The sermon for Easter Sunday is titled “Not Expecting Him to Be There”. It was preached by Ps Pamela on Sunday 9th April 2023.
Sermon Transcript:
[Show picture of Queen Elizabeth]
Queen Elisabeth II was reigning queen of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was head of state of 15 realms at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history.
Millions upon millions of people mourned her passing last year because she was a very popular lady. It is not an exaggeration to say that most people on earth knew about Queen Elizabeth when she passed away. Her photo, her image has been splashed about for decades upon decades; she’s one of the most photographed figures of all time! And yet, I came across this funny tale a couple of months ago. Listen to this, you may have heard it, but it’s worth hearing it again😊…
Could I have that second photo up please?
This is the story of how Queen Elizabeth II handled an encounter with an American hiker who did not recognize her, recounted by a former bodyguard who was with her that day, revealed the fun-loving side of her personality that the public rarely saw.
The monarch was out in the hills near her Scottish castle at Balmoral when two U.S. tourists on a walking holiday approached and one of them engaged her in conversation, said former royal protection officer Richard Griffin, called Dick for short.
The hiker asked the queen where she lived, so she said London, adding that she had a holiday home just over the hill and had been visiting the area for more than 80 years since she was a little girl. She did not say she was referring to Balmoral. Aware that the castle was in the vicinity, the hiker then asked her if she had ever met the queen, Griffin said.
“Quick as a flash she said: ‘I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly’. The hiker then asked Griffin what the monarch was like in person.”Because I was with her a long time and I knew I could pull her leg, I said ‘oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humour’,”
Delighted, the hiker then put his arm around Griffin’s shoulder and asked if he could have a picture of the two of them together.
“Before I could see what was happening, he gets his camera and gives it to the queen and says, ‘can you take a picture of us?'” The queen obliged, and then Griffin took the camera and took a picture of her with the pair of hikers.
Later, Griffin said, the queen told him: “I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to friends in America and hopefully someone tells him who I am.” 😊
These hikers were talking to the Queen of England, the longest reigning British monarch, the most photographed monarch ever. I mean, how many coins have her face on them? And these tourists had no idea who they were talking to, and it would appear that the queen enjoyed every minute of it. God had a similar experience when He emptied Himself of all deity privileges and came to earth as a humble man. People had a difficult time recognizing their Creator. Make no mistake, meeting Jesus was a precious encounter with God, the God of the universe. The only God! But most didn’t recognize Him. In Isaiah 53, of the Old Testament, it was predicted, that Jesus came to His own but His own received Him NOT. They didn’t receive Him because they didn’t recognize who He was! God was not who they thought Him to be.
Let us pray. Lord let all who hear this sermon connect with You in a real and meaningful way. For those who are downcast let them sense your wonderful presence and come to know that You are with them because You truly love and care for them. Amen
In the resurrection account, which we celebrate today on Easter Sunday, there is a strange phenomenon that occurs 3 times. It is where people who knew Jesus very well, before His death, don’t recognize Him when He first appears to them after His resurrection.
It’s something that has always intrigued me because Jesus had told His disciples at least 3 times, that He would rise from the dead, but still, they didn’t recognize Him. This morning, I want to share something that I have learnt from these strange occurrences which I hope will encourage you to love and trust Jesus more.
Queen Elizabeth, the second, was delightful in her little encounter with the American tourists. But Jesus, the Creator of the universe, He was truly amazing in these encounters and He’s still the same today. Our God is an unchanging God!!
Have you had an encounter with Him? Now the Bible doesn’t always tell us why the followers of Jesus did not recognize Him after His resurrection. So, some of the following explanations are my speculations but bear with me and enjoy the ride.
There are a few things that may have contributed to the disciples not recognizing Jesus immediately when He first appeared to them after His resurrection. First, even though Jesus had predicted that He would rise again on the third day, it seems they that the disciples did not fully understand this prophecy (Mark 9:32), because obviously they were not looking for Him to be resurrected. Clearly, this can account for some of their surprise and shock at seeing Him. They didn’t expect Him to be risen from the dead!!! For example, we’ve already read John 20:15, where Jesus was not recognized by Mary Magdalene at the tomb early in the morning on that resurrection day! Instead of recognizing Jesus, she mistook Him for a gardener.
