We Serve A Risen Savior

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.