Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: It's hard to believe that too many people are lacking information about what Jesus Christ did and who he was. But what they're lacking is that commitment in their heart. You make the commitment with your heart, not with your mind, brain, or what have you.

There are lots of people who study the Bible. You can go to universities that are thoroughly secular and study religious studies. They can teach you all about the Bible, but they just don't believe it. They know everything about what it says, but to them, it's no different from reading Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. It's just stories written by men.

Guest (Male): We are living in the information age, and it's clearer than ever that what we need is not more information, but transformation. We're glad you could join us because we'll hear of a classic example of this today on Hope From the Word. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, Jesus speaks to two of his disciples who are disheartened and in great need. Let's join Pastor Bill there as he begins by reading our text.

Bill Luebkemann: Now verse 13. "That same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. But they were kept from recognizing him."

"He asked them, 'What are you discussing together as you walk along?' They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked him, 'Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?' 'What things?' he asked. 'About Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied. 'He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.'"

"And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

Look, these guys here, I think you could say they were not part of the eleven. They weren't apostles because we're going to see later on that they returned to the apostles. So they were disciples of Jesus, and they were probably on their way home to this town called Emmaus, about seven miles away. So just to put that in perspective, if you were at the Marlton Circle, the Medford Circle is about five miles, so a couple of miles past that. That's about the kind of distance that they were walking.

And they were really bummed out. Two of them going to this village called Emmaus, they were talking with each other about everything that had happened. They were talking about Jesus' ministry, and what we learned from him, and why we followed him, and how we thought that he was the one that was going to redeem Israel. What a great teacher he was, and how much respect he had, and he never did anything wrong to deserve what happened to him.

But the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they didn't like him because they felt threatened. And they orchestrated this whole thing where they arrested him and had this trial, and they broke all their own laws, even having a trial at nighttime and executing him on the same day. No chance for an appeal, no waiting period. They didn't follow any of their own rules.

And all of our hopes and dreams are dashed. We spent, it doesn't say how long these particular disciples had been walking with the Lord, but maybe it was for the whole three years. Maybe it was just for a year or two, but did we waste all that time in our lives? Did we waste a year? Did we waste two years? They had invested themselves and they were followers of Jesus and they had such high hopes. This is it. Finally, after all this time, the kingdom, the nation of Israel is going to be restored to the glory days of Solomon.

We're going to have a nation again. And then this crucifixion had to happen. And he's dead and he died and all of our dreams were over just like that. They had the Last Supper on Thursday night, if you follow that schedule, and they sat around eating with him and they weren't expecting him to get crucified. And in the space of less than 24 hours from Thursday night to Friday morning, he was on a cross.

And they were shocked and disappointed and saddened and downcast, it says. And they were walking and discussing these things. What did we do wrong? Where did we go wrong? Was he really not the guy? What could we have done differently? When things don't work out the way you think they should work out, sometimes you beat yourself up thinking how could I have done this differently. How could I have got a different outcome? Maybe you get interviewed for a job and you don't get the job and you kick yourself for something that you said that you wished you hadn't said during the job interview.

What could we have done differently? How could there have been a different outcome? Will we ever get another chance in our whole lives to do this again? And as they were walking along, it says, discussing these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. Now we might think that is odd today that someone would come up and walk with you, but it wasn't uncommon in those days. All the foot traffic between the towns, someone else to keep you company and pass the time of day, going in the same direction.

Jesus came up, it says, and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. You can read this and say, man, what are they, crazy? They didn't recognize him? What's the matter with them? Did he look completely different? Some people will fault these guys and say how could they not recognize him. Other people say Jesus must have looked different. But I don't think either one is true. It says here they were kept from recognizing him. That's the way the Lord worked it out. He didn't want to be recognized, so they weren't able to recognize him.

And it says he came up and walked along with them. And the way these words are ordered here gives me the impression that they walked for a time, maybe just listening. Hey, how you doing? We're going this way. Let's walk together. And Jesus just listening to what they're saying as they have this conversation. And finally he asks them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" And they stood still, their faces downcast. These were like the saddest guys you ever met, maybe. Like they just buried a loved one perhaps.

One of them named Cleopas asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?" So they must have been talking while Jesus was listening for him to word it this way. Jesus walking along listening to them talk, they know he's there, they know he's listening. They're discussing all these events. And finally Jesus says, what is it you're talking about? And they're puzzled. You should recognize what we're talking about. You've been listening to us here. You know what happened. Don't you read the newspaper? Where are you from, Mars or something? You don't know what's going on?

