Luke 24:13-35 | Easter Service

Listen to this week’s sermon, Easter Service  preached by Rev. Benjamin Kandt from Luke 24:13-35

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Welcome To New City Orlando

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Prayer And Luke 24 Reading

Pastor Jason Dunn 0:20

And join me in this prayer of illumination. 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. Amen. Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 13 through 35. 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. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? 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? And he said to them, What things? 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. But we had hope that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. 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. 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. 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? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. 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. So he went in to stay with them. 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. 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? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon, and they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. This is God's word. You may be seated.

Easter Morning And Dashed Hopes

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 3:50

Well, happy Easter. We can say that today, but that's not how this day began 2,000 years ago. In fact, people woke up on the first Easter Sunday morning confused with dashed hopes and disappointed desires. 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. And that's what we see in our text today. 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. 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. And what I want to see is, I want to see how Jesus draws near. And I'm going to look at that in seven ways. Seven points. Jesus is risen. I get to have seven points in my sermon. Okay, here we go. How Jesus draws near, look with me at Luke 24, verse 13. It says this. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. You see, Bible scholars have discussed and debated who these two disciples are since at least as far back as the second century. And I'm going to submit to you that it's actually a married couple. We find out the name of one of them, uh, the guy, his name's Cleopus. We find that out in verse 18. And there's a woman talked about in John 19 named Mary, the wife of Cloopus. So people think maybe it's just a little bit of a nickname for Cleopas, same guy. And so we don't really know, but we do know this. This is a confused couple or a duo of disciples that are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And as they're walking from that place, they're walking away from all that they had hoped for. They're walking away from all that they expected to be. They're walking away from all that they knew to be true. And then something happens in verse 15. Look with me at this.

Jesus Draws Near And Keeps Pace

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 5:56

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near. Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Listen, Christianity starts with Jesus moving toward you, not you moving toward Jesus. 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. And it says in verse 16, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. What do you think it was? What was keeping them from recognizing him? It might have been a supernatural blindness. I'm not really sure, but but at least what I have a hunch it could have been was false expectations. You see, imagine two sets of people living in a grand old dilapidated building. One group of people thinks that they're staying in an expensive hotel and they're bitterly disappointed. The other group of people thinks that they're in prison and they're pleasantly surprised. Do you see the difference? Expectations alter experience, it shapes what we think is possible. 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. And some of you this morning, that's true for you. You've bracketed out the possibility that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and is alive today. It's just not in your worldview. It's not possible. Well, listen, what does Jesus do? What he does is he keeps pace. He essentially says to them, listen, let's walk this out together. In other words, Jesus is not fragile around your disappoint disappointments or disbelief. Uh, you don't have to figure it all out to get Jesus. In fact, he's already moving towards you. But as he moves towards you, he's gonna ask you some questions. That's number two. Look at verse 17. Jesus asks us questions. And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. I think this is beautiful. Jesus already knows, and yet he still asks. Why? 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. They say, We had hoped. That's the ache. What is it for you this morning? Where is that place of ache? Jesus is saying, Hey, what is it that's concerning you? What is it that's on your heart for them? 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? My man Cleopus is throwing shade at Jesus. That's what's happening here. He's like, Have you been living under a rock, dude? Now, I don't know about you, but I also get a little snippy when I'm sad. That's happening here. But Jesus isn't rebuffed by your defensiveness. Jesus knows that there's a self-protection that grows around a heart that's been hurt in its hope. 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. What are the questions that's being asked of you in this season of life? What does it look like? And Jesus is wondering at verse 17, hey, what are the conversations that you've been having? But Jesus goes on and he continues to ask questions. 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. Nobody else? Okay. Can we can't we be honest in church or is that not okay? Okay, fine, I got it. It's all right. And I would watch through like seasons of The Office and things like that. But there was one show that defined this season for me, and it was a late 1960s detective show called Columbo. And notice who laughed. That's it says something about the people in the room here. Okay, so Columbo had this thing where you the show started, you found out who done it. You knew the murderer at the beginning. And then the fun part of the show is watching Columbo act like an idiot and pretend play dumb the whole time. And he just kind of bumbles into questions, he's like, Hey, so what about that there? And he finds out who it is, right? Jesus is doing the Columbo method here. Look with me at verse 19. And he said to them, What things? You see, he wants them to tell the story. He wants them to tell their version of the story, and so it works. And they said to him, Concerning

