Before you start going, that's a long chapter. Just remember it could be a 1st Corinthians 15, so Let's hear God's Word From the first day of the week at early dawn they went to the tomb Taking the spices they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus and While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. and they remembered his words. And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the 12, and to all the rest. Now, there was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women who were with them, who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in. He saw the linen clothes by themselves, And he went home marveling at what had happened. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you were holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him." I'm going to pause for a moment. Earlier it says, Peter went. But Luke lets us know that more than Peter went. So it's an agreement with this and the other accounts that have both Peter and John going. Some of us, not one of us. So just, there we go. And he said to them, oh foolish ones, it's slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. I'll skip down a little bit. They then go to see the apostles, the disciples rather. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet. That is, I myself. Touch me. See me. I'm sorry, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, He said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Then as he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands and blessed them, while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up to heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, blessing God." Why don't we pray? Heavenly Father, we ask that now you would send the same Spirit who inspired this word to open our hearts to its truth. Please remove from us apathy and cynicism, callousness or rebellion, so that we may really be hungry for this bread of life that feeds our souls, nourishes our hearts for your work, and fills us with the joy that is our strength. We ask this for the glory and honor of your dear Son and our dear Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Last week, there's a connection here. Last week we talked about the connection or the parallels between Of Mice and Men and the text of Luke 23, sorry, 21. Of how the plans of the religious leaders of Satan and of Judas didn't quite work out the way they expected. that what they thought would destroy Jesus actually was that work which he did to save human beings, to deliver sinners from the wrath of God. We're continuing sort of that theme this morning. I remind you again of the Robert Byrne's poem, To a Mouse, that phrase that Steinbeck found so interesting, the best laid plans of Meissen men often go awry. And we're gonna see that again today, not with the Jewish leaders and not with Judas, but with the disciples themselves. Their plans have gone awry, but that's good, very good for God's people. Our big idea this morning is that encountering the risen Christ changes our plans. Behind all of this is the proverb that we see, 19, 20, 21, many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Essentially, you can make all the plans you want. But it's God's purpose that is going to stand when everything else is said and done. That's sort of behind everything that's kind of here in the text. Again, that idea of providence that we talked about earlier. Without Christ, we act on fear, doubt, and confusion. This text is made up of three scenes which are remarkably similar. The locations change, but three things happen in these scenes that are almost identical within them. We have three groups of people with three different plans. Hence, the best laid plans of mice and men. We start with the women. They had a plan. Their plan was to properly bury Jesus. He had been hastily buried because the Sabbath was coming. And so they decided that after the Sabbath they were going to arrive, they were going to get the help of the soldiers who were there by the stone to roll it away so that they could go inside and give him a proper burial. They had the spices that they needed to do this very thing. And so they arrive, first thing, Sunday morning, the first day of the week. We recognize from this that Jesus rested on the Sabbath. But now on the first day, He begins the recreation. Just as the creation began on the first day, so the recreation begins on the first day of the week. God is renewing kind of how He does things. And it all begins with the resurrection of the Son. These women are perplexed because they go, the soldiers aren't to be found. The stone has been moved. They go inside and there's nothing in there but the burial clothes. Jesus himself, gone. They don't know what's going on. They're at a complete loss. This makes no sense to them. But then something else happens. Two angels appear. Now, they've gone from perplexed to frightened. They're not sure what is going on. None of this is making any sense. Second group. Two travelers going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, which is a journey of about seven miles. Their plan? Get out of Jod with broken dreams. They had gone to Jerusalem in the hopes that Jesus, who had revealed himself to be the King, to be the Messiah, who would soon be on the throne, that Rome would be kicked out. They had great dreams and