Cleopas and His Friend

Good morning. Good to see you. Today we are nearing the end of our series,

Conversations Jesus Had.

If the Lord wills, this week will be the, well next week will be the final sermon

in this series and we will be done.

So that makes this sermon the second to last sermon in the series.

And the topic that we are going to be covering this morning,

I would say is tied with one other one, that together they are the most important topic in the Bible.

I believe that the death of Jesus and everything connected to it and the resurrection

of Jesus and everything connected to it, like that's the most important thing in the scriptures.

And so today we'll be covering the resurrection of Jesus by learning about his

conversation with Cleopas.

Now, there may be some of you in this room, you've never heard of Cleopas,

and this is going to be a brand new story for you.

There will be others of you that probably would, right now you'd say,

I don't know who Cleopas is, but as I read the story, there will come a point

where you'll go, oh, I actually do know who that is. I didn't know his name

was Cleopas, but I have heard that story.

I mean, you just didn't know his name. I also want you to notice that I titled

this message Cleopas and His Friend.

And the reason is because the story specifically mentions that there was another

person there the whole time. As I read the story, there's another person that's

there the whole time, but that person's name is never given.

So I'm going to read you this conversation that Jesus had. This is the conversation.

It's Luke chapter 24. I'm going to start reading in verse 9.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

This is the conversation between Jesus, Cleopas, and some other person, all right?

Luke 24, starting in verse 9. The story really starts in verse 13,

but to give you some context and explain some things, we'll start in verse 9.

So Luke 24, verse 9 begins this way, and I'll just read it and explain as we go.

Luke 24:9

Returning from the tomb. And so by the way, just so you know,

timeline wise, this is after Jesus has risen again from the dead.

Okay, so Jesus died on the cross and then Sunday morning comes back to life.

So he is now out of the tomb and that's where the story begins where Jesus has

already risen. He's already resurrected.

Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the 11 and all the rest.

Who's the they? That will be explained in the next verse.

They reported all these things to the 11. Who are the 11?

The 11 would be the 12 disciples or the 12 apostles minus Judas, okay?

So the 12 apostles minus Judas are apparently somewhere hanging out.

And in busts in they, okay, whoever they are, and they give a report.

But they give a report not only to the 11, right, the 12 disciples minus Judas,

but it says, and to all the rest, which means there were more than 11 people that were there, right?

There are the 11 disciples that are left and then some other people who count

as all the rest. These are other followers of Jesus who weren't a part of the

12, who apparently were there.

And then in comes these people. Now, who's the they? Here they are. Verse 10.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother James, and the other women with them

were telling the apostles these things.

So now we know the they is a group of women.

We know three of them by name. We've got Mary, Mary, and Joanna.

And then it says there are other women. So the total of women that come into

this meeting to give a report, I'm going to guess is maybe about five,

because we know it's at least three, and then there's other women.

So maybe five women come bursting through the doors, and they tell the apostles, right?

So the 11 plus the rest, they were telling the apostles these things.

What things were they saying? Well, if you'd read earlier, you'd know what the

things were that they wanted to go and report.

The things were that they went to Jesus's tomb that morning, and it was empty.

There was no body in it.

And there were angels that appeared to them that said, he's alive,

right? He's not dead anymore. He's alive.

So they ran in and told them that, right? Here's what happens next. Verse 11.

But these words seemed like nonsense to them and they did not believe the women,

right? The women show up and they go, he's alive.

He rose again and he's alive and they heard it and they were like,

that doesn't sound like something that would happen.

And so they don't believe it. This seems It's like nonsense,

whatever you're saying, angels and whatever, dead people stay dead.

Verse 12, Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.

When he stooped to look in, he saw only the linen cloths. So he went home amazed at what had happened.

So I guess Peter believed in it enough to like go check and see.

And then when he goes and checks and sees, he sees that at least part of the

story is verified. There really was a tomb with no body in it. That part was true.

And so he goes back. Now verse 13.

