Today's sermon is entitled The Road to Emmaus.
And essentially, it's a story about a road trip
and how Jesus interrupts somebody's road trip.
We're gonna get to that in just a moment.
Before we do, I gotta point out, in the back of the room,
there is this giant Christmas present.
And it says, can you read the tag?
What does it say on the tag?
What does it say?
Yeah, it says, do not open until Christmas.
But I don't think that's a good idea.
I like to open presents ahead of time.
How many of you are with me?
How many of you believe we should?
Amen, that's right.
Open presents, so we're going to, not today,
but we're going to on Christmas Eve.
You see, at Southern Hills,
we have four Christmas Eve services.
We have one on Christmas Eve, 8.30, 10 o'clock, 11.30,
and then in the evening at 6 p.m.
And there are all four of these services,
are exactly the same service.
And we want you to make plans on attending
one of those four services, even now.
Which service will you attend?
Inside of your, or right on your chair,
you have this card, and this card
is your reminder about that service.
But not only for you, you can take this card,
and you can give it as an invitation to somebody
that you know, a friend, a coworker, a neighbor,
a relative, especially if you're a follower
of Jesus Christ here today.
Any followers of Jesus, if you are, say amen.
There's somebody that God might be putting
on your heart right now,
that you're supposed to bring to Christmas Eve.
Who is the individual that you're supposed
to give this card to?
Would you take that, put it away, somewhere safe?
And then this week, give them the card
and let them know which of the four
Christmas Eve services you're going to go to,
because on that day, we are going to be opening this,
and inside of this is the actual,
visually, the concept, the idea,
that we're going to be talking about
on Christmas Eve from my lesson.
On Christmas Eve, it's called Unwrapping Joy,
and we're going to share with you
how you can unwrap joy,
not just during the Christmas season, but all year long.
Hey, very quickly, also tomorrow evening,
for those who don't know, there's a special event
here right here at the church.
It's called Israel, an update from the Holy Land.
And if you're interested in being a part of that meeting,
that's tomorrow evening right here at 6 p.m.
We want to encourage you to come to that
if you feel that you're supposed to come to that meeting.
Let's go ahead and open in prayer
and ask God to bless the reading of His word,
as well as the study of Scripture today.
God in heaven.
Today, we arrive at one of my favorite Bible stories.
It's a favorite Bible story among many,
but it's one that is not often studied
in a church setting.
And so God, I pray that you would give us grace
and help us as we do study this passage
so that those who don't know the story today
can learn it and understand it
and maybe even apply it to their lives.
And for those who have studied this story,
I pray, Lord, that you would bring us the encouragement
of anticipation that you desire for all of us to carry,
about not only this life, but the hope of the life to come.
So God, as you have filled this place
with your holy people,
and you have filled this place with your holy spirit,
I pray that you would fill my mouth
with your holy scriptures so that we can study
and help the people who have come
in the name of Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
A road trip interrupted.
Have you ever had a road trip interrupted
that you did not plan on?
And then suddenly it changed the projection
of everything that that trip was supposed to be.
Such was the case for my wife and I, Heather.
My wife and I were married back in 2001, June of 2001,
and this is what we look like.
It was a long time ago, as you can tell,
my hair was a different color.
I now have gray hair, and you might say,
why do you have gray hair?
And the answer is, you people.
You gave me my gray hair over the last 19 years.
19 years, but back in 2001,
we were freshly minted, new married couple, 20 years old.
Who gets married at the age of 20?
It'll never last.
And sure enough, there we were,
got married at the age of 20 here in Las Vegas.
And my family is from here,
that's why we got married here,
and then I had gotten an internship at a church
because I was already studying for ministry,
and so was Heather.
We were gonna go into the pastoral ministry,
and we got an internship at another church across town.
Now it was great how I got that internship.
My dad's the pastor, it's called Nepotism, amen.
And so I had that summer internship the entire summer,
and after the summer, about eight or nine weeks,
I had to go back to Florida
because my wife had a job there,
and I had one last year of college to finish
before I could come back out here
and be on staff at that church,
and then become a pastor of my own
here in the Southwest part of town.
So we're driving back,
and our mind is filled with all of the things
that we have to do.
We only married for eight weeks,
and it was a road trip in the year of 2001,
which means with all of the things
that we had to get back to,
the stress of starting the new job for Heather,
of getting to register for my classes,
buying the books, making sure our apartment,
which was brand new,
we'd never been in the apartment together ever like this,
and all of these things were falling into place.
