Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
Worship Call 1120 Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. - 2024/07/29
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. 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. And behold two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which is about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place while they were talking and discussing Jesus himself approach and began traveling with them. But their eyes were not prevented, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are these words that you're exchanging with each other as you are walking?" And they stood still looking, said one of them named Cleopas answered and said to him, "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "The things about Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty and deep and word in the sight of God and of all the people. And how chief priests and the rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some of the women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning. And did not find a body. They came saying that they had also seen a vision of the angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said. But him, they did not see. And he said to them, "You foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets has spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?" This is the second day of the week in God's created order. The 29th day of July, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Let us pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity once again to fellowship in your word. This is such a wonderful passage. Father, such a wonderful story that even gives us hope and lifts us up in a time of despair to be looking for the Christ and the joy that comes with him. We pray these things in Christ's name that you will open up our hearts to your word. Amen. All right. Welcome to our Monday. And again, we are in this wonderful passage. I call it after John Cross. I'll call this title of this lesson, "Stranger on the Road to Emmaus." It takes place on the first day, on this incident, takes place on the resurrection day. A lot of things are going on in the morning. The tomb has been found. The women had gone, and the Peter and John took off run and came to the tomb, found the way it is. The angels appearing. Things are going on, folks, when everything seems to be the end. It seemed to have a finality of the story of Jesus is dead for three days, that it seemed to be the end of the story. It wasn't the end of the story. And in that awesome third day, things began to happen. And I could picture that this day, as these men were walking, apparently Cleopos and his companion, they were actually with the disciples that morning. They were in the privy of hearing these things as they were unfolding. But still in despair, for whatever reason, rather than hanging out there on their way back to Emmaus, probably still in belief and still in their belief were very sorrowful. And I could picture this day. I pictured this day, it's in my mind's eye, that this day, even though their hearts were troubled and stuff, that was a beautiful, perfect day. You ever have a perfect day? Emma, when the weather is just exactly perfect, that the temperature isn't right. It's just right temperature, a slight breeze blob. And of course, I see this as a morning, so you have that little bit of a cool in the air. It's just so beautiful. And the birds are singing and this particular morning, if they were paying attention to it, with the birds and the sounds of the morning was probably more vibrant than any other morning. It was a perfect day. And these two men, however, they had heavy hearts for the events that took place the past few days. And they were headed home as it was a seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And picking up again at Luke 24, 13. And behold, two of them were going that day to the village named Emmaus, that was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking to each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing Jesus himself approach and began traveling with them, but their eyes were preventant of seeing him. I don't know. Again, it's my own conjecture, but as I'm reading this, I see that Jesus approached them from behind, that they were walking, talking, and they were slow. And this, even when your heart's heavier, you don't have a spring in your step. You're just scooting along. And here is Jesus. And Jesus could have, however, he ended up there. I'm sure he didn't have to catch up with him. He could be just right there, right behind him. Again, my story, the way I picture this is they're walking along and all of a sudden there seems to be a presence behind them. And maybe they felt it prior to them saying anything or they turned around here in a quick snap or something looked around and there was Jesus walking with them. But they were prevented. It was the Lord who closed their eyes that they couldn't recognize him at that juncture. Again, this was the resurrection day. And the women had gone to the tomb, found it empty. Mary had encountered resurrection Christ after Peter and John had investigated it. And the greatest news in all of human history for mankind was beginning to unfold. The gospel was here and it was reaching out to the brokenhearted. And the two men were either been there, actually witnessed a crucifixion or they had heard the news and were stricken by it. I believe that they were at a point with the disciples. And they were at this point brokenhearted, disillusioned, discouraged. On top of all, here's an innocent man who, and we see it now in