Actually, a couple of weeks ago, I found out that my son was playing in a piping competition—a bagpiping competition—in Norfolk. Then it turned out that he had to be in Baltimore tomorrow for an eighth-grade trip to Washington, DC. So he was going to have to be at the bagpiping competition, fly to Houston, get on another plane, and fly back to Baltimore.
As I was talking to my wife, I said, “What a great opportunity it would be for me to take him through Richmond and gather with the saints.” I cannot tell you enough, or many times enough, what a blessing it is to gather with the saints.
Yesterday at the piping competition, the head piper of the organization said, “There’s no place on earth I would rather be today.” I am listening to all the bagpipes, and everyone in there is thrilled, so I thought, “Okay, whatever floats your boat.”
I immediately thought, “There’s no place I’d rather be on earth than gathering with the brothers and sisters in New York.” So I am thankful to be here.
Can you turn with me to Luke 24:13? Some of these verses you will recognize from the table meeting.
Luke 24:13. This is a very familiar story: the story of the two disciples leaving Jerusalem and journeying on the road to Emmaus.
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village called Emmaus, which was threescore furlongs from Jerusalem.
And they communed with each other of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.
And He said unto them, What communications are these that ye have with one another as ye walk?
And they stood still, looking sad.
And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said unto Him, Dost Thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem, and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days?
And He said unto them, What things?
And they said unto Him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people;
and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.
But we hoped that it was He who should redeem Israel. Yea, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass.
Moreover, certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb;
and when they found not His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive.
And certain of them that were with us went to the tomb, and found it even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not.
And He said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory?
And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
And they drew nigh unto the village whither they were going: and He made as though He would go further.
But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And He went in to abide with them.
And it came to pass, when He had sat down with them to meat, He took the bread and blessed; and breaking it, He gave to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight.
And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while He spake to us in the way, while He opened to us the Scriptures?
And they rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them.
Let’s just have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that You open the Scriptures to us. We do pray that we would see something of Christ this morning, that we would see nothing of man, that we would not see anything of our own condition except the need for the living Christ.
We are thankful that we can trust You. We pray that You would anoint the words and anoint our ears, again, that we might see Jesus alone. We ask all this in Your precious name. Amen.
You may have noticed, as I was reading, that I emphasized this phrase concerning these two disciples: “And they stood still, looking sad.”
A couple of weeks ago, our family was in New York City, and we had the opportunity to visit the World Trade Center and the memorial there. It was very powerful. I do not know how many of you have been able to go, but it is a very, very powerful memorial.
I took my two older boys—teenagers—my wife was there, and our six-year-old was with us. There are many signs that say, “Be careful if you have little children. Don’t go into this little area, and don’t go here.” We did not take him to those areas because there were some graphic aspects of the planes hitting the towers, and there was audio that could be disconcerting to a young child. So we protected him from that.
But halfway through, I noticed that he sat down on a bench. He was enjoying the memorial and hearing about the history, but halfway through he had to take a seat. My wife went over and put her arm around him. They talked a little bit, and she called me over. She said, “Micah needs to just take a break.”
So I asked him, “What’s going on, Micah?” He said, “Dad, I’m just dizzy. I’m dizzy from all the broken things.”
It was touching. There was broken rebar. There was a broken fire truck. You can imagine, for a six-year-old who loves fire trucks, to see one smashed to smithereens. He saw so much brokenness, and it caused him to be sad. It caused him to be dizzy.
As I was meditating on this thought, it really struck me. I was thinking of these disciples who were so sad. The reason they were sad was that they had witnessed so many broken things in the world.
I want to share a little bit this morning about the broken things in our lives. One thing I think we all have to recognize is that we will be broken in this life. In this lifetime, we will be broken.
Unfortunately, many of us are broken by the things of the world. We try to make it financially. We try to have the perfect family. We try to do so many things. We try to keep up with the neighbors, and eventually the world becomes too much for us, and we are broken.
As a high school principal, I see a lot of broken families. I see a lot of brokenness and a lot of frustration. But the alternative is still brokenness—it is brokenness by the cross.
And that brokenness by the cross leads to resurrection life, and it leads to Christ alone.
As I was thinking about this, I meditated on the lives of these two disciples and what they went through. We do not know these two disciples. We do not know why they chose to follow Jesus.
Most likely, they felt the brokenness of the Roman Empire. They felt the pressure of an empire that was absolutely crushing the common people, and they wanted answers. They wanted a Savior.
Most likely, they looked to their Jewish faith. But a Jewish faith without Christ caused even more brokenness and more confusion in their lives. You start looking at religion, and you see that the Jewish leaders were even serving the Roman Empire.
These people were probably crushed by taxation. They were being taxed by Rome, and they were being taxed by Herod. These disciples probably dealt with constant social upheaval—riots from people who did not want to pay taxes, riots from people who wanted to throw off the Roman Empire, or riots to throw off Herod.
So these disciples had really sought after a Savior, and they found Jesus. They followed Him, and they experienced quite a bit.
But at some point in their following of Jesus, they had to take stock. They had to stop, just as my son Micah did, and sit down and ask, “What was this all about? Where does this take us? Where does this lead us?”
My thought this morning is that, if we could just spend the next thirty minutes or so thinking about our own lives, we might ask: Are we willing to take stock of our lives? Are we willing to stop for a moment and ask, “Are we being broken by the world, or are we being broken by the Lord Jesus in His cross?”
Some questions that I wrote down: Is there a besetting sin in our lives? Is there something that we just cannot let go of?
I appreciated our sister’s testimony about being baptized today. The besetting sin of pride—the desire to be number one, to be liked, to outwardly look like a good Christian while having all these thoughts within.
Just recently in Houston, we had a baptism. A young boy testified of this, so I do not think he would mind my sharing it with you all. For the past few years, a little darkness had come into his life. No one could really put a finger on it. We just knew that he would not show up all the time, his friends would try to reach out to him, and he was always busy. There was a real heaviness.
When I saw his name on the baptism list, I thought, “Wow, I wonder what happened.” What a neat testimony. He stood before two hundred people and said, “You know what? I am obsessed with the internet and inappropriate things on the internet. It has taken me out of the race. It was crushing me, and it was so burdensome. I would try to stop, and I would stop for a little bit, but I would go back.”
“But I finally just cried out to the Lord and said, ‘Lord, please free me from this. Please free me from this.’” And the Lord did.
I think you understand that for a sixteen-year-old to stand in front of two hundred adults and admit a besetting sin like that, that is life-changing.
Another question I would have for all of us is this: Is there any lack of forgiveness in our lives for someone in our family, or for someone who has wronged us?
Maybe we can sit down on that bench and realize that this has broken a relationship, that this has broken communion. Maybe the Lord would come in and say, “Speak to that brother. Speak to that sister. Speak to that family member, and say, ‘I forgive,’ or, ‘Will you forgive me?’”
Another question I would have is: Look at our own Christian walk. Is there something in our Christian walk that is not quite right? Is there apathy? Is it tradition?
There is nothing wrong with sitting in the same seat every Sunday. But I catch myself thinking, “What happens if someone sits in my seat on a Sunday morning?” I would probably stop. I would tell myself that I would never be bothered by that, but I would probably walk in and think, “Oh, did that person not realize that’s my seat?”
How silly. But that is our nature. That is how we function. Are we just going through the routine?
We were created with eternity in our hearts. Ecclesiastes 3:11 is one of my favorite verses. We were created with eternity in our hearts.
The school system and the churches today like to hide that verse. They try to pump up the natural man. They try to look for good works and things that will make us happy, but these things really become a burden.
The Lord would like for us to come into eternity, to come into spiritual life, to come into the Lord’s life. But Satan, on the other hand—or our flesh, or the world—is always trying to do the opposite.
“I don’t feel like worshiping today. Oh, that piano. Can we just get a drum in here?” Or, on the other hand, “Why do they have to play the drums? Don’t they know only good Christians play the piano?” We can be on either side of that, but that is just the natural.
I would love to go to some churches and finally have some drums in there, and I would love to go into some gatherings and take the drums out, because it is just flesh. It is just the natural.
We need to ask the Lord. We need to sit on that bench and look at our own lives with a little bit of sadness and say, “Lord, am I pleasing to You? Am I coming into the reality of Christ?”
