Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction - Do I know you?
A handful of years ago, Julie and I were playing a game with some friends called “Like it or Lump it”
In the game, you have cards with words on them like “Cars, Fish, Vacation”.
You then give a person a card, they rank the cards from the one they Like down to the one they Lump - or dislike
You then get points for those answers based on how highly ranked your card is - but if yours is the last card, you lose points.
So, when it was Julie’s turn to rank the cards, I smiled, took a card and played it face down and sat back knowing I would win this round.
You can imagine my surprise when she put my card, “Chocolate Covered Cherries” on the very bottom!
I was shocked!
I said, “But … you love cherries and chocolate.
And you love chocolate covered strawberries.
How?”
And she said, “It’s that gooey stuff around the cherry.
That’s disgusting.”
And, to be fair, I’ve never actually witnessed her eating a chocolate covered cherry.
Just when you think you know a person - but that happens a lot, doesn’t it?
People have a way of surprising you.
And just when you think you know a person, here they come out of nowhere with a shocking revelation.
Today, we will continue to explore the implications of the resurrection by looking at a text that dives into this very idea.
Do you know about Jesus or do you know Jesus?
Because there is a difference between the two - like the difference between knowing about your wife’s likes and actually knowing them.
The Scriptures Misunderstood
EX - These two people from Emmaus knew the facts, but they didn’t understand.
As we continue in our text today, we have two people heading home after the Passover celebration.
It is Sunday afternoon, they most likely spent the Passover Sabbath in Jerusalem.
And like all good people do on their way home from worship, they were talking about all the things that had happened.
And, as they were discussing all that happened, who shows up but Jesus?
Now, imagine if Jesus came over to your table at lunch today after church.
You might be just a little excited.
These two might have been, but Jesus hid himself from them according to verse 16.
During their conversation, it becomes quite clear that they did not understand what happened.
Oh, they had the facts alright.
They also had the Scriptures and the Prophets.
But they did not understand why the tomb was empty.
They did not understand that Jesus had to die and rise again.
Jesus foretold it.
But so did the Scriptures.
The problem was they misunderstood.
And if we don’t know the Scriptures, then we won’t know Jesus.
If we misunderstand the Scriptures, then we might just miss Jesus all together.
So, when Jesus asks what they are talking about, they are a bit surprised that he doesn’t appear to know.
But they relay the facts as they saw them!
Jesus, a mighty prophet was killed by the religious people.
We hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.
But he’s dead, but there is an empty tomb and … we’re confused.
These two were not confused out of ignorance.
They had the scriptures.
They were confused out of negligence.
These two were known by the disciples.
They had, most likely heard Jesus preach multiple times.
At the end of our text today, we see that they go and tell the disciples and those with them about the lessons they had learned from Jesus.
But we read in that
The doors were locked because the disciples were still afraid.
They wouldn’t have just let anyone in.
This is important because these two were people who most likely had heard Jesus preach.
They had heard his teachings.
But just like the others, they knew what Jesus said, they just didn’t process what He said and they didn’t understand how it all fit together.
IL -
IL - We stand on the Word of God
If you hang out with other people who have been part of our movement, you’ll hear the phrase “Where stands it written”.
A lot.
What it means is that we as a church and denomination stand on the Word of God for all that we believe.
Where the Bible speaks, we obey.
Where the Bible is silent, we practice charity.
In fact, our statement of faith says, “Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.”
We are, quite simply, people of the book.
But why?
For the past few sermons, you have heard me challenge us to not just be hearers of Jesus’ words but instead to be believers of it as well.
I think that passages like this demonstrate to us the importance of knowing the Scriptures and basing our faith and practice on them.
We need to be people who grow closer to Jesus through careful study and application of the Word.
And that is not to say that we don’t struggle with the teachings and what they mean or how they all fit together
AP - Jesus demonstrates that we must be people who go back to the Scriptures.
We need to remember that Jesus didn’t come just to teach us how to live nice lives.
In other words, everything about our lives must be influenced and informed by the Scriptures.
Jesus came to teach us what life is like in His Kingdom and how to get into His Kingdom.
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We must be people who view everything in the world through the lens of Scripture, rather than the other way around.
IL - You must unlearn what you have learned.
Jesus didn’t come to tell us how to be kind to each other.
He came to tell us that in His Kingdom, people are kind to one another because they are transformed by the living God.
We need to view the world and the events of the world through the lens of the Bible - not the other way around.
For many people, preconceptions are what get in the way the most.
He didn’t come to redeem Israel by liberating her from Rome.
He came to redeem Israel by redeeming her from the bondage of sin.
I think the stumbling block for these two - why they were sad and couldn’t seem to believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead - is because they neglected to view the events of the day through the lens of the Scriptures.
Even in the accounts of the Resurrection, there are differences in the narratives.
We need to be people who listen to Jesus and his teaching - not as a way to please him but as a way to a deeper relationship with him.
Not just to know about Him, but to actually know him.
And in case you think I’m being too hard on these two - I am simply going by what Jesus said in
Jesus calls them foolish not because they didn’t recognize him physically but because they didn’t believe that the Messiah was to come and suffer and die.
And that is where Jesus takes us because the Scriptures foretold everything that they were talking about.
And then, use that relationship to partner with Jesus in what He is doing to spread his Kingdom influence all over this world.
The Scriptures Foretold
EX - Jesus goes to an unusual source to validate his resurrection - the Scriptures
I say unusual because the resurrected Jesus IS RIGHT THERE!
Granted, Jesus hid their vision, but why would Jesus make an appeal back to Scripture.
Why didn’t he just show them himself and say, “Here I am! Now, believe!”
I think the reason for this is two fold
He knew that He wouldn’t be available indefinitely to personally show each person.
First, we need to see a pattern that Luke is driving at in chapter 24 here.
Last week, he deals with a misunderstanding about Jesus’ teachings.
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