2nd Sunday after Easter: Date: April 26, 2020
– THE SERMON: Luke 24:13-35
Theme: Resurrection Enlightenment
I. The Failing of a Worldly Perspective
II. Scriptural Perspective for Current Events.
III. Reaching the Goal
SERMON TEXT: Luke 24:13-35
Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain 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.”
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. (NKJV)
OFFERTORY, PRAYER; THE LORD’S PRAYER
Hymn 205: The Day of Resurrection
1. The day of resurrection, Earth, tell it out abroad,
The Passover of gladness, The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, From this world to the sky,
Our Christ hath bro’t us over With hymns of victory.
2. Our hearts be pure from evil That we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal Of resurrection light
And, list’ning to His accents, May hear, so calm and plain,
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, May raise the victor strain.
3. Now let the heav’ns be joyful, Let earth her song begin,
Let all the world keep triumph And all that is therein.
Let all things, seen and unseen, Their notes of gladness blend;
For Christ the Lord hath risen, – Our joy that hath no end.
BENEDICTION;
C: Amen. Amen. Amen.
Hymn 207:2 Thanks to Thee, O Christ victorious!
Thanks to Thee, O Christ victorious!
Thanks to Thee, O Lord of Life!
Death hath now no power o’er us,
Thou hast conquered in the strife.
Thanks because thou didst arise
And hast opened Paradise!
None can fully sing the glory
Of the resurrection story.
( Pastor Theodore Barthels )
Bulletin: Read Bulletin
Sermon: Read Sermon
THE ORDER OF SERVICE: (p. 5 the Lutheran Hymnal)
THE EPISTLE LESSON: 1 Peter 1:17-21
“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (NKJV)
Sermon
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
2100 16th Street SW
Austin, MN 55912-1749
Pastor Ted Barthels
Sermon preached on
April 26, 2020
2nd Sunday after Easter
Scripture Lessons: Acts 2:14a, 36-47, 1 Peter 1:17-21
Hymns: 192:1-5; 190; 205; 207:2 (187)
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon Text: Luke 24:13-35
Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain 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.”
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. (NKJV)
This is the Word of God.
Sanctify us, oh Lord, through Your truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
In Christ Jesus, our crucified and Risen Savior, dear fellow Redeemed:
INTRO: What’s going on?
We are only human. Because of that it happens all too often that things in life don’t go the way we had it all laid out in our minds. We have a vision for what we think life is going to be, and then something happens. It seems like it came right out of the blue! There’s an accident. Someone gets sick. One day we go to work only to find that the job is gone. What’s going on? I don’t understand!
In our current events with this pandemic a lot of people’s lives are being turned upside down. Businesses are closing, and many will not reopen. Bright futures no longer appear bright. Decisions are being made for everyone in an attempt to save lives while at the same time many people’s lives are being severely disrupted. Reports of domestic violence and suicides and substance abuse have shot way up. And I really can’t tell you how often I been told on the news that I just need to “trust the science” and everything will be alright. Maybe I watch too much news, but especially in the last few days when more and more people are pressing for things to be turned back to normal that has been a recurring theme. You just have to trust the science. But the science doesn’t control the world, and neither does the Corona virus.
Now let’s pause and remember that we are not the first to experience our worlds being turned upside down, and our feelings of certainty suddenly turning to uncertainty. That is exactly what the two disciples walking the seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus were experiencing. And they were disciples. The word wasn’t being used quite yet then, but they were Christians who had put their faith and confidence in Jesus as the Christ who had come into the world. And yet there they were completely messed up and forlorn because over the past few days everything was turned upside down and then some. They needed what we also need, a good solid dose of —
THEME: Resurrection Enlightenment.
We see in the Emmaus disciples —
I. The Failing of a Worldly Perspective.
They had all the facts, but they didn’t have the truth. Can you picture the scene? These two men, disciples very familiar with the Lord Jesus and with His teachings, were in a very animated discussion about the events of the past three days. It was late Sunday and they had a long walk to their lodgings. Jerusalem and all the surrounding towns were filled to capacity because this was the Passover festival. They had celebrated with their families or acquaintances the same special meal that Jesus had with the twelve in the upper room. Remember the focus of that Passover meal was the lamb, that pure spotless lamb whose blood had to be offered at the temple. That lamb represented the Savior that was to come into the world. That lamb represented Jesus who was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But that wasn’t what they were talking about. No, oh no, they were talking about how Jesus had been arrested and condemned and crucified, and how could this have happened to their Jesus when they had such high expectations for Jesus!
This is what they were talking about when Jesus walked up to them and joined them, BUT hid His identity from them. When He asked what they were talking about, they gave a broad answer, the things that had happened in Jerusalem. When Jesus asked, “What things?” they were more than amazed and gave the thumbnail synopsis of why they were so distressed when they had those high expectations of Jesus. (Actually they had some very low expectations for Jesus, some very earth centered expectations that were limited to their worldly experiences in life.) They reported to Jesus the facts about His own death and burial and then that some of the women in their group claimed that they saw a vision of angels. — You know they actually saw angels; that these men even used the word “vision” already shows their dismissal of what the women had to say regarding Jesus having risen! It didn’t fit their narrative, their experience, their worldly perspective.
What’s going on in your life? Are you having trouble tracking current events with the gospel of a crucified and risen Savior? Are you not even seeing how they relate, or is the Pastor just talking about two completely different things and the one has nothing to do with the other. After all the one is just church, and the other is real, very real and really messed up! Our worldly perspective, our human world view in darkening our understanding. It is too easy to feel that things are out of control because they are out of our control, and not going the way we think things ought to be going.