Now we don’t know how far Mary was standing from Jesus when she misidentified Him. It could be that she was simply too far to clearly recognize who He was until He spoke her name.
Secondly, it was very early in the morning, the light would be dull, which could also have made it more difficult for her to see Him clearly.
Thirdly, she would have been crying, let’s face it, she was in deep grief searching for His mutilated body because she seriously thought someone had stolen His dead body from the tomb. The tears obviously made her vision blurry.
When we couple these with the fact that she was not expecting to see Him alive, it is easy to see why she did not originally recognize Jesus until He spoke her name “Mary”.
How beautiful it is when God speaks your name. Isaiah 43:1 says that God knows my name and He has claimed me as His own. It’s true, it says,
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” This is what Jesus was doing, in this resurrection account, He called her by her name and then she instantly recognized who He was and reached out to give Him a hug. Hallelujah! A second instance in which Jesus was not immediately recognized was when a despondent Peter, in response, I believe, to his own poor performance surrounding the death of Jesus, decides to go back to his old job of fishing and some of the other disciples, with similar attitude, follow him.
But after a disappointingly rotten night, of not catching any fish, there was the unrecognized Jesus on the shoreline instructing them with a loud voice to try again but this time cast the net on the other side, the right side, of the boat.
It was Jesus giving them good instruction, He was teaching them a wonderful lesson and He was about to feed them and have a deep and meaningful conversation with the despondent Peter. But Peter, and the rest, didn’t initially recognize who He was.
Now we could also put this down to the fact that Jesus was standing at a distance, and they couldn’t clearly see Him. There were environmental factors that made recognition challenging. And it wasn’t until they experienced the miraculous catching of huge amounts of fish that they finally realized it was Jesus, with a delicious meal, waiting for them on the shoreline. And of course, Peter hastily jumps in the water, clothes and all, and swims to meet Him. Hallelujah! What a response. A little like Mary’s physical response of excitedly moving towards Jesus.
So, both these scenarios of not recognizing Jesus can be explained by challenging visual circumstances. But then we have the third instance when the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) did not recognize Jesus until He broke bread with them. Now this is different to meeting Jesus in the darkened garden and on the early morning shoreline.
As I said before, both those accounts could be explained in very logical terms. Mary’s vision could have been blurred by her tears and sorrow, and the fisherman might have been too far from shore to recognize the man who spoke to them. But no such explanation can be made regarding the Emmaus Road experience.
It is clear in Scripture that these two disciples did not know it was Jesus because they were prevented from recognizing Him. They were prevented from recognizing Him. Luke 24 says beginning in verse 15 that, “As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing Him.”
But why was it necessary for Jesus to keep his identity from these two followers? Why? Why? Why? The Bible does not provide the answer. One of the travelers is identified as “Cleopas” (Luke 24:18), which despite the different spelling, seems to be referenced in John 19:25 when the Bible says, “But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.” If the Clopas of John 19 is the Cleopas of Luke 24, then it would seem to indicate that these two disciples were much more intimately acquainted with Jesus as opposed to being casual members of the crowd who would often follow Jesus from a safe distance.
Again, this does not explain why their eyes would have been prevented from recognizing their friend who had overcome death, but it could point to the reality that Jesus might have utilized their consuming, blinding grief to enable Him to set the stage for His coming revelation. These grieving men were walking on the road to Emmaus not having any idea that Jesus had risen from the dead that very day!!! As they traveled, the reason for their grief joined them – Jesus, but they did not recognize Him.
Jesus asked them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” (Luke 24:17). The two disciples were surprised that the man had not heard of the recent events that had Jerusalem in turmoil. They proceeded to tell the stranger of Jesus’ crucifixion and the report of His empty tomb. Jesus responded, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow you are in believing all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25-27).
So, as they walked, Jesus taught what the Old Testament had predicted about Himself. When they arrived in Emmaus that evening, the two disciples stopped to eat, and they asked Jesus to join them. He did, and as He broke the bread and blessed the meal, “their eyes were opened” (verse 31), and they recognized Him. Jesus then vanished.
Their response?
There was a response. Just like Mary responded, just like Peter and the other disciples responded when recognition hit because there’s always a physical, spiritual, emotional response when you realize it’s Jesus who is speaking to you. The two men got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the disciples and those with them, assembled together and they told them all. ‘Hey, it is true! Jesus has risen from the dead’” He’s alive Hallelujah!
