Luke, chapter 24 is where we’re gonna be this morning. You can go ahead and turn in your bibles there. As I always say, if you don’t have a Bible, nothing to worry about. All the scriptures are gonna be up on the screen. We are in a series called the Ministry of Jesus, where we have been looking at everything Jesus did, everything Jesus said, all the encounters Jesus had.
We have been walking through line by line and moment by moment, and really just kind of following the life of Jesus. Last week, we looked at the very first Sunday morning in christian history as we saw the resurrection account, and we followed those four women who discovered the tomb to be empty. And we discovered firsthand just the way that God is so compassionate and loves us so deeply and allows us to have resurrected lives. As you might remember, they came to the tomb, and the angels told them that Christ had risen. And the women were then informed to go back to the disciples, to go back to them, find them, and tell them that the son of God, that Jesus Christ, had been risen from the dead.
And they actually go back. And I told you last week that no one believed them. And that’s where we left off. We left, in our story, these women going back to the disciples, saying, hey, the messiah has risen from the dead. And they think these women are insane.
There’s something wrong with them. Jesus has not been raised from the dead. Some other of them run to the tomb, and they also find the body missing, and they come to the conclusion that the body has been stolen. Now, what we’re looking at today is a strange narrative. In the middle of this larger resurrection narrative, Jesus has yet to engage with the disciples.
But here in Luke chapter 24, it’s a story of two virtually unknown travelers who have heard the message of the women and who are headed in the wrong direction. I told you last week, the women told them to go to Galilee. But here they’re not going to Galilee. Instead, they’re going to a small, little, insignificant town called Emmaus. And in this story about how Jesus is risen from the dead and Jesus intercepts people’s lives, what we discover is that Jesus is willing to meet some discouraged people on a dusty road and steer them back on track.
And over the next 40 minutes or so, what we’re gonna do is journey with Jesus and journey with these men down this desert road. And I hope that you and I will find ourselves in this story. All the stories of the Bible, I think, are there to inform you about God’s character. But also we’re supposed to find ourselves a bit in these stories, and this story in particular, I think, is so clear and so amazing that we can find ourselves right in the midst of the account as it’s taking place. We’re gonna look at Luke, chapter 24.
We’re gonna start in verse 13. I’m not gonna talk about too much of the sermon. I’m just gonna let it unfold for you. Here we go. Now, that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about 7 miles from Jerusalem.
This account is what we call the road to Emmaus. And Luke describes this story with all of the details. He does it completely and fully, as opposed to all of the other resurrection details. Emmaus gets 22 verses. All the other ones get just a moment.
And I think it’s because it’s so strikingly different than all of the other accounts as we watch our savior hang out with these guys and remove their plight and remove their despair. And why, you might ask, is this text so full in the resurrection account? And I think it’s because something like this, you know this and I know this, but all over the world, each and every single Sunday morning, people come together to worship God. And people come from every tribe and every age and every socioeconomic level, and people come together to give God praise. Every Sunday morning, they come in here confident, and they come in here joyous, and they come dressed up.
You know, people show up with their makeup done, and at least, you know, some of you do, and they dress up nicely. That was. I’m not trying to discourage anybody. You don’t have to wear makeup here. Come as you are.
They come however they want. You know, some churches, you know, people wearing hats, you know, the whole thing’s going on. You come here kind of excited and pumped up and confident. But what’s intriguing to me is that confidence isn’t what Jesus encountered on the very first Sunday in christian history. And before we start, I just have to tell you that this is a lesson about people who are discouraged, about people who are doubting and how God meets them where they are.
And so let me just say I’d like to tell you, if you’re here today and you’re doubting and you’re discouraged and you feel far from God and you’re not sure what direction you should be heading spiritually, I wanna encourage you that this message and really the message of Christianity is for you. As you’re gonna see today on the very first Christian, the very first Christian Sunday morning. On Easter morning 2000 years ago, Jesus wasn’t hanging out with the most confident or the well dressed. He wasn’t hanging out in the palace. He wasn’t going to see the pope.
Instead, what Jesus was doing was walking side by side with a bunch with two discouraged followers. What’s going on here is that these two guys are going to come face to face with the risen Lord and it’s going to change their lives forever. What is discouragement? I’m going to use this word a lot because really, that’s the idea of this lesson. This lesson is about discouragement.
What is discouragement? I thought about it this morning. I was trying to kind of bring my brain to the idea of what discouragement is. And here’s what I’ve concluded. Discouragement is disappointment that makes you immobile.
So it’s like when you’re so disappointed or something, or you’re feeling so despondent that you just can’t move, you just can’t go forward. Have you ever had this feeling where something terrible happens and you go, I didn’t expect this to happen. I didn’t hope this would happen. And now I’m not sure what’s next in my life. This is what Jesus is facing.
He sees these two guys and we’re gonna talk a little bit about them. These are two disciples and they’re on their way to a place called Emmaus. It’s 7 miles away from Jerusalem. They had probably remained in the city for the feast of the unleavened bread, and possibly they were there long enough to see Jesus killed on the cross and Jesus laid in the tomb. And now they’re headed to Emmaus.
We don’t learn much about them, but we learn a couple of things from the very beginning. The first thing we learn is that they are going to a town called Emmaus. If you do some biblical research, trying to find the place where Emmaus is, what you’re gonna find out is there is no ancient place or it doesn’t. Well, there is a place, but we don’t know where it is. We have no clue where Emmaus is.
It’s such an insignificant town that we have no idea where they’re actually going. I told you last week that the women said they were supposed to go to Galilee. Emmaus is not Galilee, so they’re headed in the wrong direction. In fact, if you google Emmaus today, what you’re going to find is a bunch of baptist churches. There’s like 50,000 Baptist churches called Emmaus Baptist Church, and then a random town in Pennsylvania called Emmaus.
But the historical village of Emmaus is gone. Why are they going to Emmaus? Why are they headed there as opposed to heading to Galilee? Well, I said they were discouraged, but here’s what it says. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
They’re two of Jesus followers, and so they had seen the whole story. They had seen everything go down. They were there probably when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a colt. They probably saw this scene where the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in a loud voice. Maybe they were in the crowd for all the miracles they had seen.
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. This is on Palm Sunday. Maybe they were in that crowd as they were shouting, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And they were so excited about what could be, so excited about what was going to happen. And the tide of the nation.