It is special to know that we have eternity in our hearts. When Mac was mentioning that there is rejoicing in heaven, it would be nice to have an ear to actually hear that rejoicing. The Lord would like for us to experience that. He does not keep heaven that far away from us. We can actually experience that joy of heaven.
I do not know if you have ever experienced that—when you are in a worship time and you know that the angels are rejoicing. It is a beautiful feeling.
These disciples who were in Jerusalem with Jesus really had a wonderful walk with the Lord. Things were going well. You can imagine Palm Sunday, as they call it now, going in there and watching all the palm leaves and people rejoicing. These disciples must have been pretty excited.
Things were coming to a head. Everything was going well, except for this whole matter of the cross. That was a stumbling block for them.
When the cross comes into our lives, we do one of two things. We either allow the cross to come in and completely deal with us—cross us out completely—and cause such a refining work that there is no more of me, no more of the flesh, but Christ and Christ alone. Then there is more Christ, and more Christ. That is what the cross wants to do.
But the other way we deal with the cross is that we slowly ignore it. We allow it to fade away, and we walk away from it. That is what happened with these two disciples, I believe.
It says at the beginning of what we read, “And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus.” The cross was there. They did not wait around for the resurrection. They should have known. They should have known from the prophets. But that very day they walked away to Emmaus.
Most likely, Emmaus was a place where there were healing spas. I do not think they were necessarily doing this, but I cannot help but think that maybe they were walking away from Jerusalem looking for some type of healing, some kind of consolation.
We know that was the case because they were walking and talking to each other about everything that was going on. But they should have stayed in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is where the name of the Lord had been from the time of David. This is the city of David. This is where the name of the Lord was placed. This is where His temple was. This was where His throne was. Everything centered in Jerusalem, but they were walking away from Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is no fun city to be in. Again, there is a lot of turmoil and a lot of frustration, but that is where Jesus was. That is where He was led to the cross, and that is where He resurrected. But these disciples walked away.
Instead of Jerusalem, they are walking to Emmaus. I want to look at this road as a road of crisis. It is a turning point. They are walking away from that beautiful time with the Lord—all those wonderful experiences—but now they are walking away.
If you looked at these disciples and were walking alongside them, you would say they were good Christians. Much like Cynthia had mentioned, we are around a lot of good Christians. Think about our own fellowships.
These disciples were talking about the Lord. They were fellowshipping with each other: “Do you remember when the Lord did this? Do you remember when this happened?” They were discussing Jesus. They were discussing truths. “Remember when Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’?”
If people looked at them, they would know from what they were saying that they were disciples. On the outward, they looked like good Christians.
So I want you to sit on that bench, contemplate, take stock, and ask: Do you look like one of the Lord’s disciples? Do you speak truth? Do you go to Bible studies and prayer meetings, talk about the Lord, and pray?
But at the same time, are you walking away from Jerusalem? Is there something in your life that is causing you to seek the healing of this world instead of the cross and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus?
This road to Emmaus for these two disciples was actually a road of worry. Much worry had crept into their lives.
It says in Luke 24:19, when they are discussing Jesus, “Don’t you know that Jesus was a prophet?” There are two things wrong with that. They are using the past tense, and they leave Him as merely a prophet.
That is why so much worry comes into our lives. Think about the things we worry about. I will use a personal example. It is easy to worry about how I am going to pay for college. It is easy to worry about whether I will have a job next week. It is easy for me to worry about the state of the fellowship in Houston. It is easy for me to worry, “Am I a good enough husband?”
We do not think about it because we do not sit on that bench and contemplate: Why am I so worried? I do not look like I worry often. Sometimes it looks like I have things under control, but there is a lot of worry. Why? Because Jesus was, and He was only a prophet.
Instead, Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He is my college tuition for my children. He is my job. He is my family. He is everything.
When we see that, that is when the table meeting—the breaking of the bread—becomes so precious, because we rejoice. I have no care. I have no worry. Jesus is, not Jesus was.
They had forgotten. In Luke 8:25, Jesus said, “Where is your faith?” when they were in the boat. It is okay. Have you ever shared in a Bible study that you lack faith? Have you ever shared with a brother or sister, “I do not know if I want to take this walk with the Lord—to the cross and into resurrection life”? We need to be honest.
