Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead
First B Jackson
2024-04-14

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Everybody's fine. How about you stand up?

I don't think you could stay seated if we started to sing this song anyway. We're talking about flying away. Some glad morning when this life is over, I'll fly away.

Some glad morning when this life is over, I'll fly away to a home on God's celestial shore. I'll fly away. I'll fly away. The shadows of this life have gone, I'll fly away I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory.

I'll fly away in the morning when I tie hallelujah by and by. I'll fly away. Just a few more weary days and then

Amen. And what a day that will be. How about that? Let's follow it up with this one. Y'all knew that one.

Do you know this one? 762. I do.

There is coming a day when no heartaches shall come. No more clouds in the sky. No more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that will be.

What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land, what a day, glorious day that will be. There'll be no sorrow there. No more burdens to bear.

No more sickness. No pain. No more parting over there. And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that will be.

What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. When I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land what a day glorious day that will be Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements and a special duo to introduce. Now, this is the week for the super exciting happy happy good times budgeting workshop. Aren't you excited? Tuesday evening, six to eight, April sixteenth, twenty third, and thirtieth for the next three weeks on Tuesday night.

If you want to come in and join Nick Stern, Richard Yule, and Jeremy Lieber, they will be leading a super exciting happy happy good times budgeting workshop to help you. You can bring your seats, your bills, your laptop, any kind of pay stubs, whatever you think is necessary, spouse, snacks, comfy slippers. And you can ask any questions you'd like about getting out of debt, saving for retirement, keeping it chill, or what do you do from this point forward. And these the panel of three is pretty expert panel, so they should be able to help with a lot of your questions. If you wanna join, Tuesday, six to eight.

Awana. So Awana is happening tomorrow night. We do the registration at 05:45. Six to 07:30 is the official time. We have a meal prepared for the volunteers and kids of the volunteers will be ready at 05:15, but wanna see you at Awana.

It's gonna be a normal club night, but they'll start working on their Pinewood Derby cars, and there are a few other special things. Always scripture memorization, always really good time on Monday night. So that's happening and the special duo will give you more. We need volunteers to sign up for connect hour and I just looked and I think the slots are mostly full that we have hanging up, but it's an ongoing thing. If you would like to, I saw a couple of new people signed up.

If you'd like to know more, you can contact Addy Hair and she will tell you kind of how the system works, but that's preparing for the connect hour which happens between services, ten to eleven ish. This this Sunday, it was a little late. Prepare yourselves. Men's lunch study. Don't let that imply that there will be lunch at this study, okay?

There's a men's Bible study that happens during the lunch hour. If you want lunch, bring lunch. It's self serve in that way, but we are serving one another in the body of Christ. 11:55 in the Fellowship Hall. Come and go as you need to, but at 01:00, it'll end.

What we are doing is going through the book of first Peter. We went through James and we finished that out, had such a good time. We just turned the page to first Peter and it's good. Hometown Nazareth where Jesus was a kid, that's the theme of this year's vacation Bible school here. It will be happening June twenty fourth to twenty seventh.

If you'd like to volunteer or if you have kids that you'd like to get registered, you can do that online or there is a sign up sheet in the lobby. And this, hey, there's a potluck happening in honor of Jean DeMarsh, Friday, May 17, 05:30PM in the Fellowship Hall. If you hadn't heard the news, it is happy news in a way, and then the sad news in another way, but she will be heading out to be reunited with Joni and with her son Joe in Bellingham, and we got a chance to go out and just go to lunch this week, and I learned stuff I've never even known before, which is really cool. But if you wanna come celebrate Jean DeMarsh with us, no gifts please, but Friday, May 17, 05:30 here in the Fellowship hall. And then this next one, I was doing the crossword puzzle this week, and I looked over and I saw Jean and Roseanne on the same ad for Meals for Wheels.

And they are on there and I just thought, what a sweet sweet thing that is to make a meaningful impact through Meals on Wheels and there they are. I just love it.

Please announce that our dear friend, Marion, has been delivering meals for thirty some years.

Goodness gracious, Marion. They should have put your picture in there. What's what is Yeah. Yeah. Marion Caddall has been delivering Meals on Wheels for thirty something years.

That's fantastic. It's a great organization, and I'm glad to know it. Well, cool. Anyway, I just want I saw that. Nick saw it too, and we thought, let's put it up there.

