THE ENCOUNTER (LUKE 24:13-35)

Dennis Rainey of Family Life tells this cute story: As grandpa Bob drove into the driveway he could see his 4-year-old granddaughter, Julie, and a couple of her friends playing in the backyard. It was almost Easter and he wanted to know how much these children knew about the Easter story. Approaching the three little girls he asked, “Who knows why we celebrate Easter every year?”
One friend chirped up first: “Oh, that’s when you go sit on the big bunny rabbit’s lap and tell him what you want in your Easter basket.”
Her second pal’s answer was no better: “No, no, no! It’s when you get a tree and hang eggs on it—and you wake up on Sunday and there’s presents under it and …”
At this point Grandpa interrupted and gently said, “Those are good guesses. Julie, do you know why we celebrate Easter?”
Julie nodded her head. “It’s when Jesus was crucified. He died, and His disciples put His body in the grave. Then, on the third day, the stone rolled away …”
Grandpa was really encouraged that Julie knew so many details, she continued
“… And then the entire town would come out by the grave,” “And if Jesus came out and saw his shadow, they knew there would be six more weeks of winter!”

What would you say if you were asked why we celebrate Easter I am afraid some of our answers can be as confused as those Children’s answers were. My neighbor business man painted flowers and bunnies on his glass door to remind people of the season. Here in the west, Easter coincides with Spring season. Beautiful spring flowers, cute baby animals are born this time of year, the bunnies, ducklings and chicks. So is Easter merely a Spring holiday? Or is there more to it?
For me Easter is one big Encounter. The word Encounter means, “A coming together, especially when casual or unexpected. Let me share with you a face to face Encounter of two people who were on the Road to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. They Encountered Jesus and their lives were transformed.

Background: Over the centuries the city of Jerusalem has always been a city of religious importance for God fearing Jews. They made several trips back and forth from Jerusalem in search of peace and hope. On Palm Sunday Christ along with his disciples made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem among a huge fan fare of Jews shouting Hosanna.. which means “Lord Save us” Seeing these crowds many living in Jerusalem at that time had hoped that finally the messiah has come and he would deliver them from the tyranny of Romans. Contrary to their expectations Jesus was crucified and has been buried now for three days. The dejected and frightened disciples were scattered all around and some of them even made plans to leave Jerusalem for fear of persecution. We pick up our story from here.

1. A DIVINE ENCOUNTER(Vs 13-16)
The first Easter Sunday was a day full of encounters. Some shocking and unexpected things have happened. The highly protected tomb where Jesus was buried became empty, two angles appeared to the frightened women and said “He is not here; He has risen.” The women in turn went back to the disciples and reported all they had seen and were told. On the same day two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. As they were walking and talking along unexpectedly “Jesus himself” came and joined them, but they were kept from recognizing. It was a divine encounter.

What was so divine in this encounter? First of all it was “Jesus Himself who came to join them” It was his initiation. Secondly though Jesus was with them they couldn’t recognize Him, why? Because they were kept from recognizing Him, we see this a few times playing out after the resurrection. In the same way even today Christ may be walking closer with you than you realize. Unless Jesus opens our eyes we too remain blind to his presence and his work in our lives.

II. A HOPE ENCOUNTER :( Vs 17-24)
As the three of them walked and talked, Jesus asked them what are you discussing together as you walk along? Look at their response “they stood still, their faces downcast, sad, gloomy or sullen.” What made them so sad? Obviously the horrific death of their close friend and master, but more than that they were sad because of something else. When Jesus pressed them further they shared what they knew about Jesus of Nazareth. They said he was a prophet, and was powerful in word and deed. They also shared how he was sentenced to death and crucified. This is what made them so sad, “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

The Jews had been waiting for a deliverer or a messiah for a long time. When finally Jesus appeared on the scene they thought their redemption was near. They pinned their hopes on Jesus, but with his crucifixion all their hopes seemed to have disappeared. When you are teenager you have lots of dreams and hopes about the future. Young girls dream of a beautiful life which consists to be out and about on the weekend, to be a slim trim 135 pounds, a size 8 dress, a college degree, a nice little home in suburbia with a white picket fence with Ikea furniture, and two or three children. That is an ideal dream. But the hard reality is that not all dreams and hopes will be realized. Boy when that happens, it is painful. The Bible says Hope differed makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Prov 13:12

The disciples thought, now Christ is dead all hopes and dreams have come to nothing but they did not realize that they were just having a hope Encounter with Jesus. Paul urged the Thessalonians to “put on the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Thess 4:9

III. A TRUTH ENCOUNTER.
Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion, the burial, the death and resurrection were all prophesied long ago by prophets and reiterated by Jesus a number of times. Yet the disciples could not grasp it otherwise they would not have searched for the dead among the living. When the women came and reported to the eleven apostles about what the angels had told them the disciples did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. For the past two hundred years so many skeptics developed a number of theories to discredit the fact of the resurrection. One among them was the Swoon theory, The Swoon Hypothesis refers to a number of theories that aim to explain the resurrection of Jesus, proposing that Jesus didn't die on the cross, but merely fell unconscious ("swooned"), and was later revived in the tomb in the same mortal body.”

