Northside Church - Sydney
Eyes Wide Shut
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Have you been in a situation where you should have recognised somebody but you didn't? And looking back you couldn't believe that you missed it, it might have been you hadn't seen them for a long time or they were in disguise or whatever. I've had a chance to think about this. About eight years ago I was back in Perth for a weekend conference and I decided to go back to the church where I'd had some association back in my teenage years, the South Perth Church of Christ. They got a new building now and they actually go under a new name. But it was good to go back and to reconnect with some of my friends. I sort of snuck into the back row, the service had already started, I remember that. And I realised I was sitting behind two people whom I had known very, very well when I was in the youth group there. They were youth leaders. And look they changed, you know, to be many years. They were both quite a bit heavier, happens in sort of middle age, the what hair they had left, well the lady had her hair. But the guy had lost a lot of his hair but it was very grey and, but look, okay I had an advantage in that I was expecting to see people I knew. So I recognised them. And then things really started to happen when the mingle time came, like we do mingle here. And this girl, husband turned, he turned to speak to somebody else, but she turned to me and greeted me like a total stranger but with very, very warmly she said, "Hi, welcome to South Perth. Good to have you with us. You visiting?" I said, "I'll already, I'll get into this." I said, "Well, I'm visiting but I'm no stranger, I know you, Lee." She goes, "Oh my gosh," she said, "This is my husband, Bruce." I said, "Yes, I know Bruce too." And she sort of freaking out and he's got a little bit, he says, "Do we know you?" And I said, "Well, it's Graham, it's Graham Agnew." And she looked at him and I never forget, she said, "I knew a Graham Agnew once." That's the honest truth. And I said, "Yeah, look, Lee, it's me, it's Graham Agnew." And she went, "Oh my gosh." She had, they changed a little bit, obviously I had changed so much. Well, look, it got to be fair, the last time she saw me, I would have looked like this. That was the last time she saw me. So yeah, that's early date with Betty, yeah, absolutely. Okay, okay, Dye, thank you, that's enough. You know, about 15 Ks lighter, no more stars, hair everywhere, that's how she, and we worked at that, it was 32 years since we had set eyes on each other. And she had absolutely no idea who she was talking to, but we had a great reunion that night, it was fantastic and with others as well. My worst moment of non-recognition was many, many years ago in Melbourne when a lady came up to me and said, "You don't know me, do you? You don't remember me." She said, "You don't remember me." And I said, "Should I?" And she said, "My name is Cathy and she gave a surname." And I said, "Cathy, Cathy." I said, "I knew Kevin by that name," she said, "That's me." In the intervening years, my friend Kevin had had a total gender change, total gender operation, the whole thing. And nobody told me, least of all, "Kevin, well, Cathy isn't his now." And that was quite a, whoa, that if you ever have that experience, it was really, really confronting. Well, look friends, here in Luke 24, what do we got? We've got two guys walking back to Jerusalem and a stranger comes alongside and they don't recognise him as Jesus. We're not talking three decades here, we're talking three days since they've seen him and it's perplexing, it's puzzling. How could this happen? I think the explanation is simple. They're in grief. The sense of grief and loss is so profound, they're just, they're in a fog and it happens. I've seen this at funerals and when people are in deep grief, they just go into a kind of a shock. I know some of you have experienced it yourselves and you're not fully aware of what's happening and since the body's way of kind of helping us to cope with such pain. Well, there are in a days, you see, this is for them. This is not just a walk home to Emmaus, this is much more than this. This is a road that's familiar to all of us. We don't have to have been to Israel to know about the road to Emmaus because this road is known to all of us. The reality is most people have journeyed on the Emmaus road many times. You see, the Emmaus road is the road of this appointment. The Emmaus road is the road of rejection. It's the road of grief and loss. It's the road of unmet expectations and we've journeyed on it before and we'll do so many times in the future because that's life. We find ourselves journeying on the road to Emmaus many times. The Emmaus road is, it's not so much a place, it's not so much a destination. It's an experience. That's the road to Emmaus. These guys were walking away from Jerusalem where they'd witnessed some horrific events. They'd witnessed the betrayal, the arrest, the mock trial, the beatings, ultimately the crucifixion of their best friend, Jesus Christ, all the things we celebrated last week. Now, your Emmaus road walk, my Emmaus road walk, can take many forms. It can be the walk away from your unteenth unsuccessful job application. It can be the walk from the party where your boyfriend or your girlfriend has dumped you. It can be the walk from the specialist rooms where you've just received some pretty bad news. It can be the walk from the crematorium back to the car park where you know that life is never going to be the same again. It can be the walk from the boss's office where you've learnt that you didn't get the promotion or worse still, your services are no longer needed. It can be the walk from the family law court where you realise that you don't have a marriage anymore. The physical length of an Emmaus road may be quite short, just a few steps or a few meters, but the emotional and the spiritual length can go for a long time. Now, friends, for the person who's a Christian, for the person who's a person of faith, Emmaus roads invariably represent defining moments of our lives. They are points of decision where we can go one way or the other. They are moments of choice, defining moments. I mean, the crystal clear evidence of the Bible is that we are not meant to live in defeat. We're not meant to stay on the Emmaus road forever. That's not our destiny. Yes, it's necessary for all of us to tread its rough, undulating pathway from time to time, but it does not represent where we are meant to be in an ongoing way. That's not the thoroughfare we're meant to journey on for the bulk of the time. We are called to a much higher level of existence, a road that enables us to rise above the difficulties of this world. Life and all its fullness, there's a note of victory there. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There's a note of triumph there. The writer of the Hebrews in chapter 12 verse 2 says, "Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross. There's resilience there." So time and time again, we have promised the spiritual resources to rise above the pain and the stress of the Emmaus road, that's a promise from the Word of God. But it is a defining moment in that we get to make the choice, to the power of the Holy Spirit. We get to make the choice as to whether we go up or whether it's a real decline for us. This Hebrew's passage, by the way, really provides the perfect segue, the perfect segue to a careful analysis of what was happening with these two travellers. What's the word? "Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end." Now, not only weren't these guys fixed on Jesus, they didn't even recognize Him. Couldn't have their eyes fixed on Him, they weren't even aware He was there. Such was their disillusionment and their despair. And look, it's the same for us when you think about it. Our vision, our awareness of the truth is impaired when a number of factors start to dominate our thinking. By the way, what is this truth? What is this truth I'm referring to? It's the promises proclaimed and the lifestyle ordained for the people of God. As outlined in this book, the Bible, as taught by the Christian Church over 2,000 years. This simple, uncomplicated incident from Luke chapter 24, provides us with a unique opportunity to identify what causes people to lose sight of Jesus and how we can have our eyes reopened. Are you interested in that prospect? I know I am. Here's the first thing, our vision, our awareness of the truth is impaired when we're preoccupied with our own needs. And notice I said preoccupied, we've got to be concerned about our own needs, but when it becomes an obsession and you just preoccupied with what's happening for us, that's what was happening to these two guys. I mean, look at the text. They're what I call whining, which is almost what it is, that their whining is sparked by a simple question from Jesus verse 17. He says, what are you talking about? What's going on here? Well, that starts it. Look at the second part of verse 17. They stood still with sad faces. One of them named Cleopus asked him, are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have been happening here the last few days? And Jesus playing a cool says, what thing? The things that happen to Jesus and Nazareth and they go on and that's the kind of a, if you're written in a certain way, it's a kind of a whining sort of, what do you, like man, we are in pain here, don't you realize what's happening? And what has happened? Have you got any understanding about us and our needs at all? Now, look friends, it's natural. It's natural that sometimes desirable for a season to, to go through a period of heavy self-analysis, to go through a period of withdrawal of contemplation, look, it's even okay to wallow in a little bit of self-pity for a while if you've been through something really bad. Let's see who we are. It's okay. But listen, if that's the road, if that's the road we continue on, then clearly that's ultimately the road that's going to lead to futility and maladjustment. It's just not where we're meant to be. Somebody asked the great psychologists or psychiatrists, Carl Rogers, one of the fathers of modern psychotherapy, they asked him, what should somebody do if they sense that they might be having a nervous breakdown? They might be losing it emotionally. And I guess the questioner thought it would be a good opportunity for Carl Rogers to extol the virtues of modern psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, but they were surprised by his answer. He said, you know what, not in every case, but in some cases, the best thing to do if you feel a nervous breakdown coming on is go out of your house, travel to the side of town where there's the most deprivation and the most need, get involved in one of those agencies that helps people who are really up against it, volunteer your services, roll up your sleeves, get involved and find out what's really happening in the world. That's probably one of the things I'd suggest for many people. It was surprising coming from a leading psychologist or psychiatrist of his day. I guess Jesus put it another way. He said, those who saved their life will lose it, but those who lose their life, get involved, start letting their own concern and compassion flow to others, they will find it. Those who saved their life will lose it, those who lose their life, for my sake will find it. So we're talking about service, we're talking about involvement, we're talking about ministry. And these are all powerful ways of helping us to restore our perspective on the truth of God in Christ, not always the case, but I've found in my ministry over the years people who are really