Enacts Promise

This week, I read something really interesting—a social experiment that was done in Washington. And the Washington Post, the local newspaper there, reported on a violinist who had decided to partake in this experiment and was asked to go and play at the metro train station, the busiest station that they have. And he played there for 45 straight minutes. While playing, only six people stopped, and he made about $27 in his violin case. He packed it all up and went home.

Now this violinist's name was Josh Bell, and he was in fact one of the greatest violinists of the modern era. The reporter Gene Weingarten, who had set this whole thing up, later said that no one knew it, but the fiddler standing against that bare wall outside the metro station in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. Only six people stopped. Josh Bell, later that week, played to a packed theatre in Washington where people paid $100 a seat to go and see him. Isn't that an interesting experiment?

How do you think you would go? How do you think you would go? Would you pick up on, "Wow, this guy's got some talent. Wow, this bit of music is actually really intricate and difficult." Would you stop?

Would you reward him for his talent by giving him a few dollars? Or would the pressure of getting home, that rush hour pressure, block all that sort of stuff back? Or perhaps the whole situation, the context, where he is, the raggedy clothes he was wearing, the bare wall that he was playing against, the dirty train station around him would have had an effect on you, and you would have thought, "Well, he sounds decent, but I don't think he's that good. He's almost got it there, but I think I heard him play a false note just a few bars before." As we wrap up our look at the theme of hospitality this morning in our Breaking Bread series, we look at one of the final acts of Jesus before He ascended into heaven.

And we see Him sharing a meal with His disciples, twice in fact. We're going to be focusing on one of them where Jesus shared a meal with two disciples on their way to Emmaus. It's in Luke 24, and we're gonna have a look at that. Luke 24 from verse 13. So if you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to Luke 24 from verse 13.

Now that same day, this is the day of the resurrection, two of them, two of the disciples, were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles, 11 kilometres from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognising Him. He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They stood still, their faces downcast.

One of them named Cleopas asked Him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?" "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.

The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find His body.

They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see." He said to them, "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ 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.

And as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if He was going farther. 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. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and began to give it to them.

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him, and He disappeared from their sight. 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. There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognised by them when He broke the bread.

Here we have two of Jesus' disciples, not two of the twelve that were chosen to be of the inner circle, but two of the greater following that Jesus had. And they were in Jerusalem during the Passover when the whole episode of Jesus' crucifixion took place. They saw, they witnessed their teacher, their rabbi being tortured and killed. And because it was Passover, presumably, they couldn't stay in Jerusalem. So they had to walk about 11 kilometres outside of Jerusalem to a little town called Emmaus to go and stay there.

Jerusalem was packed for the Jewish festival of Passover. And on their way there, another traveller joins them, and the roads would have been busy. There would have been a lot of traffic here and going here and there. But this traveller seems absolutely oblivious to what has happened in Jerusalem. There was a huge commotion in Jerusalem about what had happened.

The crucifixion had been a big deal throughout the whole city, but apparently this traveller forgot to turn on the 6:00 news. And so he asked them, "What happened? What's all this commotion about?" They tell him what had happened. And then the traveller said to them, "Wow, aren't you guys thick?

Doesn't it just make sense to you? The scriptures, the Old Testament that they had, all points to this happening. I can't believe you guys didn't see this." And so for three hours, roughly, they talked about the scriptures, and Jesus was able to explain to them from the time of Moses right through about Jesus, about the Messiah who was going to be crucified. They both left in some thought while they continued their walking silently, but soon they reached Emmaus.

But it seems that this traveller wants to go on further. He's going somewhere else, but it's already dark. It's the end of the day. So the roads are dangerous, the roads are busy, and they invite this traveller to stay the night with them. That night after washing up, putting their bags down, setting the table, they get the food ready and they sit around this table.

Their guest picks up the bread, breaks it, gives thanks, and then gives it to them. As he does this, the Bible says, it all clicks. Their eyes are opened. They recognise, "Wow, this is actually Jesus. This is our rabbi.

All His knowledge of the scriptures, the way He taught them, the way He spoke, how He prayed pointed to this being Jesus. How did they not see? How did they not realise?" Well, some people have come with all sorts of theories that in their grief-stricken state, in their mourning, they would have been so disillusioned and so stuck in this grief that they couldn't recognise Jesus. But in fact, our text says in verse 16 that they were kept from recognising Him.

