We Believe in Jesus... Who Rose Again on the Third Day

“Have you ever said goodbye to a hero? Have you ever had to lay away your dreams? Have you ever been so lonely that a stranger is your best friend? Then you'll know what I mean

Have you ever been angry at your country? Have you ever been angry at your God? Have you ever been so angry That you can't see what you've got right in front of you?

And then, when you are brought into the scenario and you feel all the feels, he brings your right back into the present:

“So, this is our highway to heaven Our American dream The two fools on the road to Emmaus Well they might as well be you and me”

I think you can catch what he’s talking about. There are those times in our lives where everything we have hoped for and lived for and fought for and dreamed for, suddenly in one moment come crashing down. This has happened several times in my own life, when my world fell apart.

Tragedy. Death. Depression. Failure. That dark cloud that we can’t escape. I myself, have felt like my prayers were falling on deaf ears at time. I know how painful and real this can be because I faced it head on. I had things held together and things were running smoothly, then it all fell apart. I was the guy in the song… the fools on the road to Emmaus.

And in just the past few weeks I’ve sat down and heard the stories of personal struggle and personal loss and death from many of you. The pain is so real right now. The journey on the Emmaus road is heart wrenching.

This is a song about these two real men, who faced real loss. Just think about them. If you had been with them seeing the cross of Christ, your world would have fallen apart as well. In the words of John Piper “ you probably would have vomited, or screamed, or pulled your hair, or thrown yourself on the ground and pounded the dirt and ground your teeth and sobbed yourself into exhaustion.” It was unbearable to watch — and watch all your dreams die with Him.

They were devastated. And in the face of it all, the author Luke wrote this Emmaus road account because it was a very real and personal testimony of these two credible eyewitnesses. I mean Cleopas would have been known by many of the first Christians. But even more there is also something powerful here for us to see how Jesus revealed himself to these sad, cynical, devastated disciples.

And what they saw that day, has rang out throughout the earth ever since. It is, by far, the most important thing that has ever happened. In their world fallen apart, these two depressed and gloomy souls had their entire existence flipped upside down and shaken to the core.

For the past 8 months to start this church, we’ve been going through The Apostles Creed. Being born of the virgin Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, having been crucified, died, and buried, all has led to this moment. Many people have believed that Mary gave birth to Jesus, that he was really crucified, but we still and will believe something even more important: that Jesus lives. We believe he is alive. We believe he is alive forevermore. We believe that his death shattered death. We believe his broken body rose. And we believe that on the third day he rose again from the dead!

And today I want to look at one of the earliest eyewitness accounts about Jesus’ resurrection. I want to show how that first day impacts us and highlights our makes us Gospel-shaped, Prayer-saturated and Mission-driven.

Gospel-Shaped

What exactly happened on that day? Let’s look back.

It was Sunday afternoon, April 5 33 AD. Cleopas and a friend had exited Jerusalem’s Western Gate, heading toward the town of Emmaus. It was probably an intense discussion with a lot of silence and pain. I’m sure they were overwhelmed by it all and just needed to take a long walk.

Somewhere on the journey, a man came near them they didn’t recognize. “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” he asked.

How weird and rude! They just stopped and looked at him, shocked. It was all very public and everyone knew. It was the gospel. Jesus’ execution was the only thing people were talking about. It had been tragic end to Jesus in a week of controversy and confrontation.

Cleopas rightly asked Him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” The man replied, “What things?” “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.”

Cleopas paused, clearly feeling this very deeply, then continued, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” There he was a broken man, who had been a true believer but now thrown into a world of doubt and deconstruction.

You see, to us, on the other end, we know what happened. This was the gospel, the good news. He just described what it means to be Gospel-shaped: belief in Jesus, a prophet and more than a prophet, who lived a perfect life, performed miracles, the Messiah-King of Israel. It’s also the cross-centered announcement that Jesus, who was crucified by the Romans, received the wrath of Father God, all for the salvation of us sinners. But He didn’t stay dead! And they didn’t know that then. They just saw Jesus die. It wasn’t good news. It was horrible news.

