Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
Worship Call 1121 Returning to the word - 2024/07/30
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lalbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. We know two things about these men on the road to Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, which on the day that many Christians say it would be the day of the Lord. In fact, it's the resurrection day and they were on their way to Jerusalem. Two things we know about these men. First of all, we don't know nothing about these men. We don't, they're not prominent in Scripture. They think one's even unnamed. Cleopus is the named one, but is he a priest? Is he a politician? Who is he? And certainly, certainly he'd be known by his friends and family and the disciples. But other than that, we know anything about him, this unknown folks. And Jesus appears to these two people. So you don't, which means that Jesus meets us where we are. He bypasses the religious leaders, the political leaders, and goes to the unknowns. You and I are the unknowns. We are the humble. Another thing that we do know about these men also is they're heartbroken. They had, like many, they had a presupposition of how things were to work out. Jesus was to be the Messiah. He was whatever doctrines and view that they had at how Daniel 70th week the Son of Man was going to come and he was going to set up his rulership. All this, they had a certain presupposition that everything was supposed to work out, that the Messiah was to come. And it didn't work out the way they wanted to. And therefore, they were sad and they were heartbroken. They were broken. And here comes Jesus, whom he himself prevents them from knowing his identity or seeing who he is so that he could guide them over to the Word of God and to reestablish their hope through the Word. This is the third day of the week in God's created order. The 30th day of the seventh month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father, in heaven, thank you for it. We pray, Heavenly Father, humbly, that you open up our hearts to the study of Your Word this morning. What a wonderful gift it is to know Your Word, to be feamed upon it, to be developing our framework within the heart. And we pray that you open our hearts to the study of this morning, Christ's name, we pray, Amen. And again, I really love this. Oh, I'm good morning to you. There we go. All right. Luke 24, 25. For God I was wearing it. All right. And he said to them, Oh, foolish men, and slow apart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? This is, this is often, and he's, and he's treating them gently, much gently than he would the Pharisees. I remember what he used to say to the Pharisees and to the Pharisees, have you not read? Have you not? And this was, this was dripping sarcasm. With this, Jesus is, is gently working with these men and as a stranger. And this is, this is, again, Jesus doesn't just say, here I am. Now believe in me. No. What, what benefit? And you might ask yourself, why didn't Jesus do this? And for you discern now, I think you might know. What benefit would it be to these men? Or anybody said, Jesus just shows up as this, here I am. You see, the Word of God, God's Word isn't there just for us to dig out soundbites, little and, you know, verse, to dig out verses and to build our application around certain verses. No. The Bible is there for us to think, to, to think, to change our, our framework. Paul says, stop being conformed to this word, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so the Word of God, the full counsel of God's Word, now understand this, these men only have the Old Testament. Whoa. How in the world did they ever come to an application? Because you know the Old Testament for the Old Testament believers? Well, these were Old Testament believers, but they're for the Jews. Have you ever heard that before? The Old Testament for the Jews and the New Testament is for the, for the Christians? Well, if there wasn't no New Testament, how did, how did Jesus, how was able Jesus able to come to their understanding? Well, they were Jews. All that is nonsense. All of that is nonsense. The full counsel of God's Word is from Genesis to Revelation. And we should, we should dispense and it's hard to do. I've been trying to do it. We should dispense with Old and New Testament because it gives us a wrong connotation to many. But I think more correctly, correctly, we can say the Hebrew scripture and the Greek scripture. That's something of that effect. So these, they were broken. They were, and why were they broken? Why were they frustrated? Because they, they had a presupposition at how this is all going, how this stuff was going to all work out. How, how Jesus was going to come and how Jesus going to do that. And I, and I warn you on this. And, and some of us have taken the warning, Tim. I know you have and I have. And we've thought about it. And, and as things continue on and as we're growing closer to the, to the end of the end times, I should say, that don't think everything's going to play out so perfectly that we have doctrinally understanding. Don't bring yourself into a, the doctrinal box, a theological box and say, this is how it's going to work out. I think that was the big failure of those and who were, who were there. These people who was shot and crucified him crucified them. They were not those that were, they weren't the heathens or pagans or anything. These were religious people. These were devout people tell about Jewish people doing this. They had a certain, they had a certain view and a certain the a lot of theology, a certain doctrine. That's it. It's going to be played out a certain viewpoint. That's going