If anyone had reason to worry, it was Jesus on this earth. I mean, He picked a motley crew to be His disciples. He was looking at Peter, thinking, “Oh, really? You are going to be the leader of this crew?” He looked at John and said, “Oh, you are going to be the peacemaker of this group?”
Jesus truly had a lot to worry about, and yet He always knew Whom He served: His Father. So He had no worry. But these disciples were worried.
This road to Emmaus is also a road of hurt pride, and we see this quite a bit in the church. When we serve the Lord, we want our lives to look like we serve the Lord and that we serve a majestic King.
It would be great to say, “I serve Jesus, and I own the biggest house, the nicest clothes, the best job,” because that is what happens when you serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
But often the Lord asks us to do things that hurt our pride. The disciples stumbled quite a bit because they abandoned their fishing businesses. They abandoned their tax-collecting businesses. They did all this, thinking that their lives would shine and that everyone would be so embracing of them. But it was just the opposite.
The only people who embraced them were people in bars. The people who embraced them were sick, had leprosy, or had blindness. If we are honest with ourselves, that is kind of hurtful to our pride.
Wouldn’t it be great if it were famous people who embraced us—the likable people? Unfortunately, that is what we think of the church. We want to have this puritanical, perfect, clean, squeaky-clean group of brothers and sisters in the church, when it really should be just the opposite. It should be the downtrodden.
If you ever feel like you want to pray here, but you cannot pray well enough or good enough around the table, we need to dispel that thought. If all you need to say around the table is, “Lord, I’m broken. Thank You for being my Savior,” that is good enough.
That is so precious. That warms the Lord’s heart. But it is our pride, and the fear that our pride might be hurt, that keeps us from worshiping around the table.
These disciples thought that their sacrifice would come with so much blessing, but they did not see it. We see in Hebrews that all those men of faith never got to see what they went after in faith.
May the Lord reveal to us that the cross does look foolish. Being broken by the cross does look foolish to the world, and people will ridicule us.
It is always easy for my boys on a Friday night to say to the soccer coach, “We can’t go to practice because we have to go to Bible study.” The coaches are always, “Oh yeah, that’s very good—family and church first.”
But then you find out on the group text, “Oh, the holy rollers are going to Bible study instead of soccer.” Oh, that hurts your pride. Wouldn’t it be a greater testimony if we could do both?
May we not be taken back by hurt pride.
This road of Emmaus is also a road of impatience and restlessness. It says in Luke 24:13, “And behold, two of them were going that very day to the village named Emmaus.” They had to get something done. They had to keep moving.
It is just like Peter. When things did not happen right away, what did Peter say? “I’m going fishing.” Sometimes the Lord just waits—just waits to see if we truly trust Him.
We remember the story of Saul in the Old Testament, when he was waiting for Samuel to come with the sacrifice. He waited, and he waited, and he waited until he could wait no longer. As soon as he stopped waiting, Samuel arrived.
So much of our Christian walk is that way. The Lord wants us not to be impatient and to truly wait on Him. He does answer, but the longer He delays, I think sometimes the more He can get of us.
I am going to tell you a story of something that happened at our home. Please forgive me—it is a very common situation—but the Lord really met me.
We were heading out to a wedding. We were all dressed up. Getting three boys dressed up is not easy to do. It was a long way away, and the wedding was going to be for a very long time. We were not going to get back for, actually, a day.
One of the boys said, “Oh, the plumbing’s messed up.” So I went upstairs. Again, we were all dressed. I started working on the plumbing, and it had to be taken care of before we left. It was not something I could have just left there.
Isn’t this our Christian walk? I just started working. I just started doing it. “Get in there. We’re all slaves. Work, work, work, work, work.” Ah, I did not pray.
“Lord, help me. I need to get this done.” So I told the family, “Pray. We’ll get it done.” I yelled down, “Yes, we’ll pray.” I am working.
Boy, usually that works. That prayer did not work that time. I had done this a million times, and it was not working this time. I even prayed. I thought maybe the Lord was punishing me a little bit for not praying initially, but then I did pray.