the frustration we have now that how we see the wicked prosper. And certainly there had been frustration that they knew the guilt of the Pharisees and these wicked men, how they could get away with killing an innocent man on top of that. Here is Jesus. He was to be their Messiah. He was to be their Redeemer. And so maybe outrage for the true criminals were actually the religious leaders. But this was to be their Messiah, so they thought. If God met this, be careful, this message rings all the way through there. Be careful thinking, I could almost get into these guys' minds that this was God's man. It was supposed to be. And up to this point we have talked, this is going to be the Messiah. This is God's will and it certainly was. But it's by God's plan and how God was functioning in this. Not the way they mapped out everything. On the way things are supposed to be. We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. And God's ways, God's thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. And so there is things that all of these people and even us have to learn in this regard. But this was to be the Messiah, so they thought. They were so sure that this was the son of David prophesied by Daniel. And to their minds, this was the time. This was, and they were right. The timing was right. This was it. This was supposed to be. The Jews had a calendar and those who were in Scripture knew that this was the time. And Luke 24, 15 to 16, while they were talking and discussing Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from seeing him. Question is who are these men? Who were these men that Jesus should come to them? Who were these gentlemen? I mean, they weren't religious leaders were they? I like this too. That when Jesus was born, the angels didn't come to first to the religious leaders. They didn't come to the political leaders. They came to the common ordinary man. They came to the least. They came to the shepherd when he was born. Now, who are these men? We don't know who they are. Chaiaphas here. Is it Chaiaphas? Cleophas? Let me see. Yeah, nothing. I mean, we don't know much about them. We don't know anything about them. But him and his friend, here they are, just ordinary men and nothing extraordinary about them, but Jesus would show up to them. And this was special. The power of Jesus would blind both of these men and both of his identity yet. And perhaps did not know that this was Jesus until they heard the voice behind him speak. And then they didn't know who he was. They didn't know that he was behind him until maybe they were going on. And all of a sudden he said, he speaks up and he says, "What are these words that you guys are talking about? What are you guys talking about?" I stopped and looked around there. There's that third person right behind him. I kind of generally think that it was just like that. They were walking down the road and all of a sudden they heard a voice behind him. But, you know, where'd you come from? They said, "What are you guys talking about?" And, you know, remember not only was this, that Jesus was coming to reveal something to him, but I think Jesus was being a little bit playful here in a sense. Of course, Jesus, of course this is a rhetorical question. Jesus knew exactly their thoughts or most. He knew everything about them. They knew their hearts. And so this question was a rhetorical question. It was to them. And it was a great way into a conversation. See, when you ask them, see, we want to go out and we want to, a question will build a conversation between strangers. And you want to see a stranger and your heart is compelled to give them the gospel message. I wonder if they're saved. I wonder where they are or what have you, but with anybody. Rather than being them over the head with the gospel or the Bible right off, are you saved, brother, and drag them in? Jesus demonstrates here asking a question. I don't know what question asks. It's a different situation. But when you ask a question, their hearts begin to, you know, their minds, their hearts begin to answer a question. Now you've got the conversation. You've got the hook. And at the same time, you're praying for opportunities that would present themselves that you can... You know, the spirit through you can steer them to you presenting them the gospel. And so this may also this kind of playful gesture on Jesus part, I think. And he's enjoying, I'm sure he's enjoying his new resurrected body. I think he's got great joy at this point. And he's having fun. I would have fun. So in practical application is there at when we present the gospel, let's ask a question. So Luke 24, 18. One of them named Cleophos answered and said to him, "Are you the only one in this city, literally, or visiting Jerusalem alone? You're here by yourself. You're isolated. You don't know anything because news gets around by word of mouth." And so they're saying, "Are you alone? Are you traveling alone? And you're isolated? What rock did you call out from underbuddy? Are you so ignorant of the news that you don't know what's going on?" So are you the only one in this in Jerusalem and unaware of the things that happened here in these days? I love this. He got to love this. And he said to them, "What's this?" Once again, it gets them into the conversation. It gets them into dialogue. And remember, I'll go back to the practical application asking someone with the gospel questions. Get them to talk. Get them to talk about themselves. Get them to talk about the situations. We live in a wonderful time, and we live in a wonderful time now. Really, people's hearts are looking down. They are depressed, and they're getting more depressed. Even Christians. Christians shouldn't be. But this is opportunity. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, and it is. And there are those that are, I believe, that's going to be more and more will go run into people that you can have the answers. Let them talk. Let them have a conversation. And then seek to steer that conversation over to who and what Jesus is. And what the Bible says about these things. You're talking about the Bible, even with their false ideas, and screwed up ideas. Because listen, one of the things is they don't know the truth. And if you get to talk about what they think they know about the Bible, that's also, that's icing on the cake. That's getting them to, even with their false ideas, and you're listening. And you're listening not with a critical ear, but with a sympathetic ear. And then you can ask the question. We see, I like what Charlie's cloth said. When you demonstrate that you have respect for them, and listen to them, and hear them, they're going, in turn, probably have respect for what you have to say, and listen back. So anyway, here's the conversation. Love this conversation. And I'll also say about Cleopus, that there is speculation that this is Luke. And Luke's too humble at this point to write himself into his own story. So, and again, I love this, what things you're talking about? Go on, tell me, inform me. Y'all seem to have good knowledge of these things. I want to know. I want to know. So Luke 24 19, and he said to them, "What things, the things about Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and were in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests, those dirty scoundrel, I added that for emphasis, and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he was, that he was, he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. And this, this word, redeem is an important word here. We are hoping that he was going to redeem, and we'll go with, we'll go with Lewa Nida here. And this word, redeem, is lupomiah, lupomiah, to release, to set free. With the implied analogy to the process of freeing a slave, to set free, to liberate, to deliver, liberation. Israel is under, is, is under the oppression these days, and he's, and they've been oppressed people. And let's see, got a passage here going back to Luke 126. Blessed be the, and I believe this is probably, I don't know, Zachariah's prophecy. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people, and was raised up a horn of salvation. And this takes us all the way back to Daniel, Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 924. 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and for your holy city. We've talked about this in 70 weeks, it's 490 years. For your people and your holy city to finish the transgressions, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up a vision. This even tells us how long, how low these two men are. This gives us some, some indication how low he has felt. And here it is that, okay, the time is coming, they're excited. The redeemer's close. The promises of God is close to being fulfilled. And they see that Jesus is the one that's going to fulfill this prophecy. And so that, and their theology and their doctrines and everything else, they've got their priest up positions on how all this is going to work out. And they are excited. And they're brought up to here. And all of a sudden, boom, all of a sudden, man, the rug is pulled out from under them. No one can fall that hard. You've got to feel this. When you're down in the pits, and you're used to being down in the pits, and that's where you are, and you're like Eor on poo. That's my lot in life. That's how I've learned. But here it is that these guys were brought all the way up to here. And all of a sudden, let down. So you can feel their hearts breaking at this point. And they were crushed. And Luke 24, 22. But also some women, the story goes on, also some women among amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find the body. They came saying that they had also seen a vision of the angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said. But him, they did not see. And then it comes on to the next verse. And he said to them, "O foolish men, O foolish men, and slow apart to believe." And all of that, the prophets have spoken. Now you see that, so foolish, let's look at the word foolish and foolish here. And it's pertaining to the unwillingness to use one's mental facilities in order to understand. A pull of, usually foolish, he doesn't call morons. Usually a word in the Greek for a fool is morano, he doesn't use that word. But foolish, stupid, without understanding. And I don't think he means it as this definition. But he is saying, listen, you're not thinking. You see, when it comes to faith, faith isn't blind. They're not walking in faith. You know what? Unbelieving happens with, unbelieving happens with believers. You could call them unbelieving believers. These were unbelieving believers. They were believing, but faith demands thinking. They can demand content of soul. Faith, and what faith is, is the recon to mind, those things, the truth that you have learned, and standing upon that truth, application of that truth, to the crisis, to the broken heart. And really, the consequence to the misapplication brings the believer to despair, to anguish, to a broken heart, to not seeing, to failing to see God's plan unfold. They are stuck in the moment. They are really, an unfaithful person, stuck in the moment. They're not applying what they've learned in the past to have confidence for that which in the future. And that's where these men are. And that's what Jesus