3/23/08 Because He Lives
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Twenty five years ago today, Easter Morning 1983,

I taught my first Easter lesson at Peninsula Bible Fellowship.

I was 35 years old at the time

and knew just about everything that was worth knowing.

To be honest, my doctrine has changed very little during the past quarter of a century,

but my priorities have changed dramatically.

Many of the things that, 25 years ago, I thought were very, very important

now just don’t seem to matter at all,

and some other things that were on the fringes of my life then

are now at the very core of it.

25 years ago I believed my God loved me,

and now I know it.

25 years ago the hope of His love was a belief I clung to,

and now it is the air my spirit breathes and the solid rock under my feet.

25 years ago I believed that growing in knowledge about our God

was about the most important thing we could do,

and the more knowledge about God that I could impart to you, the better.

And now I know that my highest calling in life

is trying to understand how to truly love the people God has placed in my life.

I’m certainly not suggesting that I do it well,

but I do know that it is what matters most.

By the way, for those of you who have been involved in our study of II Peter recently,

does that remind you of anything?

Do you remember those progressive steps that Peter outlines for us in the first chapter?

Do you remember that stairway we’ve been looking at?

Though I certainly wasn’t aware of it then,

twenty-five years ago I was pretty much on that third step - KNOWLEDGE.

And because that’s where I was in many respects,

and knowledge was the most important thing in my own growth at that point,

I just assumed it must be the most important thing for everyone else as well.

But, though a great deal has changed in me and in my thinking during the past 25 years,

there is one thing that has not.

Twenty-five years ago today

I stood before a group of friends in John Davis’ livingroom

and told them that the one event in all of history

that most profoundly changed the human race forever

was the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

three days following His crucifixion.

And this morning I stand before you

telling you exactly the same thing.

It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ

that gives us both the confirmation of the truths we most need for our life right now,

and also our absolute and certain hope for the future.

It is the resurrection of Christ

that confirms for us

that this Man really was who He claimed to be - God in human form.

It assures us that He was not just a well-meaning but misguided prophet

who got caught against His will in a web of political and religious hatred

that ultimately led to His execution,

but rather that He was in fact freely choosing to offer Himself

as payment for our sins against Him,

demonstrating His love for us

at a level that none of us could ever have anticipated,

and through His resurrection

we are given the absolute confirmation

that He was in fact who He claimed to be

and that the offering of His own death for our sins

was accepted by God as full payment on our behalf.

And even more,

His resurrection gives us the only absolute, clear vision of ourselves after our own death.

JOH 14:19-20 "... because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

JOH 11:25-26 "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. "

The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope of our own resurrection

is what gives us our whole foundation

for approaching the few years we spend on this planet,

on this side of the grave,

from a radically different perspective.

And it is what validates everything our God has said to us...

about the true nature of His love,

about His hope and purpose for our lives,

about His incomprehensible commitment to our redemption and healing.

This is Easter morning,

a time when mostly we just want to remember the truth that changed everything forever

and celebrate what that truth means to us personally.

And to help us do that

we are going to return this morning

to the account of my own personal favorite part

of Luke’s account of the events following the resurrection of Christ.

Ten years ago, in 1998,

we spent our Easter morning

with two follower’s of Christ

at that point at which they first discovered the truth about their God.

And this morning we’re going to do the same thing again.

If you want to read on your own

the incident we will be looking at

during the next few minutes

it can be found in Luke 24:13-35.

It is the account of two men who, as far as we know,

never appear again in any part of the New Testament record.

One of them was a man named Cleopas,

and we are never told the name of the other.

And one of the things I like so much about this account

is the fact that neither of these men were part of the inner circle.

Neither of them were among the 12 disciples selected by the Lord.

Neither of them played any significant role

in the Gospel events,

or in the events we have recorded for us in the book of Acts.

They were just two men

who met Jesus

and chose to follow Him.

Do you know why I like that?

I like that because it tells me that there are no “special people” in the heart of God,

or rather, that every person is equally special to Him.

These two men have what is certainly one of the most amazing encounters with the risen Christ

that any two people ever had.

And it wasn’t because they held some high position,

or had some great and glorious future ahead of them.

It was simply because Jesus knew their hearts,

and because He loved them,

and because He wanted them to know the truth.

But let’s spend a few minutes with them and I’ll show you what I mean.

Cleopas and his friend began the 2 hour walk home.

They didn’t really want to leave Jerusalem.

