Resurrection Reality
Notes
Transcript
Context
Context
Jesus has risen from the grave! Some of the women were the first to discover the empty tomb. They were told that Jesus was not there, but was risen from the dead. Everything that had happened over the past days was all according to plan, and Jesus was very clear about this plan. The women, who were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James and the other women with them told these things to the apostles, but their news seemed to fall on deaf, or at least, suspicious ears. Peter ran to the tomb along with John and they saw the empty tomb.
That very day, verse 13 of Luke 24 tells us, two individuals were heading away from Jerusalem about seven miles to Emmaus. We know one of them was Cleopas but the name of the other is unknown. They were talking with one another, and at some point during their conversation a stranger asks them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? We’re told at the end of verse seventeen that they looked sad. Why were they sad?
19 … “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.
Why were they sad?
Because they were disturbed and disappointed that Jesus of Nazareth who demonstrated that He was a prophet and able to do great things was crucified.
Because their expectations of Jesus were not met. They expected that Jesus would redeem Israel from under Roman rule.
And because, as the end of verse twenty one tells us, they heard that Jesus was supposed to rise from the dead three days after he died, and they continued to believe He was still dead.
There these two individuals were, sad because they believed Jesus was dead. Well, of course we know that the stranger to whom they were speaking was the resurrected Jesus, and Jesus says to them in verse 25:
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?”
Now, it’s important to remind ourselves that Jesus does not reveal Himself to them at this point. Verse 16 makes this clear:
16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
But what Jesus did do in this moment is open the Scriptures to them to show all that had happened was according to God’s plan… God’s design.
But they were not living in light of these truths. They had been laboring under a falsehood: Jesus was dead. A false reality. What happens next?
Sermon Text
Sermon Text
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.
Introduction
Introduction
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
the gospel in which you stand
and are being saved
that you received
that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day is all according to the Scriptures.
and the fact that He appeared to Cephas, the twelve and more than five hundred people at one time
and that He appeared to James and all the apostles and the apostle Paul
Paul’s point in telling us all this is to make clear that the gospel is true.
Our culture, and much of the world has a tricky relationship with the truth. Very recently it has been suggested that serious consideration should be given to the claim that it is possible for two plus two to equal five.
But even if you do away with absurd notions like that, what is very familiar to us is the idea that different people can possess different truths. That’s your truth and this is my truth. People who reject the truth claims of the gospel often respond to them by saying that they may be true for you but I have a different and opposing set of truths that are true for me.
Truth is true regardless of how people respond to it. Truth becomes no more true when it is embraced and it becomes no less true when it is rejected. Truth is always true.
And yet, the idea that different people different people possess different truths should be considered a little further. That Jesus died and was buried and rose from the dead on the third day is true. Those are historical facts. But to possess those truths. For those truths to be applied to people, as they must for anyone to possess real salvation, real peace, real hope, one must belong to the risen Lord. The truth of the gospel is true, but it only belongs to those who belong to Christ.
Summary
Christians are the most privileged people in the world. Our sins are forgiven, we have peace with God, our hope is certain, we are assured of the promises of the gospel, we possess the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, God continues to sanctify us, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus and one day, we will be with Him for eternity. None of these would be true, if Jesus had not risen from the dead. The good news of Jesus Christ is our news. We can claim the promises that the gospel proclaims as our own. There are times however, that we do not respond to the news that Jesus is alive appropriately. We live as if the reality of His resurrection is disconnected from our day-to-day experience . We must see this truth clearly: There is no part of our lives that is untouched by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We will consider some of what we possess because we possess the news that Jesus is alive.
The power of invitation: Our constant privilege (28-29)
The promise of recognition: Our consecrated passion (30-32)
The pleasure of celebration: Our crowned proclamation (33-35)
FCF
FCF
Christians often respond to the news that Jesus is alive as if it doesn’t belong to them.
Main Idea
Main Idea
The news that Jesus is alive belongs to all who belong to Him.
Analytical Question
Analytical Question
What do we possess in our possession of this news?
The power of invitation: Our constant privilege (28-29)
The power of invitation: Our constant privilege (28-29)
We are told that as they drew near to Emmaus, Jesus acted as if He were going father. The way this and other translations read, we could end up feeling as if Jesus is play-acting here. That He’s pretending to go further, even though He has no intention that He will actually go farther. Acted as if comes from a rare Greek word in the NT (only here and one place in John), but let me suggest the idea of this word in this context. It’s not that Jesus was pretending to go farther, but that He would have gone on or continued if the two individuals had not urged Him to stay.
Jesus was willing to stop to be with these troubled people. He took the time to teach them the Word of God, and we will se that His sermon (bible study) had a profound effect on them.
