A Somber Walk Brightened

Well, welcome guys. Welcome. My fan club in the back over there. My two people. Thank you.

I'm so glad you're here with us today. Again, I'm Pastor Leon, and I just want to wish you a very, very happy Resurrection Day, Easter Day, as we celebrate Jesus Christ. And I would love if you were back with us next week, because we're having lunch with Leon, and I'd love to invite you to come and have lunch with me and find out more about the church. I know some of you are probably just kicking the tires, and you needed a place to go Easter Sunday, but we love you, and we've been praying for you, and we're so thankful for you being with us here today. And it's always good to go to the Word of God on Easter Sunday, and talk about who He is and His Resurrection.

So, we are in week four. We're actually ending the series today called Easter Peeps, and we've been looking at different perspectives of Easter, of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We've been kind of bouncing around different people and different perspectives, and we started off with this idea that it is the greatest show. Apologies to the circus, but Easter is the greatest show. It was a spectacle.

In fact, the original language said it was a spectacle. In the scene, it was a spectacle, because Jesus shows up, or Jesus raises from the dead. There's angels involved. There's guards that are out, cold, on the ground. I mean, it wasn't just this slight little surprise.

I mean, it happened, and everybody knew it. People saw it. 500 saw the risen Christ at one time. The guards were stupe, but just fell out in the presence of these angels in white robes, and just the power of God was present when Jesus was resurrected. But in the unseen realm, there was something going on, too.

The realm of the dead. It was the death of deaths when Jesus went to Hades, and He took back the keys that held us down. See, Satan thought he won, but it wasn't over. It wasn't over, because Jesus showed up. And what did Satan have to do?

He had to immediately turn over the keys to death. He conquered the grave. Satan thought he had it in his hands, but Jesus came, because death must die, and we live because of that very thing. He took away the weapons and the powers of the authority and made a public show of them. Made a public show of Satan.

Satan, you don't have it. I have it. And right in front of everybody, right in front of all creation, you are down here. I am up here. I win.

I have the authority over you. I only allow you to do what you're able to do, and now I'm taking back death. Death is no longer because I have the authority over death. And He died on the cross for that reason. So today, I want to look at two people.

We could go on. I mean, I could go on in the series. There's about 10 or 11, like, direct resurrection accounts in Scripture that we could talk about. We could go on for weeks. We could go on for months, even, talking about the resurrected Jesus.

But today, I want to end with the road to Emmaus. Two people on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, where they had encountered God or Jesus Himself. So follow along with me if you're following on your app or you want to pull out your Bible. That's fine as well. And we'll read along together here, starting with verse 13.

It says, Now the same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about everything that had happened. And 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. And He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along?

I love how Jesus did that. He knew. He's just like, I'm getting ready to, you know, He's probably giggling under His breath. What are you guys talking about? And they stood there with their face downcast.

They were sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem? And do you not know the things that have happened there in these days? He said, What things? What things?

About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in His word and deed before God and all the people. And the chief priests and the rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified Him. But we had hope that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what more, it is the third day since all this took place.

In addition, some of the women amazed us. They went to the tomb early in the morning and they didn't find the body. And they came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. Then some of the companions went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said. But Him they did not see.

And He said to them, How foolish are you? How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and the prophets, He explained to them what was in the Scriptures concerning Himself. And as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if He were going farther.

But they urged Him strongly, Stay with us, for it is nearly evening. The day is almost over. So He went in to stay with them. And when He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight.

Then they asked each other, Were not our hearts burning within us? We'll be right back. While he talked to us on the road and opened the scriptures to us, and they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, it is true, the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when they broke bread. Mark Twain once wrote a statement, golf is a long walk spoiled.

Some of you golfers in there probably wouldn't agree with that, but those of you that don't play golf probably would agree on that statement. But I want to call this message A Somber Walk Brightened. A Somber Walk Brightened. Because the two were sad. In fact, they were downcast, and it says in certain versions they actually had to stop and talk about it because of the sadness that they were feeling.

And it's amazing how things can all of a sudden change from one day to another. You can be on top of the world, and then the next day you're like, how in the world did I get here? Just think about it. A few years ago, we would not have guessed in a million years that we would all be wearing masks today. You would look at pictures of the old Dust Bowl situation in Oklahoma back in the early 1900s, how kids had to wear masks and have to wear goggles to school because the dust was so bad in the air, and you're like, wow, can you even believe that?

