Opening Closed Eyes

[00:00:00] For those that have been a part of our church. You know that in the couple months leading up to Easter, we spent, we spent a couple months looking at the story of Jesus trial, of his crucifixion and then leading to the celebration of his resurrection last week. And, uh, but what we realize, if we spent that much time talking about Jesus' suffering, I wanna spend a little bit more time talking about the joy of his resurrection as well.

And so we're gonna continue for two more weeks looking at Luke's account of his resurrection and all that that meant. And even sometimes the struggle that we have to understand, really believe, and to really apply it to our lives. And so this morning we're gonna be looking at Luke chapter 24, verses 13 through 32.

It's a really unusual story, a story about a couple people that met Jesus on the road after his resurrection and, and spent hours talking to him without even recognizing it was him. And uh, it's an incredible story. If you have a Bible, I'd invite you to turn there to leave it open throughout our time. Um, there's one in front of you.

If you have one that you would like to, you don't have one, you have, you would like to [00:01:00] use that. But let me begin by reading the passage. We're gonna dive into this morning. Luke 24, starting in verse 13. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking to each other about all these things that had happened.

And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is the conversation that are you holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. And then one of them named Cleopas, answered him, are you the only visitor Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

And he said to them what things? And they said, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and the rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.

And yes, beside all [00:02:00] this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some of the women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they'd even seen a vision of angels who had said that he was alive.

And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and they found it just as the woman had said, but that him, they did not see. And he said to them, oh, foolish ones and slow of, hard to believe all that the prophets had spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them in the scripture, the things concerning himself. And so they drew near to the village, which they were going, and he acted as if he were going further. But they urged him strongly saying, stay with us for his toward evening, and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them, and when he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it, and broke it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened and they recognized him [00:03:00] and he vanished from their sight. And they said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures.

And God bless the reading of his word. Let me pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we have to come together this morning, father, to be able to dive into this passage. Father, thank you for the things that you're teaching me, father, for the incredible beauty, the practicality of, of this passage.

And Father, I pray that you would now speak through me, father, that your word would go forth and, and somehow I would get lost in the midst of this. That father, that what we would hear today wouldn't be the opinions of a person, but Father somehow through a person that the words of God and Father, I pray for each one of us that are here that we would understand and that apply these truths that you would speak to our hearts this morning.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The last Sunday, like most churches, we spent time looking at the Easter story. And how in Luke 24, we read that some of the women who were part of Jesus [00:04:00] followers went to the tomb early in the morning to finish anointing Jesus' body for burial. But they found the stone rolled away.

They found the grave empty. I. And as they stood there overwhelmed by a combination of fear and grief and confusion, suddenly these angels stood before them with, with clothing that like flashed with lightning. And look at what the angel said. Why do you seek the living amongst the dead? He has not here but has risen.

Remember how he told you why he was still in Galilee, that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified. And on the third day rise. Now. Now here's where we often are mistaken in what happens next, because I think it's common for us to look at this and to believe that, that after the women saw the empty tomb, they run back.

They tell everyone, you know, they, they tell 'em about the angels and the celebration begins and everybody's, and he's risen. You know, he, I remember him saying that It's incredible. Praise God. And that's kind of what we envision. But the only [00:05:00] thing is that's not what happened. In fact, when we look at the whole picture that Luke paints here, he makes it really clear there wasn't an sudden celebration.

In fact, he makes it clear no one believed the women and, and I think part of it, it's hard for us to really comprehend how, how much in shock the disappointment they had after the crucifixion. But since the disciples didn't understand everything that Jesus had said about his death. They didn't, they didn't understand it, didn't even recognize or, or, uh, or register with him when he talked about the fact that he would be risen from the grave.

And, and so now no one suspects the resurrection. And even after the woman find the empty tomb, they didn't believe. And when the women tell them about this angel that came and told them that Jesus is alive, verse 11 tells us that the disciples thought they were delirious. You know, I wonder if even they said something like, man, y'all have had a, Hey, it's been too much.

You've had a long week, and, um, you need some rest. You know, [00:06:00] let's get some antidepressants for you. You know, you need to, you, you're stressed out. And that's kind of the spirit of what you see here in the reaction. And likewise, in verse 12, we see that Peter and, and John were told in John, they run to the tomb.