Now, notice verse twenty nine: they urged Him strongly. Another rare word in the Greek NT. Urge is a fine translation, but it’s important to know that this is an urging of someone to action. The word appears one other place in the NT, and it is in Luke’s second letter:
15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Now this is the conversion of Lydia.Her message to the Apostle Paul and his company is that if they really believed what they witnessed in her to be sincere, they should stay with her in her house. And when it says that she urged us, she uses the same verb that Luke does in verse 29. She urged them until they agreed to do what she asked.
So Jesus would have kept going if it had not been for the urging of these people that He stay with them.
One commentator said this: How often does Jesus address us on life’s way, and He still desires to enter where He is invited.
I wonder how often we consider the fact that we have been given the power of invitation as people who are recipients of the power of the resurrection of Christ. Christian, why does it not occur to you to invite Jesus into your life. I understand the theological concern here. God is sovereign. He does not depend on man’s actions to do as He wills, and I agree. But as we live our lives, and we face difficulty or we experience joy or we find ourselves in need of something or we don’t know what to make a particular situation or what to do in a given moment, we can invite Jesus in to our lives.
And to those who may not be Christians. Who do not recognize Jesus as Savior. If you have not invited Him in, that is, responded to His display of grace and power on the cross and through His resurrection, you are lost in your sin. You must repent. You must believe.
Christians have been given this constant privilege in that Jesus still desires to enter where He is invited. Sometimes we are reluctant or even unwilling to invite Jesus into our life’s situations because of our sin. ON the night of His arrest, Jesus instructed His disciples to watch and pray that you may not enter temptation (Matt 26:41). When we face temptation or when we sin, invite Jesus in. We do not possess the power to wage war against our sin, but Jesus does. He bids us, His church, to invite Him, pray to Him for His presence and power.
By the grace of God, people ask Jesus to come into their lives, and Jesus continues to respond to the invitations, the pleas, the cries of His people to come. To be with them. commune with them.
Jesus stayed on because He was invited. Jesus stayed on because He was willing.
We also possess
The promise of recognition: Our consecrated passion (30-32)
The promise of recognition: Our consecrated passion (30-32)
So after a seven mile journey, they are ready to rest and have a meal.
Notice in verse 30, Jesus serves the other two. He is functioning as the host. He takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and distributes it.
There is some discussion as to whether this should be understood as a communion service. I don’t think so in light of the fact that there is no mention of the wine, and as soon as Jesus gave the bread, He disappeared. This was a meal.
Part of the reason some wonder if this is a communion service is because it occurs in connection with their recognizing that it’s Jesus. Keep in mind these two were not present in the upper room for the Lord’s Supper meal. The twelve were there, so they would not have recognized what Jesus was doing as anything other than a typical meal.
Now, how I take what’s happening here is that Jesus was asked to play the host. There are times when we have someone over and we ask him to thank God for the meal.
Jesus had endeared Himself to these two individuals when He opened the Scriptures to them. They had come to respect Him, so Jesus is functioning as the host.
So, this was a typical Jewish meal. It begins with a blessing and then the breaking of bread.
So, what happens? Verse 31:
31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
Their eyes were opened. It doesn’t say, they opened their eyes. That was done for them. Remember last week? Go back up to verse 16:
16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
They went from not being able to see Jesus to being enabled to see Jesus. From not being able to recognize Him to be enabled to recognize Him.
Perhaps these two noticed something in the mannerisms of Jesus. Perhaps they noticed the nail scars on His body. We don’t know, but we do know that ultimately their ability to recognize Jesus was the result of God’s enabling.
They were able to recognize, but the grace of God, that they were in the presence of Jesus.
And as soon as they do recognize that it’s Jesus, He vanishes! What a bummer, right? Come on… we finally see and you leave!?
There was so much that they had missed and failed to see in the Scriptures. Jesus opened the Scriptures to them, but in this moment, they were finally able to see. It seems to me, this is why Jesus was with them for this meal.
Do you see the mercy here? They should have known. The Scriptures were clear. Jesus was clear throughout His ministry among them. They still did not get it. But Jesus to them after rising from the dead, and they were able to see.
But back to His sudden departure from them. I think we’re meant to see that there’s something different now. Before the crucifixion, Jesus and all His followers were together. They traveled together, ate together, went in and out of buildings together. Now, Jesus is risen. People would now only know Him as the risen Christ, and very soon, people would know Him as the ascended Christ.
Don’t loose sight of this truth church. Jesus is risen and He is reigning. Those truths change everything.
They recognize Jesus, Jesus vanishes and look at verse 32:
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?”
They’re putting it all together now. As Jesus was instructing them, they each were stirred. You know what that means? They didn’t know it at the time, but it was Jesus teaching them on the road to Emmaus. But their recollection of that exchange brought to mind how that teaching affected them. Their hearts burned within them, and this happened because the Scriptures were opened to them.
Do you want the Scriptures opened to you? This is where we see Jesus. This is how those who are blind come to see. This is how sinners, who are lost and shackled by their sin are set free. Remember what the Apostle Paul said. The gospel that he preached is according to the Scriptures.
