When You Almost Miss Him

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, our sermon today is from Luke chapter 24, it's verses 13 through 35. We're again in the resurrection. This is one of the accounts of the resurrection because Jesus makes an appearance to two people who were downcast because he had died. And so Jesus makes an appearance, but there's a lot more to this story. There's this elusive Jesus. There's this Jesus who doesn't look like Jesus for some reason as he's walking along with these two people towards Emmaus. They don't know it's him. This is beautiful. I mean, this is really beautifully crafted.

[0:34] And so I want you to listen for that sort of elusiveness of Jesus as we read. And that's all the introduction we have today. It's a shorter one. So let's go to our reading, Luke 24, 13 through 35. It goes like this, verse 13. Now on that same day, this is the day of the resurrection. Now on that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what are you discussing with each other while you walk along?

[1:18] They stood still looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him. Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place? in these days? Jesus asked them, what things? They replied, the things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some of the women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed 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 woman had said, but they did not see him. Then Jesus said to them, oh, how foolish you are.

[2:24] And how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared. Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory? This is the important part. Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

[2:52] As they came near the village to which the prophet was, they saw that the Messiah was there. So they heard his voice. For some were apprehensive. For some were apprehensive. For some were apprehensive. For some were apprehensive. For some were apprehensive. For some were apprehensive. For some were apprehensive.

[3:50] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Wow, what a great story. What a great story. And this kind of begs the question, and maybe you're thinking this, like, this story is like too good to be true, like the way it all comes together. And there's a little part of it that almost feels like a parable, right? Kind of like in a more, if it was in a more abstract sense, not as anchored to actual people. You could tell a parable a bit like this, like these two people were walking and their friend came, but they didn't recognize their friend. And as they talked, their friend told them all sorts of things and they still didn't recognize their friend. But then when their friend sat down with them and did this thing that was so familiar to them, immediately they knew who it was, but he disappeared. And they understood finally everything that he had said on the road. It sounds like a parable. It's not a parable though. But it has that. Kind of that great form to it. It's narrative. Narrative means it's a description of something that happened and it did happen and it happened this way. But it's masterful narrative, right? There's some intrigue in the story.

[5:06] You're asking yourselves, why couldn't they figure out who it was? Well, they were kept from figuring it out. But why were they kept from figuring it out? I mean, that's a great question that you might ask the author of this story. Well, there's a reason why. Okay.

[5:27] So if you remember if you remember if you remember if you remember if you remember beautiful symbolism of, oh, that's Jesus. That's how he breaks the bread. That's how he, that's how he prays. That's how he blesses them, you know. And, and so then their eyes are opened and then he vanishes, which is supernatural, right? And then they go, it's like a key then that unlocks in their brain and they say, all that stuff he was saying to us, now we get it. It was about him, about how actually he did have to die because we thought, why did he have to die? We thought he was really going to come and kind of clean things up here. He died, so we're totally dejected. And, and he says, you, you don't understand. He had to die first and then enter his glory. And so they start to get it. It's like this real revelation moment. There's a sort of aha moment. I'm going to ask you about your aha moment a little bit later in the chat log, but be prepared to be thinking even now about an aha moment. So this is great narrative. Like it's just a great story with what's even greater about it is that it's true. Like it's not fiction. It's actually nonfiction. It's factual. It happened. It's not made up, but it's, I like to think of it as this

[7:04] way is this encounter was designed by God for our benefit. And it's the recording of it by Luke, who's a very careful investigator of all things about Jesus. He got it. Right. He got all the details. He must've talked to these two people who were on the road. And these are the kind of details that you only get from a first person account of a story. So it was very likely that Luke found these two disciples, Cleopas and one other, we don't know who, and, and wrote down. You know, when I say I wrote something down, I go like this instead of like this, because I'm a computer person, but I think Luke, you know, he didn't have this. He went like this. Oh, I know, right. With my pen. So he wrote it down. Okay. We have it today. I'm going to tell you what this reminds me of, of a master storyteller. Like God is a master storyteller like C.S. Lewis. And I'm thinking right now about the Chronicles of Narnia, this seven book series that he wrote. And he wanted to use these, this sort of format of children's stories to kind of share the gospel with people. And it, you know, if you know the story, you know, there's a line, I'm going to spoil it, the lion is Jesus. I mean, it's just, it's just kind of on the nose, but the lion is Jesus. His

