand the Scriptures?
Are you ready for the life-change that WILL happen when you willingly throw your life wide open to His love, to His grace, to the mighty working of the Holy Spirit of God? Will you personally and collectively embrace the mission of Jesus to this lost and needy world?
May each of us struggle honestly with these questions. May each of us as a result find greater courage to believe and to embrace with our whole lives, all of our energies, the mission of Jesus.
Let us tell the world. Let us live this gospel so sincerely and transparently that the gospel seen at work in our lives will be like a magnet, drawing the lonely, the needy, the poor, the captive and the dying…ALL those will the capacity to realize their need for Jesus.
Let’s pray. Jesus, you rose from the dead. You gained victory over death and You took upon Yourself the sin of the whole world.
You knew no sin yet you became sin, so that in You we might become the righteousness of God. Grant us faith to believe with an overcoming faith. Grant us courage to embrace Your mission, that we might be Your servants.
That we might together be co-labourers in the gospel. Grant us deep and meaningful communion as we gather on Sundays and as we meet during the week to study Your Word.
And strengthen us to fulfill out purpose, the extension of Your Kingdom and the exaltation of Jesus Christ in this world. For it is in the peerless name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
