SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll be reading uh from Luke chapter twenty-four, verses thirteen to thirty-five.
SPEAKER_00: Now that same day, the two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
SPEAKER_00: As they talked and discussed these things with each other.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.
SPEAKER_00: But they were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_00: He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along?
SPEAKER_00: They stood still, their faces downcast.
SPEAKER_00: 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?
SPEAKER_00: What things?
SPEAKER_00: He asked.
SPEAKER_00: About Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: They replied.
SPEAKER_00: He was a prophet, powerful in word, indeed before God and all the people.
SPEAKER_00: The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death.
SPEAKER_00: And they crucified him.
SPEAKER_00: But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And what is more, it is the third day since all of this took place.
SPEAKER_00: In addition, some of our women amazed us.
SPEAKER_00: They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body.
SPEAKER_00: They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.
SPEAKER_00: Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said.
SPEAKER_00: But they did not see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?
SPEAKER_01: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
SPEAKER_01: As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.
SPEAKER_01: But they urged him strongly, stay with us, for it's nearly evening.
SPEAKER_01: The day is almost over.
SPEAKER_01: So he went to stay in with them.
SPEAKER_01: When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them.
SPEAKER_01: Then their eyes were opened, and he recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
SPEAKER_01: 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?
SPEAKER_01: They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bag.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Can I encourage you if you haven't got a Bible open, just to turn it back to Luke 24?
SPEAKER_02: If after the reading you closed it and went, oh it's page 1061.
SPEAKER_02: So as you're doing that, there are a couple of things I want to do.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Then it will have some relevance and bearing.
SPEAKER_02: But particularly poignantly, I have an announcement to make.
SPEAKER_02: For those of you that know David and Margaret Hearst, Margaret passed away last Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: David was out on Friday at the Good Friday service.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: I'd spoken to David.
SPEAKER_02: He was he was a little uncertain about where and when to let you know.
SPEAKER_02: But he did say he wasn't going to be here this morning.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: But we will keep you posted, uh, those of you that that uh know David and knew Margaret.
SPEAKER_02: So uh Tanya, thank you for bringing that notice.
SPEAKER_02: Uh who here has not yet experienced any kind of grief?
SPEAKER_02: The loss of a loved one, a parent, a grandparent, or tragically, even a child.
SPEAKER_02: Even the loss of a pet can be a hard loss to bear.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: The biblical encounter of Jesus' last days, especially from the time of his Last Supper through his death, make for traumatic reading.
SPEAKER_02: They have been the setting of graphic movies like Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Try to enter into the minds of those who were present and involved in that first Easter story.
SPEAKER_02: So do that for a few moments, I'll let you do that.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: The story of Easter week began on Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: The people waved palm branches and laid their cloaks on the ground before him.
SPEAKER_02: They cried out, Hosanna, meaning save us, declaring Jesus as their saviour and king.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if the author of this story had been human, Jesus would have ascended to his throne in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: But the author of the story was God, and the story was written in eternity past.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus would rise to a throne, but one in heaven, far above human rule.
SPEAKER_02: First, however, he would have to descend to the depths of the grave.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: So Simon from Syni was pressed into service to carry it for him.
SPEAKER_02: At Golgotha, Jesus was crucified and the crowds watched.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: There may also have been those who had died, like Lazarus, but whom Jesus had brought back to life.
SPEAKER_02: And therein lies the irony and the contradiction of these events.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: It was preparation day, the day before the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus had given up his spirit, and the criminals were crucified, and with him that were crucified with him were dead too.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Joseph had taken the body of Jesus and set it in his tomb, and the women had followed and watched where he was laid.
SPEAKER_02: And all of that sets a scene for the early hours of Easter Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_02: That is the reality of how people were feeling, where they were, what was in their heart and mind.
SPEAKER_02: This morning, as I woke when the alarm went off at seven and I looked out, it was wet and grim.
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, oh, I hate a wet Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Then the sun rose.
SPEAKER_02: The weather gave us a wonderful depiction of the story of Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: So these women that we read about here in the first verses of Luke 24 were grieving deeply.
SPEAKER_02: They may also have been experiencing some measure of post-traumatic stress from the events of Friday.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Back to Luke in verse 2.
SPEAKER_02: Luke cuts to the stone having been rolled away.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: So the tomb is open and the women enter it.
SPEAKER_02: There is nobody there, no Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: The tomb is empty.
SPEAKER_02: As their minds are processing the scene, wondering about this, Luke writes that two men whose clothes gleamed like lightning appeared beside them, angels.
