Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And join me in this prayer of illumination.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Gracious Redeemer, as we hear your word, open our eyes to your glorious kingdom, and bring us life through your Holy Spirit by the power that raised Christ from the dead.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Amen.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 13 through 35.
Pastor Jason Dunn: That very day, two of them were going to the village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about the things that had happened.
Pastor Jason Dunn: While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
Pastor Jason Dunn: As they stood still looking sad, 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?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he said to them, What things?
Pastor Jason Dunn: 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 up delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But we had hope that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They are 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.
Pastor Jason Dunn: 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.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So they drew near to the village to which they were going.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now spent.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So he went in to stay with them.
Pastor Jason Dunn: When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon, and they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This is God's word.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You may be seated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, happy Easter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We can say that today, but that's not how this day began 2,000 years ago.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, people woke up on the first Easter Sunday morning confused with dashed hopes and disappointed desires.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, they had a gap between their expectations and their experience, between what they hoped for and what they had that Easter Sunday morning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that's what we see in our text today.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what I want to invite us to do, wherever you are, whoever you are, is to enter into this text together because I think it has something to say to all of us, but maybe especially to any of us here who know the feeling of disappointment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get Luke chapter 24, verse 13 in front of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what I want to see is, I want to see how Jesus draws near.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I'm going to look at that in seven ways.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Seven points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is risen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I get to have seven points in my sermon.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, here we go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How Jesus draws near, look with me at Luke 24, verse 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Bible scholars have discussed and debated who these two disciples are since at least as far back as the second century.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I'm going to submit to you that it's actually a married couple.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We find out the name of one of them, uh, the guy, his name's Cleopus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We find that out in verse 18.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And there's a woman talked about in John 19 named Mary, the wife of Cloopus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So people think maybe it's just a little bit of a nickname for Cleopas, same guy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we don't really know, but we do know this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is a confused couple or a duo of disciples that are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And as they're walking from that place, they're walking away from all that they had hoped for.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're walking away from all that they expected to be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're walking away from all that they knew to be true.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then something happens in verse 15.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, Christianity starts with Jesus moving toward you, not you moving toward Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what I mean by that is you could be this very moment, this very morning, walking away from Jesus, but Jesus is still walking toward you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it says in verse 16, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What do you think it was?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What was keeping them from recognizing him?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It might have been a supernatural blindness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm not really sure, but but at least what I have a hunch it could have been was false expectations.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, imagine two sets of people living in a grand old dilapidated building.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One group of people thinks that they're staying in an expensive hotel and they're bitterly disappointed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The other group of people thinks that they're in prison and they're pleasantly surprised.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you see the difference?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Expectations alter experience, it shapes what we think is possible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so they may have been kept from recognizing that it was Jesus because their expectations bracketed out the possibility that this man was crucified and is alive now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And some of you this morning, that's true for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You've bracketed out the possibility that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and is alive today.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's just not in your worldview.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not possible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, listen, what does Jesus do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What he does is he keeps pace.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He essentially says to them, listen, let's walk this out together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In other words, Jesus is not fragile around your disappoint disappointments or disbelief.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Uh, you don't have to figure it all out to get Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, he's already moving towards you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But as he moves towards you, he's gonna ask you some questions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's number two.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus asks us questions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And they stood still, looking sad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think this is beautiful.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus already knows, and yet he still asks.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because he's trying to draw them out, he's trying to get them to put a name to their disappointment, which they do in verse 21.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They say, We had hoped.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the ache.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is it for you this morning?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where is that place of ache?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is saying, Hey, what is it that's concerning you?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is it that's on your heart for them?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As verse 18 says, then one of them named Cleopus answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened there in these days?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My man Cleopus is throwing shade at Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what's happening here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's like, Have you been living under a rock, dude?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, I don't know about you, but I also get a little snippy when I'm sad.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's happening here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Jesus isn't rebuffed by your defensiveness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus knows that there's a self-protection that grows around a heart that's been hurt in its hope.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so there's an American writer named Zora Neil Hurst, and she says it like this There are years that ask questions, and there are years that answer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What are the questions that's being asked of you in this season of life?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does it look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus is wondering at verse 17, hey, what are the conversations that you've been having?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Jesus goes on and he continues to ask questions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You know, when I was in grad school, uh, one of the ways that I would I'd get done with class, it'd be like 9 p.m., I'd come home, and I just needed to decompress a little bit, so I'd flip on Netflix or something like that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Nobody else?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Can we can't we be honest in church or is that not okay?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, fine, I got it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's all right.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I would watch through like seasons of The Office and things like that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But there was one show that defined this season for me, and it was a late 1960s detective show called Columbo.