This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back. Today
is Tuesday, March 31st. If you are new here to
the podcast, I want to encourage you to subscribe
and like and follow and all the things so that
you don't miss an episode. It's every single
day, Monday through Saturday. What's funny about
this episode today is I have already recorded
it. And I don't mean that you're seeing it and
I've already recorded it once. I'm saying I've
recorded it once before and my microphone was
off. That's right. It did not record a single
word. And I went for 17 minutes. I could tell
because of my video. So here we go. I'm going
to. Try to do this again. I was so fired up,
too. Y 'all don't even know. You missed it. Here's
what our reading plan is today. We're in Luke
24. First 35 verses of Luke 24. I'm going to
set the scene up, and then I want to talk about
a specific instance within that scene. So here's
the scene in Luke 24. We go from Luke 23, doom,
gloom, brokenness, sadness, crying at a funeral,
to Luke 24. We turn the page, and it says, on
the first day of the week. Sometimes you may
see me wearing a shirt that says the first day
of the week. the week. Our church a couple years
ago was selling these shirts the first day of
the week because on Easter Sunday, I was reading
a lot of text and every gospel account says on
the first day of the week. Jesus arose on the
first day of the week. Every one of those. So
when I wear my first day of the week shirt, it
is because I am proclaiming that my life changed
on the first day of the week. When we turn over
to Luke 24, we see the first day of the week
appear. Our life has been changed on the first
day of the week. The reason we celebrate on Sundays,
the reason we gather every Sunday as believers
is because we celebrate a risen Savior. It's
not just an Easter Sunday thing. It's an every
Sunday thing. Every single Sunday, we proclaim
on the... first day of the week that we serve
a God who didn't lose. We serve a God who wins
all the time because there's victory on the first
day of the week. All up to the first day was
all this doom and gloom and brokenness. And then
we see the first day of the week and it changes
everything. I love it. I could go on about that
forever, but let's look at Luke 24. So I'm going
to give you a little summary. Hopefully you've
already read it or you're about to read it, but
here's what happens in the first 35 verses of
Luke 24. The women go to the tomb. They've prepared
spices and ointments to take care of the body
of the Lord. They get there, and when they get
there, the tomb's empty. The stone's rolled away.
There's two angels standing there. They're saying,
why are you searching for the living among the
dead? You're here in a graveyard searching for
someone who's dead, but they are alive. And then
they begin to explain, do you not remember what
he said? Do you not remember what he said? He
would have to be suffered. He'd have to be suffered
and crucified, and he would have to do these
things and then rise again. Do you not remember
those things? And then they're starting to recall
the things, right? When you're in a grief mode,
when you're in, especially a couple of days after
the loss of someone you love deeply, you can't
think straight. You're not remembering things.
You're trying to remember things they said, but
you're trying to remember things you do, how
you've experienced life with them, right? You're
going back and thinking about the life experiences
and the joys that you had and the times you shared
and all of those things. But the angels are saying,
remember what he said? Do you remember his words?
He said this would happen. He said he would suffer.
Then he said he would die. And he said he would
rise again. You're here the day he rose again.
He's not here. He's already risen. Powerful stuff,
right? The women go crazy. I mean, they're carrying
all this stuff. Can you imagine them walking
up to the tomb with all this stuff and then hearing
that he's not there? I don't know if they drop
the stuff and take off running back to the upper
room. I don't know if they carry the stuff back
to the upper room. Hey, we don't need this stuff
anymore, guys. He's not there. They get back
in there and they tell the disciples. They were
like, he's not there anymore. He's risen. There
were these two angels. They told us this dazzling
clothing. It was awesome. It was amazing. The
guys don't believe them. They're like, these
are fairy tales. You're telling us these fables,
these stories. You are not telling us what's
real. Well, Peter and John get up and take off.
We see, we read that Peter does here in Luke
24. We also know John does, if you go back to
read the Gospel account of John. But we know
these guys, they take off running, get to the
tomb, look in there, nobody is in there. Peter
then comes back, and then the scene changes.
As the scene changes, we go to this place that's
called the road. to Emmaus. And this Emmaus is
a town a few miles away. I say a few miles, probably
seven or eight miles, realistically, from the
city of Jerusalem. So you've got these two disciples.
