We Serve a Risen Savior
04/12/09 AM
Text: Luke 24:13-35
Introduction
These two disciples learned a great deal when they were on the road with Jesus, and if you’ll walk with Jesus, you’ll learn a lot as well. They experienced the full range of human emotions. They had broken hearts, blinded hearts, and then burning hearts. What is the condition of your heart? Have you got a
I.Broken Heart? Jesus Will Walk With You.
A.It’s easy to detect the despair in their comments.
1.They spoke about Jesus in the past tense: “He was a prophet. He was handed over. He was crucified. We had hoped he would be the one.” Their dreams were shattered and their hopes cruelly crushed.
a.When you lose hope you know you are traveling on the road to despair. Hope is a fragile commodity and when it is lost, it is hard to find again.
Some of you are walking on the road to despair right now. You have lost hope for your marriage, or you’ve lost hope for your dreams, or you’ve lost hope for your children, or you’ve lost hope for your health, or the health of someone you love. You could say, “I had hoped–but it didn’t happen.”
When you travel the road of despair, there is someone who wants to walk with you. His name is Jesus. He doesn’t offer you a religion–He offers you something much more valuable. Jesus offers you a relationship with Him. He wants to walk with you and talk with you.
2.Do you know why God created mankind? He wanted to have some people with whom He could relate–somebody He could talk to and walk with. In Genesis we read after God created man and woman, He walked with them in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the evening. He wanted to have a fellowship with them. After they disobeyed God’s orders, their sin ruined that fellowship.
a.On the evening they sinned, God came walking through the Garden and Adam and Eve hid from Him. In Genesis 3:9 God asked the first question recorded in the Bible. “Where are you?” He knew where they were, He just wanted them to admit why they were hiding.
At that point, they fell out of their relationship with God. Since that time, God has been bringing men and women back into a right relationship with Him. He still wants to walk with you and talk with you on a daily basis. But some people are still hiding from God.
You don’t have to hide from God. Jesus wants to walk with you and give you fellowship and friendship–even when you’re walking on the road of despair. You’ve got to quit hiding in the darkness of your sin, though. I John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
One of our old hymns expresses this idea of being able to walk with God. The title of it is “In the Garden.” One verse says, “He speaks, and the sound of his voice; is so sweet the birds hush their singing; And the melody that He gave to me, Within my heart is ringing. And he walks with me, and He talks with me; And He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there; None other has ever known.”
3.The most exciting truth in the universe is there is a living God, who loves you, and you can know Him personally–you can walk with Him. It’s possible to have a relationship with Him.
There’s a man in the Old Testament named Enoch. The Bible says, “And Enoch walked with God; and he was no more, because God took him away.” (Genesis 5:24). For someone who walks with God, death is not a period–it’s a comma. It’s only a brief moment of changing locations.
Do you have a sense of walking with God like that? You can. That’s the first thing you learn on the road with Him. But maybe your heart isn’t broken. Instead do you have a:
II.Blinded Heart? Jesus Will Open Your Eyes.
A.The two disciples were walking on the road to despair but when Jesus joined them it became the road to truth.
1.They thought the crucifixion meant Jesus was a failure. They assumed the cross was a huge mistake, but Jesus showed them it was God’s heavenly mission.
a.Jesus gently rebuked them for their misunderstanding by saying, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe.” Their hearts and minds were blinded to the truth, so Jesus opened their eyes.
Are you seeking the truth–the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I encourage you to keep traveling on the road to truth–honestly investigate the truth. I believe Jesus will open your eyes in the same way He opened the eyes of these two disciples.
B.There are three basic truths Jesus taught them–and that He wants to teach us:
1.First, Jesus had to die for you to be forgiven. In verse 26 Jesus said, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"
a.The two disciples considered the crucifixion to be a tragedy–and Jesus said it was God’s triumph! The Messiah had to suffer and die.
b.Every year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the Jewish High Priest would sacrifice a spotless lamb–it couldn’t have any blemishes. Then he would take the blood of that lamb and sprinkle it on the mercy seat within the Holy of Holies in the temple–it was for the forgiveness of sins.
The life of that lamb symbolized by its blood was to be taken instead of their lives–the Lamb became their substitute for sin.
In the same way, on the Passover, Jesus was nailed to a cross. Spikes were driven into his hands and feet. He was lifted up between heaven and earth to give His life as our substitute for sin. That’s why John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and cried:
John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
In the cross we see the very best of God and we see the very worst of mankind.
Acts 2:22 - 24 (NASB) “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”
This is the gospel, the greatest good news the world has ever heard.
c.I need Jesus to be my substitute because I’m not a spotless lamb. My life is filled with blemishes and mistakes. But Jesus lived a sinless life so even His judge was forced to say, “I find no fault in Him.” Even the hardened Roman soldier who had probably crucified hundreds of prisoners was forced to say, “Surely, this man was the Son of God.” Next, Jesus opened their eyes to the truth that:
2.Secondly, All the Bible points to Jesus. As Jesus walked along He gave them a lesson on the entire Old Testament. It says in verse 27, ”And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
a.The Bible can be a confusing, mystifying book. Some people pick it up and start trying to read it and they get bogged down and give up. The key to understanding all the Bible is to realize all the Bible points to Jesus.
