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Yes, yes, yes it is.
Shall we go on with Luke 24?
If you'll tell us where to start.
But we discussed a lot of this in a very general way. It's kind of hard to know how far we got.
But I would suggest perhaps verse 25. Is that going too far ahead though?
Verse 25 then of Route 24.
Luke's Gospel chapter 24 and verse 25.
Then he said unto them, O fools and flow of hearts, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ who has suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, and all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh under the village, whether they went.
And he made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us. 40 evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in and cherry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meet with them, he took bread and blessed him great, and 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, did not our heart burn within us while we talked with, while he talked with us, by the way, while he opened to us the Scriptures. We rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and finally 11 gathered together. And then there were with them saying, The Lord is risen in thee and has appeared to Simon.
And they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
And as they thus speak, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and set unto them, Peace be unto you. They were terrified in a frightened, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are you troubled, and why thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Handle me and see her Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have and.
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they yet believed not for joy and wonder, he said unto them, Have you hear any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb, And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you.
That all things must be fulfilled.
Which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me then open to either understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, He said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooves. Christ suffered, and to rise from the dead the third day, and their repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name.
From all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Ye are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. He led them out as far as the Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, he was parted from them.
And carried off into heaven, and they worshipped him.
00:05:01
And returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and we're continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
Before we embark on the, uh, portion that we've just read, I'd like to just add a comment or two to something that we said this morning in connection with our circumstances and how what really triggered the discouragement of these ones on the way to Emmaus and perhaps even triggered their turning and from Jerusalem and traversing the road to Emmaus, where those two things that we mentioned.
That is, they simply were occupied with the circumstances without bringing Christ into the equation, and they failed to recognize when he did join himself to them who was really with with with them. And so, as we mentioned, this can often then bring about sadness and discouragement in our lives. But there's something else in that portion. If you just notice in the middle of the 15th verse, we find that they reason.
And I just want to say a little word about that because it speaks to my own heart. Brethren, so often adverse circumstances arise. Things don't always pan out the way I had hoped or thoughts that they should. And I begin to lose sight of the Lord. I begin to just look at the circumstance and what is the result? I start to reason it out. And I say, well, if I'd only done this, or I'd only done that, or if the Lord had only allowed this, or the Lord had only allowed that. And we begin to reason it out.
And what does it lead to? It leads to a lack of peace in our souls. It leads to getting discouraged, sometimes going the wrong direction in the path of faith and service. And brother, we can't reason things out in our lives. What we need to do. And again, I suppose there's none of us here would say we've arrived. But what we really need to do is to bring Christ into it and to submit, even if we don't understand what's going on.
And there are many things, brethren, many circumstances in our lives that you and I are never going to see the fruition of until we get home to glory. There are some things, perhaps we're just going to have to wait until the judgment seat of Christ to understand why. And I remember standing up one time to take a funeral. It was a very, very difficult situation. And there were a room for the room full of young people there.
And I knew those young people had come from different parts of the continent looking for answers. And I said at the in my opening remarks, I said I don't have the answers. I don't know why God has allowed this difficult circumstance. But I said even if we did have all the answers to why God has allowed this, even if down the road God gives us the answer as to why this has been allowed amongst us and in our lives.
I said without submission to his will and without bringing Christ into it, it still wouldn't give us peace. And so, brethren, what really is going to give us peace in the circumstances, what is going to encourage as opposed to discourage is to bring Christ in. And if we don't, it's going to lead to reasoning all those things out. Maybe there's someone here, you're going through a difficult circumstance and you're starting to reason. You say, well, if just this and that and I'd done that or somebody else hadn't done that.
Things would be a lot different. Rather we can't second guess God. We have to submit to his will. I'm not saying it's easy, it's difficult. I know it's real. I'm not saying that it's easy. But it is in the end what gives us peace. And it was in the end what turned these two around as they saw who this was with them, as they got a little bit of a, a begin to get a little bit of understanding.