They had seen the tide of the nation turn, and they had seen Jesus hung on a tree on Friday night. They had lost their leader, and they’re talking about this on the road. Can you imagine that conversation, man, when he came in riding on the colt, I thought. I thought we had found our king. I thought that life was going to be different, man.
I thought that we were early adopters of the new movement. I thought we were the ones that were going to help reshape the world for God and his kingdom. And then they see him killed, and then they see him placed in the tomb. And they’re having these conversations about how they’re discouraged and how they’re deflated. Have you ever noticed this?
But here’s what I see in the story. These two guys who had this great hope are now headed the wrong way. Have you ever noticed in your life that discouragement can sometimes distort your faith?
Like you have a lot of faith, and then you get disappointed, or you get discouraged, and then all of a sudden, your thinking goes different. Like, you get disappointed about life, and you imagine the way that things are supposed to be, and you’re hoping for things to go a certain way, and then they don’t go that way. And then when they don’t go that way, all of a sudden you start thinking, God, can you be trusted? Can you be trusted? God?
Because, look, I expected this to happen. I expected that to happen. I expected this to happen, and it didn’t happen. I’m at my worst when I’m disappointed, and when I’m discouraged, I’m like the worst discouraged person in the world sometimes, you know, if my wife sees me and I’m like laying in bed in like, a, you know, a posture of just, like, you know, curl up in a ball. She’s like, what happened?
And I’m like, I was talking to that guy, and I was hoping that he would respond. And he didn’t respond. Look at me, God. What are you doing now? Are you still working?
Is there still a God? Like, this is my trajectory. It goes from believing that God’s going to do something great to seeing something happen. That’s not my expectation to then being discouraged and then for that discouragement, to destroy or to hurt my faith. This ever happened to you?
This kind of. This arc of turmoil or this arc of despondency or this arc of discouragement, and this is what these guys are going through. They’re like, look, I thought this guy was going to change the world, and now he’s lying in a tomb. I’m taking my ball, and I’m going back to Emmaus. I’m going home.
I’m leaving. And what’s so amazing is that on the morning where Jesus rises from the dead, he finds these people where they are. As they were talking, 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. I love that it says that Jesus walked with them. I love this.
On the greatest day in human history, the day that God defeats hell, on the day that God raises from the dead, Jesus decides to spend his time traveling 7 miles with of two discouraged people headed in the wrong direction. And it blows my mind, because I’ve always thought that Jesus was only with me when I was going the right direction. I don’t know where I got this from, and I don’t know who taught me this, but there was something deeply rooted in my life that said that if you’re going the right way, then Jesus is with you. And when you’re going the wrong way, Jesus has abandoned you. And I don’t know where I got this from.
Again, I don’t know if anybody taught me this, but it kind of messed my view about God growing up, because if God is only with me when I’m doing good things, then God is not really often with me because I do some bad things.
But here in this story, I just love it. Jesus is walking with these guys, going the wrong way, just hanging with them and encouraging them to get back on track. He asked them, so you have to picture the scene. They’re going the wrong way. They left Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is in the rearview mirror. They’re headed to Emmaus. They’re headed to an insignificant town. They’re supposed to be going to Galilee. Not going to Galilee, going the wrong way.
They’re walking down the road. They’re going, oh, man, Jesus died. It could have been amazing. I thought the whole world was going to change. I thought he was the messiah.
I thought he was the son of God. And then they put him in a tomb. They hung him on a tree. He’s dead. This is crazy.
And then somebody walks beside them and says, hey, what are you guys discussing? What are you talking about? As you walk along the road, what are you guys talking about? And it says, their faces just downcast. This ever happened to you?
Like, someone wants to talk about your discouragement, you’re like, I just don’t want to talk about it. I just don’t want to talk about it. That’s what’s happening. I just, like, I don’t want to talk about it. Like, just leave me alone.
I don’t want to talk about it. That’s what’s going on with these guys. Well, then one of them, named Cleophas asked him, and this is not like, asks him gently. This is like tries to rebuke the random person standing next to him. That is Jesus.
Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? Are you the only person who’s visiting that doesn’t know what’s going on, buddy? By the way, Cleophas, this is the only time he’s mentioned in the Bible. These guys are nobodies. The other guy, we never get his name.
And I think that’s because he is you and me. That’s why he’s us. He’s discouraged just like we are. And so they’re asking this question. They’re going, hey, are you the only person that doesn’t know what’s going on?
And Jesus responds, here’s what he says. What things? As though he doesn’t know about Jesus of Nazareth. They replied, he was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people, the chief priest and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death. And they crucified him like many of the other disciples.
They have not. They love God and they think of him as. Or they love Jesus and they think of him as a prophet, word and deed. But you can see all of these words are in the past tense. They’re imagining that Jesus is going to establish some great kingdom, but that was before.
That is not now. He was a prophet. This is the idea. He was a prophet. He was a prophet.
They’re discouraged. And here’s the next line. I think this line is so transformative because it’s what I feel, and it’s what we feel when we’re discouraged. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
During the moment of questioning, after they left town, they’re going, look, the reason we’re discouraged is because we had some hopes that didn’t pan out. We had some dreams that didn’t pan out. See, they had hoped that things would have turned out differently. They had hoped that Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a colt meant that their future was secure and that Israel would be the greatest nation in the world. And then Jesus died with scars in his hands, and their hopes were severed, and they’re left there thinking to themselves, man, our dreams have been dashed.
And it reminds me of the proverb. In proverbs 1312, hope deferred makes your heart sick. They had hopes, but those hopes have been deferred. They had hoped. You know, this feeling.
I know this feeling, this feeling of discouragement. I had hoped. Some have said I had hoped that I would be married by now. And now that I’m not married, I’ve been waiting a long time for this, and now my faith is in jeopardy because I feel like God promised me something that maybe he’s not giving to me. And no matter how logical and how you say, well, that God didn’t promise that.
Whatever, whatever. There’s still a feeling that you had hoped. You know, I had hoped that over this number of many years of me being a Christian, that those impulses, those addictions would lift. I had hoped that when I was baptized, that when I gave my life to Jesus, that anxiety, that depression would have just gone away. I hoped that when I confessed sin, that stuff would go away.
