In this sermon, the preacher discusses the journey from sorrow to continual praise. He emphasizes that walking with Christ may involve suffering, but there is a fellowship with God that cannot be taken away. The preacher highlights the message of the gospel, which is about repentance and forgiveness of sins through Christ. He also mentions the power promised to those who proclaim the gospel, assuring that God will be their strength and guide. The sermon concludes with the preacher urging the audience to seek a deeper understanding and to gather together with others who share their faith.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website, however written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timesquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry 1657 Broadway, New York, New York 10019. Go to Luke chapter 24 please. I'm going to talk to you tonight about the journey from sorrow to continual praise. The journey from sorrow to continual praise. God Almighty speak through me. That's all I ask. Holy Spirit grip this vessel. Take this human vessel. I offer myself to you as an oracle of God. I ask you Lord to speak through me. God demolish the powers of darkness. Push away the wall that would try to stop the ones that you want to come to Christ tonight. Lord God, we stand against the works of the devil and declare that Satan you are bound. You have no authority in this house. You can't hold anybody back who wants to come to the saving knowledge in the life of Christ. We take absolute authority in this house over the powers of darkness. God, thank you now that you've already opened the floodgates. All I've come to do is to declare the victory tonight. The victory is already won. This is not a victory of mental argument. It's a victory in the spirit. God, you're already bearing witness in the hearts of those who are going to come to Christ. God Almighty, thank you for this tonight. Thank you that your name will be glorified and the desire of your heart will be met in Jesus mighty name. Luke chapter 24 beginning at verse 13. And behold, two of them went the same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. And they walked together and they talked together rather of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass while that they communed together in reasons, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding that they should not know him. And he said to them, what manner of communications are these that you have one to another and as you walk and are sad. Now go right from there. Now Jesus asks the question, says, what kind of, what are you talking about that has left you so sad as you walk together? Now look at the end of the journey. Cause that's what we're going to be talking about this evening. Verse 53, last verse of Luke 24, same people as verse 17. They will continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Now you're going to take a journey that begins tonight, a journey from a place of sorrow. Now our text opens in a very dark time, not unlike the time that we're living in right now. Even the most optimistic that had hoped for a better day lived with a foreboding that the oppression and difficulty that seemed to be part of today had tomorrow very firmly in its grip. And we're living in that kind of a day. Optimism now is giving away to pessimism and pessimism is giving away to despair. And you're hearing it everywhere you go. People are walking in the streets and there's this encroaching sadness coming into the hearts of men. Verses 15 and 16 tells us there were some people just like yourself. They were on a journey and while they were traveling, Jesus drew near to them and he began to speak to them, but they didn't know yet who he was. And even in this service tonight, what brought you here tonight? If you don't know Christ as personal Lord and savior, what brought you? If it isn't God who's drawn near to you and he's already speaking to your heart about something, things that you don't yet comprehend. He drew near to them and he began to speak to them. And he said in verse 17, what are you talking about that makes you so sad? What are you talking about? What is in your conversation every day? How come your focus has taken away joy and left you with such sorrow? And then they spoke to him in return. And it's really strange. I'm going to read it to you from verses 18 to 21. And one of them, whose name was Cleopas answered, said to him, are you only a stranger in Jerusalem? Imagine talking to God and calling him a stranger. You're only a stranger to New York city. Do you not know what's going on here? Have you not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people and how the chief priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted past tense that it had been he, which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this today is the third day since these things were done. And here is a type of a person just like you are tonight. There's some have come into this house and you say exactly the things that these people on this journey were saying. You're saying, first of all, Jesus came. Perhaps you were a child. Maybe you were in church. Maybe you were raised in some kind of a religion. Maybe your parents or guardians at some point talked about the things of God and your heart warm to the things of God. And as these men once had, you trusted and you did believe that there was a man called Jesus. He went to a cross. Even if you didn't fully understand it, you somehow felt it was for your good and this Jesus could be trusted. But then they said the chief priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned to death that have crucified him. And it's the type of person here tonight that says, I once trusted in God, but those over me delivered me to death. The religion as it is, took away the life of Christ from me. I went to the house of God, or perhaps I was betrayed by somebody who once talked godly talk, but they didn't walk a godly walk. And I was betrayed by it. And it's long gone. They took this living Christ who was warm and alive in my heart. And I know I'm speaking to somebody here tonight. You might be in your twenties or thirties, you were raised in a Christian environment of some sort and you did love God, but you were betrayed by those over you. And they preached as if Jesus Christ was dead. They lived as if he was dead. And somehow you just formed the intent of your heart and the thought that this whole thing isn't, there's something not right about this. I remember being, I was personally brought up in a form of religion and my heart was somewhat warm to the things of God when I was young. But when I turned into my teenage years and I observed the hypocrisy of people who spoke about God, but lived as if he was dead. And I formed the opinion that he was dead. And this is what these people were saying. The priests and the rulers took him and condemned him to death in our sight. And they delivered him as it was and crucified him. He says, and we trusted that he would have been the one who had redeemed Israel. And then they said, besides all of this, it's, it's, it's been days since this happened. And there are some here tonight to say, I don't even know what I'm doing here. There was a time I trusted in God, but time is, it's a long time ago and a lot of time has passed and I've been on a long journey and the journey's made me sad and I've lost hope. And I don't know if I could even trust this, even though it's God himself who is speaking to their hearts. They're still not sure that this voice can be trusted. But let me ask you a question. Why did you even come here tonight? What brought you here? In the case of these particular men, they said in verse 22, but certain women of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher. And when they found not his body, they came saying that they'd seen a vision of angels, which said he was alive. And certain of them, which were with us, went to the grave, the sepulcher, and found it even as the women had said, but him they saw not. And some of you are here tonight because somebody you know came to this church and they said, well, hey, I'll tell you one thing. I don't see him, but I know he's not dead there. They don't preach about him like he's dead. They preach about him like he's really alive. Like he's right next to us. Like he's walking the platform and they shout and they dance and they clap their hands and they sing songs like I've never heard before. You've got to come and see this. And some of you here are not saved. And you were brought here tonight by somebody who's also not saved, but they've come to this place and they said, well, we thought that Christ was dead. Every church we've ever visited in the past, at least if that's been your experience, has taught us that he's dead, but we visited this place and we found out he's not dead. At least they say he's not dead. There's messengers there that say he's very much alive. And then he said to the most fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And he goes on, it says, ought not Christ to have suffered these things, verse 26, and enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Now, folks, we'd like to understand mysteries in a moment, but realistically, most of us are slow to comprehend spiritual things. I've been a Christian a lot of years now, and I'm more now realizing how slow I am to understand than ever before. Some things we grasp quickly, but there are some things about the life of Christ and the life that we're called to live in Christ that we're very, very slow to understand. But God, thank God that he's merciful to us. Thank God that he's patient. Thank God that he's willing to walk with us and talk with us. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. He bears with our struggles and our confusion and our infirmities, which are numerous, all of us, but he walks with us. And in verse 28, it says, and they drew nigh to the village where they were going. They were coming close to their destination, and he made as though he would have gone further. You know, Christ is a gentleman. He'll never force you to join a church. He'll never put pressure on you, twist your arm. It's a heartfelt decision he's looking for from you tonight. It's not about condemning religion. It's a relationship, a living relationship with the living God. He yearns for you so much that he was willing to become a man and die for you. But they constrained him, it says in verse 29, and they said, abide with us, for it's towards evening and the day is far spent. And he went into tarry with them. Now they're still confused, but they have an inner knowledge that the hour is late and something they're hearing is causing them to hope again. They don't understand it all. When I first came to Christ as my savior, it was another police officer who started witnessing to me about Christ, the very things I'm telling you, he started telling me. Over a series of weeks, it provoked me to get into scriptures. I began to read it for myself. And one day on the way to work, I just pulled my car over on the side of the road. And I said, Jesus, if, if this is true, his name was Irvin. I remember my prayer. I said, if what Irvin is telling me is the truth, then I want you to come into my life. And I want you to be my Lord and savior. I was still confused, but I had an inner knowledge that the hour was late and something was causing my heart to hope. And you know, the Lord took me there. He heard that prayer because it came from an honest heart. I was not completely convinced in the clouds of religion and past perception. We're not totally blown away by as it is by the breath of God. But in my heart, I said, God, if this is true, I want this. And you see, that's all the Lord is looking for. It's an honest heart cry that says, God, if, if this is true, I want, I want you, I want the whole thing. I want to walk with you. I want to know you as savior. I want your life to become my life. And as he comes into the house in verse 30, it says, he sat at meet with them. He took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him. And then he vanished out of their sight. Now, that's an incredible moment. Think about it for a moment. They invited Jesus to come home. Some of you are going to do this tonight. You're going to say, Jesus, come home with me. I want to walk with you and I want you to walk with me. And he's going to go to your house because that's what he