plans and they got squashed. as they note, by the religious leaders who delivered Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified. They think it's all said, it's all done. They're going home sad, full of misery because of what happened. Jesus approaches them, but they don't realize that's who it is. They say that, and it's interesting how they already characterize him. They viewed him as a prophet. They also viewed him as, they hoped he was the Redeemer, the one who would redeem Israel, but their understanding of that Redeemer is very different from the understanding of scripture. They had in view someone more like Moses, who had come, who had shown up, who had done some miracles, and had freed the people from the tyranny of Egypt, but with no loss to himself. Moses was a redeemer who did not die. So they were not expecting, and as we'll see later, because they weren't listening, they were not expecting a redeemer who would die for his people and come to life again. Third group, the 12 disciples minus the one who had betrayed Jesus, they're hiding. They're hiding most likely so they would not get arrested. the charge against them could possibly have been stealing the body. We don't know this from Luke, but we know this from Matthew 28. Because when the soldiers showed up back where they belonged, and it was told them that this thing had happened, they heard this earthquake, the stone was moved, Jesus was gone, they were told to tell other people that the disciples had come in the middle of the night and had stolen the body. So now there is a charge that is out against them that they may have heard about through the grapevine. So here they are. hiding, fearful. But let's go rewind just a little bit to when the women showed up. The women who had seen the angels, the women who had responded, they thought it was an idle tale. Meaning, essentially, a bunch of hooey. Nonsense. Humbug, as one translation can put it. I thought it was foolishness. There were only two that were willing to risk anything at all and go check it out, but all the rest were still there in fear. But they returned, still sort of clueless, and so we have to recognize from this that faith is not a natural disposition. Who should have been primed to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ if not the twelve? over and over again from Galilee all the way to Jerusalem. He kept telling them what was going to happen. I'm going to be handed over to the Gentiles. I'm going to be killed. I'm going to rise on the third day. We have it numerous times in Luke. And he probably said it even more times than Luke records. And yet, they, who should be the most prepared for this, didn't get it. That should humble us. That should cause us to pause. The resurrection is not something that is easily embraced. In fact, everything in us rebels against the thought of resurrection. Okay, except for those people who like UFOs and all that kind of stuff, but they're strange anyway. Okay, but normal people, the resurrection doesn't make sense, really, in many ways. And yet, it was God's plan. And so we find them. Fast forward to that evening. John 20 gives us a little more of a clue here. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. The appearance of Jesus in that room with them, as Luke recounts, startled them. I have great experience with watching people get startled because I have an easily startled wife you know it just never ceases to amaze me I live there too and it's like she almost forgets that I live there too and I'll walk in a room and she'll like It doesn't quite sound like that. There's a little bit of exaggeration going on. But she's startled at my presence, like I somehow don't belong there. Okay? And that was the disciples, because Jesus didn't belong there. He belongs in a tomb, behind a stone, wrapped up in about 75 pounds of spices, not moving. He doesn't belong in the room with them. They're frightened. A little more than Amy gets frightened when I suddenly and magically appear out of nowhere. Apart from Christ, we lack perspective. They can't make sense of what just happened here. And neither can we in our lives. We lack perspective and as a result we act foolishly due to fear and doubt and confusion. Watch people who don't know Christ. Don't they do some of the dumbest things? It's because they don't have a narrative that makes sense of it all. They're just like sheep running around from patch of grass to patch of grass hoping it all works out okay. And sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. There's nothing that makes sense of their lives. Let's move on to the second part of this. so to speak, the second aspect of each of these three scenes. The risen Christ opens the scriptures to people. The confusion about these events is about to be clarified. But what we have to recognize in each of these things is that reason is insufficient. Thinking is necessary, but thinking is insufficient. That's really what philosophy is. as it used to be, trying to get a narrative that makes sense of the world. The ancient Greeks, they were looking for the one thing that kind of made sense of the world. Some sort of theory, knowledge that would make sense of the world. These guys right now lack it, but they're about to get it. They are about to receive what makes sense of everything in the universe. Jesus shows up and