Experiencing His Resurrection

Series: Preacher: Date: April 20, 2014 Scripture Reference: Luke 24:13-36

Back in my youth ministry days I embraced a principle concerning teaching teens that I came across at a youth conference I attended in Nashville. It went like this:

“Never TELL a young person something you can lead them to DISCOVER on their own.”

And I have to say, that principle seemed to click with the kids I was privileged to serve. They didn’t like being told things. They preferred experiencing it—learning on their own—so for me much of youth ministry was a GUIDING kind of deal.

Of course there were times when kids had to be TOLD (No—you cannot stay up all night at a retreat! No you cannot swim in the baptistery!) but most of the time this “guiding” philosophy worked very well—especially when it came to guiding teens in their study of the Bible. The better I was able to guide teens to EXPERIENCE the truth of Scripture firsthand—the more they lived by that truth

A great example of this was seen this weekend in the “Experiencing Jesus’ Passion” deal that Pastor Kevin and our youth set up on Good Friday. It worked well for children, teens, and adults because no matter what our age, we learn best by experience—which is why airline pilots use simulators and why language classes involve immersing the student in the culture where that language is spoken.

I bring all this up because on this Easter Sunday morning I want us to look at the last chapter of Luke’s gospel to see what some of Jesus’ first followers learned about Him and His kingdom as they EXPERIENCED His resurrection firsthand. With that said, take your Bibles and turn to Luke 24. Follow along as I read verses 13-36.

 

13 – Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven milesfrom Jerusalem.

14 – They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.

15 – As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them;

16 – but they were kept from recognizing Him.

17 – He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.

18 – 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?”

19 – What things?” He asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.

20 – The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him;

21 – 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.

22 – In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning

23 – but didn’t find His body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said He was alive.

24 – Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

25 – He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

26 – Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?”

27 – And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.

28 – As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if He were going farther.

29 – 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.

30 – When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.

31 – Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight.

32 – 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?”

33 – They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together

34 – and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”

35 – Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread.

36 – While they were still talking about this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

 

Okay—let’s back up and take a closer look at what these two travelers EXPERIENCED on that road to Emmaus. It was the first Easter Sunday afternoon as these two disciples were making the long walk from Jerusalem back to their lodging in Emmaus about seven miles outside of the city.

Remember—it was Passover so the city would have been packed, so a hotel room IN the city proper would have been impossible to find. In any case they were overcome with grief after Jesus’ crucifixion as they made this journey—a journey that turned out to be the most amazing walk of their lives.

And please understand—they were not just grief-stricken. They were devastated. They had hoped that Jesus, “…was the one Who was going to redeem Israel.” But now it was all over and they ached with grief and confusion.  The Scriptures promised a Messiah and they thought Jesus was the One but Jesus did not deliver. So they were deeply discouraged and desperately needed a Word from God—which is what they got! Isn’t it wonderful when God meets us at our point of need!?

Well, as this couple walked along they found themselves reviewing the events of the past three days and they probably slipped into “iffing.”  I imagine they said things to each other like:

  • If only Jesus had RUN from the garden when He had the chance, what a different day this would have been.
  • If only we had stood with Him during His trial.
  • If only Peter had not denied Jesus.
  • If only Jesus had not admitted to Pilate that He was their king.
  • If only the secret disciples among the Pharisees—men like Joseph and Nicodemus—had been there and spoken out on Jesus’ behalf—IF ONLY—IF ONLY—IF ONLY…

Then—while they were “IF-ING”—Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But they didn’t recognize Him. Some say this is because they were walking west and the setting sun blinded their eyes. Others say they were too preoccupied with their sorrow to identify Jesus and that their tears blurred their vision. Some say they didn’t recognize Jesus because the last time they had seen Him He was beaten, marred, and bleeding—almost beyond human recognition. Then, they had seen Him crucified—they had seen Him run through with that Roman spear. In short, they didn’t recognize Jesus because they were convinced that He was dead and in their minds when someone died like He did He stayed that way.

By the way, there are many in our day and age who deny the resurrection of Jesus by saying He didn’t really die on the cross in the first place. They say He just sort of swooned. One of the many ways to counter this foolish thinking is to look to the Gospel accounts.  The unified testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John underscore the fact that Jesus’ first followers—witnesses of His crucifixion—were convinced He was dead. If you know someone who persists in this silly way of thinking, pray for them but don’t worry about it, they probably also believe Elvis is still alive. The fact is, Jesus DIED on that cross—no doubt about it.

But I digress. Jesus may have used all the things I have mentioned to hide His identity from these two—I don’t know—but the Bible says He blinded them INTENTIONALLY as a way to allow them to verbalize their true feelings so He could then LEAD them to solve their problems by DISCOVERING the truth for themselves. We see Him employing this teaching tactic in verse 17 where Jesus asked, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” And these two people responded with BODY-LANGUAGE that revealed just how defeated they really felt that day. Verse 18 says that when Jesus asked them this question, they stood still, their faces downcast as if they were about to cry—as if re-calling and verbalizing the memories of the seeming defeats of that weekend was just too much for them to bear. Then after this brief hesitation, Cleopas responded to Jesus’ question, but he did so with a question of his own, saying, “[Stranger], are You the only One visiting Jerusalem unaware of the things that have happened here in these last days?” Note that Jesus didn’t really answer Cleopas. Instead He continued to guide their experiential learning by saying, “What things?” In this way Jesus led them to review Who these two thought He had BEEN—before He led them to discover Who He really IS. You see, at this moment these two were living in the PAST and Jesus wanted to show them that He was living in the PRESENT—and by the way, He still is!

Now—I want you to note that their shock at Jesus’ lack of knowledge of the happenings in Jerusalem shows how much Jesus was in the center of the news of that weekend. I mean everyone—even visitors for the Passover—knew about the events that had transpired in the previous days. Jesus’ trial and execution was top news. So, for Jesus to ask, “What things?” —would be like someone coming to you two days after terrorists flew those planes into the Twin Towers and asking why all the flags were at half-mast—-because Jerusalem was just like the U.S. shortly after 9-11. Everyone knew what things had happened during that first Holy Week.

Well, Cleopas DID answer Jesus’ question and in his answer, he showed that at this point he WAS living in the PAST, for in his explanation in verses 19-21, he listed all the things Jesus WAS.

  • He WAS Jesus the Nazarene.
  • He WAS a prophet.
  • He WAS mighty in deeds.
  • He WAS mighty in word.
  • He WAS loved by and the common people.
  • He WAS crucified.
  • Then he topped it all off by saying, “We were hoping that HE WAS the person to redeem Israel.”

Did you count all those “He was-es?” You see, for Cleopas and his wife—and I think for all the rest of the disciples at that time—Jesus was now limited to the PAST.  He WAS wonderful! We LOVED Him! He TAUGHT us so much! We HAD such high hopes. But He was crucified and it is all over. For them, Jesus’ death WAS irreversible. Of course it was NOT all over and as they talked and listened for the rest of their journey, Jesus led them to discover this wonderful truth. They learned that not only WAS HE—He is! Jesus explained to them how they were wrong in their messianic expectations by showing them that the Scriptures had prophesied that the Christ would have to suffer—exactly as Jesus had suffered that weekend.  As verse 27 says, “…beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.”

Now—think about how wonderful that must have been. As they journeyed together that afternoon, their hearts burned within them as the same God Who inspired the writings of the Old Testament prophecies, guided them through an understanding of those prophecies to help them get back on the road of faith. You see, centuries before His birth the Old Testament described Jesus perfectly. In passages from Genesis to Malachi, the Messiah was portrayed as One Who would be born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem, Who would perform miracles, enter Jerusalem on a donkey, enter the temple with authority, be betrayed by a friend, forsaken by His disciples, beaten, crucified, pierced, and Who would rise from the dead! All this was there on paper. It had been for hundreds of years for Cleopas and others to see—but they missed it. They were lost to this truth, because they based their expectations of the Messiah on something other than Scripture.

Well, when these three finally arrived at Emmaus after all this “on-the-road God-led Bible study” Cleopas and his wife didn’t want their time together to end, so they invited this wise Stranger to stay and share a meal with them. He agreed and they asked Him to say the blessing.

As He took the bread and began to give thanks, it suddenly hit them that this Stranger was Jesus Himself! Maybe they noticed the nail-scars on His hands or perhaps the way He handled the bread reminded them of Jesus’ breaking the bread at the last supper or maybe Jesus just opened their eyes—but they realized their Guest was the Lord! The instant they did, Jesus disappeared. I think He vanished while still holding the broken bread up in midair—leaving it to fall to the table.

Now—at this point I want to point to the first lesson we can learn from the experience of these first disciples. Here it is.

(1)   The resurrection of Jesus really happened.

I mean, Easter isn’t just a holiday about egg-delivering Bunnies and the arrival of Spring. No! It’s an annual reminder of the fact that two thousand years ago, on the third day following His crucifixion on a Roman cross, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, ROSE BODILY from the grave!

Now, you may think this first point is a moot point because I’m preaching to the choir but the fact is there are people today—many of them supposed Christians—who do not believe Jesus rose bodily on that first Easter morning. R. Kent Hughes refers to this and says, “All Resurrection-denying churches look for Jesus ‘among the dead.’ They love the example of the dead Jesus. They preach His courage, His conviction, even His faith. Sentimentality fills their sermons with language about recurrent spring making hope eternal, about a butterfly discarding its chrysalis. But the ‘R’ word is never used, except metaphorically.”

Tim Keller adds to this by saying that as a religion major at a secular university he was told that after Jesus’ death His disciples, “experienced His presence.” They had this powerful FEELING that He was still with them somehow—not bodily—but just with them. And in their opinion Peter, “experienced” forgiveness in that he had this feeling that Jesus had forgiven him for his failures and for his denials. According to this way of thinking, as time went by and the first disciples died out the followers of the first disciples began to find ways of expressing these higher “truths,” these spiritual feelings or experiences. They began to express them through stories they wrote that symbolically represented these higher truths in concrete form.

For example, the higher truth that Peter experienced a feeling of forgiveness from Jesus, turned into John chapter 21, which is the story of Peter meeting the risen Jesus by a fire and Jesus asking him three times, “Do you love me?” and Peter’s receiving Jesus’ forgiveness.

According to this way of thinking the stories of the resurrection themselves were stories this second generation of disciples wrote as symbolic representations of these higher spiritual “truths.” John Dominic Crossan put it like this: “Emmaus never happened; Emmaus always happens.” So, according to this viewpoint Luke’s account of these two walking to Emmaus meeting our Risen Lord is a made up story written to express the higher truths of forgiveness and hope.

But—if you read through texts like Luke 24 your first response to all this is going to be, “Really? I don’t see that. This chapter doesn’t seem to be made up to me!” I mean, later when Cleopas and Mary return to Jerusalem and meet with the rest of the disciples to share their news Jesus suddenly appears among them and says, “Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones. Do you have something to eat? Give me something to eat.”  So they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and He took it and ate it and there Jesus is eating fish and chips with the disciples. Well, what is the higher truth that is being symbolically represented there?  The answer is there is no symbolism. In fact, Jesus is plainly saying, “I’m not a symbol, I’m really here. I am not just an impression in your mind; I am not just a kind of spiritual presence. I’m not a feeling. I’m REALLY here, flesh and bones, feel Me. Give Me something to eat.”

The fact is the Gospel accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection all have the earmarks of not made up stories but eyewitness accounts and our text from Luke is no exception.

For example, if you read through this chapter you’ll see that it is full of NAMES—like Cleopas and the women, Joanna, and Mary the Mother of James. Why that? Why all these names? Well in ancient times very often when you were giving a historical account based on eyewitness testimony, these names were like footnotes.  It was your way of saying if you want to check out what I’m telling you, go talk to these people.  And you could have done that because the Gospels were not written by second generation disciples. No—they came out while these eyewitnesses were still alive so you could go to Cleopas and say, “Hey Cleo—did it really happen like Luke said?”

And, the fact that we still have the gospel accounts unchanged verifies their accuracy. All that would have had to happen for them to disappear from the pages of history would be for witnesses like Cleopas and the others to stand up and say, “This is all made up!” But they didn’t do that! No—they affirmed what they witnessed—what they experienced on that first Easter Sunday.

Here’s something else. In the first twelve verses of this chapter Luke says that the FIRST witnesses to Jesus’ empty tomb were WOMEN. Well, in that day—in that culture—women had low status. Their testimony was not admissible evidence in court, neither in Roman jurisprudence nor in Jewish jurisprudence, so if you were MAKING UP a story, if you were MAKING UP a legend about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you would never put women in there as the first eyewitnesses. It would undermine the plausibility of the account with any of the hearers or the readers of the time, and therefore the only reason that Luke could have possibly put women in as the first eyewitnesses is if they really were the eyewitnesses. There’s no other motivation he would have had to put them in there.

Here’s something else. These eyewitnesses were Jews and Jewish people were the last people on the face of the earth to be open to the idea that a human being could be God. You might say they had a paradigm that prevented this. Or you could say it was their worldview that a human could not be God. I mean, they couldn’t even say the NAME of God out loud.  To them God was so far above being a man that when they got around to putting vowels in the Old Testament Hebrew documents they didn’t even dare do that to the name of God.

Yet we know that immediately after the resurrection they were worshipping a man—a man! How did that happen? It didn’t happen through some FEELINGS they were having. A feeling would NEVER lead a Jew to worship a man as God. No—something must have happened; something must have shattered their paradigm—destroyed their world view. And you know what it was? It was a historic fact. They saw Jesus risen—ALIVE. They walked with Him, talked with Him, touched Him, ate with Him! They EXPERIENCED the fact that He is RISEN!  He is risen INDEED!

Another way we see that this was not a made-up deal is in the disciples’ slowness to believe.   Our two Emmaus travelers had heard the news of the women who went to the tomb that morning but they didn’t believe it and continued with their plans to leave the city. I mean, it’s obvious they didn’t invent this story because at first they didn’t understand it or believe it.

As Alexander Maclarren put it, “The evidential value of the disciples’ slowness to believe cannot be overrated.” The only reasonable explanation for their eventual belief even though it cost them their own death is that they SAW the empty tomb. They MET our risen Lord. These Jewish men and women came to believe that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day.

And, here’s the point: The resurrection was not preached in the early church as a symbolic representation of wonderful higher spiritual truths like, “We must always keep hope.”  The resurrection was preached as a paradigm-shattering, impossible to dismiss FACT—a FACT that changed EVERYTHING about their lives—and about their deaths.  No longer would life or death cause them fear.  Because of their experience on that first Easter Sunday, they believed that as our Risen Lord said, “Because I live—you will live also.” (John 14:19) The glorious news of Easter is this fact that JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD. This fact gives us something to cling to in life—cling to even when the death that comes for us all—comes. He is risen! He is risen INDEED!

In devotional piece for Kyria.com, an evangelical website for women, Christian recording artist Carolyn Arends says: “The world offers promises full of emptiness. But Easter offers emptiness full of promise. The world makes a lot of promises. Smoke and mirrors, mostly. Frantic, cartoonish attempts to distract us from the gaping holes in the middle of our souls. There’s no life in those promises. They are empty—but not so with Easter. Empty cross, empty tomb, empty grave-clothes—all full of promise. For Easter people, even death is full of promise.” I love that—Jesus’ resurrection is full of promise—because it really happened!