But today the reality is kids are going to school and wearing masks, and nobody's thinking anything of it, right? We would have thought that was crazy when we first would have imagined that here today in modern times. Things in a moment can change, and what once seemed outlandish can seem normal, but the two were sad, and they were disheartened because they had witnessed something. Their hopes were dashed. They didn't know what was next, but Jesus came along and brightened their day, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

So I want to give you a few truths from this scripture to share with you real quick. The first truth is the circumstances we face aren't nearly as important as the conclusions we draw. The circumstances that are around us are there, and they're hard, and man, they're hard sometimes, but they're not nearly as important as the assumptions that we make about those circumstances. Jesus comes along with these guys, and he walks with them, and the scripture actually says that he walked and listened, and this was a long walk. This was a seven-mile walk from Jerusalem, and Jesus comes along beside them, and I think this is a really, really good lesson even in dealing with grief and helping people with grief.

Sometimes people just want you to come alongside them and listen to them a little bit, right? And Jesus didn't say a word for a while, and so he just listens, and he observes, because here's the deal. We never know what somebody's going through. You could be right next to somebody that looks just completely healthy, completely in a great place, but you never know what's going on in the heart of someone until you listen to them a little bit, until you ask them, how are they doing? How are you doing?

And here's Jesus talking and listening to, not even talking, he's just listening as he's walking along, and I can imagine how long they talked and how about everything that had happened and what they were dealing with and the frustrations of what were going on. But finally, he challenges their assumptions, because what they were doing is using past tense. If you go to scripture in verse 21, it says, we had hoped. We thought he was the one. We thought he was a prophet.

He was a prophet. See, Jesus didn't minimize what they had going on, but he challenged those conclusions. They heard about, they heard it from the women, right? They heard about it. The women saw him.

They saw him raised from the dead. Even Cephas saw him. Peter saw him. They saw him. But their conclusion was, it isn't true.

They gave weight to the conclusion that it wasn't true. And here they are, just walking along this path without any hope. And Jesus comes along and challenges them and says, who told you to think in the past tense? Who told you that this was different? Are you not being foolish right now?

Because here's the thing. Wrong thinking leads to wrong living. Inaccurate information will lead to unnecessary fears. And if we walk in that, once they saw things correctly, they were opened to hope. Because right reaction unlocks hope.

Right reaction unlocks hope. I love how Charles Swindoll said it years ago when I was reading one of his books. He says, life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it. So the way you react determines hope. It unlocks hope inside of us.

Same information we can have. Two different people can have the same information and completely two different conclusions about it. And conclusions make all the difference. We can either respond, this is bad, this is devastating, or we can respond with worship. And we can respond with praise.

And we can respond with thanksgiving. That it doesn't matter. Our hope is deeper than our current circumstances. Our circumstances are not as important as the conclusions that we draw. And also right perspective unlocks potential.

Right perspective, right perspective unlocks. Get this, they invited Jesus into their home after the long walk, right? Now I want you to get some geographical context here in this scripture. When you're walking seven miles down the road from Jerusalem, you're talking about 20 to 30 minutes a mile, right? It's a good long walk.

And it was in the evening and it started getting dark. Now they didn't have flashlights in those days. They didn't have streetlights in those days. They didn't have anything, you know? And at At night, it would be somewhat of a challenge, whether it's just you can't see, unless there's a full moonlight.

The moonlight was probably down that night. There's the danger of being robbed, no telling what could happen on the road. So they were there in Emmaus. They took that long walk, and they invited Jesus into their home. But while Jesus was in their home, he revealed to them who he was.

And what did they do? They immediately got up from their tables, and they began to roll to Jerusalem. So what happened, they experienced a hope inside. They experienced something that, and that hope drove them to do something that they normally wouldn't have been able to do, or didn't even think they had the capability of doing, because hope unlocks potential. And hope will give you the power to embrace what you previously wanted to escape.

You know that? Hope will give you the power to embrace what you previously wanted to escape. Because they wanted to be anywhere but Jerusalem. Because everything that was going on in Jerusalem were triggers and reminders of what had happened. They would walk in there, and, well, that's where Jesus said that, and it, you know, that's the cross, and this is where he died.

And, and, and we're going to Emmaus. We're getting out of here, you know? Our dreams were dashed. We thought we were expecting one thing. But, but here's, here's the deal.

We can choose a different story. We can choose a different story. Two people's houses can burn down, but they can respond in two different ways. They can either respond, my house is burning down, and God must not be good. Or my house is burning down, and God is good, and must have something way better for me.