So all of that was helpful background for our story, which officially begins right now with verse 13.

Now, that same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus,

which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.

Okay, so we got two people that are on a journey, but I want you to notice it

says that it was that same day.

So I guess shortly after that meeting of people where the women were like,

he's alive and there are angels that told us so.

Okay, so later on that same day, two of them, two of who?

Two of those people that were at that meeting, right? The 11 and the rest. Okay, so which two?

As best as I can tell, the two of them that decided to then leave that group

and start walking to a village named Emmaus, maybe that's where they lived,

they start walking their way to the village.

The two of them that were from that meeting that are making this walk are not two of the 11.

The reason I say that they are not two with 11? Well, one reason is because

later on in the story, these two people, they run back and they go find the

11, which makes me think they're not part of the 11 because they got to go find the 11.

Also, one of these two people, later on in the story, it's revealed that his name is Cleopas.

Cleopas is not the name of one of Jesus's apostles, okay? So we got probably

two people who are in a part of this meeting.

They were the part of the people that just said, like, that's nonsense, okay?

These two people, one of which named Cleopas, one we don't know,

but probably neither one is one of the 11, are now walking down the road.

Verse 14, together they were discussing everything that had taken place.

What had taken place? You've got to remember, from their perspective,

this was a very big weekend for them.

They had plenty to talk about. As they're walking along the road,

they just left that meeting, and what are they going to talk about?

They're going to talk about the only thing that anybody would talk about at

that moment. They're talking about what had taken place.

Jesus had died that Friday. So I would imagine this wasn't super excited talking.

This was probably discouraged talking.

As they're walking along the road, they're going like, what do we do now?

Because Jesus had died that Friday. And from their perspective,

and I think you'll see this as I read it, that would have been a very discouraging thing.

If you're one of the followers of Jesus and you think he's the Messiah and you

think he's gonna set up God's forever kingdom on this earth, right?

And so you're like, we're gonna follow you and this is great.

And you'll probably overthrow the Romans at some point.

You're gonna set up everything the way it ought to be, right?

This is wonderful. And then the Romans kill him.

And that messes with all your categories. You're sitting there going like,

we thought this is the guy who was gonna save Israel.

We thought this was the guy that was gonna make all of our dreams come true.

And he died. So the whole movement has come to a crashing halt. They are discouraged.

Everything they had been living for is suddenly done. Their calendar is wide open, right?

What are we gonna do now? I don't know. we had the rest of our life planned

to revolve around this guy and his kingdom.

And now he dies and what are we going to do? I don't know. Everything I was living for is over.

I don't even know what we do next. So this is probably an incredibly discouraging time.

And they were probably scared because you remember the Jewish people who then

handed it over to the Roman people, they killed Jesus, right?

Whatever Jesus was saying offended them enough that they crucified him.

So you can imagine if you're one of his followers and you're going,

okay, I like, what if he come, what if they come after us next?

So they're probably scared about what's going to happen. They are disbelieving

in the sense that they were just in a meeting where these ladies came and said,

the tomb is empty and he's alive.

Angels told us so. And they don't believe any of that. That seems like nonsense.

But they're hearing evidence to the contrary because Peter went and checked

it out and at least the part about no body in the tomb was true. So they know that.

So I'm saying, there's a lot to talk about. Verse 15.

And while they were discussing and arguing, let me pause right there.

So they weren't just talking. They were arguing about whatever it was.

As they're walking along, and they go, what do you think about this?

What do you think about this? And then at some point, they start disputing with

one another over something. I don't know what it was, because it doesn't say.

But it was obviously something related to all of these things I just brought up.

Maybe one of them was wondering, like, is a resurrection possible?

Like, I know when we were in the room, we were like, that's nonsense.

But maybe one of them was going, is it?

What if he came back to life? Would that bring hope back again?

Would everything be fine? And the other one's going, no.

First of all, that doesn't happen. People don't come back to life. He died.

He's dead. So if you can move a body, that doesn't mean that he's not dead.

And besides, the Messiah is supposed to come and he's supposed to throw off

all the bad guys, not get conquered by the bad guys. He's supposed to conquer them.

They conquered him. That's kind of how we know that he wasn't with the one.

So I don't know exactly what they're saying, but they're probably arguing about

something related to all of this.

And while they were discussing and arguing.

Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. And he said, oh, God.

Wow. I mean, they would have been so excited about that, except,

verse 16, but they were prevented from recognizing him.

So he walks along with them, and they look over, and you'd think that would

be the moment, like, ah, but they look over, and they're like, sup?

And Jesus starts talking to them, and they, I mean, that's my paraphrase.

I don't know what they said.

But now they're just talking to a stranger that's walking down the road with them, okay?

Now, why didn't they recognize him? Because these are people who were followers of his, right?

It could be that he looked a little different post-resurrection than he did before he died.

It could be that God miraculously prevented them from being able to recognize him.

But the story says they didn't recognize him. So now they're talking with him.

So then he asked them, what is this dispute that you're having,

right? They were arguing loud enough for him to hear.

So he's like, well, I hear you arguing. what is this dispute that you're having

with each other as you're walking?

And they stopped walking and looked discouraged. I told you they were discouraged.

Like, well, if you want to know what we're talking about, like, it's not good.

Like, our whole life came to a screeching halt this weekend.

But I mean, we'll tell you what we're talking about. But they don't just phrase

it like that. He says, what is this dispute you're having with each other while

you're walking? They stopped walking and looked discouraged.

Now, verse 18, the one named Cleopas, that's why I told you his name was Cleopas.

I just got it from the Bible. That's how I figured it out.

The one named And Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor in Jerusalem

who doesn't know the things that happened there in these days?

He goes, hey, what are you arguing about? Well, you guys, as you're walking

along the road, you're talking about what?

And they say, are you the only one that doesn't know?

Because like, we're talking about what everybody's talking about. How do you not know?

So he says, and then look at verse 19.

So they say, are you the only visitor who doesn't know the things that happened

there in these days? and then verse 19.

What things? He asked them. Isn't that funny?

It's like, just, I don't have to add anything to it. Like, just as I'm reading

the Bible, whenever I come across that verse, I'm like, that's funny. What things?

They're saying, there's all this stuff happening about Jesus.

Jesus is there, and he's like, tell me, what things, right?

Which shows you sometimes Jesus asks questions he already knows the answer to, right? What things?

So they said to him, and so now here he's going explain Jesus to Jesus who doesn't

know it's Jesus, all right?

The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet,

powerful in action and speech before God and all the people,

and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to

death, and they crucified him.

But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel.

Besides all this, it's the third day since these things have happened.

Moreover, some women from our group astounded us.

They arrived early at the tomb and when they didn't find his body,

they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women

had said, but they didn't see him.

It's a pretty good summary of the story up to this point, isn't it?

And then look what Jesus says back, verse 25. He said to them.

How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets

have spoken. Didn't the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?

And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them

the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Whew, these are some amazing verses. Let's start with the beginning part because

the beginning part, I think Jesus looks a little mean.

When you're just looking at it like in English, 2000 years later,

just on the page, how unwise and slow are you to believe in your hearts, right?

They have just said like, this is all the stuff that happened with Jesus.

And it looks like he says back like, oh, how stupid are you that you aren't

making these connections?

Now, here's the thing. I don't think they took it that way. I don't suspect

that he meant it to sound that way, and I don't think they took it that way.

As the story goes on, you will see that they are not offended, okay?

So if they took offense, it was short-lived because they loved what he said next, okay?

He explained the scriptures to them, and he said, the prophets,

you're not catching what the prophets said because if you did,

you'd realize, didn't the Messiah have to suffer these things?

Remember earlier, they seemed to be implying, we thought he was the one that

was gonna rescue Israel and then they killed him.

So I guess not, right? If the Messiah suffers and dies, then I guess that means he's not.

And it kind of messes with all the stuff we thought was coming true from the Old Testament.

And he's saying, have you read it? Because isn't this the way it was supposed to go down?

In fact, I wanna read this. I'm gonna read you a quote from Matthew Henry.

Matthew Henry was a preacher from a long time ago, but I like what he said about

this section of the conversation.

He said, and he's talking about Jesus here.

He said, the sufferings he had now gone through were so far from defeating the

prophecies of scripture concerning him that they were the accomplishment of them.

Do you get that? But he's saying that what Jesus is saying here is,

Wait a minute, you're saying that

these happenings kind of contradict the prophecies from the Old Testament?

No, no, no, no, no. In fact, it's the opposite.

Don't you realize this just confirms the whole thing?

This is what had to happen. And so then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

Moses being a reference to the first five books of the Bible,

the prophets being, or yeah, the first five books of the Bible in the Old Testament.

And then the prophets referring to a collection of books that is toward the

end of our Old Testament.

He interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Scriptures here being a reference to the Old Testament, or at least to a big

chunk of the Old Testament, right? When he says the word scriptures here,

he's not referring to the New Testament.

It hadn't been written yet, right? He's referring back to books like Genesis

and Exodus, and he's referring to, you know, whatever, Habakkuk and Hosea.

So beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them the things

concerning himself in all the scriptures.

This is a big deal, and I want you to catch it. Do you see the fact that Jesus

goes back to the Old Testament and quotes a bunch of passages,

and he says, he interprets for them the things in all the scriptures,

that are concerning himself.

In other words, Jesus believed that he was in the Old Testament. Do you get that?

Jesus believed he was a character in the Old Testament.

Jesus believed he was all over the Old Testament.

That is good for us to know because when we teach from the Old Testament here

at Good News Church, which we do quite a bit, we have not done it recently because

we've been in this long series called Conversations Jesus Had.

But those of you who've been with us for a long time, you know that we've taught

through Exodus and Ecclesiastes and Proverbs and Hosea, and we've done like

lots of books from the Old Testament.

And when we teach from the Old Testament, we often will do this if you've noticed

it. We will point out connections between the Old Testament and Jesus.

We will point out connections between whatever it is we're learning in the Old

Testament and things that are in the New Testament. And when we are doing that,

we are not doing something artificial.

Like Jesus really is connected to the God of the Old Testament.

Jesus really is connected to the promises of the Old Testament.

We're not just making links here. Like he believed that. He taught us to see it that way.

Okay. So the Old Testament is about Jesus. Verse 28.

And they came near the village where they were going and he gave the impression

that he was going farther.

But they urged him, stay with us because it's almost evening and now the day

is almost over. So he went in to stay with them.

So they're walking along, they're coming up to Emmaus and I guess there's the

off ramp to Emmaus. And so they start to take that one and Jesus keeps walking, right?

And they're going like, oh, we just figured we were all going to the same village,

but I guess you're going to wherever the next village is.

But no, no, no, come on, don't go to the next village. I don't know where you're

walking next, but stay with us, right?

The sun is almost setting. It's getting toward the end of the day.

Just stay with us. After all, like that stuff you were teaching from the Old

Testament, that was awesome. You'll see. They basically say that later on.

That was great. Like, just come stay with us. And so Jesus says,

okay. And he does. Verse 30.

It was as he reclined at the table with them that he took the bread,

blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

And then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.

So here he is at the table with them. He grabs bread and he blesses it and he

breaks it and he hands it to them. And this is what I'm thinking.

This was probably not the first time this had happened.

If they're his followers, then there have been other occasions where he blessed

bread and he broke it and he handed it to them.

And in this particular occasion, he rips off a piece of bread and he hands it

to them, and that's the moment that they're like, you're you, right?

They sit there and they're going, no, I can't believe this. Like,

no wonder he knew all that stuff about Jesus.

He's Jesus, right? Like, they recognized him. This would have been,

like, this is so incredible. And then they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.