They were kept from recognising Him. Supernaturally, the Holy Spirit withheld that knowledge from them. They were kept from recognising Him. And Jesus, after being recognised, disappears without a trace. Now has it ever happened to you?

You're in a grocery store perhaps, in a shopping centre, in a pharmacy, or something like that. Someone out of left field comes up to you beaming, eyes, massive smile, and says, "Hey! How are you? It's been so long." And you look into their eyes and for the life of you, you have no idea who that person is.

And that sinking feeling comes over you like, "Oh man, how am I going to handle this?" It's a terrible feeling. But how badly would these guys have felt not recognising their teacher who they had seen a few days before.

Verse 16 says that they were kept from recognising Him. But I think what's happening here is Jesus actually had to spend those three hours with them explaining the scriptures to them so that they would understand exactly why what happened to Jesus had to happen. If they recognised Jesus, they would have been overcome with joy. So much emotion. They would have asked, "What was it like being dead for three days? You know, what's gonna happen now?

All these sorts of things." Meanwhile, Jesus now had a three hour opportunity to take the Word and to explain the whole thing to them. All these passages, one by one, he explains and he teaches to them. He goes back to Isaiah 53, and He explains to them the Messiah was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. He goes back to Deuteronomy 21, and He says, "Remember what Moses wrote. Anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed, and so the Messiah was cursed in your place." He goes to Moses, and He says, "Moses talked about a prophet that would come after him that would be greater than Moses himself." And so one by one, Jesus is explaining to these guys.

And while this is happening, Luke says their hearts were burning within them. They knew something was happening. They knew God was speaking to them. But now came the curtain raiser. Now came that moment where the veil is lifted, and it comes around a meal again.

It happens so quickly, but as soon as Jesus has finished praying for the meal, their eyes are opened. And the Bible says they instantly know that it was Jesus, but He disappears. Now we read later in this chapter that He appears just as instantaneously as He disappears here. In verse 36, we see that all of a sudden Jesus was standing amongst the disciples as they were meeting together. Elsewhere in another gospel, they were in a locked room and they were praying and all of a sudden Jesus is there.

Jesus appears and He disappears without a trace. We can't explain exactly how this happened, although we know from scripture that over the 40 days between Jesus being raised from the dead and Him ascending, 500 people saw Him. 500 people were witnesses of the resurrected Christ. But there's only speculation exactly how that happened. Theologians talk about Jesus' glorified resurrected body being different than the bodies that you and I have. This new glorified body was perhaps able to pass through walls and doors, but we know for sure that Jesus miraculously appeared behind locked doors.

And between His resurrection and His ascension into heaven, many people were witnesses of Him. Now we can't explain that other than to say that it was miraculous. As miraculous as His healing of people that had epilepsy, that were dead and had been raised to life. As miraculous as those things were, Jesus' appearance, His manifestation was as miraculous. But there was a meaning to this.

Freaking out these two disciples wasn't Jesus' priority. It was doing what He was doing with them before that was really important. Again, we see Jesus teaching His people. Again, we see Jesus eating, dining with His people. Verses 42 to 43 say later in the chapter that when Jesus met with the twelve disciples, He asked them, "Give me a piece. What do you have to eat?"

And they bring Him a piece of broiled fish, and He eats it. It's very significant for Jesus to show them that His body isn't some spiritual apparition. It's not something that is like a ghost, spirit-like thing. His body is real.

He eats with His body. How weird would it be if He was a ghost and He ate some fish and it would just fall out? Jesus was doing something significant again around a meal, around the dinner table. Firstly, Jesus had taught His disciples about Himself. Three hours, about what needed to be done, what His death meant, what it meant for Him to be raised from the dead. Jesus equipped His people, His disciples for ministry.

He got them ready for what was going to happen now that He was going to leave again. He comforted them with His presence. These guys were heartbroken. They were grieving. They were mourning because their leader, their teacher was killed.

But Jesus being there in flesh and blood was such a great comfort. He wasn't a ghost. He wasn't a spirit. He was the real flesh and bone Jesus sitting right there with them. Jesus had really risen.

