Now i wanted to start by asking if you have ever had an experience where you could not find something or you could not see something and it turns out that thing was right in front of you like it was there the entire time many of you are not in your heads i just had this experience happen to me on friday i was supposed to give elijah his bottle and i knew that it was in the fridge and so i opened the fridge i looked in the fridge and the bottle was gone i was like where is this bottle like i thought it was going to be here i knew like monica wouldn't put it somewhere else besides the fridge uh and eventually i called monica i was like i can't find the bottle and she's like well i put it in the fridge i don't know what to tell you and so i went back and i looked again and i still couldn't find it and then she came home and it took her about three seconds and she was just like oh here it is i was like ah it was right behind the sippy cup i think it was actually like as i was looking in this section it was like sprouting legs and running and hiding behind like the milk jug this is the only possible explanation for why i couldn't see it but sometimes that happens right where we're looking for something and we it's right in front of us but we can't find it now in our family a baby bottle is important right it matters to us but in the grand scheme of things it's probably not a huge deal but do we ever do this with bigger deals with deals that with things that really matter in life with things that have eternal consequence i actually think that we do this with our relationship with god that sometimes we just can't see him and that doesn't mean he's not right there sometimes we can't sense his presence sometimes he seems very silent or absent does that mean that he has kind of created a space around you and has exited that space i don't think so i think he is there but sometimes we just have a hard time seeing him and that could be like a really dark and discouraging and frustrating place to be we don't want to be at that place we want to see god we want to sense christ's presence so tonight i'm talking a little bit about what to do when that happens and and i'm i'm drawing this lesson from the scriptures because tonight we're looking at jesus and his disciples and they encounter jesus face to face his followers and they don't recognize him and they're like mourning that he is not there that he is gone that he is absent they are confused and frustrated it doesn't mean that he wasn't there he is there in fact he's there right in front of them now we're talking about two disciples and i don't mean one of the 12 disciples but some of his kind of wider crowd of followers he had a followers the 12 he had the 72 he had even more than that and here we encounter two disciples who are walking along the road and they're at this very dark place where jesus has died and and like for a moment just think about that like jesus has died in their story he is not alive he has just gone through this horrible excruciating death and it's over he's not coming back uh it's a pretty hopeless situation for them now it's just kind of like well pick up the pieces and move on and so they're sad they're depressed they've made it through the passover feast in jerusalem but obviously it was a soured time it wasn't a time of rejoicing it was a time of mourning for them now they're also a little bit confused because that morning some of the women that they know who are also followers of christ went to the tomb and discovered that the body wasn't there and they actually report that angels said jesus is alive and they're kind of processing this as they make the seven mile journey back to emmaus as they walk and so we're going to kind of read through the passage together as we go through so you can look down at your bible luke chapter 24 4 verse 13 through 16. i'm not going to put any verses up on this screen just starting in verse 13. now that same day two of them were going to a village called emmaus about seven miles from jerusalem they were talking with each other about everything that had happened and as they talked and discussed these things with each other jesus himself came up and walked along with them but they were kept from recognizing him now emmaus is about seven miles from jerusalem apparently that's about 10 kilometers i was just in europe did you guys hear that 10 kilometers our european gps pronounced kilometers kilo-meters and i was like is that the correct way have i been saying kilometers wrong this entire time so maybe someone can clarify that for me uh later but they're walking these uh these 10 kilometers these seven miles and they're talking about the crucifixion they're talking about is that the right way to say oh okay they're both correct okay she's from canada she can't really trust what she says they're walking along and jesus walks up and begins to walk alongside them now this is actually the first time in the gospel of luke when we see jesus alive after his death the first 12 verses of luke chapter 24 we hear that jesus is alive but we don't see him and here luke shows the living breathing jesus to his readers and you would think that if if you were to make up a story about someone's resurrection there would be like fireworks it would be like those modern magic shows where at the end they kind of like jump out and there's there's like fireworks and and uh confetti and all sorts of things but here what happens nothing like that jesus just goes for a walk he just begins to walk alongside them and they're they they should have recognized who he was the greek actually says that their eyes were kept from recognizing him in other words their eyes were restrained maybe you've taken a dog for a walk uh who's like overly exuberant and and pulls on your your leash and you're like come on back you have to restrain the dog that's kind of the same idea that their eyes were almost like bursting like like we recognized this person but god himself restrained their eyesight restrained their recognition so that they wouldn't see who jesus is that they wouldn't recognize that jesus is alive that's really interesting like why would god do that like can you in your mind like why would god do that it's because god wants them to recognize christ jesus but he wants them to first recognize christ jesus a different way not with their physical eyes but with their understanding with their understanding of something greater of something different the word of god the scriptures and how the scriptures point to jesus and so we're going to get to that in a moment but i want to read verse 17 and 18 will work through 21. he asked them what are you discussing together as you walk along they stood still their faces downcast one of them named cleopas asked him are you the only one visiting jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days now luke has given us the name cleopas because he's he's kind of uh he's given a citation he's giving his sources it's like this is someone who i heard it from it's a it's a eyewitness report like you can talk to cleopas if you want to if you want to check out this conversation and it just rings true doesn't it it doesn't ring like it's made up because here we see them kind of like questioning the risen lord like are you stupid like why don't you know that like all these things happened if they knew that that was jesus they certainly would not treat him like that now verse 19 through 21 says this what things he asked well about jesus of nazareth they replied he was a prophet powerful in word he was a prophet i'm going to come back to that he was a prophet powerful in word deed before god and all the people the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem israel and what is more it is the third day since all this took place now they called jesus a prophet jesus had just written his donkey into jerusalem kind of in this boldly publicly uh profession that he is actually something more significant than the prophets he's a messiah he's the messiah he's the christ he's the he's the the coming liberator of his people he's the redeemer and we even see them kind of talking about the one who was going to redeem israel we thought he was the messiah but he must be a prophet because he's dead and that's what happens to many of the prophets in the old testament they are killed so they say well he must not be the messiah he must only be a prophet because he is dead and see sometimes when things don't turn out how we expect or when we go through frustrating times or dark times where god doesn't do what we want it's it's it's a temptation to say well maybe jesus isn't who i thought he was or maybe god isn't powerful enough to kind of question the very goodness and character of god maybe you've done that maybe i've done that as we as we think about our lives and say well if i'm going through this then god must not be good or if god would allow that thing to happen then god must not be alive he must not be real well that's kind of the same thing that they're doing in this situation they're saying well if jesus is dead he must not be the messiah he must be just a prophet and so we need to be reminded to to truly trust in jesus and his power and to trust in god no matter our circumstances no matter if things are going well or not so well just like our song that we just sang blessed be your name times of plenty but also in times of want now verses 22 through 24 tell us a little bit more in addition some of our women amazed us they went to the tomb early this morning but they didn't find his body they came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said but they did not see jesus now in israel at this time some of the rabbis the jewish rabbis they disagreed over whether or not women could testify in court so today that would be ridiculous to us of course it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman you can testify in course you in court you can say what's true but in in that culture and in that time women's testimony was often not as considered as good as a man's it was considered unreliable so if you're going to make up a story about the resurrection if you're going to say that someone rose from the dead this is not a very smart way to make up that story this is a pretty uh bad way to do it and that tells us that the story is actually not made up because they're just giving the facts they're just giving what actually happened what is actually true so this is what we call like a proof that the scriptures are real now in in their time that was an issue and of course cleopas and his traveling companion they would have wrestled with this they would have struggled with this and we actually see that they say well yeah the women went to the tomb and they saw a vision of angels but our companions they went to the tomb and they didn't find anything they didn't see jesus so even they don't really believe the women they believe their companions their friends perhaps the other disciples instead of them now their memories are selective in this moment because if we read ahead to verse 34 they're also going to say well jesus did appear to simon peter so right now as they're talking to jesus as they're walking along the road they are choosing to highlight kind of what lines up with their perspective and and ignore perhaps another perspective that from peter that he actually encountered the risen lord now we aren't told anywhere else in the gospels about this account all we know is that jesus appeared to peter sometime that morning but this is the only hint of it i don't know why that's not recorded further but i think there's a lesson for us in this that when we are discouraged when we are down or or we're going through a tough time we've lost a job or we've lost a loved one or or whatever it is sad or depressed it's easy to have selective memories and to remember the things