SPEAKER_00: Let's pray this morning to be coming out of Psalm 116.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we do crown you, Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and power.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, teach our hearts to believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I loved you because you've heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that that you hear our cries to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because you inclined your ear to me, therefore I will call on you as long as I live.
SPEAKER_00: Because Lord, you are my only hope.
SPEAKER_00: You are our only hope.
SPEAKER_00: Though the snares of death encompass us, the pangs of Sheol laid hold of us, we suffer distress and anguish.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, then we call on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We cry out, Oh Lord, I pray, deliver my soul.
SPEAKER_00: And we remember, Lord, that you're gracious.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious is the Lord and righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Our God is merciful.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you.
SPEAKER_00: That's who you are.
SPEAKER_00: By your nature, you are gracious and merciful toward us.
SPEAKER_00: You see us in our affliction.
SPEAKER_00: You see us in our doubt.
SPEAKER_00: You see us in our struggles.
SPEAKER_00: When I was brought low, you saved me.
SPEAKER_00: So Lord, Lord, return.
SPEAKER_00: Cause my soul to return to your rest.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning as we come before you and read your word, that you would give us rest in the midst of the pain and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Because Lord, we walk in a land that is broken, a land that is full of opposition, full of suffering and death, and yet, I believe, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: I said my in my alarm, all mankind are liars, Lord, that that is what we see all around us.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, what shall I render the Lord for all of his benefits to me?
SPEAKER_00: I remember in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of all the distractions in life right now, you have given us such wonderful benefits in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we will lift up the cup of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We will pay our vows in the presence of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are your servants and we come before you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are the one who loosed our bonds.
SPEAKER_00: You are the one who has given us freedom in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We will call on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Receive that glory and honor through this morning's message.
SPEAKER_00: Receive that now as I preach, Lord, I pray that you would be the one speaking the words of truth, the words of life, the words of restoration to your people.
SPEAKER_00: That you would be exalted and glorified.
SPEAKER_00: We pray all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Church, I'd like to encourage you to remain standing for the reading of God's word if you're able to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll be reading from Luke chapter 24, verses 13 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 24, verses 13 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
SPEAKER_00: While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
SPEAKER_00: But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
SPEAKER_00: And they stood still, looking sad.
SPEAKER_00: Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, What thanks?
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was 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.
SPEAKER_00: But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Some of those who are with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_00: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is the word of the Lord for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: May God write his eternal truths on our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Tyler Masters.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here, and uh so thankful that you have decided to be with us today to worship on this glorious post-resurrection Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you don't have a copy of the Bible, we would love to give you one.
SPEAKER_00: They're on the walls on either side of the worship center.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to gift that to you so that you can follow along with us as we continue our study through the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Happy tax week to everyone out there.
SPEAKER_00: You can feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Even the weather knows it's tax week, right?
SPEAKER_00: It feels super appropriate.
SPEAKER_00: All the cloud, like last Sunday, amazing Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Good, good Friday, awesome service, awesome service last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: The sun was out, it was bright, it was warm, it was just so inviting, and here we are back to the sad, cold reality of life.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing the sun is still shining.
SPEAKER_00: You don't see it, but it's still shining.
SPEAKER_00: It's behind the clouds, but it's there.
SPEAKER_00: And so the resurrection is as relevant today as it is every resurrection Sunday, and that's what we celebrate, that's what we come back to.
SPEAKER_00: We have hope in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing about the rain: not only is it something that we just have to live with, but it's absolutely necessary.
SPEAKER_00: In order to have life, in order for growth, we have to have rain.
SPEAKER_00: We have to have that come in and disrupt our normal daily life.
SPEAKER_00: Here in the United States, we're like, ah, rain is so inconvenient.
SPEAKER_00: Most other countries are like, sweet, now we can eat this year.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's through the rain that we get life.
SPEAKER_00: We have our harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And so today that's what we want to look at today is going from that vision of something that's cold and dark and hopeless, and realizing that beyond that, actually, we have life.
SPEAKER_00: We have something that the world doesn't have.
SPEAKER_00: We have the resurrected Jesus Christ who's dwelling within us through his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We now can rejoice every single day as though it were sunny, as though it were a day that we could just go out and play in nature.