first He says to the, not He doesn't say this, but the angels say this. They point them back to His words. Remember how He told you. The angels remind them of His frequent words. They were there, they heard. They were supposed to be listening. They had to call these words back to mind. The confusion of the last few days had clouded their minds tremendously. They needed to remember that Jesus had already told them what was going to happen. Second group of people, the two travelers. Jesus chides them for being so thoughtless, for being, well, for not using their brains. What does he do in response? It says He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures. Jesus brings those two people. I say that because we don't know the second one was a woman or a man. He brings those two people through the Old Testament to reveal to them. He opens up the Scriptures to them so they might see what was going to happen. that they might see the fullness of the Gospel." Now recognize that. This is not a New Testament thing. Its foundations are in the Old Testament. Jesus probably started with Genesis 3, the promise that there would be one who was coming, the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent and his heel would be bruised. He says, see, there is suffering on the part of the seed that is to come. He would bring them. Genesis 12, the promise and the covenant to Abraham that there's going to be blessing that's going to come to the nations through Abraham, through his seed. What does He say? He says, I am the one through whom all blessing is going to come. But we have to remember how it's going to come. He brings them probably most likely to Exodus where He talks about the Passover lamb that was slain so the blood could be put upon the posts so that the destroyer would come and pass over the homes of the Israelites and go and destroy those of the Egyptians, killing the firstborn. Substitution. blood, bringing them to Exodus. Again, the idea of substitution through the animals, the blood, the sacrifice, and say, this all points to Me. I had to suffer so My people could be forgiven of their sin. Brings them to Isaiah. The songs of the suffering servant. It says, see, it's there. that I must die, especially Isaiah 53. But what happens towards the end of Isaiah 53? The idea of resurrection. The idea that He has progeny. The idea that He has glory that lives on. That death was not the end. The all of Scripture He brought them to. We need Jesus. Through the work of the Spirit, to illuminate the Scriptures for us that we might understand them. Our minds are not sufficient for this. We're going to talk about that in a little bit more when we get to the disciples. But recognize this. Things like Romans 1. Why is the resurrection important? Well, one reason is, from Romans 1, was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection of the dead. We need to know. I wish we had more time. One year we're going to get to a theology of the resurrection. You know, because it just touches so much of what we are to understand as Christians and it's very rich and we can't get to it today. But still, that idea that the resurrection declares that Christ is the Son of God with power. Let's move to the third scene where we have the disciples still. They haven't been elevated yet. Here they are. They're in their upper room. They're afraid. And now notice a few things before I get to that of what I've got with the scriptures. He says, touch me. Feel me. See the wounds. He eats. Luke wants to demonstrate that this is a physical resurrection. He wants it to be 100% clear to his audience that Jesus did not just kind of evaporate in the tomb and there was a spiritual resurrection like some liberal theologians want to talk about. Jesus physically rose from the dead. The scriptures leave us no option but that, a physical resurrection. Dead man, alive man. Okay, then it says, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. The problem wasn't the scriptures. The problem was the disciples. The problem is like us. Theologians talk about this as the noetic effect of sin. It affects the brain. It affects our ability to think. We're not always logical. We have blind spots. We don't like the truth even. If you look in Romans 1, because I've been reading this, our understanding gets darkened. That's a powerful word. It's almost like our thinking is like a room without the lights on. But we think we're being clearer. We think we're being logical and wise, and yet it's fallen, broken. There's something wrong. Jesus has to come and open their minds so that they can understand the Scriptures. See how much we need Jesus? Not just to illuminate the Scriptures, but to sanctify our minds, to transform our minds that we might understand that which the Spirit illuminates. Oh, aren't we messed up? Before Jesus. Apart from Christ, people just don't understand the Scriptures and therefore don't understand life. I think back to before I was a Christian. And, you know, I'd had my little, like, semi-experience where I was called to come to Christ at a retreat, and I didn't because I loved my sin. But yet, you know, I wanted to have it both ways, and so I borrowed this Bible. Actually, no, I had my little King James pocket New Testament that I'd gotten from the Gideons 400 years before. And, you know, I'm trying to read this thing, you