that that line up with how we view life in that moment of course god is far away god's not done anything good for me and then you forget all the times that god has been good over the course of years and he's been faithful over and over and over again and that's what satan wants satan wants us to forget that's why there's this call to remember all throughout the scripture remember god's goodness remember god's log remember to fear god remember god's ways we need to to kind of confess that selective memory and say wow god you really have been good to me help me to focus on those things lord recall those things to mind so that i'm not just focusing on the the things that cause doubt in me but also those things that cause faith in me that i'm that i'm that i'm not having that selective memory because if god has been good year after year after year he's not going to stop now he's not going to change his way now as we look at the the passage it's now jesus's time to answer them right and he actually begins to open their eyes to him but not their physical eyes yet he instead opens their spiritual eyes he opens the eyes of their heart and of their minds first and he does this by pointing to the scriptures now if terry were here he would call it the hebrew scriptures because he doesn't like the old testament terminology we're talking about the old testament the hebrew scriptures jesus points to the to them luke chapter 22 verses 25-26 he said to them how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken did not the messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory in beginning with moses and all the prophets he explained to them what he had said to what he said in all the scriptures concerning himself so what does jesus do he scolds them he scolds them about not having hope and not not understanding the scriptures and not really getting who the messiah was called to be see they thought pretty much everyone thought this that the messiah was going to be a political liberator the messiah was gonna come along and and cast out the romans and and set up his earthly kingdom and everything would be great and kind of the jewish people would take over the world and and it would be awesome but they were completely wrong about that that that is the long-term plan is that christ will rule over the world but in this first coming in this first coming of christ jesus of the the redeemer he's come to take care of a different issue he's come to take care of sin and sin is our brokenness and disobedience before god and he does this not by military might but by personal suffering by the way of the cross by going as a sacrifice we heard about that these last couple of weeks as jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins if we repent of our sins and put our faith in christ jesus maybe tonight is the first night you've really heard that that that if you are willing to say i'm broken i'm i'm sinful and put your faith and trust in christ he forgives you it's because he came to ju to do just that to set us free from our sins and and this this idea of a suffering messiah is a confusing concept to the jewish people because the old testament it talks a few places about the messiah but it doesn't really spell out that the messiah is going to have to suffer now if you look at the old testament if you look at these passages you can look to passages like psalm 22. i'm not going to read it tonight but i actually preached a sermon on psalm 22 and there it does talk about kind of a kingly figure who suffers and then if you turn over to isaiah chapter 53 that's all about the suffering servant that's a very famous passage about about the lamb who will be crushed and all these things but they're they're not exactly saying well this is the messiah they just kind of are saying this is a chosen person by god so there's some confusion there i think it's implied that the messiah will suffer but remember i'm looking at it from this angle from this side of the cross things are much clearer from this side of the cross and so we can't really judge them too much but it is implied throughout the scriptures now as we kind of think back to this idea of when we can't see jesus when we can't see and sense god's presence i think there's a little application in here for us because if the messiah is going to suffer and he's the one we follow then we're also going to suffer as believers and as christians god does not promise us a pain-free life he doesn't promise us that we will always feel his presence and sometimes we we think that oh to be a good christian i have to like always be in it like spiritually i'm on top of the world well no why would there be psalms about a valley of the shadow of death then like there's there's mountain peaks and there's valley lows in our walk with god it's actually pretty normal to go through times of despair and not sensing god's presence we don't want to stay there because we do have the hope of christ jesus but there will be periods that we walk through and that's normal because we live in a fallen and broken world now when we're in those places when we're in those dark spots what do we do well one of the ways we draw near to christ draw near to god draw near through the holy spirit is by meditating on and reading the scriptures reading the bible reading those hebrew scriptures also reading the new testament verse 27 again and says and beginning with moses and all the prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself in other words before he ever reveals himself before he ever says ha it's me he says you can see me you can see me in my word you can see me in these pages you don't have to see me with your eyes you can see me with your heart through god's word he kind of does like this bird's eye overview of the old testament he says it's all pointing towards me now that doesn't mean that every single word somehow has a hidden meaning about christ jesus but it does mean like the overall story the the stories the the prophecies like they're telling us something they're telling us about our need for a savior they're telling us about our sins and that we're broken and that we need a savior and that a savior is coming and that savior can only be provided by god and god's plan is perfect and in some passages and some stories it does spell out a coming savior or it prefigures a coming savior the opening chapters of genesis what happens in them well there's the fall right but then there's this prophecy that a descendant of eve the seed of eve will come and defeat the serpent who's the serpent but satan how about noah's ark does that tell us about the savior well it does tell us about god's judgment against sin and that we need deliverance that we need someone to rescue us in that case it's noah who builds the ark but in our case it's christ who hangs on the cross how about abraham well abraham shows us the kind of faith that we need to have in god and in his promises that abraham was counted righteous through faith it's nothing that we can do how about abraham's son isaac did you know that abraham's son isaac he carries firewood a tree up a mountain so that he can be a sacrifice does that remind you of anyone else christ jesus carrying his cross up a mountain to become our sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins how about joseph joseph was betrayed by his brothers his 11 brothers jesus was betrayed by his disciples how about moses at moses birth he was almost killed by an evil king at jesus birth he was also almost killed by an evil king how about leviticus well the whole sacrificial system points to our need for a sacrifice now that idea that there's like sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice shows that those sacrifices sheep and goats and cows and turtle doves they're not enough we need that coming ultimate sacrifice that perfect sacrifice christ jesus how about samson could samson pre-figure christ somehow did jesus have giant biceps samson gave his life to rescue his people jesus gave his life to rescue us how about king david he was a good king but he was an imperfect king and he foreshadows he points the way that there one day is going to be a coming perfect king christ jesus and the list goes on and on and on about all the ways the scriptures point to christ jesus he is the fulfillment of it all so what's the application when you can't see jesus look to the scriptures when you can't see jesus look to the scriptures when you can't see them look to the scriptures sometimes i get a bit frustrated uh you know we all have people in our life that talk about hearing god right hearing god's voice and i can get a bit frustrated when i hear about someone else who is hearing god's voice and god is speaking to them i'm like well what does that mean you know is god speaking to me i i'm getting some strong impressions i i feel like he's speaking to me but at the end of the day i don't particularly hear an audible voice or if that does happen it's a rare thing well god does speak in fact he has spoken he has spoken a lot and he's an equal opportunity speaker and then he provides it to all of us so if you actually want to hear god speak you have to open up the scriptures and of course what is he speaking about he's speaking about his son he's speaking about our need for forgiveness and redemption but i think this should be an encouragement if you're someone who says i don't ever hear from god like when i pray well you can hear from god you can hear from god through cracking open your bible through reading it but i think one of the things that i do is i meditate on scripture and i pray and i and i ask the holy spirit to help me understand god's word and then and apply it to my life in the way that god wants me to apply it and then god does that that's god speaking god speaks through his word god speaks through his holy spirit and in prayer but like these things work together we should never just expect god to to be in a conversation with us apart from his word everything he says to us has to line up with what he has written down in the scriptures and so i think that could be incredibly encouraging to us that if you are in a dark place and if you can't see jesus you can't hear jesus well come to the scriptures come and find jesus there because he is there when you can't see jesus look to the scriptures now as the two travelers listen to jesus talking they begin to realize maybe we've missed something jesus has come the messiah has come to liberate his people as a sacrificial lamb but they still don't recognize the one standing in front of them as jesus but now they do understand kind of the scripture story and so they're ready verse 28 as they approached the village to which they were going jesus continued on as if he were going further but they urged him strongly stay with us for it is nearly evening the day is almost over so he went in to stay with them and when he was at the table with them he took bread gave thanks broke it and gave it to them then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight jesus pretends that he is going further then they invite him in and then he breaks the bread and that reminds us of him breaking the bread with the five thousand it reminds us of him breaking the bread at the last supper and suddenly their eyes are open and they see him as he hands them the bread but then he's gone he disappears and what does it say does it say wow Jesus was just here actually it says this verse 32 they asked each other we're not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us they marvel at the scriptures they marvel at what they've just learned that Jesus was teaching them that they marvel at christ and his presence but also christ in his word we don't get to see Jesus with our eyes in this lifetime unless Christ returns we get to see him when we die and so i think i think there's a little hint in here