I hope when I started going to church, I had hoped that things would be different. I had hope. I had hope. I had hope. I had hope.
And now all my hope is gone. And now I just want to give up. It happens to everyone. And this is where Cleophas and his companion are. They had hoped it isn’t happening for them, and so they’re just going away.
They’re just going away. I just want to get out of town. I want to get away from this whole situation. Maybe I’ll find a new hope in the future. Maybe my hopes will be built on something better, because the thing I hoped in before has been destroyed.
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 of this took place. In addition. And then they start telling Jesus about something that Jesus participated in. Some of our women amazed us.
They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn’t, but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of an angel who said he was alive. So they heard the story. They heard the story. But I told you before, they don’t believe the story.
Then some of the companions went to the tomb and found it, just as the woman had said. But they did not see Jesus. These guys are looking at Jesus explaining how other people didn’t see Jesus.
They heard the message about going to Galilee, but they’re so blinded by their discouragement. They’re so blinded by their disappointment that they can’t even see the messiah in front of their face. So Jesus responds. How does Jesus respond? Is it meek and lowly?
No, it’s intense. Listen, he said to them, how foolish you are. What is wrong with you? You know, people try to coddle us when we’re discouraged. Maybe we shouldn’t coddle people.
Maybe we should talk like this. No, only Jesus should do that. You should keep being nice. How foolish are you? How foolish?
What are you doing? Why don’t you trust? Why don’t you trust in God? What is wrong with you? And how slow to believe.
I like the King James. It says, dull minded. How dull. How dull is your brain that you don’t get it? All the prophets have spoken.
Did not the messiah have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? Jesus gives his disciples the opportunity to unburden themselves with all their frustration and their fears. And he’s like a great listener. He’s just listening and listening and listening and listening and listening. And then he says, what is wrong with you?
Do you not know the scriptures? Have you not understand the faithfulness of God? Have you not read? Do you not know what you’re talking about? And he tries to describe to them something that I think is profound as we are thinking about dealing with our own discouragement.
And it’s this idea that glory comes after suffering. He says, don’t you understand the story, the arc of the Bible, the economy of the scriptures, that there’s great things that happen, but they come after trials, that honor comes after heartache. There have to be trials, there have to be heartache. There has to be suffering, there has to be death. If there’s going to be resurrection, what is wrong with you?
Now, I’m not saying what is wrong with you because I would be in the crowd also feeling the same way, but he’s just going, look, I want you to know that just because something is bad doesn’t mean it’s outside of God’s plans. Just because it’s terrible doesn’t mean that God is not still faithful. Well, God, you haven’t given me this and you haven’t engaged with me this way and you didn’t intercept my life in this direction. And I thought you were going to fix that problem. And I thought this was all bad, but I distrust you.
And God’s like, what is wrong with us? What is wrong with you? Haven’t you read and understood the faithfulness of God, that he brings all things together for our good?
He doesn’t start by saying, you know, guys, it’s going to be okay. That’s what we do. And it’s good for us to do that. I think it’s good for us to be kind and compassionate to one another. We have to do that.
But I think there’s also a place for us to be kind and compassionate and then to remind people of the faithfulness of God.
Okay, you’re discouraged. I get that. That’s true. I hear that, man. That’s intense.
And I want to be a great listener just like Jesus was. But let me just tell you something. If you don’t deal with the suffering, you’re never going to deal with the glory. You’re never going to find the glory. That’s what he’s showing them.
He’s showing them that redemption is a process or is processed in hardship, that the power of resurrection requires death. That if you want to have great belief, sometimes you’re going to have to wade in the water of discouragement. People don’t get this. They want to jump ahead and not deal with any of the suffering in life. Why have to go through hardship?
Why have to go through pain? Well, because pain refines you for the great things in life. You think about job, the story of job. You’re like, job, why do you have to, God, why do you have to keep doing that? Because I have to keep testing to see if you trust me.
God, why do you have to keep making these situations so challenging? Well, because if I don’t test you now, you will never be prepared for the glory that you’re going to receive one day in heaven. They don’t get it. They don’t understand it. And so Jesus doubles down and says, and beginning I love this.
With Moses, that means starting from the beginning. That means he started in Genesis. This is a long trip. 7 miles. How many hours that take?
I don’t know. A couple hours. Four hour journey. They’re about to listen to a four hour sermon from Jesus Christ, a systematic theology of who Jesus is. This should be a series we do in this church of who Jesus is, starting from the very, very beginning.
Starting with Moses. Starting with Moses and all the prophets. Let’s just go. Genesis. You want to find jesus there?
He just starts talking through book after book after book and story after story and story and story, explaining what was said in all of the scriptures concerning himself. What would you give just to be a fly on the wall of that sermon? Whoo. Jesus, knowing the word perfectly, expounds to them in a broad outline of all of the scriptures, everything concerning himself. What scriptures did he look like?
I don’t know. These are some I wrote down. There’s probably so many more. Isaiah 53. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.
Like, who is he talking about? Cleophas, who is he talking about? And bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we have been healed. Maybe he read Isaiah, chapter 25, verse eight. He will swallow up death forever.
The sovereign Lord will wipe away every tear from all of our faces. Maybe he read the passage in Genesis, chapter three, which says that the snake will strike his heel, but he will crush the serpent’s head. Come on, guys. Didn’t you read the Bible? This is what he’s saying.
Let me just show you the outline of scripture. And they’re just listening to the sermon unfold. Scripture after scripture after scripture, listening to jesus teach about himself. It says, as they approach the village to which they were going, so they get to Emmaus, 7 miles. Jesus was continuing as if he were going further.
So they’re walking, and jesus is like, bye, y’all. See you later. Like, he’s going away. But they urged him strongly, stay with us, for it’s nearly evening. The day is almost over.
So he went and stayed with them. I love the fact that that someone like these two insignificant people could warrant the presence of God. This no name people in a no name town could have Jesus Christ stay with them. I just love that. I love that so much.
So Jesus agrees. So he was at the table with them. They decided to make him some food. He took bread and gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
Jesus sits down at the table and breaks the bread and gives it to them. And they saw something that they didn’t see while they traveled along the road. I read a bunch of biblical commentators trying to understand what maybe they saw. And I’ll tell you, one of the prevailing thoughts is that they saw his scars.
