Road to Emmaus
Notes
Transcript
We are starting a new series this week called Encounters with the everlasting God!
We are going to look at different encounters with God throughout the old and new testament
Disclaimer up front, we are not trying to manufacture the encounters that we see in scripture, but we are going to look at what we can learn about God and how He might move in our lives from these encounters
The first one that we are going to look at this morning is what we read a minute ago:
Road to Emmaus
Road to Emmaus
As we read this story this morning, I want to look specifically at 4 ways in which God spoke to these two people
It is possible that if God chose to speak in these ways to them, that He might want to speak to us in these ways as well
This story is found only here explicitly in the gospels, possibly at the end of Mark as well, but we are not certain that it is the same story
We have two people, likely disciples going to Emmaus
They were talking with each other about what had happened
Jesus shows up, but He is in some way disguised so that they could not recognize Him
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
We talked about this a little a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the ascension.
Even after all that Jesus did and taught, they were waiting for and expecting a powerful military leader who would restore Israel as the top dog
But it seems at this time, what is important to Jesus most is that His Church would take off and blossom!
And so they continue:
22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
Jesus rebukes them in a sense for not understanding what the prophets wrote about Him!
The first way that Jesus speaks to them in this encounter is through conversation/questions
1. Conversation/Questions
1. Conversation/Questions
It is unlikely for you and I that Jesus will appear next to us and strike up a conversation like this with us!
We do know from the last few weeks that Jesus said that He had more to say to the disciples that they could not bare, and He promised to send the Holy Spirit who would teach them all things!
Though we will likely not have a face-to-face conversation with Jesus, we do have the HS in us who will speak to us!
One of the questions that I have for you this morning is:
Do you recognize the voice of Jesus in you?
Do you recognize the voice of Jesus in you?
You have heard the voice of God in your life, but you may not have known that it is God!
It probably was not a “thus saith the Lord” booming voice from heaven, though that could happen, it was likely more of a thought or gentle whisper
The vary obvious moment that this may have happened for you is when you were saved
you probably had a thought to open the bible, or go to church, or listen to your parents….whatever the encounter may have been, it was probably God speaking to you!
Pastor Caleb, how do I know if my thoughts are God’s thoughts?
Ways to know if God is speaking to you:
Does it sound like God? Meaning does it sound like the scriptures?
Is it loving? Even God’s discipline is in love!
Does it draw you closer to God?
To have an encounter with God, often times we need to be able to hear God! And recognize when He speaks to us.
Continuing in the encounter:
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Imagine this for a moment, Jesus dies and you are walking along and someone shows up and explains how all of the prophets wrote about what would happen to Him!
The second way in which God speaks to us:
2. Through the Scriptures
2. Through the Scriptures
This is likely the most common, and certainly the most foundational way in which God speaks!
Christian apologist, Just Peters says:
“If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. If you want to hear Him speak audibly, read it out loud.” - Justin Peters
Now, I certainly agree with this statement as I firmly believe that God speaks through the bible, but, according to the Bible, God speaks in other ways as well!
Nonetheless, the point is that reading and understanding the Bible is to hear God!
Often times, people will say, I haven’t heard God much lately. I tent to ask, how often do you read your bible?
For 2 reasons, 1. God speaks to us when we do, and 2. It helps us recognize when God is speaking to us!
As we continue on in this encounter:
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
There was was something special about this encounter with Jesus!
I suppose, it is possible that they were just being nice and hospitable, but I have an inkling that there was something more
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
The third way that God spoke to them:
3. Moment of Remembrance
3. Moment of Remembrance
Jesus does the same thing that He did at the last supper and they remembered
This is a really important concept to God
Moses tells the people to observe the festival of unleavened bread:
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.
Joshua when they cross the Jordan, he tells the Israelites to set up 12 stones as a memorial:
6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
And of course, here we have Jesus replicating what we call the Lord’s supper when Jesus said
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.”
We hold communion as a sacrament meaning that it is holy and set-apart - and that Jesus is actively involved in it with us!
And for these two people, their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus!
Maybe we need to have moments and ways in our lives that we can remember what God has done for us!
I was talking to someone, I think it may have been Pastor Bob and he said that we need to share our testimonies because when we do, we relive what God did for us!
Often times, when we are intentional about remember, the voice of God comes in and speaks to us!
As we finish up the story we read:
32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
The 4th and final way that God spoke in this encounter is:
4. A burning in our hearts
4. A burning in our hearts
I have a question and I am not asking this to put anyone down or make anyone feel less than, I am simply curious how many people have had this happen…
Have any of you ever felt a burning in your chest from the Lord?
Not from the pizza that you ate, but something different from God?
I have experienced this myself and I grew up hearing the story of John Wesley on Adersgate St.
According to his journal he wrote:
“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
I have known this story, but interestingly this is found a few other places in scripture as well:
David writes in:
3 my heart grew hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
The prophet Jeremiah writes:
9 But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
There seems to be this burning desire that happens when we hear the word of God and are empower to do or say something!
As we read last week on the day of pentecost when Peter preached preached:
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Now, I don’t know if they felt a warmth here, but the point remains that they were affected by the word of God!
As we have read this encounter this morning we have seen 4 ways in which God spoke to these people
Conversation/Questions
Scripture
Moment of Remembrance
Burning in our hearts
Maybe this morning, some of us need an encounter with Jesus….maybe we need to hear God!
Maybe we need to return home to Him? - Gospel
Maybe we need to be emboldened to speak His word?