But…But a new twist had emerged that morning. They had heard that Jesus’ body was missing. No one understood or knew what happened. No official statements had been issued from the Jewish or Roman government. There were rumors of an appearance. People were starting to offer some type of explanations. And since then, there have been weak excuses for 2,000 years. Some have said it was the wrong tomb, or mistaken identity, some said Jesus didn’t die on the cross but swooned, some said the body was moved or stolen or eaten by dogs, some have said it was a hallucination or something. But all these explanations have one thing in common: they assume these weak people who abandoned Jesus at His arrest turned around and told the world a lie: that He was alive, and all of them then died for that lie. But what we see with these men on the road to Emmaus is the opposite. They didn’t know what was happening, it was more than they could bear.

Here is what we do know today. There are 6 historical facts that all scholars admit or allow, and which are confirmed by ten historical considerations each. This is what we know occurred in the First century ad:

1) Jesus died by crucifixion.

2) Very soon afterwards, his followers had real experiences with actual appearances of the risen Jesus.

3) Their lives were transformed as a result, even to the point of being willing to die specifically for their faith in the resurrection message, and most of them did.

4) These things were taught very early, soon after the crucifixion.

5) James, Jesus’ unbelieving brother, became a Christian due to his own experience with the resurrected Christ.

6) The Christian persecutor Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) also became a believer after a similar experience.

Now you and I have to deal with that. Those are the raw facts here. Many people want to come up with alternative explanations, but we all have to deal with these actual facts. And I know, that for some of you, it’s hard for to consider this, because if Christ’s Resurrection is true, it’s a miracle that show that Jesus is really is Lord and He has a demand on every soul. And that’s contrary to a worldview which rejects miracles and the supernatural. But, you see, Cleopas and his friend were trying to process it all themselves as well.

He just quickly wiped his eyes and started walking again. “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.”

Pause there for a moment. Do you fully understand the weight of what he was saying? He said women had went to the tomb, found it empty and saw Jesus alive. And some of the other men went to verify it, and only confirmed what the women saw. This is huge! Why? Because women were not allowed to testify in court. They were not trusted; they were seen as too emotional and delusional. It wouldn’t have held up in a Jewish or Roman court! Can you imagine the cultural pressure in the early church to remove the women’s testimony? If this whole resurrection of Jesus was a tale, if it was told that the women went to the empty tomb of Jesus, you can rest assured that it is historically accurate and true. This is not a myth, it is not a lie, it is not a fraud or scheme. If you’re going to make up a story about a resurrected man, at least you make the men be the liars so that when they go to court, they could testify. Not the women. This is huge!

Those men walked in silence for about a minute, and for good reason. Then the stranger blurted out the last thing they expected: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” Cleopas looked over at the stranger confused. Then the man looked right into Cleopas’s eyes and said, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Then, for hours this strange man stunningly walked Cleopas and his friend through the entire Scriptures and explained all the references to the Christ. I mean think about that. This was the best Bible study ever! This strange man basically said “I’m in Genesis. Here I am in Exodus. Leviticus, here I am, too.” He just kept going through the Old Testament, taking all of the Scriptures and connecting them to himself. “This is about me, this is about me, this is about me, this is about me.” This is how Jesus taught the Bible! Of course, there’s rules, heroes and tradition and history, and miracles in the Bible, but it’s not primarily about all of that. The Bible is about Jesus. And everything in it points forward or looks back to what He did on the cross and how He raised from the dead.

PRAYER-SATURATED

And as He was teaching these men, do you know what happened? The fire of their faith that had died out on when Jesus’ own life slipped away, suddenly came back to life and burned with that familiar hope they had treasured. It was the hope that Jesus was indeed the Christ. Can you imagine the emotional relief, the other-worldly astonishment, the unbridled joy of seeing Jesus, alive? The One they loved and the one they watched die, now alive and animated again in front of you! Could it really be true? Was Jesus really resurrected? Who was this man who so beautifully made sense of everything that had happened, and yet at first had seemed clueless? There was something about him. Their hearts ached and burned and mourned and yearned all at the same time.

Has this happened to you? I remember when I first became a Christian, the cross was so stunning. The resurrection was so life changing. Jesus became my everything, and nothing else mattered. It was as if I had just walked into whole new world. How I saw myself and the world around drastically changed. If this is true, If He was alive, this changes everything. If His broken body really rose, the moment His heartbeat again, there was a shockwave that went throughout the entire universe. This demanded I change how I think and believe about everything, everything! It was as if my black-and-white television world suddenly became color, vibrant and HD and 3D.

And my heart burned for Jesus. I was on fire for Jesus. I would go to all day and night prayer meetings just to be near Him. I would tell everyone I know about Jesus. This is what it means to be Prayer-saturated. If we truly know Jesus, we will long to pray and saturate our lives in communion with Him.

Have you ever had one of those experiences where you felt your passion ignited for the Lord? Have you felt as if the presence of God was enveloping you? Your heart was so full of love and joy that you couldn’t contain it. You encountered the Lord and hungered for more. This is what it feels like to have your heart burning on fire for God. This is what they felt when they saw His face again.

And I must confess, that I feel dull and weak and dry at times. Just praying and preparing all this week, I realized how soon I forget the flame inside my own heart. I was talking to a friend this week, who asked how I’m doing. And I told him how much I need renewal. I want to treasure Jesus more than anything again. You know what I mean. For some of us, it’s been a long time since we have picked up a Bible. And going to church seems more like a chore than a true desire to worship Jesus. When we get so busy in our lives, the fire for God starts to dwindle. And when disappointment and pain, loss and death come, it seems we are just knocked right out.

But here’s the thing, I can’t renew myself. I can’t light a fire in myself. My faith is not in my ability to be a good Christian or not. My faith is in the fact that Jesus is more committed to me than I am to Him and regardless of my emotional state, He died, and He rose. And He is alive. And that is the truth. And that is what renews me.

And as the sun started to set in the sky that night when they finally reached Emmaus, they were tired, but their hearts burned. The stranger looked like he was going to continue on his journey. But the two renewed disciples didn’t want it end, and desperately pleaded with him to stay for the night. They were overjoyed when he agreed, and they went inside to eat.

At dinner, around the table, the man took some bread, pulled it apart, and gave them each a piece. As soon as the bread touched their hands… they recognized who it was. Both gasped. And Jesus vanished. And their hearts burned, again.

They had just spent time in communion with Jesus. He was not a ghost. He walked and talked and taught and breathed and ate and drank. He picked up food and then made Himself known in the breaking of bread. Then He disappeared. This is stunning and earth-shaking. Jesus is alive, and in a resurrected body unlike anything we have ever seen!

MISSION DRIVEN

And it totally rocked their world. They had been right there beside Him, but didn’t see Jesus for who he is. This shows us that we can be physically alive and yet spiritually blind. This is the sad state of all who are apart from Christ. Why do you think these two men were “kept from recognizing” Jesus? He said they were “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe” the Scriptures. Their outward inability to recognize Jesus revealed their inward unbelief of what the Scriptures saw about him.

But Jesus wanted them to see and wants us to see. Yet before he opened their physical eyes, he had to open the eyes of their hearts. God has to open our hearts. He has to open our minds. He has to open our eyes. He has to open our understanding.

And when He did that, you know what they did? They ran! They ran as fast to tell everyone they could that Jesus was alive. It dramatically changed how they viewed the world and themselves and every other person. The resurrection of Jesus makes us Mission-driven. It changes everything!

But think about the opposite: If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, none of this makes sense! If Jesus did not lay aside His burial clothes and leave the tomb, if this is a hoax… then nothing—absolutely nothing—has any meaning at all. All the things’ Christians have been doing for 2,000 years is worthless. The claim that Jesus rose from the dead has caused the biggest change the world has ever seen. It’s driven Christians to mission.

After the Resurrection, Christians decided to build a place to care for the sick beside every church building. This was the start of what was called hospice care, and later the hospitals that we see around us, many of which have Christian names. Not only did the Resurrection change how we treated people, but it also changed how people interacted with the earth. His resurrection opened up minds to a whole new world of discovery. This caused people to discover true things about the world around them. Learning became thinking God’s thoughts after Him, an act of worship. Christian communities became centers of education, which created the world’s first universities. This resurrection vision also impacted the arts. Bach, Handel, Beethoven all made beautiful music because they believed it drew them to the risen Jesus. It’s the same with history’s greatest painters, sculptors, authors and artists. The influence of Jesus… the ramifications of the resurrection are inescapable!

But what if it all disappeared? What if there were no hospitals or Harvard? What if our favorite music were never written and the best stories never told? Any blessing we enjoy would come to a sudden end. Any good work we accomplished would simply decay. If this is the case, when we die, any impact we leave will be washed away like sandcastles on the beach. But even more, if this is all fake, we are all wasting our time trusting in and praying to some strange, dead Savior.

