Where Are You On Your Journey?

Introduction:

Do you know the difference between a trip and a journey? I was watching a video of some people trying to teach how to speak “southern” and they had to explain a few phrases. You can guess the number one phrase, I imagine. It was “Hey y’all”, followed by “fixin’ to”, and then “bless your heart!” But, one phrase that didn’t get into the lesson was, “I’m gone take a trip to town.”

Now, y’all know the difference between a trip and a journey, right? We take a trip to town from my house because we live so far out. A trip is uneventful, usually. It is getting from point A to point B and back.

But a journey is a different story! A journey involves many trips and takes place over a period of time. It can involve unexpected twists and turns along the way. It is also usually life changing. I took a journey to Israel last year. I’ve been on a journey with my family over the last nine years. You have been on a journey to get you to where you are in life right now.

But we also are all on a journey in life when it comes to our spirituality. We are all traveling down this road and we are confronted with different beliefs. We all will respond to those beliefs in a different way. All of us are confronted with the reality that their is a Creator. We all also must respond to the message about Jesus. Who is He? What did He do? Do I believe that?

It is this journey that we want to talk about this morning. I want to ask you, “Where are you on your journey?”

Let’s take a look at some others who were on the same journey as we are and see if we can get any insights.

Read Text. Pray.

Luke 24:13–35 ESV

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 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. 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?” 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, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 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. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 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. 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.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 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. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 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?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The message today is going to be a series of questions. The first question is...

1. Have you heard the news? (vv. 13-18)

What’s so special about Easter? Is it just another holiday? We know it has something to do with Passover and Jesus. The history shows on television and the magazine covers all have teaser headlines that promise to tell us the real story of Jesus. Is there something we don’t know?

The truth is that for some people, the answer is yes! Only, not what the history shows and magazines might have you believe. Jesus is such an important figure that two major holidays are celebrated because of Him (Christmas and Easter). We also know that time is divided by His coming. They may try to disguise that now by using the BCE and CE designations (Before the Common Era/Common Era) instead of BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini or “In the Year of Our Lord”), but the events that divide time are still the same events related to the birth of Christ.

So what is the news? The news is that Jesus came to this earth for you! He didn’t just come a long time ago, but he came with a mission to fulfill. He came to save you. I won’t go into much more of this just yet, but the truth is that there was a man who lived approximately 2,000 years ago; and He turned the world upside down. He claimed to be God’s Son sent to earth to redeem mankind because of our sin. We had missed the mark of God’s holy standard for our lives. In other words, we are born into this world in rebellion against God. That is high treason and is punishable by death!

Jesus came to fix all of that. He came to save us from our sin and death sentence. He also came to restore this fallen world to its former glory, all for the glory of God. He offers us an olive branch from the Creator of the universe.

All of this took place the first Easter. It was sort of like a hijacked Passover, only Passover was intended to point to Jesus in the first place. It was a foreshadowing of the fact that God would “pass over” our sin and spare us from death by allowing His firstborn Son, Jesus to stand in our place. The act that allowed this to happen was the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jesus’ crucifixion was a citywide event. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew about it. People were there in Jerusalem from all over the country of Israel and the Roman provinces to celebrate this high holy day, the Day of Atonement, when the sacrificial lamb was offered by the high priest for the sins of the nation. This was the day that Jesus was crucified. It was the same time the lamb was slaughtered for the community of Israel that the true Lamb was offered up on the cross.

Jesus was accused of treason against Rome because He claiming to be a king. The Jews accused Him of blasphemy, because He claimed to be one with God Himself.

It is into this environment that our story takes place - three days after Jesus has been crucified. To make things more interesting, there are rumors that the tomb is empty! Everyone is hearing the news, and the chief priests are scrounging around for a cover story. The guards are terrified, because they could get the death sentence. These Roman soldiers ran away from their post because they claimed the ground shook and an angel appeared to them and rolled away the stone. And then there are those who are skeptics who don’t believe all the hype. Something has happened for sure because Jesus’ own disciples are now on the move! Two of them are on the road heading to a town called Emmaus, about seven miles away. Let’s see if we can catch up with them!

2. Who is Jesus....to you? (vv. 19-21)

After Jesus joins their party and pretends to be unaware of the events that have taken place, the travelers fill Him in on what’s going on. The Bible says, their eyes were kept from seeing him for the moment. But, what they say next is critical to understanding our own journey. You could essentially ask the question, “Who is Jesus to you?”

They had misconceptions about who Jesus was supposed to be. They said that some people saw Him as a prophet. A prophet had a message from God. Today people would call him a guru or a preacher. He is a spiritual person that has some insights into life. But the thing is, you can live without your guru or preacher. In the Bible, prophets died and were killed all the time. It was sad, but life went on.

Other people said he was a miracle worker. Some people might call Him a charlatan, but he was the real deal. Do you know how popular a person would be that could really work miracles? Have you ever seen those big tent events that have some well-known “healer” come and speak to the people. They claim that if you have enough faith you can be healed of whatever ales you.

For those of you that aren’t all that spiritual, you might consider him a really good doctor that can treat almost any disease known to man and come up with a cure. Maybe you might see him as some kind of Doctor House with better manners.

But if Jesus is just a healer, what happens when eventually you die? I mean no one can avoid death! And Jesus is not here now in the flesh, so what’s going on?