The Old Testament says, “Someone is coming.” The Gospels say, “Someone has Come.” And the epistles and Revelation say, “Someone is coming again!” I wish I could have walked along and heard how Jesus explained how all the scriptures pointed to Him. If you know where to look, you can find Jesus on every page of the Old Testament–which was completed about 400 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
1)In Genesis, Jesus is the Ram at Abraham’s altar; In Exodus, He’s the Passover Lamb, in Leviticus, He’s the High Priest; In Numbers, He’s the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night; In Deuteronomy, He’s the city of our refuge; In Joshua, He’s the Scarlet Thread out Rahab’s window; In Judges, He is our Judge; In Ruth, He’s our Kinsman Redeemer;
In I and 2 Samuel He’s the trusted Prophet; In Kings and Chronicles, He’s our reigning King; In Ezra, He’s the faithful scribe; In Nehemiah, He’s the rebuilder of everything that is broken; In Esther, He’s the Mordecai sitting faithful at the gate; In Job, He our Redeemer who ever lives; in Psalms, He is my shepherd and I shall not want;
In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, He’s our wisdom; and in the Song of Solomon, He’s the beautiful bridegroom; In Isaiah, He’s the suffering servant; In Jeremiah and Lamentations it is Jesus that is the weeping prophet; In Ezekiel, He’s the wonderful four-faced man; In Daniel, He’s the fourth man in the midst of the fiery furnace;
In Hosea, He is my love that is forever faithful; in Joel, He baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, in Amos He’s our Burden bearer; In Obadiah, our Savior, and in Jonah, He’s the great foreign missionary who takes the word of God around the world; In Micah, He’s the messenger with the beautiful feet; in Nahum, He’s the avenger,
In Habakkuk, He’s the watchman that is ever praying for revival, in Zephaniah, He’s the Lord, Mighty to save; In Haggai, He’s the restorer of our lost heritage; In Zechariah, He’s our Fountain, and in Malachi, He is the Son of Righteousness risen with healing in His wings;
b.He is our Savior and there is no other name by which we may be saved but the name of Jesus!
The third truth Jesus reveals to them was His identity. We learn that:
3.Thirdly, You must invite Him into your life to really see Him.
a.When they came to Emmaus, the two disciples invited Jesus into their home for dinner. He didn’t force His way into their home, or demand He be fed, they entreated Him to stay.
1)He wants you to invite Him into your life and home as well. But He wants to be more than just an occasional guest in your life. He wants to be your Lord. Jesus entered the home as the guest, but then we see He is the one breaking the bread–that was the task of the host.
Here’s the spiritual lesson: Jesus will enter your heart as a guest, but He wants to become the Host–the Lord–of your life.
b.As Jesus was breaking the bread, the two disciples’ eyes were opened and they suddenly recognized Jesus.
In 1620, the great Spanish artist Diego Velasquez painted the Supper of Emmaus. He has captured the moment in which the two disciples recognize Jesus. The smaller disciple with his back to us is almost falling off the bench in surprise. The larger one facing us is pointing at Jesus. You can see the nail print in Jesus’ hand.
Perhaps they recognized Jesus when they saw the nail scars. Or perhaps it was the way He broke the bread. Surely those were hints, but the scripture simply says their eyes were opened. In a flash of revelation, Jesus revealed Himself to them. As soon as they recognized Jesus, poof! He disappeared from their sight - vanished without a trace.
It’s possible for you to spend much of your life without really seeing Jesus, and then in an instant of divine revelation, you see Him! I don’t mean with these eyes–you see Him with the eyes of your heart through faith. How do you know if you’ve seen Him? You’ll have a heart on fire. Do you have a:
III.Burning Heart? You Can’t Stay Silent!
A.Notice what they said in verse 32. "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us?”
1.There is a physical discomfort we call heartburn–and you can take Tums or Rolaids for that. But there is a spiritual heart burn that is a wonderful experience. The two disciples were so fired up they got up and returned to Jerusalem–seven miles. What had been a road of despair led to the road of truth and was now a road of rejoicing.
When they found the eleven disciples, they couldn’t keep silent. “It’s true! We’ve seen the Lord! He is ALIVE!” And there was celebration on the first Easter evening–and we’ve been celebrating ever since! Their hearts were on fire. The spark from one heart ignited the hearts of others.
Since that day, the good news has been spreading like wildfire all across this planet. Is your heart burning? When your heart is on fire you can’t stay silent.
It is the miracle of the resurrection that makes Jesus different that any other teacher who ever walked on this planet. Mohammed didn’t rise from the dead, the Muslims visit his grave. Buddha didn’t come back from the dead, and Confucius never suggested he would experience a resurrection. But Jesus said in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
B.Consider this: What do the following men have in common?
1.English journalist Frank Morrison; writer Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur); attorney Josh McDowell; and former Chicago Tribune columnist Lee Strobel? These men, and many others, were all atheists who undertook an effort to disprove Jesus’ resurrection. In the course of their study and research, they all became believers!
After investigating the resurrection, Josh McDowell wrote: “After more than 700 hours studying this subject, I have come to the conclusion the resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted on the minds of human beings–or it is the most remarkable fact of history.”
In other words, you have two clear choices: If there was no resurrection of Jesus, then this book is a lie, and this church is a joke, and the millions of followers of Jesus are fools. Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
But Paul doesn’t stop there: read 1 Corinthians 15:20-22. There really was a resurrection and your heart can be set on fire with this amazing truth.
Conclusion
How’s your heart today? Is your heart broken? Are you on the road to despair? Why don’t you let Jesus walk with you? Is your heart blinded to the truth about the Bible and Jesus? Why don’t you let Jesus open your eyes? Are you a follower of Jesus, but allowed something to put out the fire in your heart?
We all need Jesus. We need Him because all of us have sinned and we fall short of the glory of God. That’s why religion or morality won’t get you into heaven–you need a substitute.
“I serve a risen Savior! He’s in the world today! I know He is living, whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy; I hear His voice of cheer; and just the time I need Him, He’s always near. He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me; He talks with me; along life’s narrow way! He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!” (He Lives; A.H. Ackley)
And He can live in your heart, too!
Invitation