SPEAKER_00: God is at work right now where we are.
SPEAKER_00: But what we need to do is look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's been the series title for the past three years, I believe, as we've gone through the Gospel of Luke: Looking to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been in some challenging passages in the last several weeks as we've looked at Jesus, the suffering servant.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen his betrayal, we have seen the unjust trial, the unlawful bringing him before a council in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen him flogged, we have seen him crucified and tortured and mocked.
SPEAKER_00: And then last Sunday, we saw the victory.
SPEAKER_00: We saw this was all part of the plan of God.
SPEAKER_00: He rose from the grave, and now the same spirit that raised Christ from the grave dwells within us.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of power is within us, and we can rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Luke is writing about this.
SPEAKER_00: He's giving us eyewitness accounts.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we looked at last week was the certainty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But here in the middle of this narrative, the disciples still don't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: They are so devastated, so heartbroken, they are on the verge of despair.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't understand what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: What they needed was spiritual restoration.
SPEAKER_00: They needed Christ to heal them and to strengthen them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what he does in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: So the title of today's message is The Road to Restoration.
SPEAKER_00: The Road to Restoration.
SPEAKER_00: What are the first steps in that journey?
SPEAKER_00: How do we get there?
SPEAKER_00: How do we go from looking all around us and being in despair at the affliction and the pain and the apparent failure of what is happening in the plan of God?
SPEAKER_00: How do we deal with that in our own lives?
SPEAKER_00: How do we go from cold, sad hearts to hearts that are burning with fire and passion for Jesus Christ, full of joy?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the big idea today.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding Christ's glory through his suffering is essential to interpreting and applying all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And consequently, a Christ-centered interpretation of Scripture is the means by which the Holy Spirit transforms and renews our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: We want our hearts to change.
SPEAKER_00: We want our hearts to burn.
SPEAKER_00: We want that passion.
SPEAKER_00: We do want an experial Christianity, but how does that happen?
SPEAKER_00: It's not through dreams and visions.
SPEAKER_00: It's not through some miraculous outpouring of the Spirit in the world around us, and we see people raised to life from the dead in our lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: No, the way that the Spirit of God works within us, the way that he changes our heart, is through the reading and meditation on the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in this passage, Jesus does this.
SPEAKER_00: He turns cold, sad hearts into hearts aflame with joy.
SPEAKER_00: He gives peace and assurance regardless of the circumstances, and he transforms the foolish and slow of heart into wise and bold witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we need.
SPEAKER_00: Because we we struggle living in a world that is full of suffering, a world that is broken.
SPEAKER_00: It weighs on us.
SPEAKER_00: And it is very easy to get cynical, to get discouraged, and to lose hope.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is where you are.
SPEAKER_00: As a believer, even, this happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: You accept Christ, and I remember this thought, and I dealt with this as people as they as they have come to Christ and they start living out their Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: They'll say things like, Well, I didn't expect it to be like this.
SPEAKER_00: I thought that when I believed on Christ, when I became a Christian, that that all my problems would would go away.
SPEAKER_00: But not only did they not go away, somehow it feels more intense now.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow it feels like there's more opposition, as though there's someone or something fighting against me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm finding it hard to have joy and peace and hope in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we find that hope?
SPEAKER_00: Where do we find that healing and that restoration?
SPEAKER_00: How do we get there?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see this happening in the passage today, and next week we'll look at it once they get to the village of Emmaus.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus comes alongside two disciples here, and he begins this journey of restoration.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the word restoration actually is the meaning of the word Emmaus, or it's kind of the implied meaning of it.
SPEAKER_00: Emmaus is a village that we don't really know a whole lot about today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there are a lot of scholars that guess about where it might have been.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's about seven miles outside of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But the name itself means hot springs.
SPEAKER_00: Hot springs.
SPEAKER_00: And this hot spring, and still today it's similar to this, this is sort of a natural way of bringing healing and restoration to those who are suffering physically.
SPEAKER_00: So these disciples are headed back home to the village of Emmaus.
SPEAKER_00: And along the way, Jesus comes and he begins this restoration process with them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how did that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first thing we need to see here is the sorrow of unbelief in verses 13 to 17.
SPEAKER_00: It says, That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so it says, that very day, here's the context.
