On the Road to Emmaus
Download MP3So, part of the rhythm of what we do at Redeemer is we often have a time where people share testimonies. We do that every few weeks. Easter is no exception to that. And so, this morning, I've asked Dwight and Stephanie Castle if they would come and they would share with us. And this is really going to be the part b to their testimony because part a was a little over a year ago when we prayed for them before we sent them off to Philadelphia, in which they had these lovely girls.
Jeffrey Heine:If you remember, we told this a little over a year ago, but when Dwight found out that Stephanie was pregnant, he came over. We sat on the front porch together. We were talking it through, because he just found out they're gonna be twins. You were a little frazzled. Just a little.
Jeffrey Heine:And, anyway, I mentioned this. So what what is what is your biggest fear in all of this? And Dwight said, honestly, my biggest fear is that these twins would be conjoined. I couldn't imagine anything worse. And he said, you know, the ultra sounds have shown they're they're really close together, but, I mean, it's very very very very unlikely that would ever happen.
Jeffrey Heine:But that's my worst fear. And I said, well, let's go there. Let's talk about what that would look like if that were to happen. And we went there, and I just asked Dwight at the end of it. I said, Dwight, would Jesus be enough if all of that happened?
Jeffrey Heine:Would he be enough? And so now we get the part b of that. And so I'm excited to hear from you guys.
Speaker 2:Joel said that 3 three times now to us this morning, and, the answer is yes. Jesus is enough. And it's more of a serious, sober minded question and answer each time I answer it. But, undoubtedly, Jesus is enough. We're going to tell a little bit about that today.
Speaker 2:There's zero chance I'll make it through it without crying. 0. So let's just get that out of the way right now.
Speaker 3:I'm Stephanie. I have Elizabeth who we're having trouble with her keeping her feeds down, so she might, spit up. But we have 5 children, Morris, Mac, Judah, and Emmett, and then, these 2, Suzanne and Elizabeth. And they were conjoined. They were conjoined from their, sternum to their belly button, and they shared a liver and some small intestines.
Speaker 3:Sorry. Am I okay? You're good. Okay. And they were separated in December in Philadelphia.
Speaker 3:We moved there last April for the birth and for some preparation surgery and for the separation in December, and we we just got home the end of February. So, it's it's a joy to be here today. We we left right after Easter last year, so the fact that we're home this Easter is amazing. We didn't think that that would be a hard feat, but then things kept going and changing, and we realized we're gonna be lucky if we ever make it home. So here we are, and we're so thankful to be here sharing with you today.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It was actually really hard to try to figure out what to share today with this time. There's, as you can imagine, a lot
Jeffrey Heine:that
Speaker 2:we could say. And, you know, we we've wanted to tell our story throughout this whole thing and be honest about the hard and the good, the Lord's provision in the midst of a lot of suffering. And we recognize the challenges of that. You know, when when we were thinking about sharing today, we thought, you know, there are people in this church who will hear us who who have suffered greater losses this year than we have. So that's sober minding for us to to think about.
Speaker 2:And, you know, at the same time, like, not many I don't think anyone here has had conjoined twins this year other than us. So we've suffered a bit too. But, you know, like, there's a great mystery to all this that we've really pondered. Like, why why why did we have conjoined twins this year? Why did we have to go through this difficult time?
Speaker 2:And yet, of the 3 other families that we got to know this year with conjoined twins, 2 of the 2 of those sets didn't make it. They passed. So why are we one of the lucky ones that have 2 separate healthy girls in front of us right now? We don't have answers to these questions. I only do it to confuse you and to throw them out here unanswered.
Speaker 2:But, you know, so we're we just settled, you know, we're gonna tell our story of what it's been like for us. We're gonna hit a few high points of how the Lord has really revealed himself to us in particular this year and how he sustained us through this time. Should we hand these babies off?
Jeffrey Heine:We should hand them. Okay.
Speaker 3:So I shared this last year, but, amidst all the hard that we've had this year, we've undoubtedly felt God's presence with us, that has enabled us to to get out of bed and to do anything. But the the way that he first kinda showed himself present was before our 8 week ultrasound. He actually gave me a dream that we were having conjoined twins. And, yeah. It was it was not comforting at the time.
