[0:00] We're going to begin our worship by singing to God's praise. We're going to sing in Psalm 23, the Sing Psalms version. You'll find it on the Order of Service or in the Psalm books on page 28.
[0:13] Psalm 23, the Sing Psalms version. We're going to sing the whole of this psalm, a great psalm that reminds us of who the Lord is and how he is, our shepherd, how he watches over us and leads us.
[0:25] The Lord's my shepherd, no one shall I know. He makes me lie down where the green pastures grow. He leads me to rest where the calm waters flow. We'll stand to sing the whole of this psalm.
[0:41] The Lord is my shepherd, no one shall I know. He makes me lie down where the green pastures grow.
[0:59] He leads me to rest where the calm waters flow. My wandering steps he brings back to his way.
[1:20] In straight paths of righteousness making me stay. Though I walk in death's valley where darkness is near.
[1:49] Because you are with me, no evil I'll fear. Your God and your suffering be comfort and cheer.
[2:08] In the sight of my enemies a table you spread. The oil of rejoicing you pour on my head.
[2:28] My cup overflows and I'm graciously fed.
[2:38] So surely your covenant, mercy and grace. Will follow me closely in all of my ways.
[2:58] I will dwell in the house of the Lord all my days.
[3:13] Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven as we gather today. We thank you for the wonder of your creation.
[3:25] We thank you for the beauty and the stillness of this day. We thank you that on this Sunday morning, this Lord's Day morning, we can gather in your name. We can gather with the assurance and the promise that you give in your word that you will be with us.
[3:40] That you will come near to us as we seek to come near to you. We thank you for your word and how it reminds us of all the blessings that are ours in Jesus Christ.
[3:52] Even as we have sung together from this psalm, we are reminded of the wonder of the Lord. The Lord who is our shepherd. The Lord who leads us through this life.
[4:03] He watches over us. And as we put our trust in him, he gives us every promise and assurance and comfort of the word. And especially that great comfort of a place for all of his people.
[4:18] A place that he leads his people to. His dwelling place forevermore. And we thank you that that is true because of what he has done for us. And especially today, we remember the significance of all that's been done for us.
[4:34] That Jesus came into this world. That he died on the cross. That he was buried. And that he rose again on the third day. And we thank you that today as we come, especially remembering that, we are thankful that every Sunday we have that reminder to us.
[4:53] That he is risen. And we pray, Lord, that you will bless all that we do in your name today. Bless us together as families and friends and as a community here, Lord.
[5:04] We thank you for each other. We thank you for our young people and pray your blessing on them. Especially at this holiday time, Lord. Watch over each one. And we thank you for our schools, for the teachers and all the staff.
[5:18] And all the children there. We pray that they will enjoy a time of holiday just now. Whether it's staying at home here or going away to different places, Lord. Keep each one safe and watch over us all.
[5:31] Thank you for those visiting with us as well, Lord. And we pray your blessing on each of them as well. People traveling to and fro, Lord. Watch over us each one. Lord, bless us now as we worship your name.
[5:44] Bless us as we go on in this day, Lord. Look after us and all our loved ones as we commit them to you. I think especially for this coming week of James and Donna.
[5:54] As they will be away as Donna goes through her treatment, Lord. We pray that you will watch over them. Bless them. Uphold them. And others like them, Lord. Going through that experience at this time as well, Lord.
[6:06] We commit all who are unwell. All who are cast down at this time. All who are with many different troubles in this life, Lord. We pray for your comfort and your blessing to each one.
[6:19] So hear our prayers, Lord, and continue with us now as we ask all of these things for the forgiveness of our sins. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, today is, of course, Easter Sunday.
[6:35] And it's a special day for us as we come together to remember what the Lord Jesus has done for us. And today we're going to be looking at a particular story from the Bible.
[6:46] A story that's often called The Two on the Road to Emmaus. Two people who were traveling on this journey along the road, leaving Jerusalem and making their way to a place called Emmaus.
[6:58] And as they were making their way along, Jesus came alongside them. And it's an amazing story. But the foundation of this story, as we find it in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, actually begins with the resurrection on the first day of the week.
[7:16] And I'm just going to read one verse earlier in Luke, chapter 24, at verse 6. And that's where it says, He is not here, but he has risen.
[7:28] Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise.
[7:41] He is not here, but he is risen. That is what Easter is about. Jesus came, he died, he was buried, but on the third day he rose again.
