Soul Food

Grab your message notes from your bulletins because this morning we wrap up our Meals with Jesus series. We've been looking at the 10 Meals with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament, and if you look on page 2 of your notes, you can see a handy chart that wraps up what we've done in this series. You can see all 10 of those Meals with Jesus. Somebody once said in the Gospel of Luke Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, coming from a meal, or talking about a meal.

And if you look at how Jesus ate, who he ate with, what he said about food, you really end up with a fully-orbed picture of who Jesus was and what his ministry is all about. And today we are doing the very bottom one, the end of the Gospel of Luke, Luke 24, his final meal with the disciples. What I want to do is set up the context and then read the verses all the way through like a story and then quickly look at four points that are going to apply to you today, especially if you're having a hard time right now.

So context. What we're about to see happens right after, the instant after, the meal that Paul talked about so well last weekend. Quick review, the road to Emmaus. Here's a sketch of the road to Emmaus incident. This is by Rembrandt. He does a beautiful job capturing the scene. What happens is Jesus has died. Now a couple of women have said, "He's alive! He appeared to us!" But it says the disciples kind of dismiss this as old wives' tales. They all huddle together in fear in one room in Jerusalem. This is how devastated the Jesus movement is at this point. All of them can be together in one single room. And it says the doors were locked for fear.

They don't know what to do because Jesus has been killed. Their leader is dead. Now they figure they are definitely next, scared to death to do anything. But two of them decide to make a break for it. It's probably evening or at night. And two of them leave the upper room. Why these two? Well, it says they're going to their home in Emmaus, which is just about seven miles away from Jerusalem. We know pretty much all the rest of Jesus' disciples are from Galilee, which is a two days' journey away. So these two are like, "Let's make a break for it!" It's seven miles away. Like what? That's like maybe north of Santa Cruz to Capitola. So let's just go right now. Right now we think the streets are fairly quiet.

And they're walking along the road. And it says while they're walking, the moment that's captured here, is a stranger comes up and joins them. And it's Jesus. But they're prevented from recognizing him. Why? Well, it's nighttime. Or maybe he has a cowl over his head. They're not expecting him to be alive anyway. Maybe he looks a little different. Maybe it's some kind of Jedi mind trick. We don't know, but they don't recognize him. And he goes, "What are you guys talking about?" They go, "How disappointed we are in Jesus." And then Jesus starts talking to them about their disappointment with Jesus. As you saw Paul talk about last week and get that message, if you didn't get it, he did a great job.

So he starts sharing with them from their own scriptures how they actually prophesied that the Messiah would die and would come to life again. And they're fascinated by this. When they get to their house, seven miles doesn't take that long to walk to, Jesus acts like he's going to go on. They say, "Wait, wait, wait. We want to hear more about this. Come on in and have a late supper with us." And so he sits down and it says, "As he breaks bread," they recognize him. This is another sketch of that moment again by Rembrandt. Suddenly they go, "Whoa, it's Jesus!" Now what was it? It specifies as he broke bread. Was it that they'd seen him break bread a hundred times before and he did it in a certain way? And they went, "Oh, my goodness." Was it the nail marks in his wrist as he hands them the bread? Was it supernaturally? It's revealed to them. Probably a combination of all of those things.

But suddenly they go, "It's Jesus!" They recognize him and he vanishes from their sight. The risen Jesus is very playful, you'll notice. He's like, "Hey boys, he's gone!" And that's where Paul ended last weekend. Why bring all that up? We pick up the story at that same second. One second later, how do they respond to this? Well, it says, "They get up and they run the seven miles all the way back to Jerusalem to that locked room where all the other disciples have been hiding in fear. Let us in, let us in!" Latches get unlatched. They burst into the room next verse. They say, "It's all true! The Lord has risen and he has appeared to Simon." And then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

And watch this, while they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them, "Hey!" And he said to them, "Peace be with you!" In Hebrew this would have been, "Shalom!" Right? He probably was speaking Hebrew or Aramaic. "Shalom!" It says, "They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost." You know Luke, you see what a great sense of humor Luke has. Very dry, wry sense of humor. You'll see it this fall in the book of Acts too. But here, I love this because Jesus pops into the room, "Shalom!" And the disciples are just screaming. Jesus said to them, "Why are you troubled? Why do doubts rise in your minds? Look, my hands, my feet, it is I myself touch me and see a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

This is huge. We're gonna get to what this means in just a second, but it says, "When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet and while they still did not believe it, because of joy and amazement, like it's too good to be true." Have you ever thought about that about the Bible and the resurrection and everything? I'd love to believe it, but it's good to be true. Guess what? That's exactly what these guys were feeling at that moment. They didn't believe it because it was so awesome. He asks them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" And they gave him a piece of broiled fish. I envisioned them, because they think it's a ghost or something, and I envisioned them getting some fish, kind of like Jesus is over there and they kind of go... And they're watching him to see what's gonna happen.

And it says, he goes, "Well, you know, he eats it in their presence and they're convinced." It's a physical Jesus. It's not just a vision because he touched the fish that we gave him. It's not a hallucination. And then he said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, the Psalms," and then he opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures. Do you ever feel like that happened to you when you became a believer? This Bible that was so dense to you. Suddenly it's like, "Whoa, God, it has opened my mind so I can understand."

And then he told them, "This is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." In other words, what the Bible prophesied for a thousand years, you're seeing it unfold in front of your very eyes right in this second. And I am going to send you what my father has promised. Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

The great sports writer Rick Riley tells the true story of a blind basketball player. Here's a picture of him, Matt Stephen, a high school senior in Upper Derby, Pennsylvania. He is completely blind, has been since sixth grade, can't see a thing, and he's on his basketball team. Now for most of the games, he's kind of an equipment manager, but his older brother Joe somehow talked both Matt's high school coach and all the league refs and all the other teams into letting Matt be the team's designated free throw shooter during all the games in one weekend high school basketball tournament.

In other words, when anybody on Matt's team got fouled and it was a shooting foul, Matt went to the line and shot the free throws and he's completely blind. So how in the world does a blind student even make a free throw, right? I can't make a free throw. How does he do it? Well, his brother Joe takes his cane and taps the rim of the basket with his cane. They've done this a thousand times in their driveway, a thousand times at practice, and Matt can make free throws that way when he listens for the taps. That's pretty cool, but how would you feel if you were on his team and the game actually came down to one of Matt's free throws? Well, it did.

The last game of this tournament, Matt's team is down by one. They get a shooting foul with just a second left. That means Matt goes to the line to shoot two baskets. If he makes one, the game is tied 60 all. If he makes both, they win 61-60. If he misses both, they lose 59-60. He gets two tries. So far in the game, Matt has gone to the line six times and he's 0-6. So the crowd is deathly quiet. Matt dribbles, Joe taps, Matt shoots, swish, makes it. Game is tied 60 all. Crowd goes crazy. Finally the refs, everybody on the team is doing this because the crowd has to be perfectly quiet so Matt can hear Joe's taps on the rim of the basket.

Matt's mom took this picture of Matt in the instant before he shot his second shot. He's listening to the tap, tap, tap. Ball goes up. And then she took this picture of swish number two. Now his team leads by one, 61-60. The other team gets it with just seconds left, tries a desperate Hail Mary. It's short. They win the game and Matt is the hero and now in his high school he has a new nickname. When he walks down the hall, everybody says, "Hey, shooter!" That's his new name. And that story is kind of what happens in the passage of the Bible that we just read this morning. Because Jesus gives us taps on the basket to help us stay oriented on the goal when it's dark.

See, he knows that he's about to ascend to heaven. He knows the disciples are going to face some dark times. And so he gives them four concepts, four realities to help them focus when he leaves them. He's about to ascend and return to heaven. And so he says, "I know it's gonna be dark. I know it's gonna be tough. Just remember these four things, these taps on the basket that will orient you and you and I need to hear these things too. Because God knows there will be challenges in your life and maybe you're going through some very dark times right now. Listen very carefully and you will hear the taps on the basket and you'll get reoriented.

I call it a four-course meal for fearful people. The risen Jesus gives me first peace to live on. Peace to live on. Excuse me. Jesus himself, when he appears to them, remember how he says shalom, he says, "Peace be with you." Just that alone. We could stop the sermon right there for some of you. All you need to hear sometimes in the dark is Jesus' voice. Peace be with you. Remember how when you were a kid, sometimes all you needed was somebody to pick you up and pat you on the back and say, "They're there. It's going to be okay." And that's what Jesus says to the disciples and what he always says to you and me.

When you wake up worried in the middle of the night, can you hear him? Peace be with you. When you feel lonely, peace be with you. When you feel miserably guilty, peace be with you. When you feel frightened about what you see on the news, shh, peace be with you. Peace. That word from Jesus is one of the taps on the basket. Now if you say, "Well it's not working." It didn't work for them right away. Remember they're startled and frightened thinking they saw a ghost. They were not expecting this. Even when they saw him, they didn't think it was real. This is really important because there are critics of Christianity who say, "Well clearly the resurrection is just a metaphor. It's symbolic. It's a hallucination. It's some sort of a vision or a dream that they were having." Yeah, that's exactly what they thought.

