Latest / The TakeAway / The road to Emmaus an Easter message
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Hello, welcome again to the takeaway.
- 0:02SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Pastor Harry Barns, and today we have a special message for this resurrection Sunday that's a little different than the traditional message you're going to hear in churches for this particular holiday.
- 0:13SPEAKER_00: They will no doubt be focusing on the death and resurrection of Jesus and what happened on those days 2,000 years ago, which in and of itself is a great message for any nonbeliever walking into a church on Easter to hear.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: But here at the takeaway, we are focused on equipping the saints and helping you grow closer to Jesus and your relationship with Him.
- 0:32SPEAKER_00: So today we will be looking at the why the death and resurrection had to happen as we study the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24, verses 13 to 53.
- 0:43SPEAKER_00: We all know the resurrection story.
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: Every Easter Christians come together to hear the story of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: But how many take the time to talk about what was revealed to them after the resurrection?
- 0:56SPEAKER_00: What happened after Jesus arose is significant in that he took the disciples from a place of what happened to a place of why it happened.
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: If all we do is dwell on the what, we will never enter into the why, which is ultimately what Jesus died for.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: The why.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: The road to Emmaus is a less told story than the resurrection, but just as significant in that it explains the why for the resurrection.
- 1:20SPEAKER_00: So for today's message, I hope to take you on the same journey that Jesus took his disciples that very day as they walked down that road.
- 1:27SPEAKER_00: We will explore some of the scriptures that he most likely pointed to that spoke of him and the things that had to take place to fulfill God's word.
- 1:35SPEAKER_00: So I'll not be teaching in the to the traditional sense, as I want you to experience the excitement that these disciples did on the road to Omaeus that day.
- 1:43SPEAKER_00: So I'll be reading from the scriptures throughout this story in a way that would best represent what happened, so that you too may experience that same joy they did.
- 1:52SPEAKER_00: So let's get started in Luke chapter 24, verses 13 to 53, starting in verses 13 to 18.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: That very day, two of them were going to a village named Maeus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about these things that had happened.
- 2:10SPEAKER_00: While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: How often have we been blinded in the moment?
- 2:19SPEAKER_00: Only to see what God was doing after he had walked us through the experience.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: This is a very common theme for many.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: So verses 17 to 18, and he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: And they stood still, looking sad.
- 2:34SPEAKER_00: Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: This was clearly an event that everyone at this point had heard of, and all that had happened.
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: Let's not forget, the sun was darkened, and some of the dead came to life and walked amongst the living, not to mention the temple veil being torn.
- 2:57SPEAKER_00: As we see in Matthew 27, verse 45, from noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land.
- 3:06SPEAKER_00: And in Matthew 27, 50 to 53, we see, and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
- 3:13SPEAKER_00: At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: The earth shook, and the rocks split, and the tombs broke open, the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
- 3:25SPEAKER_00: They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: So verses nineteen to twenty-three.
- 3:35SPEAKER_00: See here, they were concerned with the what and trying to understand it.
- 3:40SPEAKER_00: Jesus was highlighting this, so he could get them to see that their eyes were focused on the wrong thing.
- 3:46SPEAKER_00: He is now going to take them into the why.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: 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.
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: 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.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: We see this in Matthew twenty-eight, one to seven, with the angels at the tomb.
- 4:28SPEAKER_00: Now verse twenty-four, some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said him, but him they did not see.
- 4:38SPEAKER_00: And in John 20, 3 10, disciples ran to the tomb and still didn't understand he had to rise.
- 4:45SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to get to the why, verses 25 to 27.
- 4:49SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
- 4:54SPEAKER_00: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
- 5:07SPEAKER_00: Now we have to imagine at this point, Jesus starting in Genesis and working his way through some of the most profound scriptures of the Old Testament that the disciples would have clearly have known.
- 5:18SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind this journey they were on was a seven-mile walk, and Jesus was probably with them for the majority of it.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: The amount of scripture he could have covered in that time would have been immense.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: But for the sake of time, we will only cover a fraction of what he would have touched on.
- 5:33SPEAKER_00: And starting in Genesis, we read, Genesis 3 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
- 5:41SPEAKER_00: He shall bruise her head, and you shall bruise his heel.
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: And in Numbers 21, six to nine.
- 5:48SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died, and the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.
- 5:59SPEAKER_00: Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live, just like when we look to the cross.
- 6:42SPEAKER_00: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
- 6:52SPEAKER_00: And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
- 7:09SPEAKER_00: And if you say in your heart, How may how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.
- 7:22SPEAKER_00: The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.
- 7:25SPEAKER_00: You need not be afraid of him.
- 7:28SPEAKER_00: At this point, their hearts would have already started opening up as Jesus made known to them the things concerning the Messiah that has to take place.
- 7:36SPEAKER_00: Then coming to this scripture in Isaiah, a section they would have known well and had always been taught that it was about their nation.
- 7:44SPEAKER_00: But now hearing it in a new context after the cross, I can imagine that as Jesus spoke the words of the Messiah being pierced, that at the same time their hearts were also.
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: Behold, my servant shall act wisely.
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
- 8:10SPEAKER_00: As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the ch of the children of mankind, so shall he sprinkle many nations.
- 8:22SPEAKER_00: Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
- 8:31SPEAKER_00: Who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
- 8:36SPEAKER_00: For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground.
- 8:41SPEAKER_00: He had no form of majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- 8:58SPEAKER_00: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
- 9:01SPEAKER_00: Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
- 9:07SPEAKER_00: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our inequities.
- 9:13SPEAKER_00: Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
- 9:18SPEAKER_00: All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all.
- 9:26SPEAKER_00: He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
- 9:38SPEAKER_00: By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death.
- 9:55SPEAKER_00: Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: He was put he has put him to grief.
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
- 10:12SPEAKER_00: Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.
- 10:15SPEAKER_00: By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear the inequities.
- 10:22SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I will divide him a portion with many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercessions for the transgressors.
- 10:40SPEAKER_00: Now can you imagine what was going through their heads at this point?
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: How for the first time this scripture took on a whole new meaning, having experienced all that had happened in the last three days, and knowing all that Jesus had done in his ministry and all that he taught.
- 10:55SPEAKER_00: But continuing on as their hearts and minds were racing, Jesus started quoting the Psalms as we read in Psalm 22, 1 to 2.
- 11:02SPEAKER_00: And these words still being fresh in their minds as they pondered why Jesus said them on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
- 11:12SPEAKER_00: Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
- 11:29SPEAKER_00: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: You make known to me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
- 11:41SPEAKER_00: And in Psalm 69, and I'm just going to read parts of this chapter, but I would recommend reading the whole thing when you have a minute to see how it all points to Jesus.
- 11:49SPEAKER_00: I just pulled out the verses that clearly speak of him.
- 11:52SPEAKER_00: Save me, O God.
- 11:54SPEAKER_00: I am weary with my crying out, my throat is parched, my eyes grow dim with waiting from my God.
- 12:01SPEAKER_00: More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: Mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies.
- 12:09SPEAKER_00: What I did not steal must I now restore?
- 12:13SPEAKER_00: Let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel, for it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.
- 12:21SPEAKER_00: I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.
- 12:26SPEAKER_00: For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
- 12:32SPEAKER_00: Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: According to your abundant mercy, turn to me, hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress.
- 12:41SPEAKER_00: Make haste to answer me, draw near to my soul, redeem me, ransom me because of my enemies.
- 12:46SPEAKER_00: You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor.
- 12:50SPEAKER_00: My foes are all known to you.
- 12:52SPEAKER_00: Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.
- 12:55SPEAKER_00: I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
- 12:59SPEAKER_00: They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink.
- 13:06SPEAKER_00: For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those who have wounded.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: Add to them punishment upon punishment.
- 13:16SPEAKER_00: May they have no acquittal for you.
- 13:18SPEAKER_00: Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, let them not be enrolled among the righteous, but I am afflicted and in pain.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: Let your salvation, O God, set me on high.
- 13:28SPEAKER_00: Now can you start to imagine what they were thinking at this point?
- 13:31SPEAKER_00: But continuing on in the prophets, he would have expounded further.
- 13:34SPEAKER_00: Zechariah 12 10 and 13 7, he says, And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please of mercy, so that when they look on me, on whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
- 13:56SPEAKER_00: Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the Lord of hosts, strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: I will turn my hand against the little ones.
- 14:07SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah 23, 5 to 6, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute judges judges justice and righteousness in the land.
- 14:23SPEAKER_00: In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is the name by which he will be called.
- 14:31SPEAKER_00: The Lord is our righteousness.
- 14:33SPEAKER_00: Daniel 9, 26, and after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one, the Messiah, shall be cut off and shall have nothing.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: Now, as we continue on with the story from here, it should be easy to see why they didn't want him to go.
- 14:47SPEAKER_00: Their minds were being opened for the first time, and their excitement grew.
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: So we see in verses twenty-eight to thirty-six.
- 14:54SPEAKER_00: So they drew near to the village to which they were going.
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: He acted as if they were going further, as he was going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.
- 15:07SPEAKER_00: So he went in to stay with them.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
- 15:19SPEAKER_00: Their eyes were opened, not just that they knew it was him, but that they now knew the why.
- 15:26SPEAKER_00: This is what creates great excitement, as we will now see as they run all the way back to where they came from.
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: Do we have this level of excitement?
- 15:36SPEAKER_00: In verse 32, 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?
- 15:44SPEAKER_00: Do your hearts burn within you when you hear the scriptures revealed, not just spoken, but revealed?
- 15:51SPEAKER_00: And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.
- 15:54SPEAKER_00: And they found the eleven, and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.
- 16:02SPEAKER_00: Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.
- 16:13SPEAKER_00: But they were startled and frightened, and thought they saw a spirit.
- 16:17SPEAKER_00: This experience was probably similar to that of the one Paul had on the road to Damascus, as we see in Acts chapter 9, verses 3 to 9.
- 16:24SPEAKER_00: Jesus confronts Paul on the road and he falls to the ground.
- 16:27SPEAKER_00: He then spends three days blind, which could symbolize the three days disciples were spiritually blind during Christ's death until his resurrection, when he opened their eyes.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: Verses 38 to 46.
- 16:40SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Why are you troubled?
- 16:43SPEAKER_00: And why do doubts in your hearts?
- 16:46SPEAKER_00: See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat?
- 17:05SPEAKER_00: They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.
- 17:10SPEAKER_00: Then he said to them, These are my words, and I that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: Here it is again.
- 17:25SPEAKER_00: They needed to understand that everything in Scripture had been written about Jesus, not them, for them to understand and have their eyes opened.
- 17:35SPEAKER_00: Verse 45 and 46.
- 17:36SPEAKER_00: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: He told them he had to suffer in Luke 9, 21 to 22, and he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
- 18:03SPEAKER_00: And he prophesied to three days in Matthew 12, 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
- 18:13SPEAKER_00: In verse 47, he continues on, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: Just as we saw in 1 John 2 2, he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
- 18:29SPEAKER_00: Now finishing up in verses 48-53 as we continue on.
- 18:32SPEAKER_00: You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
- 18:40SPEAKER_00: And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands, he blessed them.
- 18:45SPEAKER_00: While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven, and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, blessing God.
- 18:56SPEAKER_00: Now we see in Matthew twenty-eight, sixteen, now the eleven disciples went into Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.
- 19:07SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
- 19:12SPEAKER_00: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
- 19:23SPEAKER_00: Now notice in verse 17, even after all this, that some still doubted.
- 19:28SPEAKER_00: This just goes to show that unless God gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, that we can't see or hear that which is spoken about Jesus.
- 19:35SPEAKER_00: My prayer for all of you today is that he opens your understanding so that you can enter into a genuine relationship with him, one that produces joy and excitement that can't be contained, just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
- 19:48SPEAKER_00: That when we experience him, we will run and tell the world that he is risen and we have seen him.
- 19:54SPEAKER_00: The question I have for you today is where are you on the road?
- 19:58SPEAKER_00: Are you walking with sorrow as they were, pondering all the bad things in your life and why they happened?
- 20:04SPEAKER_00: Or have you reached your destination, that place where Jesus is opening your eyes?
- 20:09SPEAKER_00: Or have you already encountered Jesus, had your eyes open, and now you're ready to express that great joy and excitement to the rest of the world?
- 20:16SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you haven't even begun the journey, in which case I would ask, what are you waiting for?
- 20:22SPEAKER_00: God has already laid out the path to discover him.
- 20:24SPEAKER_00: It just requires you to step out onto it, start walking, and while you walk, he will meet you where you are to open your eyes, so that you may have an overwhelming joy of who he is and how much he loves you, so that you will overflow his love into this lost world.
- 20:42SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 28, 13.
- 20:45SPEAKER_00: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
- 20:50SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
- 20:51SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you so much for your word, for your revelation, for your enlightenment, God, that you open our minds, our eyes, and our ears, and that is your great desire to do so, so that we may glorify you and praise you with all that we are, so that we will recognize that your word, this creation, our lives, and everything about it is for your glory unto your praise.
- 21:15SPEAKER_00: It's not for our benefit, but we do benefit in it when we find our joy in you, when we find our pleasures in you, God.
- 21:25SPEAKER_00: And I pray that as we walk this road of life, that we meet Jesus along the way, that we have our eyes opened.
- 21:32SPEAKER_00: I pray for our listeners today that they will dig in deep, that they will step out on that road of life, and that they will pursue you and beg for you and ask for you, God, that they will seek you with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
- 21:44SPEAKER_00: And that you would open their minds to understand your greatness, your grandeur, your glory, and your love for them, God, that they would be excited and overflowed to share that love and excitement with the world.
- 22:00SPEAKER_00: Which is their praise unto you, God.
- 22:03SPEAKER_00: Father, we love you and we thank you for all that you've done and all that you revealed and all that you are in Jesus' name.
- 22:10SPEAKER_00: Amen.
- 22:12SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for joining us today for this special Easter message.
- 22:15SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed it and that it helped you in understanding your relationship with Jesus and his desire for you to enter into the joy of the Lord.
- 22:24SPEAKER_00: We should all have an excitement for God's word and the relationship we have with him that overflows into this world that can't be contained.
- 22:31SPEAKER_00: It should be infectious and drive those around us to ask who is this God you speak of?
- 22:38SPEAKER_00: Let your life so reflect his glory that no one can deny that you belong to him.
- 22:44SPEAKER_00: God bless, and we'll see you next time on the takeaway.