[7:54] Who here has ever told a lie? If you don't put up your hand, you probably are telling a lie. Who else has maybe heard something that you think is true, only for it to turn out to be a lie?
[8:10] Sometimes it's hard to know what to believe and what is truth. Now, there's a day tomorrow, the 1st of April, it's called April Fool's Day.
[8:23] And people love to make up stories to try and trick people and to catch people out. And you'll hear all kinds of different stories being told, and sometimes it's very difficult to work out what is true and what is a lie.
[8:39] And we often fall into the trap of believing things that just aren't true, or not believing things that actually are. We've been living in Plasterfield for nearly two years now, and it's been nice getting to know all the neighbours round about there.
[8:56] There's one in particular, though, when the 1st of April comes, I'll be a little bit wary about what he might say to me, whether to believe it's true or not.
[9:06] I'm expecting a text in early tomorrow morning saying, the ferry's cancelled. And I'll be wondering, is that true? And I think, oh, no, it's so-and-so who's texting. It's probably just an April Fool's.
[9:18] But we struggle to know, to believe what is true and what is a lie. Now, 2,000 years ago, on a Friday, something happened, something that really changed this world.
[9:33] And that is that Jesus, who had come into this world, and he came with a purpose. He came to give his life for his people. And so on that Friday, Jesus was crucified.
[9:48] It was a dark day, a very sad day in many ways, especially if we didn't understand just why it was happening. But we know it's true.
[10:00] It's recorded in history for us. And many people saw Jesus being put to death. And then on the Saturday, his body lay in the grave for that day.
[10:13] But then something amazing happened. On the Sunday morning, on the third day, when they went to the tomb to see what was there, they found the tomb, the stone had been rolled away, and the tomb was empty.
[10:30] He had risen. He was alive. And he met with people. And that's not a lie either, because it's recorded for us here in the Bible.
[10:42] Many people met with Jesus. But there are many people who think it is a lie. And our lives are so often made up of trying to work out what is true and what is a lie.
[10:58] And there's actually board games and TV shows that are based on this kind of idea of trying to work out what's truth and what's a lie. There's one TV show called Would I Lie to You?
[11:11] And on it, you've got two teams of three on each team, and they're telling stories, often about themselves and things that they've done. Sometimes they're telling the truth, and sometimes they're telling a lie.
[11:25] And the team opposite them has to try and work out which it is. And it can be very hard, because it can be very convincing. And isn't that the way our lives so often are?
[11:38] We hear so much, and we're wondering to ourselves, what's true and what's a lie? And as we hear what we read in our Bibles, we need to believe that this is truth.
[11:51] This is what is true. And what these two on the road to Emmaus found was that as they were on this journey, after they left Jerusalem, going to Emmaus, which is about seven miles of a journey, so it'll be a bit like walking from here to Skoltenaloch or Skolavac, seven miles, walking all that way, and plenty time to discuss things.
[12:17] But as they're on this journey, Jesus comes alongside them. But it takes them a little while to realize just who it is.
[12:27] But what he does is he speaks to them about the Bible, the truth. And it's the truth, as we read here, makes their hearts burn within them.
[12:38] Their hearts get excited about what they are hearing and who it is that is speaking to them. It is Jesus, who they thought was dead, who is alive, and he is risen.
[12:49] And what happens is their lives are transformed. And they want to rush back to Jerusalem and tell others about him. Why is Easter important?
[13:03] Is it because of the holidays, which are good? Is it because of the Easter eggs that you get, which can be good as well? Is that why Easter is important?
[13:16] No, it's about Jesus. That's what's important about Easter. That we remember that Jesus came to give his life. That he died, but that on the third day he rose again.
[13:31] And we can rejoice in that. We can be delighted in that. That joy that he gave to the two on the road to Emmaus can be ours if we come and believe in him.
[13:46] So that's the journey we're going to go on today. We're going to look at the two on the road to Emmaus and we're going to see three things about them. They're doubting, they're searching, and then they're believing.
[14:01] And today, if we're in any of these situations, maybe we're doubting today. May we come to search the word of God and may we come to believe in the Jesus who is risen, who is our Savior.
[14:17] Well, we're going to read together just now, and at this point, anyone who's going out to the tweenies can go out. We're going to read together in the Gospel of Luke.