SPEAKER_02: I love that Luke, a doctor, describes what happened next so simply.
SPEAKER_02: In their fright, the women bowed down.
SPEAKER_02: In their fright.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: What an understatement for the moment that was in the story.
SPEAKER_02: These women are crushed by grief, possibly suffering trauma.
SPEAKER_02: They've stumbled through a violent earthquake, they've got to the tomb, and there they are.
SPEAKER_02: At the flash of lightning, at the arrival of the angels, they bowed down in fear.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you look for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_02: What a great question.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you look for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: See verse 7.
SPEAKER_02: The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.
SPEAKER_02: And then see what it says in verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: Then they remembered his words.
SPEAKER_02: It was uh I don't think a case of them having forgotten his words, uh, more that they simply hadn't understood.
SPEAKER_02: The events that were taking place around them were incomprehensible.
SPEAKER_02: They could never truly have understood what was taking place, and only now is light beginning to dawn in the darkness of their understanding.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: The reality was that even from Luke 18, 31, Jesus' third announcement that he would die, they simply hadn't understood.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: You must forgive them if their account seems a little excitable, perhaps unbelievable.
SPEAKER_02: Luke describes it, in fact, as nonsense.
SPEAKER_02: It would have made no sense to anyone, not even to the women trying to describe the events that they'd witnessed.
SPEAKER_02: Peter and John, we're told in John's own account, ran to the tomb.
SPEAKER_02: They found it empty.
SPEAKER_02: Then we're told Peter went away, wondering what had happened.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And as the cock crowed, Jesus had looked across the courtyard directly at him.
SPEAKER_02: So we have in this first part of the story the account of the women.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps an account when you've heard it before, you're thinking there's just a lack of faith there in these understanding.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And then later that same day, Luke tells us of the two on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas, and another person.
SPEAKER_02: There's much speculation as to who this unnamed companion might have been.
SPEAKER_02: Was she one of the named women that we read of?
SPEAKER_02: But we'll not dwell on that just now.
SPEAKER_02: We're walking along the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem, a journey of around seven miles, we're told.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: As they walked, a stranger came alongside and joined them.
SPEAKER_02: He asked them what they were discussing.
SPEAKER_02: The two stopped, their faces downcast.
SPEAKER_02: And Cleopatra answered, almost incredulous, that this man could not know what had happened in Jerusalem over the past few days.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 16 tells us that they were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure the Holy Spirit was at least in part responsible for that.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus had a Bible study to lead them through before they could recognize him.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: When they reached Emmaus, Jesus acted as if he would continue onwards, but they urged him to stay.
SPEAKER_02: They were not done listening to this stranger who was opening the scriptures to them in a way that they had never understood before.
SPEAKER_02: As they sat down to eat, Jesus took the bread.
SPEAKER_02: He gave thanks and broke it and began to give it to them.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Or perhaps, as he stretched out his hands, they saw their nail marks where he had been crucified.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever it was, in that moment they recognized him as Jesus, and then he disappeared.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read again verse 32.
SPEAKER_02: 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?
SPEAKER_02: 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?
SPEAKER_02: Now imagine how their hearts burned as the master teacher opened scriptures to them.
SPEAKER_02: The journey back to Jerusalem in the dark.
SPEAKER_02: Was filled with joy and not with fear.
SPEAKER_02: They couldn't wait to tell the others.
SPEAKER_02: And when they arrived, they were believed.
SPEAKER_02: Because they were told Jesus had appeared to Simon as well.
SPEAKER_02: There was a body of evidence witnessing him.
SPEAKER_02: There were other witnesses, too, that Luke doesn't mention.
SPEAKER_02: And by the time Jesus returned to his Father in heaven, 40 days later, the number of witnesses had grown enormously.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Life in all its fullness, eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: This is the fulfillment of the Easter story.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: But on Easter Sunday, rising out of the gray and the damp to a sun risen that brings light and life to all life.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And say, Let me be your Savior, your Lord, your master, be my son, be my daughter.
SPEAKER_02: Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: A remarkable day.
SPEAKER_02: The greatest Sunday that ever there was.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And those who love him will bow before him, not in fear, but in awe and wonder.
SPEAKER_02: I extend an invitation to you to put your trust in this Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Make this Easter Sunday the day the sun rose in your life when Jesus the Stranger became Jesus your Savior.
SPEAKER_02: And if you know him already this morning, rejoice in the joy of all that he has brought to you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.