Speaker 3:And our doctor assured us it didn't increase our chances of that actually happening, that it was very rare. But here we are. And so, yeah. Now I kinda look back at it as he was preparing my mind for that. Kind of just putting little, you know, bits of, I don't know
Jeffrey Heine:Preparation.
Speaker 3:Preparation. Yeah. Possibility. But he was he was in it even then. Like, before I knew anything about this this baby, like, it was just 2 babies and and they were conjoined.
Speaker 3:And he knew that and he was going ahead of us. So that was really now is really comforting. And then also he gave me a piece on day like 2 or 3 of this journey that it was not something that was natural for me. It was definitely supernatural. The Lord was really kind to give me that peace and it it kind of got us through the first little phase of of pregnancy.
Speaker 3:And I'll let Dwight speak to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because God did not give me a peace. So I'm glad he gave one of us a peace. You know, put put yourself in in the shoes of taking that news and trying to wrestle with that. I was not doing great.
Speaker 2:It It was definitely a journey for me in those 1st few weeks and a lot of big questions to the Lord, and I didn't have a lot of answers. But I think one theme we've seen this year is that the Lord has given us, specifically from His word and by His Spirit, little reminders of who He is that has held us up. And, you know, it's interesting when you go through a hard time, it's not any of the, even as a pastor, it's not the deep theological rich truths and the really hard to, kind of, grasp things that really comfort you. It's actually the bedrock foundational simple statements about who God is. You know, we were asking the questions like, are you there?
Speaker 2:And do you care? Are you still with us? Do you want good for us? And so God gave us answers that we could just barely hold on to. He put them in our hearts.
Speaker 2:And so early on, when I was struggling, there's this one night I'm sitting at the kitchen sink and I'm on the verge of a breakdown. And the Lord just put in my mind this phrase, don't be afraid, just believe. I had no idea where that came from. I didn't even connect it to scripture at first. And as I was just marinating on that, I thought, you know, I think that's in the Word.
Speaker 2:So I looked it up and it's from a story where Jesus brings a little girl back to life. There's the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, and he comes to Jesus and his daughter's on the verge of death. And he says, Jesus, will you come and will you heal her? And Jesus looks him in the eye and he says, don't be afraid. Just believe.
Speaker 2:And then his daughter dies. And then Jesus brings her back to life again. And I had no idea what to take from that. 0. So I told Stephanie about it.
Speaker 2:And then the next night, we I go upstairs to read our kids their Bible story before bed. And for some reason, on a on an impulse, I put down the one we've been reading and pick up off the bookshelf, the Jesus storybook Bible, which we hadn't touched in about 6 months. And I just opened and it fell open where a Lego was stuck in a page to the story of Jairus and Jesus healing his daughter. And it just became this this bedrock truth that we could come back to. I mean, literally, on days where we had nothing else, where we were weeping and desperate, and we didn't know if our girls were going to live or die.
Speaker 2:We didn't know which way was up or down. And the Lord would bring it back to mind and we just look at each other and we'd say, don't be afraid. Just believe. And the Lord continued to give us his word and little truths like this. Another time was when we were at all the ultrasounds.
Speaker 2:We had weekly ultrasounds, and every one of them was so high stakes. We were waiting for a verdict on the girls. And I would just sit there, and we didn't know this until later. We compared notes and I was just over and over in my mind, just pure desperation, crying out to the Lord. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy.
Speaker 2:Just have mercy on us. Just have mercy. This is from blind Bartimaeus in the Bible calling out to Jesus. And little did I know at the same time Stephanie was calling out, Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Speaker 2:Christ, have mercy. And he just gave us this joint call, this desperate cry out to Jesus when nothing else made sense. We were just crying out to him. So he continued to give us his word throughout the year. Go from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And another time when he brought his word to mind, was the day the morning before the birth. I was kind of half asleep and felt like he was saying abide in the shadow of the almighty. And kinda had this image of me like curled up in a in a ball, under the wing of an eagle. And even though I'd been in the word, like, less this past year than ever, he was faithful to bring to mind his word.