Of what he was doing. It turned them around. And as we said at the end of the chapter, it produced worship, it produced joy, and it produced Thanksgiving.
What grace there was with the Lord to walk with him all that way without. He never said you're going the wrong direction, never said go back to Jerusalem. But it was when, like you said, Jim, when they got a glimpse of him, the whole thing turned around. And I think it's so beautiful, brother, and that with those that go astray.
00:10:11
If we could have the same grade.
To show him it's not reasoning. Sometimes there are questions that need to be answered fairly in the light of scripture, but it's not reasoning.
That there needs to be that grace to show the glorious person of the Lord Jesus. As soon as that was clear, they got up and went back all that way that very night. No complaining about distance or anything. It's such a beautiful way that the Lord.
It works in their soul.
And could we say in connection with that, Bob, that?
The Lord Jesus revealed himself in a way.
That showed the if we could say it this way.
The change that was going to come about in their knowledge of him.
As we mentioned, he walked all that way, 7/7 and 1/2 miles, something like that, and it wasn't until at the end of the journey he reveals himself to them and as soon as they recognized him, he vanishes.
We'll get to that, but.
Why does he do that?
He wanted them to see the truth of it all and who he was from the scriptures. They were going to know him in a different way. Now. They weren't going to have him here bodily on earth. And we know that ultimately Mary Magdalene, she wanted to re establish that relationship that she had known and loved. And so the Lord has to rebuke her gently. He says touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father.
She was going to know him in resurrection and in ascension. She wasn't going to have him back in the same way as she had him before. And So what does the Lord direct them to the Scriptures?
And we know, of course, and we can sympathize with them. Those dear, uh, Jews had, as someone who said the glories of the coming Kingdom so dazzled their eyes that they just blew right by Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and Zechariah 14 and many other scriptures, that would have been very clear as to the Lord Jesus having to go to the cross. So what does he do? He turns them to the Word of God.
And what a lesson that is for you and me today. How often?
I speak to my own heart. We don't seem to be able to find the Lord.
And sometimes you read the word of God, and perhaps we don't find the comfort in it that we ought.
I enjoyed this, it came from one of the family.
Probably most here knew that our late brother Dave Lundeen, from Kirkland or Tacoma, I should say, went to be with the Lord and not too long before he was taken hold, he used an illustration for the children in Sunday school. He said if you got lost in the forest and you went a second time and you got lost and a third time and you got lost, what would be the best way to avoid getting lost?
And I don't know whether the children supplied the answer or he had to. He said frequently for us, a little more often. And then you'll know your way around and it won't be such a forbidding place. You won't get lost so easily. Well, it was a good point. And so the Lord would have his own know him through His word and by faith, of course, as we know, He was going to send the Spirit of God down to reveal Himself to them.
So he doesn't immediately reveal himself here, but rather he goes back to the Scriptures and their heart burns within them as he goes over them one by one and shows them that it was all of God, it was all there in the Old Testament.
A foundation stone of man's relationship with God is faith.
And without faith, there are things that man cannot enjoy with God. As soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their fellowship with God was broken and had to be restored in its measure. And so was their understanding of God in His heart separated from Him them because of sin. And we see the pattern of it in this chapter in that.
00:15:18
There was a difficulty in these discouraged ones that was grounded in the fact that they didn't believe something that had been said to them by God through His word, through the Lord Jesus directly. And the consequence of that, unlike of belief in them was, as he says he doesn't exactly say, unbelief. In one sense, he says slow to believe that lack of faith in them was the cause for them not to see Him.
In the circumstances not to recognize his presence with them and it also because it hindered them from communication or communion with him. They couldn't understand either. And so when there's discouragement and here in the case of the Lord Jesus, He has to present that to them which will bring them to that place where there can be faith in Himself.
In the case of the two on the way to Emmaus, he uses the Old Testament Scriptures. In the case later on, he shows them his hands and his feet and so on. And in both cases he's bringing them to the point where they believe. And once they believe, then there can be a fellowship between themselves and himself, and he makes himself known to them. But you can't know God. You can't have fellowship with God if in your heart there's a state of unbelief.
