Emmaeus Road
Notes
Transcript
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing 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. 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?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. 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. 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. 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?” 33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. 36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” 40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence. 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Today is our first day gathering as a church for worship.
We are here to praise God,
hear his word preached,
confess our sin,
and commune with him and each other around the table.
Nick and I sat down to discuss what would the first sermon be?
We knew that we needed to cover our value of “Gospel” still.
What should be your entry point into the scriptures for a first sermon as a church?
It could be Genesis.
You could read the first four words of the Bible
“In the beginning, God”,
and go from there.
Or we could tell a story from Israel’s history like Moses or David.
Or we could talk about Jesus, maybe even his crucifixion.
We could talk about the resurrection!
Or, we could talk about the early church!
We could learn from them, right?
Nick suggested, we should talk about the Emmaus Road, which is the passage we just read.
This is a perfect place to start.
In this short little narrative we just read we see all of these potential elements represented.
We see the entirety of the OT biblical story get addressed by Jesus,
we have reference to the crucifixion and resurrection,
and we have a glimpse of the early church here as well.
This story that we just read, is like touching the tip of an iceberg.
Jesus is the fulfilment of the story.
What story?
God is a God of story.
God loves story.
God’s relationship with His people has always been storied.
Continually reminding them of who they were, giving them spiritual practices for remembering and proclaiming their story.
Prophecy to tell them about their future.
Piles of stones to help them remember in the moment and in future generations of what he had done in the past.
Feasts and festivals to remind them of their exodus out of Egypt and all the good things God had done for them.
Covenant’s that required the telling of each generation what the works of God had been in the past in order for these future generations to follow accordingly.
Prophets to remind and warn.
So if we were walking on this road with these men, where would we locate ourselves in this story?
Getting into the shoes of Cleopas and his companion:
A helpful way for viewing the whole of the Bible is to see it like a 6 Act Drama:
Act 1: God Establishes his kingdom
Act 2: Rebellion in the kingdom
Act 3: The King chooses Israel
Interlude: A kingdom Story waiting for an ending
Act 4: The Coming of the King
Act 5: Spreading the News of the King
Act 6: The Return of the King
As we continue on as a church we will continue to use the imagery of a drama with multiple acts to locate ourselves in the biblical story.
These men have lived in the intermission of the drama,
but are now witnessing the 4th Act unfold before their eyes.
The King has come. Redemption has been accomplished. But they didn’t realize it yet.
Ez-Neh: New temple?
Israel burdened under the oppression of rulers that are foreign and serve pagan gods and worship Caesar.
A Jewish “government” which is just a puppet for Rome.
Multiple “Messiahs” rising up.
Israel’s defining moment that they looked back to was the exodus.
The way we look back to the cross, is the way Israel harkened back to the exodus.
For them it was the defining moment in their history of how God, in His power, had defeated their oppressors to bring them into a new, peaceful place.
My seminary professor remarked once that whenever he was asked if he could go anywhere in the bible where would he go and he would say “emmaus road” because he wanted to know what Jesus told the men.
He commented however that in his older age he’s realized that he knows exactly what Jesus told these men.
He told them the biblical story!
Maybe not by describing 6 acts, but definitely by walking them through the drama.
He would have talked about Adam and Eve in the garden, and how God promised Eve an offspring that would crush the head of the serpent.
He would have told them about Abraham, and how a promise made to that patriarch in the faith would find its fulfillment in Jesus and now a spreading church.
He would have told them about Isaiah, and the suffering servant we read about in those pages.
Honestly he probably talked quite a bit about Isaiah with them.
He may have recited to them some Ezra-Nehemiah, showing how a longing for temple was fulfilled in him.
I imagine there was a moment as they were walking, probably as they were getting close Emmaus, where Jesus was reciting Is to them.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Their hearts had to have been pumping so hard at that moment!
and then imagine how they must have felt a few moments later when Jesus reminded them of more scriptures that they would have learned from their earliest days in synagogue but were realizing for the first time:
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Maybe he said something very simple to them:
Sons… the Messiah’s death was a victory.