They see the empty grave, but they don't walk away believing. They walk away confused. You see the picture that Luke paints is one that all the followers of Jesus Christ were still in despair Sunday afternoon, even after they had heard about the empty tomb. Well, for the stories, they brought hope, but probably a lot more confusion than hope.

Now, this morning, we're gonna look at two of those followers of Christ who were still confused and still very much even in grief. The story that we read a few moments ago in, in verses 13 through 32, it tells a story of these two followers of Jesus who were walking back from Jerusalem to their home village called Emmaus, which was about a seven mile walk away.

And while they're walking along the road, a stranger joins them and begins talking [00:07:00] to them and, and we're told that that stranger is none other than Jesus himself. But yet then verse 17 tells us that their eyes were kept from recognizing them. Now. Now think about that. Here they have heard the stories of the empty tomb.

They've heard the story of angels proclaiming that Jesus is alive and now they have Jesus himself walking alongside of them. And they were still blind to the facts that were right in front of them. And you could say that they didn't understand it because you know, they didn't understand the cross. And so, and because they didn't understand what God was doing, they couldn't understand how God was working even when God was right beside them.

And so look at that, done with that. But in verse 17, Jesus asked them about what they're talking about and, and in verse 17, their initial response is emotional. It says they stood still looking sad. This is, again, again, incredible. The greatest news in all human history has taken place, and they're sad because they're living as if it's isn't true.

See, [00:08:00] Luke is careful to tell us, this is on Easter Sunday. It's the same day that, that the, that Jesus had been raised again. What we're reading now about these two is that these were part of Jesus' inner circle, but they weren't part of the 11 disciples. Verse 18 tells us, one of 'em is a guy named Cleopas and most believe that he's the same guy referred to in John 1925 as a Cleopas who was at the cross when Jesus was crucified and he was there with his wife Mary.

So this is probably Cle EPIs and Mary walking back, it's husband, wife. Walking these seven miles back to their home and, and it's not surprising that their conversation is full of everything that happens specifically with Jesus, right? Because they were followers, they had high hopes of Jesus. Everything had pointed to the idea that Jesus was gonna be the Messiah, that they had hoped that he would be, and now they encounter him not knowing it's Jesus.

And Jesus asked him, what are you talking about? They said, well, Jesus, and well, he was verse 19. He [00:09:00] was a man, was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God, and all the people, and again, they had great hope in the ministry of Jesus, but their hopes had seemingly been dashed. Why? Because they had hoped that he would be the one who had redeemed Israel, but instead he had been handed over to the Romans.

He had been killed as a criminal, and now they're confused. They're discouraged. They knew that the scriptures prophesied about a Messiah and they thought that Jesus would be the one, but seemingly he didn't deliver on the promise. Now again, we have to look at this and we have to say, why weren't they able to believe in the resurrection even after hearing about the empty tomb, even after Jesus is walking right alongside of them.

And I don't think it's them because again, all of this is not just about them and their story. It's about us and human nature and our story as well. Why is it that we are at times unable to see God's presence or his work in our lives, even when he's right there? [00:10:00] Now, let's go back to, to Luke and let's set the scene.

Okay. They had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover. As many Jews at that time had, now Passover is done and they're, they're going back with a large group of people. But as they're going back, they're not talking about Passover. They're talking about about all the things that happened with Jesus, and specifically not only his crucifixion, but the reports of the empty tomb, and, and, and, and, and when they come.

On good. Verse 14, they said they were talking to each other about these things that had happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing them. And again, this is an incredible scene. They're walking along, talking, trying to figure out how it fits together, and suddenly there's a stranger that appears, and the stranger is none other than Jesus himself.

But there's no big announcement. There's no Jesus, you know, showing up with flashing it. It's just this man that shows up on the path. He steps into their life unexpectedly. And I think about that and I think about the way that [00:11:00] God often works, even in our lives. Sometimes God's most powerful work is when he comes and steps into our life unexpectedly at the lowest of times.

You know, we are, we might be in this crisis and we're wondering, God, where are you? And, and we're struggling. God, what is the pattern? What you know, how is this all for good? But what we can miss is that often those times, God is right there. And sometimes we, we sense it right away. Sometimes it's like, oh man, God was there with us.