heavily involved in service, provided they find the right balance. They're generally the people who are on top of or are able to get on top of crises more effectively and more quickly than most. Here's another way our vision of the truth is impaired. It's when we're unwilling to take the Bible seriously. And that's at the heart of the not so gentle rebuke that Jesus gives these two, these two guys on the Emmaus road, look at verses 25 to 27, then Jesus said to them, how foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said, wasn't not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory. And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets. What a Bible study that must have been, how good is your connection group leader? Probably very good, but a Bible study conducted by Jesus, I'd like to be there for that one. Well it's kind of Jesus way, I mean he's really surprised these guys haven't got the scriptures, what would be our Old Testament that they have understood what we said about the coming Messiah, let alone all the things that he would have shared with them during the preceding three years. You know friends with the Bible, the Bible is an awesome document, I know I'm sort of preaching to the faithful here, but so often we forget this, the Bible is an awesome document. It's an incredible book with principles and teachings on virtually every aspect of the human condition. Everything's covered here. There's not necessarily instructions for every specific scenario you like to mention. I mean there's no Bible with an index on that has things like, you know, look up this verse, how can I tell if I'm meant to take this job or not, or how can I tell if this person is for me or not, that's not in the index, or what to do if I think my kids are on drugs, that's not in the index. But there are detailed teachings and principles on relationships, on morality, on self-esteem, parenting, discernment, forgiveness, grace, everything we need to negotiate our way through the pathway of life. It's all there in this amazing book, and so it's important we become familiar with its teachings. How's your Bible reading going? Are you getting into the Word regularly? I had breakfast with a guy this week who got very excited when he pulled out his smart phone and he showed me his latest Bible reading app and he said, "Look at this," he said, "I get this reading every day on the screen right there and I can read it whenever I like." And so, you know, here we are with our smart phones and our iPads, it's never been simpler or easier to keep up with Bible reading. It's all there at the press of a button, you don't have to carry your big KJV around with you and get embarrassed when you open on the train. You can just be there and you can be texting a friend, but you actually read in the Bible. If that's important for you to, you know, conceal that. Are you in a connection group? If you are, are you attending regularly and you're recognizing the importance of getting into this Word? Well, here's a third thing that can impair our vision of the truth. And we're inclined to rely on wishful thinking rather than on solid conviction. Verse 21 is the key here, verse 21, "We had hoped he would be the one to set Israel free." Now, friends, this, of course, is linked to the previous point, that if we're not in the Word, if we struggle in the area of solid convictions based on God's revelation, our faith journey is going to be a vague, kind of wishful thinking, "Oh, hope he's with me. Hope he's going to look after me. Hope he's going to do the right thing by me." That's not enough to get you off the mass road. That really is not going to do it. But there are some things that will. And they form the basis of the second part of this incident and I want to cover them very quickly. You see, here's the thing. Our spiritual eyes are opened when, first of all, we allow people to speak into our lives. Now, initially, at least, it looked like the conversation on the mass road was going to be very one-sided, very one-sided. You know, as soon as Jesus asked, "What's happening? Why so sad?" On goes the tap and these guys are just going to pour it all out. But then there comes a turning point and it's so critical. This turning point is so critical. It comes in verse 25, five little words, "Then Jesus said to them," okay? They've been, you know, cathartically pouring it all out, "Then Jesus said to them." And there's no suggestion of any resistance or indifference on the part of these guys. It seems they listened intently and this represented the beginnings of their exit from the Emmaus road. You know, I look back, like many of you do, I'm sure. I look back over the years on the men and women who've spoken into my life. And I thank God for every one of them. And there's some of them here in this room, friends, colleagues, mentors, people who've just been there at the right time with the right word of guidance based on their experience or based on their understanding of the word. And we need that. We need people to speak into our lives. We need to get permission. That's the first thing. That's the hardest part, to give permission for people to speak in their lives. That's why here at Northside, we're very much into a relational kind of Christianity which relies heavily on strong relationships that are characterized by trust, by openness, by vulnerability, where it's okay to pull back the curtains of your heart, not with everybody. You know, we don't go into print with this kind of stuff, but among your inner circle, you need people who can speak into your life honestly and consistently to help you on your journey and to get you off the Emmaus road that you might be on. Well, there's something else, our spiritual eyes are open when we begin to reach out to others. Now, yes, the preoccupation with self that have been so apparent at the beginning