[8:22] name is Aslan. I don't really know how to pronounce it. Nobody does. There's like five ways to pronounce it. Aslan is Jesus. And only in the first book, the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, only in the first book does Aslan have a lot, really a lot of speaking parts where he spends a lot of time with these children, but he kind of comes and goes. And even in that first book, he sort of disappears at times when they kind of seems like they need him a lot. But always at the end of every one of the books, he shows up and he says, well, here you did something good. And here you kind of made some mistakes and this is your chance to grow. And there's sort of a come to Jesus, but it's sort of a come to the lion moment at the end of all the books. And especially in the other books, he only kind of appears a little bit. He's almost like, he's almost like he's not a character in the book. Of course he is, but he doesn't have a lot of sort of time on his hands. And so he's kind of a character in the book. And so he's kind of a character on the page, really. The children do, other people do. And it's like he appears at important moments when he needs to guide them a little bit, but he doesn't fight their battles

[9:28] for them. And sometimes he disappears. It seems like when they need him the most, but also you find out, say, for example, in a book called The Horse and His Boy, that he actually does appear even when they don't realize it. And he helps direct the action, but they're not aware that it was him. It's very interesting.

[9:47] So C.S. Lewis was a master storyteller. Read these books. Get your kids to read these books. Get your household to read this book. You can get them on CD, listen to them in your car if you take a long car ride. I'm planning on doing that at some point when we take a next car, long car ride.

[10:04] I'll tell you this, though. When I was a kid and I was reading these, and I didn't understand sort of the masterful narrative storytelling craft, I would just say to myself, why can't the lion show up and tell me what to do? And I would say, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

[10:24] I don't know. I don't remember. I remember. I remember. I remember. I remember. I remember. to get that feeling with the story of the road to Emmaus. It's like, yes, he's there, but they don't know he's there. And he's teaching them, and they're walking along, and then they invite him in. And then they realize it was him all along, and that they learned something all along, and then he disappears, and he's gone. He's this elusive lion, right? He's this elusive lion, but Jesus, in the story of the road to Emmaus, he just kind of comes and goes. And if you look at the other post-resurrection accounts of Jesus, he never really lingers all that long. He'll stay and have a short meal. He'll talk for a bit. He'll teach them how to fish, you know. But then he's gone. He just kind of disappears. And it really is important to understand why this is, is that if he stayed, if Jesus stayed, if he was present after the resurrection like he was present before the resurrection, we would be saved. We would be saved. We would be saved. We would be saved. We would be stuck kind of in this one place in our faith. We wouldn't ever move beyond having him around. But instead, he says, I'm going to leave. And this is so that you can grow. And I'm going to,

[11:53] I'm not really going to leave you a hundred percent. I'm going to send some, something that he calls the paraclete. That's a Greek word. It's what we know as the Holy Spirit. It means counselor, or friend, or companion, which is really nice. I always think of it as somebody walking on the road with you, not just sort of at a distance, like, oh, you're over here, but like, I'm going to do it this way because there's more frame here. Somebody walking down the road with you with their arm draped over your shoulder, both in companionship, in protection, in guidance. You know, every now and then he might, he or she, you know, might kind of redirect you a little bit. So you get that idea, this paraclete comes. Jesus says, I am leaving. I have to go to the Father. I have to go to the glory. I had to suffer these things before I entered my glory, but I'm not going to leave you as orphans in this world. I'm going to send the comforter. I'm going to send the paraclete. And that paraclete then guides us, but also the paraclete teaches us to grow. We have to now sort of understand all this themselves. And this is what happens to the disciples. When you think about it, this particular journey was so important for the church.