God met that need. But how many of us have gone through times? It will be weeks or months or even years later and then we'll look back and we'll say, oh man, God was there with us at the time. We didn't think at the time. We're wondering where God is. But we look back and we see his provision. See, part of it is sometimes when we're in the midst of that discouragement and depression, there's part of us that almost doesn't want to see the provision.

There's the part of us, we, we naturally look for the bad, and that's the case here. You know, here you not only are they unable to [00:12:00] see Jesus' presence, they're unable to see and believe what they know that God has already done. Again, look at verse 19. Jesus asked them about what has happened and, and, and in their description they talk about, you know, what's all about this?

Jesus was Nazareth. He was a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered them over to be condemned to death and crucify him. But we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. And yes, beside all this, this is now the third day since these things happen.

Now look at what they say and look at how, and they interpret it. Verse 22. Moreover, some of the women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him, they did not see.

Now here's an, here's the incredible thing. Their interpretation of the moment's, morning's events was not that it was good news, [00:13:00] but that it was bad news. To them, the empty tomb compounded the tragedy because they thought, well, maybe somebody stole the body. And then the report of the women coming back of hearing, seeing the angels and the vision and the message, it had been risen to them.

That's not good news. Boy. Our women are so discouraged. They're delirious in grief, and it's incredible. They're interpreting it negatively. And my friends, we've gotta look at this, not only where they were at, but it's a warning to us. Because in the same way, sometimes we can become so discouraged that our discouragement can blind us to the fact that God is right there by our side.

You know, often while we're crying out and we're saying, God, God, where are you? He's already there meeting our needs in ways that we cannot see. And so why is it that they miss this? Why is it that we miss God's presence? I, I think there's a couple reasons that you see in this passage. The first is that we expect God's provision to come in a certain [00:14:00] way and the way that God brings his provision and is a way that looks very different than what we expect, right?

Because we expect him to show up in some obvious, some, some glorious way. But oftentimes God works through ordinary things. And, and we can become confused by the or, or ordinary nest of Jesus. I, I think about this in this story. I think one of the reasons they didn't see it was that Jesus was so ordinary.

See, they had to be thinking, man, if this was really true, if Jesus really rose again, they, they would expect when Jesus showed up, he's gonna be wearing that flashing clothing that the angels were wearing. He's gonna be glowing, you know, this is the greatest miracle of all time. So when he appeared there, were gonna be trumpets, there's gonna be fanfare.

I mean, think about it. If you were to just make up the story, if you were to say, okay, Jesus came back, and what would you expect him to look like when he showed up? I mean, we would expect him to, to be noticed, to be noticeable, to stand out. [00:15:00] You wouldn't expect him to appear in such a way that was so ordinary that he would walk along the road and no one would notice him.

That seems crazy. But that's what's happening here. And the ordin of Jesus blows their mind because they can't imagine Jesus doing something as awesome as of the resurrection and then showing up as a normal guy walking down the road. But the fact is that's usually the way that God works. God accomplishes miraculous things, but usually through the ordinary.

Yeah. When we pray, you know, we, we, in our prayer, we think, God, here's the problem. And, and, and we not only want him to answer the prayer, but in our mind we have a way that we expect him to do that. We wanna see a miracle, but we wanna see a miracle that that stands out, that we notice. But oftentimes, God works in a very ordinary way.

I mean, I'm reminded of the famous story. Most of you have probably heard this before, but, but it applies here. You know, the story of the, the man that's caught in the flood. [00:16:00] And he's caught in the flood and he, you know, cry, cries out to God, God save me. And he senses that God is gonna do that. And he climbs to the roof.

And, and 15 minutes later a rowboat comes by and he calls down and he says, you know, come on down and I'll, I'll bring you to safety. And the man says, no, but God's gonna save me. 15 minutes later, an airboat comes by and he says, you know, jump off the roof and swim over here and I'll, I'll bring you to safety.

And the man responded, no, I'm waiting for God to save me. Well, 15 minutes later that, you know, water's near the top of the roof, but a helicopter comes by and throws out a, a rope for the man to climb up. And, and he responds, no, no, I'm good. I'm waiting for God to save me. But within a half an hour, the, the flood covers the roof.