Now I am getting a little impatient. Now I am working even harder. Sweat starts coming, and I remember as clear as day: It is getting late. We need to leave in the next two minutes or we are going to be late.
I remember just crying out, “Oh, Lord.” It was not angry. I was just broken. I was undone. I could not leave.
It is so simple, and it is so trite, but as soon as I said that—as soon as I just cried out—joy filled my heart. It was like a giddy feeling. I looked down, and the drain just came clear. It was done.
That is the way the Lord wants us to function in our lives: that we have such a personal relationship. Here I am looking at a drain and talking to the Lord. It was such a blessing to have that, and then for Him to speak. Really, it was like the filling of the Holy Spirit while working on a drain.
This road of impatience and restlessness—if I had stayed in that impatience, if I had stayed in that restlessness, I would probably still be trying to work on that drain.
It is the Martha syndrome. The things of the church are distracting, and so we just need to keep busy. How many of us in the church think, “I just have to make an extra casserole. I have to get to the meeting early and do some cleaning. I have to stay late and move some chairs,” because that makes us feel good?
It makes us feel like we are living the church life, when sometimes the Lord wants us to stop. Maybe we need to step away from our service. Maybe it is putting out chairs that is keeping us from talking to the Lord.
Now, that does not mean everyone gets to say, “Okay, I am not going to do anything anymore. I am not going to move any chairs.” But again, we can have this communion. Can we actually ask the Lord, “Lord, should I serve by moving the chairs? Lord, should I serve by making this casserole? Is this the casserole You want me to make for the love feast?”
This is the type of communion the Lord wants us to have, but we are so restless and so impatient. We just work, work, work.
The disciples saw over and over again how patient the Lord was, but they did not recognize it until later. He reveals all these things later with the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Think of the transfiguration. Jesus should have just been taken up. He was being glorified. He was transfigured. But our Lord’s heart was for His people. He could not do that. He waited. He waited. He was broken. He was taken to the cross.
Palm Sunday was when the disciples thought this was all going to come to a head. The Roman Empire and Herod’s forces were all going to fall now. This was the opportunity. But what did Jesus do? He delayed.
What did that mean? Betrayal, mocking, and death. The Lord was so patient. He is not One who is restless.
Over and over again, the Lord opened not His mouth. How many of us recognize, in our Christian service and in helping one another, that we would better serve our brothers and sisters with a closed mouth and pray instead?
That is what Jesus did. When Jesus opened not His mouth, it was not as though He simply went and rolled His eyes. He closed His mouth and He prayed.
I would encourage all of us to do the same. That is when a change is made. I think anyone who has raised children knows that this is the best way to raise children. As soon as we can entrust them to the Lord, that is when the Lord can start working.
This road to Emmaus was also a road of confusion. It says in Luke 24:25:
And He said unto them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets had spoken.
The prophets and the prophecies of the Old Testament were all perfectly wrapped pictures—gifts—of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think we have all experienced that. You read Zechariah, Haggai, Joel, and these prophets. They are beautifully packaged, wrapped pictures of Christ.
Yet we read these, and it leads to so much confusion. These disciples were confused by the prophets, and they should not have been.
I could not help but think of when I was a kid, waking up at Christmas time. I was always fascinated by the strangely wrapped item. That was the one I knew was going to be a good one.
You have all these rectangular boxes. Those are shoes. That is probably T-shirts. But it was that one in the corner that was long and crinkly. “Oh, that’s a BB gun. That’s something cool.”
I will never forget one time thinking, “Oh man, I know what that is. That’s a BB gun. That’s a bow and arrow.” I was so excited. I wanted to keep that one for last, to really enjoy it.
That was the last one. I went over, opened it up, and it was just a barbell that was going to replace one that had started to break. They had wrapped it in a funny way. Kind of sad.
We do that so often with the prophets and with the Word of God. We want to read in the Word of God, “Oh, Lord, this morning I want to read how You are going to bless me.”
Then we read it, and it talks about, “Today you will be broken. Today is going to be a rough day. Today there is no more of self, but Christ alone.” That can lead to confusion.
“Lord, can’t You just give me some victory today? Can’t You just give me promises today?” Again, I have a bad habit of saying a lot of negative things at the beginning when I share. It is all worth it.
