YouTube video sermon
Luke 24:13-24
I heard a story about a man who went on vacation to Israel with his wife and his very difficult-to-deal-with and ever-nagging mother-in-law, and while they were there, sadly, the mother-in-law passed away. So, the man was trying to figure out what to do with the body and where to bury her, and he went to a local undertaker and asked about it. The man said, “Sir, it will cost you $5,000 to ship her back to the States, but you can bury her right here in the Holy Land for $150.”
So, the man thought about it briefly and said, “Alright, I’m going to go ahead and ship her back to America.”
And the undertaker said, “Sir, did you hear what I said? You can bury her here in the Holy Land for $150; why would you want to spend $5,000 to ship her back?”
And the man replied, “Well, a long time ago, a man was buried here and three days later he rose again from the dead. And I can’t take that chance.”
You know, you just can’t ignore the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It changed human history. It’s changed most of our lives. And because Jesus died and rose again, we have HOPE. If Jesus neve rose from the dead, we’d have no hope. But He did! And because of that we have hope! Our hope isn’t in technology, as advanced as it may be. Our hope isn’t in human solutions, as creative as they are. Our hope certainly isn’t in politicians and governments, because they’ll disappoint. In fact, don’t even put your hope in preachers because we’ll disappoint you too. Listen, if you knew me as well as I know myself, you wouldn’t sit there and listen to me preach today. But if I knew you as well as you know yourself, I wouldn’t talk to you. So, we’re a good match, aren’t we? No, our hope is in God!
It’s been said that man can live 40 days without food, 3 days without water, about 8 minutes without air, but not 1 second without hope.
So, let me ask you; have you lost hope? Maybe you’re here today and you’re secretly a little discouraged. Maybe your life hasn’t gone the way you’d hoped it would go. Perhaps you were hoping you’d be married by now but you’re still single. Or maybe you were hoping that your marriage would be stronger, but it seems worse today than ever. It might even be falling apart. Some of you were hoping your business would’ve succeeded, but it just went belly up. Or maybe you’re unemployed at the moment and you’re finding it difficult to land a job. Maybe school has been more difficult than you imagined. Some of you are celebrating Easter for the first time without a loved one, and it’s left you feeling hopeless. If that’s you (even just a little bit), I want to say I’m glad you here.
If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to turn with me to Luke 24. We’re going to read about two disciples that had lost hope on the first Easter. They were discouraged and burned out. In their minds, Jesus failed in His mission to be the Messiah. See, they held the view that when the Messiah came He was going to establish His kingdom and rule as King of kings and Lord of lords, which, in their case, meant the overthrow of Rome. And though that’s true – Scripture speaks of the Messiah coming to rule and reign – they failed to understand that He must first suffer and die. So, when Jesus, their friend, their hero, their Messiah, their Lord, was suddenly arrested on false charges and beaten and then murdered in cold blood before their eyes, it seemed as though something had gone horribly wrong.
It was like the train was off the tracks, and so these guys were so down-hearted, so discouraged, so hopeless that they said, “We’ve got to get out of town.” So, they left Jerusalem. They wanted to put as much distance between themselves and the bloody cross and the cold tomb as possible. And they headed to a town called Emmaus. And as they were on their way somebody joined them. Turns out to be Jesus Himself, but they didn’t know it at the time. So, let’s read what happens here in Luke 24:13-24:
13That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. 16But God kept them from recognizing Him.
17He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”
19“What things?” Jesus asked.
“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and He was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. 20But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed Him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified Him. 21We had hoped He was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.
22“Then some women from our group of His followers were at His tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23They said His body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, His body was gone, just as the women had said.”
Our story begins with two people, Cleopas and another person. Some commentators suggest that it was perhaps a woman. So maybe this was a man and his wife, or maybe it was just two men. The point is this: these weren’t front-line disciples. We’re not reading about Peter, James, or John. No, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene – not even Peter, James or John. Maybe it’s because she was the last at the cross and the first at the empty tomb, and now, here, He’s appearing to these two folks, one of which isn’t even important enough to have their name mentioned.
Quick poll. How many of you were the top student in your class? Raise your hands. Always got the best grades, honor roll, etc.? (Wow, we’ve got a lot of losers out there.) How many of you got mediocre or bad grades? Raise your hands. (Yeah, houses full of losers.) Guess what? I’m with you. When you were in school, did you ever get picked last. At the office, do others slip out to lunch without inviting you?
Jesus went out of His way to reach out to ordinary people, to obscure people; to people that were often forgotten by others.
And it’s interesting to note that as they’re walking along, these two people don’t recognize Jesus. Mark’s gospel includes this interesting little detail, the Bible says, “Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country” (Mark 16:12). I don’t know what that means exactly but it’s clear that they didn’t know it was Jesus walking along with them. And you know what, sometimes we miss that Jesus is walking along with us too. Yet, He’s with us all the time. He’s with us on the sunny days and He’s with us on the cloudy days. He’s with us on the mountain tops and He’s with us in the valleys. He’s with us in our fiery furnaces as He was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He’s with us in the lion’s den as He was with Daniel.
Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” Are you in the rivers of difficulty right now? Are you in a fire of oppression? Listen, because of Easter, Jesus is here with you! Deuteronomy 31:6 says that “He’ll never leave us or forsake us.”
But the problem with these two chaps is that they’re headed in the wrong direction. They should have stayed in Jerusalem or returned to Galilee with the others, as Jesus had instructed, but instead, these two people wanted to put as much distance between themselves and the cross of Jesus as they could. When you’re down-hearted. When you’re discouraged. When you’ve sinned. The last thing you want to do is run from God; you should run to God. Because of Easter, you can go to God with your troubles – go to God with your questions – go to God with your pain – go to God with your complaints. Easter is proof that Jesus defeated Satan, sin, and the grave, and we can go to Him.
Because of Easter, because of the resurrection, because Jesus is alive today, you can go to God and find forgiveness. These guys were running away from the cross and the tomb when they should’ve been running to the cross. Satan’s objective is to always get you further from the cross, but the Holy Spirit’s objective is to bring you to it.
I heard a story about a little boy in northern England who got lost. The policeman found him crying in the shadows and he asked the little fellow where he lived. But the little guy said he didn’t know where he lived. “You don’t know you’re address son?” “No, I don’t.” So, the constable started listing restaurants and stores and hotels but the boy didn’t recognize any of them. Then the officer looked toward town and in the distance, there was a church that had a large steeple with a cross that was lit up. And he said, “Son, do you live anywhere near that?” And the little boy’s face lit up and he said, “Yes, lead me to the cross. I can find my way home from there.”
Folks, listen to me! Today, because of that first Easter, we have the hope of everlasting life and an eternal relationship with God, but we have to come to Jesus. He’s the One who took upon Himself our sin. He’s the One who took upon Himself the punishment, the pain, the estrangement from God that we deserved. He’s the One whose sacrifice was pleasing to the Father. He’s the One who was victorious over sin and death. And the resurrection is proof! Jesus is alive, and He wants to know you in a real and personal way! He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25).
The Apostle Paul, writing about the hope of Easter, says this, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Him we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2). And if you’re wondering, “Yeah, but what’s the glory of God? Paul said we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God?”
If you continue reading Chapter 5 of Romans you’ll discover that the glory of God is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That’s the glory of God for Paul, and that’s where our hope lies today – not only Jesus’ life, and His death, but also His resurrection!
Although these guys are going the wrong direction on that first Easter, Jesus doesn’t give up on them. Verse 17, Jesus says, “What are you guys talking about? Why the long faces?” And Cleopas responds and says, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem that hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened in the last few days.” And to add insult to injury verse 21 says, “We had hoped (past tense) He was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.”
And Jesus is thinking, “Good heavens! Three days! Hello, don’t you guys remember how many times I said ‘three days?’” And of course, we tend to criticize these characters because we know this is Jesus and we know the rest of the story, but seriously, how many times do we forget what Jesus says to us? How often do we forget the promises and the assurances and the comfort that He gives to us through His Word? We worry when we should pray. We panic when we should trust. We turn away when we should cling.
But Jesus restores their hope, and He does that by taking them to the Scripture. He opened God’s Word and explained it to them. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” So, Jesus says, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.”
Part of the reason that we gather each week (not just on Easter) is because the Scriptures remind us of the hope of Easter, the hope of the resurrection, the fact that Jesus has conquered sin and the grave and is alive forevermore. As Paul writes in his letter to Titus, “[w]e wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us . . .” (Titus 2:13-14b). Or as Peter writes in the opening pages of his epistles, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead . . .” (1 Peter 1:3).
Folks, let me remind us all, God is not dead. He’s Alive! And because of that we have hope this Easter!