Knowing and the Resurrection

In one paragraph

This Easter morning message from Pastor Blake walked through the resurrection narrative in Luke and the opening of Acts, asking why the people closest to Jesus were so slow to recognize and believe what He had plainly told them. The sermon kept returning to a single honest tension: knowing something and truly believing it are not the same thing. That gap, Pastor Blake argued, is where most of us...

Read together

1. Luke 23 (latter verses) Women from Galilee follow Jesus to the tomb, see how his body is laid, return to prepare spices, and rest on the Sabbath
2. Luke 24:1-12 Women go to the tomb at early dawn, find the stone rolled away, encounter two men in dazzling apparel, remember Jesus's words, and report to the eleven; Peter runs to the tomb
3. Luke 24:13-35 Two disciples walk to Emmaus, are joined by the risen Jesus unrecognized, discuss the crucifixion and lost hopes, hear Jesus expound the scriptures, and recognize him in the breaking of bread
4. Luke 24:36-49 Jesus appears among the gathered disciples, invites them to touch him, eats broiled fish, opens their minds to the scriptures, and commissions proclamation of repentance and forgiveness in his name to all nations
5. Luke 1:1-4 Luke describes his method of compiling an orderly account from eyewitnesses for Theophilus so he may have certainty
6. Acts 1:1-11 Luke's second volume recounts Jesus presenting himself alive by many proofs over forty days, promising the Holy Spirit, and ascending into heaven as two men in white robes promise his return
7. Isaiah 53 Cited as forecasting the gruesome death the Messiah would die
8. Psalm 22 Cited alongside Isaiah 53 as forecasting the gruesome death the Messiah would die

Talk about it

1. The women who went to the tomb had heard Jesus say multiple times that he would rise on the third day, yet they still showed up with burial spices. Where in your own life have you heard something true over and over again but still acted as though you didn't believe it?
2. Pastor Blake described the two disciples on the road to Emmaus as having lost hope, saying 'we had hoped' in the past tense, even after hearing the women's report from the tomb. What does it look like when hope gives way to going through the motions, and what brought these two men back?
3. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus until he broke the bread with them. Pastor Blake suggested that maybe we don't need to know everything all at once. Can you think of a time when understanding came to you gradually rather than all at once, and what did that process look like?
4. J. I. Packer's definition of repentance was quoted as turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and that this practice has to be enlarged as our knowledge grows. Where are you in that process right now across those three areas, your knowledge of sin, of yourself, and of God?
5. Pastor Blake closed by saying that instead of looking for a position in the kingdom or an overthrow of the government, he is looking for Jesus to open his eyes. What would it look like practically for you to be a witness of what you have personally seen and heard, starting right where you are?