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And notice who laughed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's it says something about the people in the room here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, so Columbo had this thing where you the show started, you found out who done it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You knew the murderer at the beginning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then the fun part of the show is watching Columbo act like an idiot and pretend play dumb the whole time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he just kind of bumbles into questions, he's like, Hey, so what about that there?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he finds out who it is, right?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is doing the Columbo method here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 19.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he said to them, What things?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, he wants them to tell the story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He wants them to tell their version of the story, and so it works.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a mighty prophet in deed 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.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now here come the three heaviest words in our passage.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But we had hoped.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you if you do it didn't take much imagination to recognize these two are devastated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is it for you though?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I had hoped.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I had hoped that the diagnosis wouldn't come.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I had hoped that that that my marriage would be a little bit better.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I had hoped that that prayer would be answered.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I had hoped that God would come through in the way I needed him to.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Fill in the blank for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is it that you would say?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We had hoped, because that's what you say when your future collapses into your past.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what happened for them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 21 says, But we had hoped that he was the one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He was the one to redeem Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, in Israel's story, this word redeem is a really important one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It comes from the story of the Exodus, one of the first books of the Bible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in that story, redeem, redemption means to set free.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, God is the kind of God who overthrows oppressors like Pharaoh.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God is the kind of God who shows up and breaks chains, who gives his people their lives back.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so when they look at this situation, the one who was supposed to defeat Rome was defeated by Rome.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They look at this situation, the one who was supposed to set them free could not save himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're wondering, how could God let this happen?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But listen, they were right about redemption, but they were wrong about the kind of redemption.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, they wanted political rescue from Rome, but Rome was never their deepest problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, that's not that's also true for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Your situation is never your deepest problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Instead, the strongest chains aren't physical.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the strongest chains that bind us are the patterns that you can't break, or the guilt that you can't shake, or the shame that you can't outrun.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we don't just need freedom from what's been done to us, we need freedom from what's inside us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus knows this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why he didn't come to bring mere redemption from Rome.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus came to bring redemption for sin and death and everything that keeps us from God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what Jesus came to do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in the shock of Christianity, the way Jesus sets us free is by taking our place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In other words, he doesn't break the chains from the outside, he takes on the chains and breaks out of them from the inside.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, that's what's happening here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He takes them on himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So when they say that they had hoped, what they what they're really saying is the cross was an abysmal failure.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But what they didn't realize is that Jesus actually succeeded in a way that they could never imagine.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus wasn't there just to deal with Rome.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He he came to deal with everything that keeps us from God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we see this, there's this turn in the story that's almost too good to be true.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 21.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they, here's an important phrase, did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said to them that Jesus was alive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 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.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you remember what Cleopas says in verse 18?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's basically like, Hey, are you the only person in Jerusalem who has no idea all the things that have gone on?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, do you not know what's been going down?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Don't you track with the news?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, what how could you be oblivious to this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is important.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because if you're here and you're skeptical about the claims of Christianity, you should know the crucifixion of Jesus was a very public event.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This was like the execution of a local celebrity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And why that matters is because if you were anywhere around Jerusalem in that moment, you would have known about what had happened, and you would have known that there were claims they couldn't find his body.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And here's the thing: there's only two, really two groups of people who could have done that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first group would have been either the Jews or the Romans who crucified Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe they did something with the body, but listen, the last thing they wanted was an empty tomb.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It made them look bad, and it was the reason, the claim, the basis of the claim for the resurrection.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So then you might go, hey, listen, dude, it was the early Christians.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They snuck in there, they stole the body.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Of course, they had a vested interest that their Messiah didn't really die, right?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, here's the problem with that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not only was the tomb guarded by Roman soldiers who were pretty big, beefy dudes with swords, not only that, but people will die for things that are false.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They do it all the time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But people will not die for things they know to be a lie.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The early Christians would not have stolen the body and then gone to their death defending the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so listen, here's my invitation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you're in the room and you're skeptical about the claims of Christianity, just search this out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look into the resurrection.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Google what happened to the empty tomb, where's the body?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Find out what you can find out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because this is a significant claim.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes all the difference.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But maybe some of you in the room, that's not you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Instead, you're a little bit more like Cleopas.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You know all the right answers, you've got all the right words, but something still hasn't clicked.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's still something's missing, which is why the third thing Jesus does is Jesus challenges us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 25.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he said to them, Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This isn't harsh, this is healing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is like a surgeon with a scalpel, and he's cutting to the heart of the problem, which is always a problem of the heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he's doing in this moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, it wasn't a lack of evidence, it wasn't missing information.