The Swoon theory may sound plausible to a skeptic today but how silly and strange it may have sounded to a Roman soldier who knew how to tell when their victims were dead. The scriptures tell us when the time came to remove the bodies from the crosses the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two thieves, but when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, instead one of the soldiers pierced Jesus side with a speak, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (John 19:32-36)

How else do we know that the resurrection is true? The whole account was written by Luke who was not only a first-class historian but also a physician who investigated the matter with the greatest of care. (Lk.1:1-4). (Col. 4:14), Luke having a scientific background, would not have been persuaded of a resurrection from the dead except on the ground of the most compelling evidence. Jesus said “I am the way and truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

IV. A POWER ENCOUNTER.
When my Mom died in 1989, before she was buried I went to her dead body and earnestly prayed that she would live again but that didn’t happen. We don’t hear many stories where dead people come back to life. On any account it would be highly impossible for a dead person to come back to life that too after being in the grave for three days. But when something like that happens it is nothing but a miracle. There were many such incidents recorded in the bible where dead came back to life, Hebrews 11:35 “Women received back their dead by resurrection;” I do believe that miracles do happen even today. Reinhard Bonke a German evangelist shared and incident where a Nigerian pastor came back to life in one of his crusades.

Jesus said while he was still alive, John 10:17 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. Easter is a Power encounter where God demonstrated his power by raising Jesus from the dead. Acts 2:24, "And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” The women told the disciples that Christ was raised from the dead but they didn’t believe their words initially until they had a power encounter with Jesus.

No matter how many Proofs are given to attest to the fact that God exists and Christ has indeed died, buried and risen from the dead on the third day, some skeptics will refuse to believe until they too have a power encounter. On the other hand there are those hard core atheists like those while studying at Harvard who found God and their testimonies are recorded in a book called “Finding God at Harvard” by Kelly Monroe. Jesus demonstrated divine power throughout his ministry on earth. After he rose from the dead he showed his power by appearing and disappearing, entering closed door, opening spiritual eyes and in the end by ascending into heaven, only to come back to take all of his children to be with him forever.

V. A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER (28-32)
We live in a highly pluralistic society where so many religions, cults and ideologies exist. There has been no historical evidence of any of the heads or the founders of these groups have come back to life once they were dead and gone. Then what makes Christianity unique? Its claims and criticism have endured over the centuries, but above all Christ’s resurrection. Luke a doctor recorded in Acts 1:3 “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. During that time he made several personal appearances:

He appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:15), to the frightened disciples three times: Once while the doors were still closed (John 20:19). Secondly a week later made an exclusive appearance to Thomas and thirdly after disciples caught the largest amount of fish to Peter. It was a special heart to heart talk with him after that he restored Peter back to ministry. He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at the same time, and finally to Saul on the Road of Damascus.

In this narrative Christ walked and talked with these two disciples on the Road to Emmaus. It was one of the most personal and intimate appearances where he took time and explained all the Scriptures from Moses and all the prophets concerning himself. As they approached the village Jesus acted like as if he were going farther. The disciples insisted that he would stay with them only then Jesus went in to stay with them.

He is still the same, he never pushes his way. Jesus said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Rev 3:20. There are millions of people around the world who have responded to that gentle knock and opened their hearts to the Lord, I am one of them. How about you, have you ever had such a personal encounter with Jesus?

For these two disciples their Journey to Emmaus brought them in direct contact with the risen Lord. Though they walked with Jesus they did not realize it was Him. Jesus rebuked them with these words, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets of spoken.” After that face to face encounter with Jesus the disciples were transformed. They could hardly wait to get back to Jerusalem so the returned at once to Jerusalem. Upon finding the eleven disciples they reported everything what happened to them. They reported “it is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.

Some of you may identify with these two disciples. You may be attending Church for quite a while now, heard the truth of God’s word Sunday after Sunday but just like them you may not have been believing it for yourself. As those disciples invited Jesus into their home we too have to invite Jesus into our life. When the disciples had an Encounter with Jesus their lives were totally transformed. Have you had an encounter with Jesus? Today could be the day for a first time encounter with Jesus, for some of you it may be an encounter of affirmation like Peter had. You may need to hear Jesus’ words speaking hope and purpose into your life once again.