Don't Sleep On Jesus

Foreign.

Good morning. Happy Easter. He is risen. That was great. And I don't know about you guys, but this morning is a little different routine.

Did anyone show up for the 10:30 service that we typically have? We were watching for you the first service. We were ready just to like shame you and be like, ah, you didn't read your emails, but I don't know if this happens to you. When you have to get up earlier to be somewhere at a different time than your normal routine. Do you just wake up all throughout the night?

Does that ever happen? Like I was last night. I needed to be here about an hour earlier this morning. And so 2 o' clock, I'm awake. 2:30, I'm awake.

3 o' clock, 4 o' clock. I said I give up. I'm done. Alright, I'm up. I'm up.

God. Are any of you good nappers? Like, I'm doing a nap today. Any of you good nappers? Are you the kind of people who can just fall asleep anytime and anywhere?

Some of you are nodding. I admire people who can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. I may have trained myself to not be a good napper, probably because I don't feel like I can get back into my day when I wake up. And I know that we've seen some of the most brilliant minds in history are people who took naps. Aristotle, you know, da Vinci.

These people are world class. Brilliant, changed the world. That's why I'm not brilliant, because I don't nap. So that's not the only reason. There are other reasons too.

But I've also learned that when you take a nap, when you sleep, you miss things. Things go on around you that you're not aware of. When my older girls were little, every night we'd get in the rocking chair, the three of us, and this is not good parenting advice. So don't take this advice. But I would get my phone out.

Don't do that. But I would do this with them. We'd get in the rocking chair and I'd pull my phone out and we'd put these little kids song videos on. And I've never seen my daughters so still and so calm and so quiet and so devious. Because what they learned is if they sit there really still and really quiet, dad would fall asleep while we're watching videos.

And so instead of watching two or three videos, it might be four or five videos or if they're lucky. And this would happen like 20 minutes later. I'm like, and Elizabeth's holding the phone and I'M sound asleep and I wake up, what's happening here? Because when you fall asleep, you're unaware of what's going on. They're giggling and getting it like, ah, we gotta be good, you know?

But when you're asleep, you miss things. When I was a youth pastor a long time ago, I took teenagers from South Dallas to Eloy, Arizona. We were doing a mission trip. In the mornings we would do sports camp. In the afternoons, kids camp.

At night we would do revival. We're in the Arizona sun all day long. It is hot, it is nasty. When we were done that week, we got on the charter bus and I felt like I earned good nap. And so I planned it.

I was like, I'm sleeping on the bus. And I did. I went back to the back, I got in my chair and I went to sleep. And I woke up a few hours later kind of feeling good about myself. But something went right with my nose and I had to do this.

And then I realized they had stuffed. The teenagers had stuffed peanuts up my nostrils while I was sleeping. And then I went home and I resigned. I quit being in student ministry after that trip because things happen when you're asleep, like stuffing peanuts in someone's nose. And I realized this, that when we are not paying attention, we can miss things in the moment.

And I was thinking about that this week, because in the text we'll look at today, there's two guys who are disciples of Jesus who are walking with them along a road. And yet it's like they're asleep. In fact, the text later will say that their eyes then became opened, which means earlier in the story, their eyes were kind of closed to what was going on, and they were not aware of what was happening in their midst, and they were missing the moment. And I realized this even this morning on Easter Sunday, when we're here celebrating the risen Christ and we're singing the songs that we've sung this morning, that it's possible there are those of you who are here who do not know what Jesus is doing in these days, you do not know what he's doing in your life, that you're asleep on that right now, and that you may miss the moment. And I want to turn you to a text today to help us understand that situation.

So turn in your Bible to Luke. Chapter 24 is where we'll be. Luke, chapter 24. We're going to see this morning how Jesus opens eyes and how he opens hearts. And before we even get to reading it, I just want to pull this out of the story and lay it down as a framework for everything else we'll learn.

We're going to see that Jesus takes thousands of steps with these two guys. 50, physical, literal, thousands of steps along a seven mile journey. And the reason I think that's significant is because in our lives, even today, I think it's true that the things that God is doing in this world and in our lives usually don't happen all in one moment, but usually it happens over thousands of steps of Jesus faithfulness to us all throughout our lives. You hear that? Okay, Luke chapter 24, I'm going to start in verse 13.

Says that very day, that is Easter Sunday. Not an Easter Sunday, but the Easter Sunday when Jesus got out of the grave. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And that's a real place, and there's still a road there that you can go and stand on. And these two men were talking with each other about the things that had happened.

And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Okay, if you were here last week, we looked at Luke chapter 19, and that was the Palm Sunday passage. How a week before, Jesus came into Jerusalem and people from all over the place had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And when Jesus comes down the street, all of the people gathered and they're crying out Hosanna, which means save us. And they're looking to Jesus and, and they're calling him the son of David, and they're calling him the King of Israel.

And it seems like it would be just an incredible moment of celebration for Jesus. And yet what we saw is when he passed through the crowd and he looks back on the city and all the people who were gathered singing to him. He knew that they were singing the right lyrics and the right song, but their hearts were far from him. Remember that? And so he wept.

He cried because even though they were calling out to him and talking about him, they didn't know who he really was. They didn't see it, and they didn't trust him for what he really was coming to do in their lives. And now you've got these two guys, they're leaving Jerusalem, walking back to Emmaus where they're staying. And as they're going, Jesus draws near to them. And it's Easter morning, the Easter.

Now, think about this. If it were me, and we shouldn't often play like if I were Jesus, that usually turns out Badly. But if it were me, and I had just defeated death and gotten out of the grave, if I had just completed the grand mission of God when I got out of the grave, I probably would want to do a victory lap. I wanted. I would want to go to the most public place possible and be like, look, you see what I did?

You know, I would want even in my flesh to go up the steps of the temple, right, to where all the religious leaders were, those who had condemned me and had sent me to be crucified. I would be like, mmm, I told you, you know, and this is the really beautiful thing that's different between me and Jesus. Jesus, rather than going and doing his victory lap, he goes. Where I want to be is with these two guys who are on this lonely road walking home, who don't get it, you know, and it makes good on what Jesus said about the parable of the lost sheep. You remember this, where he said that the good shepherd would leave everything behind and he would go after and chase the one lost sheep to bring him home.

And here we see Jesus doing that. He leaves everything behind when he gets out of the grave and he goes after these two guys that no one's heard of on this lonely road headed to this little town. And he wants to be there with them and spend the day there with them. And as he drew near to them, verse 17 says, he says to them, what's this conversation that you two are holding with each other as you walk? And they stopped and they stood still and they were looking sad.

Now, how many of you know that when Jesus asks a question, it's not because he doesn't know the answer, you know, that it reminds me of the Garden of Eden. Remember when Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden and they have sinned and they have gone and hidden, and God comes out in the cool of the day, and he's like, adam, Eve, where are you? And God knows where they are. He's God. He knows all things.

He knows everything that's happening at every moment in his creation. It's not that he didn't know where they were. He wanted them to realize where they were, that they had pulled themselves away from him and were hiding in shame. He wanted them to acknowledge what where they were so that then he could begin to bring them into a place of reconciliation, place of healing. And Jesus is God.

He's sovereign. And so when he walks up on these guys on the road to Emmaus and he says, what is this that you're talking about? He's not asking for his sake, but he's asking for their sake, right? So they answer. One of them named Cleopas answered him, saying to Jesus, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened in these days?

Jesus said to them, what things? And they said the things about Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a mighty prophet indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and the rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. And besides all of this, in the third day since these things have happened, some of our women from our company, they amazed us. They went to the tomb and they found it early in the morning without his body.

And they came back saying. They even had visions of angels saying to them that he is alive. Some of those who are with us, and they're talking about Peter and John, went to the tomb and they found it, just as the women had said, but they didn't see him. And he, Jesus, said to them, o foolish ones, slow of heart to believe in all the things the prophets have spoken. Wasn't it necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

Beginning with Moses and all the prophets. When he says that, he's talking about the books of the Bible that are attributed to Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Torah, beginning with the Torah, moving all the way through the prophets. Jesus, as they walk, does a personal Bible study with them and begins to explain to them himself how all of the stories whisper his name. I don't know if you have a copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible in your home. It's one of my favorite tools for talking with kids or with adults about how every story in the Bible whispers the name of Jesus.

For example, in the beginning, Adam and Eve, they decide to walk apart from God and reject him as their God. And they are sent outside of the Garden of Eden. And that would be the end of the story in many stories, but not in this story. Because God promised one day he would send another who would come and rescue them and bring them back into the special place with God. You think about the story of the Tower of Babel where man and all of his ingenuity and might would build a tower to try to reach up to heaven.

But we could never do it. And so heaven had to come down to us. And that story is a foreshadowing of how Jesus would come down from heaven to reach out to us because we could never reach out to him on our own. You remember the story of Abraham and Sarah and how they deeply desired to have a child, but for years and years could not. God promised he would give them a child.

And it wasn't until their very, very old age where they finally had a child. And it was to their delight. And they knew in that moment God is good and faithful to keep all of his promises in our life. And how that story reminds us that God would send his own Son into the world, that we all who would look upon him would have delight and joy in our lives. And he would remind us that yes, God is faithful to keep all of his promises.

Remember the story of Abraham and Isaac, Abraham's son who finally came, finally gets the son. And now Isaac, his son, has to climb a hill carrying wood on his back, on which he's going to be what sacrificed. And he has to trust the good intentions of his father. And on that day, God provided a different sacrifice and provided salvation for Isaac. But that's a foreshadowing of another son who would climb a hill carrying wood on his back.

Back Having to trust the good intentions of his Father. And his sacrifice would be the salvation of many. Do you see what I'm talking about? How every story of the Scriptures whispers the name of Jesus. And this is what Jesus did on the walk to Emmaus.

In this story, he takes these two guys and he says, every one of these stories are pointing you to something. Can you see it? So verse 28, they drew near to the village to which they were going. And Jesus acted as if he was going to keep going a little further. But they urged him strongly, saying, no, stay with us, for it's toward evening and the day is now far spent.

So Jesus went in to stay with them. They invited Jesus in, and Jesus loves when he's invited in to say yes. In fact, in Luke 11, Jesus said, so I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you.

And remember the brother of Jesus. James wrote in the New Testament, he said, draw near to God and he will what? Draw near to you? This is exactly what happened for these two guys in this moment in this story. They invite him in, they draw near to God, not even recognizing what they're doing.

And he enters in and he draws near to them. Look at verse 30 when he's at the table with them. He took the bread and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them. And their eyes were open now, and they recognized Him. And he vanished from their sight.

And they said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened the Scriptures? And they rose at that same hour and they returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11. And those who were with them gathered together, saying, the Lord has risen. Indeed, he's appeared to Simon.

And these two told what had happened to them on the road now, how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Okay, in this passage, we see how God opens eyes and how he opens hearts. And this is how God works. It's how he's always worked, and it's how he's working even today. And one of the great lessons of this story is that Jesus, in His grace and his mercy on the day that he got out of the grave, wanted to be with these two wondering guys who were walking away from it all with discouragement.

He could have gone to the temple. You get this, right? He could have called down an angel army to like, hover over the temple. He could have called fire down from heaven to burn up all of those people who had put him on the cross. But instead, he placed himself with these two guys and says, this is where I want to be.

Jesus wants to be with those who are struggling and wondering and seeking what is true about Jesus. And there are two things that I want you to hear about this in response to this story. The first is this. You can talk about Jesus, but talking about Jesus doesn't mean that, you know, Jesus. Does that make sense?

I talk about things I don't understand all the time with a lot of confidence. You know, guys are talking about rebuilding their car, and I'm like, yeah, you know, 354 alternators, just fitting in. You know, I talk about things I don't understand all the time. We all do that. You get with a bunch of bankers and they're talking, yeah, my 401k, it's looking.

Whatever the news said, I don't know, you know, I do this. Talking about Jesus doesn't mean that you know Jesus in a personal and saving way, in a world shaping and game changing way. These guys are talking about Jesus. They're talking about things that he's done, things that have happened to him, the things that were said about him. But they're walking with him and they don't even know him.

I was looking at other translations of verse 17. Jesus asks them, what are you talking about? One translation, he goes, what are you Discussing so intently. So, like, they're not just having a casual conversation, they're going at it. Another translation says, what's this dispute that you're having?

Like, they're deep in dialogue about who Jesus is and what's happened and what hasn't happened. Another one said they were having an animated, heated conversation. And what was it about? It was about Jesus. They are walking with Jesus, talking to Jesus, about talking about Jesus, and they don't even understand it.

And these are guys who had been walking with. With Jesus. They knew what he said, that I will rise on the third day according to the scriptures. They had these women that were friends of theirs that were disciples of Jesus, that saw the empty tomb and Peter and John, and they had all of that. And in spite of all of that, they're walking with him, talking about him, and they have no clue that they are in his very presence in that moment and that he's doing something in their midst.

I mean, people like this all the time. Do you know people like this who talk about Jesus? They go to church every Sunday. They read their Bibles, they listen to podcasts, they're watching the news and they're going, I'm talking about what God's doing in the world. I'm trying to explain what God is doing in these days.

And yet, you know, deep in your heart, you go, I just don't think you really know Jesus. You know people like that. I know people like that. Maybe. Maybe that's where you're at at this moment.

Like, I have interest. I'm talking about what is God doing in these days. But I don't have a personal saving relationship with Jesus that has changed the way I view everything and the way that I do everything in my life. So the first thing I want you to hear is that talking about Jesus doesn't mean you know him. We talk about things we don't know about all the time.