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The issue was unbelief shaped by unmet expectations.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, that gap between expectations and experience, that's where doubt flourishes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's where disbelief and shame and confusion and contempt, all those things flourish in that gap right there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the problem is that they misunderstood the Messiah.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he says here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, they were expecting a conquering king, not a crucified criminal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were assuming that they could look up to find God, but instead they should have looked low because Jesus was washing their feet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, there is no glory without suffering.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There is no crown without a cross.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so some of our unbelief grows from the same place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We wonder, how could God let me suffer in this way?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 26.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Was it not necessary?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That one word, necessary.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If it was necessary that Jesus Christ would suffer before entering glory, it will be part of the road for us too.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, if you remove the cross, you don't get a better Christianity, you lose Christianity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What happens here is they've been reading the story, the whole story of Scripture, they've been reading through the wrong end of the telescope.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They thought that God was going to come and redeem them from suffering.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What ended up happening was God came and redeemed them through suffering, particularly the suffering of the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so listen, some of us here have the same struggle with unbelief because God hasn't come through in the way we wanted him to.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How does Jesus respond?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He leads a Bible study.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 27.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus teaches us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, that's how the Bible talks about the Bible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, their hope had a hermeneutics problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hermeneutics is simply the study of a text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's all that it is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what had happened here was they were misreading their scriptures.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the Bible isn't mainly about principles, although it has good principles in it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Bible is mainly about a person.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is good news because some of us read the Bible and we think it's about you doing better and trying harder and being more than you are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if you could just kind of get your act together, it's not about that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not about who you are and what you do primarily, it's about who Jesus is and what he's done.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus is inviting us to read the scriptures in a way that sets us free from main character syndrome.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's inviting us to go from the beginning to the end of the Bible, seeing that he's actually the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so listen, if you're here this morning, whether you are, again, skeptical or confused about the claims of Christianity, or you've been following Jesus for a long time, but your heart has been hurt in the place of hope, there's an invitation to read the scriptures.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Read the Bible, explore what it says about who Jesus is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because only when Jesus is replaced as the center of the story, the center of the grand narrative of what God's up to in the world, only then will the Bible make sense.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But even a good Bible study isn't enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so Jesus draws us out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the number five.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And look at verse 28.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So they drew near to the village to which they were going.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He acted as if he were going farther.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like this is straight out of March Madness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus does a little pump fake.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's like, Yep, broke some ankles.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like this is the ultimate Jesus juke that's happening right here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you gotta ask, like, what is going on?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He acted as if he's gonna keep going.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's going on here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, it's not manipulation, this is an invitation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's happening here is that Jesus knows that what a hopeless heart needs more than anything else is an invitation to hope again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he's offering that to them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the human heart is fractured into pieces, and the only thing that brings healing is when it can be unified around seeking a worthy aim again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so he's inviting them to that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it works.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, notice the movement in their hearts from who is this guy to verse 29, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus will come near to you, but he won't force himself on you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Instead, he's drawing them out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's he knows that it takes God to know God, but but if Jesus is inviting you even now to seek him, you ought to seek him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen to that invitation, respond.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because for some of you in the room, the issue is not your intellect, the issue is actually a matter of the will.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can choose to seek God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And actually, as you seek Him, you begin to find Him, and your intellectual confusion or doubts begin to make sense as you kind of see it clicked together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so some of you this morning, just the most simple thing you can say to Jesus is, Jesus, won't you stay with me?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Just stay with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It might even be more honest than that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to want you to be true.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's enough because look at how Jesus responds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The sixth thing is that Jesus stays with us, verse 29.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So he went in to stay with them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: See, they urge, stay with us, and Jesus does.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The risen king accepts dinner with disappointed disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is more willing to stay than we are to ask.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what we see here is that Jesus is working to draw us out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He waits to be wanted.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me just ask, do you some of you, do you think it's an accident that you're here this morning?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like that you just kind of agreed to come because Easter is like the Super Bowl for Christians or something like that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And you're like, I'm just coming as an anthropologist to study this rare species of human that we have here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, it's it's not an accident.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is inviting you to invite him to stay a while.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when we do, look what he does.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He eats with us, verse 30.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When Jesus was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now there's something so marvelous happening right here that I'm I'm gonna do my best to try to paint a picture of this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But but if you know the stories of Scripture, if you know the first meal in the Bible, it happens in Genesis chapter 3, and listen to what Genesis 3 says, and hear the rhyme scheme here almost.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The woman took some of the fruit and ate it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: She gave it to her husband, and he ate it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the first couple of creation, Adam and Eve, plunged the human race into ruin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Death itself was traced to that moment of rebellion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The whole creation was subjected to futility and decay and sorrow.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And now, Luke, the writer of this gospel narrative, he's echoing that story that story as he describes another meal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me again at Luke 24, 30.