know. And it's not just the fact that it's in King James. It just wasn't connecting with my brain. I was like, okay, oh well, big deal. Suddenly, right after my conversion, I had a hunger for the scriptures and I began to understand the scriptures. It was like, literally, a light had been turned on in what I did not comprehend before suddenly began to make sense. That's what has to happen. It's not something we do, but it is something He does for us. And so Jesus reveals His mercy by opening the Scriptures to those that He saves. Third part of this. The risen Christ sends believers to share God's plan to save sinners. This is the part that we're not necessarily always excited about. Nonetheless, the resurrection of Christ is not just something to be understood, it is also something to be made known. We see the angels from Matthew's account are sent to the disciples to tell them about the resurrection. Luke doesn't include that. You just get the idea that they're so excited about what they saw that they just ran to tell the disciples. But Matthew tells us, The angel said, then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him." They are obedient to the words of the angel. We see that they told them all these things. They were obedient, even though the disciples didn't get it, even though they thought it was foolishness and humbug. They were obedient in telling all that they had seen. We're going to start to see this thing unfold. What is Luke doing here? He is developing a list of eyewitnesses by name. Mary Magdalene. Mary, mother of James. Joanna. Cleopas. He's putting the names in for a reason that those who ended up in Jerusalem at some point could look these people up and say, did you really see what you said you saw? And look them in the eye. Tell me what you saw." He's getting eyewitnesses as if it's a court testimony to show, hey, you know, this is not some made-up fairy tale. Here are the people who actually saw Him, just as Paul also gave names of people who saw Him resurrected in 1 Corinthians 15. Okay, back to my point here. We see Jesus finally opening the eyes of the travelers. So they realize who He is. It happens in the breaking of the bread. They suddenly realize, wait a minute, it's Jesus. He then disappears. And what do they do? They hightail it back to Jerusalem to find the disciples. It's not some weird daydream those women had. They were right. We didn't believe them, but it's true. They were self-motivated to tell the disciples. And it is while they are with the rest of the disciples that Jesus appears to all of them in the upper room. What happens there is that Jesus commissions these fearful, hidden disciples. They are all sent. They are all to go. One of the things that happened to me shortly after my conversion was that I sensed a call to vocational ministry. Not everybody gets that call to vocational ministry. It's not because I'm special. Actually, I don't know why I have this call to vocational ministry. So he's speaking to the disciples here. We can sometimes think that only they, those apostle guys, are supposed to go and tell everybody. But we recognize, particularly from Matthew's account of the Great Commission, that they are to make disciples of the nation, as they're going, make disciples, starting with the participle, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them, those are the two aspects of disciple-making, baptizing and teaching, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, which would include, go therefore into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. Making Christ and His work known is not just the special privilege of me. It is also the special privilege of you who believe. We all have it. We all share in this. There are so many more people that you know than I know. People that will never know who in the world I am, and they don't have to know who in the world I am. But what matters is that they learn who Jesus is. and you might be the person that God has put in that place in His providence to tell them who Jesus is. We are to proclaim the objective message of Christ's work from the Scriptures. So often we get distracted by all these other kinds of things. We need to keep it simple sometimes. What did the Scriptures declare? We need to do what Jesus did to His disciples. Show them from the Scripture about why Christ had to come and what He had to do when He came. Specifically, His suffering and His resurrection from the dead. The objective message of the Gospel. We are also to proclaim the implications of that work because Jesus says that they were to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin. Those are the implications of the gospel. That's what you get if you believe the gospel. You repent and you receive forgiveness of sin. We're to make this known as well, that it's not just a message that has no implications, that it's a message that doesn't call anybody to anything. This message calls people to repentance. They do not receive the benefits of what Jesus has done unless they repent and believe. It's not just, oh, you're a human being, automatically, here it is, you're in. You have to repent, you have to believe. Then you receive the forgiveness of sins and so much more. The resurrection is intended to change our lives by changing us. Jesus is not content to merely pardon you. He does that. But part of the