to be played out just like that. And when it didn't, it blew their, their, it, it just blew the way they understood everything. And that's the same way, looking at these end time things with the raptors here and just going to work out here. These end times in there is going to work out exactly that as the Bible has laid it out. And it's not going to be necessarily exact to, or, or in, in compliance to our doctoral and theological framework. My saying doctrine and theology should be thrown at the window. Absolutely not. But as my friend and father in law used to say, prophecy is best looked at at 2020 looking backwards and seeing how it's how it's played out. Okay. And that's the same thing here. These men had a certain doctrinal framework or certain, which blew out their whole understanding and they thought all was lost. And imagine if the rapture that we believe that's going to take place, which I think a lot less is going to take place prior to the tribulation and what we call the tribulation seven years. But imagine if the church does go in, which some good scholars say it will, that the church, for good reason, that the church will go in to the seven years, at least part of the seven, Daniel 70th week. What happens to our framework and our, what happens to our thinking if all of a sudden we are confronted with the Antichrist, we are confronted with the Antichrist. These things. What is that going to do to our face? And that's one thing that concerns me the most with our eschatology, you might say. So the two men were not walking in faith. And what does that mean by not walking in faith? It means that their motives and their decisions and their actions and accountants and the way they're looking at things were not being directed by truth. They had left scripture. They had, they allowed their presuppositions to separate them from properly applying the word of God. The word peace this means to believe to faith, to trust. And if you take that word and you put alpha, alpha peace this, it means it negates the faith. It means unbelief, unfaithful, untrusting. You might hold highly. You might hold highly. You're that, oh, I believe, I believe in God. I believe, I believe in Jesus. I believe in this and I believe in that. Oh, I believe his return and stuff. And you might write about that. But where there is abstract fear and where there is worry and grieving, the feeling of hopelessness and despair, these things are apistous. These things are unbelief, untrusting, unfaithfulness. And you've, and all that requires, you have separated your, your, you have separated your thinking. You're, you're, let's just say your perspective, your perspective goes back to human viewpoint, back to worldview point, worldview. And you set the word of God on the shelf. And that's what these men have done. They were, it wasn't, Jesus begins to teach him, but it's not like they haven't heard this before. I'm sure that they knew all these things that Jesus was teaching. But it was able to take it off the shelf and do this. And, and, um, when I was discipled by my buddy and, and we were talking and he would, um, he was able, it's, I, I've read the Bible. I was reading things and he was, and, and when I learned things and when he taught me things, it brought light to things that I've learned. And I was able to make right application from right thinking. Um, so now we continue on with the Council of Jesus. And by the way, Jesus gives us that we worry about how am I going to approach somebody? How, uh, we worry, we, we have in our minds and our hearts that we need to share Jesus with other people. How do I do that? And there are those that get bent out of shape to bring your hands. I know I'm supposed to do that, but I'm afraid to bring something to somebody for whatever reason. Maybe I'm afraid. Maybe I think I'll screw up. Maybe I think, first of all, first of all, abide in Christ. This is just personal. Uh, abide in Christ, attach yourself to him, abide, walk in the light. Okay, that's, that's a daily thing. Um, abiding, learning his, bring his word in the, the, the intake, the reception, the inculcation of God's word, and abide, be walking with him. So here it is that Jesus is walking with these two. He asked him a question. What are y'all talking about? Um, of what things? And, um, and this brings us, it brings a person into a conversation rather than just jump it in and say, are you safe? Are you, uh, you know, do you know Jesus? Okay, maybe straight forward will work sometimes, but in this case, you're bringing somebody into a conversation, asking them questions and listening. And, uh, Ray Comfort, um, Ray Comfort, he does evangelism out in Huntington Beach out in California. That's what he does. He asks questions, and normally he's got his, his, that question, and he says, do you think you're a good person? And then he takes them through the 10 commandments and brings them to the point to where they understood that they're not as good as they think they are. And when you ask somebody questions, especially with an unbeliever who thinks that they've got all the answers, the arrogant, you know, if, if you get past the arrogance, there are people who think they have all the answers, and you can ask them questions to start question themselves. Um, maybe then you can come in and conversation, bring them around to what you think of Christ. So, okay, gentlemen, you, you gave me what you have seen with your eyes, you have heard with your ears, let me remind you what you have in your heart. So, like I said, I believe that these men were devout, I believe that they knew the scriptures, but they were failing to apply it. Jesus the counselor is helping these guys to refocus, and that's what we do when, when