"the Road From Unbelief To Faith"

Title: “The Road from Unbelief to Faith” Scripture: Luke 24

Type: Expository Where: GNBC 4-19-20

Intro: In today’s passage, roads play a prominent role. Several individuals use a road to either explore evidence for faith in Christ’s resurrection or to actually meet with Christ. The famous American poet Robert Frost wrote a poem entitled: The Road not Taken: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood, And looked down one as far as I could, To where it bent in the undergrowth…” Everyone is on a road in this life. We all want to have someone or something to believe in. In today’s passage, which takes place on Easter Sunday morning and later that day, we see four different groups of people struggling to make sense of the Resurrection of Christ and how it will impact their lives. Last week was Easter Sunday. It’s easy to play church and act religious on Easter Sunday, but now it’s a week later and maybe we need to examine the evidence to determine whether or not it’s worth my effort to believer.

Prop: Examining Lk. 24 we’ll see four groups of individuals who struggled w/doubts 1st Easter morning.

BG: 1. Text is from Luke 24. John 20 also covers some of this story.

2. Last week was Easter Sunday but still matter for our consideration more that 1 day a year.

Prop: Let’s look to Lk. 24 to see 4 groups of individuals who were struggling w/doubts 1st Easter morning.

I. 1st We See 2 Groups of Individuals Who Were on the Road to Faith that Easter Sunday.

A. A Group of Women go to the Grave w/no Expectations that Christ had risen from the Dead.

1. We see a devout group of women going to the grave of Christ early Easter morning.

a. V.10 (Read) This group of women consisted of Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, possibly other women. These women did NOT go to the tomb because they believed that Jesus was victorious over death. They went to the tomb because they had watched Him die! They knew that the anointing of the corpse had been a rushed job due to Passover and so they wanted to come early that morning to properly prepare the body for permanent burial. V.1 – We see that that women came bearing spices, which were used in anointing the body for burial. Don’t be misguided, the women came to the tomb that morning because they knew that Jesus had died and they assumed His body was still there.

b. Vv.2-3 The women entered the tomb and find the unexpected: 1. No body! & 2. Somebody! There was no body of Christ to be anointed and there were two somebodies who informed the women that No Body was there! What was the response of the women to this information? V. 4 – they were perplexed and v.5, they were terrified! I am not sure that they were terrified solely by the angelic messengers, I think the very message itself was terrifyingly wonderful! He is not here! He is risen! The poor women’s circuits were instantly overloaded! How do you process the message? How do you process the messenger? It was wonderful and terrifying.

2. What did these Women Do with the Wonderful News they Had Received?

a. Vv.8-9 – Instantly these women knew exactly what they had to do: “Go tell the others!” Illust: When you get good news, what do you do? Whether by word or phone or text or FB or Instagram or…, YOU TELL SOMEONE! These women had just learned the greatest news the world has ever heard and Mary wanted to tell the disciples. She was expecting a sympathetic and supporting audience.

b. Illust: Robert Cunville tells the following story: “I was traveling from Delhi to London to speak at a Festival. I boarded the flight at 2 a.m. and put on my eye shades because I wanted to sleep. Sitting next to me were three men who immediately began to drink and carouse. They even used my table for their empty alcohol bottles. Early in the morning breakfast was announced. Taking off my eye shades, I asked the flight attendant to clear my table. Taking out my Bible, I began to read. One of the three asked what I was reading. “The Bible,” I replied. “I am reading about the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for our sins.” He grabbed my arm and began to cry. “I have sinned against God and my wife,” he confessed. Cunville asked if he would like to repent of sins and trust Christ and to his surprise he said yes. “It was the Holy Spirit who used my simple witness of the Gospel to draw him to God. Like this man, people around us may appear to be happy and content. But deep down, every person who does not have a personal relationship with Christ feels the pain of separation from God.” (Decision, 2-10-2011)