WEBVTT 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.319 Good morning. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:09.919 Today we'll be reading uh from Luke chapter twenty-four, verses thirteen to thirty-five. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:21.359 Now that same day, the two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.519 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:29.359 As they talked and discussed these things with each other. 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:33.520 Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.320 But they were kept from recognizing him. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:42.240 He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along? 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.399 They stood still, their faces downcast. 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:56.640 One of them, named Cleopatra, asked him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? 00:00:57.679 --> 00:00:58.479 What things? 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:00.159 He asked. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:03.200 About Jesus of Nazareth. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:04.640 They replied. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:10.159 He was a prophet, powerful in word, indeed before God and all the people. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.359 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:17.519 And they crucified him. 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:22.560 But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:27.519 And what is more, it is the third day since all of this took place. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:31.599 In addition, some of our women amazed us. 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:36.640 They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:44.079 They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:50.959 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said. 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:53.599 But they did not see Jesus. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:10.879 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:18.560 And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:25.439 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:30.159 But they urged him strongly, stay with us, for it's nearly evening. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:31.919 The day is almost over. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.159 So he went to stay in with them. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:41.759 When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:47.360 Then their eyes were opened, and he recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:55.039 They asked each other, Were not the hearts burning within us when he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us? 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:59.039 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:10.560 There they found the eleven and those and those with them assembled together and saying, It is true the Lord has risen and appeared to Simon. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:18.240 Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bag. 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:19.439 Thank you. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:40.159 Can I encourage you if you haven't got a Bible open, just to turn it back to Luke 24? 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:46.639 If after the reading you closed it and went, oh it's page 1061. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:51.520 So as you're doing that, there are a couple of things I want to do. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:04:00.639 I hope you will see in a moment as I begin to open God's word to us why I asked for the inclusion of the grief notice at this point in the service. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.360 Then it will have some relevance and bearing. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:08.240 But particularly poignantly, I have an announcement to make. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:16.399 For those of you that know David and Margaret Hearst, Margaret passed away last Sunday. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:20.240 David was out on Friday at the Good Friday service. 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:33.120 Martin Clist had called me uh on Thursday evening just to say he would be bringing David and he would be standing strong with him as David had done when Martin lost Jean. 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:34.959 I'd spoken to David. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:39.040 He was he was a little uncertain about where and when to let you know. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:41.120 But he did say he wasn't going to be here this morning. 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:49.360 I thought perhaps it's most appropriate for me just to let you know this morning, then you're not mobbing him afterwards uh in his grief. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:58.720 Uh so just wanted to let you know that there are no other details, uh principally because David just doesn't know yet what else will happen. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:05.360 But we will keep you posted, uh, those of you that that uh know David and knew Margaret. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:09.360 So uh Tanya, thank you for bringing that notice. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:14.720 Uh who here has not yet experienced any kind of grief? 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:22.079 The loss of a loved one, a parent, a grandparent, or tragically, even a child. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:27.680 Even the loss of a pet can be a hard loss to bear. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:49.920 You may also have experienced trauma through the events that led to the loss that you grieve, that you could have been involved in a tragic accident, or through an experience in military combat, or through sickness and death from a debilitating disease of someone you loved. 00:05:50.560 --> 00:06:00.720 The biblical encounter of Jesus' last days, especially from the time of his Last Supper through his death, make for traumatic reading. 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:07.680 They have been the setting of graphic movies like Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:20.399 The more we read about and understand the details of the various trials that Jesus endured at the hands of his captors, the more we wonder how he could endure it for such as us. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:30.399 The very fact that the stress of knowing what was before him led Jesus to sweat drops of blood tells us all we need to know about what he endured. 