Being broken by the cross, being broken, being crushed, only leads to resurrection life. It only leads to pure joy and victory. So let us not be on that road to Emmaus, that road of confusion.
The road of Emmaus was also a road of offense and disappointment. We see several verses on that. The one that drew me to this passage was, “And they stood still, looking sad.” They were disappointed.
Jesus was not who they thought He was going to be. Then they were a little disappointed in Jesus Himself: “Are You the only One who doesn’t know what’s going on in Jerusalem?”
Do we ever do that to the Lord? “Lord, do You not understand that my boss is a really hard person to work with? Lord, do You really not understand that my husband is a very stubborn man?” We start talking like this to the Lord because we are offended or disappointed.
In Luke 24:21, it says, “But we hoped.” But that hope was not fulfilled.
Isaiah 55:8-9 is a very familiar passage:
For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
What have you gotten out of the decades that you have lived following the Lord? Are you disappointed? Has it been a waste?
I am sure the disciples may have thought the last three and a half years were a waste. “I could have been a better fisherman had I not wasted these last three and a half years. I could have been a better tax collector. I think I could have owned a nicer house had I put more effort into that. Now I have nothing.”
Following the Lord always, always brings joy and victory in the end, but it does not always look like that at the beginning or in the journey.
Many of us wish the Lord would return very soon. We want the Lord to return. Isn’t it disappointing when He does not? But are we going to be offended by the Lord not returning?
There are many opportunities for us to be offended. Are we offended or disappointed that the Lord has not taken away a certain thorn in the flesh? That could be any number of things. Sometimes the Lord does remove it. He is not mean. But sometimes there is something that is always there.
I think this is what the disciples were dealing with.
Here they are on this journey to Emmaus, downtrodden. But finally, Jesus reveals Himself to them. I want to look at a more positive light at the end of this chapter.
It is the road to Jerusalem. We always call this story “the road to Emmaus.” It actually should be called “the road to Jerusalem,” because that is where the victory is.
The road to Jerusalem is a little different from the other road. It starts with reverent begging. I like that phrase.
It says in Luke 24:29, “But they urged Him strongly.” Do not feel as though you cannot ever beg the Lord. Do not beg Him with lack of faith—not like a child saying, “Please, please, please, please, please.”
But this Man they were walking with—their eyes had not been opened yet—they knew there was something different. They knew there was something there, and they begged the Lord to stay with them.
One thing I want to encourage us with this morning is this: Are we reverently begging the Lord? When we wake up in the morning, do we say, “Lord, I will not put my two feet on the floor out of this bed until You reveal Yourself to me, until You come in and commune with me?”
I share with middle school kids back at home all the time: Do we wake up in the morning and say good morning to the Lord? “Good morning, Lord. Lord, be with me.”
Just like the story of Jacob: “I will not let You go.” That is what the disciples did, and this begins their journey back to Jerusalem.
The second aspect of the road to Jerusalem is that it is a road of permanence: “Stay with us. Stay with us no matter what.”
Remember what I said about every aspect of our lives: “Lord, You are with us even in the grocery store. Lord, You stay with me even when I am changing diapers. Lord, You stay with me even when I have that difficult situation with my boss. Lord, stay with me.”
That road of permanence is no small matter because these disciples had just left Jerusalem. But now they were starting to come back, and they were seeing the importance of this permanence.
This is also a road of rest. I think this is something that we all need to take a moment to sit down on that bench, reflect, and ask ourselves: Do we have rest?
Do we have rest when we are coming here on Sunday morning? Do we have a restful joy to be around the table? Or are we worried that people are going to be watching us? Are we worried because the song might not be sung the right way?
There are so many things to worry about. But it says here that they sat at a table and rested. They rested with the Lord.
It says, “The Lord setteth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” All those enemies that we have in this world, all the world that is trying to break us—the Lord sets a table. He is the sufficient One. He is the Provider.
Still, they did not know the Lord. They knew something was going on. They knew they needed to reflect on what had happened on this road. But then, in Luke 24:30, we have the key verse:
And He took the bread,
and blessed, and brake it,
and gave to them.
And their eyes were opened,
and they knew Him.