says he will do. And he's going to sit down and you're going to open the Bible. And all of a sudden truth is just going to start popping off the page. And it says they, when the bread was broken, they knew him. And then all of a sudden he vanishes. And you see, this is the point where a lot of young Christians come to. They have this initial experience with God, but this inner euphoria turns to a vanishing Jesus. And the devil is right there to say, oh, you see, you see, it was just emotion. It's not real. You sat in a place and a preacher preached in a way and touched your heart. You went home, you read a few verses of scripture, but you see, it isn't real. The voice that was speaking to was not really the voice of God and the devil is right there. And so we ask ourselves the question, well, if it took this long for Jesus to get to these people, why would he vanish? Why would he reveal himself at the table as it isn't? And you would think that you and I would think that he'd sit there for days and just, just open more and more of this revelation. They'd finally found it. But instead of staying there, the moment their eyes are opened, he vanishes. Now there's got to be a purpose to the things that he does. And as you follow through the scriptures, you find out he vanished because he was leading them to something deeper than just feeling good about the bad situations of life. And many, many, many, many people today, that's the only reason they invite Jesus home is because life is bad and they want life to be better. And for a moment, it will be better because he will come and he will touch your heart and he will visit your house and he will give you revelation, but that will not last forever. Eventually that initial relationship begins to dissipate and he vanishes because he's leading them somewhere. Remember, they were going on a journey away from Jerusalem. And after he vanished, the scripture says in verse 33, that they rose up and returned to Jerusalem and they found others who were gathered together. In other words, they turned around and they said, where did he go? We've got to find him. We've got to know what it is that he's leading us to. He's leading us to something deeper and something in their hearts told them that they didn't see all things. There was more yet to learn. And they gathered together. The scripture tells us in a room where others like them were gathered together. And all of a sudden when they were gathered, Jesus appears again in their midst. Now look at what happens here. Why did he appear? And what did he show them? First of all, verse 39, he says, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handled me and see for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. And then when he had thus spoken verse 40, it says he showed them his hands and his feet. The very first thing he showed them is that he had a body. Now folks, you can't live as a lone ranger Christian. You can't just bring Jesus to your house, open the Bible at your table and say, okay, it's me and God for here. I don't need anybody. I just need God. And there's a lot of people like that. Lone ranger Christians folks do not get the revelation. There's a revelation that Jesus wanted to give these young men, but they're not going to find it until they first find out that there's a body. That body is called the church of Jesus Christ. It is made up of men and women of every race, every kindred, every tribe, every color, every language, every background. It's his body. This body is his hands. And this body is his feet. It is how Jesus touches the world today. It is how he travels from country to country, city to city, town to town and place to place. You'll never know him in revelation until you embrace his body. He has a body folks. Thank God in this church, his body is made up of over 100 nations from all around the world gathered together, all different backgrounds. But yet there's a unity that can't be explained apart from the fact that we are one in Christ. We are the body of Christ. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm learning more and more every day that Jesus has a body. His body is Baptist. His body is Presbyterian. His body is Methodist. His body is Pentecostal. His body is charismatic. He has a body in this earth. Hallelujah. There's no revelation until we embrace the body. Thanks be to God. He showed them his hands and his feet. Look around and you'll see the hands and feet of Jesus in this room tonight. Hallelujah. This is how he lives. Paul the apostle says in him we live and move and have our being. This is the body of Christ. Thanks be to God. He drew them out of this little fellowship that they were having just to themselves and he drew them first to a place where he could show them his body. Now must have been the time of revelation. Can you imagine being there? Jesus appears in the room and he shows them his hands and shows him his feet and says peace to them and they're just eager and hungering for revelation. I can imagine they because the scripture says they believe not for joy and they wondered. There was a sense of wonderment. This is God who has just appeared in the room. He has just showed us his body and now he's going to speak something and they just can you imagine they just they must have stood there in in trembling awe. We're going to hear mysteries. We're going to hear revelation. We're going to we're going to learn something that nobody else in the world knows right now and they're just waiting for the first words to come out of his mouth and he looks at them and says have you got any food? King James says have you any meat? That's the revelation. Can you imagine like this is the risen Christ? Can you imagine as they look around saying did somebody just get him something? It was a revelation. You see he says where two or three are gathered I'm there with you but it's not some cosmically spooky relationship I have with my people. I do exactly what I said in the book of Revelation. When any man hears my voice it opens the door. He says I come in and I sit down and I eat with him. I sup with him and he with me. In other words you go home tonight to your apartment. You've been part of the body as it is. You're learning to love the