This is in Scripture to show you Jesus himself said, "No, let me make something very clear. Not a dream. Not a vision. Not a hallucination. Not a ghost. Touch me." A ghost does not have flesh and bones. Then he shows them his hands and feet and then literally goes the extra mile says, "Do you have anything to eat?" And they give him the broiled fish. I love that proving his mission comes down to, "Do you have some gefilte fish in the house?" I love that. But here's why this is so huge and why it's so appropriate that in Luke's Gospel, which is so focused on the meals that Jesus has with different people, that it ends with this little meal.

The physicalness of the meal is proving something. The physicality of that piece of broiled fish is very important because it means first the physical world is not evil. Now this is really, really huge and this is kind of graduate level stuff so put your thinking cap on. But in the ancient world back then, the most influential philosopher in the world was Plato. Plato is still very influential today. He taught a lot of things but this is just a real thumbnail sketch of one concept he taught that was influential in the first century. He basically taught the physical world is bad. The physical world that we inhabit, it is evil, it's untainted, it's irredeemable, it is misleading, and so the only way to truth is spiritual.

You have to divorce yourself from the physical and calm down and focus inward and hear things that are only physical and divorce yourself from what you perceive is reality because the material world is illusory and evil and focus on the spiritual. Physical equals bad, spiritual equals good, and this error has infected Christianity for 20 centuries. Whenever you hear for example monks talking about withdrawing from the physical world and focusing only on the spiritual, that's not from the Bible, that's from Plato. When people these days think about heaven is just spirits floating around on clouds that look like dry ice and strumming harps and wearing diaphanous gowns, that's not from the Bible anywhere, that's from Plato.

But God says no, God made us physical and God looked at the physical world that he made and he said, "Oh it is good!" And when you look at the physical world at a sunset or at the waves crashing or at a beautiful animal or at the redwood forest or at the misty fog or the beautiful sunshine, you go, "It's good!" and you respond to it. That's not bad, that's the image of God in you because God made the physical world including your physicality and he says, "It is good!" And that's why Jesus had to prove he was raised not just spiritually but physically and why a little piece of broiled fish is so important because that is literally a foretaste of what our resurrected life will be like.

The Bible says, "In heaven, in the new heavens and the new earth, you get to eat." Is that like the best news you have heard all week? You get to eat in heaven! The Bible's descriptions of heaven are very, very physical, very earthy, people are always eating and feasting and partying and drinking and not just as a metaphor for real. And when I believe that it really does lead to supernatural peace because it means I'll get to hug my departed loved ones in the Lord again physically, really physically, not just our spirits are joined. It means I physically do not cease to exist. It means I will be physically resurrected. When I die, my spirit goes to be with the Lord, my body's laid to rest here, but at the end of time, earthly, this earth's time, God resurrects us and he brings heaven and earth together and our spirits and our bodies together and we live in the world, pardon me, as it was meant to be. The new heaven and the new earth, Eden again.

Jesus says, "Peace be with you because the resurrection is real and when you die, your life is not over." Man, that's not peace as the world gives. That is supernatural peace and it gets better because second he gives them a paradigm to live through. This is a completely paradigm-shattering little speech he gives them here. What's a paradigm? A worldview, a filter, a frame that you look at the world through and if your paradigm's wrong, you just can't understand stuff because it doesn't fit into your little box. Well, check this out. The disciples had a Messiah box. When the Messiah showed up, he was gonna kick out the Romans. In fact, he was gonna kill some Romans. So when Jesus shows up, he gets killed by the Romans? Well, that's proof he's not the Messiah because the Messiah is gonna kill Romans, not get killed by Romans and so that shows he was a failure, right? Because he suffered and died under the Romans.

Well, what Jesus does to the disciples at Emmaus and the disciples in the upper room is he just shifts their paradigm. He goes, "Actually, let me show you something. In the Hebrew Scriptures, which were written centuries before Jesus was born, it actually predicts exactly what was going to happen in the Messiah. He's going to suffer and it predicts exactly how he's going to suffer and die and then it predicts exactly how he's even gonna be resurrected and why. It says, I love this verse, I love the phrase, "He opened their minds." By the way, that's what Jesus does. He doesn't close minds. He opens minds. Are you ready for your mind to be opened here? You might never have seen some of this stuff before.

It says he shows them how he was predicted in three different parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, the law of Moses. Now, where's Jesus prophesied in the law of Moses? Two weeks ago, I showed you here, I put a table on stage, showed you how he was foretold in the Passover meal and if you missed that message, you can check it out online for free but it's super important to understand and then he says, "And the prophets." What could he have been talking about there? Luke doesn't tell us where he went. I'll bet he went, for example, to Isaiah 53 where it predicts exactly that the Messiah is going to suffer and die, be resurrected and why. Watch just three verses. "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are..." What? Well, that means it wasn't some tragic mistake that he was wounded. That was God's plan. By his wounds were healed and it even describes how Jesus will be buried. He was assigned a grave with the wicked. Now watch this, and with the who? Rich in his death. Jesus was buried in a borrowed rich man's tomb and it says, "He will rise again. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied and by knowledge of him my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities."

So the point of the Messiah wasn't to kick Romans out, it was to justify many and to bear their sins completely describes and explains the whole purpose for the crucifixion and resurrection. Written in Isaiah hundreds and hundreds of years before any of this actually happened. Talk about opening your minds and then third it says he pointed out the Psalms. Now the other two are a little easier but where in the world is Jesus prophesied in the Psalms? Well among other places I think he must have taken them to Psalm 22 and here's why. Just three days before the disciples as they fled and maybe be peaking at this from a distance. They had seen Jesus on the cross and they heard his death cries. He hung there and shouted, "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?" Why did he scream that? Hasn't that ever been a mystery to you? Why did Jesus say that? Why is that in the Bible? I heard the atheist writer Christopher Hitchens say in his moment of death Jesus Christ himself lost faith as proven by his death cry. Is that what happened?

Psalm 22 written 1,000 years before Christ first verse, "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?" Now wait a minute because could this mean that Jesus's death cry was predicted here in Psalm 22? If Psalm 22 is about the death of Jesus then the rest of it should also be about the death of Jesus. Watch this as Psalm 22 unfolds verse 16, "They pierce my hands and feet." And this was hundreds of years before crucifixion was even invented. "People stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. All who see me mock me. They hurl insults shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord. They say, 'Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him.'" Not only is what Jesus said prophesied, but what his enemies shouted at him is prophesied. Minds open.

I think the disciples must have gotten goosebumps as they realized everything that we just saw as tragedy because of our paradigm. Now that's been turned upside down because of this new paradigm. It's actually all part of God's plan. And this is such a tap in the dark for you and for me. Because if you ever have doubts, and we all do, I like this story about Jesus, but is it really real? Is it really true? It's exactly what the disciples were thinking. Jesus says, "Let me kind of put your minds at ease because how else do you explain these amazing prophecies? You can know Jesus is the Messiah and that paradigm is going to help you to endure anything with hope because it means history's not random. It means God has a plan. It means there's reasonable evidence to believe in Jesus and it gets better because third he gives them purpose to live for.

He says, "Now that you know this is true, let me give you a purpose. Spread the word." You know I'm a huge Tolkien Lord of the Rings fan. Anybody else here like the Lord of the Rings books or movies? I love them and I just want to show you a little two-minute clip from one of the movies. All right? The two hobbits, Frodo and Sam, in this scene they feel like everything is going wrong in their quest and in the war. Now they can't see it, but on fields of battle many, many miles away from them the tide of battle is actually turning into victory, but from their perspective all is dark. Now watch what happens next. Look at the screen.

"I can't do this." "I know. It's so wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here." "We are. It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing. The shadow. Even darkness was passing. A new day will come and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back when they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. What do we have a long to send? That there's some good in this world Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

Don't you find that inspiring? I just love that. There is some good in this world and it is worth fighting for. And listen you could say that what Jesus says to us is that our purposes we know that there is ultimate good in this world and it's worth living for. And it's worth loving for. What's the ultimate good? God loved this world so much that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. And that's our purpose to share that good news like Jesus talks about. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations and you're my witnesses.

Now check this out. He says to them you have this purpose so how did they do? How did the small band of believers in that little locked room who could fit into one room, how did they do? Well they turned the world upside down. And this fall in our Acts series you're going to see how those same disciples started there in that little room in Jerusalem and then literally spread out to all nations. I am so stoked about this series because it's like one of those stories Sam talked about. In every chapter there's another adventure. There's spies and serpents and shipwrecks and assassins and in the midst of it all when they're unjustly imprisoned or when there's riots against them and it looks like everything is dark you can just see the wheels turning in their brains.

