Luke 24: 1 – 12
Present In The Unexpected; Doing The Out-of-the-ordinary.
Intro: A man was walking down the street one evening when he spotted a neighborhood boy down on his hands and knees inching along the sidewalk underneath a street light. The man asked, “Billy, what’s wrong? Did you lose something?” “Yes,” whimpered Billy. “I dropped the money Mama gave me for ice cream.” Feeling sorry for the little guy, the man got down on his hands and kneed and started looking. After a few minutes the man says, “Billy I don’t see your money anywhere. Are you sure this is where you lost it? “No,” replied Billy. “I dropped it over there by the vacant lot.” “Why are you looking her if you dropped it over there?” “It’s dark over there! I can see better here!”
I. VS. 5 “In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
A. Vs. 6 “He is not here; he is risen! The women were looking in the wrong place. Their expectations weren’t met. What they anticipated was not so.
B. God was actively present in the unexpected, doing the out-of-the-ordinary. Even though Jesus had told them this would happen and even though Jesus had raised Lazarus, the women never expected this to happen.
C. Can you identify with the bewilderment of the women? Surely you’ve had circumstances where you go into a situation with certain expectations and things don’t pan out the way you thought they would. You might have been afraid, confused, unable to comprehend or understand.
II. After listening to the words of the 2 men, the women returned to the 11 disciples to share what they had seen and heard. Vs. 11 “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”
A. The disciples dismiss the claims of the women as “nonsense, “idle tales,” literally “words of folly.” The Greek here is a medical term used to describe the babbling of a fevered and insane mind.
B. The disciples thought the women were crazy because what they said was out-of-the-ordinary. It was beyond the laws of nature. It was like finding a submarine in a Kansas cornfield.
C. The disciples were living as though Jesus was still in the tomb. We often live the same way struggling under heavy burdens and worrying about things as though God expects us to handle everything on our own. We fail to trust that God is actively present in the unexpected doing the out-of-the-ordinary.
III. The practical world told the disciples that either Jesus was dead or he was a live. They had witnessed his death and that was the end of it. They just didn’t get it.
A. Vs. 12 – “Peter, however, got up and ran to the tom. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.” Peter failed to understand that God was actively present in the unexpected doing the out-of-the-ordinary. He just didn’t get it.
B. Sadly, this Easter day greets a world that is filled with people who just don’t get it. Some have never heard of Jesus. Some know the name of Jesus; but only as a curse word. Some don’t get it because they refuse to believe a man who lived, died and rose from the dead 2000 years ago can have an impact on their lives today. They just don’t get it!
C. Christ Jesus is not simply historical. He is not embalmed in creeds, rituals or pious ordinances. He is not to be found in holy places build with human hands. If you get it, you know that Christ Jesus can only be found today among the living.
Conclusion: Philip was born with Down’s Syndrome. He was pleasant enough but he looked different and sometimes acted differently. When Philip was 8, his Sunday School teacher gave each child in her class a large plastic egg on Palm Sunday and asked the children to bring them back the following Sunday with a symbol of the resurrection placed inside. When the eggs were opened on Easter Sunday, each child explained the meaning of the symbol they had placed inside their egg. Finally, it was Philip’s turn to open his egg. There was nothing inside. Philip confessed, “It’s empty, because Jesus’ grave was empty.” Philip got it! God had been actively present in the unexpected doing the out-of-the-ordinary. God continues to do the same today.