Paul wrote it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19:

“…And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

Just shut this down and let’s not do this! It doesn’t make any sense. But… But… But, because Christ has indeed risen, we have every reason to love our neighbors, to worship God, and to live on a mission to see the world redeemed around us. Do you realize this? If your eyes are open, if you believe this, if you have woken up to this new world and reality, it changes everything! And even if you don’t believe this today, don’t you want it to be true? Just think about it, why should we sacrifice for the needs of others if in the end nothing we do will make any difference? But if the resurrection of Jesus happened, that means there is hope and a reason to pour out our lives for the world.

Mission is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the women first encountered the empty tomb, their first reaction was to run and tell the men. Thank God, or us men would be too thick-headed… After these men meet the risen Christ, they run to tell others. They and we are no longer simply followers of Jesus, but we all are heralds of his resurrection.

This becomes the impulse for your mission! Jesus has unleashed his disciples to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. It is news that must be shared. God entrusted these weak men and disqualified women with the message of resurrection. This is a crucial for us today. You may not always feel strong or qualified, but God has given you a story to tell. Tell the world that Jesus is alive! This can so illumine our vision of a new world, new neighborhood, new school that it compels us into the world. The news of Jesus’ resurrection is the most important news in history and it was first given to weak and disqualified people. Jesus now gives it to you.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is our promise that this life is not in vain! Because Jesus beat death and we trust in Him, we now expect victory over the grave coming our way! We are living in a world being renewed and we don’t have to fear death or decay. I just talked with a friend who recently watched a love one slowly die. She was gasping for air as she slowly expired. Then everything changed. She became ashen gray. Her soft mushy skin became cold and hard. I went to a funeral yesterday. There is another tomorrow. Jesus experienced that last gasp of air, the moment of death. His body became ashen, cold and hard. He was buried. But He didn’t stay dead! This is amazing. It’s what sets Jesus apart.

Right now, you can go pay homage to the Buddha, buried in India. Those who follow Islam know that Muhammad is buried in Medina. Jews who follow Abraham know that he is buried in Hebron in the middle east. Do you know who’s in Jesus’ tomb? No one! No one is in Jesus’ tomb. No one is in Jesus’ tomb. You can go to Israel and they don’t even know for sure which tomb is the one Jesus used. There are several empty tombs advertising themselves as the one! This changes everything!

CHRIST CENTERED CLOSING:

You see, we follow a man who is alive! Jesus is alive! He is the Lord God who become a man to live the life we have not lived, to die the death we should’ve died, to give the gift we cannot earn, and defeated the death that we deserve. Jesus is alive. And we can feel the exact same emotions those first disciples did when they laid eyes on Him. It changes everything! Even death and suffering itself.

Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City has been facing pancreatic cancer the past year, quarantined in his apartment due to Covid. His suffering has made him come face to face with the Risen Christ. He wrote recently: “When you know you could die very, very soon, you realize that you basically live in denial of the fact of your death. When it suddenly strikes you, you have to ask, ‘Do I have the faith for this? Do I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened and that if I die in faith in Jesus, I will know that resurrection too?... I realized I only half-believed I was going to die… I also only half-believed in the resurrection… I did both the intellectual and emotional work, looking at the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ while also immersing myself in prayer and in Scripture, asking the Holy Spirit to make it real to my heart… It took several months in which I had to take my abstract belief down into my heart to existentially and experientially know it … What the future holds, I don’t know. Pray that I would have years and not months left, and that the chemotherapy would continue to be effective. But we are ready for whatever God decides for me. We’re spiritually ready…I do know… that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened. And when I die, I will know that resurrection too.”

My friends, we’ve walked the Emmaus road this year and this day. And as we launch this church, we do so with this truth: Jesus Christ is alive. On the third day he rose again from the dead. He faced a horrible death square in the face. And with 70 pounds of burial cloth covering Him. With a traumatized body in the process of decay. With a unmovable stone keeping Him in. With professional soldiers watching guard. With all that: His buried body began to breath. His pierced heart began to beat again. His lacerated skin warmed. His eyes suddenly opened. And with a great shout, He emerged: It is finished! Amen

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