Speaker 3:And I went and found the scripture because I knew it was somewhere and I found it in Psalm 91 and just read those words and they became a prayer for us for the birth. Just a prayer of protection over us and the girls. And, it was a really just sweet word that he gave me that morning. And It's hard. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I keep sharing too much about this, but it's, like, really hard not to share too much. Elizabeth, one of our twins, has, an interesting heart. And it's been a process, that we just have to, like, tell people about it because it's amazing. And we know that the Lord has just done a miracle in her heart. But, she sorry.
Speaker 3:I'm like trying to figure out how to make it succinct. So we were told before we went to Philadelphia by our local, OB that doing the ultrasound, he prepared us that there was something seriously likely wrong with her heart. And, kind of probably one of like the worst heart diseases called transposition of the great arteries. And, we got to CHOP, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We're getting all the scans.
Speaker 3:It's taking forever. We're waiting to hear about the results that they find. And they actually tell us it's this really, really rare thing, even more rare, of of corrected transposition. So her heart, the the arteries kind of were in the wrong place. And typically, they connect to the wrong area of the heart.
Speaker 3:But in her case, they are in the wrong place, but they connect to the correct area in her heart. And that was a miracle. She also has a hole in her heart. And it once they're they were born, we found out it was larger than than they thought on ultrasound. And they told us we would probably have to have, a surgery to kind of keep some of the blood flow from going to her lungs, just so she can grow and be healthy.
Speaker 3:And we kind of get to the time of the surgery about 2 months, in. And it's the week before, and they're telling us about it. We're making all the preparations. And I say, can we just do one more echo to just check and make sure nothing has changed? And our cardiologist said, he'd be shocked.
Speaker 3:He'd be shocked if anything, had changed. But, sure. We'll do one last echo just, so we have a good idea of where we are going into the surgery. So Friday before the Monday surgery, I see them doing the echo on a camera. I call or text our family and I'm like, please pray right now.
Speaker 3:They're doing the echo. And an hour or so later, I get a call from the doctor saying, her heart is doing the job of a PA band and her pulmonary artery is actually, like, closing a little bit. That's restricting the blood flow, and she doesn't need surgery, which was amazing. And and just like a really incredible opportunity for us too to, like, witness the Lord's goodness and faithfulness to the doctors and the nurses who probably thought we were crazy.
Speaker 2:I think our cardiologist thought I was truly crazy. He he told us he said, I'd be beyond shocked if anything changed so that you wouldn't have to have the surgery. And I said, that's right. I know a guy. He made her heart.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to talk to him about this. And, you know, he spared us from that surgery. But she still has a massive hole in her heart, and she's going to have to have open heart surgery in a few months. So the Lord chose to save us from surgery there and not the one coming up. And that's how he works.
Speaker 2:And we trust him with that. You know,
Speaker 3:We're still praying that
Speaker 2:We're still praying he'll close it. Join us. I could go on for a long time. We're out of time. The stories.
Speaker 2:I mean, we could sit down and tell about all the ways the Lord has provided every we stayed in 5 different places in Philly over this year, and every single one has a story of the Lord providing to open up a door for that month or 2 we were there. And then the school where our kids went and late enrollment and tuition assistance and the way the body of Christ, the community of believers has surrounded us, especially here from afar gathering around us. But the church locally up there in Philly and Jersey and then the church worldwide, we have been so overwhelmed by how God has used his people to minister his love to us at times where we didn't know if God was tangibly with us, his people have always tangibly been with us. And people using their specific giftings that he gave them. So people who bake baking cookies to send to us.
Speaker 2:People who are photographers doing photo shoots and hairstylists doing haircuts and interior designers designing the nursery for when we get home. And the list just goes on. People using their gifts to bless us. And I mean, I remember one time in the last service, the guy was sitting right here. I was literally going on a run to try not to have a mental breakdown before we went up to Philly.
Speaker 2:And I crossed this guy's house, Matt Hyman, and he looked at me and he said, Dwight, how are you doing? And I just lost it. I mean, came came completely undone. And he just hugged me and prayed for me. And that's the body of Christ.