[14:30] We're going to read from verse 13 down to verse 24. So we're going to read in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, and at verse 13.
[15:06] That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
[15:21] While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself threw near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
[15:38] And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?
[15:53] And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.
[16:14] But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
[16:28] Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
[16:45] Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. But we leave our reading there at this point.
[16:58] We're going to come back and pick it up again. But in this first reading, we begin to see the two on the road to Emmaus, the journey that they were on, and just some of the things that they were talking about.
[17:12] There are many things that we hear and we can find them hard to believe. We doubt. And that's exactly what these two on the road to Emmaus were experiencing.
[17:24] They were doubting even the things that they were heard from others who were of their company, as it says, others who were friends of them who had come and told them all these different things that had happened and they'd seen or heard in Jerusalem.
[17:40] They were doubting to believe it. Just like that, we ourselves can find things hard to believe. For example, if I was to say to you, they're going to build a tunnel from Stornoway to Ullapul.
[17:56] They're going to go under the minch with a tunnel so that we can travel by car under the minch over to the other side. Would you believe that? Some people would want to believe it so we don't have to go on the ferry anymore, especially when the ferry's rough.
[18:12] It would make getting back and forth so much easier. Other people wouldn't want to believe it but say, oh no, that would bring maybe too many people into the island or make it too easy.
[18:24] Others would just say, oh, that's ridiculous. It's just never going to happen. That's just an April Fool's or I'll believe it when I see it. There are things that we kind of struggle to work out just what we want in these circumstances.
[18:41] Well, we meet these two on the road to Emmaus. We know one of them is called Cleopas though we're not told the name of the other one. And they had been to Jerusalem.
[18:52] They had been there for the Passover. That was the remembrance of how God had helped his people in the Old Testament in the time of the Exodus, how they had been helped by God to get away from Egypt.
[19:07] And they were remembering that by sacrificing a lamb. But now as they'd been to Jerusalem remembering the Passover, what they had seen was this fulfilled. And Jesus who had come to give his life.
[19:21] And they've seen so much, they've heard so much, and yet here they are coming away from Jerusalem on the way to Emmaus. And what's their emotion?
[19:32] How are they feeling? Are they happy? Even when they've heard that Jesus may be alive, you'd think they would be happy, but they're not.
[19:43] They are sad. They are sad about what had happened because they don't understand it. They don't realize just what this means.
[19:56] And you notice what they were talking about. they were talking about the things that had happened concerning Jesus as it says in verse 19.
[20:08] And it's almost like they had all the information. They had Jesus, they were talking about him, this man who was a prophet, who was mighty indeed, all the things that he had done.
[20:20] He was so mighty in all of these things, how the chief priests and the rulers had delivered him up to condemn him to death. They had crucified him. And it says, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem his.
[20:35] He was the one that they were looking for and putting their hope on that he would save his people. And yet here they feel like all their hopes are dashed.
[20:46] They're coming away from Jerusalem and they've missed the most important thing. It reminds me of when you see football fans and they're in the stadium.
[21:01] They've got the ticket to go into the stadium to watch their team play, but they find their team losing and losing badly. And so maybe with 15 or 20 minutes to go, they think, well, what's the point?
[21:15] My team's lost. Even if you look back to the results yesterday, Newcastle were playing West Ham. And with less than 15 minutes to go, West Ham are winning 3-1.
[21:29] And you can start to see the fans starting to leave. They're thinking, we've lost. There's no point. So they go out. They start coming away from the stadium. But as they're making their way away from the stadium, they begin to hear a cheer go up as their team has scored one goal.
[21:47] And as their team has scored another. Newcastle came back and they won 4-3 in the last minutes. But fans who left before the end because they doubted that their team could come back and win, they missed it.
[22:01] And they had to go on reports that others would tell them. And even then, they maybe wouldn't believe it. There's no way that we could come back and win that game. And yet, here are these two on the road to Emmaus.
[22:14] They've been in Jerusalem. They've been in the place with everything that was happening. They've seen so much that was happening. And they've even heard so much about what has happened.
[22:25] It even goes so far as to say that some of the people who were with us came and told us that his body was not there, that the angels were saying that he was alive.
[22:37] And yet, they dismissed it. They were doubting. And yet, into this, who is it that comes alongside them? As they're journeying on the way, Jesus himself, it says in verse 15, drew near and went with them.