of the, of the journey gives way to a, a genuine sense of care and compassion toward the end of this story. It's beyond the verses that Sarah read to us. We've got to go to verses 28 and 29 for this. And you know the story, some of you, as they came near the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if you were going further. I like that. Yeah. Jesus, it's been cool. You know, oh, I'll just pretend I'm going on further. I'll see what they're going to do. Well, look what happens. This is interesting. But they held him back saying, oh, stay with us, the day I was almost over. It's getting dark as if Jesus would be afraid of the dark, but they're, they're concerned for him. And of course, this ties in with what I said earlier about service and discovering out gifts and, and, and being willing to get involved in the process of helping others, they put their hand on each shoulder. Oh, don't go on. Come, come, come stay with us. We're concerned for you. We don't want to see you just ripped off into the night. That was a huge turning point for them. Now, friends, you'll appreciate that this list of things that we've put up here, that can lead to the opening of our spiritual eyes. It's not an exhaustive list by any means. It's just purely coming out of this, this, this particular incident. There are many other things we could talk about if we had another Bible passage, but having said that, this last point is of great significance. And this does cover a lot of things. It's of great significance because it covers many aspects of spiritual renewal and recovery. You see, our eyes are opened when like these guys, we are open to an encounter with God. We are just open to an encounter with God, more than allowing people to speak into our lives, more than just, you know, reaching out to others. Our openness to an encounter with the living God is ultimately the thing that takes us off the Emmaus road and takes us from the, the drudgery and despair of this existence to that position of poise and confidence and victory that he intends for us. Now, here's the question in which setting did these guys have that encounter with God? It was in communion. It was in the breaking of bread. And again, we've got to check with the scriptures, verse 30 and 31, what does it say? He sat down to eat with them. He took the bread, he said, the blessing, then he broke the bread and he gave it to them. Look at this. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but it disappeared from their sight. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Now, I don't want to push this too far, I want to push this too hard, I want to read into the text more than there, but this speaks to me about the importance of being in places, being in environments where we can have an encounter with God. And that means not drifting too far from his church, from his people, from the body of Christ. Of course, you can have an encounter with God in the outdoors. Of course, you can have an encounter with God on the golf course. Of course, you can have an encounter with God in your own private devotions, but there's something very special, there's something very, very special about what happens in the body, where there's deep fellowship, where there's accountability, where there's support and nurture, where there's the sacraments like communion, like baptism, where God can speak to us in a very, very powerful and unmistakable way. Don't drift very far from the people of God. These guys were brought back and taken off the Emmaus road when they saw him in the communion and their eyes were opened. Wow, I've had my eyes opened a few times in communion. I've had my eyes opened, as I've seen people and had the privilege of baptizing people. I've seen my eyes opened in the context of the fellowship of God's people. And I know the difference when you're allowed to drift and you've been away for a while. It's not the same. Well, what a journey this was for these two men, about 11 kilometers physically, but a lot more in terms of spiritual revelation, renewal and restoration. I mean, for these two men, hearts breaking turned to hearts burning, and I'm not talking about reflux or anything like that, it says in the Bible here, look at this, verse 32, verse 32, they said to each other, "Wasn't it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" And these guys went straight back to Jerusalem and got straight into mission, telling everybody about the risen Christ, starting with their own friends and colleagues. Look, I don't know where you guys are, I know some of you are on your own Emmaus Road right now, and it's a tough journey, and it's a journey we all have to take, and we take it many times. And some of us will be on that road, and we don't even know when, and we don't even know how, and we're not even anticipating it, it'll happen, that's life, isn't it? That's life. The message I get from this is, "Be ready for the Emmaus Road, it's inevitable." But also recognise that that's not where we're meant to travel all the time. That is not where we are meant to travel. We are meant to travel in victory. We are meant to travel with strength and resilience. And here's the thing which these guys didn't realise till after, even on the Emmaus Road, their worst moments, who was walking alongside Jesus Christ. He wasn't at the end of the road saying, "Come on, you guys, will you get your act together?" You know, we've got a great fellowship happening here, we've got a great couple of great services, just snap out of it, no, no, no, no, he's with them on the road. That's how Jesus never leaves us, never forsakes us. The one who sticks closer than a brother, I really like that. I like that that's at the heart of our faith. A God is not up there out in the wild blue yonder, but a guy, a God who walks alongside Always, the personal Jesus for the Holy Spirit, fantastic.