SPEAKER_00: This is Resurrection Sunday still.
SPEAKER_00: We're one week removed from that celebration.
SPEAKER_00: They're still in the middle of that day.
SPEAKER_00: They have not seen the resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Most people had not seen him yet.
SPEAKER_00: And they're talking about all the events that had taken place that entire week.
SPEAKER_00: These two disciples, maybe a man and a woman, husband and wife, maybe it's two men.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't really matter too much.
SPEAKER_00: They're walking along the way, going back home from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see this journey that goes in despair and sadness away from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Next week we're going to see it's a journey back with joy and excitement and bold witnessing to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But here along the way, they're discussing what's going on, what Jesus Christ taught, what he did.
SPEAKER_00: You think of that Passion Week, the suffering week, and all that took place in just one week in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And then the betrayal of one of his disciples, Judas, betrays him, hands him over.
SPEAKER_00: The unlawful trial that he had there with the Sanhedrin, and then the unjust trial he had with Pilate and Herod, where they knew he was innocent, but they condemned him anyway.
SPEAKER_00: They flogged him, they beat him.
SPEAKER_00: The one who was the Messiah in their mind, he was supposed to come in power, came and showed weakness and was beaten, and he was bruised and he was torn apart.
SPEAKER_00: And they're looking at all the evidence of what happened in this horrific crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: He was most definitely dead.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're having to deal with this missing body.
SPEAKER_00: To add insult to injury, the body's gone.
SPEAKER_00: The grave has been defiled in their mind.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're talking about all of this along the way.
SPEAKER_00: And while they were talking, it says in verse 15, and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so this is fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the resurrected Christ, the one they're talking about, physically, literally comes alongside of them on this road to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't recognize him, it says in verse 16, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was right there.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't see him.
SPEAKER_00: Now he he didn't come here and notice this in some kind of overwhelming, glorious, shining display of his majesty and glory, and then impose face faith on them.
SPEAKER_00: Like, see, I told you I was resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He comes up alongside of them and he's very patient with them and begins asking them questions and points them to scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This is almost a humorous situation, kind of like a Dora the Explorer experience, right?
SPEAKER_00: That show was totally banned in my house.
SPEAKER_00: Could not stand it.
SPEAKER_00: I had some friends whose kids watched it.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't say between her screaming at the screen and not seeing the most obvious thing.
SPEAKER_00: Can you see the mountain?
SPEAKER_00: No blinking.
SPEAKER_00: You mean that ginormous geological structure right next to your head?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even have control of the mouse to click on it faster.
SPEAKER_00: There's a theory that she's blind and boots, the monkey, is actually her service animal.
SPEAKER_00: Makes it way more tolerable.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of what we're seeing here, because what we're getting is is God's perspective of what human spiritual blindness is like.
SPEAKER_00: We're seeing a heavenly perspective of this.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, can you see Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And the reader's like, yeah, he's right there.
SPEAKER_00: Just click on it.
SPEAKER_00: There he is.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that that's the condition of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see.
SPEAKER_00: We are spiritually blind.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way for us to see is if the Holy Spirit gives us light.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's really cool about this is that this actually correlates with Malachi 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: These two disciples along the way, they're discussing what had happened.
SPEAKER_00: They're discussing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes alongside of them in the midst of their theological discussion.
SPEAKER_00: And now that may be flawed, but they want to know.
SPEAKER_00: They sincerely want to know what is going on.
SPEAKER_00: It says Malachi 3.16, then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord paid attention and heard them.
SPEAKER_00: Deep conversations about spiritual matters, this is a means of grace.
SPEAKER_00: This is something we should be doing.
SPEAKER_00: It says in the Shema and in Deuteronomy that we should be talking about this when we sit down and when we stand up and we're walking along the way.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about it with our children, we talk about it with our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: Talking about Jesus Christ and the gospel should be the most natural thing for us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about it, discuss it.
SPEAKER_00: You say, we don't have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: Neither did they.
SPEAKER_00: But it pleases the Lord for us to discuss him and his word.
SPEAKER_00: So he comes alongside of them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, he said to them, What is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus begins with where they were and with what they understood.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he's not just directly giving them the answers.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly what the conversation is about.