[22:56] Jesus himself. And yet, they didn't recognize him. They didn't understand. And they're saying to him, we hoped that he was the one who was going to save us.
[23:10] And he's there. He's right beside them. And yet, they're still not believing. And how close are we to salvation today?
[23:25] How close are we to Jesus today? And still, we don't believe. The Bible tells us. He is not here.
[23:36] He is risen. This morning, this Sunday morning, tells us that he is risen. It is Easter Sunday. It reminds us of all of these things.
[23:50] And yet, still, we don't believe. We're so close to the truth. We're hearing the truth. And yet, we're still saying to ourselves, but it's a lie.
[24:05] It can't be true. Well, that's the experience of these two on the road to Emmaus. That's our first experience, doubt. They don't believe that this can be true.
[24:20] And for ourselves, that might be our experience today as well. Maybe we don't believe that this can be true. Well, there is truth here for us.
[24:34] And before we go on to the next stage of the journey when we come to see them searching, we're going to read, but first, before we read, we're going to sing. We're going to sing another psalm together.
[24:47] We're going to sing in Psalm 22. Psalm 22. And we're going to sing from verse 25 down to verse 27, three stanzas.
[25:01] Now, this is another psalm that's all about Jesus in many ways. It speaks to us about his crucifixion. But at the end of this psalm, it reminds us that although he died, he is alive.
[25:19] In verse 25, you are the theme of all my praise. Within the great assembly, Lord, before all those who fear your name, I will fulfill your solemn word.
[25:30] And then in verse 27, the whole earth will remember him and turn towards the Lord their God. All peoples will bow down to him, the nations of the world abroad.
[25:44] And that's a reminder to us that today as we worship here throughout the world, the whole world, people remember him, remember that he is risen.
[25:55] So we'll sing from verse 25 to verse 27 to God's praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. You are the theme of all my praise within the great assembly, Lord, before all those who fear your name, I will fulfill my solemn word.
[26:39] The poor will eat and will be filled, and those who seek the Lord will give.
[26:57] A shout of joyful praise to him, O may your heart forever lift.
[27:15] the whole earth will remember him and turn towards the Lord their God.
[27:29] the Lord their God. All peoples will bow down to him, the nations of the world abroad.
[27:50] the Lord. Well, we read some more verses now in this chapter, Luke 24.
[28:04] We're going to read from verse 25 down to verse 31. Luke 24 at verse 25. And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
[28:24] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
[28:40] So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent.
[28:56] So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.
[29:15] Well, as Jesus was hearing these two on the road to Emmaus talking as he came alongside them, this is now where we see how Jesus responds to them and all that they're saying and all the explanations that they've given to him about what had happened in Jerusalem.
[29:34] And it's a reminder to us that there is always two sides. to every story. Two sides. And so often it's a case of trying to work out what is true and what is a lie.
[29:48] And we begin to see that the understanding that the two on the road to Emmaus had was believing what was not true. And that's what Jesus' response to them is in verse 25.
[30:00] He said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written. O foolish ones, are we fools today?
[30:17] Will we be fools tomorrow when someone plays and April fools on us and we get sucked in and believe that? We can be fools to believe a lie.
[30:30] It can happen so easily and so quickly. But how many more are fools in not believing what is written for us here?
[30:42] What is told to us in the Bible in God's Word? the truth that is presented to us in the Scriptures? Well, that's what Jesus brings these two to.
[30:56] He brings them to the Bible, to the Word of God. And that's what Jesus says, you are fools not to believe this. And Jesus then starts explaining to them all about the Bible.
[31:13] And he says, was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into glory? Was that not what the Bible was saying to you all this time? And he says then in verse 27, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he began to explain the Bible to them.
[31:33] The things, he says, concerning himself. How Jesus was seen in all of the Old Testament. How it was pointing towards Jesus' coming and all that was necessary for him to do.
[31:47] And you can imagine Jesus speaking about the things of the Old Testament, like the Passover lamb, explaining what it meant in Moses' day, what it meant now, what it meant going forward.
[32:04] Explaining from the prophets, like Isaiah, the things that Isaiah wrote about Jesus. Explaining from so many of the Psalms, how Jesus is seen in them.
[32:17] Even think of the likes of Psalm 14, which says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. That is what it means to be a fool.
[32:31] To say there is no God. And Jesus here is describing these two on the road to Emmaus as foolish and slow of heart.