I know that we all understand that Jesus rose from the dead, and that we understand that this is the best news of all news ever to be told in this world. However we are human, and so we have this human failing of struggling with an earth bound perspective that darkens our understanding. What we see in this world all too easily takes precedence over the spiritual realities that we have learned from the Lord in Scripture.
Let’s rejoin these two disciples on their walk with Jesus. May we also be blessed as they were with —
II. Scriptural Perspective for Current Events.
Jesus heard them out. They expressed their distress to the Lord, and then the Lord Jesus replied.
Luke 24:25-27 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Yes, Jesus began with a light reprimand. I am quite sure that with those words of reprimand He got their attention. Jesus took them into the Old Testament Scriptures to make the point that all they had witnessed in those recent days was exactly what the Scriptures had said would come. The Christ came into the world to suffer for our sins, and that was how He would enter into His glory. Starting with Moses and going on into the prophets Jesus taught them about Himself. The Spirit does not reveal for us which Scripture verses Jesus used. It was long walk and there are plenty from which the Savior could choose. Maybe He started with Moses. He could have very easily started with the Passover which the Jews were observing at the same time that these things were fulfilled in Christ. Jesus could have taken them through Isaiah 53, like we did during Lent this year. It includes it all: Jesus’ suffering and dying for our sins, and the fact of His resurrection, that He would see His spiritual progeny. The Psalms that we have read in our recent services are rich with lessons concerning Jesus’ sufferings, death, burial and resurrection!
What Jesus was doing was shifting their focus, changing their perspective from a worldly view of events to a spiritual view, from a temporal focus to an eternal focus. The one is so much more real than the other. And it is not the earthly that is more real, it is the heavenly that is more real. Jesus was bringing these two disciples to the point that they could see things as the Apostle Paul wrote: “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
That is what Jesus’ resurrection does for us. Yes, Jesus died for us on the cross and He was buried, but on the third day He rose again. The debt of sin is paid. The curse of the law is removed. The devil’s accusations now ring hollow for there is no longer any substance to them! Jesus’ resurrection presents God’s declaration of the peace of sins forgiven, and the grave losing its sting.
Here is life! Here is eternal life for all who believe. Remember Jesus’ words to Martha as she grieved over the death of her brother: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
That final question to Martha was an intentional call to a spiritual focus when the temporal events before her were overwhelming eternal truth. “Do you believe this?” Now, Jesus is asking you: “Do you believe this?” and yes, we will join Martha in her confession of faith: “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:27) We confess this with the spiritual enlightenment of the Jesus’ resurrection!
This is so important for the believer of every age. It is through this faith, through this truth that we see our way through life’s darkest days, because we have the light of a living Savior. Remember Job’s confession, words he spoke from the midst of extreme trial, not only of his body but also of his soul. Even when Job struggled with why the Lord was allowing these disasters to enter his life Job held to the light and the glory of a risen and living Redeemer!
I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
27 Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)
Again we join the Emmaus disciples as —
III. They Reached their Goal.
Yes, they made it to their residence in Emmaus, but that wasn’t the goal Jesus had for them. They invited this man to stay with them, still not recognizing that it was the Lord. It was when they sat down to eat and Jesus who had taught them along the road took the loaf of flat bread and said the table prayer, and began to break it in pieces to serve them that their eyes were opened and they knew it was the Lord Jesus, their risen Savior! And just that quick, Jesus removed Himself from their presence, His mission of grace and enlightenment accomplished.
Luke 24:32-35 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
How blessed they were to have their spiritual vision opened in this way! Jesus not only appeared to them, but took the time and had the patience and the grace to open the Scriptures to them that they might finally have that Scriptural perspective, that true and eternal spiritual foundation for faith and life, and LIFE! And what a difference it made. When they had started for Emmaus they had been dismayed and spiritually confounded. With their understanding opened they were filled with the joy and excitement of knowing a living hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It was late, far too late to start a seven mile walk back to Jerusalem, but this news couldn’t wait! This was news that had to be shared with those whom they knew also were spiritually distressed. They hurried back to Jerusalem. They had to share the news. When they arrived they found the others also excited to tell them; “THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED, and has appeared to Simon.” (v. 34) And their immediate reply was to tell about “the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.” (Luke 24:34,35)
Do we understand the difference? Are we living in that joy that comes with resurrection enlightenment? We are living in strange and unsettled times in the world. Things are serious, and yet they don’t always seem serious. We know we need to obey our governing authorities, and yet we are beginning to chaff. Things are getting more worrisome about having a way of making a living, and losing life the way we knew it. Bam! It is so easy to fall back to earth, and look down.
Only don’t let the events that are going on right now rob you of resurrection enlightenment. Jesus came as the Scriptures foretold. He came to take our sins away. And He did! Jesus came to suffer the curse of the law for us. And He did! Jesus died in our place and was buried and rose again that we might have life through faith in His name. Jesus’ lives and because He lives we shall live also. (John 14:19) That truth matters above all else and it brings peace and joy to our hearts in the face of this life’s greatest distress. By grace the Lord has opened our understanding that we might comprehend the Scriptures and possess in our hearts and lives Resurrection Enlightenment!
“I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living Head.
“He lives to silence all my fears,
He lives to wipe away my tears,
He lives to calm my troubled heart,
He lives all blessings to impart.
“He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,
“I know that my Redeemer lives!” (The Lutheran Hymnal 200:1,5,8)
AMEN.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen. (Romans15:13)