Our to-do list was nearly out of control.
I mean, it felt like I could not even keep track
of all the things that we had to do.
Have you ever felt that way?
All of the things that you have to do,
and so that's exactly where we were on the way back
to Florida, driving across country,
Interstate 15 to 40, 40 all the way,
and then down to the 10,
and there back in Pensacola, Florida.
And as we were driving,
I had to prepare for the trip in the best way we could,
which means in 2001,
the best way you could prepare for a trip
was go to your computer, start it up,
AOL, and print off MapQuest.
How many of you remember MapQuest?
That's right.
I know this whole first row doesn't remember MapQuest.
How many of you remember before MapQuest,
where you had the triple-A giant map
sitting under the sea in the, yeah, yeah, all right.
Old man, old man here.
So we MapQuest did it out,
we were ready for our road trip, our 1996 Ford Thunderbird.
And we got inside of that,
it didn't have a CD player, so we had to buy a boombox.
Amen, come on.
We had our boombox with our D cell batteries in the back seat,
and we had all of our CDs.
Remember the books of CDs?
We had Phil Collins in there, you know what I mean?
A smash mouth.
Somebody wants to, all right, that's enough, you know.
I know you know, I know you know.
And we had it going.
We were ready to go, Stephen Curtis Chapman was in there too.
For the, yeah, there, okay, stop, all right.
And we're driving along and we make it through Kingman
and then through Flagstaff,
and then on our way into New Mexico
and went through Albuquerque,
and I made the joke over too many times.
You gotta turn left on Albuquerque, ha ha ha.
Anyway, we go through Albuquerque.
And by the time we get there,
we left on a Sunday afternoon about one or two o'clock.
And by the time we made it all the way through,
we stopped at Quiznos on the way for, you know,
because it's 2001.
And we arrive in the middle of New Mexico
about 11 p.m. at night,
just outside of a little town called Tubecom Carey.
Anybody heard of Tubecom Carey before?
Raise your hand if you know what Tubecom Carey.
Real high, let me say, you know too, God, for,
I feel so bad for all of you who know this town.
Because it's about 11 p.m. at night
and all of a sudden in the middle of the road,
we're driving, there is a cinder block brick
right in the middle of the road.
And I saw it too late,
so I couldn't swerve out of the way.
We were going fast, there weren't a lot of people around,
and I hit that cinder block, bam, with our car.
And it came up underneath our 1996 Ford Thunderbird,
and it cracked a bunch of things, I don't know.
And it immediately killed our car,
and we pulled the car off.
Now, to look at me, you would think,
I would know everything about mechanics.
But I don't.
But I'm a newly minted married man,
and I had to, you know, open the hood.
So I get out, I'm like, let me take care of this.
And I get out of the car and I pop the hood,
and it took me a couple minutes to figure out
where the thing was, and I'm like,
it's just gonna be somewhere, it's here,
and pulled it up, and I look down,
and I'm like, I don't know what I'm looking at, exactly.
So my wife, newly married, she said,
we should call AAA, and I'm like, that's right, AAA.
My father had told me buy AAA, not only insurance,
but buy the travel protection road-sistant plan.
And I'm like, oh yeah, we're AAA plus, premium member,
let's call them.
So we did, we called them, and they said,
okay, we're gonna come out and tow you
back to a place called Two Come Carry.
Again, how many of you have ever heard of Two Come Carry?
Would you raise your hand?
I'm so sorry.
I am, they towed us back to Two Come Carry, New Mexico,
and it was the middle of the night,
so we got a little hotel room, and I was stressing out,
because had all these things that we had to do,
had to get all the way across the country,
we had to set up in our new apartment,
we had to start school again, we had to start our jobs again,
we had so many things, and now we're stuck,
and not only that, we were stuck, and we had no money.
Do you know why we had no money?
Because we were 20 years old.
Now if you're in the room and you think,
I'm 20 years old and I have no money, that's very normal.
You'll have no money for the next 20 years.
And then somewhere, right when you turn around 40 something,
you'll be like, I have money for the first time,
and then your kids will take all that you have
for the rest of your life.
So we had no money, and I'm stressing out,
because we have to get a hotel room, and the mechanic
wasn't open until the next morning,
and suddenly our road trip was delayed terribly.
And I didn't understand why.
I've noticed in life that God tends to interrupt
our road trips.
God tends to just jump in right when we're not expecting it,
and say, whoa, slow down, you're not going there.
