The Resurrection gives us sure hope of knowing Jesus
Risen, Revealed, Reigning • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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story of fumbling in the darkness.
(After intro-context from last week):
Last week we heard about the women going to the tomb and finding the stone rolled away and Jesus’ body missing.
The Angels said to them, He is not here, he has risen!
and the women ran to tell the apostles and followers of Jesus.
Our passage today is on that same day, after the women’s report has gone to the followers of Jesus.
We meet two of Jesus’ followers who have a life changing experience, who go from being blind to having clear sight.
The resurrection can take us from blindness to sight.
The resurrection gives us sure hope of seeing Jesus.
as we hear God speak through his word today we’re going to see how the resurrection gives us sure hope of knowing Jesus and how he takes people from blindness to sight.
First we’re going to see why we need God to give us sight, because living in darkness leads to despair. No resurrection, no Hope.
No resurrection, No hope
No resurrection, No hope
Without the resurrection, there is only despair. If we are blind to the resurrection of Jesus, if we don’t see it, don’t know it, don’t experience the resurrection we are left in despair and darkness.
That is the state of so much of our world and it is the state of the two followers of Jesus as they walked to Emmaus.
These men are blind and downcast, they are in the dark and in despair.
We can see they are blind, because as they walk along the road talking about about all that had happened to Jesus in his death, Jesus appears right there with them.
As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
They don’t recognise Jesus.
In fact, it says they are kept from recognising him. They can see physically, but they are spiritually blind to who it is that is walking with them.
We as the audience want to scream out, help them see who is there.
They are spiritually blind because they haven’t believed the resurrection.
Jesus asks them what they’re talking about, and their faces tell us how they are feeling.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast.
They can’t believe this fella walking with them doesn’t know what’s happened in Jerusalem, it’s made news all over Judea.
but as Jesus probes further, we see how the despair is caused by their lack of sight.
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;
They see some of Jesus, but they don’t see the whole picture.
A prophet. With Power… crucified.
but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
We had hoped.
Without the resurrection these men have no hope.
Death crushes hope.
And what’s more is they’d heard abput the resurrection, but they didn’t believe it.
We heard last Sunday, that after the women took their report of the empty tomb and the message of the angels back to Jesus’ followers, that most of them did not believe the women because their words seemed like nonsense.
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
These men on the way to Emmaus were surely some of those.
In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
They’ve heard, but not believed.
They are blind, they cannot see the resurrection, and they are left in darkness and despair.
So many people in our world, when faced with death have no hope.
Death is something to be avoided at all cost, for ourselves and the death of others.
Theres no confidence, no assurance for most.
But Jesus doesn’t want us to be in darkness or despair.
Remember Luke wrote his gospel so that we could be certain of the truth in the face of death.
Jesus wants these men to see the resurrection and be certain, to believe that he offers hope. And he wants us to as well, and so Jesus shows them and us that...
God’s promises always involved Jesus
God’s promises always involved Jesus
The first thing Jesus does to move these men from darkness to light, from blindness to sight, is to rebuke them, and show them that God’s promises always involved Jesus’ death and resurrection.
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
The Scriptures that Jesus is referring to here is just the Old Testament, from Moses right through the prophets, that is the whole Old Testament, the scriptures pointed to Jesus.
Jesus says the prophets always spoke about the necessity of the Christ dying and rising again.
This would have been some bible study, as Jesus starts from genesis and shows how God’s plan was always to send his son to die for sin and rise again to bring new life and redemption for his glory.
There are many bits of the Old Testament that look forward to Jesus and anticipate all that he did. We can’t look at them all now, but it would be a great way for you to build your confidence in Jesus by going back through the OT and keeping your ear out for flash forwards of Jesus, like in Genesis 3 where God promises to send someone to crush the head of the snake while being bruised.
Or in the Psalms where God’s king is personified.
or in some of the Prophets, like our OT reading today in Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Right throughout, God has always planned to send his son to make things right. the evidence was there all along.
In the Harry Potter book series, the author J.K. Rowling, leaves these clues about how Harry Potter can defeat the dark wizard Voldemort. and the point is that they are kind of hidden in there so that once you get to the end of the books you see all the clues sticking out like sore thumbs!
God had given promises to fix the wrong of sin, shown how he would defeat sin and death and bring people back into relationship with himself right throughout the old testament, and when you go through they stick out. they are there to point us to Jesus, the one who completes all the promises.
These followers of Jesus can be sure that Jesus really has risen from the dead. because God had always promised he would die and rise.