The man drowns. And when he gets to heaven, he ask God, you know, God, I prayed and, and I sense that you were gonna save me. What happened? And God said, I, I was there. I sent the rowboat, I sent the airboat, I sent, I sent the helicopter. And that's, that's where they were at. See, a lot of times we say, God, I want you to work, but you've gotta work this way.

You. And the fact of the matter is, is that oftentimes God works through the ordinary. [00:17:00] And it doesn't look like God. It doesn't look what we would expect. And so often it's not that we turn away from God's provision, but we don't see it and because we don't see it, we don't appreciate it. Then we get frustrated and we get depressed because we feel like God isn't there for us, and we're like these two that we're walking on the road talking to Jesus and we don't see him when he's right beside of us because we're looking for the me miraculous.

And we miss the fact that he's doing miracles through the ordinary. God loves to work through the ordinary, don't miss God's work because of its ordinariness. Now, the second reason we can miss, um, what God is doing, we can, we can miss God's presence, is that we can become so fixated on what we expect God to do, that we miss what he actually is doing.

Now, think about this couple. They had incredibly high hopes for Jesus. They believed that he was the promised Messiah. But look again, what they tell [00:18:00] Jesus about Jesus, about who they believed he was and what they were hoping he would come to do. You know, they said, you know, you know this was a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and the people, and how our chief priests and a rulers delivered him up to be condemned by death and crucify him.

But we had hope that he would be the one to redeem Israel. Number one, past tense. We had hoped that's where our hopes were, but now they're dashed. It's not, not real anymore. But second of all, what did they hope he would do? We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. Have you notice what they said? What they didn't say?

They didn't say. We had hoped that he would be the one to set us right with God. We had hoped that he would the one be the one that would open up the wave for us to go to heaven. They didn't say that We had hoped that he would be a political messiah who would overthrow the Rome Romans and establish a political kingdom.

They were so fixated on the kind of deliverance they expected Jesus to bring that they [00:19:00] didn't see the far greater deliverance that he actually did bring. They were so fixated on what they expected Jesus to do. They were unable to see what he actually came to do. Now, even beyond that, there's an incredible irony in the response, and I wanna point this out.

I'm gonna put this up here 'cause I want you to see. Like, what'd they say in verses 20 and 21? He said that, you know, our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. You know, we had hoped, but those, those hopes were, were crushed.

And do you see the irony? Do you see that? Here's where they get it wrong. How did Jesus redeem us through the cross? You get that what they're saying. We had hoped he would redeem us, but the cross destroyed that, and they missed the fact that, no, it was through the cross that he actually brought redemption.[00:20:00]

Now the problem was they had the wrong view of the redemption. They expected, again, this political thing, they, they thought that our biggest problem is, is the Romans redemption means to be set free you from slavery to purchase someone's freedom. And they thought, okay, you know, the Romans, we need salvation from them.

If, if the problem was outside and, and if you could get rid of the Romans and get, give us economic freedom and political freedom, and then everything would be right. They thought the problem was circumstances and they needed a, a redeemer who would change the circumstances. But the Bible teaches that no, our deepest problem isn't our circumstances.

The biggest problem we have is inward. It's spiritually that we're slaves to our sin. Our biggest problem is our heart. Our biggest problem comes from our sinful sinfulness, our sin nature, and I don't need God to change my circumstances as much as I need him to free me from slavery to sin. I need forgiveness.

I need for him to change me from the inside out. Now, the fact of the matter is most of us, when we [00:21:00] originally come to God, we think about our circumstances and we see ourselves as someone who is a sufferer that needs help and, and not a sinner that needs salvation. We may come and we say, God, if you change this, if you, if you change this in my life, I'll believe you.

But here's what's beautiful. They came with a wrong expectation, but they were able to see that it was wrong. And Jesus is saying, no, I did come to redeem, but it's not that the cross destroyed that, that cross is the way that I redeemed. See, here's what we need to realize, the dangers that we can come and we can look for Jesus, that we want the Jesus that we expect, and and be so focused on what we want him to do.