Or you are going there, but I want you to stop right now,
and I want you to pause for an indefinite amount of time.
And you just have to wait.
It's not just happening with Christians today,
believers in God today, it happens all throughout the Bible.
Like in all the stories of the Bible,
there's a guy named Jacob, for example,
and Jacob was on his way to Heron,
when God stopped his journey on the road
and made him lay down to go to sleep,
and he woke up and he had a vision of a ladder
that went all the way up to heaven
with angels coming up and down.
It didn't just happen to Jacob, it happened to Moses.
Moses was walking on a road with all of his sheep
as a shepherd, and suddenly God stopped his journey
and said, I want you to see a burning bush
over around the corner.
It didn't just happen to Jacob and Moses,
it also happened to Elijah.
Elijah was coming out of the city of Jericho,
and as he walked with his friend, Elisha,
God stopped his journey right in the midst of it,
and a chariot of fire came and got him.
It happened to Elijah, it happened also to the Wisemen.
The Wisemen were on their way to Jerusalem,
and suddenly a star appears and tells them specifically,
and excuse me, from Jerusalem,
and tells them specifically where to go
to find baby Jesus.
It happened to a man named Saul on his way to Damascus,
walking on a road specifically
intending to hurt the church of God,
and Jesus interrupts his trip and says, stop,
this is what I've noticed in life and in the Bible.
Jesus himself will interrupt the trip
in order to make a strong point.
And that's what Jesus does in our story today, Luke chapter 24.
The Bible tells us two disciples are walking on a road
from Jerusalem to a place called Emmaus.
And we pick up the story in verse 13,
now behold, two of them were traveling that same day
to the village called Emmaus,
which is seven miles from Jerusalem.
As you read that verse, suddenly you realize,
well, it feels like we're picking up
in the middle of a story, doesn't it?
Well, sure it does, because look at specifically
what it says, it says, be told two of them, who is the them?
On the same day, what day is it talking about?
On a road to Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem,
as if we're supposed to know the story.
And we do know the story because we've been going verse
by verse chapter by chapter through the book of Luke.
And in the previous story, what we learned
was that Jesus Christ had been crucified in Jerusalem.
He had been buried and he rose again, the Bible says,
on the third day, we celebrate that every single Easter.
And as Jesus rose from the grave in Luke chapter 24,
verses one through 12, the Bible says
that there was a group of women who went to the tomb
to see where Jesus was to anoint him.
But they got there and Jesus was no longer there.
And if you remember last week's story, they ran back
and they told the rest of the disciples
that Jesus was not in the tomb.
Did they believe the women?
Yes or no?
No, no, they didn't.
Who was in the room?
Well, the 11 apostles were in the room
and the only two of the apostles
that really wanted to check it out was Peter and John.
They ran to the tomb and they came back
and told the rest of the disciples,
sure enough, Jesus's body's not there.
We don't know what's going on.
So who is the them in verse number 13?
And the answer is the disciples.
Not just the apostles, the 11 apostles
who were the original disciples of Jesus,
but a group of people about 70 disciples,
both men and women, this is referring to.
The people that are walking on the road to Emmaus
are two of the disciples of Jesus.
One's name is Cleopas and I believe the other
is his wife, Mary.
They've left Jerusalem because they are giving up
on this whole Jesus thing.
They love Jesus, but Jesus is dead.
They love Jesus, but the story is over.
They're really confused and so they're gonna walk back
to their home seven miles away in a place called Emmaus.
Several hours it would take for them to get there
and that's where we pick up our story.
It says in verse number 14,
and they talked together on the road to Emmaus.
Excuse me, they talked together all of these things
which had happened.
This man and his wife, presumably,
are now having a conversation about all the things
that had happened.
What are they talking about?
The story of Jesus.
Maybe they're talking about the very first time
they met Jesus.
Jesus had healed a blind man
or perhaps a deaf individual.
Jesus had turned water and into wine.
We don't know when Cleopas and Mary became followers
of Jesus, but they began to talk about it.
They talked about the fact that they entered Jerusalem
just a week before because we know this story
takes place Sunday afternoon.
Like Heather and I traveled from Las Vegas
all the way to Tucumcari on Sunday afternoon.
These people on Sunday afternoon
are traveling from Jerusalem all the way up to Emmaus.
And on Sunday afternoon, they're talking about
in one week span what has taken place.
You see, a week ago in Jerusalem,
Jesus and all of his disciples had entered the city
on what we call Palm Sunday.
