Latest / Enjoying the Journey / Road Trip!

Transcript

Road Trip! · Enjoying the Journey

• 0:08
  In our busy world, family time is frequently neglected.
• 0:13
  It is vital that we give attention to our families while we can,
• 0:17
  and it is especially important to give attention to what God says
• 0:22
  in his word about our homes. For the next few moments,
• 0:25
  let's join Scott Pauley as we open the scriptures and and find God's
• 0:30
  message for your family.
• 0:39
  As we walk through the Old and New Testament, we are introduced to a number
• 0:43
  of families— lots of married couples, lots of children, lots of
• 0:47
  real people just like us. In fact, that's one of the great things about the
• 0:51
  Bible— it makes truth come alive to us the
• 0:55
  examples that are given, people relate to people. And so that's
• 0:59
  why through all the centuries, of all the people that could have been
• 1:02
  recorded for us in scripture, the Holy Spirit chose certain people.
• 1:06
  And I think sometimes some of them get more attention
• 1:10
  than others. I'd like to draw your attention today to a married
• 1:13
  couple, at least what I believe to be a married couple. I'll prove that to
• 1:17
  you in just a moment from scripture, who are on a road trip.
• 1:21
  I don't know about you, we take lots of road trips.
• 1:24
  When you work in evangelistic work, you're on the road a lot.
• 1:27
  And so you can ask my wife and our children, we've, we've had a lot
• 1:31
  of trips together and we've made a lot of memories on those trips. And road
• 1:34
  trips can either be wonderful or they can be miserable, and you get
• 1:38
  to choose. This particular road trip is recorded for us
• 1:42
  in Luke chapter number 24, and I must tell you, this road
• 1:45
  trip began miserable and ends wonderful. It began
• 1:49
  miserable because the couple walking along the road
• 1:53
  in Luke chapter number 24 are brokenhearted.
• 1:57
  They're sad, they're discouraged, they're despondent.
• 2:00
  They were followers of one known as Jesus,
• 2:03
  and now he's been put to death, and all
• 2:07
  of their hope seems to have been dashed. All of their ideas of what this,
• 2:11
  this deliverer, this teacher was going to accomplish have disappeared.
• 2:16
  And that's the context in Luke 24 and verse 13 when the Bible says,
• 2:20
  and behold, 2 of them went that same day to
• 2:24
  a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem
• 2:27
  about threescore furlongs. That is,
• 2:30
  in our world today, just a little less than 7 miles. So they're
• 2:34
  walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and the Bible
• 2:38
  says in verse 14, and they talked together of all these things which
• 2:42
  had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed
• 2:46
  together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and
• 2:51
  went with them. Now we're going to come back to this story. In fact,
• 2:55
  I'm going to just park here for a little while and
• 2:58
  make some applications and observations that I hope will be a great blessing
• 3:02
  and encouragement to you. But I'd like to give you a perspective on the 2
• 3:06
  disciples on the road to Emmaus that perhaps you've not
• 3:09
  had in the past. Who were these 2 disciples?
• 3:13
  Well, only one of them is identified by name. In fact, down in verse number
• 3:17
  18, it says, and the one of them whose name was Cleopas. So only
• 3:21
  one is identified by name. Only one of them
• 3:25
  seems to speak, and yet there are 2 of them. As a child
• 3:29
  growing up, when people talked about the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus,
• 3:33
  I always had this mental image, this mental picture of
• 3:36
  2 men, because someone said 2 disciples on
• 3:41
  the road to Emmaus. But I would remind you that not all of Christ's disciples
• 3:44
  were men. The original disciples were, but by
• 3:48
  this time there are many disciples. And these are not 2 of the apostles
• 3:52
  that we're talking about. These are 2 disciples, one of them named Cleopas
• 3:56
  and the other one unnamed, and they're traveling together.
• 4:00
  Not only are they traveling together It appears they're headed
• 4:04
  home from the feast. So they're leaving after the feast days from Jerusalem,
• 4:08
  and they're going back together to a little village known as
• 4:11
  Emmaus. And when they get there, they go into a home. So from
• 4:15
  every implication, it would seem that this is a man named Cleopas
• 4:20
  and his wife. Oh, but I'm not just reading into this. Let me give you
• 4:24
  a great cross-reference in the Gospel according to John, John chapter 19
• 4:28
  The picture is of Christ on the cross,
• 4:31
  and the Bible says in John 19, verse 25, now there stood by the cross
• 4:35
  of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister,
• 4:39
  Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.
• 4:44
  There are 3 Marys standing around the cross. One of them is
• 4:48
  Mary, Jesus' mother. One of them is Mary Magdalene. But who's the other Mary?
• 4:51
  Mary the wife of Cleopas, the exact
• 4:55
  same name that is found in Luke chapter 24 for one of the disciples
• 4:59