body of Christ. You leave here tonight. You go home to your apartment. Perhaps you're all alone. You go to work tomorrow. You go to the lunchroom where you're the only one who believes but Jesus says I just want you to know from this day forward that my relationship with you is very practical. Where you are I am. I'm going to sit at the table with you. I'm going to walk down the street with you. I'm going to ride the subway with you in New York City. I'm very practical. I'm a very real God. I'm a friend that sticks closer than a brother. I'm a high tower in your time of trouble. I'm a defender when nobody is there to defend you. I'm a friend when you appear to be friendless. He says you're going to find me a very real friend. Very normal friend. A very loving friend. A very kind friend. Not spooky. Very real. People who don't know God get spooky. People who know God are very real. They're not afraid to sit down and eat with people. Now it's in this context that he says in verse 45 he opened their understanding. They might understand the scriptures. It's in this context of embracing his church. It's in the context of understanding that it's his deepest desire to abide in us and fellowship with us. What did he lose in the Garden of Eden when Satan came and tempted Adam and Eve? He lost that which was dearest to his heart. Of course those who were created in his image were lost to sin. But he lost the fellowship. It's what he's always wanted. To come down to you in the cool of the day as it is with the cool of the evening and talk and fellowship. It's the most wonderful relationship when you get rid of religion and truly find Christ. It's a wonderful relationship. There's a song that we sing. It says he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me that I was. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. And in this context he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. The scriptures are practical. The scriptures are not difficult to understand. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our teacher. And as we heard today he takes the things that belong to Christ. That's what Jesus said he would do. He'll take the things that are mine and he'll show them to you. Everything I won for you on Calvary. Every place that you and I sit together in heavenly places. All the promises of God that are now yours because the victory was won on Calvary. He said the Holy Spirit will take it. He will open it to you and you'll see it. And you'll begin to understand mysteries because they're not really that difficult to understand when we're willing to walk in God's way. Then after opening the understanding to the scriptures in verse 46. Now he shows them the purpose of his suffering and he said to them it's thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead on the third day. He gives them an understanding that there is suffering involved sometimes in this walk with God. The Son of God suffered. Now he suffered in the sense that he paid the price of suffering the rejection that you and I deserve from God for the sins that we committed. He paid the penalty of our sin. He had to come. He had to become a man. He had to suffer on a cross or you and I would have no hope because the scripture clearly declares that none of our good works could ever reconcile us to God. We had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the only one that could pay the price is someone who had not sinned. That was the law of God and he made the understanding of that suffering and he may gave an understanding perhaps at that moment that there is sometimes suffering involved in this walk. There's sometimes we cannot use Christ just as a ticket out of hard times folks. That's an American gospel. That's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's suffering involved in the gospel. People go to jail in other parts of the world. They lose their families. They lose their lives to stand for Christ. There is sometimes suffering involved in walking with him but even in the midst of suffering there's a fellowship with God that nothing in this world can take away thanks be to God. Then in verse 47 he opened up the message of the gospel. This is the gospel that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. In other words that men need to turn from their sin and when they turn from their sin God because of Christ is willing to forgive them. It's grace we sang about it tonight. It's this unmerited favor of God. He simply opened the message. You're going to walk with me but here's the message that I'm not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. This is the message. It's about what the cross was about. It's why God became a man and died. It's not that people can use the name of Christ for their own betterment and their own wealth and their own power. The gospel is that all men might be saved or born in the image of God into this world. He opened to them the message of the gospel and then in verses 48 and 49 he says now you are witnesses of these things and behold I send the promise of my father upon you but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endured with power from on high. He opened to them the purpose of suffering, the message of the gospel and lastly the power promised to those who proclaim it. God says I'm not sending you out on your own. I'm going to walk with you. I'm going to be your strength. I'm going to be your eyes. I'm going to be your hands. I'm going to be your voice. I'm going to take you from image to image and glory to glory. You're going to be a walking miracle in this generation. I'm going to put words in your mouth and thoughts in your heart. I'm going to blow away the confusion out of your mind. I'm going to give you an understanding of things that are mysteries to those who don't know God. I'm going to make you a wonderment in your generation and I'm going to use you for the glory of God. We're going to walk together in this and my heart is going to be satisfied as your lips and your hands and your feet walk together with me and we proclaim the truth that Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Christ loves all men. And it came to pass, verse 51, he blessed them and he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. The scripture says they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. He blessed them. Remember we heard this morning, I'll not leave you comfortless. I'll come to you. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to you and you're going to become new creations. You're going to have new minds. You're going to have new hearts. You're going to have a whole new value system. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. No longer will Christ be a mystery. He'll no longer be a whisper. He'll no longer be a sad memory on a journey to nowhere. You're going to know where you're going. You're going to know who God is. You're going to know what God is doing. And the scripture says they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. And that's your future tonight. You know who it is that God is talking to. That's your future. It's not going in the other direction, sad and confused and wondering if Jesus is dead or alive. And say, no, I found him walking with them all week, seeing the miraculous happen in your own heart and all around you and coming in weekly and daily into the house of God, praising his holy name, blessing God for what he has done. Hallelujah. In Times Square church, you see, we preach to take home savior. You don't leave him here. He comes to here, but he goes home with you. Hallelujah. He sits at your table. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God. And you were brought into a family like a family you've never known ever in your lifetime. The body of Jesus Christ. This is the first instance that you really know this is a miraculous kingdom. When you look around, you begin to experience a fellowship and a love that could only come supernaturally from the heart of God. There's no other way it could happen, but Christ in you makes it happen. Hallelujah. Yuka, if you're here, could you come to the piano, please? And I'd like to sing a song for you tonight. It's called in the garden. And as I sing it, I want every young person, especially who wants to give their life to Christ, who's tired of the journey away from God, tired of the questions, tired, just tired, tired, tired. You said, I'm done. I'm done. Trying to figure things out. I'm coming tonight and I'm giving my life to Jesus Christ. I'm telling you tonight that God's going to take you and he's going to shake this generation through you. This is a generation that needs to know that Christ is not dead. He is very, very, very much alive. We're going to stand together in a moment as we do. Well, you can do that now if you like. Slip out balcony, go to either exit main sanctuary. You want to receive Christ as your savior. Just come. Don't be ashamed. Just come step out. We don't need to create a mood for you. If this is real, you'll come to him. Young and old, middle aged. Just make your way. God bless you. God bless you. Now, I know that I can tell many of you at the altar tonight, you've never done this kind of a thing before. It's a little strange to you. You're not familiar with it, but you just need to know that God loves you. He loves you so much that he became a man. He walked this earth for 33 years in a body and then he went to a cross and he was beaten, whipped, rejected, nailed, and he died there. And he did it to pay the price for all the wrong things that you've done in every way that you've violated his laws and your thinking and the way you live. He went to that cross to pay the price. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. In other words, when you sit against God, you're doomed in a sense to be separated from God for eternity, but God loved you and didn't want to lose you. So he became a man and he took your place. And that's as difficult as it gets. That's what salvation is. He said, all I ask of you is to admit that you need a savior and invite me to come into your life and I will come. And it's not just a concept of God, but God in the form of the Holy Spirit, who's the third person of God actually comes and lives inside of you. And the change is not you from the outside trying to be a better person. It's God changing you from the inside out. It's a supernatural life. It becomes a supernatural life. And you will know, I prayed that prayer. I said, Oh God, if this is real, if it's true, I want you. And the next day I got up and I remember sitting on the edge of my bed and I knew I was a different man. Don't ask me how I know, I just knew. I just knew I was different. It's like something had changed inside of me. And you don't have to go around telling everybody, your friends will tell you. They will tell you what happened, what you're so different. What happened to you? How come you don't curse? And why don't you do drugs with us anymore? And how come you're not gossiping and fighting? Some of the ladies will go home and your husband will say, how come you love me all of a sudden? And the other way around too. Husbands, you go home and your wife's going to be stunned. You're all of a sudden courteous. You're not going to be perfect. You're going to have down days, but he's there to pick you up in those down days and help change you. And we're going to pray a simple prayer. This is not mystical. This is just something that helps you to understand and to open your heart to God. The issue though really is that it's you and your heart saying, Jesus, come to me, be my savior. Hallelujah. Let's pray together. Everyone who's gathered here at this altar. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me in all of my confusion and my foolishness. Still, you love me and died for me. I'm sorry for my sin that the wrong things that I do put you on a cross, but I'm thankful that you loved me so much that you were willing to die for me to have me back again because you died for me. Today, I choose to live for you, Jesus Christ, son of God. I open my heart. I give you my life. I take you at your word and ask you to come in and be my Lord and my savior. I thank you that you've heard the cry of my heart. You've already answered it. And I believe that at this very moment, you have received me and forgiven me, and you will guide me and help me to understand what it means to be a Christian. Thank you for loving me. Amen. Hallelujah.