And everybody crowded around Jesus and they said,
Hosanna, Hosanna, the king is here.
And within four days, the crowd was crying out,
crucify him, crucify him.
And then the next day they killed him.
And the next day was the Sabbath day.
He lay in the grave.
And then on Sunday morning, well,
early on Sunday morning, some of the disciples,
the women came back and they knocked on the door
and they said, hey, Jesus's body is gone.
We saw angels and the angels told us
that Jesus has rose from the grave
and Cleopas and his wife were like, come on, ladies.
That's ridiculous.
There's no way that took place.
And while they're giving excuses, Peter and John are like,
we gotta go see.
And they run out the door.
They're back within a half hour telling Cleopas
and the other 70 disciples, his body is gone.
Cleopas doesn't know what to do.
Now it's two o'clock, maybe three o'clock.
And they're like, let's just go home.
So as they walk home as a couple,
they tell, talking about all of these things, verse 13.
So it was while they conversed and reasoned
that Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
They're talking on the road.
And all of a sudden, Jesus interrupts their road trip.
Now, if you're a follower of Jesus
and Jesus interrupts your road trip,
you would think you would look at Jesus
and be like, hey, welcome, right?
But that's not what happens.
Look what it says.
But their eyes were, what does the word say?
What does it say?
Restrained.
So they did not know Him.
Now that's always puzzled me.
These two people, they don't recognize Jesus.
Why?
Last Sunday night, my wife and I
were at our house in the evening.
Our two teenage daughters were here at church
because we have a teenage program called the Ascent.
And there's a big worship service for all the teenagers
every Sunday night right here.
And so we send our kids and we were at home alone
and we were talking about this passage specifically.
And I asked her, I said, you know the story?
She's like, yeah, I love that story.
I said, why do you think they didn't recognize Jesus?
And she said to me, she said, I think they were like,
I don't know, like maybe they were like back row disciples.
You know what I mean?
Like maybe they were like distant disciples.
They were kind of like in the far back of the crowds.
They didn't recognize Jesus because they weren't a wreck.
It's not like this is the All Stars, right?
Like Mary Magdalene and like Peter,
like diamond leveled disciple.
You know what I mean?
Like this is like way back there.
I'm like, maybe that's it.
Maybe that's it.
I don't know.
We love talking about the Bible.
So early on Monday morning, I got up to prepare the sermon
and I began to really research the words
that are found in this verse.
Look what it says, but their eyes were restrained.
I said, it seems like, as I'm studying,
it seems like it wasn't just that they could not see.
It's almost as if their eyesight was being held back.
Supernaturally.
And then when I looked up the word
in the original languages, it's a Greek word.
And the word is ecrotanto,
which literally means supernaturally,
their sight was held back.
So what Jesus did when he arrived
in interrupting their story,
Jesus showed up and before they saw him,
Jesus shut their eyes to who he was.
So they knew him, but they couldn't recognize him.
Isn't it interesting that sometimes
Jesus will interrupt your life and he's there,
you just don't recognize he's there.
Has that ever happened to you?
And then after you get through the difficulty,
you look and say, I think Jesus was here the whole time.
That's what happens in this story,
which leads to our very first thought of today.
Our very first thought of today's sermon,
the first big thought of today's sermon,
number one, trust the scriptures supremely.
I'm gonna say number one,
I want you to say trust the scriptures.
Number one, trust the scriptures.
Come on, come on, come on church, do it with me.
Number one, trust the scriptures.
The first thought that we receive in this passage
is that we as Christians, we must trust the scriptures.
The scriptures.
Over your own senses.
Senses can be deceiving, can't they?
Have your eyes ever played tricks on you?
Have you ever been driving down,
have you ever been driving down Interstate 15,
the blazing summertime, and as you do
on your way to California, you look over and you say,
we have a lake in the middle of the desert.
Has that ever happened to you?
You say, I know it's a lake,
I'm seeing it with my own eyes.
No, your eyes can deceive you.
The senses can be mistaken.
Have you ever smelled something that wasn't there?
If you've ever gone Disneyland
and you've walked down Main Street,
you might smell the smell, the scent of fresh baked cookies.
I love the smell of fresh baked cookies.
And if you're walking down that road
and you think to yourself, I'd like some of these
fresh baked cookies, where is this smell coming from?
The answer is, it's not there.
They actually pump that scent onto Main Street.
So it makes you feel homey and happy
and you'll spend more money.
That smell makes you think a balloon for $45?