This has been a new revelation to me. I do not know, but this is what has helped me in the matter of breaking bread, because it is written about quite a bit. Why is the breaking of bread so powerful? Why is it something that reveals Christ?
As I was meditating on this, I was thinking about baking because I like to bake. I like to be in the kitchen. I have always tried to take water and oil and mix them. I know they are not supposed to mix.
Scientists will tell you that oil and water do not mix, but I always think, “If I just do it fast enough, or if I get the right temperature…” I am strange that way, because I know better. But I think, “If I could just break the rule.” Oil and water do not mix.
Yet we see in bread that they are mixed. What is that factor that finally brings oil and water together?
If we think of oil as the Holy Spirit, when we gather together with the saints, commune with the Lord, and seek the Lord, we have the very power of the Holy Spirit that can indwell us and empower us.
How, in our Christian lives, we do not realize that. We just pray because we know how to pray. We pray like we did when we were five before we went to bed. We just rattle off some words. Or do we wait for the Holy Spirit to come in?
The very power of the Holy Spirit is right at our fingertips. But we also have the Word of God—this living, flowing, life-giving water.
Separate, these two are not much good. If the Holy Spirit just gives an experience, if the Holy Spirit just gives power and a wind and things like that, who cares? It is only if the Holy Spirit reveals Christ and Christ alone.
But where can we see Christ? It is in the Word. If we just read this as a book, as a textbook, there is not much to it. It is like the Old Testament is history, and the New Testament has some good stories and miracles.
Somehow these two have to come together: the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. Something has to be crushed. The wheat has to be crushed. There has to be brokenness.
The thought here is that Jesus was that broken One. They finally saw that Jesus had to be broken, that He had to be crushed, that He had to die, and that He had to be buried.
Suddenly, that was the light bulb they needed: He was crushed. It was Christ and Christ alone who brought the power of the Holy Spirit and the spoken Word all together to bring life, and to bring life abundantly.
Not only that, they realized they had to be broken. Where is the best place to be broken? Back in Jerusalem.
It says that very night they turned and went back to Jerusalem. It also says that He blessed the bread, and He blessed them.
Another question we have as we walk in this Christian life is: Are we a blessing? When people see us, do they say to themselves, “Oh, a blesser. This is someone I want to be close to because they have the very words of life. They have a blessing way about them”?
Or do people think, “These Christians are going to judge us”? This is a huge issue in Christianity today. “Oh, there’s a Christian. He is going to judge me.”
I have heard this over and over again from my own students at the school where I teach. They do not want to be around Christians because they do not want to be judged. What a sad state that is.
We should be the very people that those who are broken, confused, and downtrodden run to. They should be able to pour out their hearts: “I’m a scoundrel. I’m no good. I’m a liar. I’m a cheat. You’re a Christian. Can I talk to you about it?”
But instead, there is hiding because we are not blessers. Instead, we are judgers. But we see here, on this road back to Jerusalem, that they were to be blessers.
Then we have the burning of the hearts. Do we have burning hearts? Did we wake up this morning with an excitement to gather around the table with the saints? Is it something that we cannot wait for?
These burning hearts have a physical manifestation. It causes our hearts to leap, just as John the Baptist leapt in the womb. These disciples experienced that: “Oh, we were with Jesus. That is why our hearts were burning.” It all made sense to them.
As they turned and went back, it says they went back to Jerusalem and found the eleven there. They went back to fellowship.
Once we get off this road to Emmaus and return to Jerusalem, one of the first things we will do is come back to fellowship. Come back and be honest with the brothers and sisters: “Pray with me.”
Have we ever thought to call someone up and say, “You know what? I just want to share with you that I need prayer because I cannot love my husband. I know it is me. I know I have this frustration, but I just cannot do it.”
That is not what Christians do, is it? They hide those things and say, “Oh, I always love my husband.” But fellowship really means airing out our dirty laundry and being honest with each other.
When they went back and met with the eleven, the eleven had to say to the others, “Hey, we messed up too.” Peter: “Hey, I denied Him.” Another: “Yeah, I ran off. My clothes fell off. I was so scared.”
They were humbled. They were broken. They were fellowshipping together.
What we see here is this transition. When they come back to Jerusalem, this is the beginning of the church being built by the Lord Jesus.
