Resurrected Dreams–Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. At Emmaus, the resurrected Jesus walked with disciples so sorrowful that they did not even recognize Him. But their hearts were strangely warmed by this passerby. Inviting Him to dinner, they found themselves face to face with the one they loved but never really understood.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, you're speaking on the vanishing power of death, and again today, your subject is dreams. Yes, and the reason that the subject is dreams is because, as you know, the disciples went to Emmaus and they told Jesus, not knowing that they were actually speaking to Him, about the sad things that had happened in Jerusalem. As far as they were concerned, it was the end of a beautiful life.

They loved Jesus, but now He was dead, and they had no hope for the future. But of course, as we know, there was indeed hope for the future because they finally recognized Christ when they invited Him in for something to eat. We're making available to you a book I've written entitled The Vanishing Power of Death. The subtitle is Conquering Your Greatest Fear, and at the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be giving you some info as to how this book can be yours, and I'll tell you that I believe it is important. It will give you hope.

It will enable you to counsel others who are going through times of difficulty, wondering about their own death. But in addition to that, it's all about Jesus and how Jesus Christ is the one whom we trust all the way to the finish line. First of all, he says, disciples, you should have known and you should have believed the promises of Scripture.

You'll notice it says, how foolish, I'm in verse 25, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.

Don't you wish that you had been there? Wouldn't it have been wonderful to run a tape recorder to see what Jesus had to say about Himself? They didn't know that they were in the presence of the One who was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. I can imagine that He began with a book of Genesis and explained how that the Messiah was the seed of the woman and there would be conflict, and the woman's seed would crush the head of the serpent. Then I can imagine Him going into the book of Exodus and talking about the Passover lamb and explaining once again how the Israelites had to kill a lamb and put blood on their door and those who had blood on their door, the angel of death would pass over them, which is where the word Passover comes from, and they would be exempt from God's judgment and how the Messiah was now the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world and He had to die on a cross, He had to be crucified so that that blood would be shed so that we would be spared from the consequences of our sins. Then I can imagine He gets to the Psalms, Psalm 22, and points out to the disciples, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That that description of crucifixion was actually fulfilled just three days before when Messiah was dying on the cross. And then He got to Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. He died for our sins.

And notice Christ's point. He's saying to them, you should have known that first of all, first of all, He must suffer and then enter into glory. You're right about all the prophecies about political deliverance.

You're right about the fact that someday the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You're right about that, that great days are coming, but the suffering comes first. The grime comes before the glory and the cross has to come before the crown.

The order is important. Today we have television preachers that tell us that we can be healed whenever we want to be, that we can have wealth whenever we want to be. And they're right that the Bible talks about these things, but they forget the fact that, first of all, in this life we must be willing to suffer. This is a life that is not easy, but the suffering eventually leads to glory. There are some people who wanted all right now.

They say, give it to me now. And they're confused regarding the order of how it is to occur. And so the scripture says, first of all, there is suffering and then there is glory. And what Jesus is saying to these disciples whose dreams have been shattered as he speaks to us as well is this, remember the promises of scripture. And we do not interpret this life simply on the basis of what we see. There's a life to come. There is glory that lies ahead.

We do live in a good Friday world to be sure where there is injustice and cruelty and bloodshed and violence. And we do all that we possibly can to overcome it. But at the end of the day, we know that there's going to be this until this world ends. And in the meantime, we look to the glory that shall be revealed. And it is that that gives us hope. God doesn't have to answer all of our prayers now to be faithful to his promises. And so Jesus says to them, first of all, you have to believe in the promises of God, but you say, well, pastor Luther, does that mean all that we can do now is to simply grin and bear it and, and wait for the future? No, there's another part to Jesus Christ's answer. You'll notice the scripture says that verse 28, as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly and said, stay with us for it is nearly evening.

The day is almost over. So he went to stay with them while he was at the table with them. He took bread and gave thanks and broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared out of their sight. Wow.

What a story. Isn't it interesting that the one who is invited in he's invited as a guest. He now becomes the host. The one who is invited to receive is now the one to give. And as he breaks bread, they say, this is Jesus very probably because as they saw his hands, they saw the nail scars and they remembered this one is the Messiah.

We're in the presence of the one whom we love our dreams. Weren't shattered after all. And then suddenly boom, Jesus disappears. You say, well, pastor Luther, do you actually believe this story that Jesus disappeared? The answer is yes, because you know, his body was a resurrected body.