Even as a believer, I mean, even as trusting in the Lord Jesus, the principle is the same. And so they had to be brought to this recognition that what He had said and what the Scriptures had said was true and they had to believe it. But once they believed that, once He brought them to that point in their souls, then He makes Himself known to them. And in the second case it says after they saw his hands and feet.
Then he says to them in verse 45. Then opened he unto them their understanding. If you want to have understanding with God, you have to have fellowship with him. That's what fellowship is. It's sharing. It's common thoughts being shared one with the other. Well, God can't share His heart with us as long as in us we're separated by a state of unbelief or a lack of faith.
And in these believers, that is, these were saved souls, but in their state of their soul at that moment, there was something in them that was hindering, and that was they hadn't believed what had already been said to them. Umm, sometimes in difficulties we have to go back then that which discourages us, and re established with God our confidence in Himself.
That God is what he says He is. He is love. He is perfect in that love.
And we have to accept that in faith. And then the Lord makes himself his presence with us, something that brings, uh, comfort and confidence in our hearts and sometimes understanding as well.
Perfectly for that fear, because fear has torment. God doesn't want us to go in the state of unbelief.
Perfect love cast out fear because fear has torment. He wants us to be at peace.
You say that umm unbelief and he is away, but something else also can be in the way that can be said.
Wisdom and we know that there is a way that seems right to them at the end of the way the death. So they were headed for death. And, uh, if they had, they probably, I mean, it doesn't say, but it looks like that when they didn't, uh, didn't have any fellowship there. You'll probably still intend on going ahead. And they said, stay with us and spend the night with us as if we'll work here. Also. We're still going on again, it's safe.
00:20:15
What do you think? Do you think we should go back?
There was none of that until they finally realized who he was.
Well, we know of course, that that whatsoever is not of faith, it's sin. And so, as you say, perhaps there wasn't in that sense real rebellion in their heart. There wasn't in that sense a stubborn will that was wanting to go against the Lord. But there was unbelief. And what is so nice here is the graciousness of the Lord in meeting them there.
And as we mentioned a few moments ago.
We find Him directing their hearts to the Scriptures.
But I know what's anticipating. But when the Lord takes them, or they take the Lord into their home, and then the Lord.
Reveals himself to them. And we can talk about that in a moment, but it's beautiful to see that he reveals himself to them. They know him, they recognize him. They spent all that time. How fast did they walk? I don't know.
I've sometimes tried to keep up the pace of four miles an hour and it's it's, it's, it's pushing it. At least at my age, anyway.
So they probably had several hours on the road here. Would that be reasonable?
And can we only? I sometimes try to imagine what it would have been like to have the Lord Himself open up the Scriptures to us. But He did, and I am sure that was a wonderful revelation. Their hearts burned within them.
So then what happens as soon as they recognize the Lord, He vanishes. That is, He is not going to give them further joy, further revelation, further light in a wrong place. And so we find in our own lives, the Lord is gracious with us. The Lord meets us where we are. We don't say he condoned their discouragement, but he understood. He knew what was going on in their hearts. He met them where they were.
And in grace he walks all that way in order to minister to them.
But then he gets to a certain point where they recognize him and as it were, he says now.
If you want more, there's something that needs to be straightened out, and I think that's what you're mentioning, Brother Thompson. There's something that needs to be done. You're in the wrong place. And so it is in our lives. We can go so far with the Lord and grace, but then he puts his finger on something that needs to be corrected. And here there was no problem, no lack of energy, walking all the way back, even though it was probably nightfall, in order to be where they knew they would once again.
See the Lord and receive more from Him.
He was gracious, but he was faithful too, wasn't he? Yes. I think of his words in verse 25, O fool and slow heart to believe. It's fairly sharp, but I think that's sometimes needed, brother, to get souls to listen properly. Do remember, brother, Eric Smith.
Counseling on how to deal with souls.
He says you've got to listen 1St and he did quite a bit of listening, didn't he even drew it out of him when he says in verse 19 what things and then he listens for quite a while. They tell him the whole story. Brother Eric Smith's comment was if you don't listen first, then souls are not going to be listening to you. They're just waiting for you to quit so that they can continue on.
They need to get out what's troubling their souls and so.
They were able to get it out. And then he gives them a word of reprint.
Pools slow apart, brethren. We all fit there. I have to say I do for sure. But that's where we are when Scripture is so clear and we need to listen more intently about what He has in mind.
Perhaps there was one exception to.
00:25:00
The disciples in general, I wondered. Brother in Mary of Bethany.
Who sat at Jesus feet and heard his words? I wonder if she got the message that he was going to die and rise again. She came before he was taken to be crucified and anointed his body and he gives her credit for doing it for his burial.
And you now find Mary of Bethany at the cross, nor at the grave. I wonder if Mary really got the message like nobody else seemed to get. She was intelligent that he was going to rise again. We don't know specifically, but I wonder that, uh, it's wonderful. We, we need sometimes a word of reprove to get us to listen properly.
What we don't get from the written word is the tone of voice or the intonations with which this reproof was made.
And I just suggest as you go through the Gospels and you hear words from the Lord Jesus that on the written page perhaps seem very harsh, try to picture in your soul the tone of voice, the expression on his face. Yes, he was faithful on many, many occasions, but I suggest that when he said these words, O cools and slow apart and so on, that the expression on his face and the tone of his voice.
Just help to melt them. Yes, no doubt it's stung. And they, as you say, Bob, they needed a reproof and we often need those reproofs or even rebukes in our lives, but to hear them from the Lord Jesus in the spirit in which he always gives them. I think it's beautiful. But I just like to say that this in that regard, and that is when we seek to encourage or reprove one another, because we do, we're to exhort one another and so on.
We need to seek, brethren, to do it in the proper spirit. We can say the right thing in the wrong spirit and it will not have the effect that it is it is intended to have. And so we need to be careful that when we speak, it says, let your words be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Salt stings. You put salt on a wound, it's going to sting. But I remember my mother, when we were growing up and we skin our knee or something, she had some ointment, some kind of ointment or disinfectant, I don't remember what it was called, and she would put it on that wound and it stunned.
We, we dreaded that ointment being put on the wound, but she said it was necessary for the cleansing and healing of the wound. But when she put that ointment on that she knew was going to sting, it was tempered by her kind words of love. I often think of that in connection with our words. Always with grace, seasoned with salt. Yes, sometimes we have to speak, and we have to speak very firmly and faithful.
But let's remember that when the Lord Jesus gave rebukes and rebuffs, He always did it in the proper spirit. And these things are recorded for our learning as well.
I happened to look up before our meeting started and Vine Dictionary the word pool and there are several words, some of which are quite harsh. The word that our Lord used here was not nearly as harsh as the others. It just simply means lacking and understanding. Uh, we read in the Sermon on the Mount there was a place where the Lord said to call someone thou fool and put into you in danger of, uh, damnation if that was not the same word for pool. It is that much gentler.
Term here that we have.
Here was really setting aside some portions of the word of God because he says here that umm Bull's heart to believe all.
That the profits have spoken and so they believe those things in connection with the glory of the Kingdom and that he was the king. They believed that he was Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God and umm, they accompanied him, uh, during his umm soldier here for those 3 1/2 years. They enjoyed his company and they believed his word. They trust them offend their confidence is being lost and were in him in verse 21. We trusted him to be which should have redeemed Israel. They are a confident he has shaken and here he comes the to them on the first day of the week.
00:30:14
And I've often thought that the how he didn't send an Angel to encourage them. He could have sent an Angel could have sent those that would minister to them. But he came himself, the ones who was upholding all these umm, forums that that the universe came himself. He assigned to these two himself on top of how it performed judgment, judgment for their sins. And he was coming to ministership to encourage them and to.
