When A Stranger Isn't A Stranger Series

When A Stranger Isn’t a Stranger

(Luke 24:13-35)

1. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

2. On Good Friday in 1865, Robert Todd Lincoln arrived late in Washington DC, and was told to meet his parents at the Ford Theater. As he entered, he was met by a crowd carrying his mortally wounded father to a house across the street. Abraham Lincoln died the next morning with Robert at his side.

Sixteen years later, Robert Lincoln was the Secretary of War in President Garfield’s Cabinet. On July 2, 1881, the President was preparing to leave on a train to tour New England and, at the last minute, sent word for Robert to join him. Lincoln rushed to the station to tell President Garfield that he could not make the trip. When he arrived, he was met by a crowd carrying the President’s body. Garfield had just been killed by an assassin’s bullet.

Twenty years later, on Sept. 6, 1901, the city of Buffalo was holding the Pan-American Exhibition. President McKinley was the guest of honor, and the president had invited Robert Lincoln to join him for the celebration. Lincoln was with McKinley when an assassin fired two fatal shots into McKinley’s body.

Three American presidents had been assassinated, and Robert Todd Lincoln had been with each one. He became so depressed over his apparent jinx, and refused all presidential invitations for the remaining 25 years of his life.

3. It really is true, that the strangest things are sometimes the most real. Truth can be stranger than fiction.

4. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an absolutely amazing event. I am convinced it really happened. But to the disciples, it seemed a total impossibility. Once again, truth was stranger than fiction.

5. But the events of the Resurrection not only declare Jesus to be the Son of God, the accounts of the doubt of the early believers tell us something about ourselves.

6. Like them, we too have minds that restrict God and hearts that stubbornly resist Him.

Main Idea: Though Jesus does not appreciate our inactive minds or stubborn hearts, He develops us despite our own selves, shocking us to life with the reality of the Gospel.

I. What Jesus Did

A. He inquired (13-24)

1. Last road He walked on was the road to Calvary…

2. Two disciples walking, one of them named Cleopas….walking 7 miles

3. They are talking about all the events that had occurred….

4. They had only the information up through verse 7, wondering what would happen on the third day…

5. Jesus walks alongside them. Why did they not recognize him?

--verse 16 implies a supernatural concealment…

6. Jesus joins in the conversation through asking a question (17)

7. The two are amazed that Jesus did not know why they were downcast

(1) note their response in vs. 18

(2) everyone in the Jerusalem area knew about this event….Jesus was not some remote recluse with just a handful of followers….talk of the town…

(3) Thirty years later, Paul could argue his case to Festus:

NIV Acts 26:22-26

22 But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen-

23 that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles."

24 At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. "You are out of your mind, Paul!" he shouted. "Your great learning is driving you insane."

25 "I am not insane, most excellent Festus," Paul replied. "What I am saying is true and reasonable.

26 The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.

8. Jesus of Nazareth…a prophet, might in word/deed

9. Hoped He was the Messiah….HOPED….that seems dashed here

10. Turned over by chief priests and rulers to be crucified…(20)

11. It is the third day since…

12. Some women said an angel said He is alive … friends went to the tomb, and found it empty…

B. He confronted (25-26)

1. They were guilty of lazy brain syndrome (foolish = non-understanding); not an IQ issue, but a lazy, non-thinking brain (25)

2. And guilty of being “slow of heart” (obstinate, stubborn, paradigm blind)

C. He Instructed Them (27)

1. He recited probably familiar portions of Scripture and put them together for these two disciples

2. He began with Moses (Genesis) and went through the prophets…

3. Every major point of the Gospel can be found in the Old Testament!

4. The simplest defense of the Bible is a knowledge of the Bible