reality of the Gospel, He's going to change you. He's going to make you like He is. He loves you so much that He accepts you as you are, and yet He's not willing to leave you as you are. He's going to pardon you and transform you. That's part of where the repentance comes in. You're recognizing that you need an incredible U-turn. You have missed all of the exits. your life is going in the wrong direction because you're acting out of your fear and your doubt and confusion and so forth. You're not acting out of faith in Jesus Christ and you need a huge U-turn to turn away from your sin and back towards God and that is only found in Christ. The big U-turn. The cross, in fact, motivates repentance because it declares to us that there is mercy to be had. That the God we find when we turn around is not one who's going to crush us, but one who will embrace us precisely because His Son was crushed for us. We don't go fearing condemnation. We go because we know there is mercy because of Christ. Romans, don't you know that His kindness leads to repentance? While we must be honest about the condemnation people experience outside of Christ, it's the kindness of God in the death of His resurrection of His Son that leads people to repentance. So you don't have to have the hellfire brimstone sermons, so to speak. But the reality of the condemnation apart from Christ is that it has to be there. Encourage them with the cross to come. But that's not enough. Precisely because Jesus didn't say go now, he said wait. He said, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. They are unable to do this. Apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit, which Luke makes more clear in Acts 1, that one of the things the Spirit does is gives us power to testify with boldness. If you read through Acts, you will see that very clearly. That whenever there's a great movement amongst a city or something like that, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaimed the message. Just read Acts and you'll see it. The main deal about the Holy Spirit, it's not about tongues or anything. to live a transformed life, and to transform others through the preaching of the gospel. Those are the most important things. All the rest, that's icing on the cake. But those are the two important things that have to be there. We are not alone. If you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. They had to wait. We don't. as Paul says in Corinthians, you're not a Christian unless you have the Holy Spirit. You drink from Him. We've all been baptized in Him. Every Christian has it. So, you know, there's no sort of second-class Christian who doesn't have the Spirit. Every Christian does. And every Christian should be filled with that Spirit. And one of the things that will happen when you are is you'll tell people about Jesus. He is the one who opens the eyes so that they might understand the scriptures and believe. We're just the message boy, but he's the one that matters, not us. And so we leave, this text ends, Luke ends in the temple while they're waiting for Jesus' promise to be kept. Where did this gospel start? In the temple. I love Luke. He does these things. The temple is where the book ends, but once the Spirit comes, they're going to leave the temple because they're about to become the living temple. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, but God's don't. They come to fruition. And in spite of the weirdness of His people, God fulfills His purpose in building the church of Christ. So we all make plans, including what to do with Jesus and the resurrection. Some of you resisted the truth for years. Some of you might even still be resisting. Some of you may have just gotten it. The light bulb went on this morning, perhaps. But when the risen Christ confronts people, life is never the same. He offers forgiveness of sin, and He calls us to repentance, that U-turn of life. Real faith doesn't leave you the same person you were before you had it, but it fundamentally and progressively changes who you are. Jesus has plans for us, and those plans are going to prevail. Your plans will go awry. I was going to make money. That was my plan for my life. I was going to be a lawyer. It didn't quite work out that way. But that going awry is good. Part of His plan for you is to make what Christ has done for sinners known to sinners. And so I know a lot of you kind of feel like, Yuck. Except my sister-in-law, she loves telling people all about this stuff. She has the gift of evangelism. But you know what? Have fun with it. It's meant to be a good thing. It's meant to be a reflection of the joy you have because you know your sins have been forgiven. This should be a fun thing. Right, George? Yes. Because I think he's one of those people with that gift of evangelism, too. It's supposed to be a good thing. Why don't we pray? Father, I marvel that you would send your Son to become a man, to be crucified, to die, and to be buried. And yet the tomb calls forth our adoring wonder because it is empty and He is risen, granted to us to die with Him that we might rise to new life. For we wish to be as dead and buried to sin, to our selfishness and to the world. So turn our hearts to the love of God displayed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. And keep it fixed there, that our fears would fade. In Jesus' name, Amen.