Right? So as soon as they realize it's him, he vanishes. And I guess he moves

on to whatever he had to do next, which I think you're going to see in just a little bit.

So verse 32, so they said to each other, weren't our hearts ablaze within us

while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the scriptures to us, right?

They're going like, this makes a lot more sense all of a sudden.

So they realize it's him, then he's gone, so they can't talk to him about it.

So then they're like, well, I guess we'll talk to each other about it.

Whoa, can you believe that? Can you believe it's him? Yeah, no wonder.

Remember when we were walking along the road and he was talking about Jesus

and we felt like we were on fire?

Because it was him that was explaining him to us.

So they were so excited about what he said, which I think this is a good reminder,

by the way, that scripture can set our hearts ablaze.

Did you know that? Have you ever experienced that?

Have you experienced it where you learned a Bible passage and then you were

like metaphorically speaking, like on fire?

That's a good thing. You're not weird, all right?

If you have ever been in a situation where you're like, this is incredible.

And then you're looking around and someone else is like, you know, and you're like, what?

I don't understand. man, I am like a blaze right now.

I just want you to know you're not weird. That is important, that is a good thing.

There are some truths that are exciting and life-changing and that's how you're

supposed to feel about them.

Verse 33, that very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. Well, I would guess so.

This happens and then you're both there and you discuss it for a little bit

and then it's like, all right, now what are we gonna do?

Finish the bread and go to bed? Like, no, that's not what's going to happen

now. Like, we just saw the most incredible thing we've seen in our whole life, right?

We're going to have to go tell them. Like, a little bit ago,

we were just going, oh, the sun's going down. It's pretty close to bedtime.

Now, all of a sudden, it's like, no, we got stuff to do. We got to go back to the 11.

We got to tell them what we just saw. So they ran to Jerusalem.

I think the passage says they returned to Jerusalem. I bet they ran.

That very hour, they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the 11.

Remember, this is why I think they're not the 11. They found the 11 and those

who were gathered together, right? They were just in this group of people going

like, eh, I don't think he came back to life.

Then they saw him alive, and they went, we're going to have to give them the update.

So they run to the room where they're going to give them the update,

and then something interesting has happened in the meantime.

It kind of spoils a little bit of the fun for them, notice.

They go in and they found the 11 and those who were gathered together who said,

and I think that means the 11 were the ones who said this, who said,

the Lord has certainly been raised and has appeared to Simon.

Okay, that's a reference to Simon Peter.

So Peter, like there's an appearance of Jesus to Peter and so they all know.

So then Cleopas and his friends show up and they're like, wait till you hear

what we have to tell you. And they're like, wait till we hear what you have

to tell you. Jesus really rose again.

I know, that's what we were here to tell you.

So then they start swapping stories with each other, right?

Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how he was made

known to them in the breaking of the bread.

And I would say most of the time, whenever I've seen like a sermon or a Sunday

school lesson or whatever on this passage, it usually ends right here.

Like, whoa, he broke the bread. We knew who he was.

End of story. But the story doesn't really end there.

If you look at the next verse, we're going to keep going. It says,

and as they were saying these things.

So the they, Cleopas and his friend, were saying these things.

We just saw Jesus at our house while we were eating bread.

So as they're telling the story, Peter tells his side of the story.

This is what happened. And then they're like, what do you tell?

What do you hear? We walked with it, miles walking with him.

Didn't even know, feel stupid now.

Okay, and so they're telling it. And as they were saying these things,

so this is what I'm saying is, most people end the story at that one verse.

But if you look at it, the next story in the Bible takes place during this story.

Which means the next story is part of this story, right? The story hasn't actually

ended. Like they're in the middle of the conversation.

They're still talking and talking about what's happening. And as they were saying

these things, he himself stood among them.

And he said to them, peace to you.

So now Jesus appears to them again, right? So now we've got this room.

We've got the 11 and the rest.

And Cleopas and his friend are saying we saw him. And then Simon Peter's saying I saw him, right?

