No Hope/Hope

Luke Following Jesus Gives Focus No Hope/Hope

Text: Luke 24:13-35

Intro: I do not like to do jigsaw puzzles. My mom does, but now she doesn’t see well enough to do so. My mom watches John Warren’s posts on Facebook, and she saw that he does jigsaw puzzles, so a few months ago, she had me bring him one that she knew was too hard for her. John spent a few weeks and much work took a mess of pieces and made this.

1. Scene
   1. The two disciples were not one of the twelve. They followed Jesus.
   2. One disciple is unnamed, and the other is Cleopas. Many scholars believe this is the same person referenced in John 19:25. Possibly, this refers to Mary and Cleopas.

• In an art museum in Florence, Italy, there are rooms of masterpieces from the Renaissance. At the end, when you reach the exit, you find a surprise: at the end of all the masterpieces, there is an empty frame where you can place your face in the final frame as a masterpiece. This nameless disciple is much like this empty frame, as we can put our face into this story.

1. They probably were in Jerusalem celebrating the Passover and following the movements of Jesus. Jesus entered as a king, and on Friday was killed among criminals, buried by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. On Sunday morning, the women went to finish the work of preparing the body. The stone was rolled away, and they met two angels and saw that the tomb was empty.
2. These two disciples are traveling home, confused and with their hopes dashed, as what they expected from Jesus did not come to pass 24:21.

• Phillips Brooks' Christmas carol: "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." O little town of Bethlehem.

1. If you once hoped in Jesus but have lost hope, this text speaks directly to your situation. Jesus helps us to find hope:
2. Jesus drew near
3. A stranger joins the couple as they travel, and they discuss what happened to Jesus during the week. The stranger asked, “What are you talking about?” 24:19

• Have you ever talked about someone and suddenly they walk up behind you, without knowing they were there? Maybe a friend, who was looking behind you, signaled to you to shut up. The very person you are talking about is present. With Jesus: You can’t talk about him behind his back. He is the Lord who knows every conversation. My conversations would be different if I could only remember that Christ is always present in every conversation.

1. Jesus knew their specific GPS location and the position of their hearts. Ps. 139:2-3
2. They literally stopped walking, and their countenance was sad because they had lost hope. Why had they lost hope? Jesus drew near to those whom the religious leaders had let down. Jesus pulled out of them their pain. What things? 24:19
   1. They had church hurt coming from their religious leaders.
      1. Their religious leaders committed an evil atrocity against Jesus.
      2. Maybe you have been around a religious leader who has hurt you. Maybe I have hurt you? Jesus cares about religious hurt. 24:20
   2. They struggled internally with their pain.
      1. The things that have happened - Jesus, whom they loved, was a mighty prophet, taught like no other as he taught with authority, healed the broken, raised the dead 24:19, and was now beaten and crucified as a criminal just outside of Jerusalem.
      2. Their question now fundamentally begins with “why?” Why is the mighty prophet of God cursed to die?
      3. I don’t understand why Jesus would allow what has happened in my life. Why did he allow this to happen? This couple lives in the world of “why.”
      4. We hoped he was the one to redeem Israel - Jesus was going to be the one to remove the oppressive Roman government from their necks, and they would experience the good life as their king took the throne.

• In reading the great theological commentary of Facebook, I am amazed by the post describing who we think Jesus is. Jesus evidently gives us everything we want: health, wealth, or a middle-class life at a minimum, children who are on the straight and narrow, etc.

1. He has been dead for three days. Jewish superstition stated that the soul would hang around the body until the third day and then would leave. He has been dead for three days, so he is beyond hope.
2. They were confused relationally. Their friends confused them.
   1. This couple was part of the broader group of disciples following Jesus, and they provide us with an independent witness to the resurrection, separate from the testimony of the disciples.
   2. This couple must have been with the disciples when the women reported what they saw at the tomb: the stone was rolled away, the linen wrappings were still there, the face cloth was lying off to the side, and angels told them Jesus was alive just as he had said he would be, and now they are confused 24:22-24
   3. The women experienced the miraculous, but Peter and John did not, and neither have they. Since they lacked the miraculous experience of the women, they doubted Jesus and what He was doing. Peter and John go to the tomb and see the evidence, but they don’t see Jesus.
3. Jesus does not respond with anger to their lack of faith, but is near to those who have been hurt by the religious, by others, and are confused by God. The Lord honors spiritual honesty. Hab. 3:17-19

III. Jesus Identifies The Problem

1. Jesus listened and knows what they have said is true:
   1. Their leaders have let them down
   2. They appropriately struggle with the religious leaders.
   3. They don’t understand why God does or does not do things.
   4. They don’t know what to do with their friends’ testimony at the tomb.
2. The problem is that their hearts are slow to believe - our nature is not to trust God and His word, but to trust in ourselves.
   1. A lack of hope comes from being slow to believe and trust in God.
   2. When we are slow to heart to believe, we must ask, is this because we don’t trust God and His word, or that we don’t really know God and His word?
3. The moment Jesus stated this, they could have interrupted him and defended themselves, but they didn’t. They listened, received the rebuke, and then they received hope. Sometimes, when people tell us something difficult, we need to sit back and consider it to determine if we deserve the rebuke.
4. Hope in our lives often comes from the loving rebuke of Jesus.