Speaker 2:And I could just tell you story after story of how God's people have cared for us in this time. And I want to thank you guys for doing that. You've been such a big part of that. Please don't stop. We still need your help.
Speaker 2:You know, I think she's like, that sounds desperate. We are. I'm just gonna go and spoil it. We're very desperate right now. You know, our girls got separated, and still we find ourselves every day, we wake up and we're like, are we gonna make it today?
Speaker 2:Like, is God enough? Are our girls going to gain weight? I still don't know. Jury's out on that. Pray they do.
Speaker 2:You know, like, are we going to survive? Are kids other kids going to lose their mind? Are we going to be able to love each other in our marriage? And every day we reach the end of the day and the Lord's mercies are new every day. His faithfulness is great.
Speaker 2:And we've had to walk through and we continue to walk through a lot of dark valleys, But Easter has reminded us that before you get to the resurrection in the empty tomb, there's a cross. And life is on the far side of death. But you got to go through death. And Jesus took that on for us to give us hope as we walk through the hard times in life. He's already taken on death and he overcame.
Speaker 2:So every day when we still wake up and we're kind of hopeless at times and we're scared and we are totally incapable of handling even where we are now at this journey and we forget the Lord's goodness to us so far, He reminds us and his people surround us and his spirit is with us. And so today we stand up here and we proclaim the name of Jesus. And it's because he is alive and his resurrection hope helps us keep going every day. And he can help you no matter what you're walking through. He is there for you today.
Speaker 2:And the resurrection changes everything, because Jesus is alive. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Thank you, Dwight. I know, Dwight Dwight and Stephanie, I know y'all gotta be exhausted. Now you just get to go home and take care of everyone, so just rest up. Dwight and Stephanie, they shared 3 times today. I couldn't make them do it 4, because that'd be abuse.
Jeffrey Heine:And Ivan told them this, at the 6:30, we didn't have them share. And, we were just going straight to the sermon, and literally somebody cried out, where's the testimony? And I said, well, I I couldn't do this to the castles. And, the lady goes, well, can I share? I was like, well, come on.
Jeffrey Heine:She goes, God woke me up early this morning and told me I was gonna testify on Easter, and she had it written out. And so she walked forward, and she crushed it. She, the Lord, the Lord provided. It was really remarkable, what the Lord does to his people. So if you have a Bible, turn to Luke 24.
Jeffrey Heine:We're going to look at a familiar story about the resurrection of Jesus. If you're new to church, not just Redeemer, but new to church, know that we don't just celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter. We celebrate it every Sunday. We celebrate it every day of our lives, because it has changed everything for us. We believe that through the resurrection of Christ, we have been given new life.
Jeffrey Heine:The resurrection, however, was not even on the radar of the early disciples. They they were not expecting it. It completely took them by surprise. And that's really what this story is about in Luke 24. Beginning in verse 13.
Jeffrey Heine:That very day 2 of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about 7 miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
Jeffrey Heine:And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was prophet and mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes. And besides all this, it's now the 3rd day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning. When they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But him, they did not see. And he said to them, oh, foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.
Jeffrey Heine:So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if they he was going further. But they urged him strongly, saying, stay with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.
Jeffrey Heine:And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together saying, the Lord has risen indeed.
Jeffrey Heine:And he appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, we pray that through your spirit, you would honor the very reading of your word And that you would open up the eyes of our hearts to where we would now see Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So I love this story.
Jeffrey Heine:I think it's one of the most beautiful stories we have in the New Testament. It's it's written so well. I mean there's there's twists. There's turns. There's humor.
Jeffrey Heine:There's some shocking revelations. It's actually surprising for a number of reasons. For starters, let me ask you this. Who decides to spend their 1st day being resurrected by going and finding 2 obscure disciples who are walking away and deciding to go on a hike with them? That's what Jesus does.
Jeffrey Heine:I I I don't know about you, but that's not what I would do if I was freshly resurrected. For starters, I would just stay in the capital city. I'd stay where the crowds were. Show myself to them. Go go to the power brokers of Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:Honestly, I'd probably go to Pontius Pilate's house, knock on his door and be like I mean, that's that's what I would do, but but look what Jesus does. Freshly resurrected and immediately finds 2 discouraged, disheartened disciples who had given up hope and were walking away. It's like He's irresistibly drawn to the brokenhearted, drawn to those who are weak in their faith, and so He goes straight along straight to them. They are leaving town, and they're going to the small town of Emmaus. And Jesus comes up next to them.