They didn’t want to leave

all their friends there

who had come for the Passover,

but there was no longer any reason to stay,

and they had some real concerns

about whether or not it was safe for them to remain in the city.

Hopefully there would be no more executions,

now that the Master was dead

and the leaders had gotten what they wanted.

But still...one never knew.

It had all turned out so wrong,

so terribly,

horribly,

hideously wrong.

And it should have been so good.

Just a week ago

when Jesus made that amazing public entrance into the city

it looked as though everything was in place

for Him to take over the nation.

I wish you could have been there that day.

It was an absolutely perfect morning -

sunny, but not too hot,

a gentle breeze blowing,

the road packed with people

all filing into the city for the greatest celebration of the year.

And then all of a sudden

two words came racing through the travelers... ‟He’s coming!!”

There was no question about who ‟HE” was.

During the past three years

He had become the favorite topic of discussion throughout the nation.

JESUS!

Cleopas and his friend had been right there with Him

through that whole amazing entrance into the city.

They were not members

of the ‟official” band of 12

that Jesus had specially selected as His disciples,

but they had been close to Him

for more than two years.

They, like many others in the nation,

knew that now, at long last,

the Messiah that had been promised by so many of the ancient Prophets

had finally come...

and His name was JESUS!

The political leaders had been curious

and concerned about the rumors they’d heard.

The religious leaders were just plane jealous of His popularity...

jealous and really threatened.

They wanted the man dead.

But they clearly hadn’t had the power

or the support of the people

to bring it off.

It was evident that day when Jesus made His entrance into Jerusalem.

Everyone was screaming

and yelling

and flinging their clothes on the ground before Him

so that even the little donkey He was riding on

wouldn’t have to put a hoof on the dirt.

What in the world had happened?

Where had all those people gone

when the Master really needed them?

Jerusalem... the city of peace. Right!

Jesus Himself had said it so much better -

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!

And now it had killed the greatest Prophet,

the greatest Man,

the greatest hope Israel would ever have.

And crucified, of all things.

Somehow the religious leaders

had organized an arrest

and a trial in the middle of the night,

then had Him executed

by that hideous form of Roman torture -

Jesus had been crucified.

Rumors were flying all over

that Jesus’ followers

were in danger of being arrested as well.

One of the 12 disciples

was apparently responsible

for selling the Master out.

The other 11 had been in hiding

ever since the execution.

And now nobody was claiming

to have known anything about Jesus.

It had been three days, now, since the execution.

It was all over.

Nothing was going to change,

nothing was going to make it better.

Nothing was going to remove

the awful, aching emptiness

of life without the Master.

It was late afternoon,

really a very nice late afternoon,

but neither of them noticed.

They walked along together,

talking through all that had happened,

trying to convince one another

and themselves

that everything was going to be OK.

But it wasn’t.

There had been some talk

about trying to keep His memory alive.

Someone thought

it might be a good idea

for everyone to get together

and try to write down

some of the things He’d said.

But nothing came of it.

It wasn’t what He’d said

that they had loved.

It was HIM.

It wasn’t His ideas

that had given them

that thrill of excitement

when they woke up each morning,

it was the sudden realization

that they were going to be able

to spend another whole day with Him.

But now He was gone.

Those who held the power had won,

like they always won,

and now, just like the road they followed,

an endless, dreary life-the-way-it-use-to-be

stretched out before them.

Then, as they talked, they suddenly realized that a third traveler

had overtaken them and was now walking with them,

listening to their conversation.

They glanced over at Him,

but neither of them recognized Him.

He’d certainly not been

one of Jesus’ followers

or they would have known Him.

The man had obviously been eavesdropping on their conversation

for longer than either of them realized,

and when they looked at Him

He said,

"What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you’re walking?"

They both stopped and stared at the newcomer.

How could He ask such a question?

Intense grief engulfs a person

in a way that makes it seem

as if the whole world knows

and understands your pain.

Three days before

the world had come to end.

True, the sun rose the following day,

but it was a different sun,

a dark, dismal, dreary sun

that radiated regret

and pain

and emptiness.

An now, here this man stood,

casually asking them for information

about what they had been discussing.

Cleopas was rather more blunt

and combative in his response

than the Man’s question justified.

"Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?"

But, rather than taking offence,

the man almost seemed to sense

the kind of pain these two men were feeling,

and He just responded by asking

what things they meant.

Then the other man jumped in and said,

"The things about Jesus the Nazarene,

who was a prophet

mighty in deed and word

in the sight of God and all the people,

and how the chief priests and our rulers

delivered Him up to the sentence of death,

and crucified Him.