[13:10] Because if you imagine a seven mile walk between Jerusalem and Emmaus, that takes a long time. It would take at least two or three hours, depending on how fast you walk. And if all that time, Jesus was explaining to them how the Old Testament was predicting his passion and his resurrection. And all that time, they were picking it up and processing it, but not quite, it wasn't quite registering it. And then when he appears to them, in that moment, they have this aha moment where they go, ah, I get it. That this became a treasure trove for the disciples after the fact that allowed them to put all of their understanding of Jesus back into context where it belonged and the gospel writers to actually push forward all the time saying, this is why this happened. So if you, for example, if you read Matthew over and over again, it will say, this was done. So that scripture, would be fulfilled over and over again. You'll find that in Matthew as a real pattern in Matthew, but in the other, in the other gospels as well.

[14:19] So what I want you to do is, and the other thing I get before I get to that, I was just going to say, there's, there's something really symbolic that happens. So maybe it was something really familiar that Jesus did when he took the bread and he broke it and he blessed it and he blessed them. That was that sort of moment where they go, oh, their eyes were opened. And I want us to put in the chat log, and I'm going to ask Yanni to stick that up there now, is if you have an aha moment, okay? If you have had an aha moment in your life where you were, where suddenly you realized that Jesus or God or the spirit had been with you all along, but there was this moment in time where almost like a light switch got flipped on and you go, ah, he was at work all this time. And he taught me these things. Could you put that in the chat log? Where were you? What were you doing? What did you learn?

[15:16] And I'm going to give us a little time. Just put that in the chat log. What was that aha moment for you if you've had one? And I hope you have, where you just said, oh, now I get it. Now I get it. He was with me all along. He was, he was hoping I'd grow. He was hoping I'd learn. Here's this lesson I learned that I didn't know I was learning. That's the, those are the best kind of lessons that you don't have to work too hard at them. They're, they're happening by osmosis all this time. And, and it just happens. And then Jesus comes in and kind of opens your eyes. So, uh, put a note in the chat log and I'm going to get my glasses out here. I hate, I hate that I have to wear glasses. Um, I just do. I wish I didn't have to. Now, here we go. I'm going to go to YouTube.

[16:04] All right. Oh, happy birthday, George from Jared. Thank you. Let's see. And good morning from Jared. So I'm waiting for some chats to get in there. Victoria, you just have to salt the chat log with anything just to get to, you know, the other pastor has to, you know, I'm kidding. You don't have to, but you kind of have to. No, that's all right. Um, while that's, while we're waiting, and I know it takes a while to remember this and to type it in and that's fine. Um, but just to remind us then that, that Jesus, Jesus has, his reasons for being a bit elusive. He has his reasons for not lingering too long after the resurrection. It's so his people will grow. It's so his people will learn. Uh, he, and he kind of seeds control of the situation to the Holy spirit. And he says, this is the guy now who's going to guide you. And he's not going to be quite as present to you as I have been. I mean, you can't physically touch him, but in other ways, he's going to be far more present to you than I have ever been because he can be.

[17:21] So if you remember his life for some some time for some for some for some for met these people and he defeated them. It wouldn't be a story. Children wouldn't even read it because children like to know, oh, something bad might happen. How are these kids going to get through it? So read those books when you get a chance again. So one thing, we've got a few here coming in. I'm going to wait for a few more to come in before I read them. Thank you for sending these in. And is to just really be clear that Jesus leaves, not so that we will rely on ourselves, not so that we'll figure it all out and go, oh, this is what I've got to do. And we'll sort of earn our own sort of way. The one thing that we need to do, and we talk about this all the time, is then submit to the spirit. That's our one act. So when Jesus leaves and he's not here, he's left the spirit. And our act of faithfulness then is to say, spirit, have your way in my life. And spirit, guide me into all these things. Like guide me into justice. Guide me into giving up some of my power. Guide me into looking out for the vulnerable. Guide me into helping my neighbor. So I'm going to read some of these. Oh, this is great. Thank you. Okay. Natalie has put in, I was getting prayer ministry in college over a traumatic situation with an

