Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: I believe everything about it except the part of Him raising from the dead. I just really have a hard time believing that. Well, that's the main part. If He couldn't bring Himself back from the dead, then He can't bring you back from the dead. Why believe any of it if you don't believe the most important part of it?

If He can bring you back from the dead, He should be able to bring Himself back from the dead. That was the whole purpose of Him doing that, was for Him to demonstrate that fact to us.

Guest (Male): There's a difference between unbelief and doubt. Unbelief is a matter of the will. You're unwilling to believe. Doubt is a struggle in the mind, having a hard time understanding what God is doing or why. If you're struggling with doubt, you're certainly not alone.

Today's Hope From the Word will serve to help us all in our faith as we continue to look at what followed the resurrection. We'll be greatly encouraged as we hear of how our risen Lord ministers to a couple of His struggling disciples. In Luke Chapter 24, here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: Well, we're going to continue where we left off last time in Luke Chapter 24. We'll start in verse 13. This was after the resurrection. Just to set the stage here, on the first day of the week, the resurrection day, Easter Sunday if you want to call it that, very early in the morning the women went out to the tomb.

Jesus' body wasn't there. They didn't know what to make of that. They saw an angel. The angel told them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen." The angel reminded the ladies what Jesus had said before He died. They went back to the apostles and disciples and related this to them, but it just seemed like nonsense to them.

You remember I said that word meant "out of your senses," or even like a lunatic, like a crazy person. Peter running out to the tomb, we know from the other gospels that John went with him. Bending over, seeing the strips of linen and wondering what had happened. They hadn't seen the Lord. They had heard what the angels said.

The ladies had seen the angel. The guys didn't even get to see the angels, and they were just wondering what's going on here. Where is He? What happened to His body? Did someone take Him? Is He really alive? Could that be possible? Is it likely that that happened? Just confused, I think. And these two guys on this road to Emmaus were in that same place.

They had heard all these stories about what the ladies had said, and they were there perhaps to hear them, and His body isn't there, and we saw this angel. We just don't know what to make of it. And now they're probably heading home this day on this road to Emmaus, about seven miles. Verse 13: "Now 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." So we see again these two guys walking on this road, just discussing what had happened.

"Can you believe that after the last three years? Can you believe that He's dead, that they crucified Him? Can you believe what happened? Did we waste all that time that we spent with Him for the last one or two or three years?" It doesn't really say how long these particular guys had been disciples. "Were we hoping in vain? Do we have to give up all of our hopes?"

They just were feeling ruined, wiped out. Kind of like the way you'd feel if your house burned down, or someone stole your car, or you lost your job or whatever, only maybe worse. And they're walking along talking about what had happened and what are we going to do now. Is life going to get back to the way it was before?

What were we doing before we met Jesus? Do we want to go back to that? I just can imagine they were just bummed out and wiped out. But at the same time, they were a little confused because they had heard about the angel and they had heard about His body not being there. "What do you think that means? What are we to do with that?"

And here comes Jesus, just walking along with them. It says as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus came up and walked along with them. Look, the first thing He did was He walked along with them. He didn't introduce Himself: "Hi, I'm Jesus. Remember Me?" They didn't recognize Him.

It says they were kept from recognizing Him. That doesn't mean they were stupid. They weren't just so upset that they were unable to recognize Him. It doesn't say He looked any different than He did before. It says they were kept from recognizing Him. The Holy Spirit, God, somehow just prevented them from knowing who He was.

They didn't recognize Him. Some people turn this around and say, well, He must have looked different in His resurrection body. It doesn't really say that. It doesn't really give us an explanation of how it happened, just that they were prevented from recognizing Him. It wasn't something that they chose to do on their own part.

But the first thing Jesus did was come up and walk along with them. It doesn't say how long He did this, but before He started talking to them, He was just walking with them. Maybe He said, "Hey, how you doing?" And they're just walking along and He's just soaking in what they're saying. And they're talking to each other, and Jesus is listening to them for some period of time.