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:50.879 So as we come today's passage in Luke 24, if you've been with us regularly on a Sunday, be that in person or online, uh you will recall some of these stories as we've covered them in the recent weeks, working our way through Luke's account of Jesus' life and ministry. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:07:10.240 Could I encourage you just for the next few moments, just turn back through the pages, at least as far back as Luke 18 and 31, and just then thumb forward through the stories, read the headlines over those stories, refresh yourself of how we got to where we are this morning at Easter Sunday. 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:18.079 Try to enter into the minds of those who were present and involved in that first Easter story. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:21.199 So do that for a few moments, I'll let you do that. 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:44.560 So we looked briefly at the stories from Luke chapter 22 and 23 of Jesus praying on the Mount of Olives, all the way to his death and burial in our service on Good Friday. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:48.720 The story of Easter week began on Palm Sunday. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:58.720 Three years of ministry had risen to a triumphal crescendo when the crowds lined the streets and welcomed Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:03.839 The people waved palm branches and laid their cloaks on the ground before him. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:10.560 They cried out, Hosanna, meaning save us, declaring Jesus as their saviour and king. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:19.040 Now, if the author of this story had been human, Jesus would have ascended to his throne in Jerusalem. 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:25.040 But the author of the story was God, and the story was written in eternity past. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:33.039 Jesus would rise to a throne, but one in heaven, far above human rule. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:38.399 First, however, he would have to descend to the depths of the grave. 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:51.279 The crowds on the streets on Palm Sunday changed to those lining the streets on Good Friday as Jesus and two criminals were led to their place of their imminent crucifixion and death. 00:08:51.519 --> 00:09:02.159 The criminals had carried the beams of their own crosses, but Jesus was so horribly beaten and battered that he hadn't the strength left to carry his own. 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:07.679 So Simon from Syni was pressed into service to carry it for him. 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:12.399 At Golgotha, Jesus was crucified and the crowds watched. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:25.360 Religious leaders mocked, celebrating their success, in finally ridding themselves of the one who had claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, who had embarrassed them every time they tried to trap him. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:40.559 Besides them, the crowds who watched and waited to see what would happen, some of whom who had joined the shout, crucify, crucify, as Jesus stood before Pilate, the Roman governor. 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:54.639 Then there were his followers, the followers of Jesus, his disciples, his mother, and no doubt his brothers and sisters, as well as the women and others who'd formed part of the entourage as he travelled. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:09.440 There were likely among them the blind who could now see, the deaf who could hear, the lame who could walk, the lepers made clean, and tax collectors and sinners like Zacchaeus, who were made right with God. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:17.759 There may also have been those who had died, like Lazarus, but whom Jesus had brought back to life. 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:23.360 And therein lies the irony and the contradiction of these events. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:41.600 The author of life, he who had created all things, who took the dust of his own creation and formed a man from it, who took from the man a rim, a rib and formed a woman from it, was now hanging on a cross, dying at the hands of those he had created. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:11:00.960 Those closest to Jesus would have been traumatized by his suffering and agony, staggered at his love, compassion and mercy and forgiveness, and terrified at the moment of his passing, crying out in the dark in the midst of an earthquake. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:06.320 It was preparation day, the day before the Sabbath. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:15.039 Jesus had given up his spirit, and the criminals were crucified, and with him that were crucified with him were dead too. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:28.559 The bodies were taken down from their crosses, which were sighted adjacent to the main highway into Jerusalem, so as not to spoil the walk up to Jerusalem for the pilgrims arriving for Passover. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:37.360 Joseph had taken the body of Jesus and set it in his tomb, and the women had followed and watched where he was laid. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:45.840 And all of that sets a scene for the early hours of Easter Sunday morning. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:52.000 That is the reality of how people were feeling, where they were, what was in their heart and mind. 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:57.679 This morning, as I woke when the alarm went off at seven and I looked out, it was wet and grim. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.679 And I thought, oh, I hate a wet Easter Sunday. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:04.000 Then the sun rose. 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:10.080 The weather gave us a wonderful depiction of the story of Easter Sunday. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:19.279 So these women that we read about here in the first verses of Luke 24 were grieving deeply. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:27.519 They may also have been experiencing some measure of post-traumatic stress from the events of Friday. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:40.720 Luke doesn't mention it, but Matthew, in his account in chapter 28, tells us there was a violent earthquake, as an angel from heaven came down that Easter Sunday morning and rolled the stone away. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:52.399 Add that to their already shattered nerves and broken hearts, and you have a picture of the state of mind of these women on their way to the tomb. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:56.399 Back to Luke in verse 2. 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.759 Luke cuts to the stone having been rolled away. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:09.600 And he says nothing of the Roman guard who had abandoned their post at the tomb, terrified by the earthquake and the appearance of the angel. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:15.039 So the tomb is open and the women enter it. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:19.200 There is nobody there, no Jesus. 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:21.759 The tomb is empty. 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:34.159 As their minds are processing the scene, wondering about this, Luke writes that two men whose clothes gleamed like lightning appeared beside them, angels. 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:38.879 I love that Luke, a doctor, describes what happened next so simply. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.320 In their fright, the women bowed down. 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:43.919 In their fright. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:51.600 In their damaged hearts and mind and all that they've been through, walking through an earthquake on the way to the tomb that morning. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:14:00.559 And just when you think you can take no more, the angels appear in a blaze of lightning, stand beside the women, and the women bowed down. 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:05.840 What an understatement for the moment that was in the story. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:10.320 These women are crushed by grief, possibly suffering trauma. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:15.519 They've stumbled through a violent earthquake, they've got to the tomb, and there they are. 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:21.600 At the flash of lightning, at the arrival of the angels, they bowed down in fear. 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:32.159 And then these angels, without so much as an apology for their entrance, the angels ask one of the most powerful questions in all of Scripture. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:38.000 Why do you look for the living among the dead? 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:40.240 What a great question. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:45.039 Why do you look for the living among the dead? 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:56.639 Of course, these women didn't know that he had risen, so the angels declare he to be risen, and to remind them that is what Jesus told them he would do. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:58.720 See verse 7. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:06.879 The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.399 And then see what it says in verse 8. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:14.399 Then they remembered his words. 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:25.759 It was uh I don't think a case of them having forgotten his words, uh, more that they simply hadn't understood. 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:30.080 The events that were taking place around them were incomprehensible. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:38.879 They could never truly have understood what was taking place, and only now is light beginning to dawn in the darkness of their understanding. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:54.559 John wrote in his gospel in chapter 2, verse 22, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he said, then they believed the scripture, the words that Jesus had spoken. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:16:03.279 The reality was that even from Luke 18, 31, Jesus' third announcement that he would die, they simply hadn't understood. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:22.559 And it's not until now, in this moment in an empty tomb and the events that would follow, could they possibly begin to grasp the reality, the enormity of the plan that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit had before creation, knowing us to save us. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:36.080 In the next verses, Luke tells how these women came back to the tomb to tell the eleven all that had happened, all that they had been through. 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:42.320 You must forgive them if their account seems a little excitable, perhaps unbelievable. 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.919 Luke describes it, in fact, as nonsense. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:53.360 It would have made no sense to anyone, not even to the women trying to describe the events that they'd witnessed. 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:59.039 Peter and John, we're told in John's own account, ran to the tomb. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:01.279 They found it empty. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:06.880 Then we're told Peter went away, wondering what had happened. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:21.039 Remember that Peter, in addition to his grief, was wrestling with a crushing guilt that he had denied knowing his Saviour three times on the near on the night that Jesus was arrested. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:28.559 And as the cock crowed, Jesus had looked across the courtyard directly at him. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:34.160 So we have in this first part of the story the account of the women. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:42.079 Perhaps an account when you've heard it before, you're thinking there's just a lack of faith there in these understanding. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:56.240 But perhaps now, as you consider the grief that was fueling their emotion, it explains and justifies somewhat the lack of faith, the lack of immediate understanding. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:05.839 And then later that same day, Luke tells us of the two on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas, and another person. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:10.640 There's much speculation as to who this unnamed companion might have been. 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:14.240 Was she one of the named women that we read of? 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.200 But we'll not dwell on that just now. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:25.440 We're walking along the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem, a journey of around seven miles, we're told. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:45.279 What we do know of Cleopatra and his companion, uh, which we read of in verses 22 to 24, is that these two were with the others when the women had returned from the tomb and reported that Jesus' body was gone, and that the angels had declared him to be alive. 00:18:46.240 --> 00:19:05.039 So we have Cleopas and his companion walking the road to Emmaus, recounting the events of the last few days and trying to make sense of it all: grief and shock, wonder and confusion, so many emotions mixed together. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:10.559 As they walked, a stranger came alongside and joined them. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.680 He asked them what they were discussing. 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:17.759 The two stopped, their faces downcast. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:27.359 And Cleopatra answered, almost incredulous, that this man could not know what had happened in Jerusalem over the past few days. 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:34.079 Verse 16 tells us that they were kept from recognizing him. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:38.799 I'm sure the Holy Spirit was at least in part responsible for that. 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:44.559 Jesus had a Bible study to lead them through before they could recognize him. 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:56.559 But perhaps it was also the grief and the pain of their experience, the confusion, that they could not conceive that Jesus might be alongside them. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:24.720 As they walked, Jesus explained the scriptures to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, showing how everything pointed to him, the son of Mary, born in Bethlehem, yes, but more than that, the creator of heaven and earth, the son of God, the king from David's line, and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, who would sit on his throne forever. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:34.799 When they reached Emmaus, Jesus acted as if he would continue onwards, but they urged him to stay. 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:44.240 They were not done listening to this stranger who was opening the scriptures to them in a way that they had never understood before. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:49.039 As they sat down to eat, Jesus took the bread. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:53.200 He gave thanks and broke it and began to give it to them. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:02.799 It may be that Cleopas or both of them had been present at the Last Supper, and they had at that moment a sense of deja vu. 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:12.319 Or perhaps, as he stretched out his hands, they saw their nail marks where he had been crucified. 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:20.319 Whatever it was, in that moment they recognized him as Jesus, and then he disappeared. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:24.480 Let's read again verse 32. 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:35.359 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? 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:48.160 Did you ever have one of those moments when you were reading scripture and suddenly saw something you had read a hundred times before but never truly understood? 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:56.160 Now imagine how their hearts burned as the master teacher opened scriptures to them. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.759 The journey back to Jerusalem in the dark. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:03.599 Was filled with joy and not with fear. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:06.400 They couldn't wait to tell the others. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:09.839 And when they arrived, they were believed. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:14.079 Because they were told Jesus had appeared to Simon as well. 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:17.200 There was a body of evidence witnessing him. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:21.279 There were other witnesses, too, that Luke doesn't mention. 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:29.680 And by the time Jesus returned to his Father in heaven, 40 days later, the number of witnesses had grown enormously. 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:46.480 I cannot claim to have seen Jesus in person, although there are many accounts of those who have seen him, but I and many others here bear witness to his work in our lives. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:56.400 This Jesus, who died so that the penalty for your sin and mine could be paid, was raised to life so that he might give us life. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.480 Life in all its fullness, eternal life. 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:05.119 This is the fulfillment of the Easter story. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:20.559 Three years leading to a week whose emotions sank and who brought grief and pain to his followers, not apart from that suffered by Jesus. 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:31.440 But on Easter Sunday, rising out of the gray and the damp to a sun risen that brings light and life to all life. 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:51.119 The invitation is this morning to know the Savior who stretched his arms wide for you, who came down off the cross so he could embrace you with those nail-pierced hands, who knows you by name and would speak your name. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:24:01.359 And say, Let me be your Savior, your Lord, your master, be my son, be my daughter. 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.000 Easter Sunday. 00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:08.720 A remarkable day. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:11.839 The greatest Sunday that ever there was. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:23.039 That day will only be topped when Jesus Christ returns from his throne in heaven to establish his throne on earth and a new heavens and a new earth. 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:30.480 And those who love him will bow before him, not in fear, but in awe and wonder. 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:36.720 I extend an invitation to you to put your trust in this Jesus. 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:48.079 Make this Easter Sunday the day the sun rose in your life when Jesus the Stranger became Jesus your Savior. 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:56.079 And if you know him already this morning, rejoice in the joy of all that he has brought to you. 00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:57.440 Thank you.