5/8/21 Luke 24:13-35 “Does Excitement Abound in You?”

06 May 5/8/21 Luke 24:13-35 “Does Excitement Abound in You?”

5/8/21  Luke 24:13-35    “Does Excitement Abound in You?”

I like days like today or this Sunday where we can celebrate ‘Mother’s Day.’  There have been so many things going on in the world that I think that it is good to celebrate holidays like the ‘4^th of July,’ ‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Mother’s Day.’  None of these days are a Christian holiday but I think that God wants us to look at the good things in life and celebrate them.  That is why we celebrate holidays.   And anyway, let’s face it, we all celebrate birthdays, we all have fathers and mothers.  Sometimes we only have memories of these people but we can celebrate just the same.  A few of weeks ago we got to celebrate Easter and I hope that you all enjoyed that.  We all know that the death of Jesus would mean nothing if it weren’t for the fact that He arose from the dead again.  So, we celebrated this.  Now we move past Easter to a time when Jesus is showing himself to His followers.  Today’s Scripture tells us of the story of the road to Emmaus.  I would like us to see just where we fit into this journey of these two people going to Emmaus.

Have you ever wondered why we have such a fascination with super heroes?  This is especially true for children.  I could probably ask many of the children which super hero they would like to be and they probably wouldn’t hesitate telling me.  And I would guess that they would probably all be different.  And this carries over into adulthood as can be seen by how popular movies are like ‘Batman,’ ‘Iron Man,’ or ‘Marvel heroes’, just to name a few.  I’m sure that there is something playing right now in the theaters that has some sort of super human as the main character.

I think that one of the reasons that these characters are so popular is that they give us escape from reality.  We like to live in a world where we can always ask the question, “What if this happens or what if that happened?”  We don’t have control over a lot of things in life and this is one way to help us cope.  Children especially have no control over the things they do.  Super heroes are a way for them to have a little hope, even though these heroes don’t actually exist.  They exist in our minds and they cause our minds to work a little better as we try to figure life out.  There is nothing wrong with this as long as we realize that none of this can be true or at least there is only one case where it is true.

This is kind of like the two people walking on the road to Emmaus.  We don’t know anything about these two.  Were they two men or a man and a woman?  About all we know is that one was named Cleopas and they were followers of Jesus.  They had been to Jerusalem and seen what had happened.  They were tremendously sad.  I can’t imagine having my best friend murdered by the authorities when he hadn’t done one thing wrong.  Jesus had been killed and now all they had left was to go back to what they had been doing before they met Jesus.  They were a few miles out of Jerusalem and heading to Emmaus.  They road to Emmaus is a sad road.

I think that we have all been on this road.  I find that the older I get, the more I travel on this road.  When I was young, I never thought about it too much.  But then again, I didn’t know Jesus when I was young.  But as time goes by, we know more and more people, and more and more things happen to us.  It seems that we travel more and more on this road of sadness.

But look who comes!  Jesus comes to these two disciples and they don’t recognize Him.  I have done a little reading on this and I find that there are many so called scholars who say that these two people just didn’t look at Jesus very closely or they have some other physical reason for this non-recognition.  They are trying to find a physical way to explain this.  But I think that God had temporarily blinded these two and would give them recognition later.  Anyway, Jesus comes beside them and talks with them and they don’t recognize Him.  First, He asks them what is wrong and then He lets them answer.  He lets them pour out their grief.  Only after they have vented their grief, does Jesus then explain that these things had to happen.

We have talked about this before and here it is in the Scripture with Jesus leading the way.  When you are trying to be the arms and legs of Jesus Christ in this world and you come upon someone who is grieving, there is absolutely nothing you can say that will help out the situation.  Nothing!  Jesus didn’t even talk here.  The best thing to do is ask a little question and let the person talk and grieve.  The best grief counseling you can do is to keep quiet.  This is very hard because we want to fix things and make them better.  But grief doesn’t work that way.

It is only after a person has talked of their loss that we can begin to say things that they will hear.  Jesus waited until these people had explained it all to Him.  He had been there and He knew what happened.  He didn’t need an explanation.  And yet He listened to them.  It was not about Him, but it was about their grief.  Remember this when you get into this type of situation.  When grief is fresh, it is best to keep quiet and comfort people physically.  You can talk to them later.

A great part of this lesson is to know that Jesus is there.  He didn’t leave these two in their grief.  People make a big deal about how these two didn’t recognize Jesus.  That is not the important point here.  When people are in grief, they fail to recognize lots of things.  This is ok.  Jesus is telling them that this is ok not to recognize Him.  It is ok to go through this process because He is there with them/us.  He may be in the form of a friend or doctor or relative, but He is there.

So, Jesus comforts these people as they continue to their destination.  When they get there, Jesus acts as if He is going to continue on His journey.  But these two invite Jesus into their house which was the custom of the time.  The point here is that Jesus will not come into their house unless He is invited.  Then He enters.