even we're, we're trying to help someone to refocus someone whose heart may be breaking through something or something that someone who's falling apart and, um, and we're helping them through that, then we take them back to the counsel of God's Word, help them to take, we know that they have the Word of God within their hearts and we're helping them to, to see what's already in their hearts. Luke 24, 27, then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. This is, this is not arrogance, let me tell you about myself. Well, when you are God, when you are also God, and you're perfect and all the scriptures point to that, then yes, from Moses to all the prophets. Again, I bring you back to those, as this is the argument to those that say the Old Testament is irrelevant. Jesus brings them back to the scriptures, and yet they do not know who they're talking to. He's directing their directing. You see, there are, there are those people said, why don't Jesus just reveal himself to us? He has revealed himself to us through his Word, through scripture. This is wonderful. The first hurdle that we have to get over as believers is that this is truly the message of Christ. The faith comes through hearing and hearing the message of Christ. So he takes him through, he says, from the beginning with Moses. And with all the prophets, because they did not speak for themselves. Remember what the prophets, what was those things that the prophets said? They would say, thus says the Lord. They didn't speak for themselves. They didn't come up with these little, little sermonette things that, how to make a better youth. No, they communicated from the Word of God. And he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures and the Old Testament, the Hebrew canon takes us from, even to from Adam and Eve throughout, and it builds up a spirit of expectation. Again, I'll recommend a few things to you. Until I had a Bible survey class, and that one was John Cross, Road to a Mass. I do recommend it to you. It's from Good Seed. You can look it up online, Good Seed, and the Road to a Mass. And this is John Cross. It's 11 hours that takes you from, from the beginning all the way up to the cross. And it lays out a very good continuity throughout the Old Testament. You go past that. That's 11 hours. Charlie Clough has a 240 hour framework. And that's a very good class, a lot longer, of course. And there are available Bible surveys, Old Testament, New Testament. I recommend that. It gives you a continuity of the Bible. And maybe, maybe John Cross does a great job connecting it all together. He really does. I do recommend that highly. And this is what Jesus did. And again, Stephen did the same thing when he was in before the Sanhedrin and gave them a survey class. And putting it off, this is called application. And he explained concerning these things. And they approached the village where they were going. Now, in this, in this journey, again, my mind's eye would be that they'd walk a little bit. That they would, and it would slow down. They were not, they were not in a hurry. Matter of fact, I believe, as these two were hearing things. And they were approaching Emmaus. They would slow down a little bit. They would slow down. And consider this, it's seven months. Might take a couple hours. Might take a couple hours for them to journey this far. But, and I believe this started out in the morning. In the morning hours. Sometimes, sometime in mid morning. But what we do find out, I think we find out later on. Let me see. And they acted to go further. And they were kind of. When coming down to twenty nine. Let's go twenty eight. And they approached the village where they were going. And he acted as though they were going further. But they urged him saying, "Stay with us for it is getting toward evening of the day." It took them a long time. Seems like it took them a long time to go for mid morning. How long does it take to walk seven miles? And a few hours, it should have taken them. At least, if it's mid morning, they should have got about one o'clock, two o'clock in the afternoon. And now they're talking about it's getting, it's getting late in the day. I think they, I think they would, they were, as if they slowed up intentionally. Because they didn't want this conversation stopped. First of all, from the anguish was turning into comfort. They were comforted by the Word of God. How were they confident? Because things were being put into perspective. Notice that things coming back into perspective. I have to do this constantly when I look at the news and I get a new, and I get a knee jerk. And I said, "Oh, man." And I have to stop and come back to a divine perspective, the overall perspective of scriptural understanding to recall what was already in my heart and start applying it. So they were comforted. I could see them stopping and thinking and just stopping in their tracks. I said, "You mean this?" And they all, they would ask the question or they would be proactive. What, you know, and they would ask the question and they would, they would kind of rub their beards and shake their heads and affirm it. Oh, I understand that. Understanding would drive away. Proper understanding of God's truth will drive that away. And they would, they would be slow walking until they, until they got to a mess. Come back to 28 again. And they approached the village, the village of a mess where they were going. And he, this is Jesus, acted as though he was going further. Yeah, I see you guys. It's a nice talk with you. Well, you know, good luck with your endeavors and whatever. And so he would, he would take a few steps and discuss, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." And they quickly, okay, hey, it's getting late. Hey, hey, bud. They still don't know who he is. Hey, bud, come on, come on back and stay there. It's getting the evening coming to stay and with us because they want it more. They want it more. And so, but they urge him to stay with us. It's getting toward evening. The day is now nearly over, so he went to stay with them. And when he reclined at the table with them, he took the bread. Now, he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it. He began giving it to them. Okay, first there was the Word of God. First they were given to Scripture. And let's read the recipe. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized and he vanished from their sight. All right? So, first they got the Word of God. Remember what we've learned so much from our pastor when at communion service? How often he said that ritual without reality is meaningless. The bread and the cup, the communion service. This communion service, which he instituted up in the upper room. And communion service is that which that was the bread and the cup. You see, first of all, they had Bible teaching. For how many hours they took from on that road to get to Emmaus. They were given sound, biblical truth, sound, Bible, diagonal, scripture, spiritual training. They were recalling to mind the Word of God. And they get to, then they get to Emmaus. And now when they took the bread and the cup and everything that they have learned of the Savior from Moses through the prophets all the way pertaining to Jesus, all the way up. And then the conclusion, the proper conclusion of who Jesus is when they took the bread and the cup. At that point, their eyes were opened to who Jesus is. And Jesus disappeared. And that interests, because that has application itself as well. When he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread. He blessed it and breaking it, given to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. Mission accomplished. He vanished from his sight, their sight. But nonetheless, the Word is in their hearts. And the essence of the Word, because Jesus is the longest. So why he vanished from their sights, they were able now to make proper application of where they are now. And Jesus told his disciples. He said, "Don't let your heart be stricken. What did Jesus do?" You see, when Jesus was with his disciples, and they were so sad that he was going and broke and they gave their hearts that Jesus was talking about going away. What did he say? It was sad because there was direct communion. There was direct face-to-face communion with them. He was their friend. He was their companion. He was their teacher. And so they broke their hearts and he was leaving. And Jesus said, "I'm going to send you, I must go, but I must send you the pericletos, the bear cleat, the Holy Spirit, the one who's been called to stand beside you. And my presence will be with you until the end. I will never leave nor forsake you." So the presence, even though we do not see Jesus with their eyes, even though he's not here where we can see, sense, and touch him. Nonetheless, his essence is with us when we are abiding in him. What he did with these two, Clapus and the other one, was help them to make right application in order to get back into that understanding of who and what Jesus is through the Scriptures, to put it all into perspective, and to change their divine outlook. And Jesus moves on. And coming back, let's see. See what else we got here? And they said to one another, "When our hearts not burning within us, while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us, the one who spoke with authority. And not only was he touching us intellectually, but he was also touching our hearts with what he was saying. And they got up that very hour, they weren't waiting, and they returned to Jerusalem. And I guarantee you, they got to Jerusalem not faster than they got to a mess. And found gathered together to 11, and those who were with them." So it was 11 plus, "I'm assuming the Mary's with them as well. The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. They began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Oh my, my, my, my. Isn't this a wonderful story? Oh, it just gives me goosebumps. But I do love it. I do love this, this stories so much. Anyway, let's close out Prayer Father in Heaven. We love you. We praise thee. We love your Word. And we pray Heavenly Father that it will continue to sanctify our hearts and our minds with your Word. And we pray Heavenly Father that we were able to make in the time in which we live. Let's help us to make proper application, to see the Word. Not just through the ideological paradigms and presuppositions, but for the truth that it truly is. Let us be as good, Bereans to continue day by day, to study your Word, to ensure that these things are right. Give us the motivation and by the Spirit, help us to come to it humbly. And thank you so much for this historical account. We pray these things in Christ name, amen. All right, we have our service tonight. We'll continue on with Hebrews 12. Let's try to finish up Hebrews 12 this evening and that we can head on. We're still preparing for the Book of Revelation in September, being prayer for that, being prayer for our service tonight, that we'll be able to finish that up. And so until then, stay motivated Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting in good fight of faith. Lord, the will and spirit guide, wrap your pen. We'll be back here this evening. We'll be back here. So Simon is Peter, right? Yes. I wonder why they bounce around with names. I wonder if it means something. You don't find it. There you are. You don't find it. You don't find it. You're so good. Turn around. Bang. Turn around. [BLANK_AUDIO]