We can have confidence when we go back through God’s word that he had always planned this.
But, this is just the start, the Old Testament has all the evidence, but the followers were still in the dark. They still didn’t recognise Jesus.
The resurrection reveals Jesus.
Jesus reveals himself
Jesus reveals himself
Jesus doesn’t want to leave us in the dark. It’s not that the clues in the Old Testament and the empty tomb are all we need. We need Jesus to reveal himself.
The ressurected Jesus reveals himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.
But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
The two men had the report of the women, they had the old testamnet explained to them, but they still didn’t recognise Jesus.
the certainty Knowing Jesus brings is not left up to our cleverness to find.
It’s not about who is smart enough to put the clues together or figure it out. It’s not some puzzle that you have to put the right way to get the right logical answer.
But it’s as Jesus sits with his followers and the see him and remember all he had done, that Jesus reveals himself and their eyes are opened.
Notice they dont open their own eyes.
Their eyes are opened as they sit with Jesus.
And we have these Gospel accounts, so that we can sit with Jesus. So we, like these disciples can see the things he did, hear the things he said.
Luke is writing to Theophilus, who never saw the physical Jesus, but he can be sure that he has met Jesus as he hears his words from Luke’s account.
This Jesus is really alive, sitting there with them, breaking bread, like he had when he fed the thousands, like when they shared meals together, like he did with his 12 disciples the night before he died.
Jesus who was dead is now alive. he is risen, and he reveals himself.
If you have come to faith in Jesus, you might have a moment similar, where you knew about Jesus, you had read the bible, but you were still spiritually blind until he opened your eyes for you.
Where you finally saw Jesus for who he truly is, the risen, alive savoiur king.
It’s not about being clever, or putting it all together, but Jesus revealing himself to you. And then you can look back and see all the ways he’s been there right before your eyes before you could notice it.
that’s the reaction of the Men.
They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
The resurrection gives us sure hope of knowing Jesus.
And that assurance leads to joy.
Assurance leads to joy
Assurance leads to joy
Once we see the Resurrection, our eyes are open, we have sight and that sight leads to joy!
Listen to what the disciples on their way to Emmaus do after they see the risen Jesus.
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together
The run to tell others, you can imagine the joy in their hearts as their minds raced.
but they’re not the only one who have seen Jesus Alive.
and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
Jesus had appeared to Simon Peter, and now, just like the women had told them, the disciples are starting to believe.
Can you picture the excitement in that room as they shared their stories of seeing Jesus Alive?
Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
They had gone from blindness to sight and they are filled with a joy that bubbles out of them.
(SLIDE)
Like a bottle of coke that’s been shook up and then opened bursting everywhere.
Is that what happens inside you when you think about Jesus being alive, and revealing himself to you?
When you remeber how Jesus opened your eyes and made you see.
When you think about the confidence and hope you have?
Brothers and sisters, I want to see imaginary cola explosions on sunday’s after church, as we bubble with excitement talking to each other about the hope Jesus gives us.
Not the sad pssss of flat coke opening, like Jesus hasn’t made any difference to our lives.
let’s share the excitement with each other that knowing Jesus and his resurrection brings, and let’s share it with others too.
I want to leave you with a story that Grace told me about Fanny Crosby, she was a hymn writer in the 1800s who wrote hymns we still sing today like Blessed Assurance.
Fanny was Blind almost her whole life, from the age of 6 weeks. she never really saw anything physically. but she did see clearly spiritually.
Her hymns showed her trust in Jesus and her assurance that Jesus had risen to give her hope.
She was once asked if she could regain her sight, would she want to?
And her response was no.
Because as it was the first thing she would ever see would be the face of Jesus as he welcomed her into his loving embrace.
That is the hope the resurrection gives us in the face of death.
He takes us from blindness to truly see him as saviour and king. Now and forever.
Let me pray
Lord God, the resurrection brings hope. You have shown us that Jesus is Lord over sin and death. Thank you that we can be confident that Jesus rose from the dead and gives us the hope of being your children in loving relationship with you forever.
Thank you that this has always been your plan, and help us to see your sovereign plan whenever we hear your word from the old and new testaments.
Thank you for revealing this to us in your son, our lord, Jesus. Thank you that you haven't just kept this for the clever, or the important, but Jesus reveals himself to those who seek him.
Father help us to spend time with Jesus and fill us with joy that burst from our hearts and our mouths and our lives as we live day by day for Jesus as our king and our brother.
Might you make the resurrection known to others in our community and fill them also with the joy of meeting and knowing Jesus.
Amen