And then he appears. So can you picture this? Jesus is now appearing for a, what is it?

What number time would it be? He's now appearing to these, Cleopas and his friend

for the second time now, right? Because they saw him earlier and now he's appeared to them again.

And Simon Peter had seen him. So now Jesus is appearing to Simon Peter a second time.

But then there's a bunch of other people in the room that he is now appearing

to for the first time, right? So we've got a collection. We've got three people that had just seen him.

And then you've got a bunch of people who had not yet, but they were all excited

because three people that they know and trust were saying we saw him.

So as they're saying these things, as they're saying, like, he's really alive.

We saw him. Like, you want to know what he looked like?

Ah, he looked like that. Like, he's here right now, right? As they were saying

it, he showed up and said, peace to you.

Verse 37, but they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost.

I'm going to assume that the they there is the people that are seeing him for

the first time. That's my guess.

They were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost.

Why are you troubled? He asked them.

And why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.

Having said this, he showed them his hands and feet, but while they were still

amazed and unbelieving because of their joy, which is an interesting phrase,

unbelieving because of their joy, right?

They're like, we're so excited to see you that we're thinking,

and is this even really happening?

They were unbelieving because of their joy and he asked them,

do you have anything here to eat?

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.

So I'm gonna go ahead and close out the story there and save what comes next,

I think probably for next week.

As we close, I would like to focus on one main point when it comes to this passage.

I wanna tell you what I think the primary point is.

Like if you were all to boil it all down to one thing, what is the one thing

that Luke is trying to get across to us in this story? And here it is, are you ready for it?

Jesus rose again. That's the point. That's the thing that Luke is trying to

make sure everybody knows.

Jesus rose again. He's saying people saw him alive on the third day after his crucifixion.

I think the phrase from verse 34, where they say, the Lord has certainly been

raised, that's the topic sentence. That's the point of this whole passage.

The Lord has certainly been raised.

Luke, in this story, is pointing out to us that multiple witnesses saw him alive after he was dead.

Multiple witnesses talked to him.

Multiple witnesses walked with him for miles.

Multiple witnesses had him into their home. I believe the section where Luke

records that everyone watched him eat a piece of broiled fish was Luke offering

evidence of the resurrection.

Do you get why he would do that?

Because if someone comes along later and hears the story and they go,

yeah, I don't think so because people don't come back to life.

And I realize you all are saying it and you all are saying you were there,

but this sounds like maybe you were having one of those rare group hallucinations.

And I think what Luke is wanting to say here is, okay, but the hallucination

ate a piece of fish that we handed to it.

He was really there.

Now another thing that I want to point out is these weren't just believe anything kind of people.

Some people act like you should doubt bible accounts because

these people lived a long time ago and they didn't have science and they believed

in magic and therefore they would just kind of believe just about anything that

was told to them so like people back then you just go well he's the messiah

all right I guess so you said it out loud right and then they would say well

he died you and he rose again,

well, I guess so. I mean, sometimes people rise again.

Like, no, they knew that that doesn't happen.

They didn't live in a time period where they believed sometimes people came back to life.

They didn't just believe whatever they heard. Look at verses 22 and 23 of the

little speech that Cleopas gives when he's talking to Jesus,

but he doesn't know it's Jesus.

He says, moreover, some women from our group astounded us.

They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn't find his body,

they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was

alive. Now, don't you notice how they phrase it?

As they're talking to Jesus, not knowing it's him, they do not say,

the Messiah who we believe in resurrected today.

No, they were discouraged and they said the Messiah who we were believing in died.

And they didn't say he came back to life. They said there were women who said

that some angels said that he came back to life.

They gave the report of what was said. They didn't say it like they believed

it. They just said this is what was reported. Did they believe the report?

No. Verse 11 says they didn't believe it. Let's go back to verse 11 and look

at it. Remember, these were people that were in the room.

Verse 11, but these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.

