Easter 2024: We Had Hoped

English Standard Version Chapter 24

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 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. 18 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?” 19 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, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 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. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 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. 24 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.” 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 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. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 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?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

This is one of my favorite stories in Scripture

Recently, as I was reading this story, this phrase kept jumping out at me:

“We had hoped”

We have here two guys who are really feeling disappointed with the way things had gone

And I’m sure that they aren’t alone

There were probably many other people who were feeling the same way

“We had hoped that this man, Jesus, would be the one to redeem Israel”

Redeem—to buy back, to rescue, to set free

These men knew their history—

How God had redeemed their people from slavery in Egypt

How God had redeemed their people from captivity in Babylon

Surely, God could do it again, couldn’t He?

surely, this man, Jesus, was the one who would redeem them from the hands of the Romans

But the Jewish leaders had betrayed them, betrayed Jesus. And the Romans had done the dirty work of crucifying Him

“We had hoped”.

There was hope

but not anymore

No, these men certainly weren’t alone in their feelings

And they still aren’t today

You know, people today still deal with feelings of hopelessness and disappointment

They know well what it is like to say, “We had hoped...”

We are doing a men’s series on Saturday mornings and in the first session, they talked about some of the things that men are dealing with today.

One of those things is disappointment with life

Feeling like things just haven’t gone the way that you thought they would

But, I imagine that is true of both men and women sometimes

And chances are that many of us here this morning know these feelings well

We know what it is like to say, “I had hoped”...

We know well what it’s like to deal with disappointment in life

Maybe it’s

Disappointment with our job/career (for guys, this can be especially true)

When you are little you have great dreams about what you want to be when you grow up, what you want to do with your life

But what you are doing today couldn’t be farther from what you thought you would be doing

And while, maybe you don’t hate what you are doing today, perhaps there is this nagging sort of feeling: “I had hoped...”

I’d be honest with you to say that when God started to reveal that I wasn’t going to be in aviation the rest of my life, I had to deal with some of that: I had hoped

Could be disappointment with family and relationships

I know this is very personal, but maybe there are a few people in here who would have liked to be married, and it hasn’t happened

And that must on some levels be a keen sense of disappointment that makes you think, i had hoped...

Maybe there are broken family relationships or you are dealing with other dynamics that are tearing apart a family that used to be close, or you grew up thinking that this could never happen to our family

And you are thinking, “it’s not supposed to be like this. I had hoped...”

could be other things like finances: I had hoped by now to be debt free...

The list could go on

But, probably most difficult of all is that sometimes we feel disappointment with God

Maybe you gave your heart to Jesus one day

You were told that you need to have a personal relationship with Jesus

He’s going to take care of all your problems

He’s going to win all your battles, conquer all your giants

He’s going to bless you immeasurably

He’s going tear down all the obstacles in front of me

But it hasn’t worked out that way

Instead, life has just been tough

God hasn’t worked out all these things in your life

And worse yet, you want to feel close to Jesus, but He just feels distant

You pray, you cry out to Him

But it feels like He just isn’t there

And when you read this story of these two disciples processing their own disappointment, you relate well to them--”yeah, I get it”

Author, Philip Yancy, wrote a book called “Disappointment With God”. In this book he explores three questions that you may identify with:

Is God unfair?

You look around and see how some people seem to have it so good, and others suffer so terribly. Is God unfair?

Is God silent?

This is one that I’ve struggled with.

You call out to Him, and there just seems to be no answer

Is God silent? Will He ever answer me?

Is God Hidden?

Can i discover who He truly is?

Well, if that is part of your story, then this morning, I just want to point us back again to the great hope that we have in Jesus Christ

Because this morning, we are celebrating something that happened 2000 years ago

Events that shook the world

And events that are just as real today as they were back then

Only, it’s not just the events themselves that we are celebrating

Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of people stop. They celebrate the event.

They celebrate Easter

They make Easter eggs and eat choccolate

They enjoy flowers

They put on nice clothes and go to church and listen to beautiful music

And then they go home, and life continues on as before

And the events that they “celebrated” didn’t make a hill of beans difference in their lives

And that’s why this morning, we are doing more than celebrating an event

That’s why, this morning, we are celebrating a Person

Because it’s in this PERSON, that is Jesus Christ, that we find hope.