See, we can, it's all about our response. It's all about our perspective. It's, it's, it's all about that. So don't put a period where God puts a comma. Don't, don't put a past tense on what God says he has for you, a future for you, a hope for you, strength for you.

It's all about perspective. The second point I want to make is there's a wrong way to read the Bible. There's a wrong way to read the Bible. We need to read the Bible in the right way, in the right context. See, they, they thought he was going to be a Messiah that would redeem Israel.

That's what they said, right? We thought that he would be a Messiah, but they failed to see that it was going to be a Messiah that would die. They failed to see that he was going to be a redeemer and both die because it was the only way. If he did not do this, we could not share in the kingdom. And they were, they, they, they were looking for a political campaign.

They were looking for a crown. They were looking for a cross. They were not looking for a cross. And they looked at the Bible with the perspective of how it would benefit them. They thought, well, we see it this way.

We've always seen it this way. We've always known it this way. And they failed to see every scripture that, that, that, that pointed towards a suffering Messiah. And often we do the same thing. We go to scripture and we read it and we look to, to scripture as a way to manage our money, 10 ways to manage our money or five ways to raise a family or, or, or, or 10 ways to find a maid or whatever it might be.

That's our perspective of going to scripture. Uh, that we list, you know, new commandments to keep us on the right path and things like that. But those all lead to failure because we cannot do it on our own. We have to look at scripture. Instead, we should be looking at what Jesus has done, what Jesus is doing and what Jesus will do and what, and the overarching plan of Jesus Christ.

That's what we need to look at scripture for. Yeah, we can pull out things in scripture, but we don't want to be works, righteous people. We move from works, righteousness to Jesus is our righteousness. And that's what we should see in scripture. There's a wrong way to read the Bible.

Jesus says in verse 25, how foolish are you that have you not read the scriptures? Have you not looked back to the prophets and the patriarchs? They said exactly this. These are they who testify of me? Uh, Isaiah 53.

He says that David testified in Psalm 22, uh, Moses testified in Genesis three and on and on the, the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, Jesus redemption, his blood. It's no longer about what I need to do. It's about what he's done for me. That's what the Bible's about. It's about the great love story of everything that he gave for you.

Not necessarily a list of rules and a risk list of regulations and a list of how to, and that's why we come back to scripture. We're like, well, God, why have you not delivered this? If I've done these 10 principles of wisdom, you said, and then we were just look at it that way, you know, like God, I worked hard and I'm doing things so hard and I'm, I'm putting this all together for you, God, and you're not delivering on it. And that's how we interpret scripture, but there's a wrong way to read the Bible. Instead, we should walk in the peace and power of the gospel message that Easter is.

It's not you, but God that saves you. You cannot save yourself. You cannot heal yourself. You cannot be saved or be healed outside of God. And if he didn't die for our sins, we wouldn't be able to participate in that, like that, that, that work of that he does in us makes it possible for us to be saved, makes it possible for us to be healed.

And there's a lot of teachings out there about how to heal yourself. You can heal yourself. You can, you can save yourself. We can have these motivational speakers and things like that, but that, but, but, but that's not what the Bible says, because Jesus didn't come to give you a better life. He come to save your soul.

And fortunately, a saved soul is a better life because it's better his way. A life's a lot better with a saved soul. And if he didn't die for our sins, if he didn't come across, uh, if he was just a king and a Messiah, then we would never be able to share in the glory of his kingdom and be a part of what he's doing. So dying on the cross to redeem us, that that's what redeems us, but rising from the dead secures us. It secures us.

That's how important it is. He wasn't the kind of king they wanted. He was the kind of king they needed. And he's not the kind of king maybe you want, but he's the kind of king you need. You need a king.

And he gives us resurrection power anytime we can tap. It's available for us. It's available for us, which leads me to my third point. Easter isn't a holiday, it's a reality. It's not just an event, a holiday, a day, it's a reality.

It's an identity, and every day is a reality that we can live in, that resurrection power. Because we are Easter peeps, and hallelujah is our song, right? Amen. Hallelujah is our song. We can live in resurrection power today.

We live in the power of the resurrection, the power to live, the power to preach, the power to parent, the power to fight, the power to battle. In every circumstance, we have available to us this resurrection power. Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. That's Easter in our hearts, in our lives. It wasn't just something that, oh, we come to that day, that day's passed away.

And it's available to us at our beck and call. It is available to us. And we are people filled with the Spirit and empowered by Jesus in order to work in his service and live in the power of the resurrection. And we don't have to look back at Jerusalem. We don't have to look back at all those things.