I'm gonna invite up the special duo now. Shelley and Jeff are gonna come forward. Jeff Kessler is our Awana area missionary, and I have never heard of an area missionary that had more ground to cover than y'all do. Montana and Wyoming? Goodness gracious.

That's back east, that's like 17 states. Yeah. Yep. Anyway, here's your microphone. Thank you.

And the clicker.

Thank you. It's great to be here this morning. Boy, what a good looking crew this morning. Seeing all these smiling faces out here, I love it. So, well, my name is Jeff Kessler and and together with my wife, Shelly, and that's our home there in Avon by the way.

If you're ever through Avon, stop in and see us. Not tomorrow. I'll I'll tell you. Yeah. I won't be there tomorrow anyway.

So, we thank you pastor for the opportunity to share a little bit about our ministry. K? We wanted to give you a quick update on what's happening in our lives and in Iwana both around the world and right here in our area. So we're Jeff and Shelly Kessler. We've been involved with Awana here in Jackson from from the get go.

Okay. Some people will say, well, what does an Awana missionary do? Well, it was years ago that somebody in the church here decided, hey, let's find out a little bit more about ministering to kids. And so, they called me up and I came and did a presentation for the leadership about Owana and how you how it would look in your church, and so they decided, yeah, we wanna do Owana, so my wife and I came back and did a training for your church a number of years ago, and I'm not sure how many here might have been involved in that original training that took place out in Fellowship Hall, but it was a few years ago and you've had Awana and have been faithful in meet in reaching the boys and girls in your community with the gospel of Jesus Jesus Christ and training them up to serve him. So that's what we do as Awana missionary.

I'll come down to a little bit more on that later just a couple minutes. I only have like two minutes to share, so I really gotta hurry. Okay? And it didn't come from the pasture. So, he wanted to make sure that you knew that.

So, I met my wife in Avon, Montana. Okay? And my wife was born in Butte and moved to Deer Lodge and she that's and we live in Avon, which is 25 miles away. Okay? So, we haven't gone very far in life.

Okay. So, but I was born in Africa and then moved to North Dakota and then Wisconsin and then Montana, Great Falls, and then we moved to Lewistown, and then I moved to Augusta, and then I moved to Florida, and then back to Great Falls, and then to Lewistown, Montana, and then to Avon, Montana. Okay. So, we've spent a lot of time in Montana. Okay.

But, we we've lived there since we got married back in 1982, And I love my wife and got it. We love Montana and the many opportunities that country life gives us. This is our home in Avon. Okay? And this is looking out over our backyard.

And this is a family God has blessed us with. We have seven kids and first five daughters and a boy and then another girl, four sons in law. We have a daughter-in-law, 11 grandchildren, and and a grandchild number 12 coming right before Christmas. So making us there's 26 of us in all. Wow.

K. Now, the vision and prayer of Awana is that all children and youth throughout the world will come to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. K? We didn't know where to stop. I mean, know that's a tall order, right, that all children and youth, we didn't wanna say that some children and youth throughout the world will come.

We want all the kids to come and to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. As missionaries, we want to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as a pastor, I saw several exciting things happen through our Wanna ministry. We have opportunities to share the gospel. John three sixteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Amen. Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans six twenty three, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans ten nine, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Have you trusted Christ as your savior?

That's what we wanna we wanna get the gospel message out to as many people as possible. So as a pastor, I saw many opportunities to share the gospel and new unsaved, unchurched families coming to church, newer believers growing in their faith while serving as a wanna leaders. My church's love for evangelism was deepened and more focused. Boys and girls and families were getting in the habit of coming to church, kids and leaders who were memorizing God's word. Okay?

Parents who were more intentional and more intentional about discipling their own children. They were learning about missions in other countries and boys and girls are trusting Christ as savior and so whether it's at vacation Bible school or at at our own churches at Wana Grand Prix, across other areas as our opportunities come up, in Wana club meetings, visit to pastors, other church leaders, working with leaders, listening to their concerns and praises, missions conferences, regional denominational conferences, fellowships, leader meetings, provide training and resources. Okay. These are some of the things that we are involved in as a water missionary. Our our area is all of Montana and roughly the northern two thirds of Wyoming.

So we are traveling around our area. As we travel, we're amazed at God's handiwork. Right? We live in a beautiful part of the country. And so when we were called and accepted as Iwana missionaries, back in 1993, the board of directors which included Art Werheim at that time who was the founder of Oana asked where we wanted to serve as Oana missionaries.