Jeffrey Heine:And this is when the story really gets interesting. Because for some reason, they don't recognize Him. It says that the their eyes were kept from recognizing him. This might be because Jesus was keeping them from recognizing him, or it might be because they lacked faith to recognize him. We're not really given the reason.
Jeffrey Heine:We do know this. Jesus looked different. Resurrected bodies look different than bodies that are full of decay. I mean, he was still 100% human. He could walk.
Jeffrey Heine:He could talk. You could reach out and touch him. He sat down and he ate fish with the disciples so he could still eat. He's very much still Jesus. I mean, he has the scars in his hands, scars in his feet.
Jeffrey Heine:They would eventually recognize Him, but but an immortal body just looks different than a mortal body. Even Mary, when she first saw Jesus at the tomb, she thought He was the gardener. She didn't recognize Him at first, so let's have a little grace on these disciples. They were actually looking at their future. What awaits all of us someday?
Jeffrey Heine:I think actually the main reason that they did not recognize Jesus was because they didn't have a category in their brain for what had just happened and for who was standing before them. Have you ever seen There's a famous drawing. It's a It's an optical illusion. It's a famous drawing. It's German artist done in the late 1800s, and it's of a woman.
Jeffrey Heine:Actually, it's of 2 women, depending how you see the picture. What you expect to see is actually what you see. And so if you had never seen this picture before and you were shown this and say, I'm gonna show you a picture of a young woman and you show the picture, that's what you see. You actually see the young woman. But if you show the same picture and say, I'm gonna show you a picture of an old woman, you actually see an old woman.
Jeffrey Heine:The way it is it was drawn, it's just it's just masterful, but all the lines and everything, what depending on what you focus on, that's what you see. Depending on what you expect, that's what you see. It's it's the narrative you believe. That's what dictates what the image becomes. And I think for these people, these disciples here, they couldn't recognize Jesus, because they were thinking and imagining the Messiah as being someone else, looking different.
Jeffrey Heine:They believed a different narrative. The expectations that they had of who the Messiah was supposed to be and what the Messiah was supposed to do was a much different Messiah than the one standing before them. And so what Jesus was gonna have to do is he's just gonna have to go with them and and show them, well, we're seeing the same picture here, but but your focus is wrong. You see, this this this chin here is actually a nose. This ear here is actually an eye.
Jeffrey Heine:He goes over the exact same lines. He goes over the exact same stories they've heard all their life, teachings they've heard all their life, and he says you're interpreting it the wrong way. And then a new image begins to emerge. Jesus has to change their focus so they can actually see Him. And that's what Jesus has to do with us.
Jeffrey Heine:It is likely that many of us here in this room, we have a certain picture of Jesus. Who we think he is, who we want him to be, and those are our expectations. And it shaped how we see him, but it might be the wrong Jesus. We might not actually recognize the real living Jesus before us. So what Jesus does is he's gonna walk alongside these disciples, and he's gonna have them refocus, so they can see him.
Jeffrey Heine:So he comes alongside them, and I love it, the humor here. He's like, so, guys, what are we talking about? And they're like, what do what do you mean what are we talking about? I mean, we're talking about what everybody's talking about. And Jesus goes, what?
Jeffrey Heine:It's like, are you the only person who doesn't know everything that's been happening? And of course, Jesus is the only one who knows what's actually been happening. He's what's happening. But he could just goes, no. What?
Jeffrey Heine:So they go, Jesus. It's concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He was a he was a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and before God and all the people. And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and they crucified him. But we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:And then they say, and and there's also all this commotion. There's rumors about empty tombs and all this. You know what? And just done. We're done.
Jeffrey Heine:We got out of Jerusalem. And we're heading off to Emmaus. And Jesus goes, fools. Fools. You were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken.
