Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Luke 24:13-35
Pastor: Seminarian Eric Fluegge
Sermon Date:  April 23, 2023

I asked an Internet robot to give me a definition of hope. This robot browsed hundreds of thousands of websites and came up with this. “Hope is an optimistic feeling that helps us believe good things can happen, even in the face of adversity or uncertainty. It is a belief that things will improve and that there is a possibility of achieving a desired goal, even when the present circumstances might suggest otherwise.” this definition reminds me of watching football on Sundays with my family. we would wake up early on Sunday morning and go to 8:00 AM church it would be freezing cold and snowy we’d listen to the sermon before heading home. a number of times we would put together several snacks’ pizza crackers and cheese popcorn chips fruits veggies you know whole spread and then we would sit and watch the football game together. I always remember every Sunday I would hope that my team would win. but every once in a while, the game would be close and the clock would be winding down we were losing by a touchdown and getting really excited the drive is going well and then your MVP quarterback throws an interception that hope of winning the game drains away. and it feels like there’s nothing you can do. I think that’s what the disciples felt Easter morning.

Three days earlier Jesus had been sentenced to execution. an innocent man led to a hill to be hung on a cross. The disciples were hoping that Jesus would be their savior the man who came to redeem Israel the blessing to the world that was given to Abraham. Yet there he was hanging on a cross dying. and then they buried him, the Sabbath day went by nothing happened they hid themselves afraid of the people around them and Sunday came. the women go out to finish getting the body ready for burial and they get to the tomb and find that it was empty. They report back. Peter and John rush out there and they also find it empty. they report back and the hope that the disciples had in Jesus was fading away. It had been three days, where was Jesus? he said he was here to redeem Israel at least that’s what the disciples on the road to Emmaus said. We had hoped that he would redeem Israel, but our hope is disappearing in the same way that Jesus has disappeared from the tomb.

Why God? where are you? You are our hope but sometimes we can’t find you. why should we hope when the world is acting like this. when governments go against your word and we go against your word why should we hope for a better future when it seems like you have just disappeared? We find ourselves in a similar situation to the disciples. Lord it’s been 2000 years since you sent Jesus where are you? we hoped that you would return in glory, bring us with but it seems like you’ve disappeared from the world entirely. we begin to put our hope in other things.

My future will be better if I work this really hard job and make a little bit more money, I hope. I hope that my life will be more fulfilled because I’ve graduated from college. I hope my life will be more exciting because of the alcohol or drugs. I hope that I can do something that will make me feel like I have a good future. I can put my hope in a million different things and I can hope and hope and hope that the future will be bright. but let me tell you when we put our hope in something that is not certain, like a job like alcohol, like drugs, like a degree, we will always be left disappointed. But the world has taught us that those things that we put our hope in, are what truly give a happy future.

We hear the promises of God every Sunday. They are fulfilled, but then we go into the world, and maybe we forget a little bit about what promises he actually gave us. We pick and choose what promises, prophecies that we believe. we’re left with no hope just like the Emmaus disciples. I’m a child of God so it doesn’t matter if I put that TV show on. Jesus has saved the world already so it doesn’t matter if I act like the world. it’s so easy to pick the promises that God gives that are beneficial when we need them to be and just glaze over the ones that are not so easy to swallow. and we find ourselves a bit like the Emmaus disciples. dejected walking home because what we had hoped for didn’t happen.

But the Emmaus disciples didn’t walk alone. a third man who we know is Jesus walks along with them. Jesus wants is his disciples to explain why they have no hope with his end goal being to restore that hope. so Jesus asked them, what are you talking about? and the disciples tell him, Recalling all the events that had just passed in the last week. the disciples ended their story, which they had all the puzzle pieces, but the wrong picture. it’s been three days, the tomb was empty, no one saw him. but Jesus was there to get them thinking. how foolish you are, Jesus said, don’t you believe what all the prophets have said, didn’t this have to happen? And instead of letting the disciples get it wrong again Jesus explains the entire scriptures to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted for them all the things concerning himself in the scriptures. it would have been so easy for Jesus to just show up as Jesus and restore their hope. that way the hope that they lost when Jesus was crucified. What he did gave them something better. he gives them the Bible. Jesus told them all the promises all the prophecies everything that was written in the Old Testament. Jesus shows them where their hope should be, he shows them where they can find true hope.

hope is found in the Bible. hope is found where Jesus is. it’s spoken about how the whole world will be blessed through Abraham, through Isaiah he prophesize so many different things about the life of Christ, because hope in the future is found in the past. God said that he would do something, we hope that God will do it and God does it. hope is found in the Bible.

And here’s how I know hope is found in the Bible little over a year ago my grandma passed away she had cancer and it came about rather quickly so Christmas that year was very difficult, because she was at the hospital. I was with everyone else, my wife, my parents, my siblings, my cousins, my uncle, my grandpa. We were all sitting around the Christmas tree except for my grandma. but there’s that little piece of hope. Hope that the doctors would be able to help get rid of the cancer. hope that they would make everything better. hope that while grandma may not be at this Christmas, she will be at the next Christmas, but then things took a turn for the worse. She started her treatments and instead of getting better she got worse her body was struggling to handle the medication that she was taking and the hope that we slowly started fading away. that was really hard. we had hope in a hard time. You hope she would get better, then things got worse and hope fades away. and as the next few days went by it became apparent that she wasn’t going to make it. the cancer had run its course and was untreatable there’s nothing the doctors could do and that was really hard.

So I turned to my Bible and my hope was restored. because it says whoever lives who believes in me will live even though they die, and then I turned to John 3:16 God sent his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. and the hope that my grandma would get better and be able to join us for a wedding and graduation Christmas well that was gone. my New Hope was found in the Bible. my grandma would be in a better place. eternal life, next to God and there’s nothing better than that hope. hope that is found in the Bible, it’s so comforting. And what’s even more comforting than having hope is what the disciples find out next.

The disciples have made it to Emmaus to the house that they were staying at and invite Jesus in for dinner. and Jesus, being a guest, takes on the role of the host, breaking bread with them, eating with them. it’s at that moment the disciples realize that’s Jesus! he is alive. Then Jesus is gone. “were not our hearts burning within us,” they said, “when he spoke to us on the road.” and they hustled back to Jerusalem to tell the rest of the disciples what had happened and they heard even more goodness. he just had appeared to Peter and now then the hope was restored, because Jesus had risen.

The disciples had hoped for the Messiah to redeem Israel, but Jesus the Messiah did them one better and redeemed the entire world, sometimes we hope in the wrong things just like the disciples. we hope that what we do would be good enough. we hope that the good we do will be returned to us as good. We hope that procrastination will allow us to do more fun things that living life how I want to live it, brings joy. Sometimes we put our hope in the wrong things. we hope that the government will fix all the problems that the world has sent our way. we hope that that leader will fix what is wrong, we hope that our parents will lead us in the right direction. we hope that we will lead children in the right direction and while some of those things are good it’s a lot of we, it’s a lot of putting our hope in ourselves and less of putting our hope and something that is certain. by definition hope is hoping for something that is not certain but we want to happen. we want, we hope that it happens but it’s not guaranteed so instead of putting our hope in non-guaranteed things let’s put our hope in something that is certain.

Hope is certain in Jesus. what we read in the Bible, the hope that we have in the future, the hope of eternal life, all of that is certain and it’s all because of one man. look at the amazed disciples their hope was gone. they didn’t believed in some of what the prophets had to say. but then the scriptures are explained to them. while they are thinking about what they heard on the road they see a familiar sight, Jesus breaking bread. which he had done over and over again throughout his life throughout his ministry. looking in the Bible for hope they found something even greater. hope that was certain hope, that it was 100% sure. Jesus was alive Jesus had risen all those promises, prophecies, all of them are true and there he was in the scriptures right before their very eyes.

Hope in Jesus, the chance of what was told about him happening in 100% it will happen. There its 100% for the disciples and it’s 100% for you, because Jesus did exactly what was promised and prophesied about him. Jesus died, was mocked, tortured, buried, took all of our sins upon him, and then he still rose from the dead. Jesus died, Jesus rose, because we need a savior, because we can’t hope 100% on our own. so Jesus made hope 100%. Jesus had redeemed the whole world and while we can look to the past for hope, that this is certainly true. we can also look to the future for that 100% hope because Jesus has prepared a place for us, a place for you, a place for me, a place for my grandma. we can have hope in the future because Jesus restored hope, and he did more than that he made it 100%. hope that we can be certain of, hope that will never fail, hope 100%.

So let’s rejoice because hope is 100%. just look at the Emmaus disciples they recognized him, their hearts were burning with the holy scripture, their hope was restored and what do they do? that very hour they got up and they returned to Jerusalem to share the good news. so, let’s rejoice like the disciples, hope is 100%. hope is found in the Bible. Jesus made hope 100% for the future. Rejoice, be excited for what will come in the future, be excited for what is certain. do like the Emmaus disciples because hope is certain, it was for them, it is for us. Rejoice, tell others and hope 100%.

Amen.