That we miss what he actually came to do. We're so focused on our expectations that we miss the real Jesus who's standing beside us and the real miracle that he's doing, and we've gotta watch out for that. Now, in this though, here's good news. 'cause we look at the story and we're like, okay, here's a couple followers of Christ.

And they were blinded. And they're [00:22:00] blinded by their expectations, confused by Jesus ordinance. But it's not just that story. It's also a story how Jesus then moved beyond that in their lives to help open their eyes to the truth that was right beside them. So on the one hand, you know, we look at this and it is a strange story.

This couple's walking down the road, they're talking about Jesus, and suddenly Jesus joins them. They don't even realize it's him. They spend literally hours talking about Jesus. They don't realize it's him. But on the other hand, this is an incredible story and it's, and it's one of the most beautiful stories to study about the resurrection.

It's one that's unique in all the gospels, in its practicality at each one of us. And, and here's why. How many times have you ever thought, man, wouldn't it be great to be there on Easter Sunday? Man, could you imagine Mary who's outside of the tomb and, and the risen Lord comes and speaks to her? Could you imagine being with the disciples when they're in upper room and Jesus walked through the walls and he shows his hands and his feet?

Man, that's incredible. Then they'd be [00:23:00] awesome. Now, the thing is, is that I can read those stories and none of us will ever have that kind of experience when you look at this story. This story of their eyes seeing Jesus. What I want you to see is Luke is giving us his story because all of us can have this experience.

This is the exception. Why? Because at first they don't recognize him. Why do they finally see him? Was it Jesus kind of saying, Hey, you're walking, you guys are missing something. Anything look familiar? Hey, watch, look at this. How many people you know have got their scars? That's not what he does. He doesn't point to his body.

What does he do? He opens scripture. He's, Luke is trying to show us that if you wanna see the risen Christ, open the scripture. It starts by studying the scriptures again. They haven't, they don't recognize him after they've been with him for hours. They don't recognize him until verse 31, when he vanishes from his stite.

And how do they recognize him? [00:24:00] Because they saw him in the Bible. They recognize him because in verse 27, it says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Again, he doesn't point to his resurrected body. He points to the Bible, and that's an experience of the resurrection.

All of us can still have today, but he not only pointed to the scriptures, but then they allowed the scriptures to be the authority that interpreted God's truth for them. Right. Think about that. These two, like pretty much all the Jews in Jesus' Day expected the Messiah to be a political redeemer to come and overthrow the Roman oppression set up a political kingdom because they looked at the Bible and they saw it in the Bible.

But what they didn't realize, it was a partial view of the Bible in complete view. They looked at some of the prophecies about the Messiah, about his victory and about his kingdom, and, and they totally missed all the prophecies talking about his suffering. Talking about [00:25:00] his spiritual redemption from sin, and now what's happening in the story is that Jesus explains the scripture to these followers and he's showing them the full story, all the things that they had missed before, and, and they're seeing things in the Bible that were different than what they expected.

It what they even believed up until that point in time. And the key is that they allowed what they saw in scripture to challenge them and to change their thinking. They allowed the Bible to be the authority over their beliefs. You see, the people in Jesus day were looking for a political messiah, and you can say, well, we don't struggle with that, but people in our days still make the same mistake.

You see, we look at it and, and people, many people in our day look to Jesus and they define them. In terms of our culture and times, you know, we try to reshape Jesus to be this Americanized Jesus. You know, he, his part genie, part fan club, part financial advisor, part therapist, and but that's a distortion to understand Jesus, you've gotta let him be who he is.

That [00:26:00] means that he's gonna contradict you. He's not gonna always agree, but you've gotta let the Bible tell us who he was. Now I'll tell here, talk to people and they'll say, you know, well, what I believe about Jesus, that Jesus I believe in is like this. Does that make him real? I mean, I mean, let's think in human terms.

Alright, let's see. If someone were to come up to me and to say, you know, I'd heard about you and I came to church here and, and, uh, you know, I'd like to get to know you. I mean, maybe even come here, you'd be my pastor. But, but first of all, I wanna let you know, I, from what I heard, I always envisioned that you were like six, six.