that Luke knows that we his contemporary audience he didn't just write this for the people of his time he wrote that that this this this gospel account for people like you and me luke knew that we weren't going to get to see jesus with our eyes luke knew that we were going to walk entirely through our whole life by faith and never once glimpsed the risen savior i think that's why he highlights this he just pounds at home that that we can see christ jesus through the scriptures through the bible when you can't see Jesus look to the scriptures but don't stop with the scriptures they don't stop because they focus specifically on the resurrection because the resurrection is like the key to the whole thing Jesus rising again from the dead verse 33 They got up and returned it once to Jerusalem there they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying it is true the lord has risen the lord has risen and has appeared to Simon and the two told then then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread once they understand it changes everything once they can see christ in the scriptures in their own eyes they believe but blessed are those who don't see and yet also believe of course of course the scriptures have been pointing to this of course the serpent was going to strike the heel of that descendant of eve of course it was the father's will to crush him for our iniquities of course jesus is that sacrificial lamb that sacrificial lamb had to die for the sins of the world of course the resurrection had to happen because the sun had to rise again when you can't see jesus look to the scriptures and to his resurrection when you can't see jesus look to the scriptures into his resurrection now when terry preached two weeks ago i haven't yet listened to andy's sermon but i listened to terry's and he suggested that i like quoting Timothy Keller now it's true i do like quoting pastor pastor author legend timothy keller i think he's great i once heard this i don't know if this is an urban legend or who told me this if it was you come tell me but i i once heard that there was a pastor who was interviewing at a church and they asked him do you like lord of the rings and he said yes i do and they said well you can never use lord of the rings as an illustration for a sermon he said well why is that because the last pastor talked about lord of the rings every single week so it could be worse i could talk about timothy keller or that thing called crossfit every single week but i don't so remember that now tim keller he talks about the movie the sixth sense he said maybe some of you have seen the maybe just by show of hands who has seen the movie the sixth sense okay so many of us have seen uh the sixth sense uh i'm going to ruin the ending for you but it's been 20 years since it came out so you're out of luck it was 1999 if you haven't seen it uh as tim keller said i don't want to spoil the ending for you but it bruce willis is dead the kind of the main guy is is dead now bruce willis is a child psychologist which is super believable and he's trying to help a young boy who sees dead people all right so this is kind of a horror movie but uh it's a little scary but he's trying to help this young boy and he's talking to him about what he sees and what's going on i and at the end bruce willis discovers that he is actually also dead and that the little boy has been seeing him and once you realize that ending to the movie if you were to go back and watch the movie again do you think you would watch the movie the same way do you think you'd be as equally surprised no you would notice all the way through the movie how how Bruce Willis is dead you would see how people when they're having conversations with him it's really a one-sided conversation and he's talking and they're not really answering in fact they're not even really looking at him there's this moment in the movie where he like sits down and has dinner with his wife but there's only one setting there's only one place setting and there's only one menu and she doesn't look at him she doesn't respond to him and that is the the kind of the the idea that that we get when we get to this part of the scriptures and we realize that jesus is alive see when we then go back to the rest we can't help but see that the all the old testament all the scriptures are pointing to this this coming savior who's going to die and who's going to rise again it's a good thing that the sixth sense and the gospel of jesus christ are not the same thing because at the end of the sixth sense bruce willis is dead at the end of our story jesus is alive and this is true this is real this is real stuff guys and it really changes our lives our hero our protagonist our our our savior is alive and well and now as we understand the scriptures as we read the scriptures we're going to see it speaking and whispering his name over and over and over again and i think that's okay because he is our ultimate sacrifice and he died and he rose again so that you and i so that we can live again see there was one resurrection christ jesus rose again but one day there's going to be countless unnumberable i don't know if that's a word countless resurrections and one of those resurrections will be your resurrection when you rise again from the dead if you have put your faith in Christ Jesus and confessed your sins and this should be an encouragement to us as we walk through our lives and we can't always see Jesus we can't always sense god's presence we can find him we can see him if we are willing to look to the scriptures and to his resurrection let me pray heavenly father thank you for your word thank you for christ jesus thank you that Jesus is all throughout the scriptures that whisper his name and thank you that he rose again help us to remember the resurrection if you can give life to death you can bring us through any time that we don't sense your presence we need you lord Jesus name amen