We Had Hoped And Deeper Redemption

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 10:40

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. Now here come the three heaviest words in our passage. But we had hoped. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. If you if you do it didn't take much imagination to recognize these two are devastated. What is it for you though? I had hoped. I had hoped that the diagnosis wouldn't come. I had hoped that that that my marriage would be a little bit better. I had hoped that that prayer would be answered. I had hoped that God would come through in the way I needed him to. Fill in the blank for you. What is it that you would say? We had hoped, because that's what you say when your future collapses into your past. That's what happened for them. Verse 21 says, But we had hoped that he was the one. He was the one to redeem Israel. You see, in Israel's story, this word redeem is a really important one. It comes from the story of the Exodus, one of the first books of the Bible. And in that story, redeem, redemption means to set free. You see, God is the kind of God who overthrows oppressors like Pharaoh. God is the kind of God who shows up and breaks chains, who gives his people their lives back. And so when they look at this situation, the one who was supposed to defeat Rome was defeated by Rome. They look at this situation, the one who was supposed to set them free could not save himself. They're wondering, how could God let this happen? But listen, they were right about redemption, but they were wrong about the kind of redemption. You see, they wanted political rescue from Rome, but Rome was never their deepest problem. You see, that's not that's also true for you. Your situation is never your deepest problem. Instead, the strongest chains aren't physical. 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. And so we don't just need freedom from what's been done to us, we need freedom from what's inside us. And Jesus knows this. That's why he didn't come to bring mere redemption from Rome. Jesus came to bring redemption for sin and death and everything that keeps us from God. That's what Jesus came to do. And in the shock of Christianity, the way Jesus sets us free is by taking our place. 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. You see, that's what's happening here. He takes them on himself. So when they say that they had hoped, what they what they're really saying is the cross was an abysmal failure. But what they didn't realize is that Jesus actually succeeded in a way that they could never imagine. You see, Jesus wasn't there just to deal with Rome. He he came to deal with everything that keeps us from God. And we see this, there's this turn in the story that's almost too good to be true. Look at verse 21. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. 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. 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. Do you remember what Cleopas says in verse 18? He's basically like, Hey, are you the only person in Jerusalem who has no idea all the things that have gone on? Like, do you not know what's been going down? Don't you track with the news? Like, what how could you be oblivious to this? This is important.

Empty Tomb Evidence For The Resurrection

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 14:38

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. This was like the execution of a local celebrity. 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. And here's the thing: there's only two, really two groups of people who could have done that. The first group would have been either the Jews or the Romans who crucified Jesus. Maybe they did something with the body, but listen, the last thing they wanted was an empty tomb. It made them look bad, and it was the reason, the claim, the basis of the claim for the resurrection. So then you might go, hey, listen, dude, it was the early Christians. They snuck in there, they stole the body. Of course, they had a vested interest that their Messiah didn't really die, right? Well, here's the problem with that. 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. They do it all the time. But people will not die for things they know to be a lie. The early Christians would not have stolen the body and then gone to their death defending the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so listen, here's my invitation. If you're in the room and you're skeptical about the claims of Christianity, just search this out. Look into the resurrection. Google what happened to the empty tomb, where's the body? Find out what you can find out. Because this is a significant claim. The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes all the difference. But maybe some of you in the room, that's not you. Instead, you're a little bit more like Cleopas. You know all the right answers, you've got all the right words, but something still hasn't clicked. It's still something's missing, which is why the third thing Jesus does is Jesus challenges