So he breaks the bread and he goes to reach, and then they seal. They see the nail holes in his wrists. And in that moment, in that moment, immediately they recognize him. It kind of reminds us of doubting Thomas that we’re going to read a couple of weeks from now where he goes, look, this is my scars. Feel it.
Feel my scars. What’s really cool here is that Jesus is recognized by his scars with these guys. And in that moment, they’re changed forever because there couldn’t be a Christianity without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if Jesus is still alive and their eyes have seen that Jesus is still alive, then there still is hope. They don’t have to be discouraged because they can be alive.
Their hopes are still alive, their dreams are still alive. And I love that because in that moment he passes over the bread, they see it, they grab it. Maybe they take a bite of it. Maybe they close their eyes because it’s so sweet and so good. And here is the next line.
Are you ready? Then they ask, well, it’s gone. Here’s the next line. And he disappeared from their sight.
What?
He just disappears. Boom. It’s like, have you ever seen this meme? Boom.
It’s like, you got it? Peace. And he’s gone. And he’s gone. I’ve thought so much about this.
I’m gonna take the sub screen. I don’t know how to stop it. Stop it. Thank you, friends. That’s better.
Let’s just keep this.
I thought so much about what the message of that is. Jesus comes. Jesus walks with them. They’re discouraged. They’re disappointed.
He teaches them and instructs them. He brings them to their own town. He sits with them. He talks to them some more. He hands them over the bread.
They eat the bread. And before they can go, wait, what about. He’s gone. He’s gone. And here’s what I have.
This is my conclusion and this is my opinion. God loves them enough to meet them where they were, where they are, but he loves them too much to let them stay there.
Jesus wasn’t going to hang out with them in the place they weren’t supposed to be.
Jesus will meet you there, but he’s not going to stay with you. He’s not going to stay with you. So Jesus will meet you there, but he won’t hang with you there. You know this story. But, like, we meet people that meet Jesus in rock bottom, right?
They’re discouraged. They’re frustrated. This is it. They’re done. Life’s over.
This relationship has ended. Whatever. The situation is horrific. And then they think to themselves, and they read their Bible for the first time, and God intercepts their life, and God meets them there. And maybe even they feel like God’s presence was with me today.
But God’s not gonna hang out with you in a place of sin or a place of discouragement just so that you can, like, mull around and feel like you’re secure there. He’s gonna leave you so that you then get enough courage to stand up and go back to where you’re supposed to go once you get it. He loves you enough to make sure that he leaves it in your own court. Are you ready to change now? All right, fine.
I met you there, but it’s time for you to go back. It’s time for you to fix yourself. I came with you all the way here, but you know you shouldn’t be here, and so I’m not gonna hang with you here. Get back and go to where you know you’re supposed to be.
I think about this a lot because there is a part of our faith that is driven by God’s grace, right? Like, God is doing so much in your life. God is talking to you and helping you and trying to repair relationships. And the grace of God is so big, and the blessings of God are so magnificent. And even the salvation of God is amazing.
And it comes like, 90% of your salvation is God. 99.999% is God, right? And, like, 90% of all the blessings in your life are God. But then he leaves you that little tiny bit that you have to respond, that you have to do something about it. He makes you take accountability.
He makes you say, all right, look, I have to make my own decisions here. And these guys could just stay right in Emmaus and go, wow, that was a wonderful encounter. And if Jesus would have stayed with them, they would have stayed there. Wow, this was great. It’s wonderful to be in a place I’m not supposed to be with God on my side.
They would have just stayed there. But God leaving tells them they need to get up and go back to where they’re supposed to be? Then they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us, they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. They recognize him. And all of the discouragement and all the doubts are banished by the messiah sitting in front of them.
And they get up and they return to the place that they need to be so they can tell everybody else that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead. And at that time, nothing would have stopped them and nothing would have scared them. And no more doubting, no more frustration. They’re left with kind of this simple idea. They just need to get back to where they’re supposed to go.
So here’s my encouragement for all of you. If you’re feeling discouraged or if you’re kind of dealing with discouragement in your life, here’s an encouragement from this lesson. If you’re feeling discouraged, you gotta open your heart to Jesus teachings. You can close your heart off to Jesus teachings and you’ll never be impacted. But you gotta open your heart.
Open your heart to the teachings of Jesus. And then you have to stand up, which means you got to get some courage. You got to get some strength. Okay, let’s go. I got to get up.
I got to get off this bed. I can’t lay here depressed anymore. I got to respond. I got to do something. Get up.
And then make your way back to wherever it is that, you know God is calling you to go. Get your heart open to his word. Get your heart open to his word. Stand up, and then make your way back. I’m telling you, God was working with them on the road.
He opened the scriptures with them. He’ll do the same for us. But he’s going to leave you there so that you have a response. And next time you’re headed in the wrong direction, and next time you’re feeling discouragement, and next time you’re feeling frustrated, the next time your hope fades, I want to encourage you that you can get back. You got to open up your heart to God’s faithfulness, that even in the worst situations, God has a purpose for those terrible things.
Well, someone I loved has passed. Well, God has purposed for that, too. Well, look, this situation is beyond my control, and I feel like I’m losing control of my life. Let me tell you, God is so amazing and so faithful that even that can be purposed for good. You got to open your heart to the faithfulness of God, and then you have to stand up and make your way back.
Don’t just live a life of defeat. Don’t just live a life where you’re just frustrated and laying down and depressed. Don’t do that. Get up. Make your way back to the place God wants you to be.
And I hope that on the dusty roads of your life, you’ll meet a savior, the one who swallowed up death and victory. And I hope when you meet him that you will recognize him and he will remind you of his faithfulness, and you will find your place. Back to the place of promise. Let’s pray together for communion. God, we are so thankful for your word.
Father. It feels overwhelming to me because I am. This morning I was, you know, as I’m thinking about all this stuff, I’m just preaching these thoughts to myself because, God, you know this. But I am so terrible when I’m disappointed. I don’t have the ability to.
I don’t have the ability, God, to like to say, you are faithful and you are wonderful. And I feel, and I feel just. And then I feel disappointed in myself for being discouraged. And then there’s the cycle, God, that I just can’t seem to break out of sometimes. And Lord, I just want to ask you today that you would be with me, that you would remind me of your faithfulness.
God, remind us of your faithfulness. Remind us that. That you have not for one moment has this whole plan been out of control. God, you knew exactly what you were doing. God, allow us to be like the people in hebrews eleven, who just trusts you.
Who just trust you and trust you. And trust you. Father, I want that for myself, and I want that for the people here. God and I pray a special prayer for anyone sitting in this room who just feels discouraged today, who feels like they don’t know what direction to go. I pray that you will remind them that your holy spirit will remind them today of your faithfulness, that you will allow their hearts to see.
Just let them see the sermon that you preached to those brothers headed towards Emmaus. God, let them hear it in their mind’s eye and hear it in their mind’s ear, I guess, and just capture it, God. And then let them be drawn to respond the way they need to respond. God and I thank you so much that you give a portion of the work to us, that it’s our responsibility to respond. And God, I pray today that all of us who are feeling discouraged will respond to your faithfulness.
Father, we love you so much. You are so faithful to us. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
We’ve seen him talk to his followers, his closest friends, about what it really means to live as a human being, what it means to love, how to pray, how to heal batter people and redeem broken hearts. And this is the journey that we have been on for the last two years, but specifically the last two months, we have walked with Jesus over the last week of his life. And we’ve spent time looking at the adoration that he received on Palm Sunday and the crown of thorns that was placed on his head on Good Friday. And what we’ve seen is Jesus Christ, this incredible character, this God man, be victorious in every area of his life and every bit of the way in which he lived. And today, we reach the culmination of all of his victories as we, in our series, are brought to the day of Easter morning, where we get to watch the victory over death. Now, let me just say this. This journey has been, for me, probably one of the greatest joys of my life. And I mean that. I’m so thankful to be a part of a church community like the church community we are in.
I’m so thankful, especially for the fact that you have so much biblical endurance. And it’s amazing that you don’t just tolerate, but you are excited about us simply walking through the life of Jesus and diving deeply into his teachings. Every week, I hear from you going, Oh, thank you. That point or that idea or that teaching was really helpful for me. I’m just so blessed to be a part of this congregation. This is a journey we’ve all been on together. And as we reach the climax of the story on Easter morning, it delights me to come to the place where I could just say thank you. Thank you for the support. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for all the people who have taught during this series. It is not lost on me the great privilege I have to stand up here and to talk to you about Jesus Christ. I am blessed beyond my ability to communicate it, to be a part of this church, and to preach here on most Sunday mornings. And so I’m pleased to tell you, as we begin the ending of this sermon series, I’m pleased to tell you to turn your Bibles to Mark Chapter 16, which is the last chapter of the Book of Mark.
That’s going to be our text this morning. If If you don’t have a Bible, don’t worry. Most of the scriptures and most of the relevant points will be up on the screen. Now, as you turn to Mark 16, I’m going to try to help us get a sense of the story of the resurrection of Jesus. But also I have an objective, and my objective is to walk together with the very first witnesses of the resurrection, these four women that we meet in Mark 16. What we’re going to discover is that it’s during the unexpected moments where God allows people to experience the miraculous. Those are the conditions of the miraculous, and we’re going to see that in Mark 16. Let me set the scene. Mark 16, Jesus has been killed. We studied that out last week. In fact, Joe did such a great job teaching on the account of Jesus’s crucifixion. Jesus’s body has been placed in the tomb, taken down from the cross, and placed in a tomb of a man named Joseph of Aramathia. He and a man named Nicodemus, who we met in John 3, get permission from Pilate, the governor, to give Jesus an honorable burial.
Pilate grants that request, and Joseph lays Jesus in the tomb that he owns. A stone is then rolled over the mouth of the tomb. And while that’s all happening, there are these religious leaders who are concerned about Jesus’s followers stealing the body of Jesus because he talks so often about raising from the dead. And so these religious leaders are going, look, what we need to do is put a guard out in front to make sure no one steals the body. So they convinced Pilate to do that, and so Pilate allows it. And so now you can picture it here. Jesus’s body is in a tomb. A stone has been rolled over it to cover the mouth. And there are guards placed up front to make sure that no one can get in to see the body. All of this happens on Friday, and that’s the way it remains until verse one of chapter 16, when Sunday morning begins. Here we go. It says this, When the Sabbath was over. Sabbath ends on Saturday at sunset. In the West, we mark our days at midnight. They mark their days at sunset. It’s been about 12 hours since the Sabbath ended.
In Luke’s account, it says it’s the first day of the week, which is Sunday, which, by the way, is why we worship on Sunday mornings, because Jesus raised from the dead on Sunday. Okay, Jesus in the tomb on Friday. He stays in the tomb on Saturday. He’s in the tomb for about 12 hours on Sunday. That is your three days in the tomb. And now we’re introduced to our main characters. Here they are, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salomé. You have one additional woman in Luke’s version of the account, a woman named Joanna. So we’re introduced to these four women, and they’re going to be the focus of the empty tomb account. So of course, they will be the focus of this lesson. Who are these women? Do we know anything about them? Well, we actually have met them in our series before. We met them all the way, like a year and six months ago in Luke 8. And they’ve been with Jesus for about two years, maybe even three years. They’ve seen everything he’s done. They’ve seen all the miracles, all the sermons. They’ve seen all the miraculous wonders he did in the Sea of Galilee.
Luke 8, it tells us that these women helped support the ministry out of their own means, meaning they gave financial Actually to the ministry. And in Mark Chapter 15, it says that in Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his knees. So they are both financial supporters and also physical supporters of Jesus. They are what we would call disciples of Jesus. They’re followers. Mary Magdalene herself is actually a recipient of one of the miracles of Jesus. She has demons, and those demons are exercised. So they aren’t new characters. In fact, they have seen the resurrection. They have seen Jesus being laid, and they come into focus at the end of… Sorry, in the Book of Luke, where it says this. It says, They were home and prepared spices and perfume. This is after Jesus is laid in the tomb, but they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. Okay, so Jesus’ body is taken down, placed in the tomb, and these women go home to prepare to give Jesus a burial ritual. They Sabbath on Saturday, and they make to meet at the tomb early on Sunday morning. They brought spices.
They brought spices so that they might go and anoint the body of Jesus. Jesus is their teacher. Jesus is their Lord. Jesus is their master. They loved him. They served him. They watched him be brutally killed, pulled down from a tree, and placed in a tomb. No doubt, they shed tears. They suffered tremendous agony, anxiety, fear, maybe even depression. But they decide they want to go visit their dead friend and do the thing that you did for people you loved in the first century, which was pay homage to him by placing spices on his body. This is not something special. This is just what you did with those you loved. Why did you do this? Well, because dead bodies smell bad. And smelling bad is a point of shame. Some of you get this more than others of you. That was an insult. I apologize. Yeah, Amen, bro. So they brought spices because they smell. They don’t want Jesus’s body to smell. It’s a ritual. Hey, here’s the man who we love. And at the end of his life, we don’t want him to produce, to cause shame by having a bad odor. That’s literally what’s happening.
And let me just make an extremely important note here. These women, in their minds, are going to see a dead body. That’s who they’re going to see. These women in their mind are going to see a dead man. This is an open casket. They’re about to hang out with or they’re about to embrace and bless a dead man. That’s where they’re headed. And they have no idea that they’re about to be the supporting cast to the greatest miracle in all of human history. They have no idea. And it made me think a little bit that, isn’t that the way that God works? Have you ever noticed this? I bet you you have, but Have you ever noticed that God chooses to place miracles in the mundane? In the ordinary stuff is where the miraculous takes place. God never sets up a big miracle by all this pomp and circumstance. It’s always It’s something that feels like it’s just a normal part of your life that God intervenes. You think about the woman at the well in John 4, she’s just going to get water, and she meets the Messiah who changes her life forever. You can think about the shepherd boy in a field who eventually becomes the one that slays Goliath.
You can think about the guys who walk around the walls of Jericho. All they’re doing is walking, shouting some trumpets, and the walls come crassing down. It’s a couple of loaves and a few fish feed 5,000 people. It’s the unschooled and ordinary men that change the world. This is the topography of the way that God works. He takes people who are ordinary and things that are mundane, and he creates a miracle articles out of them. It made me think a little bit about my family. It makes me think about the way that we, in my family, thought about going to church when I was a kid. When I was a kid, we went to church like two times a year. Easter and Christmas, and maybe Mother’s Day, if my mom made us go. We went three times a year. In fact, here’s a picture. This is me. I don’t know. I’m like nine or 10. Look at me. Yeah. Look at him. I’m in my Sunday best. I am almost certainly wearing my dad’s suit. Look at that. Look at that thing. My daughter saw this week and she said, Bobby, that looks nothing like you.
You’re way darker now. And I said, it’s because I live in South Florida. So this is me. Look at that tie. Look at that pattern. This is us. We’re headed to church because this is what you did on Easter. This is what you did on Christmas. This is what you did on Mother’s Day. And I’m just smiling. I’m all excited. But you know why we went to church? We did not go to church because we wanted to worship the risen savior. That’s not why we went to church. We didn’t go to church because we were prepared to see the miraculous work of Jesus Christ in the lives of average people. We went to church because that’s what you did. You go to church. It was a ritual. It was an act. And my mom and dad never thought, going to church, it would be going to church where God would change our lives forever. We weren’t looking for a miracle until one day My family went to church, and in a matter of speaking, God shook the life of my dad, who then subsequently changed the trajectory of our lives forever. He wasn’t looking for anything special.
And then he walked into church and everything changed. And 20 years or so later, here I stand. And my mom is in the church, and my dad’s in the church, and they worship God together. What is that? That’s a miracle. That Sunday morning when I’m nine years old, we thought we were just coming to church, and then we were going to go eat ham. That’s what we thought. We thought we were going to church, and then we were going to go a potluck. That’s what we thought. And then God intercepted our lives. It’s in the mundane. It’s in the rituals where God does his amazing work. And in fact, I reflected a little bit on this because this faith, this whole thing, this following Jesus is like my life, but it’s not like my family business. It’s not like I grew up and my whole family were a bunch of preachers. I did one of those histories where you look up your genealogy and you find out where you’ve been and who your family is. And you know what I find in my history and in my genealogy? I do not find preachers. Let me guarantee that.
I find murderers. Now, it’s not funny, but it’s funny. You know what I’m saying? It’s not funny, but it’s ironic. You know what I find? I find people that are addicted to alcohol. I find men who have abandoned their families. You know, I find people in jail and people on drugs and people who are addicted. And so when I stand here, what I’m saying is this is a miracle from God. And my family sitting in these seats is a miracle from God. My parents still being together is a miracle from God. And it all came because one day I put on an oversize jacket and went to church. And look, I know some of you are sitting here and you’re feeling this exact way. You’re here on Easter morning because your mom or your brother or your cousin or your friend dragged you here. And they said, or your spouse was like, You better find a church or I’m leaving you. And you typed, Broward, church is in Broward, and we have good SEO. And you stumbled in this room and you’re here for Easter because it’s what you’re supposed to do. And look, you look good.
You’re wearing colored shirts. I could see all of you guys. You’re beautiful looking. And maybe what I’m saying is you’re not expecting anything. And you’re not expecting anything because you just want to go to church and then you want to go home. Maybe you’re not expecting anything, but I want to tell you that it’s in moments just like this where God can intervene and change the trajectory of your life and of your family’s life forevermore. This is what the women, I bet you, are about to experience, they have no idea. All they’re doing, they just want to go to the tomb. They just want to do something nice for the ones that they love, for someone they love. They’re not there to have their lives changed. They’re not there to see a miracle. They They just want to support. And so here’s what happens. By the way, this is verse 2. I have to get going. We’re slow. Here we go. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb. It’s early morning and the group sets out to go to the tomb. We pick up in verse 3.
They were on their way to the tomb, and they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb? Have you ever been so depressed that you lose logic? This is what happens them. So they have this whole plan. And what’s the plan? I’m going to bring spices to the body of Jesus. But they forget a couple of things. There are guards in front, and there’s a stone that’s too large to move. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to do it? How are we supposed to get in and anoint the body when I can’t even move the stone? It says, verse 4, But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. Let me add another a little detail. The group doesn’t actually all get there at the same time. John’s account tells us that it was dark when Mary Magdalene arrived. So you can read it yourself. It’s in John, chapter 20. So you can think of it like this. All of these women, these four women, have this plan to go to the tomb at dawn.
Mary Magdalene arrives before dawn, early in the morning, and she comes, and it’s still dark outside. And when she gets there, before any of her commanding to get there, she notices what the women will eventually notice, that the stone is rolled away and that there are no guards guarding the tomb. But before they arrive, she is afraid. And so instantly Mary Magdalene instantly runs back to the disciples, that’s James and that’s John, to tell them this is what she thinks happens. This is John 20:2. It says, She says, Someone has stolen the body. So she thinks Jesus is still dead and someone took the body. And immediately the story goes that Peter and John run back to the tomb. And I have to just mention something. In that little detail, there’s a really funny thing. This is totally men, but both those guys run back to the tomb. And the Bible tells you who got there first. John, who’s the writer, goes, Peter ran, but I got there first. That’s a very men thing to do. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. So So Mary arrives before the other women arrive. You got that? She sees all that’s happened.
She’s in shock, and she runs away. The other women, while she’s running away, they arrive. And when they arrive, they see the tomb is open and there are no more guards. And maybe because they’re brave, maybe because it’s bright, they decide to do what Mary did not do, and they take a step into the tomb. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. The stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, and the Bible tells us, here it says they saw a young man, but all the other accounts says they saw angels. One angel, maybe two angels, but they look so dazzling. It’s like looking at the sun. You might be confused if you saw one angel or two angels if you were looking at the sun. You know what I’m saying? So they get in and they’re just utterly amazed. They look there and they go, What is happening? And the Bible tells us that they see it and they are terrified. In Luke’s account, he uses the word where we get the word phobia from. They are afraid.
This is nail-biting, knee-knocking fear. They take a step in, looking for their dead friend, and they are confronted by an angel. I need to stop for a moment and make a second observation. Here’s something I’ve noticed. I bet you have noticed this as well. Those of you who have experienced the miracles of God in your life, I’ve noticed this, that miracles always come with a sense of terror. I think there’s a really practical reason why this is important. When God moves in only the ways that God can move, it shakes you to your core. There’s a story where Jesus quiets the… They’re in the wind and waves in a boat, and he quiets the storm. And instead of the disciples going, Yeah, you quieted the storms, the Bible says they were terrified. Every story where Jesus does a miracle, everyone is like, gives praise to God, but is also completely alarmed. And here’s a takeaway for you. I want you to know that if God confronts you in a mundane moment like this, if he meets you where you’re at, he will never allow you just to be comfortable. If you want a relationship with God, like you want to come back to church, you want to reengage, you want to do better spiritually, maybe you’re thinking I want to lead my family better.
I feel like I need to come back to church. I want to dive in to the whole Jesus thing because my life’s a mess. But I want to tell you from the beginning, when you do that, it is going to terrify you what God asks for. God asks for everything in your life to change. And you have to answer the question, are you courageous enough to die to yourself? Are you courageous enough to follow his will instead of your will? Are you courageous enough to give up your ways, to confess your sinful life, to step out on faith, to be humble? Are you courageous enough to suffer with Jesus Christ? And I just have to tell you, if you choose to meet Jesus, if Jesus intercepts your life, it is going to utterly terrify you what he asks you to do. Christianity is not just something you sit and you experience on one day a week. What it is, is an encounter with a living God that changes every part of you. And I’ve learned in my life that there are no miracles without a little bit of terror. And there are no miracles without being ripped out of your comfort zone.
And maybe it’s because when we’re afraid, when we’re uncomfortable, then God can ultimately be our Comforter. These ladies are experiencing just that. They’re about to see a miracle, but they are terrified. The story continues, verse 6. Don’t be alarmed. That’s what the angel says. That’s easy for you to say, Mr. Angel, right? You’re looking for Jesus, the Nazareen who was crucified. And they’re standing there nodding their head. Yeah, that’s exactly who we’re looking for. And these are the first words concerning the resurrection of the Bible. He has risen. It’s one Greek word. It means to wake up. It means to get up. It’s used primarily in the New Testament to mean someone raising from the dead. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. What’s going through their mind? What’s going through their mind? How do you make sense of this? The Bible actually tells us exactly what’s going through their mind. It says that they were troubling and bewildered, which is what you would be, right? I want you to imagine for a second. I invited you to go or you were invited to go to your friend’s funeral. It’s a horrible thing, but your friend passed away and you’re going to his funeral and you arrive.
And when you arrive there, there’s no one in the room. It’s just you and you see an angel. And the angel says, hey, are you looking for Paul? He’s not here anymore. He’s risen from the dead. Now, at that moment, you may want to check yourself in. You know what I’m saying? You’re not thinking, Woohoo. You’re thinking, Am I hallucinating? You’re thinking, What does this mean? How could this… And again, the scriptures are laced with what this means. We’re going to talk about it more in our series in upcoming weeks. But the scriptures talk about what this means. Through the power of the Holy spirit, we learn so much about the beautiful theologies about the resurrection. We can look at and marvel over and talk about things like the Christus Victor idea or imputation, which is where you take the righteousness of God and God takes on your sin and he replaces it. This is a beautiful idea. We could talk about the new heaven and the new Earth and the actual physical miracle, a resurrection of the earthly bodies. And we could talk about all of that, and it’s beautiful. But this is with people who have been writing after the resurrection for years and years and years.
But can you just imagine what it would have been like for those women on that first day? They wouldn’t have had any of that idea. All they would have been thinking is, wait, what does this mean for me? My point here is we can spend a lot of time on that, and we certainly They will. But for Mary and Salomé and Joanna, what was the lesson they would have gotten? And I’ve spent a good part of this week considering that lesson. And here’s what I’ve come up with. This is what I think they would have been thinking. It’s something like this. If he’s been brought back to life, then he is who he said he was. Maybe that’s it. Okay, wait, hold on. So you’re saying he’s alive. What that means is that when he said he is the son of God, that means he is the son of God, that he is the Messiah, that it’s true, that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no name under heaven to mankind by which man can be saved. That it’s true. Like the things he said are true. If you’re sitting there, maybe you’re always doubting.