The guy said, "Are you only a visitor here? You don't know all the things that have been happening here in these days? You don't know about this guy Jesus? You don't know about the crucifixion, the trial? How about the triumphal entry into Jerusalem when we were so hopeful?" These guys were going home to Emmaus perhaps, just thoroughly, completely bummed out. And here's a guy that doesn't even know anything about it. What planet is he from?

Jesus answered, "What things?" Now he's really got them going. Now you know when God asks a question, remember he's not looking for information. He already knows the answers to every question there is. There is no question that God does not know the answer to. He knows what happened yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He knows the past, present, and future. He knows everything about everything. He didn't need information; he was engaging them in a discussion here.

"What things?" he asked. "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel." Look, these guys had information here, they had head knowledge. They just didn't believe in their heart.

We're going to see that up in verse 25 when Jesus says, "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken." They weren't lacking information. There's a lot of people in the world today that are not lacking information either, especially in America today. It's hard to believe that too many people are lacking information about what Jesus Christ did and who he was. But what they're lacking is that commitment in their heart. You make the commitment with your heart, not with your mind, brain, or what have you.

There's lots of people that study the Bible and you can go to universities that are thoroughly secular and study religious studies and they can teach you all about the Bible, but they just don't believe it. They know everything about what it says, but to them it's no different from reading Plato and Aristotle and Socrates and all the rest of them. Just stories written by men.

They replied, he was a prophet. At some level they connected with him as being from God. It doesn't seem like they really know that he was the son of God, even though he certainly claimed to be on numerous occasions. He claimed to be the Son of Man, the I AM. He made it clear over and over again. Well, they at some level here at least, they connected that he was a prophet and he was powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. He did amazing things, this guy. You never heard about him? Cleansing the lepers, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind.

I can just imagine Jesus just listening to this as they describe what he was. But you have to have respect for these guys. They weren't totally out in left field. Nobody had connected it for anybody here. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him. The Jews weren't allowed to crucify anybody. They weren't allowed to carry out the death penalty, only the Romans could do that. And this wasn't all the Jews that did this. This was the chief priest and the rulers.

And they handed him over to the Romans so that the Romans could execute him, nail him to the cross. That was a Roman technique. And we're disappointed because we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Well, he did redeem Israel. It was already redeemed at the point this conversation was taking place. It was already redeemed. The resurrection had already happened. Jesus said when he was nailed on the cross, we looked at that last week, "It is finished." There's no more to be done. The whole thing is over and done with.

They were saying we had hoped he was the one that was going to redeem Israel. In their mind, it was a failure because it didn't work out the way they anticipated or expected it would work out. God doesn't do things the way we think he does. He does things differently than we do. His ways are not our ways. Our ways are not his ways; they are so much higher. And we think at so much of a lower level. We see somebody who's famous and we think, man, if only that person would get saved. They could share the Lord with millions and everybody would believe them.

But it doesn't work that way, of course. The most famous actor in Hollywood, if they get saved and start to share their faith, the rest of Hollywood says, has nothing to do with him anymore. We always have our own way of thinking that God should do something our own way. And we thought this guy was going to redeem Israel. We thought he was going to make a new thing here. We had hoped he was the one who would redeem. We thought we'd have a king again.

And that's not the half of it. That's bad enough. I mean, we were already bummed out on Saturday thinking about all these things, but now it's Sunday. And beyond that, it's the third day and some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb earliest morning and they didn't find his body. And then they came and they were talking like lunatics about a bunch of angels. And the angels said he was alive. What does that mean? Puzzled, perplexed, confused.

Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. The linen strips were there, the stone was rolled away, but the body wasn't there. We don't know if he rose again or not. We don't know what to believe. If someone comes up to you and says, "I saw an angel last night and he told me I'm going to be president of the United States someday." Sure, buddy. Yeah, you better take some sleeping pills and get some extra rest. They didn't know what to believe.

They were confused. They weren't putting down the women; they just had never heard that before. Nobody ever came to them and said, "I saw a vision of angels and said God's going to do this." The last big chorus of angels was when Jesus was born. I don't know if they even remembered that or connected that with this here. But some of our companions, they went to the tomb, they found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. We can't prove it because we didn't see him. They're talking to him, of course.

I just love this story. You wonder what was Jesus going through. You know, when I was about in 10th grade, I had this one teacher in my high school convinced, just for about two days, but I had him convinced that I was twins. And I was in his class and I used to hang out in the AV room with all the projectors and things, and he would come in and he'd see me there and he'd look at me and he had a lot of classes and everything. He'd look at me, "Are you in my class?" "Oh, that's my brother." "Oh, okay." And I had this going for just a couple days, not for long, but it was a lot of fun when he'd see me in class. Yeah, you talked to my brother in the AV room. He figured it out pretty quickly.