That's a good deal.
It's a good deal.
I need a $45 balloon today, today, maybe two.
Your senses can deceive.
Have you ever had your ears deceive you?
Like somebody said something to you
and you thought they said one thing,
but they actually said another.
You say, my ears have never deceived me.
Okay, has anybody else's ears ever been deceived
when you tried to say something?
That is not what I said, but that's what they heard.
Our senses can be deceiving.
Apparently, Jesus didn't want them believing
in the resurrection because they saw Jesus.
But because the Bible taught them that the Messiah
would suffer, die, and rise again.
How do you know this, Josh?
Because of where the story goes.
Jesus doesn't show up and be like, I'm here.
Jesus says, I don't want you to know that I'm here.
I want to point you to the scriptures and show you
the Messiah was always meant to suffer.
He was always meant to die
and he was always prophesied to rise from the grave.
So Jesus has a plan.
I will restrain their eyesight
and then I will converse with them
and show them through the scriptures
that the always plan of God was always
to send the Son of God to suffer
and die on the cross for the sins of mankind
to be buried and rise from the grave.
And so he does that right here.
Why?
Because God wants us to trust the scriptures supremely.
Look at what it says in verse 17.
And Jesus said to them, what kind of conversation is this
that you were having with one another as you walk?
And they're sad.
And then one of the disciples whose name was Cleopas,
Cleopas by the way is a common name during this time.
It's the male version of Cleopatra,
which would have been very, very well known
in the Roman world following the Greek Empire.
So Cleopas answered and said unto him,
are you only a stranger in Jerusalem?
Do you not know the things which have happened in these days?
Like from Cleopas' point of view,
how do you not know what's been going on?
The big prophet, the big shot,
everybody knows about Jesus.
And so now Cleopas is about to explain to Jesus
the story of Jesus.
How cool is that?
You know not the things that have happened in these days
and Jesus said to them, what things?
I love that Jesus doesn't lie.
He's like, no, I don't know.
He just asked, what do you mean?
So they said to him, the things concerning of Jesus
of Nazareth who was a prophet mighty indeed
in word before God and all the people
and how the chief priests and the rulers delivered him
to be condemned to death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he was the one
who was gonna redeem Israel.
Indeed, beside all this,
today's the third day since all of these things happened.
Yes, and certain women of our company
who arrived at the tomb early this morning,
astonished us when they did not find his body.
They came and they said to us
that they had seen a vision from angels
who had said that he was alive.
Notice something about Cleopas and this other disciple.
They have all the information.
You see?
It's not like they didn't know that Jesus died.
It's not like they didn't know that the tomb was empty.
It's not even like they didn't hear the testimony
from the women.
They have all of the information.
It even goes on.
And certain of those who are with us,
that's John and Peter,
went to the tomb and found that it was just
as the women said,
but him they did not see.
Well, wait a second.
If they already have all the relevant information,
why is it that they don't believe?
And the answer to that is this.
You can have all of the puzzle pieces
and not put the puzzle together yet.
Some of you are like that right now.
Some of you have been collecting all the pieces
of Christianity and you've got them in a box
and it hasn't all fit together yet.
Like you're here and if somebody said to you a Christian,
you'd be like, yes I am.
And deep inside you're like,
I don't think I'm there yet.
That's okay.
You've been collecting all the pieces
and you're trying to figure out what this picture looks like.
And you're surrounded by a bunch of people.
You're like, man these people,
they really are believers.
That's because,
well it's because of what we're about to talk about.
These people, did they love Jesus?
Yes or no?
Yeah.
Did they believe Jesus died?
Yes or no?
Yes.
Did they know the tomb was empty?
Yes or no?
Why didn't they understand that he rose from the grave?
And the answer to that question is faith
brings understanding, not the other way around.
Let me say it again.
Faith brings understanding, not the other way around.
Some of you have collected all the pieces to the puzzle
and you're like, okay, God, do a miracle,
make me believe.
And the answer is that's not how it works.
You don't gather all of the understanding
and then suddenly you understand everything
and then suddenly God makes you believe.
You gather all the pieces you can
and then you choose to believe.
You choose to believe.
It's like this chair.
You say, Josh, I'd really like to sit down in a good chair.
If you're gonna sit down in a good chair,
the best way to sit down in a good chair
is to study what a chair is.
To look at the chair from all the different angles
and think to yourself, yep, I'm pretty sure this is a chair.