And we said, we don't particularly feel called to any area, rather we feel called to be Oahuana missionaries. And so, asked us, would you mind staying right where you are? And so, we said, sure. We'll live in Montana and take Montana and Northern Wyoming. And so, for thirty thirty one years Mhmm.

Thirty one years we've been missionaries with the Warner clubs. Okay? So, this is some of our area. This is a moonrise over Mcdonald Pass which is real close to where we live. The Tetons you guys seen those before?

Yeah we have a lot of clubs in by close to Avon we have one right in Avon and in Helena and other areas around there. Here we have a lot of clubs down in Dubois and here in Jackson and and Thane and other places around the state. And here's Devil's Tower. We have a one of clubs in Newcastle and Gillette, and also in Ekalaka. And Glacier we have clubs in Kalispell and Big Fork and Columbia Falls and other places there.

Yellowstone we have a lot of clubs in Belgrade and Livingston and Bozeman so we have a lot of clubs all around the area but a lot of is not limited just to Montana, Wyoming, it's in all 50 states and in a 135 countries around the world. Okay? And, I would love to take the time to share with you about the Owana Africa Schools Initiative. I don't have time right now. Ask me about it.

It's amazing amazing work of God. The vision and prayer of Awana is that all children and youth throughout the world will come to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I wanna leave you with this. When you pick up an Awana handbook, it is chock full of the word of God. Awana is highly scriptural.

And beyond that, this is where you come in. Iwana is also highly relational. K? Now you can write to Iwana. You can call them up.

You can message them. You can order stuff from Owana, you can order handbooks and awards and supplies and all that kind of stuff. But what you can't order at Owana are leaders. They don't box up leaders and send them out to First Baptist here in Jackson. And that's where you folks come in.

We have a church in Gillette that has a group called the the Boulders. Okay? And they are a group of, I shall say, mostly white haired people that come to Awana every week and they assist the boys and girls in learning the word of God. They're called the boulders. And they do a wonderful job there in that church in Gillette.

I'm just throwing something out for you all. Okay? So we we were in Thane last weekend for an Awana Bible quiz and Awana games where different churches come together and they quiz against their knowledge of the Bible and they play games. When we returned home Sunday afternoon, we opened the door and we had had a house fire, an electrical fire where the robot vac had completely disintegrated and it was melted and there was soot everywhere. It covered the downstairs, it covered the upstairs, soot on every surface.

We had white ceilings no longer. We had white walls no longer. Had white floors no longer.

Good

morning. Everything is covered with ash. So we had the insurance adjuster come out, and then another day we had the mitigation team come come out. And I thought I said maybe a couple of weeks, and they said maybe four months. So, now, I feel like a man without a country because we don't have a home to go to.

But, God is supplying. And, you know, with praise the Lord for insurance. Right? You know, you get tired of writing out those premiums, you know, all the time. But when you go to make a claim, it's so great to have that there.

So but so here we are. I wanna is highly scriptural, highly relational, and when it comes together, we have a great connection. And that great connection is found in this verse. First Thessalonians two eight. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls because ye were dear to us.

We have a big job to do as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have a whole generation of newer kids that need to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you'd be able to take part in that process. Thank you so much. We thank you for you for your loving support and your care for us as a couple.

And we want to we wanna thank you for your love for us. So thank you for the opportunity to share this morning. Absolutely.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Shirley. Thank you. I'm gonna pray for him and then we'll sing a couple of songs.

This next one, the greatest thing in all my life. You know the words to this song, right? It's to know in the first verse and then it's to love in the second verse and it's to serve in the third verse and I think that the the to know him is to love him, to love him is to serve him and they've been doing this for a long time. I think it's in the realm of about twenty six, twenty eight years. Is that right?

Thirty one. Thirty one for y'all but for this church, serving this church for, I think it's close to twenty eight years. I'm not positive. Do you know, Marion?

I really don't.

Okay. It's somewhere in that neighborhood. Okay. God almighty, thank you for the way that you've used Jeff and Shelly through all these years through through this current difficulty. Lord, I pray that it would not take four months.

