Walking With the Resurrected Jesus – Part One

Walking With the Resurrected Jesus - Part One

Walking With the Resurrected Jesus - Part One

I greet you, friends, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Today, I want to speak on Walking with the Resurrected Jesus. Our text is taken from St Luke 24:13-35, 44-49

Luke 24

28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He [that is, Jesus] indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.”

For those of us who are familiar with hymns, this is what informs that popular hymn

  • Abide with me, fast falls the even tide.
    The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
    When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
    Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me

 

And He went in to stay with them.

30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.

32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

 

 

 

PRAYER:

Father, we come again, in the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ. As we search the scripture today, Father, I’m praying that all my friends will be touched, and touched positively, in the various areas of their needs. Grant this, father, we pray, in Jesus Name. Amen!

Our text is one about twelve post resurrection appearances of Jesus. It is the story of two disciples of Jesus, according to the text, who were travelling from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We find two disappointed and demoralized disciples of Jesus. Emmaus is about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were not among the twelve, if you look at verse 33. So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven. And those who were with them gathered together. So they found the eleven. So these two disciples were not part of the twelve. Jesus appeared to them incognito – He appeared to them unrecognized. And He asked them what they were talking about.

Luke 24:15-17

15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained [that is, where I said, He appeared incognito], so that they did not know Him.

17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”

Their response shows they were indeed demoralized, disappointed and dejected.

Luke 24:18-20

18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days [over the weekend]?”

19 And He said to them, “What things?”

[Jesus pretended He didn’t know anything, and yet it was about Him.]

So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

Here we see their disappointment and the reason why they were demoralized. We were hoping He was the one who would redeem Israel. But now our hopes are dashed. In verse 32, these two disciples said to each other, after Jesus varnished, remember that the place we read, Jesus pretended as if He was going to continue on. And they constrained Him to spend the night with them because it was already getting late. And He agreed and He was manifested to them as He prayed before the meal.

For those of you who use the prayer before the meal as just a perfunctory thing, in this case it was during the prayer before a meal that Jesus was revealed or manifested to them. Something can happen to you too, anytime you take prayer seriously, whether over a meal, or early in the morning, or before you go to bed. So Jesus was revealed to them. And He varnished.

Luke 24:32

32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

And that is what you get when you walk with the resurrected Jesus. Did not our hearts burn. Burning is associated with fire. A heart that burns is a heart that is set on fire. Not literal fire! Jesus used this metaphor, fire and burning, to describe John the Baptizer, because of the kind of life he lived for God and before the people of Israel. In John 5:35, Jesus talking about the baptizer [some call it John the Baptist], he was the burning and shinning lamp. Jesus said,

John 5:35

35He was the burning and shining lamp [Jesus said], and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.

So you will see that there is no shinning without burning. Jesus said in

Matthew 5:16

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Let your light so shine. There is no shining without burning. If your heart is not set on fire for God, you will not shine. You will not shine before men. So, friends, you cannot shine until you burn. You cannot shine until your heart is set on fire for God. It is sad to note that some people are not interested by being set on fire by God, but they are interested in putting out any fire they see burning in others. They do so by trashing them with their tongues, they do so by interpreting their motives in a most uncharitable manner. They remind me of Eliab, David’s oldest brother. In 1 Samuel 17:28. Eliab said to David his younger brother when he was asking questions about what to do with the menace called Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:28

28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

You see here, he was interpreting David’s motive in a very uncharitable manner. How can you say you know the motive of anybody. Nobody knows anybody’s motive except God. And friend, make sure that your motive is clean always and pure in the sight of God; not ulterior motive, because anything you do for God or in the name of God that has wrong motive, that has bad motive, that has selfish motive, is not acceptable in His sight. And it is at the level of motive that God judges our lives. Israel would have suffered irreparable loss that day if David had listened to the fire quencher of his day, the Eliab in his family. The victory would have gone to the enemies of Israel instead.

The hearts of the two disciples of Jesus burned within them. What does that mean for the heart to burn when they said, did not our hearts burn? What do they mean? It means that their hearts glowed. Their hearts were set on fire, their hearts were greatly moved, and their hearts were warmed towards God and the things concerning God. But what produced the burning? What set their hearts aglow? That we will look at when we return next time.

 

PRAYER:

Friend, I want to pray for you that God will visit you, the resurrected Jesus will visit you. Whatever need that may be in your life, I commit those into His hands now as you believe with me. Friend, believe with me that the resurrected Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Believe that he will touch you at that point of your need. As you mention that need to Him now let it be so. Let it be so, Father, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!

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