We do not have to turn there, but in Acts 2, we see that they gathered. They gathered together trusting the Lord. You see how that is the opposite of worrying.
Acts 2 is just the opposite of Emmaus. In Emmaus, they were worrying. In Acts, they were trusting.
It says in Acts that they gathered together in humble prayer with nothing to show. They just waited. They had no hurt pride. They no longer had pride. They were humbly waiting.
There was no more confusion because there was clarity. Peter stood up and shared from the prophet Joel. All those prophets they had been confused about and did not understand now made sense. Peter suddenly became able to show that.
They were waiting, and they were not restless. Were they offended anymore? Were they discouraged? No. It says they continued steadfastly in one accord and took food with gladness.
In conclusion, I think we all have experienced the road to Emmaus. Something—whether it is worry, confusion, or offense—has caused us to move away from Jerusalem.
We talk about the Lord just like the disciples. We go about our daily routine, and we put on our Christian faces, but we are not willing to turn back to Jerusalem. We are not willing to say, “Lord, I want the cross in my life.”
We have a dear sister in Houston. She says anything that is on her heart. She is just one of those who pours out her heart.
In one Bible study, she announced to the group, “You know, I pray for my husband every morning.” We were like, “Oh, that’s good.” She said, “I pray that he has a miserable day. I pray that his boss will get upset at him. I pray that his projects don’t go right.”
Now, I am not advocating this, because that is too far. But her heart was there. What she was saying was, “I want the cross in his life. I want him not to depend on the job that he has, not depend on his skills, not depend on his own abilities, but I want him to be wholly and completely dependent on the Lord.”
Maybe we should not pray for other people that way. Maybe we should pray for ourselves that way.
“Lord, when I go to work today, it is okay if I am misunderstood. If the boss patted me on the back yesterday and today he is chastising me, that is what I need.”
“Lord, when I am driving and I see that yellow light”—I do not know if you have this problem in Richmond, but in Houston yellow lights mean go as fast as you can—“do I take the cross and wait?” It does not sound like much, but for some of us it is.
“Lord, when I come home and I want to say something really sweet to my wife, but I walk in the door and she has three boys running amok, and she looks at me as though she is tearing her hair out, I realize that sweet thing is not going to work right now. I have to start helping her right away.”
This is the cross. It is worthy to be embraced because it breaks us from our self-life and our self-centeredness.
Going back to what we started with, we gather around the table, and so often we are self-centered. So often we just want to feel good. But are we really pleasing the Lord?
It is going to be difficult to forego a certain type of gathering. You all know where I am in Houston. I would love to hear some English every once in a while, but ninety-nine percent of what I hear is Chinese. I have no idea what is going on.
But I would not give that up for the last twenty years, because I would probably be some youth pastor somewhere in some megachurch, with my own little platform, entertaining kids and doing things like that.
But the Lord says, “No, you go to a fellowship worshiping the Lord in a language you do not know.” Oh, that is so precious, because we need to be broken.
The more we are broken, the more life comes in, and the more peace comes in.
So sit on that bench this afternoon when you have the opportunity. Maybe look a little sad. It is okay. Do not look sad for too long. Just say, “Thank You, Lord.”
I hope my wife sits down on the bench and says, “Thank You, Lord, for giving me that man who is so stubborn, so difficult, so challenging.” Yes, we need that pressure. Then we really find out how precious the Lord is.
Let’s pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the cross. We are so thankful that You refine us in such a way that there is no more of us, that we are undone, and that it is Christ and Christ alone.
We pray that You would reveal to us today if we are on this road to Emmaus instead of this road to Jerusalem. Reveal to us if there is worry in our hearts. Reveal to us if there is offense.
Lord, if there is any besetting sin, if there is any lack of forgiveness, may today be the day we take care of this, so that we would not take one extra step toward this natural way of healing; that we would not take another step away from the cross; that we would not take another step away from this beautiful resurrection life; that we would not take another step away from victory.
Oh, You are the victorious One. You are so loving. The cross is beautiful, and it really is enduring. We just want to thank You for it. Thank You for Yourself.
We are thankful for every opportunity You give us to see more of Christ and to live into that reality. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.