These are not a part of the 11. The 11, because
Judas is now gone. He's deceased. So you've got
these 11 disciples remaining. They're still together.
But you've got these two other guys, probably
within the 72 that followed Jesus, or maybe the
120. that were followers of Jesus. And these
guys, they went on this road on the way back
home, and they're broken, and they're sad. They
just had the worst weekend of their life. And
this road is a long, long road. If you're ever
over in Jerusalem or where the Holy Land is,
you can see where this road leads through this
little mountain range around it and just kind
of heads off and disappears. And these guys are
just on this long road on the way back home.
On the way home, they are mourning and broken.
And this guy shows up. We know because we have
the scriptures, we know it's Jesus. He shows
up. He says, why are you guys so sad? What's
going on? And they start, they're like, well.
Have you not been in the city? Do you not know
what's happened? Passover, everybody was here.
Now it's travel day. Everybody's going back home.
The feast is not worth celebrating. It's the
worst weekend of our life. This is the worst
Passover I've ever experienced. Everybody's saying
the same thing in town. This guy, do you not
know about the guy that was crucified? We loved
him. He was awesome. He was incredible. And our
rulers and the people that we looked up to at
one point sentenced this guy to death and crucified
him at Passover. The holiest day of the year.
This is what happens. Do you not know this? And
Jesus starts asking them questions. Then Jesus
does one of the most amazing things. He does
a Bible survey. That's right. He does a Bible
survey. He goes from Moses all the way through
the prophets, all the way through the Old Testament,
and helps them see everything that revealed who
Jesus is. Powerful, powerful. I will say this
out of personal experience. A few years ago,
whenever I first became the pastor of this church
that I'm at, New Providence, loved this church
family so much. When I first became a pastor
here, I had this Bible study group that would
meet. And I said, here's what I want to do. I
want to do what Jesus did. I want to do what
Jesus did on the Emmaus Road. I want to do a
Bible survey. So every single week, this was
awesome, every week we met together and we went
through an entire book of the Bible. And it was
a one hour to maybe an hour and ten minute Bible
study where I just shared about the entire book
of the Bible for that week. So I would go through
Genesis. an hour long. Then I would talk about
Exodus and I'd go from beginning to end of Exodus
in one hour. Then I would do Leviticus. If you
ever are interested in those Bible surveys, you
can go listen to another podcast that we have
in the New Providence podcast that has the Bible
study surveys. But here's what I would do. I'd
say, I want to go through all the way, always
through the book of Haggai in one setting. And
I want to go through the book of Jonah or through
Malachi or whatever. We even did it with the
New Testament because it's so awesome to see
the Bible, the whole picture, right? And we saw
little moments where Christ would be exemplified
and magnified to point to where he was coming
in the New Testament. And then in the New Testament,
they pointed to the Old Testament that was where
he was shown the first time and beautiful things
all the way through it. Jesus does that here
with these disciples at the Emmaus Road. Then
they get to their destination. Looks like Jesus
is going to go a little bit further. And those
disciples say, hey, why don't you stay with us?
It's getting dark. It's evening time. Come on
in and have dinner with us. So Jesus goes in
and has dinner with them. He's like, okay, let's
have dinner together. And as they sit down there,
it says Jesus was breaking bread, and he handed
it to them. As soon as he broke the bread and
handed it to him, they saw who he was. Now, I've
heard several sermons on this Emmaus Road experience.
There's even weekends about the Emmaus Road experience
and these things you can go do. I'm not sure
if Jesus veiled his face or his glory whenever
he was on the road. I don't know. I don't know
if they just never lifted their head and looked
at him. I don't know. I don't know if he was
disguising himself some way. I don't know if
he looked different. I don't know. I just know
that these disciples didn't recognize Jesus until
he broke bread with them. In that moment that
he broke bread with them, they saw him, eyes
open, hearts, everything's revealed, everything's
understood, and now Jesus vanishes. So these
disciples look around and say, what in the world?
They're like, you know, I knew it had to be him.