And you could kind of tell even later on. And they were arguing about it,

so maybe one of them was like, maybe, but I don't know.

But when you get to the verse 21, as he's describing Jesus to Jesus,

he says, but we were, what's the word? We were hoping.

We were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel.

It doesn't seem like they're saying a resurrection has been reported.

We have placed our faith in this resurrection.

He is the one to redeem Israel. They say, we were hoping that he was the one

who was about to redeem Israel.

It seems to me what's implied is, and then we figured out he wasn't because he died.

Even though resurrection reports were already coming in, like despite resurrection

reports, they had lost hope, hadn't they?

They were not just believe anything people. They were told Jesus rose again,

and they still didn't believe, and they still didn't have hope until they recognized

him when he broke the bread, and they saw him with their own eyes.

And Luke wants us to know, the Lord has certainly been raised.

And when you take that fact, and you combine it with Jesus dying on the cross

for our sins, like that's the most important part of this whole story.

And when I say this whole story, I don't mean like this, these five paragraphs I just read to you.

I mean the whole story. I mean we're 16 weeks into this life of Jesus thing,

and I'm saying this is the most important part of the whole story, his whole life story.

I think it was N.T. Wright who said this, the thing I'm about to say.

N.T. Wright is an Anglican and theologian, and I actually didn't go back and

find the book where he said this, so this is just a paraphrase,

my best memory, but somewhere in one of his books, I read where he said something like this.

If Easter wouldn't have happened, we'd never have begun celebrating Christmas.

Have you ever thought about that before? If the Easter story hadn't happened,

we would never have begun celebrating Christmas.

I believe that Easter is actually the more important holiday because of what

happened. Now, I'm not anti-Christmas.

Please hear me. I'm not anti-Christmas. We've got a Christmas tree.

We sang Christmas songs today. We're going to sing Christmas songs throughout December.

But without the resurrection, we wouldn't celebrate his birth.

You might go, well, I don't know. Maybe we would. because even if he didn't

come back to life, like he still was significant, you know, as a historical

figure and he spoke on behalf of God, the father, and he did miracles.

Maybe we still would, maybe.

But Moses did those things and the apostle Paul did those things.

We don't celebrate their birthdays, right? And this isn't even just about Christmas.

The same goes for Good Friday.

Good Friday is a celebration of something very important that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

But we wouldn't even believe in that if it weren't for the resurrection.

Do you realize that? If he didn't come back to life, he would have been someone

who was crucified and stayed dead.

That's not unique to Jesus. I don't know if you know that, but when we do Good

Friday, we are not celebrating that a man was crucified, okay? That happened a lot.

Historians estimate that about 300,000 people died by crucifixion during the

time period of the Roman Empire.

All sorts of people died that way.

But we don't celebrate the other 299,999 of them.

We only celebrate the one who came back to life after he was crucified.

It's the resurrection that proved that Jesus really was the Messiah.

It's the resurrection that proved that God truly accepted his sacrifice for our sins.

It's the resurrection that proved that Jesus is divine and everything that he ever said was true.

The resurrection vindicates and validates everything else in scripture.

And it is the foundation of our faith. I don't know if you know this,

the apostle Paul in his writings treated the resurrection as the foundation of our faith.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is Paul writing to the Corinthians way, way, way long time ago.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

He brings up the topic of resurrection and I want you to see what he says.

He says, for if the dead are not raised, So he's talking about general resurrection here.

Sometimes I've taught on this before, right? One day Jesus comes back,

brings his people back to life. We live with God forever.

If there is, if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, right?

If there is no resurrection, there was no resurrection for Jesus.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is, what's the word?

Worthless. That's interesting. He does not say, if there's no resurrection,

Christianity goes down a couple of notches.

No, he says, if there's no resurrection, Christianity is not worth anything at all.