You had this full head and a hair. You know, you're a great athlete. You have this great sense of humor. That's who I thought you would be. So if you could be more like that, then, then we're all in. And I'm like, okay, what's wrong with you? I mean, it's, the thing is, is that that's not who I am. And the thing is, is as long as you say I have to be, become that you'll never have a relationship with me because you're trying to make me into your image of who you want me to be.

You're not [00:27:00] getting to know who I really am. In the same way we've gotta look at it. There is a real Jesus. There is one Jesus Christ, the Jesus who is revealed in the Bible. And if you do not believe in that, Jesus, whatever you believe in is a Jesus that you've made up in your own mind. And some people will say, but the Jesus I believe in would never say that, or He would never do that.

But you don't get to have your own personal Jesus. There's the real Jesus, and, and everything else is one that you make up. It's not like you get a Burger King Jesus, have it your way or a build a bear, Jesus, where you say, okay, you know, I, I can, you know, put together the parts and make the deity that I like best.

No, they're all fake. That's not real. And the question is, if you accepted the Jesus, that is the Jesus of the Bible. And sometimes I'll talk to people and they'll, they'll try to, you know, well, here's what I believe, or here's what I believe about this. And, and they'll come to the Bible and they'll try to argue their assumptions and try to reinterpret the Bible so that it agrees with what they believe.

But what their day's basically [00:28:00] doing is saying, I am the authority and I get to reinterpret the Bible so that it fits me. But that approach will never bring you to the real Jesus. It's not what happened here with these two disciples. They had certain ideas that were wrong, but then they let the Bible confront them.

They let the Bible be the authority. They allowed what they saw in scripture to challenge them and to change their thinking. And so we have to ask ourselves, do I give the Bible that authority in my life and my beliefs over my actions? There's something else we need to see here in what Jesus teaches them, and that's that He not just takes them to the Bible.

See, it doesn't just say that he explained scripture. Look what it says. It says, in beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures, and it doesn't stop there in all the scriptures concerning himself, and he showed them that all of the Bible is about Jesus.

Everything from [00:29:00] Genesis to the very end. It's all about Jesus. It's all about the gospel. Again, these were religious Jews. They knew the Bible, but Jesus is showing them, okay, what you've read before, you've never understood it, right? You haven't had the right key, you haven't, you haven't understood it in the right parameters.

And I think it's still possible and still common for us to approach the Bible and to approach it in a moralistic way. You know, kind of like, oh, it's teaching us what's right. It's self-help and. No. We need to look at it and say, God calls us to see it in a Christ-centered way. It's defined by the gospel.

It's not just a book of practical advice. It's not a place where we come and we, we look at it and say, how does it help me? No, it says that he explained everything in scriptures concerning himself. What we need to remember is that the Bible isn't just a book of spiritual wisdom and advice. In a sense, you could say it's at least part that why?

Because it is true. The Bible is God's truth. And because it's true, therefore it [00:30:00] offers wisdom for life. And the more that we align ourselves with this truth, the healthier, more productive our lives will be. So it is, in a sense, a book that offers spiritual wisdom and advice, but it's more than that. 'cause if that's all that we see it as being, then we're gonna fall into religion and say, how do I perform?

How do I do that? How do I, how do I make myself, you know, live up to those standards and none of us can. See, it's not just a book of spiritual wisdom and advice. It's ultimately the story of God's redemptive and transforming power through Jesus Christ. If we read it about being wisdom and advice, we think it's about us.

We think it's a, it's God giving us advice about how to make your work life work better and instruction manual and, and that might again, help for a little bit of encouragement, but it's more than that. It's not about us. It's about Jesus. Lemme give you even an example from a biblical story, one that I think we often take in that moralistic way.

Think about the story of David, David and Goliath. Right now. How many of us have [00:31:00] heard messages where it talks about, okay, what is that about? You know, it's, it's about, okay, you can overcome anything. You know that, that, you know, that you, you can look at that, you know, the bigger they are, the harder they fall and, and you know that, that we talk about perseverance and faith and or I think about even some of, you know, I love veggie tales and, and they generally do a great job and teaching great truths to kids.

It's fun to watch and, but, but I think about their story where they talked about David and Goliath and they made it very much this moralistic thing. In fact, here's a little clip and it's got King Saul and talking to little David. And, and you have David explaining what the main, in their mind, the main message of the text is, let's be reasonable.