But we were hoping that ...

well, we were hoping that it was He

who was going to redeem Israel.

And besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened.

They started walking again.

Cleopas’ friend paused for a few seconds,

seemed to make a decision,

and then went on...

There’s something else, too...

some women among us amazed us.

When they were at the tomb

early in the morning,

and didn’t find His body,

they came, saying that they had also

seen a vision of angels,

who said that...that He was alive.

And some of those who were with us

went to the tomb and found it

just exactly as the women also had said; but ... well, Him they didn’t see."

What happened next

sent a shock through Cleopas and his friend.

Rather than responding with

the words of sympathy

they had expected,

this stranger suddenly spoke

with an authority

that sent a thrill through them.

He said,

‟O foolish men and

slow of heart to believe

in all that the prophets have spoken!

Was it not necessary

for the Christ to suffer these things

and to enter into His glory?”

They both looked at Him in amazement,

then asked Him

what in the world He meant.

Then, beginning with Moses

and with all the prophets,

He explained to them the things

concerning the Messiah in all the Scriptures,

things they had never seen before.

He went all the way back to the Book of Genesis

and reminded them of God’s comment to Satan in the Garden of Eden

following Satan’s successful efforts

to tempt Adam and Eve into sin,

promising him that,

though he would one day succeed

in bruising the heel of the Messiah,

yet the Messiah would ultimately

bruise Satan on the head.

He went on to talk to them

about why

God had used a blood sacrifice

to get skins with which

to cover the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve following their sin,

and why Cain’s offering of fruit

was rejected by God,

and why Abel’s blood sacrifice was accepted.

He talked about how

throughout the history of their nation

without the shedding of blood

there could be no forgiveness of sins,

then told them that

that blood was symbolic of Jesus’ blood

as He offered Himself

as God’s true, eternal payment for all sins

as He hung on that cross 3 days earlier.

He went on to talk about

Zechariah’s prophecy that the Messiah

would be sold for 30 pieces of silver,

and how Zechariah had also foretold

that the Messiah would die

by having nails driven through Him

and a sword thrust into His side.

He talked about Isaiah’s prophecies

telling how He would be

executed among thieves,

how He would remain silent before His accusers,

how He would be whipped

and spat on by his executioners.

He even talked about David’s prophecies from the Psalms

telling how he would be given

vinegar and gall to drink as He was dying,

how the soldiers would gamble for His coat,

and how none of His bones would be broken.

And He talked about the prophecies

from both the Prophets

and from Jesus Himself

that 3 days following His death

Jesus would rise from the dead.

Never before had these two men

ever experienced anything like it.

As this fellow traveler

skillfully painted a portrait of the Messiah unlike anything they had ever heard,

a picture of a Messiah who came

not to conquer

but to die

so that through that death He might give us life,

a Messiah who, having defeated sin with His own death

would then defeat death with His own resurrection,

those men felt their hearts burning inside them.

Oh! If only it could be true.

They reached their destination

in what seemed like only a few minutes.

Their traveling companion said goodbye

and began to head down the road,

but there was no way they were going to let Him leave.

They urged Him to please stay with them a little longer.

He agreed

and they all went in,

cleaned up from their journey,

and gathered together for the evening meal.

They asked their visitor

to offer thanks for their food.

When He’d finished

He took the loaf of bread sitting in front of Him,

broke off two pieces

and handed them to Cleopas and his friend.

Then, at the same instant,

as they reached for the bread,

they both saw His hands -

they saw the jagged wounds

and torn flesh where the nails

had been driven through.

They looked at His face,

a face filled with a kind of radiant, amused victory,

a face suddenly recognized

as that of the Master’s.

Then, before either of them could say a word

He was gone ... just disappeared.

He’s alive!

He’s really alive!!

There was no question about

waiting until the morning -

they had to tell the others tonight.

And what a night it was ...

what an incredible, beautiful,

warm and wonderful,

glorious night it was.

The road stretched out before them

like an endless river of hope and opportunity.

They ended up running most of the way back,

because, you see, He was alive

and they knew it,

and all the world had to know.

And for the past two thousand years

that same glorious discovery process

has been taking place between Jesus Christ and His creation one life at a time.

He steps into our lives, unannounced,

walks with us right where we are,

and then, in His own perfect way feeds us the truth about Himself -

the truth about His love for us,

the truth about His death for us,

the truth about His victory over both sin and death.

And then He waits for us to invite Him in.

And if we do...when we do it changes our lives forever.