beautifully broken

Luke 24 Summary:

At this point, Jesus “should” be in the tomb…dead. But, he wasn’t!Women found that the stone had been rolled away. Two angels appeared to the women to ask them why they were looking among the dead for someone that was alive. The angels specifically said, “Remember what he (Jesus) told you back in Galilee? That the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day”. Several women went back and told the eleven disciples the news. They all thought it was nonsense.

The same day, two of Jesus’ followers were walking seven miles to Emmaus, talking about what they had heard, when they were suddenly in the presence of Jesus, the risen Savior. But, “God kept them from recognizing him.” (vs 16). They talked to Jesus about himself! Basically, they were discussing that they thought they had been following a Savior all along but he just ended up…dead, nothing supernatural about it. Their faith had crumbled! They lost hope in who Jesus said he was before the crucifixion. Jesus noticed this and as they walked, he told the men all the writings of Moses and the prophets, explaining all the Scriptures concerning himself. Basically, Jesus gave these men a VIP bible lesson! The men, still not knowing that this is Jesus, invited him in to eat. Jesus then broke the bread…and it was then, in that moment, that they recognized him!! They were shocked, confused, and probably scared…but then…Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures he had shared with them as they were walking earlier.

1. You don’t have to know everything about God to share what God’s doing.

• The women were the first to see. They shared it and people thought they were crazy!
• A woman shouldn’t be discouraged on sharing the gospel
• Nonbelievers, or people that doubt you…don’t get discouraged if they don’t believe you as a woman. Our job is to share what Jesus did…Jesus just showing up in our life….

2. People don’t recognize Jesus for who He is. Regardless of how much we think we know, we never fully grasp who Jesus is.

• The men knew stuff. They were his followers…but Jesus had to tell them more which is why we must constantly pursue him.
• It takes Jesus Christ revealing who he is for people to truly grasp that…never our words…but who he is and what he did on the cross is what grasps people to His word and to the cross.

3. The closest we come to grasping who Jesus Christ is, is understanding what he did on the cross.

• You don’t’ have to be the smartest person to share what God’s doing…you’ve just got to share what God’s doing…which is what the women did…which planted a seed for the men that were walking…and because the women planted the seed, it opened the door for Christ to show up, unrecognized, until they understood what He did on the cross….through the breaking of the bread which was the piercing of his body.

Application: The moment we recognize the potential that Christ’s body has on our lives, we can grasp a portion of who He is and the promises that will unfold in our lives. The men were knowledgeable of who Jesus was and what he said he wanted to do…but they didn’t actually apply it until they recognized what His body meant.