[19:03] ex-boyfriend. When he felt alone and scared through prayer, I saw Jesus protecting me and watching over me from then till now. Wow. Thank you, Natalie. This Jesus appears. Brian Smith, several in the past few weeks, times when circumstances just happened to confirm or validate some key insights he provided earlier. Exactly. Exactly. Jesus shows up and there's that aha moment where like, you were with me. You are helping me. Craig from Karen. This is from Karen. Trapped in Liberia. They were waiting on U.S. immigration so that they could adopt Kiara and bring her back. Well, they had adopted Kiara, but to bring her back to the United States. Mercy ship sailed away, leaving us behind 18 months longer than expected. Looking back, I can see God allowed us the opportunity to get to know the people. And this was the start of Kiara's gift. And so this blessing that is blessing all these people came from a hardship and they see it now. And they see it now. And they see it now. And they see it now. We see it now. You see it in hindsight. So this is how Jesus works. This is how the lion works in those books. It's like, I did this so that you would grow. I did this so that you would learn. And now you're learning. Now you're growing. Good. Oh, Michael just put one in. All right.

[20:24] Choosing to go to Scotland for my master's resulted in ending an unhealthy four-year relationship with my ex-girlfriend. I ended up discovering God and eventually met Natalie, shortly after returning. So we thank God for a nice, happy marriage because of God teaching people. This is excellent. All right. Any others? Good. Okay. Well, if more come in, I will read them. It's okay. You don't feel like you have to stop now just because I'm moving on to a different part. Now, I'm going to take this off. So the other thing, and this is important, the other thing that Jesus really wants to happen when he leaves, because he's no longer speaking directly to the disciples, is that he wants them to know the scriptures. So he interprets to them the scriptures. At that time, it was just the Old Testament. He interprets to them the scriptures about himself. And when he's revealed to them, then that light switch goes on and they realize how deep and rich the Old Testament was in its predictions about Jesus. And so I also think not only does Jesus leave us the spirit so that we will grow and go deeper in our faith, but Jesus leaves us the spirit and the scriptures so that we will know more scriptures. And we can never tire of studying the scriptures. I'm going to tell

[21:51] you this. It's crazy. On August 1st, I will have been a pastor for 20 years. I don't have 20 years of experience. I'm a pastor for 20 years. I'm a pastor for 20 years. I'm a pastor for 20 years. I'm a pastor for 20 years. I have not run out of new things to learn in the scriptures. I read the scriptures again, a passage I've read many times, and I hope it's the spirit, but I keep seeing new things. God keeps showing new things that I haven't considered yet.

[22:28] And I say, isn't my heart strangely warmed that I'm not going to be able to learn the scriptures? I'm not going to be able to learn the scriptures. Walking with that scripture was this other meaning all along, and now I'm just seeing it. Do you see how that works? It's kind of interesting. Even now I'm learning about God's enduring desire for justice. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, it wasn't a category for me all that much growing up or maybe for the first 15 years as a pastor. But now it's in the forefront of our nation, and now it's in the forefront of us theologically and scripturally. We need to look at the scriptures and find out what God actually says about justice, and do it. That's what the scriptures are for. And so again, as another plug, come back today at 3 for our Life Together series, because we're going to look at the scriptures about justice and look at the scriptures about being close, being proximate to those who are in need, treating people out in the world who are far from us as if they are family, and standing up for the vulnerable. That's the lesson. Now, I don't want to tell you too much more of it, because then you might say, then I don't have to come. You have to come,

