A Hope Renewed

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Intro to Me:

Good morning it is great to be with you today.
I have really enjoyed my weekend so far…I have met so many great people and I am looking forward to getting to know all of you.
I thought I’d open up by telling you all about one of my biggest insecurities.
Why? It looks like we are going to be spending some time together so I thought I’d get the embarrassing stories out of the way now
A number of years ago. When I was a youth pastor, I used to fill the pulpit for Pastor Tim Kirkes (Some of you know him) whenever he was away.
One day I preached and I came back to my seat and the band started leading us in one of my favorite worship songs...
I just remember feeling filled with the spirit so I started singing and I was singing loud
And at one point I opened my eyes and looked at the worship leader and though…Man this guy is off…He’s just bad!
I remember feeling so bad for him...
The whole congregation is looking around like this is just not normal
And even the worship leader had a kind of strange look on his face
I was thinking it is so sad that they put this guy on stage and no one is telling him that he can not cary a tune...
But I kept singing…Because I knew it was a joyful noise to the Lord...
And then, as I kept singing, I stumbled over a word…and That is when I realized my microphone had been on the entire time and that horrible noise I had been hearing through the speakers was actually me.
I turned the deepest shade of red that has ever been seen...
I had the cold sweats
So while many of you can sing great. I can not cary a tune to save my life and my greatest fear in church is that your sound guy will mess with me and turn my mic on during a song.
So if ever your worship team sound really off…It is probably just that my microphone is accidentally on.
So don’t worry…I have plenty more embarrassing stories about myself that you will hear in the future.
But it is great to be with you. I’d like to meat each of you. My beautiful wife Desiree is here and my three kids, Emma, Lucy and Jacob have been here all weekend. and we are excited about what God is doing in our lives here.

Into Emmaus

Well last week was Easter Sunday, the day that our entire faith is built on.
And last week Pastor Phil preached on the Easter text found in Luke 24, and today I just want to keep reading…Because what happens next is a text that I love
But more than that. The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of all of our theology. What that theology says in a nutshell is that
Jesus is Alive
It says that the day that Jesus rose from the dead is actually the first day of the new creation
It gives us a hope that we can be made new
It reminds us that Jesus actually dismantles death and its whole system.
It gives us a mission that we can partner with the resurrected God to transform the world.
So flip with me to Luke 24:13
I think the text we are going to look at today confronts us with an important question, Who is Jesus?
The answer to that question may seem simple.
But the reality is that if you have been following Jesus for a long time
There is a tendency to overlay your world view onto Jesus
To overlay the way you were raised onto who Jesus is
to overlay your philosophy or politic onto Jesus’ politic and philosophy
So what ends up happening is that the picture that you have in your head of Jesus is really just a nicer version of yourself!
And if you have never followed Jesus before then maybe you have some pre-conceived notions of who Jesus ought to be.
This question of Who is Jesus? is and should be a life long pursuit…
So I want to invite you in to the simple and profound story of the Road to Emmaus...
Luke 24:13-21

On the Road to Emmaus

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.

Jesus Journeys with you

Lets Pause right here in our reading because there is so much to cover:
In the very beginning of Luke 24, Luke is trying to make clear that this resurrection day was a new day.
Theologians like NT Wright call it the first day of the new creation
So in other words…When Jesus died on the cross, the old creation died with him and when he rose again a whole new world was possible.
Jesus came back from the dead ushering in a whole new creation.
SO this is the very first Resurrection Day, and the two people who are walking on the road Cleopas and his friend and Luke says that they are disciples of Jesus…these people were at least around Jesus enough to know some of his teachings and who he was...
What he looked like
Look at verse 15-16 for a second

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.

I love that line…That Jesus himself came and walked along with them
We know from already reading the larger text that these disciples were sad, they were depressed. They were hopeless
And in just that moment…Jesus comes and walks close to them.
This is a picture of God seeking us out in our despair , because it is in his character…it is just who he is, to be near to us!
This picture of the resurrected Jesus walking with us reveals the deepest desire of God. In fact one of the first things that God and humanity did in the garden together was to walk together...
I know this is a simple point, But God actually wants to be near you and to walk with you in your joy and in your despair.
We all have an Emmaus road…
We all go on journeys where that road seems insecure
We all go on journeys at one point where hope is rapidly diminished
Maybe you’ve lost a job at one point
Maybe you have gone through a divorce & custody battle
Maybe it is a prolonged sickness that you are dealing with.
I don’t know maybe you’ve just been quarantined for a year and that is your Emmaus road
Maybe it is just dealing with depression…Maybe that is your Emmaus road
We tend to hate these roads that we walk down but
The reality is that those road of suffering and brokenness are where we are most likely to find Jesus.
We try with everything we have to avoid those roads…But is it by facing those roads that we will encounter the living God.
God meets you on the road of despair...
But what the Emmaus road reminds us of is that our despair and preconceived notions of who Jesus is, actually keeps us from seeing Jesus
But did you notice that the disciples were kept from recognizing Jesus?
Whenever you are on that Emmaus road it is hard to see Jesus
The Theologian Howard J Marshall says that
The Gospel of Luke iii. The Walk to Emmaus 24:13–35

The lack of recognition is more due to a spiritual blindness by the disciples than to something unusual about the appearance of Jesus

So in other words… Jesus didn't have a disguise on
Jesus looked exactly the same as he always did
The hopelessness and despair of of these two men fall squarely on this line that they say to Jesus
And then these two guys explain their deepest hope about who Jesus was:

21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel

They don’t get that there was a massive redemption of Israel...
In fact it wasn’t just Israel, this redemption was now available to all of humanity.
But this idea...”We had hoped that he would be the one who was going to redeem Israel” is super loaded with meaning.
This phrase reveals to us that we tend to place our false expectations onto Jesus ...
Of who he should be and what he should do.
Jesus if you are going to be my messiah then this is how you need to act...
Jesus if you are going to be the savior of the world, it would be nice if you acted in the way that I expected you to act
See there was a hope in Jesus that was wide spread.
The hope was that the Kingdom that Jesus came preaching would translate to political and military power.
Just look at when the resurrected Jesus visited the disciples in Acts 1
Acts 1:6

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

I mean they are speaking with the resurrected Jesus and the question is...
When will you be on my agenda?
How many times is that our prayer?
Jesus when do we get to centralize power?
How many times is our prayer life really about asking for more power rather than laying power down?
When can we wage war against the romans?
How many times is our prayer to overcome others with power rather than love?
Do you see the central desire of these people?
We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel…
Jesus you can be my messiah so long as I get my way
Jesus you can be my messiah just so long as my country ends up winning...
Jesus you can be my messiah so long as you are on my agenda
I love history and that is something you will find out about me…so to give you a better context for this statement, “We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel…”
Who knows the Gettysburg address?
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
This is famous right…And it will continue to be famous for years down the road
This speech is 158 years old. And still, every American knows this speech…It is tattooed on our brains right?
Well what was happening behind the scenes with Jesus’ disciples is that about 190 years before this moment when Jesus rose from the dead…
There was an equally famous speech…A speech given by one of the most famous “messiah’s” of Israel…A person who against all odds, kicked out the Greeks from Israel
And he literally restored the kingdom of Israel...
Judas Maccabeus gave a speech right before one of the most famous battles of Israel’s history called the battle of Emmaus….
Wait…Emmaus sound familiar right? On yeah, this is the road that Jesus was walking with these two men ...
So just like the Gettysburg address…this short speech was recited to children as a high point in Jewish History…
But Judas said to the men who were with him.
“Do not fear their numbers or be afraid when they charge. Remember how our fathers were saved at the Red Sea when Pharaoh with his forces pursued them, And now let us cry to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us And remember his covenant with our fathers and crush this army before us today. Then all the gentiles will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel:”
Did you catch what is happening here? Let’s put it all together.
The disciples around Jesus and the people who were on their way to Emmaus all had hopes for what kind of savior Jesus would be…
And when they play their hand, when they show their thoughts about Jesus, they quoted one of the greatest military speeches in their history…
Because to them: To redeem Israel means to kick out the bad guys!
They wanted a Savior who would be a military hero
They wanted a savior like Judas Maccabeus....They wanted this guy Jesus who just spent three years teaching them to love their enemy...to crush their enemy
And they just couldn’t see Jesus…Not because he was doing something magical…But because a suffering messiah who lays down his own power doesn’t fit into their world view
Let’s continue on the road to Emmaus
So remember where we left off these two people just expressed their sadness to Jesus and now they are continuing with the story
Luke 24:22-35

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.

So here is Jesus himself explaining the whole bible to these guys
That is a conversation that I wish I could have been there for.
And then Jesus breaks bread with then their eyes were opened
Luke 24:30-31

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.

WOW...
To really understand this statement you have to understand the very first meal in the Bible.
Genesis 3:6-7

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Two meals!
in the first biblical meal that is recorded we see massive consequences
Creation begins to split apart at the seams
Sin enters into the world…Death reigns!
The eyes of humanity are opened to their own sin...
The eyes of humanity are opened to a life separated from God
But in this meal on that first Easter night…The eyes of humanity are opened to see the resurrected Jesus standing in front of them in all his Glory

Connections and Wrap Up

There are many roads to Emmaus in our lives
And the problem isn’t that God isn’t on that road… Make no mistake about it, whatever your to Emmaus…
Whenever your road is marked with suffering
whenever your road is marked with brokenness
Jesus is on that road...
The problem is that we had made Jesus over in our own image
-Jesus the patriot
-Jesus the republican
-Jesus the democrat
-Jesus the nice guy
-Jesus the angry guy
And we have a really hard time seeing Jesus on that road to Emmaus if we make him out to be something that he is not

Challenge…Were our hearts not burning?

I believe that Jesus wants to open your eyes and burn in your heart this morning!
He wants to make you new!
Give you a new set of eyes !
Light a new fire in your soul!
And all you have to do is to lay down all of your expectations of who you think Jesus should be.
To the resurrected God wants to stand in front of you on whatever road you are on this morning
He wants to stand before you and renew your hope
Can you see him?
This morning I want to challenge you to confess to Jesus those things that keep you from really seeing him.
Right in your own seat in this next moment…
Maybe confess that Jesus has become your personal assistant rather than the king of your life...
Maybe confess that you have turned to Netflix more than Jesus this past year
Maybe confess that instagram has become your replacement for your bible
Maybe its just when you are having an Emmaus road moment you blame jesus for being on that road in the first place...
Just right now where you are at…I want to encourage you to confess that to him right now.
And may your prayer this morning be for God to open your eyes to see him in your every day life.
Lets’s pray
[1] Bullard, R. A., & Hatton, H. A. (2011). A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (P. Clarke, S. Brown, L. Dorn, & D. Slager, Eds.) (pp. 160–161). Reading, UK: United Bible Societies.
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