Uh, collector, uh, kind of. And So what he really brings before them is that they were to leave all the scriptures and to be restored into fellowship with not only to be restored to common thoughts with the Lord himself, but to have common instructions. Now that we're going to be brought in distinct as the term as used earlier, their thoughts were going to be synchronized to themselves as to his future glory and his purposes. That there was a purpose that these things had taken place in Jerusalem. He was unfolding that purpose to the municipation of Christ.
We don't really deserve to know, but uh, he desires to bring us into the knowledge of his higher purposes. And now they were able to not only to be restored in fellowship in the capital comma common objective within.
As they walk along the way, they were sorted right in that way. And then when they came to the upper room in verse 36.
I believe now they have a objective that we do the right adjustment.
I would like to make just a small comment on verse uh 29. But they constrained him.
The love of God is a constraining love. We are constrained by that love. There is in US when there's new birth, when we have eternal life. There's a nature which is constrained by that love.
But brethren, it's nice here. The Lord loves to be constrained as well. They are. Hearts have that affection for Himself that would constrain Him as well as the greater, infinitely greater power of God's constraining love to us. We read that their hearts were burning with Him when He opened to them the Scriptures. But I think it's nice to see dude on that.
He made as if he would have gone through.
So he draws out their hearts in constraining him to stay with him.
Beautiful how he deals with.
Well, it's very nice to see the the way that the Lord desires their company doesn't, and He desires our company too. The Lord wants our company. He doesn't want us to walk at a distance from Him. But as you say, He waits to be invited. He waits for them to make the move, even making out as if He would go on further. I've said this before, but I think others will bear me out here that.
This kind of thing, this kind of scripture, has, in my experience, even more force in the East than it does with us in the West. Hospitality, I know it's important here and we value it, but if I could, if I could say it this way, it's even more important in many Eastern countries, and it would be utterly unheard of for a stranger who had walked with them for several hours.
To be left just to wander on. There wasn't a Motel 6 or something that he could just go to, and it would be unheard of to leave even a stranger go going on that way. But the Lord doesn't force himself on them. But I suggest there's something, at least to me anyway, very beautiful here. Because when the Lord comes into the house, what happens? They had constrained him. He had come as a guest in that home.
And of course, the question arises sometimes, what was it that made them recognize the Lord all of a sudden? What was it that suddenly made them know who He was when all that time they hadn't been able to see Him?
Well, we know, of course it says their eyes were holding, and we understand that God was in it. And others have suggested, and I enjoy the thought, that perhaps when he took that bread and went ahead and broke it, that they saw the nail, for instance, in his hand. And that may well be true, but I wonder if there's something more here.
00:35:22
I have had the privilege with my wife too, to be guests in many homes.
And I don't recall that I have ever sat down at the table and started distributing the food in someone else's home. That is not my place. I'm a guest. That is the place for those in whose home I am visiting, as the place for the father in the home in some cases, and maybe the wife and mother. But if I sat down at the head of the table as a guest in your home and started.
Making sure that everything was passed and all the rest of it, you'd say, well this, this is strange. What's he trying to do?
But here was one who, without assuming anything, without presuming anything.
Very consciously took the first place.
He takes that bread, He distributes it. Why? Oh, He was showing them, I believe that He must have the first place in their lives, their thoughts, their ideas, their hopes, their wishes. Yes, they had them. And as a result, they were to use the expression again synchronized with the Lord. But the Lord shows them, I believe, that He must have that first place. All through His pathway on earth, He had taken that place. He had LED them, He had guided, He had been the one to whom they looked for.
The next step, what do we do now? But here He consciously and in the full dignity of who He is, sits down and He sits in their home and takes the 1St place. I suggest there's something in that for our souls. Whether that was the reason they recognized him, I'm not sure. Scripture doesn't say so. It may have been a combination of several things, but it's something that speaks to our hearts, doesn't it? He must have the first place in our hearts and in our lives.