It had a different molecular structure. He could go through doors. He couldn't be in two places at one time with that body, but he could travel very quickly from one place to another. Some of you who are visiting here today, it may wonder what kind of a place is Moody church anyway? What do you, what do you all believe you're wondering? So just to clarify, I wanted you to know that we actually believe this stuff here at Moody church because we believe we believe in a resurrected savior who is capable of all kinds of miracles.

And so Jesus disappears and the Bible says that they say to one another, we're not our hearts burning within us while he talked to us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. That's why, that's why we were so intrigued. That's why he knew so much.

That's why he was able to get it right. And then we read that that very evening they got up and returned once again to Jerusalem. It didn't matter whether thieves were along the way. It didn't matter whether it was dark.

Didn't matter whether they were tired. They'd already walked the seven miles. They had just completed the journey. But you know, there's something about meeting Jesus that makes you want to go find someone else to tell you to tell about Jesus. And as a result of that, they go back and they're saying to everyone, guess what? The risen Christ appeared to us.

It says that there they found the 11 and those with them assembled together saying, it's true. The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon. And then the two told what happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke bread. And now notice in verse 36, while they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be unto you. If the first answer to shattered dreams is to properly interpret and believe the promises of scripture, the second is the reminder of the fact that Jesus Christ is with us among his people. He is with his people in body.

He is with his people in spirit. And he says to us today, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.

Depend upon it. I have not left you alone. I will come to you. In fact, Jesus said that the reason I'm going to heaven is so that I can give the Holy Spirit of God who will come and indwell the lives of all those who know Christ as savior.

And as a result, you can be assured of my presence. I am with you till the end of the world. Let's boil this down where we are today so that we can pick our own shattered dreams up off the floor and understand its relevance to us today. First of all, I want us to realize that when Jesus was raised from the dead in that resurrection, he brought every one of our shattered dreams with him. And he took those shattered dreams and he will someday give us their fulfillment. Just like you find that God would not create a fish unless he created water so that the fish would have a place to swim. In the very same way, God would not have created these longings for the eternal, these desires. He would not have given those to us unless there was a place where those desires would be fulfilled. What is your deep desire today?

What is your shattered dream? Is it a physical problem? Is it because of the fact that maybe you have been involved in some tragedy? Maybe you are suffering from some illness.

Maybe the doctor came to you and told you things about your body that you thought could only be true of someone else. And you say to yourself, oh, this is the end. I begin to see the end coming.

I will never be able to enjoy life again. I want you to know today that when Jesus was raised from the dead with that resurrection, he gave a promise of health, of beauty, of strength. All that we need to do is to look at how Jesus Christ's body functioned with that tremendous power that we spoke about.

The ability to say the word and to go from one place to another. And we shall be like him, the Bible says, for we shall see him as he is like Christ. You want to know what you're going to look like? Just look at the resurrected Jesus. You'll notice in the text, incidentally, that our resurrection body will have flesh and bones.

It says in verse thirty seven, Jesus is speaking. Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself.

Touch me. A ghost does not have flesh and bones. As you see, I have. We're not going to be ghosts someday.

Aren't you glad for that? We're going to have resurrected bodies. In fact, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they did not could scarcely believe because of joy and amazement, he says to him, and this will be of great comfort to many of you. Is there anything here to eat? And he ate with them. So we will even eat with our resurrection body. Say I have one great dream, and that is for good food.

It's coming. Some of you say my shattered dream is my family. I've been betrayed in relationships. I feel lonely.

I feel as if there's a part of me that is missing. You'll notice that Jesus gathers the disciples here and he eats with them as a sign of fellowship. And you remember what he said to Mary? He said, Mary, don't touch me because I'm ascending to my father and to your father and to your God and my God.

Think that through. He's saying, Mary, I want you to know from now on, God, of course, is my father, but he's your father, too. And that means that you and I are brother and sister. We are now members of the same family. We are brought into the fellowship of believers and this begins already on this earth and will eventually be completed because one of the things that will happen in heaven is this, that the intimacy that you now enjoy with the nuclear family, those of you who have good families, that intimacy is now going to be broadened to include all the people of God so that we will have fellowship not only with Jesus Christ, but with one another. The deepest longings of the human heart for acceptance and belongingness are met by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You say, oh, Pastor Lutzer, my dream has been shattered.