Why The Messiah Had To Suffer

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 16:33

us. Look at verse 25. And he said to them, Oh 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? This isn't harsh, this is healing. 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. That's what he's doing in this moment. You see, it wasn't a lack of evidence, it wasn't missing information. The issue was unbelief shaped by unmet expectations. You see, that gap between expectations and experience, that's where doubt flourishes. That's where disbelief and shame and confusion and contempt, all those things flourish in that gap right there. And the problem is that they misunderstood the Messiah. That's what he says here. You see, they were expecting a conquering king, not a crucified criminal. They were assuming that they could look up to find God, but instead they should have looked low because Jesus was washing their feet. You see, there is no glory without suffering. There is no crown without a cross. And so some of our unbelief grows from the same place. We wonder, how could God let me suffer in this way? Look with me at verse 26. Was it not necessary? Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer? That one word, necessary. If it was necessary that Jesus Christ would suffer before entering glory, it will be part of the road for us too. You see, if you remove the cross, you don't get a better Christianity, you lose Christianity. 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. They thought that God was going to come and redeem them from suffering. What ended up happening was God came and redeemed them through suffering, particularly the suffering of the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. 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. How does Jesus respond? He leads a Bible study. Look with me at verse 27.

Reading Scripture With Jesus At Center

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 18:55

Jesus teaches us. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, that's how the Bible talks about the Bible. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. You see, their hope had a hermeneutics problem. Hermeneutics is simply the study of a text. That's all that it is. And what had happened here was they were misreading their scriptures. You see, the Bible isn't mainly about principles, although it has good principles in it. The Bible is mainly about a person. 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. And if you could just kind of get your act together, it's not about that. It's not about who you are and what you do primarily, it's about who Jesus is and what he's done. And Jesus is inviting us to read the scriptures in a way that sets us free from main character syndrome. He's inviting us to go from the beginning to the end of the Bible, seeing that he's actually the center. 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. Read the Bible, explore what it says about who Jesus is. 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. But even a good Bible study isn't enough. And so Jesus draws

Stay With Me And Seek Him

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 20:36

us out. That's the number five. And look at verse 28. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther. I love this. Like this is straight out of March Madness. Jesus does a little pump fake. He's like, Yep, broke some ankles. Like this is the ultimate Jesus juke that's happening right here. And you gotta ask, like, what is going on? He acted as if he's gonna keep going. What's going on here? Listen, it's not manipulation, this is an invitation. What's happening here is that Jesus knows that what a hopeless heart needs more than anything else is an invitation to hope again. And he's offering that to them. 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. And so he's inviting them to that. And it works. Like, notice the movement in their hearts from who is this guy to verse 29, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us. You see, Jesus will come near to you, but he won't force himself on you. Instead, he's drawing them out. 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. Listen to that invitation, respond. Because for some of you in the room, the issue is not your intellect, the issue is actually a matter of the will. You can choose to seek God. 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. 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? Just stay with me. It might even be more honest than that. I want to want you to be true. That's enough. It's enough because look at how Jesus responds. The sixth thing is that Jesus stays with us, verse 29. So he went in to stay with them. See, they urge, stay with us, and Jesus does. The risen king accepts dinner with disappointed disciples. Jesus is more willing to stay than we are to ask. And so what we see here is that Jesus is working to draw us out. He waits to be wanted. Let me just ask, do you some of you, do you think it's an accident that you're here this morning? Like that you just kind of agreed to come because Easter is like the Super Bowl for Christians or something like that. And you're like, I'm just coming as an anthropologist to study this rare species of human that we have here. Listen, it's it's not an accident. Jesus is inviting you to invite him to stay a while. And when we do, look what he does. He eats with us, verse 30.

Recognizing Jesus In The Breaking Of Bread

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 23:26

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. 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. 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. The woman took some of the fruit and ate it. She gave it to her husband, and he ate it. Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. You see, the first couple of creation, Adam and Eve, plunged the human race into ruin. Death itself was traced to that moment of rebellion. The whole creation was subjected to futility and decay and sorrow. And now, Luke, the writer of this gospel narrative, he's echoing that story that story as he describes another meal. Look with me again at Luke 24, 30. 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. You see, their eyes were opened, not to their own nakedness and shame, but to Jesus who was clothed in glory. You see, what we see here is they finally see this stranger for who he is. What's happening here? Well, Luke is trying to make an argument. He's trying to make a case that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is nothing less than a new creation. On par with the first creation, when God spoke everything out of nothing. And if the resurrection of Jesus is a new creation, then that means the curse is broken. Death is defeated. 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. That's what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means. But notice the simple verbs in this text: Jesus took, blessed, broke, and gave. That's the story of Jesus' life. Jesus is the one who took on our humanity. He's the one who was blessed in his ministry. He was great and mighty in his words and his deeds. 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. You see, Jesus wasn't made known in the walking, the questioning, the teaching, the challenging. It wasn't those things that opened their eyes. It was the meal. Because the meal is an invitation to receive Jesus into your very being. That's the invitation in our text, and it's the invitation this morning. Because some of you can tell that even now your eyes are beginning to open up a little bit. You're beginning to recognize a little bit more about who Jesus is. And listen, I can tell you from my own experience, until I was 19, I lived kind of a cultural Christianity. I was like half in and half out. And I just want to, this is my own little PSA announcement. There is nothing more miserable than knowing enough to feel bad about yourself, but not enough to find gladness in Jesus Christ. Straddling the strategy of if I'm I into Christianity, if I'm am I out? And listen, I know American culture still has enough value behind Christmas and Easter to that some people come. This is one of the times per year you show up and do this thing. And so here's the invitation. Don't straddle your strategy anymore. Go all in with Jesus. He's inviting you to receive more. And so let me close where the story ends. Look

Where Are You On The Road

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 28:12

at verse 33. And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. You see, this is how Jesus meets people. 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. I have great confidence that Jesus is doing right now with us what he was doing back then with them. How? Why would I say that? Well, because verse 38 says, the Lord is risen indeed. And that means that Jesus is not a memory, he's not a metaphor, he's not just some religious figure. It means that Jesus is alive, verse 23 says. And if Jesus is alive, then I want to ask you this question: where are you on the road? Where are you on the road? 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. I just assume that. The first group in this room, if you're honest, you you don't really recognize Jesus yet. 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. And and I'm inviting you, just say to Jesus, Jesus, if you're alive, just stay with me. Stay near to me. 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. Because the the surprise of this story is that he's already closer than you even think. Maybe you're here because somebody was like, hey, you want to go to Jeff's bagel run with me? And then they pulled up here, which is messed up. I'm just gonna say that. But my guess is they love you and they're trying to serve you, okay? And so my invitation is like, talk to the people around you that know Jesus. If there's Christians in your life, ask them a little bit about why do they believe this stuff? Because remember verse 15, it says, While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near. The second group in this room, you know Jesus. You're a disciple of his, you believe in the resurrection, but you also are just tired. 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. Yeah, I had hoped. I'd hoped that he was the one. But listen, let Jesus reinterpret your story. Let him do what in counseling we call reframing. 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. 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. But listen, it just might take you waiting a little while while he does that work. You see, he hasn't left you alone on the road. I promise you that. The third group of people in this room, you are walking closely with Jesus. You know him, you love him. He's a he's a bright and living reality in your life. And so my invitation to you would be don't just stay on the road, go back and tell. That's what they do, right? It says they got up that very same hour and they went back to Jerusalem. Why? Because when you've experienced, encountered, when you've known the risen Jesus, you don't keep that to yourself. You tell someone what you've seen, you tell someone what he's done, even if it's this simple. Hey, I think Jesus is real and he's up to something in my life. A simple bearing witness. And for all of us this morning, if this story is true, then Jesus is already closer to us than we could think. And that's because he is alive, he is risen indeed. Let's pray. King

Closing Prayer For Renewed Trust

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 32:13

Jesus, we love you. We look to you, we see you as the bright and living reality that you are. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would draw us closer to Jesus. 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. That if it was necessary for him to suffer, maybe it has a part of the reason why we're suffering right now. That Jesus, you are strong and able to take our broken hearts and to mend them back together again. Would you do that even now this morning? We pray in your beautiful name. Amen.