In every case they hear the tap in the dark and they remember Jesus' call and they reorient and remember oh yeah I'm here to be a witness. Let me take a shot. And it's the same for you no matter what is happening. You are there to be a witness in the hospital, in traffic on highway one, in a difficult family situation even at the Department of Motor Vehicles waiting in line for two hours. And you're joking but my wife was in line at the DMV this week and she's sitting in those rows of chairs, the standard you know all of great plastic chairs they have in every government office all over the world and she's sitting right behind a woman who's talking with a person there at the DMV and she listens as the woman starts sharing her faith with this person at the DMV and it comes up very naturally and the woman just starts saying you know I'd like to invite you into what kind of a book club that our church is doing this fall based on the book of Acts and one thing turns into another stuck at the DMV. You can be a witness.

By the way Laurie she came up to me after the first service and she said I saw your wife back there but that's not why I was witnessing I would have done it anyway. But wherever you are listen you got purpose to live for but the best news is this Jesus promises power to live on. You don't even have to do all this in your own strength. I want to show you this I started with the story of Matt Stephen the basketball player. Look at this great quote that's this wise high school senior has he says for most people seeing is believing. Well for me not seeing means believing. In fact the only thing that's going to help me is believing in what I can't see believing in my big brother believing in what I can do when I hear his taps.

Well you know what's going to help you when you're in the dark believing in what you can't see but what is promised here. Jesus says you're going to be clothed with power from on high. He specifically means you are going to get the power of the Holy Spirit the same power that raised Christ from the dead is in you. That means you are not alone when you're there in the dark. Let me close with a story in late 1964 communist rebels besieged a town in Zaire Africa and they executed many citizens and rounded up a bunch of them to be executed among them a pastor by the name of Zebedayo Ido. Max Lekato tells a story Zebedayo was sentenced to death by firing squad and he was placed in jail for the night with hundreds of other men.

The next morning he and a large number of prisoners are taken to a public place for execution and with no explanation the official tells all the prisoners to line up in a straight line and he says count off one two one two and they count off one two one two one two one two one two and he says all the ones over to the wall were going to shoot you. All the twos back to jail for another day. Pastor Zebedayo was a two. He and the other twos are herded back into that jail cell and while they're there they can hear the shots going off and the ones being executed. All is dark. It looks like there is no hope. But Pastor Zebedayo hears the taps. Like Christians have been doing for 20 centuries remembering no Jesus is alive and that gives me peace and that means that there's a whole new paradigm. There's the resurrection and it's real. There's life after this. I don't have to be afraid. I don't have to despair and I've got a purpose to live for right here and I've got power to do that purpose.

And so in that moment Pastor Zebedayo preaches a gospel message. He tells people about the hope of heaven at the moment that they think they're facing death. And when he finishes eight of those prisoners pray to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And as he's wrapping up his prayer a guard says this message has come for you and a soldier steps in and he says I don't know how this happened but Pastor Zebedayo you were arrested by mistake. You are released to go back to your church. And he walks back confused and he goes back to his church where he was expecting to find it empty and just to go back to his office but he finds the church is packed with people praying for his release. And as he walks not knowing this is going on as he walks in the back door they all look back and they see the answer to the prayer is walking in the door of the church. And the prayer meeting turns into a praise meeting. True story.

But how did he get the strength to do that in that moment of darkness? He remembered how Jesus oriented us all and how he can orient you no matter how dark it is right now if you hear the taps. Let's pray together would you bow your head with me. Heavenly Father I just want to pray for anybody here who is going through a dark dark time right now. And I pray that they would say something like this just an honest prayer. God it is so dark I cannot see the way out but when I can't see help me to believe in what I cannot see but what I hear you saying through scripture I can have peace I can have a new paradigm I can have a certain purpose and I have power. Help me to reorient myself that way.

And God I just want to extend the same invitation that Pastor Zebediah did if there's anybody here on this independence weekend who hasn't yet received you that they take the next step in their journey with you by praying Lord Jesus I receive you into my life as my Lord as my Savior. I don't even understand it all but I'm eager to join that little band of followers that left that room and spread your good news to the world because this world needs that news. And God we also want to pray for the world. May the gospel of peace make inroads into every heart even the hearts of violent people like those who are carrying out these attacks. We've even heard about this week all over the world and strengthen the believers in those countries to respond with your purpose and your peace and your power and your paradigm and power them and in your name we pray. Amen.