My my dream was to have some wealth and some security. You know what it says about those who are redeemed? It says he who overcomes, I shall give to him all things because we are brothers of Christ. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

And every shattered dream will someday be put back together and fulfilled. But there's a second lesson that comes to us, and that is that Jesus does walk with us in our disappointment and our pain. Here along the way to Emmaus, they did not recognize him, but Jesus was there. And after Jesus appeared in Jerusalem, keep in mind that Jesus traveled that distance twice that day, once while he was walking with them, and then a second time where at the split of a second, he went from Emmaus to Jerusalem with his glorified body. But mark this well, he was just as much with them on the way back to Jerusalem as he was with them on the way to Emmaus, because the Lord's presence is with us. God will never abandon you.

He will never leave you alone. He walks with us, but sometimes we don't recognize him. Our eyes are hidden and we don't know that Jesus is next to us.

Remember that old story about the man who was walking along and saw two sets of footprints, and then on a piece he saw only one set of footprints, and those were the footprints that were present when he was going through a tremendous difficulty. And so he said to Jesus, Jesus, you walked by my side, but when I needed you the most, you abandoned me. And Jesus said, no, when you needed me the most, I picked you up and I carried you.

He's with his people. Finally, I want to emphasize this, though, that if you do not invite Jesus into your life, he will go on by. You'll notice what the text says as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going further, and he would have, except for the fact that they constrained him.

They said, please stay with us. And so Jesus stayed. I want you to know that the blessings that I've been talking about, the shattered dreams that are going to be put back together, is really only a message for those who trust Jesus as Savior, who have invited him into their lives and who have trusted him to be the one to take away their sin. And the reason for that is very obvious, is that God cannot do all of these things for those who are alienated from him, but only for those who have been reconciled to him by the death of the cross. Suffering must precede the glory.

First the cross, then the crown. I urge you today, I urge you with all that is within me, to realize that Jesus is the only qualified Savior because no one else is able to shield us from the judgment of God. Like that Passover lamb with blood on our door, the justice and the judgment of God goes on by because we've been accepted by one whom the Father has accepted. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's amen to Christ's verdict on the cross. It is finished.

It is finished. And he invites you today to believe and to trust him. If we had time, I'd show you in the text of Scripture, it says that their eyes were opened and they realized his presence. And a little later on, it says in verse 45, he opened their minds that they might understand the Scriptures. To understand the presence of Jesus, to understand also the wonder of his purpose. That belongs to those whose eyes have been opened to believe on him.

There are some of you here, God bless you. And you know within your heart that you are one of the ones in whom the Holy Spirit is working and you are being asked, as it were, by the Spirit to open your life and your heart to Jesus, the only one who can reconcile us to God and give us the return of our shattered dreams. Because I want you to know, and I want to say this very clearly, if you do not trust Christ, every shattered dream will become a horrid nightmare of misery and unending regret. Only Christ, the one who is raised, is qualified to give us our dreams back.

A little girl was dying in the hospital and the doctor being somewhat negligent thought that she could not hear what he said. And he said to her mother, poor little child, her best days are over. But the little girl was able to hear and she whispered, no, my best days are still to come. And if we trust Christ, our best days are still to come. As a matter of fact, it says he who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne even as I overcame and sat with my father on his throne. And we will sing throughout all of the ages, the glory and the hallelujahs of God, as we give praise to the one who redeemed us, the one who is Lord, and the one who says, I am the resurrection and the life. All right, from my heart to yours, I have a question for you.

Are your best days still in the future? Is your faith and trust in Jesus Christ so that no matter what happens in this world, you know that you will have a welcome in the world to come? Running to win exists to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to millions of people. Nothing gives us more delight than when we receive reports of people confessing Christ as Lord. Others are encouraged in the Christian life.

And that's actually our desire for you. Now I want to ask you a question. You remember when the disciples were on their way to Emmaus, how once they invited him in for something to eat, eventually he disappeared.

Why did he do that? It's because he wanted them to know that even if they could not see him, he was with them. And we cannot see the risen Christ today, but we know that he is with us. Do you want to be blessed by a book? I believe that The Vanishing Power of Death is indeed a book that will bless you. It'll encourage you.

It'll help you face your own mortality. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available to you. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, because here's what you can do. Write down rtwoffer.com.

You go to your computer, rtwoffer.com, or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember the purpose of Christ's coming, to take away the fear of death. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. As we think of the resurrection of Jesus, we recall a doubting disciple who needed solid evidence before believing the master was really alive. Jesus showed him his wounded hands and side, saying, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Next time on Running to Win, we meet Thomas. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.