The Word of God

 

Luke 24:25-27

 

Third Sunday after Easter

April 6, 2008

 

Luke 24:25-27 [ESV] ²⁵And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

 

As human beings, we like to worry. I know I do. Well, I don't like to worry, but it seems to happen often for me. Let me make a confession to you now. As you are all aware, the Hong Kong Mission Team leaves in 4 days. We leave on Thursday morning. This mission trip has been an adventure from the very beginning. As most of you are probably aware, this mission trip was originally to take place in the month of February, and we were supposed to be traveling to Kenya. However, the Lord had something else in mind for his people at St. Paul's at this particular time. Our trip to Kenya was cancelled, and the Lord opened the door for a mission team to serve in Hong Kong.

As the leader and organizer of our mission to Hong Kong, I have been plagued with worry. I am worried that something terrible is going to go wrong while we are in Hong Kong. I am worried that our team will not be adequately prepared for what lies before us. I am worried that the teachers and the school will be disappointed with our "teaching of English". I am worried that something is going to happen in the next few days to cause us to postpone this mission trip.

I think that we can all relate to worry in our lives. Maybe we are worried about our kids and the choices that they will make. Maybe we are worried about our health. Maybe we are worried about finances and wondering if we will be able to afford the family vacation we have been planning for this coming summer. Maybe we worry about how well we will do on a test in school, or some other exam we need to take.

I think that we can all testify from personal experience that worry gets us nowhere. In fact, I saw a quote once that said: "Worry is a lot like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere."

In our text this morning we have a couple of Jesus' disciples deep in conversation. Luke tells us that it was "two of them", and many of the scholarly commentaries believe that these two men were none of the 12 disciples but rather two other men who had been with Jesus during his ministry. Luke does not give us a word for word account of the conversation these two men were having on their way to Emmaus. Luke does tell us that Emmaus is a seven-mile journey from Jerusalem. 

This journey is taking place on Easter Sunday. The men say that early that morning the women of their company had come and told them that the body of Jesus was not in the tomb. In fact, the women told them that they had seen a vision of angels who told them that Jesus was alive. The men tell the "stranger", whom we know to be Jesus, that two of their companions also went to the tomb. They saw that Jesus was no longer there, but they did not see Jesus.

These two disciples of Jesus are now on their way to Emmaus and they are discussing everything that has happened. The fact that the chief priests and the rulers had delivered Jesus up and condemned him to death, and crucified him. It is quite obviously the talk of Jerusalem, because they are shocked to hear that this "stranger" among them seems to know nothing about the death of Jesus. These disciples are filled with grief and questions. In fact, I would wager to guess that these two disciples are also filled with worry. They told this man that they had believed that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah that was long expected. But now, this Messiah was killed, and worse yet, his body is now missing.

We won't spend too much time speculating on what is going on in this conversation, but I have no doubt that their conversation was plagued with worry. Perhaps they wondered what might happen to them, being that they were followers of Jesus. Would they do the same to them? What about the time they devoted to this man who was called the Christ? Was it all for naught? If they thought this man was the long awaited Messiah, and now he was dead and his body was missing… what now? What if Jesus was the messiah, and the leaders killed him. That couldn't have been part of the plan. The chief priests and the religious leaders had just murdered their one and only chance for salvation. The long awaited Messiah murdered at the hands of the religious leaders, and now his body was missing. Two women, talk of visions of Angels… but come on… how believable is that?

Worry, Worry, Worry.

What happens next is very interesting. The "stranger" with these two men begins to interpret the scriptures and all the prophets to the disciples. He says that Jesus had to suffer and die in order to enter into his glory. On that long walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus, Jesus opened their minds to the scriptures and interpreted everything that was said concerning himself. Jesus doesn't use a magic formula. Jesus doesn't use hypnosis. Jesus doesn't use an encyclopedia or the internet. Jesus uses the very thing that we all have: the Word of God!

There was no magic tricks or gimmicks on that walk to Emmaus. Jesus did not perform miraculous signs or miracles to get these disciples to believe. Jesus used the very thing that each and every one of you has in your possession today: The Word of God! The Holy Bible!