You are a tiny little fellow. And where Goliath is, he's enormous. No, no, no, no. That's the job for a big person, not a little boy like you.

You are not going to sing, are you? [00:32:00] Couldn't you just play your hopp and I'll throw things at you? No,

I'm little, my head too little, but I say.

How little guys can do big too.

Now that's a cute song and it's a good moral idea. Is it encouraging? It can be kind of inspirational, but at the end it's gonna crush us. Why? 'cause number one is that sometimes I go against the giant and the giant still crushes me, and I win every battle. And then sometimes I don't have the faith to do that.

It's calling me to do something that I don't have the strength to be able to perform. You see, in a sense, we could say David is an example, but it's ultimately about something bigger. Why? Because everything is about [00:33:00] Jesus. Well, how is this about Jesus? Well, think about this. David was the smallest and he's the weakest.

And what God is trying to teach us is that salvation comes through weakness. That's the message of the cross. Salvation comes through Jesus dying on the cross. Or we see in David's faith, you know, it's not his faith and his ability and, and you know, it's, it's not that he, you know, had his faith was in God.

It was God who did this? Was was God's victory. It was God showing up. Or let's even go a little bit further. What's the story? It's about David representing the army of Israel to go fight against the enemy. He's the champion and if he loses, the whole army loses. If he wins, the whole army wins. His, his victory is imputed to the army, to the whole people.

That's about Jesus. That's a picture of the cross. All of this points to Jesus Christ. And so if I say, you know, well, they're, you know, you know, they're big. I'm a little, you know, it's harder. They fall. That's motivation. That doesn't change us. But we need [00:34:00] to see, it's about Jesus. We need to see. It's all about Jesus.

Not only David, but the law and the, you know, the temple is about Jesus. Every hero, every prophet, it's, he's behind every story. And when we understand that, we understand everything taught in the Bible differently, you see, because it's not just only about the person of Jesus, it's the work of Jesus. It's about the gospel, and it's about our acceptance of the gospel.

And ultimately that's what opened their eyes. Look again at this story, it talks about, you know, let me pick it up in verse 30. You know, they went in and they, he stopped it at, uh, stopped with them at their house, verse 30 when he was at the table with him, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it.

Oh, I'm, I'm sorry, I just lost my notes here for a second. Um, and their eyes were, and he gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. And they said to Heather, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road. And when they opened the scripture, when were their eyes opened, [00:35:00] when he broke bread, it's clearly a reference to communion.

It's a nick picture of saying, and I, he may have even said this, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood that is shared for you. And at that moment, they not only saw that he was throughout the Bible, but they saw that this whole picture that he died and it was offered to them. And at that point they realize what is communion.

It's not only remembering what Jesus has done, but that it's offered to you, to each one of us. And when we take communion, it's a way of saying, I trust in this for the forgiveness of my sin. And that's, that's the whole, it's not only the basic gospel, it's the whole bo gospel. It's the whole Bible. My, my favorite verse, it reminds me of my favorite, verse two, one Corinthians 2, 2 4.

I decided to know nothing amongst you except Jesus Christ. And him crucified. That's what Paul is saying. This is the whole gospel. It's all about Jesus. And he's not just saying, you know, I stayed with the simple gospel message and I didn't go to anything [00:36:00] complex. It's actually saying everything is Christ in him crucified.

That sums up the whole of the Bible's teaching. That starts with the cross being foundational to our faith. We're all naturally separated by God from our sin. And there's no way that we could earn God's forgiveness. But God made a way for us to be forgiven at the cross. At the cross. Jesus died for our sins, taking the wrath of God, the deserved punishment that we deserve for our sins.

And when we trust in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, it means that I agree with God, that I'm a sinner. I confess. I agree. Not only that I've done wrong things, but I, but I have a nature that is sinful and I need him to not only forgive me, I need him to change me. So that I can start doing the right things.

And so I surrender and in repentance this idea that means changing or turning. I ask God to change my heart, to change my nature, to not only forgive me for the wrong things that I've done, but to give me his righteousness to make me the person who he wants me to be. And when we [00:37:00] do that, this is what happens.