It was the fulfilment of the story.
What Jesus is holding out to them is the news that there is a New Exodus.
Absolutely paradigm shifting.
The entire Jewish experience was so intertwined in “Exodus”.
Jesus is here to tell both the people on the road to Emmaus and us today, that “there is a new exodus.”
At the end of today’s passage, we heard Hannah read:
46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
When we read this our tendency is to go
“oh wow yea they were witnesses. They did all that great missionary stuff that we read about in the book of acts.”
Here’s the thing... don’t disconnect this from your own faith and the faith of your family.
If you have ever heard the gospel, it’s because it’s been passed down in an unbreakable chain from these disciples, to you.
We should thank God for that.
How is that even possible by the way?
How has something that looked like such a stunning defeat survived for 2000 years?
This week on the podcast we talked about the gospel as being REAL power that is extended from God’s throne right into our current circumstances.
We read this verse from Romans 1:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
From first to last.
We aren’t the first, we aren’t the last.
We have a role to play in the advancement of the kingdom of God and it involves us extending the gospel to each other and to our neighbors.
It’s a powerful gospel.
It’s a gospel that bears witness to a God who has orchestrated history to bring glory to himself and reconcile MANY lost sons and daughters to his family.
It’s the story of good news.
It’s the tying together of Moses and the prophets under one head, Christ.
It’s the reason why, for the entire life of the table church, we will preach the gospel.
We will preach the gospel from the whole bible.
Searching for Christ where he might be found in every corner of his word.
If you believe the gospel, you have a family.
God’s family.
2. Jesus is the one who walks with US.
What would Jesus say if we bumped into him on the road?
Would you even recognize him?
As Jesus walked on the road with those two disciples, he rebuked them.
Albeit gently, but He rebuked them all the same.
I read a C.S. Lewis quote this week that stuck with me.
It’s from a short story he wrote called “The man born blind.”
“A blind man has few friends; a blind man who has recently received his sight has, in a sense, none. He belongs neither to the world of the blind nor to that of the seeing, and no one can share his experience.”
In a sense this is the world Jesus was living in for His first few days after resurrecting from the dead.
No one had a clue about Jesus because He had just defied everything they expected about him, even death.
In the short story “The man born blind”, we see a man who has been blind for multiple decades, and all of a sudden gets to benefit from a revolutionary new surgery that gives him his sight back.
And as he goes around his house and his neighborhood now, he is utterly perplexed.
He KNOWS intellectually that he can technically see light now,
But he knows in his heart that he can’t discern what light is at all.
So he keeps pointing to objects and colors around him and asking his wife, “Is that light?” “Is this light?”.
Much to her frustration.
This is the world the disciples were living in on the road to Emmaus.
They knew theoretically that Jesus had risen from the dead,
but they had no concept of the fact that they were now swimming in a universe of truth that was completely illuminated by the resurrected King.
A resurrected King who still wanted to be with them by the way.
Did you know that Jesus still wants to be with you??
Did you know that He sent His Spirit to be with you?
Despite the fact that when we read the bible we see it with dim eyes, Jesus wants to be near to us.
He wants us to see him clearly.
He’ll rebuke us gently if our hearts our soft.
Or he’ll rebuke us strongly if we are resisting him.
We should pray for soft hearts.
Jesus wants to sit at a table with you and see him for who he really is.
And that’s exactly what we get to do when join him at the table for communion.
Jesus really is king of this age.
Jesus really can be our master instead of sin.
The Holy Spirit really is about the business of equipping people with spreading the gospel all around the world.
Even in the darkest corners.
And Jesus really is spiritually present with us when we dine at his table.
Breaking of the bread.
Jesus didn’t eat it.
He gave it.
So we receive it.
Sign of the New Exodus
Jesus is inviting us to walk out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.
And he didn’t ask us to walk alone.
He is with us all the way.
Framing Confession and Communion: