Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that it is the empty tomb, not the cross that provides us the opportunity to experience a relationship with God through Jesus...

This week, we have been looking at an encounter that two followers of Jesus who were depressed, disappointed, and heading in the wrong direction had with Jesus on that very first Easter afternoon. Wednesday we looked on as the stranger that they had been traveling with and who they invited to have dinner with revealed Himself as being Jesus who had been raised from the dead.

Now, can you imagine what it must have been like to have your eyes open that all this time you had been traveling with Jesus as He began to hand out the food to you? Can you imagine what would be running through your mind as you suddenly connected the dots that this was the same Jesus that you had eaten so many meals with before? Can you imagine watching Jesus vanish before your eyes only moments after connecting those dots?

If you were one of those followers of Jesus, what would you be thinking at this point? What would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see how followers responded to their encounter with Jesus in verse 32:

  They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, "The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon." They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Luke tells us that these two followers of Jesus who were walking away from Jesus responded to their encounter with Jesus by heading straight to Jerusalem to find the rest of the disciples. Their encounter with Jesus placed a burning desire with them to head straight back to Jerusalem to share their encounter with Jesus with others. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Luke tells us that these two followers of Jesus related their encounter with Jesus to the rest of the disciples.

But not only did they relate their encounter with Jesus; Luke tells us that they also backed Peter’s claim to have encountered Jesus. These two followers of Jesus shared in great detail the events of that afternoon and evening that led them to connect the dots to the reality that they had encountered Jesus.

These two followers of Jesus shared in great detail the events of that afternoon and evening that led them to the belief that Jesus was alive and was who they had hoped that He was. However, as these two followers of Jesus shared about their encounter with Jesus, there was another individual who would make an appearance to the disciples. Luke introduces us to that individual in verse 36:

 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be to you." But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.

You think? I mean wouldn’t you be alarmed and in a state of fear if a man who had been killed appeared in the room that you were in without walking through the front door? Luke continues:

            And He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

To which the disciples were probably thinking “probably because it is not every day that a man who was crucified and killed walks into a room three days later without opening the door. You see the disciples were filled with turmoil and thrown into confusion because they were having a hard time believing that Jesus actually rose from the dead. We see Jesus provide the proof necessary to calm their alarm and confusion in verse 39:

"See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.

Luke tells us that Jesus responded to their alarm and confusion by providing them two specific pieces of proof. First, Jesus showed His disciples His hands and His feet to provide the proof that He had in fact been killed. However, the disciples, who were extremely disturbed by what they were seeing while feeling a sense of joy over what they were seeing, were still having a hard time believing what they were seeing.

And because of that reality, Luke tells us that Jesus provided them a second piece of evidence by asking for and eating a fish sandwich to provide the proof that He in fact had been physically brought back to life. Jesus then followed up His evidence with a statement that reveals for us a timeless truth about encountering Jesus and Easter. Luke records that statement for us in verse 44:

Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."You are witnesses of these things.

Jesus basically said to His followers “These are the very things that I had explained to you on three separate occasions while I was with you. I told you on three occasions what would happen to Me.” Jesus then opened their minds so that they could wrap their minds around the reality that He was the fulfillment of God’s promise to provide a rescuer, a deliverer, who would provide all of humanity the opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives that were going the wrong direction and walking away from God back to God by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

And it is here, in this event from history involving and encounter between two individuals who were depressed, disappointed, and heading in the wrong direction and Jesus that we discover a timeless truth that ca n occur when we encounter Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that it is the empty tomb, not the cross that provides us the opportunity to experience a relationship with God through Jesus. Just as it was for early followers of Jesus, just as it has been for humanity for the past 2,000 years, encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that it is the empty tomb, not the cross that provides us the opportunity to experience a relationship with God through Jesus.

You see, the timeless reality is that the cross is not enough to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created for. Lots of people died on the cross on the behalf of a cause for other people. Lots of people died on the cross at the hands of people in a way that was designed to make a statement to people. It is not the cross but the empty tomb that brings us forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created for.

Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that it is Easter Sunday and not Good Friday that provides us the opportunity to experience life a with God through Jesus. Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that it is the resurrection of Jesus, not the crucifixion of Jesus that provides us the opportunity to experience a relationship with God through Jesus. The fact that Jesus is no longer in the tomb proves that He was God and that our rescue is a reality through His death on the cross. The reality of the empty tomb and Jesus resurrection from the dead provides the evidence that Jesus was God in a bod that came to fulfill God’s promise of rescue from selfishness and rebellion. And it is the empty tomb that can turn depression, disappointment and a life that is heading in the wrong direction back to the place where they can experience the relationship with God that we were created for.

You see, the core message of the gospel; the essence of Christianity is not about theology. The core message of the gospel and the essence of Christianity revolves around an event that occurred in history. What makes the Bible so compelling and different than other religious literature is that Christianity is rooted in history. These are real events that occurred in real time and at real places that you can visit today. What we believe about God, or our theology, flows from events that occurred in history.

What makes Easter Sunday so significant and such good news is that while all of humanity was created for a relationship with God and one another, all of humanity selfishly chose to reject that relationship, instead choosing to love our selves over God and others. And it is out of our selfishness that we do things that hurt God and those around us, which the Bible calls sin. And it the events of that first Easter Sunday that reveals how God responded to our selfish rebellion.

On Easter Sunday, we see God provide the means that could rescue rebellious humanity by raising His Son Jesus from the dead, who came to earth and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

Because the timeless reality is that encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that it is the empty tomb, not the cross, that provides us the opportunity to experience a relationship with God through Jesus. The empty tomb, not the cross, provides the most powerful proof possible that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. The empty tomb, not the cross, provides the most powerful proof possible that Jesus was who He said He was. The empty tomb provides the most powerful proof possible that Jesus was God-in-a-bod who came to earth to live the life we were created to live but refused to live and then allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life so God the father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

And what makes the message of the gospel; what makes Easter Sunday such good news is how simple the events of that first Easter Sunday make it to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Receiving the forgiveness for sin and entering into the relationship with God that you were created for can summarized in three simple words: believe, trust, and follow.

First, you need to believe that you have done selfish things that have hurt God and others and are in need of forgiveness and that Jesus was who He said He was; that Jesus was God in a bod, who entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived His perfect life. Second, you need to trust that Jesus life, death, and resurrection provides forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God you were created for. And third, you need to follow Jesus as Lord and Leader. It’s as simple as that.