My heart was burning when he was talking through
the scriptures with us. I want you to say, one
of my hearts, one of my desires in my heart as
a pastor is when I preach, I want people to walk
out and say, I wanted more. I felt like I was
on fire with what was being shared with the truth
of the word of God, like the power of this word.
It was changing my heart. It was transforming
my life. It was being revealed, and I was understanding
it for the first time. These disciples on the
Emmaus Road were saying, I was understanding
the scriptures. I could get it because he taught
it, and he showed it to me and explained it to
me. My heart was on fire whenever he was talking.
So then the disciples say, we got to go back
to Jerusalem and tell the other. 11, what's happened?
So they get up and they leave, and they go back
to Jerusalem, another seven miles, eight miles
back, and they are hustling this time. I promise
you this, it did not take them as long to get
back as it did to get there. They were moving.
There's not this slow cadence with their shoulders
down and broken. This was a shoulders back, running,
sprinting to get back to where these disciples
are. We have seen Jesus. He died a couple of
days ago, and now we saw him today. on the first
day of the week, and it's changed our life. When
they get there, I want to read a couple of scriptures
to you to show you that I'm not making this up.
Because when they get there, something happens.
And honestly, this stood out to me today. And
I did a little extra reading, so I apologize
for going around a couple of places in scripture.
I didn't stick just to our reading plan. My apologies.
But something was shown to me that I think the
Lord showed me that I've never really paid attention
to before. if I'm honest. So I want to read a
couple scriptures out of Luke 24. Here's what
I want to say. In verse number 33, the Bible
says this, And they rose that same hour and returned
to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those
who were with them gathered together, saying,
The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared
to Simon. Then they told what happened on the
road and how he was known to them in the breaking
of the bread. So here's the scene that's taken
place. I want you to see it. I want you to know
it. I want you to put your minds there. These
guys on the MAS road experience Jesus. They find
out who he is. They see him and they experience
him. Then they get up that same hour. take off
back to Jerusalem. When they get to the upper
room, they go through the gate in Jerusalem,
probably that needle's eye gate right there in
Jerusalem, because that's coming from where the
road to Emmaus would have led in. They get in
there, they race through the city, they find
the upper room, they find the house that has
the upper room, they go on the outside, they
run up the stairs, and it says they found the
eleven and the others gathered. That sense means
it's probably a packed room. Of course it's a
packed room. That morning, a couple of ladies
went and found the tomb empty. It's going to
be a packed room. They're going to bring everybody
together. Who's seen it? Where's he at? What's
going on? What's happened? When they get in there,
when these two disciples get back in there, they
run in and they hear them talking and say, he's
risen indeed. In fact, he has shown himself.
He's appeared to Simon. That threw me off. I'm
not going to lie. It threw me off. I thought,
when did he appear to Simon? I didn't read that
part. That's not in Luke 24. It's also not in
Matthew or Mark or John. Like, wait just a second.
Where's it at? It's also in 1 Corinthians 15.
Yeah, Paul wrote about it to the church of Corinth
in 1 Corinthians 15, I think down in verse 5.
He says that he appeared to Cephas. And so that's
also Peter. So I'm like, okay, Simon, he appeared
to Simon. What happened? He appeared to Simon
Peter at some point before the Emmaus Road experience.
And so Peter's talking about it with these guys.
So as this is happening, these disciples, then
the Emmaus Road disciples say, Well, we saw him.
He's appeared to us. Listen, we were seven miles
from here and he appeared to us. He showed up
and he was talking with us on the road. We didn't
know who he was. It was this crazy thing. And
then we get in there and we break bread and he
opened it. And as soon as he broke the bread,
we thought, that's him. That's who he is. It's
Jesus. And then he vanished. We can't find him.
We're looking for him again. Now, the good news
is, don't read any further because you're going
to spoil it. But the good news is, at this point,
I started thinking, how in the world did I ever
miss that he had already appeared to Simon? When
and where and how? That's what I want to know.
Well, the Bible doesn't give us much on it. I
assumed that Peter, his first real communication
with Jesus was whenever he was restored publicly.
In John 21, I believe, you find the story of
him and Jesus asking him, Do you love me? Yes.