Maybe you think Jesus was a con like these fake healers. Some people said that Jesus was demon possessed. Others said He just wanted a following (even before the days of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). They claim He was just a common criminal, and he was hung on a tree for everyone passing by on the road to see him and walk up to him and spit on him. Oh yeah, he wasn’t crucified up on hill like the song says. He was crucified by the road where everyone would see Him. Rome wanted Jesus to be an example of what happens to other kings.

To sum it all up, Jesus was either a liar, because He claimed to be the Son of God. Or, He was a lunatic - just some crazy man that thought He was God’s Son. Or, He was Lord indeed. The resurrection reveals the answer to that question, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now let’s just stick to the question for you. Who is Jesus to you?

3. What is the good news? (vv. 20-27)

th What is the good news? (vv. 20-27)

There is, however, good news! It’s actually fascinating news. Remember the details we mentioned earlier about what was going on in Jerusalem? Everyone in the city was aware that on Sunday morning, when two the women who were Jesus’ followers went to finish preparing the body for permanent burial, the tomb was empty. Let me stop there for a minute!

I don’t want to assume that everybody knows this, but I believe it’s safe to assume that you know that dead bodies can’t just get up and walk out. I mean, I’m a big Ray Stevens fan and even in his song Sittin’ Up with the Dead, Uncle Fred isn’t really alive when he sits up in that coffin. He just has a bad case of rigor mortise!

But, with Jesus, the body is gone. We have to conclude one of a few possibilities. The body was stolen by someone; but to do that, whoever stole the body would have to sneak past well trained Roman soldiers commissioned with protecting the tomb with their lives. That means only Jesus’ followers would have ANY vested interest in doing this, and they were all proven cowards. Even if they did get up the courage to steal the body, they would need a way to do it and they didn’t have the power or courage to confront the soldiers. Even if they did do that, they would still need a reason for believing a lie. They had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by siding with Jesus - their families, jobs, reputation, possessions, and even their lives. Nobody is dumb enough to do that.

The second possibility is they went to the wrong tomb, but anybody could have pointed to the one with the Roman guard in front of it. They could have shut the rumors down quickly.

The third possibility is Jesus faked His death, but you just give that one a go the next time you are nailed to a tree! Oh, and don’t forget the spear in the side that pierces up into the heart!

The truth is the only logical and believable explanation is that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb because something miraculous happened. He rose from the dead! And had angels come and testify to it at that!

The good news is that because Jesus is alive, we have proof that God accepted His sacrifice for us! Let me explain it another way. For those of you who have attended Bethlehem for a while, you know that I have mentioned this a few times. But, for the rest of you who haven’t, let me explain an important detail.

Remember earlier that I said that Jesus died on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement at the same time the lamb was being offered up for the community? Well, when the priest performed this ceremony, he had to offer up sacrifices for his own sins first. Once he was clean, then he could offer the community sacrifice. Just to be sure he did it right, the priest had bells on the fringe of his garment so that if he was unclean and he went into the presence of God, if he was unclean and God’s holiness struck him dead, they could pull him out by the rope attached to him around his waist.

When Jesus died, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the Most Holy Place where priest was to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat was ripped in two from top to bottom.

Now, Jesus is not just a type of lamb for us, or sacrifice in our place. He is also the high priest offering the sacrifice to God. If he was not acceptable, He would have stayed dead! If he had no power and authority over death, He would have stayed dead! The fact that He is alive means that He was accepted by God for us!

That’s good news! We don’t have to do anything but accept His gift for us. The gift of offering Himself in our place. That’s good news! But, it also requires that we do something with it!

4. What will you do now that you know? (vv. 28-35)

We have to do something with what we know! Today, you are going to make one of several decisions.

You will accept that Jesus did in fact raise from the dead and that He is the only way to peace with God. You will ask Him for mercy and call out to Him to save you. You will make Him Lord of your life and follow Him.

You will remain skeptical and not sure if you believe what has happened.

You will reject Him and not accept your need for a savior. You will remain confident in your own ability to work things out. You will remain separated from God and your sentence of condemnation will remain. You will be separated from the God you willing rejected in the only place that He has set apart for those who do not want Him - Hell.

What about those in the second group? If the last group gets Hell, what about just remaining skeptical? Well, I left something out. If you don’t believe something to be true, that doesn’t change whether it is true or not. And to remain skeptical is to really not believe. Anything short of full acceptance and belief in Jesus is unbelief. You can’t ride the fence on this one! So, what will it be?

But what about those who do accept him? The first group? Do you really think that you can hear all of this, believe all of this, and just stay like you were? Do you think that you can just go on with life as usual? These things don’t happen and everyone just ignores them or says, “Oh, Ok!”

This changes everything! And since it changes everything, you surely would want to tell someone! You might have what the old timey preachers used to call “a spell!” That’s what these people had! They took off running the 7 miles back to Jerusalem in the dark. They got there and told the rest of the disciples everything that had happened! Then, just when they got through, Jesus appears in their midst! Now that’s a double spell!

Conclusion:

This same Jesus that appeared to them is here today in this room! He is revealing Himself to all of us right here in this room. My prayer is that your eyes would be open to see who He is - that these things must be fulfilled as the Bible says. I pray that we would all have a spell in here today and go tell somebody that Jesus ain’t dead, but He’s alive! And, not just in your heart, but He’s alive and there is an empty grave to prove it!

We have to do something with what we’ve heard! We can come up with some illogical explanation to try to keep living as if something never happened, but we know it’s a ruse! We know in our heart of hearts that something phenomenal happened that Easter Sunday. We know that Jesus isn’t there. We know we aren’t right with God on our own. So, today.....Where are you on your journey?