We don't have to go back that way because we're moving forward. Because it's not over. And we can say, I know what's going on when I'm going through those times. And I know who's in charge. And because he lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because he's resurrected, I can live and have a future. Because he lives, there's great things waiting for me. And another interesting thing, the problem is we view Easter as an end and not a beginning. Because in its human nature, like we like to make organized plans and dates and timelines. So we start off, you know, with Ash Wednesday.

And then we go through Lent, right? And then we go into Palm Sunday. And then we have Good Friday. And then we enter into Easter. And then when Easter hits, it's like, oh, okay.

Let's pack up the eggs. Let's put up the, you know, all the stuff. And let's move on. But here's the thing. Easter occurred at the beginning of the week for a reason.

Now, let me explain this. You know, the Sabbath was Saturday. But Easter happened at the beginning of the week for a reason. Because in the beginning, God created on the first day. In the beginning, he created the heavens and the earth.

He made water and land appear and all those things in the first day. But during that week, during that original week, that week, however you want to see it, whether you believe it was a literal seven days or a figurative seven days, this is the point of Genesis. It was very symbolic in that it talked about a creation that was happening, that God created all things. And we are the magnum opus of his creation. But what happened?

The first Adam, the magnum opus of his creation failed. It didn't. It couldn't obey the Father. He couldn't obey the Father. And sin tainted mankind.

And this creation that God had made and was welcoming in in this perfect utopia, this perfect idea of what God designed had failed. So by Jesus coming into the picture, the second Adam, he stepped in place. And he's the one that could obey the Father. He was the one that could be forgiven, could help us be forgiven of our sin. He was the one, he was the sacrificial lamb that was on the cross, that was slain so that we could enter into a new creation.

And by his resurrection on day one, we have a new day one, a new creation that is waiting for us. We're walking in creation. In fact, we live in this idea, what theologians call the here but not yet, that we are living in between resurrection and the fully new created world. So Jesus is somewhat like a prototype. Think about an iPhone, you know, when they have the Mac conferences and you go online and everybody comes into the room and you have Cook on stage, you know, or, you know, and they show you the new phone.

And they're like, wow, look at this. You got this feature, you got that feature. And everybody's like, wow, that looks like a great phone. That looks like a great feature. And I can't wait.

And we can't touch it yet, but we can see it. Right? And then, but when the phone comes out, we go out and we get it and we're like, wow, we've got it. Now I can actually touch it. Now I can actually see it.

Jesus was a prototype of what is to be. He was a prototype of that new creation that was coming. He was a prototype of the things that are to come on the first day. He inducted, it was the start of that new creation that was to happen. We are living within the week of new creation that he formulated.

So we shouldn't live, so Easter is not over the day. It should be a beginning for us, right? We should be walking from Easter and not to Easter. We should be walking in resurrection and not, oh, well, Easter is over. Easter is gone.

We should be living in the light of resurrection. Easter is not a holiday, it's a reality. And when you get that into your heart, when you get that into your bones, into your blood, this is what will happen. Joy is a result of comprehending resurrection. You'll experience joy.

That will be the joy that you're looking for. Jesus is joy. Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is it. He is the personification of joy.

And in John 16, 22, it says, so with you, now is your time of grief. So he's talking to the disciples. But I will see you again and your heart will, what? Rejoice. Experience joy.

And no one will take that joy away from you. Nobody can take that joy away from you. When you get it in your heart, when you get it in your guts, when you get it in your body about that joy that is Jesus. When Jesus is yours and you know that nobody can take that, they can take away your home. They can take away your life.

They can take away everything you have. But you cannot take away the joy because you didn't give me the joy. God gave me that joy. And he can't take that. You can't take that away from me.

Nothing can take that away from me. Because I have that joy. I have that joy. And I love it when it goes to verse 20, in that same passage, or 20-20 rather, it says, in that same book, it says, And after he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and his disciples were, what? Overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Joy is unleashed in our life when we know that. And when we look at the disciples and what they were dealing with, when they saw the Lord, they understood and they comprehended, they carried a joy out from that room that day that never left them. Peter was hung upside down on a cross because he wasn't worthy of being slain like his Lord. You had James, his own brother, who witnessed the resurrected Christ that was thrown from the temple, was martyred for his brother who he did not believe while he was walking on this earth. You had John who was boiled and sent off to an island and left there for the rest of his life.