And as I look at this chair,
I'm beginning to understand this chair,
I've compared this chair to all the other chairs in the world.
And as I do compare this chair,
my legs are getting tired, eventually I do wanna sit down,
but I'm going to make sure that I understand the dynamics
of all of this chair.
And then as I understand the dynamics of this chair,
then maybe I'll believe that the chair.
And then trying to explain to others
why you think maybe this chair would hold somebody.
And then there are other people that say,
I think that's a chair.
I think I want to trust the chair and believe in the chair
and then they sit down.
And suddenly they understand the chair
in a way that nobody else will understand the chair
because they're not sitting in the chair.
It's called an existential or experiential belief.
Do you know why there are people around you
who know Jesus in a way that you don't know Jesus
even though they haven't studied Jesus,
the way you've studied Jesus,
is because they sit in Jesus.
They trust Jesus.
They believe in Jesus.
They've put their faith and their reliance
and their belief in Jesus.
Faith brings understanding, not the other way around.
And these people had all the information,
Cleopas and most likely his wife, Mary,
they had all the information.
They just needed to believe it.
And they didn't need to believe it
because Jesus appears to them.
They needed to believe it because the scriptures
showed them this was the case,
which leads to the rest of the story.
Look, it goes on in verse number 25.
It says in verse number 25,
then he said to them, oh foolish ones,
Jesus says to them, oh foolish ones
and slow of heart to believe
in all the prophets of what they have spoken.
Not the Christ who have suffered all of these things
and entered into his glory.
And so then Jesus, beginning at Moses
and all of the prophets,
he began to expound to them the scriptures,
the things concerning himself.
Now this is amazing.
Jesus says, guys, how do you not see it?
And then Jesus begins to give a one on one sermon
for the next hour and a half.
And he begins in Moses.
That means the Torah, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and all the prophets.
And he shows them that the entire Bible
is one story that points at Jesus's story.
The Bible is one long story
that all points to one person.
And that is Jesus Christ.
Wouldn't you love to hear
a 90 minute two hour sermon from Jesus himself?
Amen.
By the way, only Jesus should preach that long.
Can I get an amen right there?
Amen.
There's there like, yeah, let's go, let's go.
Let's go.
And so Jesus is explaining to them all of these truths.
He's walking them through all of this concept
of who he is and what does he point to?
He doesn't say, open your eyes and see me.
He says, open your eyes and see the scripture.
By the way, this is why at our church,
I preach chapter by chapter
and verse by verse through the Bible.
This is why as your pastor,
I don't get up on Sundays and give you my thought of the week,
my little sermonette for Christianettes.
Right?
My little like, well, this is what I saw on the news
this week and this is what I think you ought to do with it.
Because according to what we see Jesus doing here
is telling the story of the Bible as a long narrative,
all has one point and it points to Jesus Christ.
It's called expository preaching
and that's what we do at Southern Hills.
And it builds strong Christians.
It goes on.
It says in verse number 28,
then they drew near to the village.
Okay, so they've walked at seven miles
and they're ready to get home
and Jesus indicated that he would go on further.
So Jesus says to them, okay, thanks guys, I'm on my way.
And they constrained Jesus saying, hey, abide with us
for it is even, is toward evening
and the day is far spent.
And he spent the night with them.
He was gonna go spend the night with them
and it came to pass that as they sat down
for a table with them, he took bread.
Jesus took bread
and he blessed it and he broke it and gave it to them.
And their eyes, then their eyes were opened.
If you're a Bible student underline that.
Their eyes were opened and they knew him
and then he vanished from their sight.
So Jesus, they sit down.
They're ready to eat.
Jesus says, do you want me to say grace?
They're like, sure dude.
And he said, all right.
And he prays and he takes the bread and he breaks it.
And all of a sudden these disciples of Jesus
are like, hey, wait a minute, I've seen this before.
And then he vanishes.
That would freak me out, man.
That would like,
but look what happens with them.
And they said to one another,
did not our hearts burn within us?
Well, he talked to us on the road
and while he opened the scriptures to us.
That was him.
That was Jesus, which leads us
to the next point of today's sermon.
The first one is trust the scriptures.
I'm gonna say number one, you say trust the scriptures.
Number one, number two, reject sin, receive Jesus.
Number two, reject sin, receive Jesus.
I'm gonna say number two, you say these words with me.
Number two, reject sin, receive Jesus.
You might say, oh, Pastor Josh, I mean, you say reject sin.
This verse doesn't have anything to do with sin, does it?