Maybe it was an hour or two; maybe it was only a few minutes. But He was listening to their conversation, and that leads up to this question that He asks them in verse 17: "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" Now, He had been listening to them, but He pretended now not to know what it was they were talking about.

They were talking about this guy, Jesus, and getting crucified, and we don't know if He's really alive or not, and we don't know if we wasted the last two years of our lives, or however long it was, with Him. And Jesus now just asking a rhetorical question here. Remember, we always say when God asks a question, He's not looking for information.

He knows the information. He's asking the question to make us think, or to provoke us, or to teach us something, or to show us something. And He asks them, "What are you guys talking about?" Now, you have to know that He walked along first, so He listened to them first. That's why they were a little surprised because since they were talking and He was listening, and this was on the front page of the newspaper and all over the internet and on the radio and everything, they figured He had to know what was going on.

And He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" just to provoke them a little bit, to get them to think, to get them to consider, to find out where they're at. And they stood still, their faces downcast. I guess they were so surprised at His question that they stopped.

These guys, I don't think you ever could meet two guys that were any more sad than these guys, maybe Peter on the night that he betrayed the Lord. But their faces were downcast. And one of them named Cleopas asked Him, "Are You only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened here in these days?"

Now, we're not given the name of the other guy. It's not important what their names were. But he's surprised, he's shocked. He says, "You must be from out of town, friend. You must be visiting. You haven't seen the paper. You haven't heard the discussion. How is it possible that anybody could be in Jerusalem and not know what's going on?"

These events were so dramatic that everybody knew about it. Everybody knew about the dramatic entry into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday today, and how He rode in on the donkey. The whole city was in an uproar. Some people liked what Jesus had to say, and some people didn't. Some were on His side, and some people weren't.

I don't think too many were in the middle. Certainly the leaders were against Him, and they were all united. And those that supported them, you can bet that the leaders of Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders, the High Priest, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, you can bet that they were working the phones and in contact with their network and trying to get all of their people rising up against the Lord.

And then on the other hand, you have those people who were looking for the salvation of Israel, who were excited about what was happening, who had heard about the miracles: the lepers being cleansed, the blind seeing, the sick being healed, the lame walking. Everybody had an opinion. Everybody had a side. Everybody knew something.

And it was just preposterous that these people here would be like somebody not knowing who the President of the United States is when you live in America. I like to watch on late-night TV every once in a while. One of the late-night guys will go out on the street and ask people questions like, "Who was President during the Civil War?"

And it's really amazing the answers you get, how ignorant the people in America are. They did a survey where they asked young people who were graduating from college compared to young people who were going into college, and the ones graduating from college knew less than the ones going into college about simple things like, "What year was Abraham Lincoln President?"

Or about the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, different Presidents. Sometimes some simple questions like, "What continent is a certain country in?" And it's just hilarious to watch people that just have no clue. And you wonder, didn't they have to memorize the states when they were young, or the capitals, or what have you? Didn't they ever look at an atlas?

And these people here are feeling the same way, the same way you would feel watching late-night TV, seeing those people not being able to answer a simple question. They're feeling that way here. "Are You only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days? Are You just passing through? Where are You from?"

"What things?" He asked. Jesus now prompting them again. "What things are you talking about?" He didn't say He didn't know the answer, by the way. He just said, "What things? Tell me about it." "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." So these two guys share with Jesus where they're at and what's going on.

And Jesus said, "What thing is it you're talking about?" and they said, "Well, we're talking about this guy Jesus of Nazareth." Now, what do they know about Him? They're His disciples; they've been following Him for some period of time. What do they know about Him? They have head knowledge here; they don't have heart knowledge.

We're going to see in verse 25 how Jesus says to them they're "slow of heart" to believe. These people are at the point where the knowledge is up here, but not in here. And you can know a lot up here. There was an article in the Washington Post, I think it was this week, written by some esteemed Bible scholar who knows too much up here and not enough in here.