Everything that happened to Jesus was written in the Scriptures. All of the prophets had spoken about the life and death of Jesus. It was all laid out before them. On that walk to Emmaus, Jesus interpreted the scriptures everything that was concerning himself. The scriptures that Jesus interpreted to the disciples over 2,000 years ago are the same scriptures that we have today, the scriptures that we call the "Old Testament".

One of the names for Jesus in the New Testament is The Word. In the opening lines of John's gospel he tells us that "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Several verses later we hear that the "Word became flesh and dwelt among us for a while."

Jesus, the Word, became flesh and He walked on this earth. Jesus came to this earth with one sole purpose in mind. To redeem you and me from the sin that plagues us every single day. The Word came to this earth and he fulfilled his one purpose: to die on that wooden cross for you and for me. It wasn't what everyone expected. They didn't expect to see the Messiah nailed to a tree, suffering a humiliating death. They didn't expect to have to bury their Messiah in a tomb.

To the human eyes, Jesus' last hours on this earth were utterly humiliating. Jesus was arrested and tried before the religious leaders and authorities. Jesus was stripped of his clothing, mocked and humiliated. Jesus was whipped and beaten. The people mocked him and spit on him. They wove together a makeshift crown of thorns and pressed it down on his head. They nailed him to a wooden cross, and left him there to die. This was not the glorious image that the people envisioned for the Word who made flesh: the Messiah.

What is the most peculiar about the situation is that it was on the cross that we see the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ, in his full glory. On the cross on Calvary, Jesus, the Son of God, allowed himself to be humiliated, all so that you could one day be with your creator and Father in heaven. In doing so, the Son of God was fully glorified on the cross. Jesus was fully glorified on the cross because it is there on the cross that we see the love that God has for each and every one of us. God loved us so much that he gave his only Son, Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for all of your sins.

Jesus took every sin of yours to the cross, and he paid the debt that we all owed because of our selfish pride, arrogance and lack of faith. All of your sins were paid for by the all-availing sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, on that cross. Every terrible deed that we have committed and that we will commit has been paid for by the death of Jesus Christ: the Word made flesh. 

What did the disciples have to worry about? Everything was completed as the scriptures had stated. Jesus opened the disciples' eyes to that very fact. The same scriptures that Jesus revealed to the disciples are the same that you have in your homes today. 

Peter told us in the Epistle lesson for today that the Word of God remains forever. In fact, Peter quotes the prophet Isaiah who first said: "The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God stands forever." Everything in this world will one day pass away. But God's word will never die. God's word will never wither. God's Word is always applicable to our lives today.

So what do we have to worry about? We have a Savior and a Messiah on our side every step of the way. We don't have to worry about what will happen tomorrow, because no matter what God is with us.

I don't need to worry about the Hong Kong mission trip. God has the entire trip under His control. God knows exactly what will happen and will provide for every need we might encounter while we are serving Him in Hong Kong. The Holy Spirit will give us everything we need to serve him faithfully and share the Gospel with those whom we serve.

There are times when the things of this world will make us nervous and cause us to worry. It is at those times that, instead of spending our hours worrying about what this life might throw at us, that time would be better spent in God's Word, the Holy Bible. God gave us the Bible to encourage us, uplift us, and sustain us.  But, you might ask, how can we avail ourselves of this power of God, found in the Word?

Let us sit at the Lord's feet and learn from his word; let us read, re-read and meditate on the wisdom and heart of God as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures.  Let us encourage one another to take advantage of the studies here at this church.  Perhaps we can, either in a spouse or friend, find an "accountability partner", with whom we will develop a mutually-encouraging, prayerful partnership that will help us grow in our daily, personal devotional life.  Let us, instead of reaching for the latest magazine, reach for the Bible.  And all the while, let us pray fervently to our Lord that he may open our eyes and make our hearts burn within us as we are drawn closer to the heart of our amazing and wonderful Lord and Savior through His living Word.