If life has felt disappointing to you and you are even disappointed in God, then you are in the right place this morning, because here, in this place, we are celebrating the hope that we have in Christ Jesus!

1 Peter 1:3–9 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

What a tremendous passage this is

What a celebration of joy

Blessed (that is like saying “thank you God. May you be praised”) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Why should we praise and thank God?

According to his (God’s) great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

“caused us to be born again”—that phase is all one word in Greek

It’s a compound word in Greek

And without getting too far into it, I believe it gives the sense of God’s involvement in the work of the New Birth

there are other places, like in John 3 where it talks about the need to be born again. But here,

It is clear that it is God who causes, or makes it possible for us to be born again

This is not something random that takes place

Rather, this was, and is, part of God’s eternal plan, to make a way for us to receive a new birth

Have you received that new birth? Have you been born again?

And I’m not just talking about, “yeah, someone led me in the sinner’s prayer once”

I’m talking about an actual new birth

Do you know what it’s like to move from darkness to light

Do you know what it’s like to have a heart change

To take a glance back and say, “I am certainly not the person that I used to be!”

I am a new person! I have been born again!

Because that has been God’s plan all along—that His people would be remade

You know, there are many people in churches all across this country this morning who think, “Hey, I’ve done pretty welll I think”

But one of the most sobering passages in the Bible

Jesus talking of what will happen in front of God one day

Lord, look at all the great things we have done!

We prophecied, we drove out demons, we performed miracles

And God will say, “I never knew you”

So, the question is, have you come before God, completely surrendered to the work of Jesus on the cross

and completely surrendered to the work of the holy spirit in your life?

What does that new birth do?

It is a birth into a living hope!

Hope—biblical: a confident expectation that God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do

This is a lot different than we often use hope today

We use hope to express our desires that something will take place, yet knowing that we have absolutely no control over whether it does or not

Planning an outing with the family—I sure hope it doesn’t rain

Your car is giving you some issues—I sure hope it makes it for a couple more years until I can afford a new one

These are things that we have no (or very little control over)

But when the Bible speaks of hope, it is talking about a confident, quiet expectation that God is who He says He is and will always do what He says He will do.

This passage says that we have a new birth into a living hope

The interesting thing about the story of the two disciples is that the whole time while they were mourning all the things that they had lost

While they were mourning what might have been, things that they had no control over

And while they were saying “We had hoped”

Jesus was standing right there. He was walking right along side of them

Jesus was ALIVE and walking right along side of them and yet they were still saying “we had hoped”

Their hearts were so filled and clouded with disappointment that they couldn’t recognize that Jesus was with them

Peter says, “He has caused us to be born again into a living hope

Folks, we have a living hope

Our hope is in a living Person

I don’t know what you experience has been with Jesus

Maybe there are times that He feels far away

Maybe you’ve even questioned, “is this Jesus thing even real?” I never see Him. I don’t hear from Him

Is it real? Have I wasted my time?

Well, I’m here to say that, yes, He is real!

No, we don’t see Him with our eyes right now

Verse 8…though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

that’s HOPE. And hope brings rejoicing

But, even though we don’t see Him, He is still very much alive and He is knowable.

You can know Him today

He died on the cross, he conquered death, he ascended into heaven, and He has sent the Holy Spirit to live, to abide, to fill the Believers, to teach to discipline, to encourage

He is here this morning, and invites each one of us into a relationship with the risen LORD

Our living hope is a hope for life

This is an every day kind of hope

This is not just a hope that is to be expressed on Sunday in church

Or on Easter and Christmas weekend

This is a hope that is meant to be lived out daily!

And this living hope gives us the strength to

Rejoice when things are tough (1 Peter)

To be a peace when your world is falling apart

To respond graciously when you fee like you are being wronged

to take a deep breath when the bills are piling up

Why, because this hope is an every day, living hope

It is an active hope

All of the things in our lives that we don’t have control over, but we hope will turn out OK

All of those things can be placed under the Lordship of our God who will always be who He says He is and will always do what He says He will do

And who made a ways for you and me to be reconciled to Him through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ

So, this Easter, my prayer, my plea for each of you is this:

From 2 Corinthians 5, I implore you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God

Because it’s in Him. It’s in Jesus that we have LIVING HOPE