[32:43] He is describing them in this way and he is saying basically, you are stubborn. You are stubborn not to believe these things.
[32:55] Here it is presented before you. You are just foolish. You are stubborn not to believe these things. And is that not the way we so often are as well?
[33:07] We are just stubborn by nature. Stubborn to believe so many things. And that is certainly not something we want to be with the word of God.
[33:18] Stubbornness is being foolish. Many of you, I am sure, will be busy just now either working or helping with sheep and helping with lambing at this time.
[33:31] It is a busy time for those who have sheep. Have you ever ended up in a standoff with a sheep though? When you are trying to get them into the pen but they just want to go the opposite direction.
[33:47] And I am sure many of you have been in a situation where you find yourself, you end up just wanting to talk to the sheep and you are trying to reason with the sheep. You are saying look, I just want you to go this way not that way.
[34:01] Will you not just do as I am saying and you are you want me to go this way? No, I am going that way. They are stubborn just like we are.
[34:12] And that is why you find in the Bible Jesus so often describes his people as sheep. You find it in the Old Testament as well. All we like sheep have gone astray.
[34:24] We have turned all to our own ways. We have been stubborn. We have gone away. Well, Jesus is described as we sang in Psalm 23 as the good shepherd.
[34:37] And the good shepherd who is described in John 10 as the one who calls his sheep, calls them by name that they would follow him. But we are stubborn.
[34:48] Even though we know the Bible is talking to us, we are still stubborn to believe, slow of heart and just foolish to believe all that is said.
[35:00] There are two sides to every story. But the more we hear the voice of Jesus, the more we realize that he is just like a good shepherd.
[35:16] A shepherd who wants to care for his sheep. A shepherd who is trying to get his sheep into the pen so he can look after them and care for them even though they want to go the opposite direction.
[35:30] The more we hear of Jesus, the more we see he wants us to come to him that we might help us. That we might come to him and find rest with him.
[35:43] And the more they, the two on the road to Emmaus, were hearing as Jesus was opening up the scriptures, the more they realized as he was searching through the scriptures, he was not just searching the scriptures but he was searching their hearts.
[36:00] Working in their hearts, those hearts that were stubborn and foolish and slow to believe, he was working in them that they might come to believe.
[36:13] And that is the power of God's word. That is the power that we have before us here today. This word of God that speaks to us about all that was necessary for Christ to suffer.
[36:28] All that he had to do for us in giving his life on the cross and being put in the grave but that he rose again to remind us that he had conquered the grave, conquered death.
[36:42] All of these things we are to hear and that is the word that searches your heart in my heart and challenges us to believe in this.
[36:56] We can come from doubting to being foolish and stubborn to being searched by Jesus and coming to know what Jesus has done for us that we might have life in him.
[37:15] And that is the final thing I want us to take from this passage. The way they come to believe. I want us just to read a few more verses before we come to reflect on this final point.
[37:29] Reading from verse 32 down to verse 35. And there we read these words. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures.
[37:52] And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon.
[38:07] Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. As they had come towards Emmaus, these two had invited Jesus in to stay with them.
[38:27] They were concerned for him. It was getting late at night. It wasn't the time to be out and about on the roads at that time of night because they were dangerous places, places where robbers would be hiding and waiting for people to come along.
[38:44] And as they sat together and as Jesus had opened up the scriptures to them, you see in this moment there was a realization of who it was.
[38:56] In the breaking of the bread they suddenly realized that this was Jesus. What does recognizing Jesus do?
[39:10] What does recognizing the truth do? It does what happened to these two on the road to Emmaus. It makes your heart burn within you.
[39:23] It's an amazing image this. Did not our hearts burn within us as he opened up the scriptures? And it's looking back. It's recognizing something that had been happening for a while and something that can happen to ourselves as well when all of a sudden we begin to realize who Jesus is and begin to realize how he's been speaking to us and how he's been bringing our heart alive again.
[39:51] Our heart that was hard and stubborn and foolish. Jesus has begun to work in it. To bring it to life.
[40:02] Through his word. through his truth. That is what happened to them. The word of God started to speak in powerful ways.
[40:18] And the hope, remember the hope that they thought had gone. The hope that they had left behind in Jerusalem, leaving, as it were, before the full-time whistle had gone, not realizing the great achievement that had been done for them, that he was risen.