I mean, over and over again. Thomas, we talked about Thomas who was pierced by a spear. And on and on and on and on, we see these marks, but they carried something. They carried something deeper than just their circumstances and their situations, and they didn't make assumptions because they knew who God was, and they had a joy because it was in their bones. It was who they were, and they understood, and they saw, and they believed.

And then, fifthly, joy is not just a privilege. It's a responsibility. It's not just a privilege. It's a responsibility. The kind of joy that can't be taken away from you is a privilege.

I mean, the fact that we can shine in the middle of a pandemic or it sparkles in a cemetery. It's light in the darkness, that joy that can't be taken away from us. Yes, it's definitely a privilege. But when the disciples saw his wounds, they were glad because they saw his wounds. Now, Cleopas and his companion, and I think this is a very interesting observation, when they were at the table of Jesus, they didn't see Jesus until he started breaking the bread, and he was revealed to them.

Why would he only be revealed to them at that moment when he was breaking the bread? Because when he started breaking the bread, they saw his hands. They saw his wounds. Blessing and brokenness go together. Blessing and brokenness go together.

He was broken to bless us. Never assume that because you are suffering, God isn't there. Never assume that when you're going through heavy situations in your life where you feel like the darkness is all around you, that light isn't there, that the light of Jesus isn't there. Because the longer the suffering, the greater the glory. The greater the pain, the greater the power that God has in store for you.

And when you are able to see the holes in his hands and that he was taken from you only to be given back to you on the cross and suffered for you, that we have a responsibility with this joy. A joy in living. A joy in dying. A joy in goodness. A joy in sadness and sickness and health and suffering and prosperity.

No matter what, we have a joy that we can hold on to. We have a joy that is available to us and it is a responsibility. And may God give us the grace to suffer well. To suffer well. Why?

The blessedness of suffering. The blessedness of suffering is an opportunity to show a crying world what joy really is. And we live in a crying world. A hurting world. A desperate world.

And this world, we can show true joy. And in closing, as I have the instruments come up, I'm reminded of the Chronicles of Narnia, the last battle, where Aslan in the very end is talking to the children. And then a stone table cracks and Aslan comes to life and he starts breathing flowers and breathing, you know, life back into the world. And he restores the treacherous heart of Edmund and all these things are happening, all these beautiful things that bring joy, right? That bring joy.

And Aslan looks at the children and the children are sad. My children are sad. And he makes this statement, you do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be. You do not look so happy as I mean you to be. And I'm sure like for many of you, you may feel you've lost.

You may feel like there's nothing. You may feel like, but can I tell you, you have everything in Christ. And Jesus is there with his hands and he says, Look, the blessedness of my brokenness is available to you and it unlocks joy, but you are not so happy as I mean you to be. Everything is available to you and Jesus Christ. We need to be people who are full of joy no matter what.

We need people who assume the best and assume that God is in control and God is working things out and there is hope and there is life no matter what my situation is, no matter where I'm going, no matter what I'm confronted with, that the battle is his and he has a future and a plan for us. Can you hear Jesus saying that with his hands out and the scars on his right there and right there? Just picture that for a second. Look at my side. And for some of you, Jesus is inviting you, is giving you an invitation to a life of joy.

He's got a life of joy in store for you. It may be your own. Just giving a shout out to the online people. Some of you are at home right now watching, or maybe you're going to watch this later, or you're right here in this room. It says this in verse 29.

They urged him strongly to come into the house when he was getting ready to go further. They urged him strongly to come into the house, and Jesus came in. But Jesus wasn't willing to come in unless they asked him. Can you just think about that for a minute? How big that is.

This is Jesus who controls the keys of hell and Hades. He has conquered death. This is God in flesh that all doors can be opened for him, yet he makes the decision to allow you to open the door. And it says, Behold, I knock on the door, and if anyone hears my voice and comes in, I will make a home for him. This God in which the grave could not contain gives us the opportunity to invite him in.

In fact, Peter says it like this. He says, Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him. And are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. Because some of you here today are like, Well, I have to see him to know him.

I have to see him to know who he is. If you would just invite him into your heart today. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask. We ask. If that's you today, just reach your heart up.

Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you died on the cross for my sin. I give you my life. I give you my joy. I give you my everything.

The joy I don't have, I know you have in you. I make a confession of my faith today. Forgive me my sins. I believe you died on the cross for my sin. Make me new today.

I walk with you from this day forward. Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise. Hallelujah. For those. If you gave your life to Jesus, please let us know.