Talking about Jesus isn't the same as knowing him. Second thing I want you to hear is that no matter how close Jesus is, you're blind until your eyes are open, right? No matter how close Jesus is, you're blind until he opens your eyes. And that could make you feel a little dumb. If you were walking with somebody and you should know who they are, but you don't know who they are.

You go, what's this guy's problem? Why didn't he know who Jesus is? But it's not that you're dumb or that you're bad, that you haven't figured it out, it just means that you're human. This is the story of every person who's ever lived. Jesus has come close to you, but you don't even recognize it until he opens your eyes.

We're all spiritually blind. And you think about the 12 disciples. These guys went everywhere Jesus went. They ate what he ate. They slept where he slept.

They woke when he woke. They listened to every word that he said come out of his mouth. They didn't have to read it on a page. They watched the miracles with their own eyes. They saw the tomb was empty.

It wasn't until after Jesus got out of the grave that the 12 disciples had any recognition at all of who Jesus really was. And even some of them still needed more proof. They said, I'm still not sure. Prove it to me. And These guys are two of those.

They're not the 12 disciples, but they are disciples. They said two things. They said, some of the women of our company amazed us. Those were disciples, those women who first went to the tomb and were the first to see the risen Christ in the empty tomb. And they said, and then two of our people, two of the disciples, and it's Peter and John we see in John 21, went and they saw the tomb was empty.

So these guys are disciples of Jesus. That means they were close in proximity to him, and he was close in proximity to them, and yet they are still spiritually blind. Okay, so what. What does that mean for us this morning? Well, it means the Bible teaches us that Jesus is God with us.

That's what the name Immanuel, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. It means God with us. The Bible says that God is in Jesus. He's with us. And.

And his greatest desire is that we would be with Him. How many of you know that you can be present with a person, but not really fully present with a person? Have you experienced that in your life? Someone's in the same vicinity as you, but you know they're not really with you. The Bible says that God's great desire was for Christ to come to be God with us.

His desire is that we would also be with Him. And I look at these two guys in this story, and they're near Jesus, they're walking with him, but they don't see him. They don't know him because they're spiritually blind. Spiritually blind. The good news is, if you are looking for Jesus and you really want to find him, he will make Himself found by you.

He will show Himself to you. Jesus loves to be found. He Loves to be invited to. And in fact, the way it happens in this story is they invite him into their home. He acted as if he was going to go on, and they said, no, no, no, no.

We want you to come in with us and come and sit at our table. And Jesus went into their home. He said, yes, I love the invitation. And he comes in and he sits at their table, and he dines with them. Reminds me of Revelation 3:20.

Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.

Anyone who hears my voice and opens the door says, come in. I'll come in to him and I'll dine with him and he with me. And that's what happens here. He comes in and he dines with them, and then their eyes are opened. You know, when someone comes and sits at your table, that's when you know you have friendship and intimacy and closeness.

Someone told me, you think you're friends with this person, but until they've been in your home and sat at your table, you really haven't welcomed them into your life. Someone told me that trust is built over a pound of salt. And I never forgot that. That's a lot of meals together for trust to be built. And these guys invite Jesus in, and their eyes are open when they begin to sit with him and welcome him deeply into their life.

Their hearts were burning, but their eyes were opened only when Jesus came and broke the bread. I thought about this a lot. People have said a lot of things about the broken bread. Like, is Jesus right now acting out that communion meal, that Passover meal that he had blessed? Is he breaking it so that they now would on their own go, oh, that's what he was talking about?

Or is it that in that moment when he broke the bread and gave it to them, those words that he had said, I am the bread of life. Suddenly, like, I see it. I know what you mean now the bread of life is giving me bread to eat. I think it's a little like this, possibly, that when Jesus tore the bread and he handed it to them, that they saw the scars on his wrists. It's the natural act.

They tore the bread and he handed it to them. And they saw the same scars that Thomas said, let me see. Show me your proof. And they saw the scars and they went, ah.

And their eyes were open. And I love what they said. They said, surely our hearts were burning within us. But it's not until this moment that Jesus allows their eyes to be open to the way, the truth and the life. And that's a work that he does.

It's not a work that we do. We're spiritually blind until we say, jesus, I want to see you. If you're not sure, you just say, God, would you do a work in me like you've done in these guys and help me to see. See Jesus. Go back to Genesis 3.

In the beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned, you remember the moment they took the fruit and they ate of the fruit. It says that their eyes were what opened, right? And when their eyes were opened, when they ate apart from God, when their eyes were open, they began to see everything that had gone wrong. In that moment, they saw everything was falling apart that God had created for them. But now Luke tells another story, and he says, there's another pair of people and they're eating a different meal, this one of bread.

And now there's this great healing and the great story taking place. Because in the beginning, when their eyes were opened in sin, there was guilt and shame and brokenness. But now when their eyes are opened in Christ, they see healing, they see restoration, they see all the promises of God fulfilled, and their hearts are warmed within them. The last thing I want you to see. It's a little thing, pretty awesome.

In verse 16, did you notice when I was reading it that it said that their eyes were kept from recognizing him? That it wasn't just with natural eyes. Like, oh, yeah, we hadn't seen him in three days. I forgot what he looked like, you know. But they were.

It implies prevented from recognizing Jesus, that God did not yet want them to recognize Jesus. And we're not told explicitly this is why. So that. But there's a clue. In verse 25, Jesus said, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe.

All the prophets have spoken. I think their eyes were prevented from recognizing Jesus at first because they were slow of heart to believe. Not as a consequence or a punishment, but because they were slow of heart to believe. This is what they would need instead of instant recognition that he knew that in spite of them having walked with Jesus and heard him say, and I will get up in three days. Remember in the reading it said, and it's the third day.

And these women went and the tomb was empty. And angel said, he has risen. And Peter and John, two of the leaders of the disciples, said, yep, that's what happened. They still were walking away from Jerusalem, heading home. And we get the sense that they were discouraged and disappointed that God didn't do things the way that they saw it.

They're walking home, they were slow of heart. To believe. And so Jesus gave them rather than instant recognition, he gave them a foundation to build on a foundation of faith. He went to the Scriptures and said, let me show you where I may be found. So that in days when they would have to walk by faith and not by sight and days would come that would be hard, they could fall back on that foundation of Scripture.

That's where the stories of Jesus may be found. His name is whispered in every story. And so he gives them from Moses through the prophets. This is where you may find the truth about who I am and how to have a relationship with me. So that when they experience traumatic days ahead, like the loss of friends or the betrayal of family members, or the loss of hope, or the loss of a job, or whatever they would face in this world, and they couldn't look upon the countenance of Jesus in front of them, they could still look upon Christ and know he was with them.

Does that make sense? It's possible there's a second reason that they were prevented from recognizing him at first. Maybe, and I could be stretching, but maybe he prevented them from recognizing him at first. For us who are walking by faith and not by sight until the day that Jesus returns and shows his face to us, that's our life, right? And in them we might find ourselves in their story, in their slow of heart to believe.

And so many of us, all of us, have had slow of heart to believe moments, if not lifetimes that we've walked in and to find ourselves in their story and to see how Jesus desires to be with them, walking with them in that struggle, thousands upon thousands of steps of patient faithfulness and grace to them all. Only then to open their eyes, we too might find sight in walking with Jesus. The question this morning is, do you know him? Not? Do we sing songs about Him?

Do you talk about Him? Do you think you know when he's coming back or anything like that? But do you know Him? Do you know that he walks with you and he talks with you? That burning heart from within as he talks with you may come out in angst.

It may come out in discontent with the things of this world. It may come in, out at times in pain. Because you're walking a path that doesn't bring life and doesn't honor him. And he's causing you to turn to him in that moment. Do you know that he's walking in faithfulness near to you?

If you only knew how close he is. If you only knew. Have your eyes been opened? And I pray this morning even this morning that there would be some of you here, you'd welcome him in and you take up the broken bread and your eyes would be opened, your hearts would be warmed as you would know that God himself has come to you to save you. And he's been faithful and been there all this time.

Don't miss the moment. Don't sleep on Jesus. Don't sleep on Jesus and what he's doing even in these days. Can I pray for you? Let's pray.

Father, we come this morning to celebrate the accomplishment of your plan, of your mission. The divine plan that from the beginning, when humanity turned its back on you, you said, I won't leave you out there on your own. I will send a savior and he will defeat death and all of the things that have broken fellowship will be remade in him. And we thank you, Jesus, that you left eternity to enter time. And you left behind glory and peace and being worshiped and adored to enter earth and put on flesh and to be criticized and to be doubted.

And you did so for the joy set before you. You endured it all because you knew on the other side of it what it meant. You meant that we could walk with you, we could be near to you, that we could see you, that we could understand you, we could know your heart for us, that we could be reconciled. That God, that your joy would be in us and our joy would be made full. And this morning, Holy Spirit, I just pray that those who have gathered this morning would see Jesus.

I pray that you would work saving miracles even this morning in open eyes and warm hearts to what you are doing in these days and in our lives. All of this for your glory. In Jesus name, amen.