I pray that it would be easier than that and that they would be able to feel confident in where they are in the midst. Lord, it is convicting from time to time when we read that you had no place to lay your head. Lord God Almighty, would you allow them your gracious presence and I thank you for the provisions that you have made and are making for that situation. In Jesus name, thank you for Jeff and Shelley for their ministry here and all over these two enormous states, Lord. I pray that every soul that has been saved now knows you, really knows you, Lord.

I pray that they would grow in their love for you and that they would serve their generation and the next generation. In Jesus name, I I I'm thankful that approved workmen lord are not ashamed. In Jesus name, amen. Would you stand? We'll sing the greatest thing in all my life is knowing you.

The greatest thing in all my life is knowing you. The greatest thing in all my life is knowing you. I want to know you more. I want to know you more. The greatest thing in all my life is knowing you.

The greatest thing in all my life is loving you. The greatest thing in all my life is loving you. I want to love you more. I want to love you more. The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.

The greatest thing in all my life is serving you. The greatest thing in all my life is serving you. I want to serve you more. I want to serve you more. The greatest thing in all my life is Amen.

Wow. These are lining up here. I will serve thee because I love thee. Him six sixty.

I was nothing before you found me. You have given life to me. Heartaches, broken pieces. You have given life to me. That was a good practice.

Let's do it again. Okay. I will serve thee because I love thee. You have given life to me. I was nothing before you found me.

You have given life to me. Heart hates broken pieces. Ruined lives are why you died on Calvary. Your touch is what I long for. You have given life me.

Y'all

can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. And would y'all pray with me? Lord, I thank you for I thank you for the way that you use your humble and obedient servants to do, to carry out your will. May we be doing your will and your way.

Lord, this morning, yes, but in this week, in this month, in this year, into the future, I pray lord that you would continue. Well, I know you're going to. You said you would build your church, lord. We are the continuing body of Christ. Would you use us, lord?

Allow us, allow us the pleasure of serving you. Allow us the pleasure of carrying forward the gospel. In Jesus name, would you give each of us an opportunity and collectively give all of us an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus redemptive love. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Judy. His eyes on the sparrow. Wow. So what we have this morning? Here we are.

A continuing narrative from the book of Luke and I'm gonna say in Acts. Actually, I'm probably not gonna get to Acts, but I'll get up to Acts. This will be I've been doing since I've been here. Thinking about it this this morning kinda overwhelmed me during the first service, but I've been here for twelve years, almost twelve years. And in that time, early on, I took on to do a chronological study of the New Testament.

And I have with the close of this sermon, I will have covered the whole New Testament. Isn't that something? Skip me again. Praise God. God is God is faithful and took somebody who was absolutely scared to death.

But just week week by week going in a little at a time. Amen. Song is definitely of not next. Yeah. Thank you though for the confidence.

Yeah. Here we are. Luke 24. We're gonna cover Luke 24. Luke 24, but on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and they looks back to Luke 23, the women who had come with him from Galilee.

Now, Luke is very specific about where he gets his information in a lot of cases. In this case, he says, the women who come with him from Galilee followed and they saw the tomb, they saw where his body was laid, so they know. They returned, they prepared spices and ointment. They rested on the Sabbath but on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb when they, this is all the ladies, okay? This is the ladies.

When they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus while they were perplexed about this. Behold, check this out. That's what it means. Look. Look.

Two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. There they are. Yeah. One of you might recognize, the other one's just thrown in for good measure. There were two of them.

And as they were frightened, because those guys are scary. No. Angels are almost always, they have to tell them don't fear, but as they were frightened and they bowed their faces to the ground, those men said to them, why is it that you seek the living among the dead? Is a more happy statement ever been heard, right? They're coming to find and prepare the body of their dear loved Jesus and this is the message they get.

First thing out of the mouth, why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here but he has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee. Now, these ladies were come what came with him from Galilee. They had been around for some time.

Luke says, even way back and I think it's chapter nine somewhere. It says that the way that the disciples and Jesus were able to do their itinerant itinerant ministry is by depending upon Joanna and Susanna and some of even of Herod's household. There were ladies who believed in what it was that they were doing and were providing as they went. Remember how he told you, y'all, women, while he was still in Galilee that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. This is the angels.

Remember this and they remember Jesus's words. The son of man must be delivered in the hands of sinful men, be crucified on the third day rise. If you go back, you can see in Matthew sixteen sixteen twenty one it says right here, from that time Jesus began to point out. He said it over and over and over again. I didn't count all of the instances in my harmony, but it's a lot of times that he referenced that he began to point it out.

