With Guest Appearnce By
Notes
Transcript
A Quick Recap
A Quick Recap
Jesus is dead. I know that seems like a really depressing way to start a sermon on Easter Sunday but like any good drama there is always a last time on section and so that’s what this is.
So lets do that. We know that Jesus was betrayed by one of his inner circle. (there were more than 12 disciples)
After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.
The 12 we read about throughout the gospels are that inner circle, they are the ones that become known as the apostles, they were the ones that walked with him on a regular basis, they were his inner circle. So one of Jesus closest friends betrays him. He is handed over to be tried, then beaten then nailed to a cross most likely through his wrists.
We know that Jesus chose when he died.
And Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” Saying this, he breathed his last.
But there is one more thing I want us to remember and it goes back a bit further.
Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.
Jesus even uses one of his favorite methods of imparting truth when he tells this parrable.
He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went away. At harvest time he sent a servant to the farmers to collect some of the fruit of the vineyard from them. But they took him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant to them, and they hit him on the head and treated him shamefully. Then he sent another, and they killed that one. He also sent many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He still had one to send, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the farmers and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this Scripture:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This came about from the Lord
and is wonderful in our eyes?”
They were looking for a way to arrest him but feared the crowd because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So they left him and went away.
It’s really important for us to realize. None of what happened when it comes to the passion week took Jesus by surprise. Perhaps what is sad is how it seemed to take his closest friends off guard considering he had told them on multiple occasions it was going to happen. Three times he told his best friends what was going to happen and still they missed it.
Do I know you?
Do I know you?
Which all brings us further in Luke.
We find Jesus followers amazed that what he said was true. The deep grief was now being tested in ways that, for us, are hard to fathom but we must keep in mind. We have the entire historical account. They were living this in real time.
First we have the women who went to prepare Jesus body with the Spices used in burial.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They went in but did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes.
They were perplexed, surprised, amazed fill in the blank, it was like they just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that what Jesus said was really what happened. Even death was not death for him.
The two men that were all Glittered out had to remind them what Jesus had said.
“He is not here, but he has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee,
Hope waiting
Hope waiting
Which brings us to the next issue. Jesus closest friends were stuck.
Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them were telling the apostles these things. But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.
In the life of every Christ follower from the very inception of Christianity there is a tension. That tension has to do with the word Hope.
According to Webster Hope means to cherish a desire with anticipation, to desire with expectation of obtainment, but perhaps my favorite definition that good old Webster gives us is this; to expect with confidence.
Humans by their nature are not really pre-disposed to hope and yet we should be. Each breath should offer us hope, every sunrise, the stars tossed into the heavens by the one who created us all of these things should offer us hope and yet, for most of us we are so caught up in our own lives, and the hardships that are their, real or imagined and we end up like the disciples here. They simply did not believe what the women were telling them, even though Jesus had told them it first.
The amazing thing about the Hope that the resurrection promises is that it is waiting. It’s waiting on us, willing us to see, to know and to share the truth that eternity is not something to be feared and the reason it is not to be feared. I maintain that, when people really get down to it, it’s not death we fear, it’s not the unknown even that we fear, so many people use those as the reason for the dread that surrounds death. As Christ followers we do not have to have that dread, Jesus models what waits for all of humanity in the resurrection. No what we really fear, is eternity. The vast forever with the prospect of wondering where we may or may not end up. Jesus and all that he was and all that he is and make no mistake JESUS is.
I love what happens next and it’s what i mean by hope was waiting.
Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them.
Jesus comes and walks along with them. He falls into step with a couple of his disciples and strikes up a conversation. Hope was waiting just when these guys needed it most. He falls into step with them and listens for a bit and starts asking them questions and when he does their dismay is even more evident.
Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged.
Say but you skipped vs 16 why did you do that. We know they were prevented from recognizing Jesus. I have often wondered this. We know that Mary didn’t recognize Jesus till he spoke his name this seems to be a pattern and I have to wonder. Were they prevented by God or were they prevented because of.
Because of their grief
Because of their anger
Because of their fear
Because of their fatigue
Because of their embarrassment
There are a number of reasons why they were prevented from recognizing Jesus and as we read the rest of this interaction we see a few things in evidence.
Jesus sense of humor.
Now I know this is not something that you would think would be brought up especially given all that these guys are discussing but look what Jesus says
The one named Cleopas answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked them.
So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people,
Jesus asks what things, knowing full well what they were talking about. the men talk about it they tell him all of it and he listens and then we see another thing about Jesus here.
He still has the capacity for frustration. Remember he had told the disciples what was coming and in vs 25 he calls them on how foolish they are and how slow they are.
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
Jesus then goes on to talk about the whole thing from Moses on and ends up staying with them because they asked him to.
It’s then that their eyes are opened, it’s then that they realize wait a second but i love what it says in vs 32 just after Jesus breaks the bread blessing it and giving it to them he poofs out of their site and look what they say.
They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?”
So many times hope is waiting for us to get out of all that mess we talked about earlier and to listen and to look and to really see not just glance in it’s direction.
Here’s Jesus
Here’s Jesus
Years ago Ed McMahon would introduce Johnny Carson with a Big Here’s Johnny. There was this anticipation that built and then came the payoff when Carson would enter the scene.
The reality of the Hope that the 11 apostles had to come to grips with was that Jesus really was alive, and man does he make an entrance.
We have the two that Jesus had talked to on the Road to Emmaus telling about about Jesus, all about the fact that they saw him, talked to him all that and probably that he just poofed and then blam there he is.
As they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst. He said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost.
This isn’t the first time they mistake Jesus for a ghost. Remember when he walked across the water. Peter says if it’s really you tell me to come out on the water with you. IF you’re not a ghost then prove it and bid me come. Jesus does it. Here Jesus goes on the offensive as it were.
He chastises them because they have such a short memory when it comes to what he had told them what was going to happen and then he hands them the HOPE of the Resurrection by showing him that it’s all real, it’s all true. He is alive not some spirit, not some ghost, not some wispy apparition but Flesh and Blood Real Solid Resurrected and ready for eternity.
“Why are you troubled?” he asked them. “And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself! Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” Having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. But while they still were amazed and in disbelief because of their joy, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Expound a bit on why this was so important.
The Hope of the Christ follower begins at the Cross because it is the cross that provided the sacrifice that was needed to pay the bill of sin. But the cross can’t be the end. A cross alone is nothing but dread and pain and heart ache. It is what comes after the poves the hope promised in the cross. The resurected Lord, showing us that we not only do not need to fear death, but that we do not need to fear eternity either.
(end with Rachel singing)