These three different resurrection encounters have much in common that we can learn from today 2000 years later. Firstly, Mary, Peter and the fishermen, and Cleopas and friend, were all in a place of extreme disappointment and grief – they were all going through a very very dark time. They had just experienced the horrific torture of someone they knew was perfect and undeserving of such barbaric treatment – I mean we talk about Post Traumatic Stress in our modern society but just imagine what they all had just endured, what they had seen, heard and feared – in describable agony! None of them were in a good place mentally, spiritually or emotionally when they encountered Jesus. In fact, it probably couldn’t get much darker for them, and they weren’t privy to antidepressants or psychological care, they had to keep going and deal with the pain as best they could.
Secondly, they were all busy doing something in the middle of the hurt and pain. Mary was busy trying to find the body of Jesus, Peter had returned to his old occupation of fishing, he was busy fishing, and Cleopas was walking to the next town for business maybe, I don’t know. But they were all ‘doing’.
Thirdly, none of them expected Jesus to be where they were. None of them. Mary didn’t expect Him in the garden, Peter didn’t expect Him on the shoreline and Cleopas didn’t expect Him on the road! He wasn’t meant to be there. Jesus wasn’t meant to be, BUT HE WAS. He was there and He was there for one main reason.
Because He seriously cared for those individuals whom He had a relationship with. For me, the big take out from this is that Jesus is there, He’s there when you can’t see Him, He’s there when you can’t hear Him, He’s there when you can’t feel Him. He’s there even when you don’t expect Him to be. And He’s there because He loves you. He’s there because He loves you.
I read this beautiful article in Christianity.com the other week and it really touched my heart. Please listen to this as I come to a close. Like the disciples on the Emmaus Road, Jesus walks with us and reveals himself in different ways and to different degrees from day-to-day. There is nothing I can know of my God except that He chooses to reveal it. We cannot grow in our knowledge of God or His ways except that we are looking through the lens of Scripture.
He does not waste our circumstances, trials, or grief but draws near to us in our moments of deepest despair, and in his own time, he peels away the cataracts that distort our vision so that we might know him and the power of His resurrection. And when our shallow belief is confronted with the presence of the risen Lord, it is the word of God alone that becomes the framework and foundation for seeing Jesus for who he really is.
Regardless of what prevents us from seeing Christ as we ought, may we all come to know Jesus as a friend who walks with us in our pain and disappointment, and like the disciples, may our hearts burn as well as Jesus reveals himself to us each day through his Word.
Jesus is here. We are about to partake of communion to remember His presence but before we do I just want to say this. Maybe, for whatever reason, you’ve been struggling of recent, you’re not in a good place, and you’re not at all expecting Jesus to be with you in any way shape or form. But today, possibly for the first time, you can see that God is with you because your heart is burning. This is your time to respond. We must respond to His presence. Mary responded, Peter responded, Cleopas responded. What’s your response? You could actually say. “No thanks Jesus, I’ll do this my way.” And you know what, that’s your business, God doesn’t force anyone. Or You could take a leaf out of Mary & Peter’s book and literally run to Jesus. Now that would be the best move ever in your life.
If this is you, and today you want to acknowledge God’s presence in your life right now by saying ‘yes’ to Jesus. Before we break bread with Him. I want to pray for you, I must pray for you, this is extremely important stuff as you acknowledge His presence with a yes, saying please come and be my personal Saviour. Come and save me from my hurt and pain. Come and save me from myself. If this is you, while all heads are bowed, and all eyes are closed, I want you to lift your hand so I can pray for you before we partake of communion. What a wonderful time to meet Jesus on Easter Sunday.
Would you please raise your hand so that I can pray for you? Is there anyone? Lord, you see the hands raised and you know what is going on in their hearts because you are very present right now and You know all things, nothing is hidden from You. Father, please help all who have raised their hands in acknowledgement of Your presence, to run towards You. May they open their hearts to You. May they say sorry for all they’ve done wrong in their lives; may they stop doing life their way and begin to do it Your way right now I pray. Amen
For those who are going to distribute communion please do so right away as the band comes forward to sing….1 Cor 11: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.