Matthew 16, that's 12 chapters back to his disciples that it was necessary for him. It was a must. It was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from elders, the chief priests, the scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day, and this is that third day. And remembering oh, I'm sorry. And returning from the tomb, they told all of these things to the 11 and to all the rest, and this is a kind of an anachronistic photo.

The tomb style is a little different in this one. This is Gustave Dore. I think it's Gustave Dore. That's what it looks like. He did an illustrated copy of the Bible and did all engravings and prints.

I I appreciate it. French guy from seventeen hundreds, I think. Now, it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the possibles. That's the day that we've been talking about. Luke, in an effort to write an orderly account wants us to know that his information is from eyewitnesses.

But how did the guys receive their news? But these words seem to them an idle tale. Oh, come on guys. Ain't that sad? Jesus entrusted his resurrection news with the ladies and the guys are like, oh, they're just hysterical.

And they did not believe them. Oh, pitiful. But Peter rose and he ran to the tomb. And if you read John, John outran him to the tomb. Stooping and looking at him, he saw the linen cloths by themselves.

John says neatly folded. And he went home marveling at what had happened. Now, this is the part of the story I really wanna discuss. That that was resurrection and that's glorious. I wanna discuss this part.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus. That very day, so this is still resurrection Sunday. And that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus and it's about seven miles from Jerusalem. If you're doing a Greek study, Pascal loves to sit in here and I know some of you have your Greek Bible in front of you right now. And it says 60 stadia is what it says.

In Greek, it's 60 stadia. Well, a stadion is about 607 feet, which is about a 185 meters. 607 feet times 60 equals 36,420 feet. If you divide that by 5,280, which is how many feet there are in a mile, you come up with 6.89772727 miles. And what is that?

It's about seven miles. If you look at a map and that red star is Jerusalem and then Emmaus is right there. It's that far away. We're used to seeing this map. It's in the back of most of your Bibles.

It's something that we've seen on the screen a lot since I've been here. But where is it in real life if you're looking at this and trying to determine your distance? First Baptist is right there under the red star, and the old Wilson Schoolhouse is under the green star. So this is Jackson to Wilson. That's the distance.

And it's almost exactly it is exactly the same distance and the same spread. There it is. Jerusalem to Emmaus and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. Can you imagine that conversation? These two disciples and they're not of the 11.

These are, we get one of their names but as they're walking, can you imagine them coming back on Sunday? All of the events that have happened since Thursday night. The upper room, the arrest and betrayal. I'm sure that they were hanging out and trying to figure out what was going on, but these two are walking home and they're talking with each other about all these things that had happened. And while they were talking and while they were discussing it together, can you imagine the conversation?

How sad that must have been? I thought he was the one. I really thought he was the one. How could I have been so wrong? I cannot imagine the sorrow from these because they're considered disciples.

They're considered people who were following Jesus. While they were talking and while they're discussing it together, Jesus himself drew near and went along the path with them. I love that in itself but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. I don't understand exactly why. It's like but then I then again, I kinda do, right?

The risen Jesus comes alongside and their eyes are kept from recognizing him. So, there's a question there. It's like, I don't understand how that. They followed him for this long and they don't know who he is. They don't understand what's going on but it says they were kept from it.

So, perhaps, it's just divine intervention. They just eyes were clouded. It's the, why? Have you all ever seen Undercover Boss? Have you seen the show?

So there will be like a CEO, and then he'll he'll dress as one of his employees and be a first day on the job new employee, and they'll go about and hear what the employees really think about the company. It's not a ivory tower executive situation that he's gonna be in for the next little while, and they've done it a lot of times. I I have only watched it a few times. It's interesting. Sometimes, think that can they not see through that disguise?

Dion Sanders even did one of them. There he is. He's pretty convincing actually. Their eyes were kept from recognizing. We don't have to question it.

It just says that Luke reports the facts. This they just didn't recognize him and so he said, Jesus said to them, these two, as they walk along the road, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk this road together? And they stood still. Can you you know, when we're a lot of people hike around here, a lot of people walk around here, and you know they wanna keep their heart rate up, and you know they wanna get where they're going, and when you pass on them, you just kinda nod and keep on moving. But he saddles up to him, He says, what is this conversation you're having?