I think the title of the article was "Jesus Saves; The Bible Doesn't Save." I forget the exact wording. "Jesus Saves, Not the Bible." And he went on to list all these criticisms of the Bible, basically anything he didn't like, he criticized. He has it all up here, but not down here. And spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

And you can only discern spiritual things by the Holy Spirit, which has to live inside of you. And if you don't have that, then you can read this whole book here, and it's not going to make any sense at all to you. Belief has to come first. "Jesus of Nazareth" is what they say to Him. "It's about Him. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people."

So they knew He was a prophet. They knew He brought forth the word of God. They knew He was from God. They knew He was sincere, a good guy, and all that kind of stuff. He was their friend; they didn't have any beef with Him. And they knew He was powerful in word and in deed before God and all the people.

They knew He could do amazing things. It doesn't seem like they know who He was exactly. It doesn't seem like they know that He was the Son of God. They know He was a prophet, that He was important, that the words He spoke were true and accurate, and that He could do amazing things. But they just didn't have it locked in here yet.

And they go on to say how the chief priests and the rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and then they crucified Him. "But we had hoped He was the one who was going to redeem Israel." In other words, "We're disappointed. We had put our hopes in this guy. We were expecting that He was going to redeem our nation."

Remember, they didn't even have a nation at this point; they were living under the dominion of Rome. Ever since they were carried off into captivity, Israel never really existed as a country again. And so they had no nation. They were under Rome's thumbprint, if you will. "And we thought He was going to be the one to redeem it.

And we invested years of our life, and we studied the scriptures, and we just were convinced this was the guy, and now He's dead and gone and crucified, and we're just without hope. We're distraught. We're kind of at the end of our line here. But what's more than that is we're also perplexed because today is the third day since this all happened.

And some women amazed us. They went out to the tomb this morning, and His body wasn't there. And then they told us this thing about all these angels and stuff. And now we don't know what to think. And the angel said He was alive, and His body wasn't there, but we haven't seen Him alive yet. But we're just really confused."

You get the impression here these poor guys really had no idea what was going on. "Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see." They went out there, Peter and John, some friends of ours, and the women were right. They didn't see the angels, I don't think, but they went in and found His body wasn't there and the stone was rolled away.

And the linens were laid nice and neat in a row, just as if His body had just lifted up right through them, kind of like beamed up to heaven like they do in Star Trek. "And now we're really confused. We were really hurting when He was crucified, but now we get this story here, and we have maybe some glimmer of hope, but we don't know how to bring it all together.

We can't figure out how it all fits together. We're kind of stuck here." And Jesus replying to them in verse 25, He said to them, "How foolish you are, 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?"

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning Himself. Now, remember they still don't know who He is. I guess at this point they begin to think, well, He must know something about this whole situation with Jesus. "Are You one of His disciples, too?"

They somehow have picked up that He knows something, and He says to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." Slow of heart. Look, it's in our heart that we believe. We can know all kinds of things in our mind: Einstein's equations, and how to launch a space shuttle and get to the moon, and how to operate and fix people's open-heart surgery.

We can know all kinds of things about so many things, but it's in our heart that we believe. And see, He says here, "How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." You know, you can read it, that's one thing. You can understand what it says or you can know it. You can quote it.

There are people that can quote large passages from the Bible, and they work in some of our nation's most esteemed universities and they write articles and show how foolish they are in the Sunday paper sometimes because they don't believe. To them, it's just words on a book. They could read Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, the Bible—it's ancient literature.

We like to read it. We study all the words. We know the syntax. We know who said what. We can date it and whatever. But we just don't believe that it really happened. I remember sharing, witnessing with a relative many years ago, and she told me, "You know, I believe everything about it except the part of Him raising from the dead.

I just really have a hard time believing that." Well, that's the main part. If He couldn't bring Himself back from the dead, then He can't bring you back from the dead. Why believe any of it if you don't believe the most important part of it? If He can bring you back from the dead, He should be able to bring Himself back from the dead.

That was the whole purpose of Him doing that, was for Him to demonstrate that fact to us. Everybody knew what was going on here. These guys were amazed and surprised that this fellow hadn't heard of Jesus. They didn't know that they were talking to Him. But you know when He rose from the dead, it says tombs were opened.

