AHA! (Luke 24:13-35)

Luke's Gospel, New Testament, Sermons

Questions: Do You Get It? (Luke 24:13-35)

What is your “lightbulb moment“?

Your “epiphany“? (manifestation, revelation)

Your “Aha moment“?

“…they were kept from recognizing him” (Lk 24:16).

“…their faces downcast” (Lk 24:17b).

“…we had hoped that he was the one…” (Lk 24:21a).

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:32)

  1. Why we don’t get it (Lk 24:15-17, 21).
  2. When we get it (Lk 24:30-32, 35).
  3. How we get it (Lk 24:27, 32a).
  4. Where we get it (Lk 24:32b).
  5. What we do after we get it (Lk 24:33-35).

  1. A. Before Aha (1).
  2. B. AHA (2, 3, 4).
  3. C. After Aha (5).

My “aha” moment was in 1980 when I read Genesis 1:2: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”  Out of nowhere the word “empty“ hit me like a ton of bricks and zapped me like a bolt of lightning. On the surface, my life seemed to be progressing and advancing forward. I became a doctor in Malaysia in 1978 and came to Chicago two years later to continue my medical career. My future seemed bright; my opportunities were wide open. I should have felt on top of the world. But it dawned on me when I read Genesis 1:2 that deep, deep down inside I was empty. Where am I going? What I am really doing with my life? Why do I feel empty?

On the road to Emmaus, the 2 disciples most certainly felt empty and disillusioned. They had followed Christ with hope and optimism, imagining a very bright future ahead. But suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, he was brutally executed. Their hopes were smashed and dashed to pieces (Lk 24:21). They were so disillusioned by their own ideas about who Jesus was and what he was going to do, so much so that even when Christ, whom they had followed, came alongside them (Lk 24:15) they didn’t recognize him (Lk 24:16).

The process of getting to “AHA”:

  1. Recognition: Their eyes were opened (Lk 24:31).
  2. Revelation: The Scriptures were opened (Lk 24:32).
  3. Relationship: He was known in the breaking of bread (Lk 24:35).

I. Why we don’t get it (Lk 24:15-17, 21).

“Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. This is how the suffering happens— if we love someone and do not love God, we demand from them every perfection and every rectitude [goodness, virtue, righteousness], and when we do not get it, we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot possibly give.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 30.

II-IV. When we get it (Lk 24:30-32, 35). How we get it (Lk 24:27, 32a). Why we get it (Lk 24:32b).

  • The New Testament (NT) is hidden in the Old Testament (OT), and the OT is revealed in the NT. Jesus’ claims that he is the Messiah are validated and vindicated by the OT (Lk 24:27).

“God has willed that we should seek and find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians… Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them.” “Because it is Christ’s word, it possesses communal momentum.” Bonhoeffer, Life Together.

V. What we do after we get it (Lk 24:33-35).

1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Where is your own life at?

  1. Before Aha?
  2. AHA!?
  3. After Aha?
  4. DKNS? (Don’t know, not sure.)

“We cannot hear what the stories of the Bible are saying until we hear them as stories about ourselves.” Frederick Buechner.

Bishop Barron’s sermon on 4/18/26: The Pattern and Presence of Jesus. The story of the two disciples on The Road to Emmaus is a spiritual masterpiece that never gets old.

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