And it stopped them in their tracks and they just stopped. And they're like, it's the hardest thing we've ever been through. It's the most difficult circumstance. You and they go on to say one of them named Cleopas, I love how he includes that. Cleopas, eyewitness answered him and said, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem for this past weekend who doesn't know the things that have happened there in these days.

There was this guy. And he said, what things? Oh, Jesus is playing dumb. He wants to hear what their version of what happened was. He wants to, he wants for them to process it.

He's asking them, how do you read this? How many times has he said that to the Pharisees? How many times has he said that to the inquisitive, rich, young ruler? How many times has he said that to people is, what is your understanding of what has come to pass? And then one of them says, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet who is mighty indeed and word before God and for all of the people.

And how our chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and then crucified him. They they turned him over to Rome, and they had him crucified. Now, I've said a few weeks ago, he was proclaimed innocent over and over and over and over again and the chief priests and scribes then said, if you let this man go, you're no friend of Caesar. They used any means to get him crucified and there he was And these guys are retelling that story as the hardest and saddest thing. And then they say this, but we had hoped.

That's a past tense thing. We had hoped. It's over now. It's been dashed. He's crucified.

There's no hope left that it was him. Maybe somebody else. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. If they had paid attention to what he had been saying, they just retold this, didn't they? Didn't they just say the chief priests and rulers delivered him up?

Doesn't this say from that time Jesus began to point out 12 chapters back that it was necessary, it must come to pass, that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, the scribes, and to be killed, but we had hoped that he was the one. Yes, and besides this, it's now the third day since all these things happened. It seems like when they said that out loud, it should have said, oh, yeah. But it didn't register with them. I cannot just stop right here and say, how many of you know some things to be true and yet still it's hard to get your mind wrapped around it?

How many of you know that Jesus does care for you and yet it still feels like that can't be true. That's too good to be true. Resurrection is what Jesus had said and he said when it would happen. Now, it seems like if anybody was really paying attention to him, that they would have been standing outside of that temple on the third day just waiting for something to happen, right? But they hadn't comprehended it in that way because it was so far out and to be raised up on the third day.

Moreover, can you believe this? Some of the women of our company, I mean, we've been hanging out with these people forever and they were at the tomb early this morning and when they didn't find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Hallelujah. It's what the answer should have been but you know what their answer was? And I'm I'm sure Jesus was just saying, you don't say.

Interesting. Some of those who are with us went to the tomb. Peter, it says, specifically, John says that he went to and they found it just like the women at Sam but they didn't see him and he said to them, oh my goodness. Foolish ones. Slow of heart to believe.

You know it in your head. You heard me say this a 100 times and yet you still haven't let that reach your heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer? Isn't that what the whole Old Testament says? Wasn't it necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses and with all of the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things that were concerning himself.

That road that part of the road got a whole lot more interesting than just, man, that was terrible. I wish I hadn't left. That was a lot of wasted time and effort on that kind of gosh. I don't even know what to do next. What are we gonna do when we get home?

And then Jesus says, wait a second. Wasn't it necessary? It'd be a great sermon season. I don't series. I don't know how long it would be to go from Moses and all the prophets, everything.

This is a painting from 2011. It's David Bunnell. I don't know the guy, but I love this painting. It's the road to Emmaus, and it's not the two guys complaining and said by themselves walking. It's a third figure there.

It's Jesus walking with them, and it's got a halo around the middle figure. Do you see that? I like that. So they drew near to the village to which they were going, and he acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly saying, listen, stay with us.

It's toward evening now. The day is now far spent. And so he went in. They invited him in and he went in. I use this one in weddings.

I love this. That these disciples really were confused and really didn't know all that was going on and somehow their eyes were shielded from recognizing Jesus in the situation but he has said to them and he said it recently that whatever you do to the least of these, you've done this also to me and a weary traveler was invited in. And he went in and when he was at the table with them, he took the bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them. Now, this is an echo, no doubt about it of Thursday night. Is it not?

Where he took the bread and he broke it and blessed it and he gave it to them and it says and their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Table fellowship is really really important in the New Testament and I think that when they invited him in and they invited him in for a meal and they allowed him to say the blessing, right? And as he did it, they recognized who he was. They recognized that they had just invited Jesus into their home. Praise God and their eyes were open and they recognized him.

This is a Caravaggio Caravaggio painting from sixteen o one and it's the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and Jesus and the other guy must have been home already. I don't know. The extra guy there. But there he is and it's the moment when he's blessing the bread. Now, you look at this, supper at Emmaus from Caravaggio and then you look at the face of Jesus right there.