[40:36] What they had been slow to believe, now they realized. And their hope was back. Their hope was fulfilled. They were filled with joy.
[40:49] Joy and gladness that the Lord is risen indeed. And that's the joy that the word of God can give to us today as well.
[41:01] So here they were, the two on the road to Emmaus. They had come to Emmaus. What had started out as a sad journey, talking about the hope that they had lost and all of these things.
[41:15] Imagine you were going on a school sponsored walk. You were going to walk from Stornoway, seven miles, maybe to the Lough School or to the Bath School.
[41:27] And it's been a long, tiring walk. You're knackered as you come to the school. You're thirsty, your feet are hurting. And then when you get there your teacher says, right, we're going straight back to Stornoway.
[41:41] Start walking. Oh, you would think, no way, we're not going to do that, we've just reached here. Well, Cleopas and the friend that was with Cleopas, as soon as they had arrived in Emmaus and as soon as they realized who Jesus was, the first thing they wanted to do was get right back to Jerusalem.
[42:04] Get right back there to tell people who they had seen and who they had met with. He is risen. He is alive. The resurrection filled them with hope.
[42:19] And that's what the resurrection does today as well. No matter what makes us sad in this life, no matter the things that come our way that hurt us and leave us feeling anxious and fearful, as we trust in Jesus, he gives us a hope.
[42:38] A hope for today and a hope for eternity. Why is the resurrection important? It's important because it's not a joke.
[42:50] It's not an April fool's. It's not there to give us a little hope and then only take it away that is not actually true. It is true. And so we are to believe it.
[43:04] These two, they came to believe in all that they had heard and seen. They had seen Jesus and it filled them with hope and filled them with delight.
[43:19] There was once a skeptic, that's someone who doesn't really believe in God. And he had a Christian friend. And very often he would mock his Christian friend, make a laugh of his faith.
[43:35] And one day this man said to his Christian friend, say, George, what would you say if when you die you find out that there is no heaven?
[43:48] Well, a Christian friend said to his friend beside him with a smile. He said, well, I would say I've had a good life and I've enjoyed living my life for Christ.
[44:03] And then he threw a question back at his skeptic friend, his friend who didn't believe. And he said to him, what about you, Fred? What would you say if when you die you find out there is such a place as hell?
[44:22] And there was no response to give. And that's the reality of the resurrection. That's the difference it makes.
[44:35] Jesus came to save his people from their sins, to save his people from hell and to give them the hope of heaven and eternity with him.
[44:50] it is not an April fools. It's not a joke. But do you believe the truth or do you believe a lie?
[45:03] The truth is he died, he was buried, and he rose on the third day. The lie is that none of that is true.
[45:18] There's a little song that we used to sing at a holiday club that we used to do in Dumfries. And it's about the cross. And it's just a simple little song, really one verse.
[45:32] And this is what it says. When I think about the cross, when I think of Jesus, it reminds me of his love, love that never leaves me.
[45:45] who am I that he should die in my place, giving life so freely, when I think about the cross, help me to believe it.
[46:02] It's a simple little verse, and yet it speaks so much to us about the love of the Lord to us, in giving his life, love, and asking in prayer that he would help us to believe it.
[46:20] Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? He died, but he is risen, and may he help us all to believe the truth that there is in that, and not the lie that says it is not true.
[46:41] Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for your word and the hope that it gives, for it reminds us that though Christ came to die for our sins, it reminds us too that he is risen, and we pray that today we would be helped to believe in all of these things, to believe in the things that maybe even seem impossible to us, but we thank you that through faith we see all that is possible with God.
[47:12] So continue with us Lord and bless us we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We're going to conclude by singing to God's praise in Psalm 62 in the Scottish Psalter version.
[47:28] Psalm 62 and we'll sing the first two verses. Psalm 62 My soul with expectation depends on God indeed my strength and my salvation doth from him alone proceed.
[47:46] He only my salvation is and my strong rock is he. He only is my sure defense much moved I shall not be. We'll sing these two verses to God's praise.
[47:58] my soul with expectation depends on God indeed my strength and my salvation doth from him alone proceed.
[48:40] He only is my salvation and my strong rock is he.
[48:58] He only is my sure defense much move I shall not leave.
[49:19] After the benediction I'll go to the door to my right here. We'll just close with the benediction. Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon and abide with you all now and forever more.
[49:35] Amen. Amen.