SPEAKER_00: But you see, God does this all throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He will ask questions that he obviously knows the answer to, but he wants the person who is going through this process to think through it.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants us as the readers to think through it.
SPEAKER_00: Think about Adam when he was hiding.
SPEAKER_00: Adam, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: What have you done?
SPEAKER_00: Or Hagar, where have you come from and where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: Or Elijah when he's running away from Ahab and Jezebel, what are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord poses questions, not because he needs to know the answer, but because you need to think about the answer.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always even know what's going on in our own hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's drawing this out of them.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to tell them what's happening in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see there in verse 17, their immediate response, they stood still, looking sad.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I've been in that situation.
SPEAKER_00: Not realizing what's going on, coming up, like, hey, what are you guys talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And realize, like, I should not have jumped into that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't doing that.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a sadness in their heart, and that's important for us to know.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to find out what the root of that sadness is.
SPEAKER_00: The root of that sadness is unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Because unbelief produces sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing we see then is their struggle to understand.
SPEAKER_00: And what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: Verses 18 to 24.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to reveal the unbelief in their own hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to have to see it for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, 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?
SPEAKER_00: Now, Cleopus, he's mentioned by name.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of like a Bible footnote.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of people mentioned in Scripture, I believe last week it was mentioned there are like 16 names in the New Testament of specific people who were alive during the time this was written and distributed.
SPEAKER_00: And basically it's like Luke saying, I got this firsthand account from Cleopus.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to check my facts, go and talk to him personally.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to realize that this is a real historical event that's taking place right here.
SPEAKER_00: And so Cleopus is the one who asks them, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know these things that have happened?
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' trial and his crucifixion, this was super public.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't done in Private.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, every single person who has anything to do with Jerusalem this week during Passover knows exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus continues and works with them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, he said to them, What things?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, he just asked another question.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to draw out the issue of their heart.
SPEAKER_00: He is so patient with his disciples, even in their unbelief and confusion.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how God works.
SPEAKER_00: He lets people wrestle through their thoughts and emotions and their doubts.
SPEAKER_00: They need to hear this, they need to reflect on it.
SPEAKER_00: So it says in 19, and they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, this is accurate.
SPEAKER_00: This is an accurate, albeit insufficient understanding of who Jesus Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he is the prophet that would come in the likeness of Moses, as mentioned in Deuteronomy, but he's more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: But Luke is doing here, he's again, and he has done this all throughout the gospel, he's showing that Jesus is the true and greater Moses, the greater prophet, the greatest one to come and not just proclaim the name or proclaim the word of the Lord, but he himself is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now they they they accepted him as a prophet, but what they didn't seem to accept or understand is that not only was Jesus a prophet in the sense of proclaiming the word of God, but he also had to fulfill the destiny of the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: And as you look throughout scripture and you see that pattern, the destiny of the prophets was rejection, suffering, and death.
SPEAKER_00: It was necessary.
SPEAKER_00: And it says in verse 20, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.
SPEAKER_00: They accepted Jesus as a prophet, but for some reason they seemed to not accept his very own prophecy about his deliverance over to the hands of wicked men to be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He told them this would happen.
SPEAKER_00: And he told him he would raise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He already told them that.
SPEAKER_00: That's what verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this, he says, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
SPEAKER_00: The third day.
SPEAKER_00: The third day since all this happened.
SPEAKER_00: As the reader, we're like, yeah, that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: But for them, they're like, we don't even know what is going on.
SPEAKER_00: It seems obvious to us, but to them, here's what they said.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see the reason for their inability to grasp it at the beginning of that verse says, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, here's another parallel.
SPEAKER_00: Like Moses, the redeemer of God's people, Jesus is the greater redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: They expected him to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They expected him to redeem his people, not to suffer, not to die.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't part of their theology.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have a theology of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what happens when we make human reasoning our ultimate authority.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: And what these disciples didn't realize was that the apparent ruin of all their hopes of a redeemer was actually their fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: So he is the one who will redeem his people.
SPEAKER_00: But it must happen the way that God has ordained it to happen, through death and through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So all the evidence for making sense of it was available to them.
SPEAKER_00: They knew a lot of the facts.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, look, verse 22 says, Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: They were already told he's alive.