Christian, our view of Jesus can become clouded because of our sin. It may be difficult for us to see Jesus as we face the hardhsips of our lives and contend with disappointment and fear, but those clouds can be rolled away as we llok for Jesus ion the Scriptures.
The ministry of the Word
The flagship of the Lord’s Day: Sunday School, Children’s Church, Sunday morning worship service is the ministry of the Word. Do we long for the Word?
Remember what the people of Israel said to Ezra:
1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
Bring us the book! Open the Word to us. This is what we need. This is how we recognize Jesus.
Some of us have been students of the Word for multiple years, and some of us are just beginning to lear. I came across something Spurgeo said, that will help ground us no matter where we are in our experience:
Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.
So church, demand and welcome the ministry of the Word. Expect those who stand in this pulpit and those who teach in other contexts to open the Scriptures to you. But also, ask the Lord to grant you hearts and minds that welcome the ministry of the Word. To be keenly aware of the fact that it is through the ministry of the Word that our souls are nourished. How we can expect to recognize… to see Jesus.
The passion we possess from God for the ministry of the Word is a consecrated passion. We get passionate by a great many things. We get passionate about:
Elections
Podcasts
Books
Finance
Weddings
Education
Our families
Graduations
Cars
Technology
Food
And while this kind of excitement is fine, passion for the truth of God’s Word is a sanctified, consecrated passion. We see Jesus in and through th Scriptures.
And this passion led these two to do something, which brings us to what I will lastly consider with you regarding what we possess in our possession of the news that Jesus is risen from the dead.
The pleasure of celebration: Our crowned proclamation (33-35)
The pleasure of celebration: Our crowned proclamation (33-35)
What did these two individuals do? Verse 33:
33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
Seven miles back to Jerusalem was not an obstacle to them. They were excited. Their hearts were on fire, and they needed to find the eleven as they had come to be know.
Are you familiar with the account of the four lepers in 2 Kings 7? They’re sitting at the city gate, as they usually did. And one day, this is what they said to one another:
4 If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.”
A tough deal these guys had. If they stay where they are, they will die. If they go, there’s an at least 50/50 chance they will die.
But they get to the camp of the Syrians, but they discovered that the Syrians had fled because of what the Lord had done among them.
So what did the lepers do? Verse 8:
8 And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.
Eating, drinking, gathering treasure. Living it up. Bu then they realized something bigger was going on. Verse 9:
9 Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.”
This is not what you do with this kind of news. You don’t squander it. Waste it. You tell others.
This is what the two in Emmaus did. They saw the risen Christ, and instead of remaining in their house and eating dinner, that very hour they got up and made their way back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven.
So think about what these two people had experienced
Bible study with Jesus
Jesus comes to dinner
He blessed the meal and broke the bread
They recognize Jesus and realize He’s alive
He disappears
They get up and travel seven miles to find the disciples.
You can imagine what they we talking about while they were walking back. They were perhaps, rehearsing what they would say and how they would say it. They assigned each other who’s going to say what.
They were excited to tell their news.
We know what this is like. We have some news, and we can’t wait to tell someone.
What happens?
Well, before they can get a word out the disciples say, verse 34:
34 … “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”
Yes! That’s what we were going to say. Talk about stealing thunder! Thunder thieves!
But they told their story as we see in verse 35:
35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
But, this is what we need to understand. The news that Jesus is alive belongs to all who belong to the Lord.
And because this belongs to HsHis own, they experience unparalleled pleasure in this celebration that Jesus is victorious and everything against Him is defeated. Our crowned proclamation.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Speaking of being too excited to keep good news to ourselves and thunder thieves, remember what Pastor Josh taught us last week about this text? The transformation that took place:
They went from not being able to see Jesus (v. 16) to seeing Him (31)
They went from being sullen or sad (v. 17) to their hearts burning within them once they knew that Jesus was alive.
They went from leaving Jerusalem feeling defeated and despondent (13) to rushing back to Jerusalem with good news to proclaim.
The news that Jesus is alive belong to all of those who belong to Him
So, if you belong to Him.. if you belong to the risen Christ, this is your life:
Is it true that my experience in life intersects with certain threats to my comfort and even life? Yes (and this is what we need to preach to ourselves because this news belongs to us) Jesus is alive.
Is it true that I daily contend with physical limitations that inhibit me and cause me frustration and pain? Yes, but Jesus is alive.
Is it true that I am brokenhearted because of how some of my family has turned out? Yes, but Jesus is alive.
Is it true that the trajectory of the country and the world, along with it associated unknowns represents a string temptation for me to live in a state of anxiety? Yes, but Jesus is alive.
Notice what I’m trying to suggest here. It’s not that we should ignore or disregard or even minimize the pain and strength or our hardships, but what we need to fight against is allowing those things to eclipse our view of the news that belongs to us. Jesus is risen from the dead. He is alove, and nothing can reverse that, change that, cancel that. This is our truth. This is the truth.
This is our hope in life and in death