Get rid of the churches turn them into bingo halls throw out all the bibles

none of it matters none of it matters if christ has not been raised your faith

is worthless look at this you are still

in your sins anyone that's like

well jesus died on the cross for my sins if he died on the cross and stayed

dead like 300 000 other people that died on the cross and stayed dead there's

no reason to assume that god accepted his sacrifice on your behalf there's no

reason for you to assume your sins are forgiven there's no reason for you to

assume you're going to live with god forever one day. It all banks on that.

If Christ has not been raised, you're still in your sins. Therefore,

those who have fallen asleep in Christ, fallen asleep is a euphemism for died.

Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.

Christians who had died, he's saying, they all just died and stayed dead because

that's what happens if Christ has not been raised.

If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more

than anyone, which is important because I think sometimes people go,

well, even if Jesus didn't rise again,

Christianity is still good because it's a good way to live your life.

Paul didn't seem to think so.

If Jesus didn't come back to life and all we have is just this life only,

then we should be pitied more than anyone. We're wasting our time.

We're wasting our money. We're wasting our effort. We're wasting our energy.

Why? Because the resurrection is the foundation of our faith.

A couple of years ago, someone gave me a piece of candy on Easter.

Okay. It was on, I think it was Easter Sunday. I think I was standing right

there and the lady came up to me and she said, here, happy Easter.

And she gave me this piece. Could you put the, yeah, this is the,

this is a photo that I took of it. Okay. So it's in the shape of a cross.

It's made out of chocolate.

It's got whatever Easter colors, a little Easter greeting on it.

Okay. So she gave this to me.

Then I took it and then I, I added this post-it note, the post-it note,

like that's my handwriting right there.

So I took the piece of candy, set it down. And then I wrote,

this was a Roman torture device. Okay, so she gave me, on Easter Sunday,

a chocolate Roman torture device.

And this is what I wrote about that post-it note at the time.

I wrote, I wasn't trying to mock the gift. I actually appreciate it.

But I kept thinking about it.

Can you imagine what it would take for people a thousand years from now to give

each other little chocolate-covered electric chairs on holidays?

Like something earth shattering would

have had to happen to someone who was the victim of an

electric chair for such an image to be redeemed like

that and it would have to be more than just a wrongly convicted man dying because

that's already happened and that hasn't caused people to celebrate electric

chairs i said to a friend of mine jesus must have rose again it would take a

resurrection to turn a cross into a piece of candy.

And that's why today's story is so important. Jesus died and rose again,

and it changed history, and it even changed the way we view objects like this one.

Right? When this was invented, it was an object of terror. Now we're munching

into them on Easter. That's a big change. Why?

Because Jesus died and rose again, and he appeared to his followers.

And one of those followers was named Cleopas. And you know his version of the story now.

And there were many others other than just Cleopas.

And that resurrection is the foundation of our faith.

So, happy Easter and Merry Christmas.

Thanks. Will you pray with me?

Dear Lord, this is wonderful good news. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross

for our sins and rising again.

Thank you for people like Luke that wrote down these stories so that we would

know not just that it was witnessed by eyewitnesses, but like the specific things that happened.

It was this time of day and this was the village it was in and this is the fish

he ate and this is how many people were in the room.

So for those of us in this room who know you.

Like on behalf of them, I assume they agree with me on this.

We thank you, we praise you, we worship you.

And especially we worship you for dying on the cross and rising again and for

granting us the faith that we would be able to believe that you rose again.

Thank you for opening our eyes.

And thank you for giving us the faith that we could believe that you rose again.

And I pray if there's anybody in this room that does not yet believe you or

walked in today going, I don't know about that. That seems like nonsense to me.

I pray that you would open their eyes. I pray that you would grant them faith.

And I pray that they would trust in your resurrection, which once that happens, changes everything.

And so we thank you for that. And we thank you for the hope of future resurrection.

I know there are people in here today that just lost a loved one.

I thank you so much that there's a future resurrection to come.

We praise you for that. We worship you for that. We thank you for the good news.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word. This is from 1 Corinthians

15, just a little earlier in the chapter.

Paul says, For I passed on to you as most important what I also received,

that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. That is good news.