Luke 24:13-43; John 20:19-31 Happy Easter
Luke 24:13-43; John 20:19-31
That same day, two of the followers,
were walking on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles away from Jerusalem. As
they walked, they discussed the things that had happened in the last few days
in Jerusalem. They did not notice Jesus appear and walk along with them as they
spoke. He prevented their eyes from recognizing Him. He asked them, "Can
you tell Me more about these things you have been sharing?" When they
realized there was someone with them, they stopped and looked at the man with
sadness in their eyes. Cleopas said to the stranger, "You must be the only
person in Jerusalem who does not know about these happenings." He replied,
"I may be, would you tell me more?" And they told him about Jesus,
the prophet from Nazareth, and all of His miracles and teachings. They went on
to talk about the Jewish leadership sentencing Him to death and with the help
of the Romans, they crucified Him. Then they said, "And some of the women
who have traveled with us brought us amazing news. When they went to visit the
tomb where His body was laid, they found it empty. They also said they had seen
a vision of angels who told them that He had risen from the dead."
They
went on to tell the stranger about their friends who went to the tomb to check
out the women's story and found things to be exactly as the women had said.
Jesus said, "I can see you are finding it
difficult to believe in the words of the prophets. Didn't they say that the
Messiah would need to experience this type of suffering before returning to His
place of glory?"
Then Jesus went back through the words of
Moses and the prophets, explaining to them all of the prophecies that described
Him and the things He had done on earth. As they reached their destination,
Jesus made a movement like He was going further on without them. But they
invited Him to stay with them for the night since it was near dark. So, He
entered the house with them. At the table, after their meal, He took the bread,
blessed it, broke it, and handed it to them. At that moment, the impediment on
their eyes was removed, and they realized they had been talking with Jesus this
whole time. And then He was gone. They turned to each other and said,
"While He spoke to us on the way, we could feel something more than normal
but did not know what it was. His explanation of the Writings of God was so
enthralling.”[9]
R88
- Luke 24:19; Jesus the Nazarene was a great prophet
R89 - Luke 24:23; The women saw angels
who said He was alive.
Even
though it was late, they left and went back to Jerusalem. When they found the
followers, they said, "We now believe that Jesus is risen and must have
talked to Simon, because He came along with us on our journey." They told
them the whole story of being taught and how they recognized Jesus in the act
of breaking the bread.[10]
Jesus explained to these two followers
about the Writings of God, all of the places where they referenced the Messiah,
His deeds on earth, and His need to suffer in the end. He explained His need to
come to earth and His goal of restoring people to His Father in heaven.
They did not recognize
Jesus until their eyes were cleared and He served them the bread, probably much
like He had done at the meal in the upper room a few evenings before. We are
blinded to the things of God until we step out of our old nature, our sinful
self, and step into the life of the Spirit. What flips that switch in our
minds? Actually, once we have Jesus in our heart, the essential first step,
then all it takes is looking to Him.
When
our eyes are blinded, we need to turn our eyes back on Him. How does the song
go, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things
of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of He glory and grace.” Turning
requires our choosing to look, to spiritually see beyond this physical life and
gazed into the presence of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hindsight is a gift from God. Many times we
cannot understand what is happening at the moment we go through it but looking
back in time we can see so much more. We can even the value of the difficult
times because we see what we learned or gained having gone through them. Jesus
told His followers that He would never leave them, but we cannot feel or
recognize His presence in those moments of our life when things are not as we
had planned. Yet He is there with us.
Hindsight
is a trust builder. When we stop and meditate on God and what He has done for
us. Psalm One says, “Blessed is the one who delights in the Law of Yahweh, and
meditates on it twenty-four seven.” I remember the saying my sister-in-law
embroidered into my shirt, “If your day is hemmed in prayer, it is less likely
to unravel.”
While the two were sharing their
encounters, sitting in the room with the doors closed because they feared the
Jews, Jesus appeared among them and said, “Receive My peace.” All of the followers
present stopped in their tracks, thinking they were seeing a spirit and
trembling in fear. He held out his hands so they could see the fresh wounds.
The followers realized it was truly Him and they rejoiced. He scolded them for
not believing what the women and others had told them. He said they had hard
hearts. Then He asked, “What is making you doubt?
What
gets in the way of our faith? Where does our doubt come from?
Why is our heart hard? Experiences in
our past, our rationale, the circumstances of our situation. It could be our
sin, a trauma, or just our doubt. Hard heartedness comes from a lack of believing
that God is with us and can resolve this situation for His and our good. When
we have been in a similar situation in the past, we acted a particular way, and
whether it worked out well or not, we think that is the way we have to act
again. But we can change our thinking.
We
can believe beyond what we see. We can look to Him. Proverbs 3:5,6 says, “in everything
we do, acknowledge that He is with us, and He will make our paths straight.” Jesus
asks us to change our thinking. Believe, He is with us, He has things under
control, and He will cause good to come from this situation.
It is I, look at the scars, touch Me and know; spirits do
not have solid bodies or flesh.” He held out His hands so they could freely
touch Him. The more they realized it was Him, they replaced their fear with
great joy. He asked if they had something for Him to eat. Someone handed Him a
piece of fish which He received and ate it in front of their eyes.
Jesus said, “I give you My peace, in the same
way that the Father sent me to this world, I send you into this world.”
Breathing on them, He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Forgive others every time
you have an opportunity, and their sins will be forgiven them. If you do not
forgive, they will die in their sin.” The follower named Didymus, or Thomas was
not present at this meeting. The followers told him, “We saw Jesus and He
talked with us!” But Thomas said, “I have to see the scars from the nails in His
hands, and touch the wounds, before I will believe what you say.”[11]
With everything the
followers had seen up to this point it seems surprising that they had trouble
believing He was alive again. What hindered their belief? Were they
overthinking their situation? Were they filled with too much rationalization?
Were they just focused on the “storm” as Peter had been when he went for a
short walk on the water with Jesus? We don’t know why belief was hard for them
or why it is hard for our friends, but those of us who do believe have enjoyed
a wonderful life opened before us.
SUGGESTED APPLICATION
·
Set
aside some time to wait for God to show up. Ask Him to come into our lives and
then read, pray, sing, listen, wait expecting Him to speak to us.
·
If
God loves a cheerful giver, is it possible we should not give anything until we
want to freely give it. If God asks us to love our enemies, is it possible we
should wait to love them until the Holy Spirit prompts us to go to them. Will
He give us the compassion to love if we wait upon Him.
·
I
do not think we should try to manufacture “love” for other people. We should
wait until the Spirit motivates us to love them.
·
Because
of that, we need to wait for god to show up, and then go in His love.
T587 - Luke 24:44; The Law and
Prophets and Psalms tell of Jesus.
T588 - John 5:39; The followers gained
their understanding of OT from Jesus and the Holy Spirit following the
resurrection.
C89 - Luke 24:49; Wait until you are
clothed with power from on high. Do not attempt to live without the Holy
Spirit.
R91 - Luke 24:39; Jesus shows his
resurrected body to the followers, not a spirit but a body.
R92 - Luke 24:46; The Messiah should
suffer and rise on third day. That is the role of Jesus.
R93 - Luke 24:47; That repentance for
forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all the nations.
R94 - Luke 24:49; We will be clothed
with power from on high.
The following week the followers were gathered together
again and this time, Thomas was present. Jesus came and stood in the middle of
them and said, “Receive My peace.” He then turned to Thomas, “Touch my hands
with your finger and feel the hole; and put your hand here in my side. Thomas,
believe, do not go on in your unbelief.” He answered Jesus, "You are truly
My God, LORD Yahweh!" And Jesus said, “Now that you have seen you believe.
Those who do not need to see and still believe, they are the ones who are truly
blessed.”
Jesus performed so many signs and wonders that the
followers were privileged to see, and I have written about just a few of them.
I put down on paper what I thought would help you believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God. I want you to benefit from the life that He will give
to anyone who would believe in His name.[12]
R95 - John 20:28; To Thomas, he has
all the proof he needs to believe that Jesus is his Yahweh and God.
T600 - Jesus will return to earth in
the same way He left. The date and time are a part of the plan of the Father in
heaven and not for us to know.
T601 - Signs and wonders are for the
purpose of helping people believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
Pastor Edd
[9] (Luke
24:13-32; Mark 16:12-13)
[10] (Luke
24:33-35)
[11] (Luke
24:36-43; Mark 16:14; John 20:19-25)
[12] (John
20:26-31)
Comments
Post a Comment