SPEAKER_00: He's an angelic vision.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we we looked last week, they weren't going to accept the testimony of women, evidently.
SPEAKER_00: But well, they amazed us, which is a lot nicer than what Luke said.
SPEAKER_00: Luke just said earlier in that pastor, they they refused to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: They did not believe it.
SPEAKER_00: It seemed to them like idle tales.
SPEAKER_00: You're making stuff up.
SPEAKER_00: You're way too emotional, you're you're not thinking right, you're hallucinating.
SPEAKER_00: All right, they refused to accept this.
SPEAKER_00: Even though all the evidence was there, the prophecies of Christ, the empty tomb, it is the third day.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a real battle going on in their hearts to figure out what to believe and how to reconcile all this, all these things that they just experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we see that the result of their unbelief was sorrow, confusion, frustration, anxiety, cynicism, and hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we end up when we refuse to accept the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord in his kindness provided them with a solution.
SPEAKER_00: We see, third of all, the scriptures unveiled in verses 25 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus points out, first of all, the condition of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: As we think about scriptures unveiled, we have to understand the condition of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first step to that restoration, to that healing that our souls long for.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, and he said to them, Oh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so Jesus here, he initiates their journey toward restoration by addressing their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: This is gracious.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't always feel gracious, but he's being very gracious.
SPEAKER_00: Because you before you can actually receive healing, you have to understand where the problem is.
SPEAKER_00: You need the right diagnosis.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he's saying here, oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe, this is not an inability to comprehend objectively the truth.
SPEAKER_00: This was a moral failure.
SPEAKER_00: The problem wasn't their IEQ, the problem was their heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we look at scripture, we understand what is the heart?
SPEAKER_00: It's not just not just the center of emotion.
SPEAKER_00: The heart refers to the inner person, the inner commitments, the dispositions and attitudes of a person that determine his or her life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the core of what you truly believe.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is your unbelieving heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're not willing to accept what is true and what Scripture has made very clear.
SPEAKER_00: This was about a failure to orient themselves fully around Jesus' teaching, not their need for more education.
SPEAKER_00: So J.B.
SPEAKER_00: Green puts it this way he's the failure of insight comes from failure to embrace the ways of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this again is the condition of every single human heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is where you are.
SPEAKER_00: When we think about this, we think, well, why is it some people can hear the exact same message and then they they get it?
SPEAKER_00: And that it it stirs something up in them, and there's life in them, they respond to Christ in obedience, and then someone sitting right next to them hears the same message and comes out with something totally random.
SPEAKER_00: They get no hope, they get no assurance.
SPEAKER_00: How has that happened?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see how the Lord is the one who opens the heart for that.
SPEAKER_00: But if it weren't for the Lord, it wasn't because the one person who gets it is a better person or smarter person.
SPEAKER_00: It's because there's life in that person, there's been regeneration, there's something the Holy Spirit is doing in them, and the result of that is that they are now seeing for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus tells them here, he says, You're you foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: So what Jesus is saying, he says, Your problem is that you believe some of what Scripture says, but not all.
SPEAKER_00: Now get this.
SPEAKER_00: These guys are not hard, atheistic, rejecting Gentile people.
SPEAKER_00: These are people who love the Lord, they love the Word, they studied and memorized Scripture, they knew the Word, they believe the Word.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is saying, You believe the Word, but you your problem is you hear only what you want to hear and you know only what you've heard.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you're so miserable.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're only accepting the parts of Scripture that you like or the parts that make the most sense of you for for you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not accepting the whole counsel of God as you look through all of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This week my wife shared with me from her own devotions, uh, she's going through the book of Proverbs, uh, a commentary by Ray Ortland called Wisdom That Works.
SPEAKER_00: And he's making a profound observation, I believe, about Proverbs 3.5, the one that it seems like every Christian knows this one, right?
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: He asked this question, he says, Do you let the Bible overrule your own thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Do you merely agree with the Bible or do you obey the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: If you merely agree with the Bible, then your response is not obedience, but coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: But what do you do when the Bible contradicts what you want to be true?
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking in the Bible for excuses to do what you want anyway, you have in fact rejected God.
SPEAKER_00: But if you trust the Lord, you will let the Bible challenge your most cherished thoughts and feelings.
SPEAKER_00: The wonderful thing is the Lord cares about your questions and problems.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to speak into your life in ways that will help you.
SPEAKER_00: If you will trust him wholeheartedly, you will let him teach you.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples at this moment are so much like us.
SPEAKER_00: They're leaning to their own understanding, not trusting the Lord with their whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we can see that the Lord is gonna draw them then into the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing we see in verse 26 is the clarity of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do with that?
SPEAKER_00: How then do we cure that problem?
SPEAKER_00: What steps do we take?
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 26, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so the next step after recognizing the problem is unbelief, the next step toward restoration was pointing them to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's glory through suffering was always the plan of God.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a plan B, it wasn't a spiritual whoops.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess we've got to figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: This was the plan of God from Genesis on throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul was talking about when he was reciting that early church creed in 1 Corinthians 15.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I delivered unto you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling these disciples, something similar, he told Nicodemus.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember back when he's talking to Nicodemus about the need to be born again, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Nicodemus is like, Well, can you go back in your mother's womb?
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus explains it further.
SPEAKER_00: And basically he's saying, it does not matter what race you were born as, and it doesn't matter all the good works and keeping the law, you must be born again if you're going to see the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then Nicodemus responds with, How can these things be?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, he gets what Jesus is saying, he just can't accept it at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saying, This is what must happen.
SPEAKER_00: You must be born again.
SPEAKER_00: And so then Jesus, after Nicodemus says, Well, how can this be?
SPEAKER_00: He mean he was the he knew the law, he knew the word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Are you a teacher in Israel and you don't know these things?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, the new birth is the most obvious thing in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: How can you teach the Old Testament if you don't know about the new birth?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know about the conversion of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's saying to these disciples, too, if you don't understand both the suffering and the glory of Christ, you don't understand the Old Testament that you've been memorizing and claim to believe.
SPEAKER_00: It's both and.
SPEAKER_00: It points to the suffering Christ who enters into his glory through his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And so then we see the third step toward restoration.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus emphasized the centrality of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27 beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus goes on and gives them this amazing Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: Goes through the Old Testament and shows how the entirety of the Old Testament reveals him, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: All of Scripture points to him.
SPEAKER_00: So we call biblical theology.
SPEAKER_00: We think about the scriptures, the whole way, the story of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: This has always been God's plan, and it has always been Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It was before the foundation of the earth that that this that this covenant was made that Christ would come and that he would suffer and redeem a people to himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't know exactly what Jesus told these disciples along the way, but we have a pretty good guess because we have the rest of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And what the New Testament is, is showing us how the apostles and the prophets and the and the evangelists and the teachers and preachers, how they, how they all use scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that the Bible for the first century church was the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Because they didn't have the New Testament compiled the way that we have it compiled now.
SPEAKER_00: And it was being written, it was being distributed, but when they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, they preached from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what would they preach?
SPEAKER_00: What was Jesus telling them?
SPEAKER_00: Well, most definitely he would have gone back, the proto-evangelium, back to Genesis 3.15, the day that sin entered into the world, that mankind fell.
SPEAKER_00: And speaking to Satan, the enemy, fascinating, the first prophecy comes in speaking condemnation to Satan from God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
SPEAKER_00: He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
SPEAKER_00: This was the gospel that they knew.
SPEAKER_00: Eve got it.
SPEAKER_00: That's why she named her first son Cain, for the Lord has given me a man, or the Lord has given me a son, the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: She got what the prophecy was about.
SPEAKER_00: They passed this on throughout generations.
SPEAKER_00: They were looking for the Redeemer, the one who would restore all things back to the way that they were created to be, and even better than that, but it would happen by crushing the head of the serpent, crushing Satan's head, but in that process his heel would be bruised.
SPEAKER_00: He also would suffer.
SPEAKER_00: It was necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is also the true seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations would be blessed, but how would that happen?
SPEAKER_00: How would he bless all the nations as the seed, the true offspring of Abraham?
SPEAKER_00: Through his suffering and through his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 2.17 talks about how these things in the Old Testament are shadows, shadows of reality, but Jesus is the substance, he's the body.
SPEAKER_00: That when you look at the Old Testament, it was casting a shadow that was fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ, and that's what he is talking about with his disciple.