Have you all seen the picture where Jesus is knocking on the door.  Many churches have it and I think that I have even preached on this a couple of times.  I also mentioned it last week.  Notice how Jesus is outside the door in the great outdoors.  Where Jesus is, time and space are endless.  However, if you are inside this house, then you are in a very small confined space.  In other words, when you are with Jesus the possibilities are endless.

The other thing to notice about this picture is that there is no door handle for Jesus to grab and open the door.  If this door is to be opened when Jesus knocks, then it must be opened by you who are inside this tiny place.  This is how Jesus works.  He will not enter your life unless you ask Him.

I have known several people where this is a problem.  They go to church and they do all the right things but they have never surrendered themselves to Jesus.  When things happen to them or around them, they wonder why Jesus wasn’t there.  All I can say is that He is or was there all the time.  However, He might have been on the other side of this door knocking and no one heard Him.  He knocks and He waits for your answer.

I would like you to have this message on this Mother’s Day.  Remember that we all have mothers whether they are here or not.  Give her the greatest present that you can give.  Confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to live in your heart.  Open the door for Jesus and you will find where real life begins.  You will never, never regret this decision and your mother will be so proud of you, wherever she is.  You can have all the great things God wants for you if you just open the door for Jesus.

Now after Jesus came in, the two gave Him something to eat and their eyes were opened.  They then recognized Jesus and when they did, He disappeared.  Jesus was there enough so that they knew that they were in the presence of the risen Christ.  This helps the two relive what had just happened.  They get all excited about this and they head to Jerusalem.  Here’s how we know that they were excited.  It was evening.  Jerusalem was seven miles away.  People didn’t travel during this time of day.  This is why they asked Jesus in to spend the evening in the first place.  This was common practice so that people didn’t have to travel at night.  It would have been too dangerous. They had to be so excited about this news because they were willing to take this chance so that the rest of the disciples would know what had happened.

So now I have a question for us.  When was the last time that you were so excited about Jesus that you dropped everything and went out and told other people?  Or better yet, when was the last time you were so excited about anything that you got up and ran out to tell others?  I would bet, if I wasn’t a Christian pastor that is, that it just doesn’t happen.  In our age of multi-media and instant communications and instant everything we find it very hard to get excited about anything.

Several years ago, I wrote a letter to the Forum, our local newspaper, about our schools being open for business on Sundays.  A few days later I was having coffee with a bunch of guys when they told me how much they appreciated my sticking up for the moral well-being of our children.  They told me that it was a very nice letter.

Do you want to know a little secret?  I didn’t write that so it would be a nice little letter.  I wrote it to try to stir up a little action.  I wrote it so people would call their schools.  I don’t blame these people at coffee or anyone else because I would guess that it would be lucky if one person called any school out of the hundreds that may have read that letter.  We don’t get excited about anything and as long as someone else will do the dirty work, we are content to sit on the side lines.  This is what is going to happen as long as we don’t speak up for our Sabbath.  By the time our kids who are with us today, are raising school age kids of their own, they will be going to school on Sunday.  We might not even be able to have church because it might conflict with school.  You may think I’m crazy for thinking this but look at our children’s independent sports leagues like basketball, football, hockey and others.  Many of these leagues are on Sundays and Sunday mornings. Jesus wants us to keep the Sabbath holy.  Jesus wants us to get up and run to Jerusalem.  He wants us to get excited about Him and His world and His ways.  Now my letter to the editor is not important.  It is not important at all.  But it does show us what can happen.

I don’t know if it is possible or not that these two people could be in the very presence of our risen Lord and not get excited.  I suppose that they could have rejected the message.  They could have doubted.  They could have stayed locked inside a room with no outside door handle for Jesus for the rest of their lives.  If they don’t invite Jesus in, they are doomed to a life within those walls. They will never experience the fullness, the vastness, the richness of life with Jesus.  They would have missed everything that’s neat, cool, breathtaking, awesome, sweet.

Look what happened after this incident.  The tongues of fire touched their heads.  They spoke in languages they didn’t know.  They raised people from the dead.  It was an exciting time.  They told the truth about what was happening and thousands of people came to know Christ just because of the belief of these early Christians.

I would guess that if we could talk to these early Christians, they would tell us that they didn’t regret one minute of their journey.  They would tell us that what they did was sure a lot better than being stuck in some little room for their whole lives.

Even as Christians we can be a little like the people stuck in the room.  We find ourselves stuck in a rut of life.  It seems like we are not going any place fast.  Everything is the same no matter what we do.

Well, here is a solution.  You know how much I stress that each of us has personal prayer time.  I want you to put that time into action this week.  I also want you to remember that we are all gifted differently.  We all serve the Lord in different ways.  I want you to pray in your quiet time, that God will direct you into action of some sort.  It may be more prayer time or helping a neighbor or just being excited about being a Christian.  Pray for what Jesus wants for you.  I can tell you right now that he only wants the very best for you and much happiness.  Jesus did all these things so that you could have a better life.  Praise the Lord!  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.