Does that look like Jesus? Not looks like a typical. If you look at the taking of Christ of Caravaggio sixteen o two, he painted it a year later. But if you look at that painting, he's got the same head tilt, which is kind of common of Caravaggio. And Judas is kissing Christ, betraying him.

And if you look at those two together, it's the same guy. There's anguish on his face in the first obviously, deeply troubled. And then that second one, he does seem to be more at peace. He must have shaved, that's why they didn't recognize him. No, I'm kidding.

Their eyes were kept from recognizing. But here it says, their eyes were opened and they recognized him right there around that table and then he vanished from their sight. This is weird to me. Poof, he's gone. It's almost as weird as him coming through a locked door, you know.

Poof, he's gone. And then they said to each other after he had vanished from their sight, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road? While he opened to us the scriptures. They all had this stuff memorized. They all had an idea about what's going on.

They had placed their faith in him by following after him. They had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. They had hoped that but then when he started opening it up, it revived that hope And then when they recognized who he was, it assured that hope. And they rose that same hour and they returned to Jerusalem. Wait a minute, it was late in the day.

It was so far spent that they invited a stranger to come into their house because it was too late to go anywhere else. And yet, they turned around 60 steady and headed beeline back to Jerusalem and they found 11 and those who are with them, they were gathered together. Now, the saying, the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Who is saying that? I'm not sure.

It's a pronoun there that they could have been these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. If that's the case, they must have met Simon Peter along the way. Maybe maybe Cleopus' buddy was named Simon. I'm not sure. Just giving you all the possibilities but the Lord has risen as the big news and then they told what had happened along the road.

They told the whole story and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread and as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself again, stood among them and said to them, peace to you. Amen. Always when we're going through books by Paul, I always say, always start with grace and peace because Paul does. And then when we started first Peter over here in the men's study, it starts off and says grace grace and peace. It's always start with grace and peace.

Jesus comes through and says, peace. Shalom. Complete peace. I mean, in Greek, it's not shalom. Irene.

Irene. Peace to you. But they were startled and they were frightened and they thought they saw a spirit. He's offering peace and they're still frightened and upset. It's amazing to me how often we see in the gospel story that there's something that should bring absolute peace and still it upsets us for a while.

We are going through as a church and as a few individuals in the church, a heartbreaking time in the aftermath of a few precious losses and the difficulty, we do not understand the whole story, but I am praying. I am inviting Jesus into the story to help me to understand and to help me see what it is that he's doing. They were startled. They're frightened. Thought they saw a spirit and he said to them, why is it that you're troubled?

Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Actually, between services, I have another Greek scholar that said that doubts is the same word for reasonings. It is. Why are you reasoning in your hearts? He said that a 100 times to the Pharisees.

He said it to lots of different groups. Why is it that you're reasoning in your hearts? Why is it that doubts arise? Well, I'll give you one reason. Jesus had just told them that many would come and proclaiming to be me, and you need to test that.

So doubting Thomas, the story of doubting Thomas is usually when I bring this up. Thomas was not present in this room, John tells us that at this time. He said to them, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? And look, see my hands and my feet.

It is I myself. Touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed him his hands, he showed him his feet, completely healed and apparently wounds. And while they still disbelieved for joy, they were so in the presence of such profound news, they could not comprehend it. They disbelieved for joy.

The doubts, the reasonings that they had is, can this really be true? Can it really be true? Can it really be true that Christ actually cares for you? That's a profound thought to think, you know, humble yourselves in the mighty hand of God, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. That's scripture.

We know it's scripture. Do we believe it? Do we understand it? Do we trust it? I think that a lot of times we find ourselves right here with these people, disbelieving for joy.

Can't be that he really cares. They were disbelief for joy and they were marveling and he said to have you anything here to eat? That's my kind of Jesus. And they gave him a piece of broiled fish. Broiled fish.

And he took it and he ate it in front of them before them and then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. This is not new. There's nothing surprising about what has happened. Everything written about me in the law of Moses and of the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled and your witnesses to that and then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. The same process that he took with those disciples on the road to Emmaus who were here present again.

He did a lesson for the ones that were present there to be able to understand the scriptures and he said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and what is it that is to be proclaimed in his name? Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all of the nations beginning from Jerusalem. It starts here. Now, yesterday, I was watching the masters with my wife. She loves the masters.

She really really digs it. Through a migraine, she's watching the masters, and a news break came on about Iran's bombing of Israel. And I thought, what this little space. You saw the distant difference from Jerusalem to Emmaus is like from here to Wilson, and Jerusalem is not a huge place. It's really not.

But man, what a hot bed of action. And right now, with everything that's going on, all of the bombing I thought, this is the center point of where Jesus started his ministry. Now, has pro seeded forth and this is what he's saying, repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all of the nations, all of them, not any of them accepted being beginning from Jerusalem. Repentance. Wanna go back to the word repentance.

I like J. I. Packer's definition. It's not a strict dictionary definition, but I like what he says of it. Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin.

As much as you know of your sin because we don't know the depth of our sin. We can know it and I praise God that he lets us know it a little at a time. The times in my life when I have despaired the most is when I saw more of my own sin and trying to deal with it ourselves, we are not equipped to deal with our own sin. He is. Packer says, repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin.

We have blind spots. To give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points, the knowledge of our sin, the knowledge of our self, and the knowledge of God. At these three points, so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged. I like that. He's saying that you may find that once you have laid it all before the altar and you come up clean, you realize I am a thoroughly sinful person and I still have stuff that I have to deal with and then you go back to him and he continues, you're saved.

But he continues to clean you up and Paul, when he talks about working out your salvation or that that that those of us who are going towards salvation, he's saying he progressively sanctifies us as we turn it over to him. As he convicts us, we can lay it down or we can hold on. That repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. That was physically, geographically the case. It was the place of the crucifixion.

It was the place of the resurrection. It was the place of this particular lesson. It was the place where his disciples would be imbued with power from on high. Actually, let's get to that. You are witnesses of these things.

I like whenever I see the word witnesses these days, I don't know who it was that said it originally. I've said it a lot of times here. We are called to be his witnesses. We're not called to be his judges and we're not called to be his lawyers. We're called to be his witnesses.

Witness tells what they have personally experienced in the reading of his word and in the the carrying out of his word. You're witnesses of these things. There's no valid argument against no theological argument against a transformed life. If Jesus has transformed your life, you can say that. Behold, I'm sending you the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high and he's saying that to them and then this is the very end of the book of Luke and he led them out as far as Bethany which is, you know, just on the other side of the Mount Of Olives and he lifted up his hands and he blessed them and while he was blessing them, he parted from them, he was carried up into heaven and they after worshiping him returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God.

Amen. Now, there's a break in the reading right there. It's the end of the book of Luke, but that's just volume one of a two volume set. It's a great trailer for the book of Acts. The Acts of the Apostles will begin right there.

I've got a few more slides from Acts. I'm not going to go go over em today but this is the place where he closes off the first volume and starts the second and I want to ask you to come forward but would you pray with me? I'm, like I said, overcome by God's faithfulness. Lord God almighty, I pray that just as you did for these disciples, you would lead us by your spirit into the truth of what is written and what it means for the world and for our community and for this church community but also lord for us individually. I pray that you'd clarify, clarify, clarify to us, that you would open our minds to understand the scriptures, that you would open our eyes to see before you, before us the least of these, that we would treat them as we would treat Christ.

Lord God Almighty, I pray that you would take care of us as we take care of others. I'm so overcome, Lord, by your faithfulness, by your by your giving nature, by your goodness, by your creation, and by the fact that you are making new creations still. Would you use us, Lord, to do your will and your way? We wanna access that, through prayer, and I pray that you would impress upon us what you would have us do as we ask lord and as we praise and as we confess that you would show us the next right step forward. In Jesus name, amen.

Would you stand with me? We're gonna sing sweet hour of prayer.

Sweet heart of prayer, sweet heart of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne. Make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and often escaped the tempter snare by thy return sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engaged the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me see his face, believe his word, and trust his grace.

I'll cast on him my every care and ways for the sweet hour of prayer.

Amen. Our benediction this morning is from second Peter one ten and eleven. It says, therefore brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things, you'll never stumble for in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. Lord, would you allow us the grace of understanding that better?

Would you allow us the grace of being able to extend that to others that we meet that you can know and have blessed assurance of being in the family of God. In Jesus name, I pray that you carry that out by those here present with us and representing those all over the world that belong to the body of Christ. Amen.