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When Jesus was at table with another couple, Cleopus and Mary, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, their eyes were opened, not to their own nakedness and shame, but to Jesus who was clothed in glory.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, what we see here is they finally see this stranger for who he is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's happening here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, Luke is trying to make an argument.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's trying to make a case that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is nothing less than a new creation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: On par with the first creation, when God spoke everything out of nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if the resurrection of Jesus is a new creation, then that means the curse is broken.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Death is defeated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God's new creation is brimming with joy and life and possibility, and it's breaking in, bursting in to the world of decay and brokenness here and now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But notice the simple verbs in this text: Jesus took, blessed, broke, and gave.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the story of Jesus' life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is the one who took on our humanity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's the one who was blessed in his ministry.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He was great and mighty in his words and his deeds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is the one who was broken on the cross, and now Jesus is the one who stands, giving himself to all who will receive him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, Jesus wasn't made known in the walking, the questioning, the teaching, the challenging.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It wasn't those things that opened their eyes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was the meal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the meal is an invitation to receive Jesus into your very being.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the invitation in our text, and it's the invitation this morning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because some of you can tell that even now your eyes are beginning to open up a little bit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're beginning to recognize a little bit more about who Jesus is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And listen, I can tell you from my own experience, until I was 19, I lived kind of a cultural Christianity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I was like half in and half out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I just want to, this is my own little PSA announcement.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There is nothing more miserable than knowing enough to feel bad about yourself, but not enough to find gladness in Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Straddling the strategy of if I'm I into Christianity, if I'm am I out?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And listen, I know American culture still has enough value behind Christmas and Easter to that some people come.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is one of the times per year you show up and do this thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so here's the invitation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Don't straddle your strategy anymore.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Go all in with Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's inviting you to receive more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so let me close where the story ends.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 33.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, this is how Jesus meets people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He walks with them, he asks them questions, he challenges you, he teaches you, he draws you out, he stays with you, and then he gives himself to you, and he's doing that right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I have great confidence that Jesus is doing right now with us what he was doing back then with them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why would I say that?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because verse 38 says, the Lord is risen indeed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that means that Jesus is not a memory, he's not a metaphor, he's not just some religious figure.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that Jesus is alive, verse 23 says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if Jesus is alive, then I want to ask you this question: where are you on the road?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where are you on the road?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because I think that there's people in this room who fall into probably three different categories, and you're here, so at least you're open to a conversation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I just assume that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first group in this room, if you're honest, you you don't really recognize Jesus yet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You might still be walking away, you're still kind of sorting it out, you're you're carrying around a quiet we had hoped in your heart.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And and I'm inviting you, just say to Jesus, Jesus, if you're alive, just stay with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Stay near to me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And listen, you don't have to have a speech, you don't have to have certainty, you just have to have openness towards him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the the surprise of this story is that he's already closer than you even think.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Maybe you're here because somebody was like, hey, you want to go to Jeff's bagel run with me?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then they pulled up here, which is messed up.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm just gonna say that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But my guess is they love you and they're trying to serve you, okay?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so my invitation is like, talk to the people around you that know Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If there's Christians in your life, ask them a little bit about why do they believe this stuff?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because remember verse 15, it says, While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The second group in this room, you know Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're a disciple of his, you believe in the resurrection, but you also are just tired.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You've been carrying around disappointment for a little while now, and and something just didn't turn out the way you thought it was supposed to, and and your faith has quietly shifted to this past tense.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Yeah, I had hoped.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'd hoped that he was the one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But listen, let Jesus reinterpret your story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let him do what in counseling we call reframing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let him do this thing for you this morning that he can take something that looked like a loss and he can show you that that's not the end of the story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, what he's willing to do is say, hey, that felt like an absence, but let me show you my hidden presence in it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But listen, it just might take you waiting a little while while he does that work.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, he hasn't left you alone on the road.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I promise you that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The third group of people in this room, you are walking closely with Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You know him, you love him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's a he's a bright and living reality in your life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so my invitation to you would be don't just stay on the road, go back and tell.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what they do, right?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says they got up that very same hour and they went back to Jerusalem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because when you've experienced, encountered, when you've known the risen Jesus, you don't keep that to yourself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You tell someone what you've seen, you tell someone what he's done, even if it's this simple.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hey, I think Jesus is real and he's up to something in my life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A simple bearing witness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And for all of us this morning, if this story is true, then Jesus is already closer to us than we could think.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that's because he is alive, he is risen indeed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: King Jesus, we love you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We look to you, we see you as the bright and living reality that you are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Holy Spirit, I pray that you would draw us closer to Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Give us faith, take our disappointed hopes, our unmet expectations, replace them with a newfound trust, a newfound confidence that Jesus is alive and well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That if it was necessary for him to suffer, maybe it has a part of the reason why we're suffering right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That Jesus, you are strong and able to take our broken hearts and to mend them back together again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would you do that even now this morning?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We pray in your beautiful name.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.