  on the road to Emmaus. So here's my conviction. I believe
• 5:03
  that Cleopas and his wife, who were related to Mary, had come to Jerusalem
• 5:07
  for the feast. They were followers of Christ.
• 5:11
  They had been students of this, this rabbi, this teacher.
• 5:15
  They had had hope in him as their deliverer, as their Messiah.
• 5:18
  And now suddenly he's gone. And in a moment
• 5:22
  of time, the two of them are walking home dejected and sad. Their heads
• 5:26
  are down. Now I want to tell you, because we don't have time to go
• 5:30
  to the end of the story today— we'll come back there— that when
• 5:33
  they come back, their heads aren't down, their heads are up. See, when you
• 5:36
  have an encounter with Jesus, it changes everything.
• 5:41
  But on this road trip, I want to simply point out to you
• 5:44
  that it began with 2 of them in Luke 24, verse 13,
• 5:49
  but in verse 15, Jesus himself drew near.
• 5:54
  My friend, on the road of life, God gives you companionship.
• 5:57
  Aren't you glad for companionship? I can testify about this,
• 6:01
  that all the trips that I take, companionship makes the
• 6:04
  journey more enjoyable and more memorable. How many times
• 6:08
  I have stood somewhere and said, oh, I wish Tammy could
• 6:12
  see this. I wish, I wish Tammy could be here with me at
• 6:16
  this moment. We want the companionship and we need the companionship.
• 6:19
  Remember what God said way back in the book of Genesis? It is not good
• 6:22
  that the man should be alone. And so the Lord sets the
• 6:26
  solitary in families. The Lord gives us human companionship, and that's wonderful.
• 6:30
  But don't miss this: Christ not only wants you to have human companionship,
• 6:36
  he wants you to have divine companionship. Maybe you think it's
• 6:40
  just the two of you making this journey along the road of life together.
• 6:43
  No, no, Jesus himself draws near. Or maybe
• 6:47
  you think, well, it's the 5 of us— me and my spouse and our children—
• 6:50
  or the 6 of us, whatever the size of your home happens to be.
• 6:53
  No, friend, Jesus himself draws near.
• 6:57
  And notice, not only is there companionship on this road trip,
• 7:01
  but there is communion. And I'm choosing my word carefully
• 7:05
  here. I did not just say communication, I said communion,
• 7:08
  because that's what the Lord brings— a heart-level communication.
• 7:13
  You can communicate, and that's just one mind
• 7:17
  communicating with another mind. That is, that is oftentimes very surface.
• 7:22
  And yet when the Lord Jesus enters into the conversation, he brings a
• 7:26
  communion, a fellowship with God that only Christ can
• 7:30
  bring. In fact, I think it's wonderful to see how the
• 7:33
  two of them were talking together. They were talking together,
• 7:37
  they were communing together, but when Jesus enters into the conversation,
• 7:41
  he lifted the whole conversation to another level.
• 7:46
  I want to recommend to you today, dear one, that you not only talk
• 7:50
  to one another but that you let the Lord Jesus enter into
• 7:53
  your conversation. My mind is going back right now to my
• 7:57
  boyhood and my dad saying to me, son, there are 3 talks
• 8:01
  you ought to have every day. Every day you ought to talk to God.
• 8:04
  You do that in prayer. Every day you ought to let God talk to you.
• 8:08
  You do that through the Bible. And every day you ought to talk about
• 8:11
  him. You do that through sharing your testimony, witnessing,
• 8:15
  and speaking to others about Christ. 3 talks you ought to have every
• 8:19
  day. Could I recommend the same thing to you and your family today? Talk to
• 8:23
  God, let God talk to you, and talk about him. And if you'll do that,
• 8:26
  you'll discover a companionship and a communion that
• 8:31
  is beyond simply human relationship. Thank God for human
• 8:35
  relationship, but oh friend, when God brings his divine fellowship
• 8:39
  into our human relationship, that makes the road trip so
• 8:43
  much better. I want to encourage you today that along the road of life,
• 8:47
  wherever you're headed to today, whatever your spirit happens to be today,
• 8:50
  whatever your circumstances are today, whoever you're making the journey with today,
• 8:54
  Jesus himself wants to draw near and
• 8:59
  go with you. I want to encourage you to read the rest of the story
• 9:02
  in Luke 24. God helping us, we'll come back to the study very soon and
• 9:06
  make some other applications that will help all of us as we make this journey
• 9:09
  together. For more resources
• 9:13
  for your marriage and family, visit us at etj.bible
• 9:17
  and click on the Take the Next Step link,
• 9:20
  where you'll find many Bible resources that will strengthen your marriage
• 9:25
  and equip you to raise your children in the ways of
• 9:28
  the Lord. We highly recommend Scott's book, New Testament Marriage.
• 9:33
  In it, you'll discover timeless biblical principles from the husband
• 9:38
  and wife team Aquila and Priscilla, and these principles are
• 9:41
  very applicable to your marriage today. From all
• 9:45
  of us at Enjoying the Journey, thanks for listening today,
• 9:49
  and until next time, we pray that you will enjoy the journey.