Before and After - 3 - Hope

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35

Luke 24:13–35 NIV

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 “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. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 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. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” 25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. 28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 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. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 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?” 33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

4/19/2026

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing SongBenediction

Benediction

Special Notes: Standard

Opening Prayer:

Opening Prayer:

Loving God, we confess that we often fail to recognize You in our midst. We share our sinfulness more than Your love to those around us. Open our eyes to Your presence and set our hearts ablaze with love for You. Forgive us and lead us in the way of everlasting life. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Call to Worship

Leader: The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. People: We love the Lord, for He has heard our cries and delivered us. Leader: Jesus was made known to His disciples in the breaking of the bread. People: We come to see Him and be nourished by His presence. Leader: Come, let us worship the risen Christ. All: Alleluia! Christ is risen indeed!

Hope

Movement 1

Opening

April is one of the best times of the year to visit the hills around Jerusalem. As the sun goes down, the wild herbs release their fragrance into the air. The whole landscape smells alive. The winter barley is almost ready for harvest. The hillsides are full of wildflowers — pink, purple, red, and white.

That’s a fitting scene for the first Easter day: the landscape waking up and coming alive on what we consider the most important day in all of history. But on the evening of that first Easter, two disciples were walking down the road, away from the city, leaving it all behind. They were headed to a little village called Emmaus, about seven miles away from Jerusalem. We don’t know if they knew anyone there. They needed distance. They needed to walk and talk and process what had happened. Their hope disappointed them, and everything they experienced didn’t fit right. It didn’t sit well with them, so they were walking away.

Movement 1

Cleopas and his friend were both disciples of Jesus. They had followed Jesus. They may have seen His miracles, heard His teaching, and walked with the crowd that welcomed Him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. They hoped for an announcement, perhaps even a coronation of their messiah, the true king of Israel, but they didn’t get any of that. Now, as they were giving up on the dream, trying to get some space to talk with one another and process all they were thinking and feeling, Jesus walked up and joined them on that road out of town.

Jesus walks toward the people who are walking away. Something kept them from recognizing Him. Their eyes were held. It wasn’t time yet. Jesus slowed his pace to match theirs and, without announcing himself or being invited, began asking what they were talking about. Cleopas is surprised that this stranger hasn’t heard the news that spread throughout the city. As he shares all that happened during Holy Week with him, he doesn’t just share the current events. He pours out his heart to this stranger.

“About Jesus of Nazareth — a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. Our leaders handed Him over. They crucified Him. But we had hoped He was the one who would redeem Israel.”

(pause)

That’s a three-act pattern of a tragedy: triumph, betrayal, and death. For Cleopas, it wasn’t just the death of Jesus; it was the death of hope.

(pause)

And then, piled on top of that, he says it’s now been three days. This morning, our women went to the tomb, and they saw visions of angels who told them, “He’s not here. He’s alive.” They went in and didn’t find him there. They went back to tell the other disciples, and some of those other disciples went and didn’t find him there either. The news from the women didn’t give them hope. It just made everything more confusing. Now they aren’t just grieving. They are lost.

Movement 2

They are walking away from it all. But they are not walking away alone.

Jesus speaks into their grief and confusion, saying,

"How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken."

Foolish — that's the mind. Slow to believe — that's the heart. Jesus had work to do on both.

Who is this stranger talking to them this way?

Then he asks a question: Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" He didn't wait for an answer. He didn't need one. The answer was written across every page of Scripture they'd ever read — they just hadn't seen it yet.

Their week felt like a pile of puzzle pieces dumped on the floor. Too many pieces, and none of them fit together. They were frustrated and ready to leave it all behind. Jesus took them all the way back to Moses — to Genesis — and showed them that He had been part of the story all along. God was not just doing things for His people. He was with His people.

God walking with His people in the garden.

(pause)

God walking with His people through the Red Sea.

(pause)

God walking with His people through the wilderness.

(pause — slightly longer)

And now...

(pause)

...God walking with two of His people on a road to Emmaus.

They weren't holding too many pieces. They were missing some. And when He filled in what was missing and built a new frame around them — using the Word of God spoken centuries before — those pieces began to find their place.

They still didn't know who this stranger was. But something was changing. For the first time since Friday, the story was starting to make sense. All those pieces were slowly sliding into place. As Jesus opened the scriptures to them, their hearts began to burn with the warmth of new life... of new hope.

Movement 3

Their hearts were burning. The Scriptures were coming alive. But they still didn't know who this stranger was. And here's the thing — the story almost ended there.

Luke tells us that at this point, they reach Emmaus, and Jesus was ready to keep going. But Cleopas and his companion invite... no, insist that this stranger spend the night with them. Remember, it was Easter evening. Jesus had a million other places to be. A million other people to see. But he stayed.