Many people were raised from the dead at the same time and were walking all around the city. Can you imagine your friend Harry, who's been dead for three years, coming in to see you? "Hey, how you doing?" What would you do? You're sitting at home and the doorbell rings and you go to the door and there's a friend that was dead for three years and he shows up at your door.

The city knew what was going on. What would you say? "Hey, come in, have a bite to eat. It's good to see you"? I think some people just pass out. I like that movie where the guy was stuck on the island for four years. What was that called? Cast Away. Who was in that? Tom Hanks. And at the end of it, he calls his girlfriend who's now married to someone else.

And she hears his voice and they just show her fall over. Well, that's about what I think any of us would do if your loved one or your friend or your neighbor that you knew showed up at your door. You'd open the door and just fall over. And yet there was hundreds that had had this happen on the day of the resurrection.

Jesus says, "How foolish you are, 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?" "Look, this was God's plan," He says. "This had to happen. This was arranged from before the beginning of time. And I taught you these things when I was here with you," I think is what He's saying.

Taught you all that the prophets had spoken and how what the prophets said would be fulfilled. The whole entire Old Testament speaks to the coming of Jesus. And why don't you guys believe? These things had to happen. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the scripture concerning Himself.

Look, this was probably the most amazing Bible study that these guys had ever heard as they walked along the road. To have Jesus explain it all to you firsthand as you're walking along after it's done, I just can't imagine a better Bible study than that. I can't imagine what was said. But He had to take them all the way back to Genesis 3.

Where the Lord said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel." He had to take them back at least that far. And He had to take them into Genesis 12 or 15, maybe, when the Lord spoke to Abraham and said, Genesis 12:3, "And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you," because salvation is from the Jews.

And He had to take them through how the Temple was a reflection, or the Tabernacle, starting with the Tabernacle, then the Temple, a reflection of the things of heaven. And maybe He recited to them Isaiah 53: "He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

He had to take them there, you would think. He had to look at Isaiah, a "wonderful counselor," "Prince of Peace," "Almighty Father." Daniel, saying the Messiah will be "cut off, but not for Himself." Zechariah, "they will look on me whom they've pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn."

I don't know how He could have time to explain to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning Himself. This had to be a miracle here in itself that He could explain all of Moses and all the prophets and how it all connected together. I wonder if He made the sun stand still and stretch the day a few hours longer.

How long would that take to go through all of that? To think about the fact that He was the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. That it was Jesus who was the one who wrestled with Jacob. That when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, and they came and talked with Abraham before doing that, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord there.

That His was the voice that came from the burning bush. That He was the Lion of Judah. That He was the prophet the scripture said would be greater than Moses. That He's the Good Shepherd elaborated on in Psalm 23 and so many more places. The love in Solomon and the wisdom of Proverbs.

The ultimate kinsman-redeemer. Think about the story of Ruth and the kinsman-redeemer and Jesus being the ultimate one of those. You can look in any page of the Old Testament just about and see the story of salvation and God's plan at work. It's kind of like I think you could call the Old Testament "the rise and fall of a nation."

The beginning of Israel, and they rose and they had their peak, and then they went on down. And you read all the prophets there and all the judgment that was coming upon them. Kind of like the rise and fall of Israel, but God knowing in advance it's going to rise and it's going to fall, but in the end there's going to be salvation because that's My plan and foretold all throughout that time.

Guest (Male): Isn't it amazing how our great God and Savior Jesus Christ humbly and patiently sought after His discouraged disciples? That's our Lord. We trust you've been encouraged by Him and that you've received hope from the Word. You have a few options if you'd like to hear this again.

Either go to ccmarlton.org, where we archive our radio programs, or listen to us through the Hope FM app. Maybe you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton, where Bill serves as Pastor. Our service time is on Sunday mornings at 10:00, and we also meet in the middle of the week on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM.

You can also livestream from home or wherever you may be when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org, and we hope to see you soon. Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're getting out of this present series.

Email is easy to do at our website, ccmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come in our Easter series, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.