Imagine those women who are no longer doubting, and all of a sudden they’re going, Oh, my goodness, he is the way, the truth in the life. Oh, what does this mean? That means he sustains man, that everything was made by him and for him and through him, that he is the author and the perfector of our faith, that he did come to seek and save the lost and heal the redeemed. And then you start thinking about what the applications are and the implications are for you and me. And then you start thinking, well, hold on. If that is true, like if Jesus actually rose from the dead and you were coming face to face with that fact, what it would mean for you is that it doesn’t matter where you’ve been. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been tired or wearied or broken or sinful or hurting or divorced or you have addiction in your life, or you feel overwhelmed, or you lost a loved one, or your situation is super complicated, or you feel like there’s shame in your life because you’re addicted to something, or you feel like you’re getting older and you’re losing your purpose or you’re addicted to alcohol or you feel like you’re losing your family and your marriage, and if you feel hopeless and harassed and helpless, if the idea is that if Jesus rose from the dead, then here’s the point.
He can change your situation, and he can resurrect you and your problem. And it means this, and this is so profound. It means that he delights in bringing sons and daughters to glory. That he could find you where you are, that he could reshape you into the image that you were always meant to be, that you can be who you were supposed to be. That means that the resurrection is real. That means you, like you, you sitting in this room, can have your life changed by his grace. That he could do a miracle in your life. It means that he is going to prepare a place for you, and he will take you home to be with him. And I stand here, and I’m just saying this, I stand here with the privilege of seeing miracle on top of miracle on top of miracle of the people in this room. People who were just walking to class and they were invited to go to a discussion about the Bible who God used that moment to change their lives forever. And they are miracles in this room. People who were shopping at a Walmart and some random person came up and said, come to to church.
And they said, I don’t want to go to church. And they came to church and God changed their marriages forever. People who were just looking online, churches in the area and stumbled into this room and God’s spirit has changed their lives forever. We are witnessing sitting in this room, miracle upon miracle upon miracle upon miracle, because the truth of the matter is, Jesus rose from the dead, and what he said is true. There have been people who have come to know Christ Jesus, who have been changed by his grace. And it’s a miracle that we are sitting in this room together. Let’s end this verse seven. Here we go. I love this. The angel begins to talk to these guys. They are afraid. He says, But go tell his disciples and Peter, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. This is a command, go tell Peter, go tell the disciples to go ahead on to Galilee. These women, these four women, in a matter of speaking, they are the start of the church. They’re the beginning. They are the apostle to the Apostles. The word apostle means the one sent.
They’re the first people to ever talk about the resurrection. And they go and they become the people who spread the word to the Apostles. Go to Galilee. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. They’re in the south in Jerusalem, so they have to go all the way to the northern part of Israel and to Galilee. And the women leave. They’re trembling and bewildered. The women went out and fled the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. They’re afraid. And the The story goes that they do go back to the Apostles. And as they’re headed back there, John and Peter arrive, and they’re all so confused. And they go back, and eventually Mary arrives, and Jesus actually engages with Mary there for a second. But when these women go back, they go into the room and they say, Guys, Jesus has risen from the dead. And you might think, Well, I wonder what happens next. You know what happens next? They do nothing. Do you know why? Because they do not believe. And so they sit in that room and they have to wait for Jesus himself to come and to go, Go to Galilee.
What are you doing here? They don’t believe. And I say all that to say, some of you might be sitting in this room and you’re thinking to yourself, I do not believe any of this. And I get it. That’s fine. That’s cool. Here’s what I wanted you to do. I want you, though, to keep coming back. Just come Come back again. Come back next week, come back the week after that. And I’m going to pray that God will intercept your life as you’re sitting here, that he will make himself known. He will make himself present. And if you’re courageous enough, maybe you will. Maybe you’ll engage, and maybe you’ll have a relationship with Jesus Christ that changes the trajectory of your life. So this is where the story ends. But how about our discussion here today? We still have some work to do, not today, maybe, but over the course of the rest of this series. This series, we have two more months to talk about this because here’s where we are. Jesus has risen from the dead, but no one believes him. That’s where we are in our story. Jesus is alive, but no one believes he’s alive.
And what Jesus is going to do is just go person to person and impact the lives of these men in a tremendous this tremendous way. There’s a lot to talk about, a lot to flesh out. The next few weeks are going to be important in our series. Don’t go on vacation. Stay here. You can go on vacation, but then follow online. Anyway, some takeaways for us. I believe that God wants to have some resurrection power in your life, that he wants to do a miracle in your life. I believe that. And I believe that those miracles are found in ordinary places. So come and sit and learn, be engaged with the person of Jesus Christ. And when he calls you, just be prepared because he is not calling you to become a Sunday churchgoer. He’s calling you to be a disciple of his. So get some courage and don’t miss out. The last thing is Jesus is who he said he is. And so what that means is no matter how far you’ve fallen, there is still something beautiful on the horizon for your life. Happy Easter, guys. We’re going to take communion. Every week, we take a little bit of bread and a little bit of juice, and it’s a representation of Jesus’s body and blood poured out.
It’s a ritual we do here in the church. It’s a thing that we participate in because the Bible tells us to. We eat the bread, we drink the juice, and we take a moment of quiet reflection just to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Joe, a couple of weeks said, this isn’t a mindless ritual. So I want to encourage you just to take some time just to consider what this means for you. Let’s go to God in prayer. Father, we are amazed by your love, by your grace. Lord, you are so good to us. God, thank you for helping us find you in ordinary situations. God, I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am to think about the fact that I stand here today as the worst of sinners with no pedigree and no history of spirituality. And you, Lord, found me and found my family and redeemed us and continue to use us to redeem others. What an amazing gift it is to be a disciple of yours. God, what a room full of miracles sitting here of men and women who have come to know you and have been changed forever. Father, in my heart, I want to take a moment to pray for the men in this Father, I feel prompted because I know that it’s the men here that in some ways will help their whole families if they get it.
God, I know there are sons in this room and there are fathers in this room, and there are brothers in this room who need to get it right. God, and so I pray that you will penetrate the outer shell, that hard outer shell of the men in here’s heart. God, that your work, that your word will penetrate them, that will go right into the core of their being, God, and that they’ll want to respond to your gospel of grace. Lord, I pray that you give them the courage to be the men that you call them to be. I pray that they look at Jesus Christ and they find a hero, a man who is truly admirable. And Father, as we take a time to just reflect on your sacrifice, your death, and your resurrection, I pray, dear Lord, that you will allow this meditation to be something that’s pleasing to you. We love you. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.