It's interesting.
Because as you read the story we just read,
this story is very significant,
especially if you've been a Christian
and studied the Bible for a long time.
I'm interested to know.
I know a lot of you are new believers at Southern Hills.
We're so glad you're here.
Some of you have been Christians for a very long time
and I wanna do a little informal poll here.
How many of you in this room have only been a Christian
for let's say the last, you've been a Christian
more than 10 years, raise your hand.
How many have you been a Christian for more than 10 years?
Okay, I'm looking around, maybe about 30% or so.
Put your hands down.
Okay, this is gonna be fascinating to you.
This story is supposed to be a loop around story
to another story in the Bible.
And there are clues inside of this story
that the writer Luke wants you to see.
You wanna see what they are?
The first clue is the idea here is a couple,
two people who are having a meal together
in the presence of God.
What is another story early on in the Bible
where there is a couple who is having a meal
in the presence of God?
What is this?
Anybody think of a couple in the Bible
who's having a meal they're eating
in the presence of God?
If you know that couple's name, say it out loud.
Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve.
And do you remember what happens?
Here's clue number two.
Do you remember what happens when the Bible says
they ate of the forbidden fruit?
The Bible says when they ate, this is clue number two.
When they ate of the forbidden fruit,
what does the Bible says happens to them?
What happens to them?
Their eyes were open.
There's clue number two.
And now you see another couple
at the end of the story of Jesus.
Luke knows what he's doing.
Who's having a meal in the presence of God.
And as they partake of that meal,
their eyes are open.
Here's the third clue between these two stories.
When the first couple, Adam and Eve,
partook of this fruit,
it changed the entire trajectory of the human race.
Now at the end of the story of Jesus,
you see a couple partaking, their eyes are opened,
and it turns the entire story of the human race
back to what it was supposed to be.
A relationship with God through the one and only Jesus Christ,
the bread of life who you can partake of and be satisfied,
not with the sin of the world
where you must reject that sin,
but with the salvation from God
that brings wholeness and forgiveness
and a holistic future for you.
You see?
It's a beautiful thing.
What does it mean for you?
Well, it means during this Christmas season,
what you might have to do is reject sin
and receive Jesus.
For some of you, you've never been born again.
Like you need to reject your old life,
repent and receive Jesus Christ
as many of these people who've recently been baptized have done.
For some of you, you need to just, as a Christian,
reject giving into the temptation of sin, for example.
What temptation might I have during the Christmas season
to eat and grow sick on?
Maybe the sin of worry, anxiety, stress.
Instead, why don't you receive the bread of life
and have peace and joy and Shabbat and Sabbath?
Reject worry, receive trust.
You see?
At Christmas time, it's all about self,
what I want for me, or maybe it's about others,
what I want for others, you see?
And so as we study this story today,
we find that there are so many multiple levels of beauty
in this story.
The first of which we wanted to look at
is trust the Scriptures supremely.
The second that we wanted to look at
was reject sin, receive Jesus,
which leads to our final big thought of the day,
and that is embrace the delays of life.
I'm gonna say number three, you so embrace the delays.
Number three, embrace the delays.
Notice how the story goes in Luke chapter 24, verse 15.
So it was while they were conversing
and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near
and went with them.
This is the moment in our story
that Jesus interrupts their road trip.
And their life will never be the same.
So there we sat in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
This is not a place you wanna sit.
We woke up the next morning and I really was,
I was stressing out about the fact that
we had to pay for the hotel room, we had no money.
Then we had to pay for the car repairs, we had no money.
And we're gonna be late, we're in trouble for that.
And so I called my dad and I'm like,
well they're about to open up the mechanic shop
and then tell us, he said, okay,
just to prepare, it was probably be expensive.
Number two, you're probably gonna be there for a few days.
And he said, just don't freak out
because he said you have insurance,
collision insurance and comprehensive,
which means you hit that, you hit that,
they're gonna cover that, they'll pay for it.
Not only that, Josh, back in June when you got married,
I told you to sign up for triple A plus premium membership.
Did you do that?
I said, yeah.
He said, there's something called
trip interruption insurance that comes with that.
Which means they're gonna pay for all of your hotels
and all of your meals.
And I remember thinking, what?
By the way, I'm not just a pastor,
I also work for triple A.
And on the way, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
Some of you are like, I knew, I knew
they were gonna sell me something.
It's a joke, it's a joke.
But that part of the story is true.
So he's like, you got triple A plus insurance.