God takes our sin. And the punishment it deserved, and he puts it on Jesus Christ. And Jesus takes that at the cross and he takes Jesus righteousness and he puts it on us so that God now sees us as holy and pure before him. And if you've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for your sins, Jesus has sanctified you.

He has made you holy, pure, your saint before God. But that's not the end. That's how we come to Christ. But, but that's how we also grow in Christ. See, oftentimes people will say, okay, well that's how I'm saved. But then the rest of the Bible is moral and it's about how I have to try harder and how I have to do this.

And you know, the whole gospel is about, or the whole Bible is about the gospel. Everything is about the gospel. You see, how do we grow in Christ by embracing the message of the cross? And the cross isn't just that we are forgiven. It's how we grow. It's how we know victory in our lives. The whole idea of the gospel is a lifestyle of humility.

It means that we [00:38:00] recognize that we, that not only that, that uh, in Christ that I needed to come and originally bring my sin before him, that I needed for his forgiveness, but I need to do that repeatedly. See, every day I have to come and say, God, show me my sinfulness, and I need you to forgive me, and I need you to give righteousness I don't have.

And so Christianity isn't necessarily just growing in more knowledge. It's taking this simple message and learning to apply it in every area of our life. And so I apply it to every area of sin. I, I teach it. I, I ask God to say, God, help me to see this is something that I cannot do. I cannot be, take it off and, and put it on Christ and gimme righteousness.

I do not have, what's it look like? So I'm dealing with anger. And if I say, God, I've got this anger and I can't overcome this anger. I can't forgive this person, God, I'm gonna bring the gospel. And I agree with you. I'm angry. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to take it in Jesus Christ and ask you to give me grace and forgiveness.

I do not have. Give me the ability to forgive that I cannot do on my own. And he does. Or I come [00:39:00] and I say, God, I'm dealing with lust and impurity and, and inpu actions. And God, I agree with you. I cannot beat this. I try and more or less, more moralism. I cannot do it on my own. God, I agree with you. Here's my brokenness.

I ask you to forgive me, to take it on Jesus Christ and God, me, give me righteousness that I do not have. Give me the ability to live in a righteous way that is beyond my capacity. God, I struggle with these sins of my speech. I gossip and I start cutting people down. God, I, I swear, and I can't handle my profanity.

And God, I agree with you. This is, I'm broken. I'm a sinner and I can't fix this. You've forgiven me. But God, there's something in you. I need you to take off of me. Put it on Jesus Christ and give me righteousness. I do not have. If you see, it's all the gospel, everything is the gospel. That's why when Jesus says from the beginning, he explained everything from the beginning to the end in the gospel.

And my friend, when we look at this, here's where I wanna challenge you. See, we are [00:40:00] today on the road and we have the chance to experience the resurrected Christ like these people did. 'cause they saw him through his word. And the question is, do you see him? And some of us might struggle because it's, he does, doesn't look the way we expect.

He's ordinary or, or, you know, we're, we expect certain things and, but here's what he is. He's, he's standing before us and saying, will you accept me for who I am? And for some it might be coming to him for that first time and saying, God, I agree with you. I'm a sinner. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to take my sins through Jesus Christ and, and give me his righteousness and.

And you may where you're at, pray that prayer and ask him to come to forgive you and to come into your life. For many of us, we have done that in the past, but that's not a one time deal. Don't you understand that? That's the whole of the Christian gospel, the whole of the Christian life, is that we apply that same truth to every area of our life.

And so what is the [00:41:00] area that you're struggling with? The depression, the guilt, the, you know, the sin, the addiction that you can't overcome. Do you see that God is calling you today to say, no, see me in the gospel? Are you willing to come and say, God, I agree with you. I have this need that I cannot overcome.

Will you forgive me? Will you, will you make me right? Give me righteousness that I do not have my friends. When we surrender that to Jesus Christ, we discover the resurrection power in our lives. We embrace the power of the gospel. Are you willing to do that today? Where is he calling you to surrender? You see, if you come up to him and if you surrender, he's gonna meet you.

He's on the road right beside you, and he wants to embrace you, and he wants you to know that Grace we surrender to him. If you have a question about the message, community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0. 432 [00:42:00] 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash Connect There you can also send in a prayer request.

We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.