That evening, he took their bread. He gave thanks for it. He broke it. And He gave it back to them.

The bread was already on the table. It was their bread. Jesus didn't bring anything new into that room. He took what was already there. He gave thanks for it, humble meal though it was. He broke it — and when He broke it, they saw Him. As Jesus took that blessed and broken bread and gave it to them, they finally saw him for who he truly was.

Isn't that what Jesus does? He takes your broken hope, and He doesn't replace it with something new. He takes the hope that's already in your hands — bruised, confused, barely holding together — and He blesses it. He breaks it. And He gives it back, alive.

That's when they saw him. That was the Jesus they knew and loved.They didn't recognize him on the road when he mysteriously appeared beside them. They didn't recognize him in his powerful teaching. They didn't recognize him in any special miracle. No, they recognized him when he fed them — the way he had always fed people. He took what they gave him. He blessed it. He broke it. And He gave it back.

That's how they knew it was Jesus.

You know it's one thing to go from seeing the empty tomb and turning around to suddenly see Jesus standing there alive with you. But it's quite another to see Jesus having dinner with you as the realization washes over you that you spent all afternoon with him. You walked with him and talked with him. You talked about him — to his face — as if he were not there. Then he opened the scriptures to you — showing you how God had always been present with his people, how the Messiah had to suffer and die... and the whole time, your heart is catching on fire, trying to tell you to open your eyes. And you still don't notice him standing there talking to you.

Sometimes, when Jesus takes our hope and breaks it, all we can see is the breaking.

Sometimes those hopes just look broken. But it's in that very moment — when He places it back in our hands — that we finally recognize Him. And we realize He has been with us the whole time.

And then he vanished.

Movement 4

They finally get their moment with Jesus, recognizing Him for who He is, and then he's gone. But their hope is not. Their hope is more alive than ever.

They were back on the road before the sun came up, heading right back into Jerusalem... the very place they had been trying to get away from. The glimpse of Jesus, when He finally revealed Himself to them, was the final piece he gave them. He had been working on their minds, opening the scriptures to them, and their hearts, slowly coaxing those cold embers back to life, the whole afternoon. And on the way back, they were no longer trying to understand the cross and the empty tomb. They had been with Jesus and were putting together all the pieces He had given them, and everything was finally beginning to fit.

They didn't understand it all. But they had met the risen Jesus. It wasn't just rumors about women seeing angels and the disciples finding the tomb empty. They had met him in person.

They came back to share this astonishing miracle — and found out they weren't even the first. Jesus had already appeared to Simon. They weren't the heroes of this story. Jesus was.

Jesus took his time with them. He didn't have to. He did it patiently enough that even after he was done, they still didn't recognize him. When he was ready to leave and go find some other lost sheep, they asked him to stay, and he said yes. He stayed until they finally recognized him. I think, more than anything specific Jesus said or did, it was the fact that he chose to stay with them that turned them around and got them right back where they belonged, with their brothers and sisters, sharing this redeemed hope with each other, waiting to see what Jesus was going to do next.

Redeemed hope is not a new dream to replace the old one. It's the old hope — the one that died — raised to life in a form you didn't expect.

And that's not just what happened to Cleopas.

Maybe you walked in here this morning carrying a hope that feels dead. Maybe you've been walking away from something — not physically, but in your heart.

I want you to know: the Jesus who walked toward Cleopas on that road is the same Jesus who is present in this room right now.

He is still opening the Scriptures. He is still breaking bread. He is still staying when He doesn't have to.

And if your heart has been burning this morning — even a little — that's Him. That's Him doing what He's always done. Taking your hope, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it back. Alive.

Where have you walked and talked with Jesus without even realizing He was there with you?

What broken hopes are you holding today?

Will you invite Jesus to stay with you?

They did not go to Jesus. He came to them, and they invited him to stay. They recognized Jesus, and he redeemed their hope. It wasn't in his explanations. It wasn't in any miracle he did among them. Looking back, it was his nearness — the fact that he came to them at all.

It was the fact that he stayed when he didn't have to. That's how they knew it was Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, You walked toward Cleopas when he was walking away. You walk toward us, too. Some of us came in this morning with hopes that feel broken. Some of us have been walking away — in our hearts — from things we don't know how to face. We thank You that You do not wait for us to find You. You find us. You meet us on our road, at our pace, in our confusion. You open the Scriptures to us. You stay when You don't have to. Lord, take what we're holding this morning — the grief, the doubt, the hopes we're afraid to hope again — take it, bless it, break it, and give it back to us. Alive. We don't understand everything. We can't see everything. But our hearts are burning. And that's enough for today. Stay with us, Lord. The day is almost over. Amen.