Jeffrey Heine:And then Jesus begins to walk through all of scripture. Wouldn't he love to have heard that? He begins to walk through all of the Bible. And what he's doing, he's taking that same picture they've seen. He's like, this line is is this here.
Jeffrey Heine:This line here points to me this way. Changing their focus by telling the same stories they always grew up hearing, but he's having them reimagine it. Said these are actually stories that testify not about a messiah who comes and conquers people, but about a suffering messiah who comes to die and to rise again. They were not expecting that type of Messiah, the one that was walking right next to them. They believed a different narrative and their brains could not even imagine the person before them.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 21 really gets to the heart of what was wrong with them. Why they couldn't see Jesus. They said, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. That's why they followed Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, they likely had sold their possessions, given up over a year of their life, hung on his every word. But then crucifixion put it into that dream of Him being the one to redeem Israel. He didn't conquer the enemies. They killed him. And so they left.
Jeffrey Heine:And they're going to Emmaus, which I don't think is just some random village. Luke doesn't give many details, but he does give us the detail it was Emmaus. Emmaus was actually the place of the Maccabean revolt a 150 years earlier. It's where 3,000 Jewish men took on 6,000 Roman soldiers and won. It was the redemption of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what redemption looks like. You take on your enemies and you win. And I think they were going back there just to be reminded. Jesus didn't pan out. What does it look like for Israel to be redeemed?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, let's go to the last place Israel was redeemed, Emmaus. So they walked there. And then of course they also, when they thought about what does the redemption of Israel look like, they had an entire book of the Bible that talked about that redemption. Exodus. The story of the Exodus is the first time we have the word redeem in the Bible.
Jeffrey Heine:1st time you hear about redemption is in Exodus chapter 6, in which God says this to Israel. I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. So what does it look like to redeem Israel?
Jeffrey Heine:Outstretched arm. Acts of judgment. Well, redemption means conquering Israel's enemies and freeing them from slavery. That's what redemption looks like in Exodus. That's what it looked like at the Maccabean revolt.
Jeffrey Heine:God did it in Exodus by using Moses to conquer Pharaoh and his army. Now for these disciples, as they are interpreting that story for their day, they're asking this question. Okay. Who's the new enemy of Israel? Who's the Egypt of the story?
Jeffrey Heine:Well it's Rome. Who's the pharaoh of the story? Well, it's Caesar or perhaps Pilate or any Roman authority. So therefore, in order for redemption to happen, God has to use the Messiah to conquer Rome, to conquer Caesar. They're the enemies.
Jeffrey Heine:But Jesus didn't defeat those enemies. He was killed by them. We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. And they're looking at Jesus, and they're just wondering, you know, Jesus didn't even try to take them on. I mean, what a golden opportunity He had just just a week earlier.
Jeffrey Heine:They actually tried to forcibly make Jesus king. He's got thousands of thousands of people following him, pledging their allegiance to him. Jesus rides into Jerusalem. Everybody's lining the streets. Hosanna Hosanna.
Jeffrey Heine:Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's what they they refer to as King David, and now they're applying that to Jesus. Here's our king. Here's the one who's gonna take on Rome. Israel's redemption is at hand, But He didn't even take them on.
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't defeat those enemies. He was killed by them. But Jesus was redeeming Israel. You know, if they had actually understood their Bibles, if they had actually correctly seen the picture, if they had actually even listened to Jesus, none of this would have taken them by surprise. And I'm not just talking about all the times where Jesus said, you know, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm gonna be crucified and I'm gonna rise again. And it would just go And he would just say it again and again. And And they didn't get that. I I'm talking about if they actually just listened to Jesus' teachings, none of this would have surprised them. They hung on his every word, but they weren't actually listening.
Jeffrey Heine:I would encourage you, it's too late for you to do it this holy week, since we're at the end of holy week. Next year, during holy week, read the teachings of Jesus and let that frame your picture or give you the focus for the cross. Go go to the Sermon on the Mount. Go to the Sermon on the Plains. Read it.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me read you part of the sermon on the plane from Luke 6. Keep this in mind when you picture Jesus going to Jerusalem in the cross. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer them your other cheek. And for the one who takes away your cloak, don't withhold your tunic from them. Give to everyone who begs from you. And for the one who takes away all of your goods, don't demand them back.