calls them, as he says, that, oh, foolish men, slow heart to believe. And it is to apply, it is to not lean upon your own understanding. And to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. And the prophets have spoken of the resurrection. And I think we can go all the way back to Abraham and see the story of the resurrection throughout the Old Testament, through the prophets, through the prophecies, the types, all the way through, speaks of the resurrection. Speaking of this one specific moment, the Old Testament leads out. And there are those, oh, if you really understand this, you understand where people come from that says that we need to do away with the Old Testament. The Old Testament is simply an old Jewish book and it doesn't have any relevance to the Christian. You can see the fallacy and the foolishness, and I will call them the moranos. I will call them the fools. Because that's two-thirds of the Bible, and it lays out a spirit of expectation to the to the point of Jesus. If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it from John Cross to road to a mess. And it really will revolutionize your thinking if you're a burst, if you've been set. If you've never really had a survey of the Bible and you study this passage or you look at this or this doctrine and that doctrine, and if you go to the road to a mess or a good survey of the Bible will lay out the full scope of the Bible, especially from the beginning to the time of Christ, to understand that all these things, Stephen had a great dissertation. And going through the Stephen and Acts for his efforts were stoned, but he went through the outline or gave a wonderful survey of the Old Testament. So there was a prophecy, Isaiah and Zachariah speaking of the coming of the Messiah. And Daniel himself, Daniel himself and Daniel chapter 9 speaks of the prophet being cut off that these things had to be. So you are to know into discern. It is Daniel chapter 9 verse 25. So you are to discern and to know or know and discern that from the issuing of the creed to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, that the prince there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be built again in a positive mode even in times of distress. Then after 62 weeks, it says it right here in Daniel. The Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city in the sanctuary. These things must take place. So on top of all scripture, even going back to the day of Adam and Eve, all pointed to this very moment, the day that Jesus would return. We too, listen, and as I'm close to after this morning, they skipped a day failed. They failed to make right application. And I've already given one application about reaching out to the lost with the gospel message. Here's another application. These things must take place. And we see things within our time. We know that Jesus is coming back. But we just don't believe Jesus is coming back in our generation. It's like death. We all know that we're going to die, but we don't believe that we're going to die. You know what I mean? We act like we have forever. We believe that we're going to die, but we're just not going to die today. We're not going to die this week. We're not going to die this month. Listen, Jesus is coming back just as all this has gone out to be true. Jesus is coming back, and you go back to the ultimate discourse back in Matthew 24. And Jesus is telling His disciples the signs of these things are coming. The wars in the room of wars, earthquakes and famines. And He said that these are merely birth pangs. He's telling us how these things are coming. The Bible is specific. If we believe this, then we know that there is coming a time in a generation. There's a generation. Why not now? Why not this generation? That we should be looking for our redemption. But we're not doing that. Our heads are held low. We're staring at the ground. We're kicking the can down the road. Or at worst, we're looking for hope in a man who's standing up on a stage rather than looking beyond that man and looking up into the sky. Because our redemption isn't with a man standing on a stage running for an office. Our redemption is coming from the high. The Son of Man who's going to rule is coming in the clouds. We're doing exactly what the Jews did is they're looking for a political answer. These guys were looking for a political answer. Something that finds the Messiah to come and put these Romans in their place and wickedness in their place. And they were looking to the right man but they weren't looking to the right reasons. And that's where we are today. And every heart's are heavy because the world is so dark. And we're looking for the good old days or we're looking for the hope somewhere else rather than above. We need to readjust our thinking. We need to start making the application. We need to go back to the scripture. What does scripture say about this? And we need to stand and we need to lift up our heads and our eyes to heaven because our redemption is near. Why not this generation? Modern heaven, thank you for this opportunity of fellowship in your work. We're excited about it. And we love this passage, Heavenly Father. We thank you for it. Open our hearts and our eyes to these things as we continue to grow in grace. And with confidence that one day our Lord and why not this generation are having a follow. Let us be looking for our redemption is near. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right. Another fine day in the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will, Spirit, God, and Recipent it. We'll be back here in the A.M. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ]