WEBVTT 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:01.600 Hello, friends. 00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.879 This is Pastor Creighton. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:06.160 Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:13.279 At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.719 You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:25.359 This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.079 Glory to you, Lord Christ. 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:39.920 That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:48.479 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:53.679 And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.399 And they stood still, looking sad. 00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:06.239 Then one of them, named Cleopus, answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.040 And he said to him, What things? 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:24.239 And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was pro a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:28.640 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:33.439 Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:36.319 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:46.000 They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back, saying that they had seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:54.079 Some of those who are with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:07.920 And he said to them, Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken, was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:17.680 And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:21.919 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:30.560 He acted as if he were going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:33.120 So he went in to stay with them. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:39.919 When he was at table with them he took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:46.240 Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:56.319 They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:09.280 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:16.479 And they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:18.719 This is the gospel of the Lord. 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:21.520 Praise to you, Lord Christ. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:30.560 Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures. 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:32.240 Let's pray. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:45.199 O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:46.159 Amen. 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:47.919 Please be seated. 00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:23.920 So after a rather lengthy, rather boring sermon, parishioners filed out of a church, past the pastor who was, you know, there to greet folks as they left, all saying nothing, not making eye contact, until at the very end of the line, one particular person, who is a just a pillar of this church community, just a spirit of encouragement, a real Barnabas sort, always had something positive to say at any given moment. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:29.040 He met the pastor and he slapped him on the arm and he said, Pastor, thank you for that sermon. 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:35.279 It made the peace and the love of God so real, so vivid for me. 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:36.639 Thank you for that. 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:42.639 And the pastor said, No one has ever said anything like that about my preaching before. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:48.240 What in my preaching made God's peace and God's love real for you? 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:57.279 And this parishioner said, Well, Pastor, just like the peace of God, your sermon today passes all understanding. 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:03.040 And just like the love of God, Pastor, your sermon almost never ended. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:12.879 The question I've been wrestling with for a while now is why do we have sermons? 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:26.079 That's a it was an existential question, I gotta admit, during COVID, when preaching to a uh, well, uh, little boxes on Zoom was not exactly the thing I felt like I signed up for. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:34.000 And I quickly realized that some of the world's best Bible teaching is available to us like on our at our fingertips. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:44.639 Just go onto YouTube and we can be in London or we can be in Nashville, we can follow the very best preaching around the world, certainly those preachers that are most influential. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.000 Why do we have sermons? 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:49.920 Why do we preach? 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:52.399 What's the point? 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:55.120 Is this just like a Jesus TED talk? 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:59.360 Is it a motivational speech for the week ahead of us? 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:03.120 This is a sermon on sermons. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.000 It's a sermon about the point of sermons and why it is that we have sermons. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:12.959 And I think we have an answer in front of us in Luke chapter 24. 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:22.639 I think we find an answer in perhaps the best sermon ever preached, which is Jesus, to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:28.959 We may not know uh the outline of this sermon, but we do know the substance of this sermon. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.720 We know what Jesus does with this sermon. 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:38.160 And what we learn from Luke 24 is the reason we have sermons. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:40.399 It's because of this. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:46.000 And I lift this phrase from a fellow named Colin Smith, but I just think it's so perfect. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.720 God meets with people as Christ is proclaimed through his word. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:59.839 God meets with people as Christ is proclaimed through his word. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:03.040 That's what we see in Luke 24. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:04.800 That's why we have sermons. 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:08.959 And if that's true, oh, she's making a break for it. 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:18.639 If that's true, then perhaps we can think about the fact that God wants to meet with you and I today. 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:24.959 He wants to meet with you through his word, not hypothetically, but actually. 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:27.920 He wants to give himself to you. 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:34.639 He wants you to have an encounter with Jesus through his word, by his Holy Spirit. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:40.800 We preach because God meets with people as Christ is proclaimed through his word. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.920 So very briefly, let's have a look at the Emmaus Road here. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.279 Pull out your Bible, pull out your order of service here. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:52.720 This is Easter Sunday, the first Easter Sunday. 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:54.800 It's Easter Sunday afternoon. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:08:00.000 And these two disciples who were witnesses to the crucifixion are packing it in. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:02.720 They're heading back to their hometown Emmaus. 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:06.240 But Jesus meets with them on the road. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:09.040 But they don't recognize as Jesus. 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:17.759 They don't recognize him as Jesus, which I think suggests to us that even when it comes to God's own self-disclosure, he is sovereign. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:23.279 God sovereignly chooses to reveal himself to us in his way at his time. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:29.360 Here's Jesus among them for this journey on the road, and they don't recognize him. 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.720 But there's two things that define these disciples. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:35.759 These disciples are desolate. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:39.279 When Jesus meets with them, he asks what they're talking about. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:41.679 And they're almost, they can't believe it. 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:46.000 They answer with something equivalent like, are you living under a rock? 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.200 Like, you don't know what just happened in Jerusalem? 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:54.879 You haven't heard about Jesus, a prophet who was mighty in word and deed before God and all the people. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:55.600 That's true. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:57.360 That's a bit of an understatement. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:02.960 How the chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:06.480 And hear their desolation in verse 21. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:11.120 We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:13.759 We bet it all on this guy. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:22.639 We were following this guy with our very lives because we believed he was the Messiah who was going to fulfill God's promise and save his people. 00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:25.200 But we just watched him get crucified. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:29.360 So we're cutting our losses, we're packing it in and heading back home. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:31.360 These disciples are desolate. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:33.679 But these disciples are also confused. 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:50.480 They go on to say that it's been three days since this happened, and they explain that some of the women in their company, some of the women disciples, had been witnesses to an angelic appearance, a proclamation that Jesus had risen again, that he wasn't dead, but alive. 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:53.279 These women came back and told the disciples. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:56.240 I mean, that's the sort of news you don't get every day. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:59.120 It's hard to believe that that could be the case. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:06.559 So here these disciples are walking on the road feeling desolate, feeling like their hopes were dashed, but feeling confused. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:11.840 Because somehow in the midst of all this, it's not making sense. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.360 Maybe we know the Emmaus Road for ourselves. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:20.480 Sometimes I wonder if we think church is for those who just have a real grip on life, right? 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:26.960 Who have who've really figured out what it means to uh uh to live the triumphant and victorious life. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:33.919 Those who have graduated from desolation, those who graduated from confusion, the church is for those who have it all figured out. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:38.799 I want to suggest to you that where two or three are gathered, Jesus is there among them. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:42.159 That's what this uh passage suggests. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:47.120 But even where two are desolate and confused, Jesus meets with them. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.679 We come as those who bring our own desolation, our own confusion with us. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:58.399 From week to week, from one season of life to another, life offers us plenty of desolation and confusion, doesn't it? 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.519 It takes its own form in each of our lives. 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:07.039 But we bring that with us Sunday for Sunday as we journey this Emmaus road. 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:12.639 These disciples encounter Jesus, and the hope is the same for us. 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:17.039 Verse 25, Jesus begins to reveal himself to these disciples. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:29.360 He says to them, Oh foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:34.159 Jesus takes their desolation and he offers them consolation. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:39.120 He says, This is not, God's plan has not gone off the rails here. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:56.240 The prophets have long anticipated the fact that God works his glory through suffering, and that it was necessary that the Messiah is crucified, that he atones for the sin of God's people, so that they can have a renewed fellowship and relationship with him. 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:58.320 This is a necessary thing. 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:00.879 God's plan is still at work. 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:05.679 And so too, Jesus takes their confusion and he offers them clarity. 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:08.559 This is a remarkable verse, verse 27. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:16.879 Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:31.759 Jesus isn't just offering them his wishful thinking, Jesus is taking them to God's word, to the authority of God's word, and saying all of God's word points to the saving Messiah, crucified and risen again. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:41.120 All of Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, points us to Jesus, points us to the hope that we have in Jesus. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.840 And I think that's important to keep in mind. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.720 The Bible is a means and not an end. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:51.919 We don't have sermons just to share some interesting factoids about Scripture. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:57.759 We have sermons so that we can have a living encounter with the living word, Jesus. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:58.960 Hear what A. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:12:59.200 W. 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:01.759 Tozer, this great pastor and writer, has to say. 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:02.799 I love this quote. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:23.840 He says, the Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, and that they may delight in His presence and may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:28.159 Scripture offers us Jesus. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:31.840 It offers us the hope of our salvation. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:36.639 We have only to meet with Jesus as he gives himself to us in his word. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:48.720 This is the greatest sermon I think ever preached, because here is the word of God expositing God's word in Scripture and showing how everything points to him and his saving work. 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:56.639 We have expository preaching here at New Song because we believe that God gives himself to us through his word. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:05.279 So when we come to understand his word, we come to encounter the living, risen, ascended, coming again, Lord Jesus. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:15.840 Preaching is not just talking about Jesus, it's offering a present encounter as he gives himself to us in his word by the illumination of his Holy Spirit. 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.279 God meets with people as Christ is proclaimed through his word. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:29.519 So here we are in the middle of the Emmaus Road, bringing our desolation, bringing our confusion with us. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.759 The question is, are we ready to recognize Jesus? 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.320 Am I prepared for an encounter with him? 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:42.320 See, we can come and we can hear a sermon, but without the eyes of faith, we won't recognize Jesus in it. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.879 Jesus will remain unrecognizable in our midst. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:15:00.399 It's only through the eyes of faith that we can grasp Jesus as he gives himself to us, that these saving promises are not just something written long ago, but are something that are being realized in our midst, that are being confirmed in our hearts. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:10.559 And so through prayer and through our own practice of spiritual disciplines, we train ourselves to grasp Jesus where he gives himself to us. 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:14.240 Do we come prayerfully on a Sunday morning? 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:18.960 Do we come ready to meet with Jesus as he's giving himself to us? 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.480 And what will I do with what I hear? 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:29.759 The disciples hear Jesus' sermon in verse 27 and they turn their lives around. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:36.159 They were heading from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but notice in verse 33, they return to Jerusalem. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:39.440 Literally speaking, they turn their lives around. 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:53.360 For us, we may not uh we might not turn the direction in which we're walking around, but each and every encounter with God in Christ through his word is an opportunity for us to turn our lives to where Jesus is directing us. 00:15:53.840 --> 00:16:04.960 To consider the path we're walking and then consider where Jesus is calling us to go, to repent of those paths we'd prefer to his and to walk as his disciples. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:11.360 The Emmaus disciples turn their lives around and then they go and they proclaim the good news. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:13.360 Do you notice that in verse 35? 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.559 They told what had happened on the road. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:24.320 When we receive God's word, we're then invited to be those who go and share that word with others. 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:37.919 To hearten one another, to fortify one another, and to proclaim good news to those who uh to the lost, to go and be a light to the nations, which is our calling as God's people. 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:44.799 God meets with people as Christ is proclaimed through his word. 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:53.759 I'll offer one final thought, and the thought is this what's true of Jesus giving himself to us in his word is also true of the table. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:17:03.360 When we come to God's word, we're ready for a living encounter with the living Jesus, and we come to God's table through faith, we come to do the same. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:08.400 God meets with people as he's proclaimed through his word and in sacraments. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:13.279 One of my uh favorite Puritan writers is a guy named Thomas Watson. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:15.599 He has this to say about the Lord's Supper. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:23.440 He says, God to help our faith does not only give us an audible word, sermons, but a visible sign. 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:28.400 He knows that we're physical material beings, and we need physical material signs. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:37.599 And so here is God's word given to us in bread and wine, the signs of the new covenant, to confirm that Christ has been given for you. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:46.160 So that when you hear the words, this is the body of Christ broken for you and the blood of Christ shed for you, that's not hypothetical, that's real. 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:48.240 That is for you. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:55.039 The word brings us to Christ, writes Thomas Watts, and the sacrament builds us up in him. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:57.599 The table is like a visible sermon. 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:08.160 We take in sermons through our ears, but we come to this table to take in this edible sermon with our mouths, and we taste and we see that the Lord is good. 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:17.119 So, friends, come, let us adore him. 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:21.119 Thank you for listening today. 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:26.799 We worship a generous God who calls us to follow him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially. 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:33.440 Newsong Church's mission and ministry is one hundred percent funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us. 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:41.200 If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit Newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that. 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.480 May God bless you and keep you today and every day.