Then feed my sheep. Do you love me? Yes. Do you
love me? He's asking this three times. I thought
that was the restoration of Peter. Here's what
I think I've come to learn. I think I've come
to learn that Jesus will restore privately, but
he will commission publicly. So I believe he
restored Peter at some point. And listen to this.
Peter was a guy who would say anything all the
time, right? But there is no record of that meeting
of what happened. We know that it happened. We
don't know how it happened. We know that it was
a case that Luke wrote about it, Paul wrote about
it, so it obviously was shared. But he never
said what was actually talked about. Because
here's the thing. The last time Peter had seen
Jesus, If you remember, he locked eyes with him
after he had denied him three times and the rooster
crows and Peter's broken. Jesus meets with Peter
on the first day of the week. One of the first
people he reveals himself to. We don't know when
it happened. We know it wasn't whenever him and
John were together at the tomb because John would
have written about it or John would have said
something about it. It could have been there,
but there was a moment probably after that that
Jesus met with Simon and saw him personally and
had a conversation and restores him to a relationship.
He may have said to him, I forgive you. I love
you. I want to think that those moments where
you feel really, really broken, they're not public
spectacle moments, right? Because this isn't
a public spectacle walk. This is a personal walk.
This is what's going on in your heart on a daily
basis. How are you handling this, Jesus? How
are you responding to this, Jesus? I want to
encourage you today. I want you to read this
text, Luke 24, 1 through 35. Read it a couple
times if you need to. See something you've never
seen. I've never seen that. Not kidding. I've
read it. I didn't think about it. It stuck out
to me today. And as it stuck out to me, I thought,
how beautiful is it that our Savior will restore
us privately? And it's not something that Peter
goes around and shouting to everybody and telling
everybody. I would love to know what happened.
I hope when I'm in heaven and the throne is...
blaring with holiness and brightness and beauty.
I hope that I have a chance to talk to some others
in heaven without just being in awe of Jesus
all the time. I have a feeling that sometimes
when we talk about heaven, we talk about, oh,
I can't wait to see my dad or my uncle or my
friend or my whoever, this great hero of the
faith, or go talk to Peter, go talk to Paul,
go talk to these guys. I think that on this earth,
but then I read about what the throne room of
heaven is like, and I think we're just going
to look at him all the time. I don't even know
if we're going to notice anybody else around.
But if we do get a chance to talk to somebody,
I'd like to talk to Peter and say, tell me about
that time in the garden right there outside the
tomb. When was it that Jesus appeared to you?
What did he say? How did he say it? I got a feeling
Peter would say something along the lines of,
he told me he forgave me in that moment and that
my sin wasn't going to hold me back and that
he has a new life for me and a new plan for me
and I need to be faithful today. Because here's
the deal. A couple of days later, he appears
to Peter and he says to him, hey, I want to call
you to go and lead this church. I want to call
you to go and be a leader in this place. And
so I believe sometimes we may think that, you
know, I talk to pastors a lot and say, listen,
don't get too... saddened over the fact that
people don't come and get this big restoration
moment in your church services. Sometimes that
happens privately, and that's okay. If it happened
privately for Peter, and he goes up and preaches
a few days later, we're talking within 50 days
later, Peter preaches a sermon, and 3 ,000 people
come to know Jesus. That is a powerful thing,
and that restoration happened, and we won't know
on this side of heaven what he said. That drives
me crazy. I want to know. I have thoughts. I
have ideas. I have some Old Testament connections
that Jesus may have said that possibly pointed
to something else. But here's the truth. Jesus
met with Peter, revealed to him who he was, and
at this point, Peter didn't run away. He said,
I'm going to be faithful to the walk. These disciples
on the road to Emmaus said, we have seen something
amazing. You know the beautiful thing about Christianity?
You don't have to do anything. You just have
to share what has been done. That's it. I said
last Sunday that our salvation is fully by works,
just not our works. It's by the works of Jesus.
Our job is to be a witness to those works. You
just have to share what you've seen. That's it.
That's all you have to do. The Emmaus Road disciples
did that. Peter does that. The rest of the disciples
do that. So my challenge to you today, read the
scripture, let it change your heart, and go and
share what you have witnessed.