Here’s a second thing we can learn from the first disciples’ experience of Jesus’ resurrection.

(2)   The resurrection of Jesus is the key to understanding the Bible.

Without Easter Sunday—the Bible makes no sense—and this makes sense because Jesus is the focus of the Bible. His birth, life, ministry, atoning death and victorious resurrection is what the Bible is all about. As Paul puts it, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.” (2nd Corinthians 1:20)  Let me put it this way—the key to understanding the WRITTEN Word is the WORD MADE FLESH!

Well, in Luke 24 we see these Emmaus travelers being reminded of this truth. In verses 25-27 Jesus lovingly chided them, saying, “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?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” After Jesus revealed Himself and then disappeared they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Let me ask—has your heart ever burned in you as God’s Spirit guided you to understand its truth? I know mine has—That’s why Bible study is so fulfilling.

Thanks to Jesus’ indwelling Spirit we can have “Emmaus Road Experiences” all the time!

Well, can you imagine their conversation later after Jesus left them, as they said, Did I actually say that? Do you think Jesus heard me? Of course He did—He hears everything! Do you think He’ll say anything to Peter about the way I put Him down for not knowing what had happened in Jerusalem?” I mean, talk about “open mouth….insert foot!”

Then when they returned to Jerusalem and Jesus appeared to them all He said, “’This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’ Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.’” (vs 44-46)

Listen—the Bible only makes sense if Easter is true.  Easter is the key to understanding it all.

  • For example: the Jewish sacrificial system only makes sense if it points to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
  • The Jewish Passover meal only makes sense when paired with the Resurrection.
  • The promise of Abraham’s descendants blessing the whole world only makes sense if you realize this happens through Christians sharing the good news of our Risen Lord.

If you’ve seen the movie, The Sixth Sense, then you know you after seeing it once and being shocked at the ending you want to see it again. And when you do you don’t see any part of the earlier parts of the movie without thinking about the end.  Once you know the ending you go to the earlier scenes of the movie and you say, “Ah, here’s Bruce Willis and here’s a woman, they’re in the same room, and the first time I thought they were talking to each other, now I realize she doesn’t really look at him.”  During that second viewing you can’t look at every scene without thinking of the ending. The movie begins to make sense only after you’ve seen it once and know how it ends. Well, the same is true of the Bible. It only makes sense if you read it in light of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Okay, there’s one more lesson we can learn from the Easter Sunday experiences of the first disciples.

(3)   The resurrection of Jesus is a message that MUST be shared with the world.

In verse 47 Jesus tells the disciples, “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in My name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” He was telling them that His resurrection gave them a message to take to the world—a message the world was desperate to hear and it is this:

  • Because of Jesus’ sacrifice our SINS can be forgiven!
  • Because of our faith in our RISEN Lord, death is not the end!
  • Because of Easter we don’t have to lose our loved ones—someday we can all be together again!
  • Because of Easter and the promise of Heaven—we can endure suffering, knowing it is temporary and Heaven is forever.
  • Because of Easter when we die we get new bodies—infinitely better than the ones we have now. Jesus was walking first fruit proof of that.

As all these implications of Jesus’ resurrection began to dawn on these Emmaus travelers they felt compelled to communicate that wonderful knowledge with others. The fact that Jesus was alive was too good to keep to themselves—even for a moment. They couldn’t possibly sleep knowing that their friends back in Jerusalem were still grieving. So, even though the sun had already set, they decided to backtrack and return to Jerusalem immediately. In fact, I don’t think they walked—they RAN—and that’s not easy in sandals!

Well, that’s the way it is with everyone who meets Jesus. They just naturally want to share Him with others. They want everyone to meet Him. Jesus is “news” too good to keep to yourself!

Charles Swindoll recounts a true story as told by Dr. Will Phillips of San Antonio, Texas concerning one of his favorite patients, a wonderful Christian widow named Edith Burns. Now, Edith had a habit of introducing herself by saying: “Hello, I’m Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?”  Then she would go on to explain the meaning of Easter and many times in so doing she would lead people to embrace a saving faith in Jesus. One day, with great sorrow on his face Dr. Phillips told Edith that her test results revealed the presence of an aggressive cancer—and that she would not live much longer. Edith’s reply was full of her typical faith. She said, “Don’t be sad Dr. Phillips! Do you think God makes mistakes? You have just told me I’m going to see my precious Lord Jesus, my husband, and many of my friends. You have just told me that I am going to a place where I will celebrate Easter forever. And here you are having difficulty giving me my ticket!?” As she said this, Phillips thought to himself, “What a magnificent Christian woman this Edith Burns is!” Well, within a few weeks Edith had reached the point that she had to be hospitalized and she requested that she be given non-Christian room-mates so she could explain to them the true meaning of Easter. Dr. Phillips did all he could to make sure that happened—and as a result several women left that hospital as Christians. Unsaved nurses and orderlies also made decisions to follow Jesus because of Edith’s witness. In fact, pretty much everyone on that floor became a Christian except for the head nurse, Phyllis Cross. She made it plain that she wanted nothing to do with Edith’s faith. You see, Phyllis had been a nurse in an army hospital and felt she had seen and heard it all. She was the original “G. I. Jane” and had been married three times. Phyllis was hard, cold, and did everything by the book. One morning as Phyllis gave Edith a shot Edith said, “Phyllis, God loves you and I love you too. I’ve been praying for you.” Phyllis frowned, “Well, you can quit praying for me. It won’t work. I’m not interested.” Edith replied, “Well, I will pray and I have asked God not to let me go home to Heaven until you come into the family.” “Then you will never die,” snapped Edith “…because that will never happen.” And she turned and marched out of the room. Well every day when Phyllis walked into Edith’s room, Edith would smile and say something like, “God loves you, Phyllis, and I love you too and I’m still praying for you.”  After weeks of this, Phyllis’ heart warmed toward Edith such that she looked forward to caring for her. Gradually they became close friends.  One day Phyllis found herself being literally drawn into Edith’s room. She sat down on the side of the bed and said, “Edith, you have asked everyone here on the ward the question, ‘Do you believe in Easter?’ but you’ve never asked me.”  Edith said, “I wanted to many times but God told me to wait until you asked and now that you have….” and with that Edith took her Bible and shared with Phyllis the Easter Story.  She told her all about Jesus Christ—His life and death and resurrection. And then Phyllis bowed her head and asked Jesus to come into her heart and life. A few days later on Easter Sunday morning, Phyllis went into Edith’s room to bring her some flowers and she found her dead.  Her big black Bible was still open on her lap and a big smile was on her face. Phyllis noticed that Edith had been reading it because her left hand rested on John 14 where Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am there you may be also.” Edith’s right hand was stuck in Revelation 21:4 where it says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”  Phyllis took one look at Edith’s dead body and lifted her face upward and with tears in her eyes said, “Happy Easter Edith! Happy Easter!” Then Phyllis left Edith’s room and walked quietly over to a table where two new student nurses were sitting. Phyllis smiled at them and said, “Hello. My name is Phyllis Cross. Do you believe in Easter?”  As those Emmaus road disciples learned, that’s the way it is—When we meet Jesus, when we come to know the Risen Lord, we just have to tell someone. We have to share Him with others! If you are here this morning and are not a Christian, then I hope our experience has been eye-opening for you to the point you now see that Jesus is indeed the Christ—-the Son of God Who came to redeem you from the power of sin! In fact I echo the words Paul wrote the Ephesians (1:18-20) when he said, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe….which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.” Our risen Lord wants to walk down the roads of life with you. All you have to do is ask Him to forgive you of your sin and to come into your heart and life as Lord and Savior.

LET US PRAY

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