I'm like, yeah, he said, yeah,
just keep all your receipts, turn them in,
pay everything back.
I said, for real?
And he said, not only your hotels, but your meals.
I'm like, where are we allowed to eat?
He said, anywhere.
And I said, anywhere.
Now the problem is to come carry anywhere means
like Joe's house, right?
Like there's nothing there except for an Arby's
and I don't wanna die.
So, what?
I'm sorry, but it's gross.
And,
it is, right?
Am I wrong?
All right, whatever.
So anyway, we're relaxed.
So we go in and we went into the shop.
You'll never guess the name of the mechanic's name.
This is true story.
The shop is called Bozo's mechanic and repair.
His name was Bozo.
And I'm like, is there anywhere else?
He's the only mechanic in town.
And it's right beside, this is crazy.
It's right beside another one called Bozo's cinder blocks.
No, I'm just kidding.
I, that's what I thought.
I'm like, this guy's setting it up.
That's what's happening.
And I went in there and he said, hey, guess what?
Back in the back, there's a bunch of broken down old cars.
We have a Thunderbird and we can take the gas tank
and we can put it on.
I'm like, you're kidding.
He said, no, no, and we'll take care of it.
I'm like, that's amazing.
So we waited a few hours.
I remember sitting there in the waiting room
watching the weakest link.
You remember that?
And then, that was a dumb show.
And we got it done.
We got in the car and within a few hours,
we were back on the road listening to Tarzan by Phil Collins
and on our way to Amarillo.
When 30 miles down the road,
our car just stopped.
Pulled over.
It wouldn't even crank.
I'm like, what is going on?
So called triple A again, pulled out my Razor Flip phone
and I called, it's 2001, OK?
And I called them and they said, OK, they came out
and he said, you want us to take you back to Tucumcari
or on to Amarillo?
I said, on to Amarillo.
Went to Amarillo.
We went to the Ford dealership.
Ford dealership said, it's going to be multiple days.
But we sat there and afterward, the guy came back and said,
tell me your story.
We told him the story.
And he said, well, whoever put a new gas tank in here,
forgot to check inside first.
There was a rat's nest.
And the moment you went down the road, it filtered through
your entire system.
This is going to be extensive.
And I about lost my mind on Bozo.
I called my dad.
By the way, isn't it good to have good Christian influence
in your life to calm you down?
He said, no, it's not.
He said, Josh, remember, you got the inch.
He said, go get a hotel.
Go to the mall.
Enjoy yourself.
So we did.
I remember we went to a holiday inn.
Now, you got to understand, we were 20 years old and newly
married on my holiday inn.
And I was like, this is going to be nice.
Walking in the holiday inn.
Like how many nights were like, we're not sure.
We're just going to be here for a while.
We'll let you know.
What time is the breakfast in the morning?
It doesn't need to be continental because it's
a AAA fan, you know.
So nice.
It really was.
Three days in that holiday inn.
There was a mall next to it called Westgate.
You guys remember the 90s, right, malls?
And we walk around that mall every day.
There was a movie theater.
We went to go see Planet of the Apes with Mark Wahlberg.
Terrible movie.
Great actor.
Went to Red Lobster.
No, don't say ew, because it was 2001.
There was nothing better than Red Lobster at that time.
It was back when Chipotle was clean.
Remember that?
I was a joke I should not have said.
I apologize.
And gathered all the receipts.
I remember we had so much fun those three days.
One of Heather and I's favorite stories
take place in that mall.
We're walking and just having a great time holding hands.
And you have to understand the background we came from.
We're very kind of conservative.
And we're newly married.
And so we're still just getting to know how everything
functions.
And we're walking through the mall.
And she reaches over to me.
And she says, come here.
And she wants to this like romantic moment
of giving me a kiss.
She grabs the back of my head.
And she brings me to her.
But we're not practiced, you know?
She brings me in so hard she chips the entire front half
of this too.
True story.
Off.
I have never experienced so much pain and pleasure
in a moment.
Like it was back.
And she said, oh my word.
I'm like, ah!
Ah!
You know, it was so weird.
I walked around for three days going,
let's go to that store, you know?
We talk about it all the time.
We look at that moment as one of the greatest gifts
God ever gave a young couple.
And it ended up being something we would have never planned
and we would have hated if we were told that was going
to have to happen.
What I've noticed in my life is that Jesus
will interrupt the road trip in order
to give you exactly what you need.
And we shouldn't have despised that.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you.