I read about a pastor who was given the honor of preaching at an important meeting of his denomination. Just before he was to start his sermon he was seen to be looking anxiously around the audience. The chairman whispered to him, "What’s the problem? Is there someone here who’s heard the sermon before?" "No," replied the pastor, "I was looking to see if there’s anybody who hasn’t heard it before!"
I feel kind of like that every Easter. It’s not that you’re going to hear a message from me that I’ve preached in the past, but every Easter the challenge is to come up with a message that you haven’t heard somewhere before. That’s why this morning I’m not going to focus on the tremendous agony that Jesus faced on the cross as He paid the penalty for our sins, as important as that is. That’s why, although it would be easy to do, I’m not going to try and prove to you this morning that the resurrection of Jesus is an historical fact. After all, if you’re here this morning, it’s probably because you have at least some handle on the facts that surround the death and resurrection of Jesus.
So instead, I want us to focus today on why the resurrection means is still so important for all of us today because it allows us to walk with the risen Christ in our day-to-day lives. To help us do that, we’ll look at the account of two of Jesus’ followers who didn’t quite know what to do with the risen Jesus until they encountered Him on a leisurely stroll from Jerusalem to their home in Emmaus, about seven miles away. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 24 and follow along as I read beginning in verse 13. Or you can also follow along on the screen behind me.
That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?”
And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “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?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24:13-35 (ESV)
This is such a rich passage that we can’t possibly cover it in any kind of detail this morning. So given our limited time, let’s focus on the four things that Cleopas and the other disciple did in order to come to the place in their lives where they could walk with the risen Christ, not just for a few hours that day, but for the rest of their lives. And what we learn from them will be very helpful to all of us as we attempt to walk with the risen Christ, regardless of where we might be in our spiritual lives right now.
HOW TO WALK WITH THE RISEN CHRIST
1. Desire to know Him
This is the only place that we find Cleopas mentioned in the Bible, so we really don’t know anything about him except that he was among a gathering of disciples who were present when a group of women returned from Jesus’ tomb to report that His body was missing and that two angels had appeared to them and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Yet in spite of what should have been exciting news, Cleopas and his companion left later that day to return to their home in Emmaus, about seven miles away. There is a lot of speculation about the identity of Cleopas’ companion and since the Bible doesn’t identify him or her there is no way to be sure of that identity. I tend to think it was probably his wife, which makes a lot of sense given that the two of them invite Jesus to stay with them in their house when they arrive there.
But determining their identity is really not all that important. In fact, their relative anonymity actually makes this account even more incredible. After His appearance to Mary in the garden and an appearance to Peter that is mentioned in this account, Jesus chooses to first appear to a couple of ordinary people, one of whom isn’t even named, who are walking dejectedly back to their home because they feel like all hope has been lost. That certainly isn’t how most of us would have chosen to reveal our resurrection is it? Personally, I think I would have gone back to the Jewish authorities who had called for my execution and rubbed their noses in the fact that I was now alive. Or maybe I would have called the local news crew to come out and bring their cameras so they could broadcast my nail-scarred hands to the whole world.
But by appearing to these two disciples, Jesus clearly demonstrates two important truths. First, He is expressing that He cares for every single person, regardless of their background, heritage or social position. That is still true today. Jesus cares deeply about every single one of us here this morning, regardless of who we are or what our lives are like.
The second thing we see is that Jesus reveals Himself to those who are earnestly seeking Him. Even though the two disciples are depressed and confused, all they can talk about on their journey is Jesus and everything that had happened to Him in the last few days. It’s not hard to see why these disciples had given up and were on their way home. Although they had really hoped that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, His arrest, trial and crucifixion had quashed that hope, even though they had heard the report that He was alive.
Even though they obviously wanted to know the Messiah, they failed recognize that He had been right before them all along. Notice that they describe Jesus as a prophet and as a mighty man of God. But the problem is that was only a partial picture of who Jesus is. That is a major reason that many fail to walk with Jesus today. Their idea of who Jesus is has been clouded in some way and they fail to see Jesus as He really is.
But the good news is that Jesus had something to work with. He had two people who at least had a desire to know Him, so He was willing to invest in their lives in order to more fully reveal Himself. And that is still true today. For those who are really seeking to know Him, Jesus stands ready to help those people more fully understand who He is and how He they can have an intimate relationship with Him.
Perhaps there are some of you here today that are just like Cleopas and the other disciple. You know something about Jesus, but your understanding may not be quite what you’d like it to be. But just by being here today, you have demonstrated that you’re seeking to know Jesus better and that gives Him something to work with.
But the way that Jesus chooses to reveal Himself to the two disciples is actually quite surprising. We would expect Jesus to just appear to them and say, “It’s me, Jesus. I’m alive.” But he doesn’t’ do that. In fact, He actually conceals His identity as He speaks with them. I don’t know exactly how Jesus did that, but I’m convinced He did it on purpose so that they would hear everything He had to say rather than getting caught up in the emotional experience of seeing His resurrected body. That leads is directly to the second thing we must do if we want to walk with the resurrected Christ…
2. Delight in all of His Word
In His rebuke to the two disciples, Jesus clearly identifies why they have failed to recognize Him as the Messiah:
O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
The key word there is “all”. These two disciples made the very same mistake that Judas and Peter and all the other disciples had made earlier – they failed to understand the entire character of the Messiah based on all the Scriptures. They had been quick to focus on the glories of the Messiah’s kingdom, but they were slow to focus on the suffering that was going to precede that glory. And as a result, they became disappointed with Jesus when He did not overthrow the Roman government and immediately usher in His earthly reign.
Because the greatest need that these two disciples had was to understand the Messiah through the lens off all the Scriptures, Jesus spent a couple hours as they walked along the road showing how all the Scriptures pointed to Him as the Messiah. I imagine that He began in Genesis where God took the life of an animal to make garments to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. And then He probably talked about God’s promise to Eve in Genesis 3:15 that one day her offspring would overcome the serpent who had deceived her.
I’m sure He talked about how Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac was a picture of how the Heavenly Father would one day send His own Son to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind.
And then as He proceeded to the prophets and their portrayals of the Messiah. I have to think that He spent quite a bit of time on Isaiah’s prophecies of the suffering servant, lingering for a time on Isaiah 53.
The two disciples would later say that their hearts burned within them as Jesus took time to explain the Scriptures to them. They were so delighted in God’s Word that the trip must have gone by quickly even though they had to have been exhausted after the events of the last few days. In fact, they were so wrapped up in Jesus’ teaching that when they get to their house and invite Jesus to stay with them something very interesting occurs.
When they enter their house and sit at the table, it is Jesus who breaks the bread and blesses it and gives it to them to eat. That would be kind of like me inviting one of you over to my house and then sitting at the table while you prepared the meal. And it has always intrigued me why Jesus did that. But after thinking about this for quite some time within the context of everything that we see in this passage, I think that the two disciples were so intent on hearing everything that Jesus was teaching them that they just forgot to eat. So before He leaves, Jesus takes care of their physical hunger as well as their spiritual hunger.
If we want to walk with the risen Christ, then we need to delight in God’s Word like that. We need to get so enthralled with the Bible that we forget to eat because we’re too busy feeding on God’s Word.
In this passage we find two cautions that we need to keep in mind as we approach God’s Word:
Two cautions:
• Don’t let what you think you know about the Bible hinder you from discovering what God wants you to know
The two disciples let their own pre-conceived ideas about the Messiah blind them to the whole picture of the Messiah that God had presented in the Scriptures.
That is still a tremendous danger in our culture today. There is a tendency on our part to view the Bible through the lens of our own sin, our own desires, and our own preferences. And as a result we transform God into who we want Him to be. And then we “cherry pick” a few verses here and there to support our opinions. That leads us directly to the second caution:
• Don’t just pick and choose the parts of the Bible you like best
That is what the two disciples had done when it came to what the Bible taught about the Messiah. They, like most of their fellow Jews, liked the idea of a conquering Messiah who would free them from the tyranny of the Roman government, so they focused on the passages that would support that view of the Messiah and then they just ignored the other passages that pictured the suffering servant who would die to cover the sins of mankind.
It’s not that the two of them didn’t believe the Scriptures. The problem is that they couldn’t believe what they didn’t know. That is why it is so important for us to read and study the whole Bible – Old Testament and New Testament. It is why we need to read and study the Bible systematically, taking in big chunks of Scripture rather than just racing through some brief devotional thoughts or randomly selected passages.
Far too often we’re just like those two disciples. We want to be able to walk with Jesus through some kind of emotional or mystical experience. We would like to experience His physical presence or at least have Him speak to us in a dream. But all that time, Jesus has given us something far better – His Word. In fact, Jesus had earlier warned that those who will not believe in the Messiah based on knowing His Word is not going to believe in Him based on some magical appearance. In Luke 16, Jesus ended His account of Lazarus and the rich man with these words:
He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Luke 16:31 (ESV)
The discussion the two disciples have after Jesus vanishes is quite instructive. You’ll notice that they don’t say, “Wasn’t it cool to see His resurrected body?” or “I’ve never seen anyone just vanish like that before. Isn’t that amazing?” Instead they focus on the fact that their hearts had burned within them as Jesus explained the Scriptures to them.
3. Invite Jesus to stay with me
It’s really interesting that when they arrived at the home of the two disciples, Jesus acted as if He were going to continue on. You see, Jesus will never force His way into our lives. He waits patiently for us to invite Him to come and stay with us.
Had the two disciples not invited Jesus to come and stay with Him, they probably would have never realized that they were walking with Jesus on the road that day. It was not until they tarried with Jesus for a while and engaged in some more intimate fellowship with Him that they finally recognized Him.
Many of your probably remember these words that were spoken a little over two years ago.
[YouTube clip of Nancy Pelosi saying you have to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it]
I never thought I’d see the day when I would use the words of Nancy Pelosi to illustrate what a relationship with Jesus is like, but regardless of where you stand politically, you’ll have to admit that no truer words have ever been spoken. Last week, even the Supreme Court justices admitted there was no way they were going to read every one of the 2,471 pages of the bill.
But Ms. Pelosi’s words are actually a pretty good description of what a relationship with Jesus is like. Until you invite Him to stay with you, you’re never going to really get to know Him.
If you’ve never invited Jesus to take up permanent residence in your life, then much of His Word is going to remain a mystery to you. But the very moment that you commit your life to Him, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into your life to help to understand and apply God’s Word in your life. And the fact is no one can totally explain exactly what that is like. You’ll only understand it completely once you experience it firsthand.
4. Incorporate others in my walk with Jesus
Once the two disciples had spent a good part of the day with Jesus and finally recognized who he was, they immediately left to go back to Jerusalem and tell the others what had just happened. Now remember that they had to walk those seven miles in the dark after they were already dead tired. But they were so excited about what they had experienced that day, they couldn’t wait to include the other disciples. And as they are there relating the events of the day, Jesus appears in their midst.
What we see clearly here is that while our walk with Jesus is very intimate and personal, it is never to be lived in isolation. There are actually two different ways that this aspect of my walk with Jesus ought to be demonstrated in my life.
• Fellowship with other believers
Jesus places His followers into a body of fellow believers we call the church. There each believer can have genuine fellowship with each other that is centered in Jesus. I’m not speaking here of eating refreshments together after the worship service or having a pot luck meal. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those kinds of social gatherings, but the church is far more than just a better social club. It is to be a place where believers can come together around God’s Word and encourage each other to live out that word in our day-to-day lives.
That is the kind of genuine fellowship that occurs in our “Connections” Bible study classes on Sunday mornings after the worship service or in one of our small group Bible studies that meet during the week. It occurs when we get together with another believer and discuss the Bible. And we all need that kind of fellowship if we are going to be able to walk with the risen Christ.
• Witnessing to unbelievers
We have no problem telling other people about the things that we’re really passionate about, do we? Whether that is our kids or our grandkids or our jobs or our favorite sports teams, we want to let others know about the things that really matter to us. And Jesus intends for our relationship with Him to be just like that. He wants it to be so vibrant and exciting that we can’t help but share it with others.
If your relationship with Jesus isn’t like that, then there is no better time to evaluate that relationship than on the day we celebrate the greatest event in the history of mankind – His resurrection. Jesus didn’t die on the cross and rise from the dead so you could just muddle through life, barely getting by. He came so that you could have such an abundant life that you want to make sure that others have as well.
The resurrection of Jesus means that every one of us has the opportunity to walk with the risen Christ.
Are you taking advantage of that today? Do you really desire to know Jesus? Are you doing that through delighting in His Word – all of His Word? Have you invited Jesus to stay with you and make His permanent home in your life? And are you incorporating others in your walk with Jesus – both by having genuine fellowship with other believers and by being a witness to those who are not yet believers?
If you are, then today I want to encourage you to spend some time thanking Jesus for allowing you to walk with Him each day. Thank Him for His Word and ask Him to help you delight in it even more. Thank Him for making you part of a body of believers who can encourage you and help you to walk with Him. Thank Him that you have such an abundant life in Him that you can’t wait to share that with others.
But in reality most of us probably struggle to some extent with one or more of these facets of walking with the risen Christ. But that is okay. And you don’t have to try and work through these issues alone. Thornydale Family Church is committed to doing whatever we can to help you walk with Jesus. We want to come alongside you and help you to either begin or to deepen your relationship with Jesus today. But we can’t do that unless you let us know that you would like some help.
If you have some more questions about what it means to commit your life to Jesus or to walk with Him on a daily basis, please let us know before you leave today. There are several ways you can do that.
After the service, I’ll be here up front along with our other elders. Any of us would be happy to talk to you about any questions that you might have and, if needed, we can set up a time to discuss those issues with you in more detail at a later date.
There is a Care Card on the flap of your bulletin with a number of boxes that you can check as well as a place to write down any other questions or comments you might have. If you’ll take a moment to complete the contact information and let us know how we can serve you, someone will contact you this week to follow up. You can place the completed card in the offering plate in just a few minutes or hand it to me or one of the elders after the service.
Finally, you can always go to our website. There you will find more information on how to begin a relationship with Jesus as well as several different ways to contact us with your questions.
Right now I’m going to pray for all of us. After that Chriece is going to come and sing. During that time we invite you to respond to God this morning. There are several ways you might want to do that.
Some of you may want to participate in the offering where we give back to God out of the abundance that he has blessed us with. We certainly don’t want anyone, especially if you’re our guest today to feel any obligation to do that, though.
Some of you may want to pray during that time – either the kind of prayers of thanksgiving that I suggested earlier or prayers asking God to enable you to walk more faithfully with the risen Christ.
Some of you may want to use that time to complete the Care Card on your bulletin.
Or you are certainly welcome just to focus on the risen Jesus through the song.
Let’s pray.