SPEAKER_00: That every single sacrifice in the Old Testament, the daily sacrifices, every single one was pointing to him, the true sacrifice, the tabernacle, the temple, all of these things pointed to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the greater Isaac, the one whose father offered him up as an offering to God and then received him back again.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus, the greater Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the true and greater Passover Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: That the salvation of God's people in the Exodus, they received that salvation as the blood of the Lamb was put on the doorpost of their house, that angel of death would pass over.
SPEAKER_00: It all pointed to Jesus, the true Passover Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And by his blood we are passed over.
SPEAKER_00: We are now healed.
SPEAKER_00: He is the scapegoat that you read about in the Old Testament, and at the same time the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: So how's that possible?
SPEAKER_00: Because it is his suffering and his glory.
SPEAKER_00: It was necessary that both would happen for him to fulfill all this in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He is the true bronze serpent.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is what he told Nicodemus.
SPEAKER_00: That as the serpent was raised in the wilderness, and all who looked to the serpent were healed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is that serpent.
SPEAKER_00: Say, wow, that's really weird, confusing, because the serpent usually is something cursed.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he became a curse for us, so that we then could be the righteousness of God in him.
SPEAKER_00: He was raised, the serpent pointed to him.
SPEAKER_00: All of these signs and all of these prophecies in the Old Testament pointed to him.
SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 12 says that he was the pierced one, the one they would look on, whom they had pierced.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 52 and 53 are some of the clearest passages on the suffering servant.
SPEAKER_00: It starts off in 52, 13.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, my servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
SPEAKER_00: Then the very next verse he says, His appearance was so marred beyond human resemblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
SPEAKER_00: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
SPEAKER_00: He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.
SPEAKER_00: Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
SPEAKER_00: The necessity of his suffering and his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And that his glory actually comes through his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And this all hinges on one single important doctrine the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Luke is emphasizing here.
SPEAKER_00: He is truly risen.
SPEAKER_00: And if Christ isn't risen, then all of our preaching is in vain.
SPEAKER_00: We have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: We are the most miserable people on earth if Jesus did not truly raise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: It was prophesied.
SPEAKER_00: He shall prolong his days.
SPEAKER_00: Hosea 6 tells us, Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us, that he may heal us, he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
SPEAKER_00: After two days, he will revive us.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live before him.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke is drawing us back to this reality.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus is explaining the necessity of his suffering and his glory, the resurrection is what makes sense of all of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he is both the suffering servant and the triumphant king who conquers death and hell, both the sacrificial lamb and the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the stone that the rejecters, that the stone that the builders rejected, and yet has become the corner stone.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is arguably the most important truth of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is the crux of every prophecy and every type of Jesus Christ in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here every single Sunday, is to celebrate the reality that He is risen.
SPEAKER_00: He is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is the means by which the Lord brings healing and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we know it.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Christ was doing.
SPEAKER_00: But before we can apply it effectively, we have to understand it properly.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see next week when we get to verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples reflect back on this moment.
SPEAKER_00: After their eyes are opened and they see Jesus, they reflect back and ask this Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts were burning.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't see him yet.
SPEAKER_00: And that's important, by the way, because some of us are thinking, like, yeah, well, I mean, if Jesus were to come and visit me personally, then obviously I would get it.
SPEAKER_00: No, their hearts burn before they recognized who he was.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, Jesus is here with you.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent us the comforter.
SPEAKER_00: Comforter means with strength.
SPEAKER_00: He strengthens you.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is here, and he is the one who directs us in all scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us the understanding.
SPEAKER_00: He said it is to our advantage that he leave physically so that he would send the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We are actually in a better position now to understand.
SPEAKER_00: He is here and he is working in us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the miraculous work that he does.
SPEAKER_00: That he uses the scripture, pointing to Jesus Christ, the true.
SPEAKER_00: Redeemer to bring us healing and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: He uses the written word of God to point us to the living word of God.
SPEAKER_00: What does all this mean for us today?
SPEAKER_00: Right now, here.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You come in here, you're tired, you're anxious, you're on the verge of despair, you're saying, Hey, look, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: I love to see how Jesus is all over Scripture, how all scripture points to him.
SPEAKER_00: But look, my marriage is falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what to do with this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what to do with my health.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm struggling.
SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to be optimistic.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to be hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: How do I deal with this?
SPEAKER_00: My finances, it's all falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: What do I do with it?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is that it is through the ordinary means of grace that God brings revival.
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking for something amazing, something spectacular.
SPEAKER_00: And we just rush through the Bible reading and just really hope that something crazy is gonna happen to us.
SPEAKER_00: When he's saying, actually, no, get back into Scripture, walk in this, sit in this, submit yourself to the working of the Holy Spirit, and saturate yourself with the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, I need change.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we buy into this spiritually get rich scheme all the time, right?
SPEAKER_00: I want to get spiritually rich really fast.
SPEAKER_00: I need it now, now, now.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how God works.
SPEAKER_00: It works gradually in your heart through his word.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we preach.
SPEAKER_00: That's why in most Protestant churches, the pulpit is in the center and not the sacraments.
SPEAKER_00: Because the centrality of the preaching of Jesus Christ who was crucified and resurrected, that we now have hope, and that gives meaning to everything else.
SPEAKER_00: So as we're about to take the elements, as we're about to take communion, it points to Jesus Christ, but points to him who suffered for our sake and rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we respond to this?
SPEAKER_00: This is where we get our joy.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is how we see Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He said, first of all, we need to look to Jesus, not ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Because our tendency is to look at ourselves, right?
SPEAKER_00: We even look at scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what does this say about me?
SPEAKER_00: How do I fix my problem?
SPEAKER_00: How do I fix my family or fix my husband, fix my wife, fix fix my children?
SPEAKER_00: How do I do that?
SPEAKER_00: Give me the instructions.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're looking to ourselves and trying to solve our own problems.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to do stop looking at ourselves and look to Jesus because our salvation comes through him and through him alone.
SPEAKER_00: And so, first of all, if you don't know him as your Lord and Savior, that's where it starts.
SPEAKER_00: See him, accept him, accept his offering of his sacrificial offering for the sins of those who believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: That is offered to you today.
SPEAKER_00: Believe on him.
SPEAKER_00: But Christians, secondly, you have to embrace the gospel message that glory comes through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: You see, that is the gospel message for salvation, but it's also the message of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That it is through suffering that we see glory.
SPEAKER_00: That God brings life out of death, glory out of shame, power out of weakness, joy out of sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: It is Him using the rain to bring forth that life in us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel pattern.
SPEAKER_00: And that should bring us hope, not in ourselves, not in our circumstances, but in the God who's in control of all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Rest in his goodness and his providence.
SPEAKER_00: Our assurance is rooted in the finished work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we find confidence not in our feelings, but in the truth of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And then, third, we need to reject the get spiritually rich mentality.
SPEAKER_00: Learn to patiently, consistently read and meditate on the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, we must interpret all of Scripture through the lens of the fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Only then is it going to make sense to us.
SPEAKER_00: Only then will our hearts begin to burn with passion in us.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, let's not put our hope in changing our circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: But rather, let's put our hope in the providence of God, in his goodness, the fact that he is working all things together for good to them who love him or are called according to their purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Let's slow down and prayerfully approach Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin with an expectant faith that we will hear from God.
SPEAKER_00: And then ask the Lord to open our eyes and see Christ through his word.
SPEAKER_00: Sit in it.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: Pray.
SPEAKER_00: Pray the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that he would open your eyes to see Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because transformation of the heart only comes through the work of the Holy Spirit, and his primary means of doing that is by reading and reflecting on the scriptures and seeing Jesus Christ for who he is.
SPEAKER_00: So let's trust in the Lord with all our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not lean to our own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: May God give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive.
SPEAKER_00: This message of hope found only in the resurrected Savior who suffered for our sakes, rose again, conquering death and hell, and has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this reality that we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word and the work of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I pray that we would sit in this, that we would saturate ourselves in the truth of your word, that we would be fully submitted to you and to your Holy Spirit, that we would see you for who you are, that we would rejoice in Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You are a sure foundation.
SPEAKER_00: It is in you that we have hope.
SPEAKER_00: And in you alone.
SPEAKER_00: We give you the glory.
SPEAKER_00: I pray you would do this work in our hearts today, and that we would walk in obedience to your word.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.