There were very few homes in the pathway of the Lord Jesus where he was really welcome. We know he was welcome at the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. And so often he turned his weary feet there and sat down in the presence of those that refreshed him in his pathway. But here was another home where the Lord Jesus was welcomed. And I'd like to just follow up Bill's remarks by saying that in this chapter, really the perhaps one of the key words is himself.
That's really what it doesn't that. Isn't that what it boils down to, brethren, himself. How much is the Lord Jesus really the center of every sphere of our life? Now when they were on the road and I again, I want to make a little application here. I know they were discouraged. Perhaps they ought not to have been going the direction of Emmaus, but on the road it was himself. He drew near and went. He Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
He expounded the things concerning himself from the Old Testament Scriptures. That was on the road. You know, wherever we move about from day-to-day, do we have a conscious sense of himself? They didn't, but we ought to. And do we take a portion of the Word of God concerning Himself with us as we move around in the busy activities of the day? And then as the day ended here and they came to the home, and again I realized they didn't know who it was yet if they constrained him to come in.
But they wanted him there in the home and whether Bill brought out who was the center who took control of the of the meal that was shared at the table. The Lord Jesus himself when we come home, is the Lord Jesus the center of our homes? Is he welcome in our homes? Is he honored and given the preeminence? And then later on in the chapter we're going to find when they return to Jerusalem and they're gathered together with the other disciples who had remained at Jerusalem.
Jesus himself came and stood in the midst. And so when we come together collectively in the assembly, is it Himself that's before our souls? Why are we here today, brethren? No, there may be many reasons. If we were to go up and down these roads and we were honest, there are perhaps many reasons. And that's OK because the Lord uses many reasons and many things in our lives. But I trust that down deep all of us.
00:40:03
Had a desire to be here this weekend because of himself to know that he was going to be in the midst of his own and that are the desire of our hearts would would be to give him the joy of being in the midst of a few of his own this side of heaven. But what wherever they were on the road in the home later, shall I say in the place of corporate obedience gathered with the other disciples. It was himself and brethren, we need to keep that before and if we keep him self before us, whether it's the activities of the day.
Whether it's the difficulties that arise in the home or maybe problems even in the assembly, if we have himself before us, we're going to be encouraged to go on in spite of it. I was thinking when you were talking about the spirit which holds something that.
There are two epistles that end up this way. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. One of them is Relations and the other is Philemon. I know in Philemon you can understand why that would sell because what even had had Odessa as a slave before he was saved?
And then, uh, he'd gotten saved and Paul was gonna, uh, advise him to go back to his master. And that would be a hard thing to do if he wasn't saved himself. And so the Lord is always the perfect major and the perfect model for us, the Lord of himself. Be with your spirit.
The spirit which you hold faith.
So I'd like to add a little bit to what Brother Bill said about, uh, in, uh, in that, in that, umm, home he came here, says that Mister Darby's translation haven't taken the bread he blessed and having broken it, gave it to them. I think it's wonderful too, to see that he blessed what word was spoken. He just spent that time with him on the roads. They've spoken of all the scriptures.
Thanks to that meal, after that walk, Wyatt, uh, was one of those things I believe that uh, God used to open their eyes to see the sweetness of the creator, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus who had entered their holiness and umm, it was used, it was used as God to restore them. So he blessed what Thanksgiving.
I found it interesting too, brother, in thinking about resurrection.
The Lord Jesus was resurrected and in resurrection body.
But it is interesting to meditate that almost everyone who stopped in the resurrection did not recognize him.
Immediately.
Mary Magdalene was the 1St to see him. We have the scripture and she didn't recognize him. She thought he was the gardener but it was when she when he said Mary.
And immediately she knew who it was.
Here it was.
When he took the bread and broke it that their eyes were open even when he appears.
Amongst the disciples gathered together in verse 36.
They didn't recognize him immediately.
And it is interesting to think about it. I think This is why you mentioned earlier, Bill, that the Lord said to Mary, touch me not she wanted to have him back as she had known him in life down here. And he was in effect, Saint Mary. No, you're going to know me now in a new relationship, a far more intimate and deeper relationship than before.
You're gonna know me in resurrection. And so it says in Second Corinthians chapter 5 that I should read that because I think it's important.
00:45:02
And verse, uh.
16.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh? Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. We know Christ in resurrection now, not in the same way as He was known before.
That was Mary, why he said to her touch me not, but go over to 1St Corinthians 15 because I find they're a little, uh, thing that Paul presents about resurrection and the body and resurrection. I get a lot of questions asking me when in my travels are we going to know those that we have known down here and have gone on to Gloria where we know them in resurrection?
But here's a little verse here that I think shows.
And it's verse, uh.
36.
The fool what which thou That which thou sawest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but their grains. It may chance of wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him into every seed. His own body gives the example of weed. So you put a little grain of wheat into the ground.
And it sprouts and we know what we looks like, but we're not looking at what was put into the ground. We're looking at something different in resurrection, figure of resurrection anyhow. And I think that is an illustration. We're not going to see those that we have loved and have gone on to be with the Lord in the same way we have known Him down here, but there will be that which we will recognize in them.
And know who they are.
That's why they knew Moses, then Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. Ever seen them before? But they didn't, so it's an interesting thing to think about.
Very, very, very important to recognize.
And I think most of us in this room, if not all, do Jesus Christ rose in a physical body, the body in which he had died. But I have been amazed at trying to present the Lord Jesus to my fellow man. How many people in the United States, when they think of the resurrection, do not?
Consciously think about the Lord Jesus as physically in the body in which he died.
And that was the difficulty here of these, they, they were troubled when they first saw him in resurrection. And they, they didn't know whether they were looking at a spirit or what it was that they were looking at. And so the Lord Jesus administers to them and shows them to look at him, at his physical person and to look at, as Thomas said, uh, unless I'm in the other John's gospel, unless I can see those nail prints.
In his hands and his feet. And they're still not quite sure. And so he asks for some food so that he might eat it in their presence here, so that they would have the absolute assurance that the person before them was truly the Lord Jesus Christ.
In, as Bob has already mentioned in others, on a different terms now.
That is a new creation and beyond depth and immortal he was when he was with them, as he had previously been mortal before his death. And so there is change, but at the same time, it is the same person and it is in the body in which he, he died. And it's extremely important. I, I think if I want to encourage you in presenting the Lord Jesus to others.
00:50:03
Not to take for granted.
That what you is so obvious to you is necessarily obvious to them. But umm there the when the preaching of the gospel is given in the book of the Acts.
The one fact of the gospel that is found every single time that the words of the preaching are recorded, it is the resurrection. The resurrection is a cardinal truth of Christianity. As to the fact of it that Jesus Christ died according to the scriptures and was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. It's an important fact to emphasize concerning Himself. And they had to.
Come to the full appreciation that the person before them, the one that could eat in their presence, could talk to them, uh, could be touched by them and so on, was a lie.
On other contrast, not particularly brought out in this gospel, that it's connected with the truth of resurrection here.
John and I also believe in some sense why sometimes the Lord disappears from them. Uh, so that they don't see him as he does in the end of the chapter.
Uh, Thomas?
When the Lord presents himself to Thomas, he said, I won't believe unless I see him.
Thomas had to physically see the Lord Jesus. That is the characteristic of Judaism. Judaism was a religion of God that was based on belief and what was presented to be seen.
Christianity and contrast is what is for man to believe without seeing 1St and so when the Lord tells them here what their work is going to be, they're going to be witnesses for him and that they were going to witness to His resurrection because those who they witnessed to, like you and I, are witness to today.
We see and accept a word without actually seeing him physically, and we must do so. Nobody can be saved in this room and without accepting a truth that you cannot see with your physical eyes. And that is the truth of the resurrection. And that's what the characteristic is of Christianity in that way that separates it from Judaism, and so the restoring of the Jews in the Tribulation.
Is going to come about in that they're going to have to believe in the final work of it is to actually see him and then it will be complete in them. Well, what's the difference is why is one different than the other? Well, it's all the sovereign work of God. But brethren, we have the better part.
