(Wonderful 50 Days) 03 - the Emmaus Road
Ed Miller
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In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the second appearance of Jesus after his resurrection, which took place on Easter day. The speaker emphasizes that although it may appear as two separate appearances, it is actually one continuous event. The passage being referred to is Luke 24, specifically the story of the Emmaus Road. The speaker acknowledges that this passage is familiar to the audience but aims to bring new insights and understanding. The sermon highlights the importance of recognizing that Jesus will appear spiritually to those who love him in the church age.
Sermon Transcription
for the Holy Spirit who lives in our heart, for the one who alone can enlighten us, who can show us our Lord Jesus in a transforming way and change us by degrees from faith to faith and strength to strength and glory to glory. We now look to you again and we ask you to feed our souls and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Once again, we continue our little look at a very wonderful section of scripture, those wonderful 50 days for this weekend, those wonderful 40 days between the resurrection of our Lord Jesus and the ascension of our Lord Jesus. God in those 40 days in the person of our Lord Jesus appeared five times. I know he appeared 10 times or 11 times, but God has been pleased to detail for us five of the glorious appearings and I've suggested to you that those were representative appearings, that God, like he did with the seven churches, there were other churches in Revelation, other churches in Asia, but those churches represented the great truths of the ages and so he selected those churches to tell us what he's saying to the church. He selected these appearances in order to instruct us how he will appear to us in the church age. And so we're going to be looking at those five appearances. Last evening we tried, by the grace of God, to set before our hearts that first appearance to Mary Magdalene. In that first revelation of our Lord Jesus after his resurrection, he made his heart bare. I will appear to those who love me. I will appear to their spirits. I will appear spiritually. And he laid down that great principle. As you know, Mary was clinging in the flesh because of her great love for the Lord and because she was clinging in the flesh, she actually cut herself off from the real revelation. I won't review all of that, but in one word, God set her free and revealed the truth that I will reveal myself spiritually in this age. That brings us this morning to the second full account of his appearance. It was also on Easter Day. Actually, if you're counting, we're going to blend the fourth and fifth appearance because they're one. Even though it looks like two, as far as the revelation is concerned, they're one. And I think you'll see that as we go through it. And I'm referring to Luke 24, the Emmaus road. Now I realize this is familiar territory probably to all that are here this morning. And I'm not standing before you with any pretension to bring any new light to this passage or to your heart because we've meditated on this and we've been blessed in this. I know by his undeserved anointing, he can make this passage live again with power to our hearts. And so that's how we trust the Lord and you trust him with me. Rather than reading all 37 verses from verse 13 to 49, I'll refer to the pertinent passages as we touch on them in the particular principles. Let me just sort of talk, just sort of tell the story that you're so familiar with and try to blend some facts together to give you the background. The two disciples in this particular story are unknown disciples. Don't know. Say. Say. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. Name. were gathering. These were believers in the law. But who were they? And so for our discussion, there were two. You and me. That's who they were. When the story opens, we find these two sort of like Mary, very sad, because of the events of the weekend. When the Lord Jesus appeared to Mary, you know she had her problem. When the Lord Jesus appeared to these two disciples on the road to Mass, they also had their problem. Clearly they were sad. Glance at verse 21. They experienced, or rather they expressed their sorrow in these words. We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Implied in that sorrowful statement, we were hoping, but alas. Implied is we have been disappointed. We were hoping it was he, but he's been crucified, and we're disappointed because we had an agenda for Jesus, and he did not meet our agenda. Now the Lord's going to meet them, and in meeting them, he's going to lay down this great reality, this principle on how he will continue to appear in the church age. He appeared to Mary, and now he's going to appear to them. As far as the record goes, of the 11 appearances, this is the longest appearance that he made. In most cases, he sort of showed up and then disappeared, and it looks like in a few minutes, he just appeared, said a few things, and then disappeared. But in this case, it looks like the greater part of the afternoon was spent with the risen Savior. We know it was a seven-mile trek from Jerusalem down to Emmaus. We don't know exactly when the Lord Jesus joined them in their conversation, how far they had gotten, but we assume that he walked several miles at least. What a wonderful day to walk several miles with the Lord Jesus as he unlocks the scriptures. As his appearance to Mary was important because it was first, this appearance becomes important because it was the longest, and he is now going to unfold again his tremendous harm. Now, let me try to describe this. Again, you know the record. Glance at verse 13, please. And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were conversing with each other about all these things that had taken place. It came about while we were conversing and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. Verse 16, that expression, their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. Now, some try to explain that because of Mark 16, 12. Mark 16, 12 says he appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. We know it's the same occasion, but that expression, he appeared in a different form to two of them. In other words, their eyes were prevented, that's his fault, because he appeared in a different form to them. I have an idea, this is the same thing that was true of Mary. Mary limited the Lord by her last view of him, and now these disciples have also had their own idea of how he's dead, and he appeared in a different form, and they weren't expecting that. Don't answer, but I wonder if the Lord Jesus appeared to you in a different form than he's ever done before, and that you're not expecting. I wonder if you'd know it was him. Wonder if I'd know it was him. We've got to ask the Lord to take away our limitations, that we might see the Lord as he is, and how he wants to appear, and so that we're not blinded when he shows up in a different form. Now, their eyes were prevented, all right, but the Lord Jesus did not come masquerading himself and trying to hide himself. He's the great revealer, and he's always coming to reveal himself. Their eyes were holding, King James said. I like that. Don't know what it means, but I like the idea. It's the word holding. God gives us the two reasons they were prevented from seeing him, why their eyes were holding, and it's not God's fault. One of them's in verse 17. He said to them, what are these words you're exchanging with one another as you're walking, and they stood still looking sad. One of the things that will surely close your eyes is depressions, sorrow, and they were looking sad. They were sad. They were disappointed, and it's an amazing thing how sorrow, and disappointment, and sadness, and God not coming through as you expect him to come through will close your eyes to the revelation of Christ. There's another blindness, verse 25, and he said to them, oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets have spoken. Slowness of heart will close your eyes. Slowness of heart will close my eyes. They had the scripture, you know, the Hebrew Bible was divided into three parts, the law, the prophets, the writings, the Torah, the Nibian, the Hagiographa, or whatever they call it. They also had the testimony that had taken place already, the revelation of Christ, verses 22 to 24. Some women appeared among us and amazed us with their story. They were slow of heart. It's not our brain that affects our eyes. It's our heart that affects our eyes. If we're slow of heart, we're going to be blind to the revelation of Christ. Anyway, it was to these two men who were discouraged, who were depressed, who were slow of heart, that our Lord Jesus appeared. He appeared to Mary, the lover of Jesus, when she was clinging to Christ in the flesh. And so he appeared to these two disciples when they were discouraged and when they were slow of heart to believe. I am not encouraging you to cling to Christ in the flesh, to get gloomy and to be slow of heart in order that Christ might appear to you. That's not the point. The point is God uses these appearances to teach us how we can miss him. Those are the ways we can miss him. But in his great grace, he appears to those who are in that condition. There's hope for those who are discouraged. There's hope for those who are slow of heart. Bless the Lord. As I studied this, one of the great prayers of my heart has been, make me swift of heart to believe rather than slow of heart to believe. We don't want to miss the Lord and praise God when we're slow of heart. He still comes alongside and reveals himself. Luke 24 15, it came about while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus himself approached. He's present, even though they don't know it. Even though their eyes are holding, he's still there, even when we don't know it. And by drawing near to them in that condition, he illustrates for us the truth that he always meets us where we are in order to bring us to the place that he wants us. By the way, did you notice how free from fanfare all of these appearances of Christ were? He's so humble. This is so amazing to me. With what ease our Lord Jesus rose from the dead. You know, you just pictured that he rises from the dead and folds up his clothes and he just lays them down. When I get up in the morning, you know, I'm usually late and thrown off the covers and all. I don't know how this started, but my clothes on the floor are called turtles. We always call that the turtle. Oh, this room is full of turtles. I can't sleep always on the same side of the bed, so I just, wherever I'm comfortable, Lillian has to keep moving around. And the other night, I said, Honey, you're on the wrong side of the bed again. I just can't sleep over here. And she said, I refuse to get on the other side until you remove your turtle. Well, the Lord Jesus didn't have any turtles, you know. He just got up from the dead with such ease. He's not in a hurry. He rises calmly like he didn't have a care in the world. I am awestruck at the infinite faculty by which the Lord Jesus rose and put his foot on every foe, on every enemy, and he rises above every obstacle, and he's just at ease. I think it's illustrated with that angel sitting on a rock there, you know. It's such a tremendous thing. To Mary, he shows up like an ordinary stranger. How humble. He's just conquered death, sin, hell, the grave, every enemy. And like I said yesterday, if President Clinton came to town, nobody would say, what if that's the gardener? He's just so humble in all of it. And he just walks out of it. He just joins in conversation with these two. And in another connection, he's on the shore at a charcoal fire making a humble breakfast. This is our Lord Jesus completely unattended. You know how many angels exist to worship him? The Bible doesn't call us a number. It just says an unnumbered host. But it tells us about the little flock just around the throne. Do you know how many they are? According to the book of Revelation 5.11, there were 10,000 times 10,000, just that little flock around the throne. Did you do the math on that? I thought it was 20,000. 10,000 times 10,000, folks, is 100 million. That's the little flock just around the throne. 100 million. 10,000 times 10,000. Psalm 68.17 tells us how many angels were on Mount Sinai when the law was given. There were 20,000 angels on Mount Sinai when the law was given. Another amazing thing. When Jesus was in Gethsemane, he told Peter in Matthew 26.53, 12 legions of angels are ready at any moment. A legion, you know, 6,000 or so, 72,000 angels are ready to come. We know when he was born. Luke 2.13 tells us a multitude of heavenly hosts. How many is in the multitude? What's the heavenly host? Singing and praising God. Now, in the history of redemption, wouldn't you think the resurrection is rather important? Wouldn't you think that's like a big event? And Jesus is like by himself. How humble. He's all by himself. Our Lord Jesus just accomplished redemption. He became sin for us. He finished the work that he came to do. He satisfied the character of God. He's become the first fruit of those who rise from the dead. For 35 years, my stepfather's hosted this thing he calls the fishing derby. He has a little pond in his backyard and he stocks it with trout. And he brings all of the handicapped every year to his place to fish. Those who have muscular dystrophy and muscular sclerosis and cerebral palsy and retarded people. And they all gather the wheelchairs all around the pond and we go and we try to assist them and help them. Last year when we arrived, there was a young man with a string of medals around his neck that he won at the Special Olympics. I'm not criticizing him for wearing those medals. We were proud of him and we went up to him and we let him tell us how he had achieved on that glorious Olympics and so on. But the idea is when you achieve, you display it. You put up your trophy and you put up your chart and you know you've achieved. Our Lord Jesus achieved but he didn't toot his own horn. When you rise, he'll toot the horn. But he'll toot the wonderful trumpet when those who follow the firstfruits rise. But our Lord Jesus was so humble. I don't mean to play with that and I don't mean to be irreverent, but if that were me and I had just conquered the king of terrors, if that were me and I had had this great victory, I'd have come down on a stream of light with a retinue of angels and I'd have shouted, ta-da! See, if you don't catch the wonder of that, you're going to miss the next principle. Our Lord Jesus is resurrected in flesh and blood, flesh and bone to be, and he begins to walk. If ever our Lord Jesus could have revealed himself by just saying, here I am. It was this day on the Emmaus Road. Verse 27. This is so amazing to me. Again, we read it, la, la, la. Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in the scriptures. Our Lord Jesus comes up, he's conquered death, he's conquered hell, he's paid for sin, he's overcome all of the powers, he's satisfied God, he's standing right there, he's got the scars in his hands, his feet, his eyes, he does later, he'll show those wounds, those glory wounds, not this time. He's standing there and says, if you want to know who I am, and he opens a book, he could have just said, you want to see me? Here I am. But he said, you want to see me? I'll tell you how you're going to have to see me. And he begins to, oh, you want to know how he'll reveal himself in this age? These are great principles of God, he did this intentionally, these are representative, he's laying down the grace, the grace, the grace, the grace, the grace, the grace, the spirit. I will appear in this book. He gets into a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, a boat, like brother Burkhardt shared you've got Jesus standing outside knocking at the door we must not confuse the heart that burns within us because we've seen Christ in the scriptures with the knowledge of God it is not the same thing this is food from heaven may God help us to understand this difference when their hearts burned according to the record their eyes were still holding though their hearts burned he had not yet revealed himself did they see Christ in the scripture all they did he showed them things concerning himself did it thrill them they were thrilled to death did they know Jesus not yet he was made known in the breaking of the bread you gotta put those two stories together may God help us put those together because if you only see Christ in the scriptures can't believe I'm talking like this because how I love to see Christ in the scriptures but if you only see Christ in the scriptures you just have heartburn I don't mean to play with it you cannot fellowship with doctor you cannot fellowship with even when your heart burns because I've never seen that this is amazing what place once again Mary I'm not interested says our Lord Jesus in what you give me thank you for the perfume I'm not interested in that I am interested in you and may I suggest and don't misunderstand I couldn't say this everywhere because some folks wouldn't understand this and I have to spend an hour trying to explain it just as God said Mary I'm not interested in what you give me you know better he is interested in that I'm not interested in what you give me I'm interested in you so in this chapter he's saying I'm not interested if you know the Bible I'm interested that you know me is he going to show himself yes will it be through the Bible yes but the story goes on so let's look at the rest of the story now he's saying to the disciples the goal is not to know your Bible the goal is to know the Lord I admit when I began to study this it bothered me because I thought it should end there with a period once your heart burns because you've seen Christ in the scripture it's enough but in verse 28 to 31 they still did not know him verse 30 it came about I'm scaring that child it came about when they had reclined at the table with them he took bread and blessed it and breaking it he began giving it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight verse 35 they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread when my heart burns from seeing Jesus in the book is that enough the answer is no it is not enough I still don't know him let me try to get the heart of what he's saying here before your heart this whole idea this expression the breaking of the bread I know what comes to your mind when you hear that expression I know what comes to my mind this morning we broke bread together didn't we we had the breaking of the bread in this chapter the breaking of the bread may include the Lord's table but it does refer to the Lord's table he is not talking about the communion service the one reason I know that is these two disciples were not present four days earlier when he instituted the Lord's table they would not have a clue about that at that time and also beside that on Monday Thursday that just means foot washing when our Lord Jesus instituted the Lord's table remember what he said Mark 14 25 truly I say to you I will never again drink the fruit of the vine until the day I drink it new in the kingdom of God he said he wouldn't have it again until he came in his glory this is not the Lord's table as we expect the Lord's table in fact the opposite took place when we gather around the Lord's table we are guaranteed of the presence of the Lord at this Lord's table he vanished it's the exact opposite of that but there is a principle and we need to understand this principle the principle is the breaking of bread as it's used in the Bible is the symbol of with God it's the symbol of communion with the Lord open the door I will come in and sup I will fellowship I'll sit at the table with you the point is this as wonderful as it is and I'll never undermine it as wonderful as it is to study the word and to see Christ in the word until your heart burns until your zeal and love and worship and adoring contemplation of him is on higher he's made known in fellowship we've got to see him in the Bible but then we've got the fellowship verse 28 again don't read this la la la he acted as though he would go on further he's not playing games with them he's not using psychology on them I think I'll just go maybe they'll invite me to stay it's not that he is doing what he always does he is appealing to their will he is waiting for an invitation every time your heart burns within you for seeing Christ in the scripture our Lord Jesus waits for an invitation now come and it's in the fellowship with him that you're going to know him you see him in the book your heart burns and you begin to fellowship with the Lord and as you fellowship with the Lord that's where you're going to get to know him in your in your job down the street in the school with your neighbors as you live life that's where you're going to get to know him now God's telling a story and I don't want you to miss it he opens the scripture he shows you Christ your heart burns that's the beginning the next step you then invite him Lord come oh you don't even know him yet and it's as you're fellowshipping with him that he makes himself known to you you know Christ through the Bible but in life that's where you know him in life and when you invite him to be your guest he comes in always as the host and he comes in to serve you and to minister unto you as brother Burkhardt said this morning I'm so glad God gave him that word because he shared with us this morning he's already at the door remember Saul of Solomon remember chapter five and verse two the bride is in there and she says I was asleep my heart was awake my beloved was at the door he was knocking he said open to me my beloved my sister my darling and her heart burned but she didn't open the door it's when you invite him then when you open the door come home with me then you begin to know the Lord and in that place of fellowship what happened he opens the word you see Christ my beloved it's him he's knocking and you invite him will you come home with me and as you begin to know the Lord he vanishes get the whole picture brothers and sisters in Christ because in the church age he's always coming and he's always going he appears and he disappears he's been coming and going ever since he left and the vanishing of Christ is every bit as important to your spiritual health as the appearance of Christ he shows himself in the scripture your heart burns you open the door and you begin to fellowship with Christ and you begin to know him and then he's gone the shine wears off but you're not the same did you notice they weren't the same after this man this chapter started with gloomy disciples kicking some things have been going there it ends up with whoa it's late let's go we can still make it let's run back to Jerusalem when the shine begins to wear off don't get discouraged about that that's a prophecy that he's about to show himself again how's he going to appear in this age what did they do verse 33 wisdom here they went back with the body that's what they did i saw the word in the bible my heart burned he was knocking i opened the door i began to know the Lord and fellowship with God and after a while that fellowship wears off and the shine wears off and the vision wears off let's get back to the fellowship let's get back to the people of God let's share what we've seen and while we're sharing guess what he shows up again and guess what he does when he shows up verse 45 then he opened their minds to understand the scripture do you see the cycle i see him in the word my heart burns i'll open the door i begin to fellowship with the Lord he disappears i go back with the people of God he shows up again he opens the word i invite him to fellowship it's going to wear off again then what i go back to the people of God and he shows up again how will he appear in this age he'll appear spiritually he'll appear through this book and you know him in fellowship it's a cycle that's how he's going to be that's how he's going to do it uh it's not the only way there's three more ways he's going to appear but that's what we need to see now i'll appear spiritually don't cling in the flash i'll appear through this book i'll knock and i'll wait and if you don't open the door i'll pass by when your heart burns that's the call to invite him into your life and then you'll begin to know him in life he'll begin to know him and enjoy him this is what sunday monday tuesday still hospital wednesday thursday friday saturday next week he wears off he's always vanishing you know why because there's always more of him to see if you always lived in that just that little thing he keeps going away because he's saying i'm going to go away so get together with the people of God and i'll come again and i'll open it again i want you to keep on seeing me i want this thing to be fresh new revelations of Christ that's how he's going to do it that's how he's been doing it for two thousand years oh may God burn this in us let's pray thank you Lord for the whole record of chapter 24 not just the heart burning but the heart burning and you making yourself known in the breaking of bread and you're vanishing and you're coming again and you're opening the scriptures and teach us these things we ask in Jesus name amen
(Wonderful 50 Days) 03 - the Emmaus Road
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