[23:34] to get even more of it. We're going to be studying Matthew 25 today. We're going to be learning the scriptures, and there's no end to the meaning that we can keep getting from scripture if we go back to it and back to it and back to it. Jesus leaves when it means we'll grow the most and learn the most, and he always returns when the journey is done, just like the lion. He always shows up at the end of the book. And this is it. True to the resurrection, Jesus will reveal himself at the end of our journey, at the end of the journey of this world. Like Jesus, each one of those books and each of this story here is almost like a macrocosm of world history. At the end of time, Jesus will show up and say, these are all the things that have happened, and these are all the ways I was with you, and these are all the ways that you failed, and these are all the ways that you did the right thing. And that's actually what we're going to look at this afternoon, the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. Like, here's all the stuff you did. Here's all the stuff you didn't do. He shows up at the end of time, and he sets all things right, and he brings context to everything. And he keeps teaching us. One last kind of note,

[24:53] so I'm going to take a look. Oh boy, oh boy. I keep thinking I'm going to go short, and that never works out. I'll work on it, I promise. There's other times when Jesus disappears. In the Gospels, before his resurrection. And one of them I think is super important. In John chapter 6, verse 15, and read John chapter 6 at home today, okay?

[25:16] There was the, he had done a miracle. The crowd was just totally amazed. And so the crowd wanted to take him by force and make him king. Now listen to that. The crowd wanted to grab Jesus by force. I don't know how you do that, but you kind of like, here, and we're going to make you our king. And I'm probably going to try to put him on a throne, put a crown on his head, something like that. And it says, right at that moment, he walked away, or maybe ran away. He evaded them. He just disappeared. He evaded them, and he went to a secluded place on a mountainside. And then later, when he taught them again about what he was really offering, which was sacrifice and the cross, and his own body and blood as a sign of what he had to give up for them, what they would have to give up for him. Then the crowd shrunk massively. Like, they really weren't interested anymore. They weren't that interested in making him king anymore. Now, I was talking just this week to a friend in Tucson, and they said, you know, what do you think of what happened at the Capitol on January 6th? And I said, I think it was terrible. I think it was crazy. And said, I'm really bothered that a lot of the people who were there were doing this, they thought, because they were Christians and in

[26:32] Jesus' name. I told them this story. I said, once there were some people who tried to make Jesus the king, and he ran away. Like, he ran away from that. He did not want that. And that's what we need to do. We need to run away from that. And so he's not interested that, in being king. And so we're not, we should not be interested in him being king. I want you to imagine for a moment two different Christians. And one, if you remember some included in some of them for some time some some some some some some some some some some power hungry to me. It's always conflict with them. I don't, I'm not, if they were to invite me to church, I would just like politely decline because there's no way that, I don't want to hang around with those people. Now imagine a different Christian who walks alongside their neighbors through thick and thin on long journeys through life together, right? And they don't talk about all that stuff. They're just supportive, good friends and neighbors. And all the while, they're actually really sharing Jesus with them. And then at some point, they break bread together, maybe not literal bread, but they come to a point in the relationship where things get really real.

[28:13] And in that moment, the neighbor says, wow, now I see it all. I know why you are the way you are. What do you have that I want? And that's that moment, that aha moment that your neighbor has. And I, it's kind of obvious what I want you to do. I want you to be the second kind of Christian. I want us all to be that kind of Christian. To walk with people and share Jesus with them all the while through what we say and do, but it doesn't actually have to be the gospel. Although at some points it does have to be the gospel, but you walk with them. And then when finally the moment comes, they will go, oh, wow, all this relationship with you, you, you have been like Jesus to me. We want that. They want them to look back and say, wasn't I strangely warmed?

[29:04] I'm like, oh, wow, I'm like Jesus to me. I see it now all this time that I knew you. And so just as Jesus does it for us, just as he did it for these two people on the road to Emmaus, we do it for other people so that they'll grow. And this could be our children or other people that we're discipling. And that's more of the resurrection life right there. We model our life after Jesus. Let's say a prayer. Father, thank you again for your word.

[29:30] Thank you. I'm a little bit elusive at times. That he shows up at the right times to help us grow. And he leaves behind his counselor to guide us. Father, send us deeply into the Scriptures to learn and grow. And help us be like Christ to our neighbors. We ask all this in Jesus' name.