He was really alive. Friends, Jesus is alive. We don't worship a good man that died many years ago, a good man with good words. We don't follow teachings of a man who was just a human like you and me. He is the immortal Son of God.

Eating and dwelling with those people who were really in desperate need to see Him, who really needed to see that their hope wasn't shattered, who really needed to know the fact that their hope was strengthened by a living, breathing Jesus. This last meal that Jesus shared with His people that He presided over with these two disciples from Emmaus, that little bit of broiled fish that Jesus ate enacted the promise of His person. It enacted the promise of His message. All that Jesus had taught and said during His time on earth now had some real authority behind it. He said the kingdom of God belonged to everyone who would give their lives over to God, who turned away from their selfishness, who looked after the poor, who gave to the needy, who looked to God for their forgiveness.

His life of grace, His life of friendship, of hospitality became things to imitate because of the fact that He was raised from the dead for real. This was a promise that was going to last. This promise was true. For the first time, these few men and women, these first believers of Christianity came to grasp the unimaginable truth of the gospel that a great reversal had taken place. That death itself, the final equaliser for all of humanity, death itself had been conquered by His death.

That life had been restored even in the taking of His life. That the King of the universe would die the death of a thief on a cross. All of a sudden, all of a sudden the puzzle pieces fell together. And they realised this is Jesus. I guess it's fitting that this should be the last images of Jesus we have before He ascended to heaven.

You see Jesus had made a habit of revealing Himself to people in their homes, around a dinner table. Jesus comforts His disciples again by showing them that He is the same person who they ate with, who they walked with. But isn't it interesting that they didn't recognise Jesus when they had come to understand all the scriptures that were said about Him? They came to understand Jesus when He broke the bread with them, when He prayed with them, when He just spent time with them. Over the last two months, we've talked about Christian hospitality a lot.

We've talked about breaking bread. In the many instances where a meal, a dinner table, the breaking of bread was mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, we've seen a different facet of the story of Jesus taking place, being expressed. We saw that the hospitality of Jesus expresses so many things. That Jesus was willing to dine with people, to eat with people—sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes. It expresses the grace of the gospel.

These instances provide a glimpse of what it's like to live under God's reign. They express and reinforce the community that Christ has created on the cross. They're a foretaste of a new creation, of a new feast, of a new celebration, a new festival that we will have with God one day. They are a great context in which we can invite our friends and our family so they encounter the reality of God amongst us. How have you gone these last two months?

How have you gone? How have you reflected on these things? How have you been challenged in your thinking? Your approach to evangelism and mission.

Someone said to me last week, "We get so much preaching at us about reaching out and evangelism, but we need something practical." Well, I wanted to tell that person how much more practical can you get. Invite people into your lives. Invite them into your homes and see what God does. If we were to talk about the future of our church here on this little corner of the Gold Coast, this little corner that God has given us, I'd say that we'd only really be able to make a lasting impact on our neighbours if we were to adopt this model of ministry.

It's the way that Jesus did it. Jesus didn't start programs. Jesus didn't even have a Christmas carols. But we have to recognise Jesus in it. We have to recognise the fiddler in the metro train station.

Jesus will use this church. He will use us by serving people like He served them. It's in the moments of hospitality and community where we come the closest to doing ministry like Jesus would have done. It illustrates grace. It illustrates love, acceptance, warmth, unconditional friendship.

It teaches the gospel without words. How are we travelling with that? How much do we believe that God can use this church powerfully? Do we believe that, friends? If you hope so, if you believe that, do you believe that God will do it through this simple act of discipleship that we've been looking through for the last seven weeks?

This is the part where I get people really uncomfortable by asking them uncomfortable questions. But we've had several visitors come and visit us and join us over the last few weeks. How many people have invited Joe for a cuppa? How many people have invited him for... Sorry to make you uncomfortable, Joe. But it's a good question.

How many of us have actually gone out to do this? It's a small church, this church, but it can be a great one. And because we're small, we have the amazing opportunity to be able to see every person that walks through the door and to not miss a single person. Are we recognising Jesus? Are we recognising Jesus and what He is doing?

Are we imitating Jesus in how He did ministry?