Jeffrey Heine:And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you only love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do that. Even they love those who love them. And if you do good only to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?
Jeffrey Heine:For even sinners do the same. But I tell you, love your enemies and do good, expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the most high, for he is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil. Had they even listened to Jesus, have you? Have you really listened to him? Jesus didn't come to kill his enemies.
Jeffrey Heine:He came to lay down His life for His enemies. Jesus knew that you cannot defeat evil with evil. You defeat it through perfect love. By loving His enemies and loving them to the fullest. And by going to the cross, Jesus was actually taking on evil, but not in the sense that we think.
Jeffrey Heine:He was literally taking on evil. He was taking on the sins and the evils of the world, and he took them upon himself, and he showed only love in return. And He took on all of that evil and He took it straight to the grave. And that's where He defeated sin and death. These disciples, they were looking at Rome and thinking Rome was the enemy.
Jeffrey Heine:But the real enemy wasn't out there. The real enemy was in here. Sin and death reigning over the human heart. That was the real enemy. Jesus knew this.
Jeffrey Heine:He goes, you just kill pharaoh. You know what happens? Another pharaoh pops up. You kill Caesar, you know what happens? Another Caesar pops up.
Jeffrey Heine:You kill a Hitler. You kill a Stalin. Today we would say, you you kill a Putin. You know what happens? More pop up.
Jeffrey Heine:Because the real enemy is not out there. The real enemy is in here. That's the enemy that Jesus took on. He took on all of our sins. He took on all of the evil in this world.
Jeffrey Heine:Only showing love in return, He took on that evil and He took it straight to the grave. Now hear me. I've heard this said before. Loving your enemies is a terrible idea apart from the resurrection. Do you know what actually happens if you love your enemies?
Jeffrey Heine:They kill you. That's what happens if you love your enemies, they kill you. So apart from the resurrection, loving your enemies is a terrible idea. But if you love your enemies and they kill you, and then you are resurrected, what you say is you no longer have any power over me. You've done your worst, and sin and death have lost their grip on me.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what resurrection does. And that is what Jesus did to our greatest enemies of sin and death. His resurrection has liberated us from them. Death has no hold on him. Now Jesus, he's telling the disciples these things.
Jeffrey Heine:Says their hearts are burning within them, but they still won't recognize them. Unbelievable. Like, we can't identify with that. So Jesus, he acts like he's gonna go further. They reach Emmaus.
Jeffrey Heine:He's like, I really gotta go. You know, I don't know what he was saying he had to do, but they're like, please please stay. He's like, oh, alright. And so he stays. They invite him to a meal.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus breaks bread. It says when he broke the bread, you read their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Now, of course, the last time Jesus broke bread was just 3 nights earlier at the Lord's supper, where he was going over the story of redemption. What the redemption of Israel looked like. And he actually took the bread and he reinterpreted the lines for them, the signs.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said, this is actually my body broken for you. But I actually think that if you really wanna understand the story, yes, you have to understand the Passover meal, but you could go back to the very first meal in the bible. Because Jesus walked through the whole bible saying I'd all pointed to him. That very first meal we have in the bible, it's with Adam and Eve. We have Eve, she took of that forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Jeffrey Heine:She gave it to her husband and she literally says take and eat. And it says he ate and you read afterwards, and their eyes were opened. Their eyes were opened to what though? Their nakedness, their shame, their guilt into a world that was falling apart. Jesus comes and He redeems all things.
Jeffrey Heine:And He says, take and eat. And He breaks and their eyes are opened. Open to what? The fact that their guilt is gone. Shame is gone.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus is making all things new. The entire world changed in that moment for them. This is what Jesus offers us, offers our redemption. He has taken on our greatest enemies, sin and death, And he offers us new life. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus, now through your spirit, would you open up the eyes of our heart that we might see you? Jesus, thank you for taking on our enemies through perfect love. Taking them straight to the grave. And sin and death have lost their power over us through your resurrection. Thank you for liberating us to live a life of worship for you.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, our savior, our present and our future king. Amen.