They went to the tomb and it was just like the women had said. The tomb was open, the linen strips lying there, the headpiece set aside. Everything was just like that, but he wasn't there. He wasn't there. Look, you can read the Bible and say this is great stories. I love to read stories, good literature. You're allowed to teach the Bible in public schools. You can't teach belief, but you can teach it as literature. And that's the way so many people look at it.

But the truth is he wasn't there because he had risen from the dead. And he did it to pay the debt of all mankind, to pay for my sin, to pay for your sin. Ken Graves did this great story. Last night we had communion and he sounds like one of these hiking, biking, mountain men guys. Honestly, I don't know how his wife can put up with that voice all the time. He's got such a deep voice.

And he just gave this great example last night. He talked about, suppose you took your kids to the sewer plant in town for a little field trip. I don't remember doing the sewer plant when we were in school. And suppose you were standing there next to this big vat and you knew what was in that vat. And you're teaching your kid how the city works and your camera got knocked in. Your kid accidentally knocked your camera in the vat. He said, what would be your reaction? Well, you'd be mad at your kid maybe, but you're not going to dive in after your camera. I really liked that camera and I had a lot of good pictures on that memory chip, but guess what? I'll get another camera.

But then he described how, suppose your kid fell in. You told your kid don't go near the edge. I remember being at the Grand Canyon and my kids were scared. They didn't want to go anywhere near the edge. I'd go, let's go down there. Dad, get away from there. It's too close. And then we started talking to a park ranger and said, "Does anybody ever fall in?" "Oh yeah, about 15 this year." Then he said, suppose your kid fell in this big vat of sewerage. What are you going to do? You love your kid, you're going to jump in and get him and pull him out.

And he went on to say that's what Jesus did for us by being nailed to that cross and becoming sin for us. He got into all the filth and all the sin of all the world and all the pornography and all the murder and all the wars and the crimes and the murders and the rapes and every evil thought and lustful desire and everything he took upon himself. And he said basically the worst part of being nailed to the cross wasn't the physical pain of having spikes in your hands and feet. It was the pain of taking on all the sin of the world and then taking the punishment for that from God and that loss of communication with God the Father.

Look, you can read this as some story and you can go home and say, what a nice story and I think I'll read another one tomorrow. But it's more than a story. It's the truth about what happened about a God who became man and lived among us and lived a perfect life. Perfect in every way. And yet he was crucified, nailed to a tree, spikes in his hands, and it was the will of God that he should be crushed, afflicted, smitten. It was the will of God that this must happen.

The son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful man, be crucified and on the third day be raised again. Must happen. Why? Because God ordained that as the penalty for your sin and your sin and my sin because our sin was that bad. And how sad it is that you talk to people today and they think they're going to go to heaven because we're not so bad. I'm pretty good. I fly my American flag. I pay my taxes, most of them anyway. I mean, I help the poor once in a while. I don't drive over the speed limit. Well, not more than 20% anyway. I don't lie, not more than a few times a week. I don't steal, well maybe just a few pencils from work or something. I never had an affair or anything, maybe just a few lustful thoughts.

Our sins, it was a great illustration, they really are like sewerage. And if you can imagine what it would be like to be submerged in that vat of sewerage trying to find your kid who slipped in. It was worse for him what happened to him. And this isn't just a story. If this was a story we could just all go out to lunch now and say, well that was a nice story, a little gross. But next week let's try to have one that's a little bit nicer ending.

But this has a great ending. He did it for us so that we could live forever if we put our faith and trust in him. And if we realize that we are sinners and that we need a savior. We don't need a purpose; we need a savior. And our savior is a shepherd who leads his sheep. You drive cattle, you lead sheep. And he is our savior and he leads us to green pastures. He provides for us and looks after us.

And these guys, they didn't know that yet, and Jesus is about to explain it all to them. But he says, "How foolish you are," in verse 25, "and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" It must happen that way. Jesus saying here, didn't these things have to be done that way? And then he would enter his glory and then those that put their faith in him. He doesn't call us to be perfect, just calls us to be forgiven by our faith in him.

Guest (Male): Forgiven and saved by faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross on our behalf. That's the good news. If you haven't yet, you can choose to follow Jesus today while there's still time. We're studying the events surrounding the empty tomb right now on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

You can join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. Once again, we'll be reviewing the seven last sayings of Christ tomorrow. Join us then as Pastor Bill Luebkemann returns with more Hope From the Word.