IV. Jesus Focuses Attention on Himself

1. As Jesus focuses attention on Himself, He will actually address a second problem: they did not listen to His previous teaching about His need to suffer, be crucified, and rise again.
2. 24:25-27 Jesus listened and gave his presence to their situation, but ultimately, he interpreted Scripture to address their problem. He reminded them of the necessity of the crucifixion. This is Biblical counseling at its core.

• Up until this time in all of Hebrew history, there had been no rabbi or biblical interpreter who had interpreted Genesis through Malachi and found a suffering Messiah. Not one ever saw a messiah who would suffer. A throne—yes. An army—yes. Humiliation, a cross, a tomb—no. The thorn room is the way to the throne room, and the cross is the way to the crown. None of us want that. Few of us believe that. They had not seen the suffering Messiah in Isaiah 53:5 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+53%3A5): "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."

1. Jesus teaches about Himself through the Scriptures (24:26-27). I want to listen to this sermon when I get to heaven. The Old Testament points to Jesus and the New Testament points to Jesus.
2. Jesus would later teach about Himself from the scriptures before His ascension 24:44-46.
3. The Bible is not primarily about morals, miracles, or heroic efforts, even though these elements are all present. The Bible is about Jesus and the good news of Jesus saving man from His sins. Jn. 5:39-40, 2 Cor. 1:20

• The puzzle is becoming clear to these disciples as they see the puzzle box top, which is a picture of Jesus. Jesus is the divine yes to the Old Testament.

1. We do not know the specific scriptures Jesus used to teach about Himself, but throughout the Old Testament, there are prophecies concerning the Messiah who would come as a great deliverer. However, before this deliverance, He would suffer and die.
   1. Pierced for our transgressions
   2. Crushed for our iniquities,
   3. Punishment that would bring us peace would be on him
   4. By his wounds we are healed
2. After suffering, Jesus would rise and come again. The suffering and death of Jesus is not the end of our hope but the beginning of our hope.
3. Jesus is the hope of all who struggle. When we look to Jesus and focus on Him, we can find hope. Our living hope is found in Christ alone.
4. Jesus promises to those who believe:

V. Jesus Forces A Decision 24:28

1. They are at the end of their journey, and Jesus appears to be moving on, but the couple must make a choice. Invite Jesus into their homes or allow Him to move along.
2. They choose to invite Jesus over for dinner. Had they not invited Jesus into their home, they would not have experienced hope. Can you see how Jesus forced a decision? 24:28-29
3. Jesus revealed Himself at dinner as he broke bread with them. We do not know how this happened, but I wonder if, in the process of breaking bread, they saw the nail scars in his wrists?
4. Their eyes were opened, and they went from hopeless to filled with hope because they chose to believe the truth. They did not believe in something crazy, but they believed in the truth that Jesus is alive. They went from eyes that could not see to eyes now open. 24:16
5. They had been with Jesus and didn’t even know it. The one that they loved and followed, but had caused such great confusion, was in their presence, cutting through their clouds of despair. Jesus was there all along.
6. Once you learn from Jesus, you're responsible for the information.
   1. Sermons are not for information, but for transformation, and transformation only happens under the power of the Holy Spirit when you submit your life to Him.
   2. They needed to share the good news with others: “Jesus is alive.” Their story of meeting Jesus fit alongside that of Mary and the women, as well as Peter and John.
7. When Jesus vanished from their sight, he did so with a physical body as he was about to eat a meal with them.
8. Faith in Jesus did not happen at the kitchen table, but rather it occurred when they were with Jesus on the road and he taught them the scriptures. When Jesus taught them, “their hearts burned within them.” The word interpreted the word.
9. Their hearts burned within them when they did not know it was Jesus, but the word of God did its work in them. They went from hopeless to hearts burning from the truths of scripture.
10. Rom. 10:17 Faith will always be born from the word of God.
11. The same scriptures Jesus taught them is available to us all. Jesus is not teaching it to us, but rather the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to us, so that the Bible comes alive and brings about life change. Heb. 4:12
12. When Jesus first met them on the road, their eyes were not opened to who Jesus was (24:16). Once Jesus taught them the scriptures, their eyes were opened to who Jesus was and the miracle of the resurrection.
13. Jesus does not desire our faith to rest on an extraordinary miracle that is unique to us; rather, our faith is to be grounded in the Word of God.
14. Jesus taught them from the Old Testament because that was all they had available at the time, but we also have the New Testament to help us understand how to best follow Jesus.

VI. So What? 1 Pet. 1:3-9

1. 1:3 Jesus’ death and resurrection is our hope when bad things happen. Just as Jesus knew where Cleopas and the other disciple were on the way to Emmaus, Jesus knows where you are. He is the same living hope today as He was then.
2. 1:4 This hope promises us an inheritance.
3. 1:5 This hope promises us protection
4. 1:6-7 This hope promises us a purpose in our trials.
5. 1:8-9 This hope promises us fulfillment in Jesus’ presence

Conclusion:

Do you feel hopeless?

A surgeon, Richard Selzer, has written of moments from his surgical practice:

I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, somewhat clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, had been severed. She will be this way from now on.

I had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve.

Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me; the moment is a private one.

Who are they, I ask myself? He and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at each other so generously, so lovingly. The young woman speaks.

"Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks.

"Yes," I say, "it will. It is because the nerve was cut." She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles.

"I like it," he says, "It's kind of cute."

All at once, I know who he is. I understand, and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a God moment. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate hers, to show her that their kiss still works.

Here is what the two on the road did not expect. No one expected it: that God himself would come down to us and twist himself because we are twisted, distort himself because we are distorted, disfigure himself because we are disfigured.