A, The Third Sunday of Easter - Psalm 116 "Resurrection from the Self"

Psalm 116:1–19 (ESV) I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

The picture of two disciples, Cleopas and the other unnamed, standing on the road to Emmaus discussing the Resurrection Day’s events is a good picture of our human condition. These two men are completely turned in on themselves. They are completely puzzled by the reports of Jesus’ resurrection in the wake of his crucifixion three days earlier.

Their hopes seemed dashed as they report to the unrecognised, resurrected Jesus.  This Jesus was to be the redeemer of Israel, they lament, and now there’s a confusing report from the women who say they saw two angels at the tomb and that Jesus was alive.

The two on the road to Emmaus go over and over the events, round and round in circles much like us today when something has happened and the airways, social media, influencers, and commentators fill one’s ears with information built on, truths, half-truths, gossip, and Chinese whispers.  The longer the story is out there moving from mouth to mouth, the greater the embellishments, the greater the speculation, the greater the misinformation!

Notice that the discussion between the two left them looking sad.  Their conversation left them without hope.  So turned in on themselves, they were kept from recognising Jesus.  I reckon Jesus could walk past me most of the time and I would not notice him.  It’s not that Jesus is unnoticeable, but rather it’s my inability to notice anything much other than my own self-centredness.

Like the two on the road to Emmaus, humanity in the presence of God, has the uncanny ability to make it all about the self, so curved in on ourselves that we are!  It was not so much that Jesus had died, that there were angels at the empty tomb, but how hearing these things turned them in on themselves!  The meeting on the road to Emmaus shows us how much we need God to daily bring us out of ourselves, from our thoughts, words and worries within, to be outward looking in the place where God has put each of us!

We need Jesus Christ to bring us out of ourselves into an outward looking posture that sees both him and the people we are called to serve in his name.  Unless this occurs and continues to daily occur, we become no different to the Emmaus men before Jesus opened the word of God to them and revealed himself in the breaking of the bread.

Unless Jesus does this work of resurrecting us from ourselves, we act in just the same way as the Jews did throughout the history of God meeting with them in the temple.  Israel became fixated on the temple rather than on him who gave them the temple through his word.  They became more concerned about keeping the law than about the access gained to God’s mercy through the rituals of the law.

What is the purpose of being a Christian?  If you had to make a defence for your faith, what would you say?

Now stop! I want you to notice what just happened in you when you heard these questions?  When someone asks you why you are a Christian, or why you go to church on a Sunday, how do you respond? Do you respond?  Or do you just freeze up, go blank, and don’t know what to say?  How much worse is it when someone sets out to prove your Christianity wrong, or tries to ridicule you or shame you for your Christian beliefs? Does your defence of the faith fall short?

If it does it’s because you’re like the two on the road to Emmaus.  You’re looking within for the faith to answer or understand.  And looking within fails every time!  Just as the Jews failed to find God even when God was present in the temple,  just as we do today when we know the bible as a book of biblical facts, without letting it function as the sole source of faith.  In other words, Christianity just becomes a transaction to make the individual impersonal, cold and clinical. 

Some might claim that faith is personal, having undergone a lifetime of conditioning by the copout that “Jesus is my personal saviour!”  Yes!  What Jesus did for you was very personal for him, but it was a very public act for you and me!  Many hide behind Jesus as a personal saviour, that Jesus died on the cross, rather than allowing him to function as the public Saviour, who died on the cross, “for me”!

It’s when we come to testifying that Jesus died on the cross, for me, that we begin to arrive at the need to allow true Christianity to take effect within.  It changes us from being like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus to the Apostles who stood with Peter at Pentecost to publicly declare Jesus Christ risen from the dead, in the face of the Jews who put him to death. 

Jesus challenges you just as he did the two on the road to Emmaus, saying, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25 ESV) He leads us from within ourselves and the confusion and quickness of the world to his word when we allow the Holy Spirit to help me, for me!

God sent Jesus to resurrect the Jew from themselves.  Jesus became the new Adam to save humanity from itself­—to resurrect you from yourself!  Why?  It’s not to cleanse the slate so we become good people; it’s much more than that!  It’s to make us holy so we can be with God forever. 

The reality of Christianity, the reality of the cross, the reality of God’s word is best summed up in Revelation chapter twenty-one verse three, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”(Revelation 21:3 ESV)

Psalm 116 set down for today, the Third Sunday in Easter, is the reality of those who tarry here in this existence of life and death.  As is heard at a funeral service, “in the midst of life we are in death”, but the greater reality proclaimed by the Psalmist is: “In the midst of death we are in life!”

We who look inwardly to ourselves remain in death, but those whose eyes are  opened to the reality of dwelling with God, covered with the blood of Jesus’ death and resurrection, live face to face in the midst of life eternal, face to face worshipping God in his glory.  That’s what being a Christian is all about!  That’s what the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection is all about!  That’s what the temple in the Old Testament was all about!  God with man was broken at Eden but was put right by Jesus our Immanuel (God with us). Indeed, our humanity is continuing to be put right in the calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, who brings us into holy fellowship with God and each other through the blood of Jesus.

Psalm 116 speaks of our human reality but does not leave us in it.  Instead, it reveals the reality of our salvation despite affliction and the knowledge that I with all humankind, are liars; that is, we are full of deception, disappointments, and cannot make good with God.  But Jesus has made good what we never could. 

Therefore, despite the deadliness of my humanity, the death of his saints, is precious in the sight of the Lord!

God has saved you and me so we can be with him in his holy presence.  Jesus has been raised from the dead, so like the two on the road to Emmaus, we too might be resurrected in his resurrection.

Therefore, call on the name of the Lord; pray that he continues to deliver your soul!  Call on the name of the Lord; life up the cup of his salvation!  Call on the name of the Lord; offer to him the sacrifice of thanksgiving! 

We are in God’s presence, he hears your voice and your pleas for mercy, therefore, continue to call on him as long as you live, Amen.

BIBLE STUDY: Resurrection from the Self
Psalm 116 & The Road to Emmaus
“From Inward Curvature to Resurrected Living”

 INTRODUCTION

Psalm 116 and the Emmaus story (Luke 24:13–35) both reveal the deep emotional reality of life with God. They show us people who are distressed, confused, inward‑curved, and overwhelmed — and a God who hears, draws near, delivers, and opens eyes.

This study invites us to notice our own inwardness, to see God’s outward rescue, and to walk in the resurrected life the Holy Spirit gives through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

1. OBSERVATION — What do you see?

Read Psalm 116 and Luke 24:13–35.

1.     What emotions does the psalmist express in Psalm 116?

2.     Which emotions dominate the first half of the psalm?
What words or phrases show this?

3.     Which emotions dominate the second half of the psalm?
How does the tone shift?

4.     In Luke 24, what emotions do the two disciples show on the road to Emmaus?

5.     What emotional similarities do you see between the psalmist and the Emmaus disciples?

6.     What emotional differences do you see?

7. What do you notice about how God responds to these emotions in both passages?

 2. INTERPRETATION — What does God seek to do with you through his Word?

1.     What does the psalmist’s distress, anguish, and fear reveal about the human condition?

2.     What does God’s response — hearing, inclining His ear, delivering — reveal about His character?

3.     How does the emotional shift from distress → rest reflect the movement from death → life?

4.     What does the sadness and confusion of the Emmaus disciples reveal about how easily we become inward‑focused?

5.     Why do you think the disciples could not recognise Jesus at first?

6.     What does Jesus’ response — drawing near, listening, opening Scripture — reveal about how God meets people in confusion?

7.     How do both passages show that God must act first before we can see clearly or respond faithfully?

8. What does this teach us about the nature of faith — especially the difference between “looking within” and “receiving from God”?

 3. APPLICATION — What’s the Holy Spirit teaching about yourself and God?

1.     Where do you see yourself in the emotions of Psalm 116 or the Emmaus disciples?

2.     When you face distress or confusion, what is your usual instinct — to look inward or to call on the Lord?

3.     Psalm 116 shows a God who is present, who hears, inclines His ear, and delivers. How does this challenge or comfort you?  Your current prayer life?

4.     Where might self‑absorption or inward focus keep you from noticing Christ’s presence?

5.     Jesus opened the Scriptures before He opened their eyes.
What does this teach you about how God forms faith in you?

6.     The psalmist responds with thanksgiving, vows, and public worship. What might a concrete response of thanksgiving look like in your life this week?

7.     Today’s sermon emphasised that Christianity is not merely personal but public. Where, or how, might God be calling you to speak or act publicly in faith?

8. What is one inward‑curved habit God may be calling you to release? What is one outward‑looking practice He may be calling you to begin?

 CLOSING PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, you draw near to us in our confusion, our distress, and our inwardness. You open the Scriptures, open our eyes, and open our hearts. You have given us the Holy Spirit to deliver us from ourselves. Let your Holy Spirit turn us outward to see You, to love others, and to walk in the land of the living. Fill us with your Holy Spirit to teach us to call on Your name, to lift the cup of salvation, and to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Remind us that we are in Your holy presence all our days. Amen.