To see and connection with faith is for earthly blessing to.
Except without seeing my faith is the heavenly blessing we have the better part?
In the body that, uh, the body of the Lord Jesus, when he came forth in resurrection, the one marked difference was he retained the marks of atonement in his body. And that's made clear, very, very clear here. And it's interesting what you say about Thomas recorded in John's gospel because John Thomas not only said that he, he had to see to believe.
Or that he wouldn't believe if he didn't see. But he said, except I see the print of the nail and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. Thomas wasn't going to believe unless he saw those marks of Calvary. And we know that Thomas did. And the Lord said, reach forth thy finger and thrust and thrust thy hand into my side, and so on. And that's what the Jewish remnant will see in the coming day, isn't it? They're going to look on him whom they pierced. They're going to say, what are these wounds?
And He's going to tell them exactly where he received those wounds, the wounds that I received in the House of my friends. And so here he shows unto them his hands and his feet. And when they saw those marks of atonement retained in His body, then they could rejoice. And it was a confirmation that He had bodily the one who had gone to the cross and laid down his life, had bodily risen from the dead.
00:55:22
And brethren, we're going to see, I believe, those marks of atonement in His body as well. We're going to, in a coming day, be occupied with a lamb as it had been slain, and what rejoicing that's going to give to our souls in that day. But brethren, as we look up into the open heavens and we see Him by faith where He is this afternoon, yes, we see a risen, glorified man, but He has retained those marks of atonement in His body. And doesn't that rejoice our hearts to realize that there is a man at the right hand of God?
Who went to the cross and accomplished atonement and eternal redemption to the glory of God?
And God has raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand with those marks of atonement. Because the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of Christ are God's Amen to the work of Calvary. You want proof that God is satisfied with the work that His Son accomplished, and that He has bodily risen him from raised him from the dead as a result? Just look up by faith and see where he is now.
And those marks of atonement. So here what calm, what peace it brought to their souls. As he says, Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. See again, it's all himself. It is I myself. And this confirmation is what brought peace and joy to their souls. Well, rather than it will do the same thing to our souls as well.
I know it was mentioned before, but it bears a further emphasis too, in the part of the chapter we're taking up.
Verse 34. The Lord is risen indeed, and half appear. Assignment.
Those two on the way to Emmaus weren't the only two that were perhaps a bit discouraged. Poor Peter. Where did we see him last?
Weeping outside the power of the high priest because of that look that the Lord gave him. A look I'm sure of love and compassion, but a look nonetheless that broke him down.
And poor Peter, I'm sure wondered, well, is it all over with me, all over with any customary I can be for Christ, all over with me as to anything I can do for the Lord?
And how beautiful to see that of all those in the among the disciples.
The Lord singles out Peter for a private meeting.
Someone mentioned this morning the details aren't recorded. What the Lord had to say to him isn't recorded because the Lord has an individual restoration for everyone, whether it's a failure, very, very public and very serious, as Peters was, or whether it's something that's not quite so public and perhaps in a certain way not quite so signally outstanding as this one. The Lord has an individual restoration. The two on the way to Emmaus.
They needed a walk for a number of miles.
They needed that particular attention of the Lord. And so it is with you and me. I don't suppose anyone in here would stand up and say I haven't failed. Have we failed? Yes, we have.
Has it been serious? In some cases, yes. Is the Lord willing to restore? Yes, He is. And there are no qualifications or restrictions on 1St John One and nine. And what an amazing thing to find on the Day of Pentecost and afterwards.
That Peter lays on the guilt.
So those Jews, you denied the Holy One from the just and preferred a murderer. So on what Peter, you telling other people they denied the Lord? Yes. Why? Because the restoration was fully complete.
And So what a wonderful thing it is to see this year. And again, the details aren't recorded, we don't need them, but they're individual for each one of us and are available if we'll come. As Peter did, no doubt, and owned his face.
No, it's not. Yeah.
I'll be home.
For life.