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Peace be unto you. But they were terrified in the frightens, supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are you troubled, and why do costs arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself Handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and blood.
Phones, as you see me have.
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believe not for joy, and wondered, he said unto him, Have you hear any meat?
And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and of an 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 opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, And thus it behoked Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And you are witnesses of these things.
And 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.
And 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 up into heaven.
And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
We were commenting a little on some of these verses in the previous reading meetings, but.
It's beautiful here to see, isn't it, how that the Lord Jesus appears to them and says, peace be unto you. He had met first of all with the women who had come to the sepulchre to see him. He had met with Simon Peter in a private way.
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He had met with the two on the way to Emmaus.
And had ministered to each as the need was. And how beautiful that is.
How beautiful to see that the Lord Jesus eats each one of us in our need, whatever it might be. And as we remarked the other day yesterday, these were discouraged people. These were those who had difficulties and problems, and the Lord was working to bring their thoughts into line with his thoughts.
But then, in keeping with the aspect of this gospel, which, as we were reminded yesterday, is really the.
Gospel that most introduces Paul's ministry and the truth of the church.
I suggest we find the corporate aspect brought in here, those two on the way to Emmaus. As we remarked yesterday, if they wanted to know more, there was a place for them to be.
Simon Peter no doubt, was here too, and perhaps others. But.
The Lord Jesus.
Appears in their midst and says, peace be unto you. But there was still a difficulty. The resurrection still wasn't a reality in their hearts. The resurrection still hadn't gotten through to them. They're terrified. They're frightened. They had been accustomed in the Old Testament to things that perhaps were frightening. They had been accustomed to spirits. And sad to say, over the years, Satan had no doubt brought things in that had frightened people. And we know that he holds many in the world today in ******* through that means.
How beautiful to see how the Lord reassures them that it is He Himself.
He has a body of resurrection now. It's a body of flesh and bones, not flesh and blood, but he's real. He can be touched, He can be spoken to, He can eat in every way. If we could say it reverently, He is just as much a man as he was before, and he remains a man for all eternity in order to enjoy your company and mind and in order to be head over all things as God has directed as man.
In connection with your comments about the corporate side of things, I think it's beautiful to see the language here because it changes all of a sudden from what we have earlier in the chapter.
It's a little parenthesis, but just this little hint that helped me when I was younger in studying the Word of God. And that is to realize that when we read scripture, there are two lines of proof that run through scripture.
There's the individual aspect of things and there's the collective side of things. And I think it's helpful to discern as we go through Scripture, which is being brought before us. And sometimes there's been a great deal of confusion and difficulty by confounding the corporate side of things with the individual and vice versa. And it's interesting that as you have the two on the way to Emmaus, there are a number of statements that speak of the Lord being with them.
Because the Lord Jesus is with every individual. Wherever believers are today, the Lord Jesus is with them. He could say, before he left the disciples, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. It tells us in Hebrews, He'll never leave us nor forsake us. And even when we get into a path of self will, or we go in a direction that we ought not to, though, we lose a sense of the Lord's presence.
He's always there with us. He never leaves us. And the two on the way to Emmaus, perhaps they ought not to have been going to Emmaus. They ought not to certainly have been. They certainly ought not to have been discouraged and allowing the thoughts to arise in their hearts that they had. And on that road they were really not conscious of whose presence it was with them. But it says, and I want you to notice this.
Jesus himself drew near and went with them. He didn't leave them. They were conscious of who it was. And the Lord is always with us, even though we're not always conscious of it. And when they got to Emmaus, he went in to carry with them. And it says as he sat at me with them, you know, wherever believers were today, even gathered together to perhaps partake of the Lord's Supper, the Lord was with them because he's with every individual.
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Every believer he's with. And so he was with them. Now, his brother Bill pointed out the other day, as soon as they knew him, recognized him, he vanished, because they ought not to have been at a man. And so he vanished out of there. And the same day and evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the mix.
Verse 26 after eight days again his disciples were within Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and set peace be unto you. I think that's a very important point to realize sometimes.
We say inadvertently, brethren, I think that the Lord is not with all believers. That is not true. He is with all believers. But there is a place where He is in the mix. He is the reference point in connection with the Lord's table. It's His table, not ours. And I think it's because we live in a world that has been so tremendously affected by.
Humanism that we have been LED in our thinking to shift and we make ourselves a reference point in connection with the truth of God.
And we get off on shaky ground, brother. We need to get our focus back on the Lord. It's He that is the reference point and we need to keep that in view. And it's interesting to go through the word of God and see how often.
That expression is used.
Perhaps one of the first times is in Genesis chapter 2, where.
You have the tree of Life in the midst of the garden, and you find it in the very last chapter of the Bible. There is the Tree of Life transplanted to the heavenly Jerusalem in the midst of the street of it.
Beautiful brother, the Lord Jesus is the one whom God has determined in His eternal purposes will occupy the central place. God has a gathering center in this world.
Against the Lord Jesus. Let's not make it ourselves. It's the Lord Jesus, and if it's his glorious person, there can't be two or three rivals.
Places, but it's keeping the focus on him and I find that.
When we inadvertently start making ourselves a reference point, we caused quite a bit of offense, and I don't think the Lord is pleased with that either. Brethren, we need to keep the focus on Him.
I tried to make some comments on where it's 35.
In a safe choice for our things were advanced in the way and how he was known of them in the middle of my friend.
No, that was very interesting. He was thinking all the things that he thought on the way and he explained to them.
In all of his scriptures that spoke about himself.
That was really dead with my eyes, his ear.
How he was known of them in the breaking of bread.
And I saw three to ourselves how important the breaking of bread is to us.
I talked to cable of Last Amazing Things and I had them, uh, what is so important to you now and what catches that you're important and what do you like in the place that you are going now?
The answer I get is, well, we have such a nice pastor and there's such a nice man who shakes hands with everybody of us and he is so dreadful and he is such a good man and that is really what we like there.
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And I thought, well, how is that possible? Because.
The breaking of bread is what the Lord Jesus himself.
Increases among us.
Did he say?
That he would be in the midst of us.
With two of three agenda together in this name that you would be in the midst of us and we are when we are together to break bread. We believe that he is in the midst of us, Godfrey.
And if we don't have that, how, how can we then say it would be in the midst of us?
I have heard some say it's a commandment that we have to be together for the breaking of bread because the God said that the Lord said this drew and remembers of me so we have to do it. But that's not true.
We don't have to do it. Our heads is drawn toward him and we want to do it. And what if we don't have it? We are missing something.
I know when we were I think so we decided becoming an appointment know the Lord and the resurrection of life.
And they had known him on earth as an earthly man, and now he was a recent man. And this was a new relaxed form of relationship. And this is the way, the basis that we know the Lord too. We know him as the rich of man. He's not even on earth, He's in heaven, but as being born again and having the same life of nature from himself by the Spirit of God, we.
Learn to appreciate him and relationship to have him as.
The one in the midst.
Umm, if we might just go back and treat briefly and in loop when he was born in the second chapter it says verse 14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth he.
Goodwill Lord men.
The Lord came bringing patience in the world on earth. It was there for them, but they rejected him. Chapter 12 and verse 5051 It says, Suppose He that I am come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division.
What a sad consequence here is developed because of their rejection. He becomes the dividing point and uh, there is not peace on earth anymore.
Where is the case to be found? It's on a new planning. It's on the resurrection ground. And so these disciples, it says where we read through fear of the Jews. They were in the gathered shop with the door shut. You might say they were afraid. Well, well they might if you make a piece on earth.
But the Lord is showing them a new ground where peace can reign and where it can dwell.
That put himself in the midst and so it's it's it's as we behave, you know, collectively having him before us at that E can be enjoyed.
It says here in this chapter that's umm in verse 33, that they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 gathered together and then that worked with them.
And so the name Jerusalem, I believe means the, uh, possession of peace, talking one of the believers not just to have peace, fail on the peace mean peace, perfect peace, nothing that can be added to it. But Jerusalem means the possession of peace. It also has the meaning of, uh, the abode of harmony. Not nice. It's a picture of the divine Saturn. And God wanted his people to dwell in peace with himself amidst.
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There's something else that's, uh, very precious to my own soul. Perhaps you've enjoyed it, that if you turn to act chapter one, you see there the prominence that in Luke's writing in connection with the Upper Room. And so it's, uh, Max chapter one and verse 13 Verse. Let's read from, uh, verse 12.
Then return May unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, and when they were coming.
They went up into, they should say the upper room where both both Peter and James and get in the hole of the company that was there in the 1St 14. All continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. And then you get in chapter 2. I believe that they were this statement that they were with the volume with one accord. Chapter 2, verse one, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And perhaps it was in that upper room in a church was formed.
And, uh, we have this little indication perhaps that you just that it was in the upper roof. And that's the Lord himself. And that's, umm, they had left the company at their brand new. And how he, he just gives them to understand, gives us to understand, gives us this encouragement that we need one another. And Lord would desire to gather us to where it is in the midst and we need one another. We need everyone. And, umm, the Lord is, uh.
Precious characters. Shepherd waited for these dear ones to come, and they were there when he appeared. He waited for them to arrive. And so it's a very precious thing. Not only that he wanted to be with them in the midst, but he wanted those two to be there.
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Put it down to the, do we thank the Lord from the assembly? Do we thank the Lord that, uh, we see him in the midst by faith? It's a wonderful thing to take him to, uh, enjoy a conviction of the Lord himself, His heart club. He introduced them to that upper room and, uh, it's his provision and the day. It's great that we might see in his presence and enjoy him in the midst. We often thank him for it.
And I like the spirit in which you put that out, Brother Robert, because.
Sad to say, let's be honest.
This precious truth has become an object of much controversy and argument and bad feeling and offense.
But it's presented in this chapter.
In a totally different life, it's presented as.
The focal point of healing and comfort for those that on the one hand, had experienced a great deal of difficulty, has seen their hopes, their aspirations and everything seemingly shattered.
And yet the Lord was revealing to them in a far more wonderful way that which would supersede in every way what they had hoped for. They were looking for an earthly Kingdom. The Lord was going to give them a heavenly Kingdom. They were looking for something that would be established down here. The Lord is going to give them something that was far better up there. They were looking for a continuation of everything under Judaism. The Lord says I have something far, far better.
That was, and I admit that it is not revealed here. It's later on, but the seeds of it are here. The Lord is at worse as I'm going to reveal something that has been hidden in God from long before the foundation of the world, and it's about to be brought out, the councils of God concerning the church. And so the Lord's presence here is not given to us as something which is to create controversy and division. Sad to say, in the hands of man. It has done that.
But it's presented here as the one who.
As he had met their needs and met their problems collectively or individually, now he is going to become, as we've had it, the focal point collectively. And what a beautiful thing that is. He'll be, if we could say it, the focal point up there in heaven. And every believer recognizes that. How wonderful that he wants to have that place down here among his people.
00:35:36
Union with Christ could not be experienced when He was down here in this world was good. It was consequent upon His death and resurrection and ascension into glory that now we are brought into that wonderful position of union with Christ and glory. It's a reality, brethren, you and I are intimately connected with the real man of flesh and bones in the glory of God.
He is the head of his church, and we are the members of his body. But I enjoy this in verse 39 says, Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have noticed in First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 50.
The apostle here says now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. What characterizes life in our bodies, our natural bodies down here in connection with the first creation is flesh and blood. The life is in the in the blood. You read that?
The other night in Leviticus 17. And so that's what is characteristic of life in these bodies today. But in new creation, and I like to think of it, brethren, it's not the second creation, it's new creation because it is characteristically new. It will always be new. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot die. Its connection with incorruption and immortality.
Wonderful to think of a never age, never ever.
Any, uh, thought of dying in connection with new creation? And so the Lord Jesus in new creation says a spirit hath not flesh and bones. So it's very real body that he had he said handle me and see.
Yes, they can touch him. He was very real.
Physically, but not in flesh and blood. It was in flesh and bones because it was a connection with new creation.
I'm sorry. Excuse me? You're gonna finish your remark. Go ahead. No, you go ahead.
But only going to reiterate what was said the other day and that is that what a thought it is to our hearts that the Lord Jesus.
Has a resurrection body today, and he ascended up to heaven with that resurrection body. And when the Lord comes for us, you and I too will have a resurrection body. And as you say, Brother Bob, there will be nothing.
In that resurrection body to remind us in any way of sin.
I remember being at a funeral quite a few years ago.
And a husband and father had gone to be with the Lord, and his body had been wasted by a long boat with cancer that had sold, shall we say. I don't know whether the word disfigured is right, but so wasted his body that he was scarcely recognizable, and to such an extent that the casket was closed.
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And I remember saying to his son, who was about my age, I said to him, his name was Bob. I said, well, Bob, I said, the next time we see your father, it will be a body of glory. And he responded beautifully because he knew the Lord, too. And he said, oh, yes, Bill, won't it be wonderful? And I said, your father won't even have Gray hair.
Well, his father was one of those people who had had a full head of hair all his life.
But he had gone prematurely great, so that his son had never remembered him with anything but Gray hair. Oh, he said. I never thought of that. He said. My father without Gray hair.
But suddenly it dawned on him. Yes, his father was not born with Gray hair. His father didn't have Gray hair in grade school. His father would have not one little aspect of sin when he saw him again. Well, that's intended to be a practical encouragement to our hearts.
But there is one that will have marks in his body up there, and that's the Lord Jesus. He'll have those marks, the only one that will have any mark that will remind us of this world and shall we say it, of sin in order that we might never forget that He suffered force. This morning we had a loaf and a cup of force, and we won't have that in heaven. But there will be those nail prints in that spear mark in his side that will always remind us we're all eternity.
How are we there? Because he hung on Calvary's crumbs. Sorry, Bob, Go ahead.
Well, I was just going to ask the question. In verse 40 it says he showed them his hands and his feet.
Why is it in John's Gospel he shows them his hands and his side? Why the difference?
Well, it is John, and only John that records that a soldier with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came throughout blood and water. And it's John who later on in his epistle takes up the ground of our fellowship and communion. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and as a result, fellowship one with another.
Brought into that circle of fellowship and what is the basis of it? The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sins. We use that part of that verse in the gospel last night. I used to wonder why it was that that that statement was there where he's speaking about fellowship and communion there in the first chapter of first John. But that's really it, isn't it? It's the basis of our fellowship. How can we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son? How are we brought into the circle of fellowship with one another as a result?
It's the blood of Christ that's the basis. So John is the one who records the soldier with a spear piercing his side. And John, he shows them that mark that he had received at that time when forthwith flowed throughout blood and water. But in Luke, he's the perfect man in the circumstances of life down here. And so it's his hand, his hands and his feet, those hands that had served and dispensed blessing on every hand.
Those feats that had traversed the dusty streets of Palestine as the perfect man, they had been pierced. And so, as Bill said, he's going to retain those marks. I think it's illustrated, very beautiful in the what we often refer to as the law of the leopard, where you have the two birds. Remember, in Leviticus 14, one of those birds was killed in an earthen vessel over running water. That bird speaks of Christ going into death.
But then there was a second bird which speaks of Christ in resurrection and ascension, because after the first bird was killed and his blood was shed, the second bird was let loose in an open field. But before that bird was let loose in the open field, the blood from the first bird was taken and sprinkled on the feathers of the live bird, And as that bird winged its way to the open heavens, it bore.
Chapter 26.
Proverbs, chapter 26.
And verse two. Now I'm going to read this in Mr. Darby's translation.
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Progress 26 and verse 2 as the Sparrow for flitting about as the Sparrow as the swallow by flying. Going to stop there because that's what I want to point out, the Sparrow flitting about, the swallow flying. Now let's go to Psalm 84 where you have those two birds brought together again.
Psalm 84 and verse 3.
Yeah, the Pharaoh has found in house.
And the swallow anest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God, my wife likes to feed the birds in the winter. And we have a bird feeder outside our kitchen window. And if you watch those sparrows as they come to the feeder, they're continually flitting about. They seem like a very nervous bird. They just never seem to stop. And they they're on the feeder and down on the snow and on the branches continually flitting about.
The swallow is brought before us in Scripture as the restless bird. We used to watch them at the cottage when I was a boy. They'd come out at the twilight and they'd just swoop back and forth across the lake, no doubt getting those insects that fly at twilight a very restless bird. But here we find in the 84th Psalm that the nervous bird and the restless bird have found a place of rest for themselves and for their young.
A place of peace, a place where there can be that rest and sustenance that's needed. And rather, that's what the assembly ought to be. You notice in the 84 song, even my altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. And when we come to the assembly, brethren, do we make it a place where there's contention? Do we come with a lack of something to offer for the sustenance of ourselves and for our brethren? Or are we?
Exercise that rather than it being a place where everybody's nervous about what's gonna happen or be said or some problem where everybody's.
Restless because of things that are going on. No, that ought not to characterize the assembly. Well, I know we've got a little way. It's just an application. But I just thought he said peace be to them, peace be unto you. It ought to be a place of peace. And he said, have you any meat, brethren? Do we have any meat when we come to the local assembly?
Can you say, Jim, that the Lord could have produced it, which is true, but it is interesting and even in his life down here.
He is the means that were at end and even though they were perhaps something that was so small like this. 5 loaves and two fishes.
Got that little boy brought.
What was that in comparison with the need? When that was put into the Lord's hands, it became enough to feed all. And there was.
Something to take back with them when they went back 12 baskets full. And I, I think that's an encouragement too to us. You might say, what do I have? I don't have anything.
Don't despise small things. Put it into the hands of Lord. You younger brother, you have a question. Sometimes a question opens things up in a very good way in an assembly meeting. But he exercised in the Lord's presence what little you may have.
To bring it out so that the Lord can take it and use that with our souls. I think that's an important point.
The Lord seemed to be establishing well his communion and fellowship with him in the act of heat this year. There's something about when you need together that the bonding is more close and it's it's the way of it one way of expressing fellowship, isn't it? They actually even the world recognizes this principles and they were they were having a hard time getting this confidence of the Lord of our lives.
And and that in that invitation he built was near them, incapable of enjoying fellowship with him.
No, we don't see the log in our edge, but it's C is taking great care, especially in asking them for food. That's one thing they produce the food, but it's another thing to ask them for the food. They contributed to food, and then he took it and ate it before them. That really bonded them together, didn't it? And uh, so how it shows us how the Lord desires our fellowship.
00:50:19
Hmm.
Well, going on here, we find that the Lord then begins to speak to them.
In verse 43, he takes what they had offered and eats it. As you say, Doug, it bonds them together. But then he points out that all of this was what he had said to them. It was only a reflection of what had been given very clearly in the law and the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms.
What a wonderful revelation.
He had no doubt gone over all of that with those on the way to Emmaus, but now he reminds his disciples, and what does he do here? He opens their understanding.
Sometimes you and I find a bit of fault with the disciples, at least I do, in not being more intelligent. The Lord had over and over again told them he had to go to the cross, He had to suffer, and that he would rise again the third day. They couldn't seem to get it, as we would say in modern language, and even after he had obviously risen from the dead and the evidence was very clear, somehow, as we see here, it was very hard for them to.
Understand what all of that meant.
But we need to remember too that they were operating as we might say.
On Old Testament ground, they hadn't yet received the Spirit of God. What a difference it means when the Lord opens our understanding. Now we know, of course, that the Spirit of God didn't come down until some time after this, on the day of Pentecost. But what a difference it is when the Lord opens our understanding. And I would suggest that there is an order here that is important to us.
On the one hand, we find individuals who are in difficulty, individuals who didn't understand, individuals who evidently were in the wrong. Maybe there's more to it than that.
No, I think that's to me. Anyway, that's right on Jim, because it's we Get the facts of the go of the Lord's sufferings and the Gospels. You get the breathing of his heart and how he felt inwardly, whether from himself, from the sufferings from man, or shall we say it with reverence, His sufferings from the hands of God in Psalm 22. You get that in the Psalms and that involves.
Our hearts getting close to him, doesn't it? It draws out our affections.
It's not merely head knowledge, it's heart knowledge.
Don't we see in his head just questions are also just to come back a little bit to the hands when to speak again. His hands he used for blessings when he touched the label, nobody was supposed to touch. He touched the level and was healed. He got his uh, babies that were brought to him into his arms, but.
Disciples were trying to hinder them. He documented his arms and he stroked him as a lead and and he blessed them. How much of A joy in my fantasy for the mothers when they could say, well, this baby has been in the eyes of the Lord and thank you to that. What what a joy of the whole life as much as I've been.
No.
Cruise probably blank by the lower fees and so I agree our first time last tribe when we are written in his presence when we come together we have blessed by him and we we might not realize it, but it is true and when we take up his fee.
How many trips did you make with his he? He went all the way up to tire and came back. How many times did he come back from Jerusalem again just to do a service for his people? How many extra trips did he do all walking with his feet and then when he made he had no horse ever that you read them?
00:55:13
And when we think of the software also when they drove those nail shoots, his hands and his feet, there were suffering involved for everything that if that should ever happen to us, the suffering that this would cause and the suffering that also caused the cause for cause to him and the enemies, they must have done that on purpose. Then they were just using hands and the fees to nail him on their own nutrition cause of extra suffering.
On the one hand, as we well know, we can never share anything to do with the sufferings that brought us to Himself. We know that, and in Philippians 3 there. The fellowship of His sufferings, I believe, is in connection with knowing Him.
That I may know Him in the fellowship of his sufferings. And then something that doesn't seem to fit the power of his resurrection, but the power of His resurrection is mentioned first. It says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings.
A brother made this statement many years ago, and I repeat it because it's worth remembering. He said all our blessings come through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus.
And our enjoyment of those blessings comes in the same way. And so I would suggest that in following a rejected Christ, we are going to appreciate Him and appreciate our blessings through suffering.
Not very pleasant in one sense. Not very pleasant to think about, but yet that's the way the Lord works with us.
But then there is the aspect of service and that's brought in next in the chapter here, because what we have here in verse 47 and 48, I would suggest is properly the Commission to the church today. There are other commissions given for example, in Matthew that have more of a Jewish context to them. And we don't of course object in any way to their being used in application today. But the fulfillment really awaits the.
Tribulation period and the ushering into the Millennium. And so that's why the Lord says I am with you in Matthew 28 until the end of the age, Not I am with you until I come, but till the end of the age, But here in Luke, as befitting the character of the Gospel.
It's really the Christian Commission. And where does the blessing start? Right in the very place where the Lord had been crucified. What a what a tribute to the grace of God. The very place where there had been the worst opposition to the Lord, the worst acts of hatred and enmity against God's beloved Son. There God says, as it were. And I'm going to start right here where the worst sin has been manifested.
The blessing is going to begin, and that Commission goes on with you and me today. We have that responsibility today year, witnesses of these things, remission of sins preached in His name among all nations. Is there going to be suffering in connection with that? Yes, there is, in one way or another. We don't feel that much of it in these favored lands, but we feel it. And some of our dear brethren that are late, peace be unto you.
But they were terrified of the frightens. Suppose that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, Why are you troubled, and why do costs arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and blood bones, as ye see me have.
01:00:13
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy.
And wondered, he said under him, Have you hear any meat?
And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and of 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 opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behold Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things.
And 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.
And 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 up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
But we were commenting a little on some of these verses in the previous reading meetings. But.
It's beautiful here to see, isn't it? How that?
The Lord Jesus appears to them and says, Peace be unto you. He had met first of all with the women who had come to the sepulchre to see him. He had met with Simon Peter in a private way.
He had met with the two on the way to Emmaus.
And had ministered to each as the need was. And how beautiful that is.
How beautiful to see that the Lord Jesus eats each one of us in our need, whatever it might be. And as we remarked the other day yesterday, these were discouraged people. These were those who had difficulties and problems, and the Lord was working to bring their thoughts into line with his thoughts.
But then, in keeping with the aspect of this gospel, which, as we were reminded yesterday, is really the.
Gospel that most introduces Paul's ministry and the truth of the church.
I suggest we find the corporate aspect brought in here. Those two on the way to Emmaus. As we remarked yesterday, if they wanted to know more, there was a place for them to be. Simon Peter, no doubt, was here too.
And perhaps others, but.
The Lord Jesus.
Appears in their midst and says, peace be unto you. But there was still a difficulty. The resurrection still wasn't a reality in their hearts. The resurrection still hadn't gotten through to them. They're terrified. They're frightened. They had been accustomed in the Old Testament to things that perhaps were frightening. They had been accustomed to spirits. And sad to say, over the years, Satan had no doubt brought things in that had frightened people. And we know that he holds many in the world today in ******* through that means.
How beautiful to see how the Lord reassures them that it is He Himself.
He has a body of resurrection now. It's a body of flesh and bones, not flesh and blood, but he's real. He can be touched, He can be spoken to, He can eat in every way. If we could say it reverently, He is just as much a man as he was before, and he remains a man for all eternity in order to enjoy your company and mind and in order to be head over all things as God has directed.
01:05:20
As man.
In connection with your comments about the corporate side of things, I think it's beautiful to see the language here because it changes all of a sudden from what we have earlier in the chapter. I just, this is a little parenthesis, but just this little hint that helped me when I was younger and studying the Word of God. And that is to realize that when we read Scripture, there are two lines of proof that run through Scripture.
There's the individual aspect of things and there's the collective side of things. And I think it's helpful to discern as we go through Scripture, which is being brought before us. And sometimes there's been a great deal of confusion and difficulty by confounding the corporate side of things with the individual and vice versa. And it's interesting that as you have the two on the way to Emmaus, there are a number of statements that speak of the Lord being with them.
Because the Lord Jesus is with every individual. Wherever believers are today, the Lord Jesus is with them. He could say, before he left the disciples, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. It tells us in Hebrews, He'll never leave us nor forsake us. And even when we get into a path of self will, or we go in a direction that we ought not to, though, we lose a sense of the Lord's presence.
He's always there with us. He never leaves us. And the two on the way to Emmaus, perhaps they ought not to have been going to Emmaus. They ought not to certainly have been. They certainly ought not to have been discouraged and allowing the thoughts to arise in their hearts that they had. And on that road they were really not conscious of whose presence it was with them. But it says, and I want you to notice this.
Jesus himself drew near and went with them. He didn't leave them. They were conscious of who it was. And the Lord is always with us, even though we're not always conscious of it. And when they got to Emmaus, he went in to carry with them. And it says as he sat at me with them, you know, wherever believers were today, even gathered together to perhaps partake of the Lord's Supper, the Lord was with them because he's with every individual.
Every believer he's with. And so he was with them now, his brother Bill pointed out the other day, as soon as they knew him, recognized him, he vanished because they ought not to have been a demand. And so he vanished out of their sight. There was a work in their hearts that drew them back to Jerusalem. And now as they join themselves to the other disciples who were gathered together in Jerusalem, it doesn't say Jesus came and stood with them.
He came and stood in the midst. There's quite a difference between the Lord Jesus being with believers individually and being in the midst collectively. And it really is only in the path of corporate obedience, as we often point out, the man bearing the following, the man bearing the picture of water, the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit, that we can claim to have the Lord in the midst collectively. And so when it's the midst, it's the focal point.
You know, there's been lots of brethren together with us here this weekend, but there's only one person we've spoken of as being in the midst of being the focal point. No other brother or sister has been the focal point of these meetings. They've been with us and we with them, but it's the Lord Jesus I trust we see in the midst that's the focal point. It's the hub of the wheel that we often use the illustration of. And so it's beautiful now that when they return, their hearts burn within them. They return.
There's the others gathered together. The Lord comes and he stands in the midst. Maybe we compare some development of that.
Same in John's Gospel chapter 20. I think it's beautiful to see that point.
In verse 19.
And the same day of evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for privileges, came Jesus and stood in the mess.
01:10:13
Verse 26 After eight days, again his disciples were within Thomas with him. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, peace be unto you. I think that's a very important point to realize sometimes.
We say inadvertently, brethren, I think, uh, the Lord is not with all believers. That is not true. He is with all believers, but there is a place where he is in the mix. He is the reference point in connection with.
The Lord's table, it's his table, not ours. And I think it's because we live in a world that has been so tremendously affected by humanism that we have been LED in our thinking to shift and we make ourselves a reference point in connection with the truth of God.
And we get off on shaky ground, Brother, we need to get our focus back on the Lord. Is he?
That is the.
The reference point, and we need to keep that in view, and it's interesting to go through the word of God and see how often that expression is used.
Perhaps one of the first times is in Genesis chapter 2, where.
You have the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and you find it in the very last chapter of the Bible.
There's the Tree of Life transplanted to the heavenly Jerusalem in the midst of the street of it.
Beautiful brother, the Lord Jesus is the one who God has determined in his eternal purposes will occupy the central place. God has a gathering center in this world. It's the Lord Jesus. Let's not make it ourselves. It's the Lord Jesus, and if it's his glorious person, there can't be two or three rivals places, but it's keeping the focus on him and I find that.
When we inadvertently start making ourselves a reference point, we cause quite a bit of offense, and I don't think the Lord is pleased with that either. Brethren, we need to keep the focus on Him.
I tried to make.
Comments on Work 35.
And they told what things were advanced in the way and how he was known of them in the Express.
No doubt it was very interesting. He was thinking all the things that he called the on the way and he explained to them.
In all the scriptures that spoke about himself.
About 12 years and that took my eyes this year while he was known of them in the breaking of bread.
And I thought that to ourselves, how important is to us?
I talked to Pablo of Last Amazing and I asked them, uh, what is so important to you now and what catches that your importance and what do you like in the place that you are going now?
Yes, or I get is.
Well, we have such a nice pastor and there's such a nice man who shakes hands with everybody of us and he is so dreadful and he is such a good man and that is really what we like there.
And I thought, well, how is that possible? Because the breaking of bread is what the Lord Jesus himself.
Initiated among us.
01:15:01
Did he say?
That he would be in the midst of us.
With two of three agenda together in his name, that He would be in the midst of us and we are when we are.
Together to break bread. We believe that He is in the midst of us Daughtry.
And if we don't have that, how, how can we then say it would be in the midst of us?
I have heard some say it's a commandment that we have to be together for the break in your breath, because the God who said that the Lord said this drew in the remembrance of me, so we can do it. But that's not true.
We don't have to do it. Our heart is drawn toward Him and we want to do it. And what if we don't have it? We are missing something.
I know when we were underway and we didn't break bread anymore, we were very sad because we were missing the Lord in the main among his people and we were going back to the place where they were very impressed.
And then we could be happy again.
And I believe that is actually the central point, that when the Lord Jesus is through in remembrance of me, that we do that out of the innermost of our hearts, not just because we are them. It just has to be there.
It's it's because of the atmosphere, because our hearts are draw towards the road. That's why we want to be there and that's what I saw.
And be so important in this world. How he was known of them in the breaking of breath.
As long as we recognize who is in the midst, then we're going to be preserved there, aren't we? That's what's going to keep us. I've noticed that sometimes you have a young person, or maybe someone not so young, who comes to the meetings and they see from Scripture and the power of the Spirit that the Lord is in the midst, and they're thankful to see it. They asked to remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, and they speak of the Lord's table and so on.
And then perhaps time goes on, but you never heard someone say when they left the assembly that they were leaving the Lord. You ever hear someone say, well, I'm going to leave the Lord, I'm not going to come to meeting anymore. No. Why? Because they have lost sight of who it is that's there. They've got their eyes on something else, maybe people, maybe dear brethren. And thank God they are dear brethren. Maybe some circumstance. Maybe as Brother Eckert said, they see something out there that has attracted them.
Uh, more, but they really, the, the bottom line is they've really lost sight of who it is that's in, in the mid. And brethren, if we can keep Christ as the focus or the reference point, as Bob has said, that's what's going to preserve us even amid difficulties in the whole pathway of the Lord Jesus. When the disciples had the Lord as the focal point, they went on happily together when they got occupied with one another or some circumstance or something that was going on in with some others.
Then there were problems, then there were fears, there were conflicts, there were troubles, there was bickering amongst one another, but as long as they had the Lord Jesus as that reference point, that is what kept them going on together happily with the Lord Jesus and brethren, that is what is going to preserve us. To tell you a little story, I knew a sister, she's with the Lord now, but there were some difficulties in the assembly where she was and.
She had told the brother that this was it, she wasn't going to come to meeting anymore and not to expect her that next Lords day at the breaking of bread. Well the brother didn't say much to her but he simply said to her remember one thing sister, he hath done nothing amiss amiss and that it is he who is in the midst. Well this brother told me himself. He said 5 to 11 came and always seemed to be there and he looked around and he thought well she's not going to come and.
01:20:09
Set at about one minute to 11:00, the door opened, my sister walked in and sat down at the Lord's table, and she was preserved there till the day the Lord took her. I had the privilege of taking her funeral. But she realized through that statement that it was the Lord there that was the drawer, it was the Lord that was the gatherer. And as long as we keep that, brethren before us, I say we'll be preserved and encouraged to go on. Not that we become indifferent to difficulties. Sometimes they arise and they need to be dealt with.
But if Christ is really the focal point, then we're going to be there. And can I just say this too, before we pass on from this subject, There is a day coming when the Lord Jesus is going to have all of his own around him. And in Revelation 5, he's going to be in the midst of the heavenly company. And if we were to go back to the Old Testament, there's a day coming when he's going to be in the midst of his earthly people as well. And you get that in Zephaniah and and other of the Old Testament prophet. And what a joy it's going to be to his heart to be in the midst of his own.
In the coming day and their unhindered, he'll be the object. But brethren, he doesn't want to have to wait until that day.
He wants the joy. He wants the joy now of having.
His own around himself and being the reference point and being in the midst, He wants the joy. And brethren, if it brings joy to His heart, think of what it will do to our hearts to seek grace, to be there to satisfy His heart until He comes.
I think there will be disciples as becoming an appointed know the Lord and resurrection of life.
And they had known him on earth as an earthly man, and now he lives a ruthless man. And this was a new, relaxed form of relationship. And this is the way, the basis that we know the Lord too.
We know our mental man, he's not even on earth, he's in heaven, but as being born again and having a life of nature from himself by the Spirit of God, we.
Learn to appreciate him in a relationship. We have him as, uh, the one in the midst, umm, if we might just go back and trace briefly and in loop when he was born.
In the second chapter it says verse 14 Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward him the Lord came, bringing peace in the world.
On Earth, it was there for them, but they rejected him.
Chapter 12 and verse 5051 It says, Suppose ye, that I am come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division.
What a sad consequence here is developed because of their rejection. He becomes the dividing point and uh, there is not peace on earth anymore.
Where is the beach to be found? It's on a new plane. It's on resurrection ground. And so these disciples, it says where we read through fear of the Jews, they were in the gathered shut the with the door shut. You might say they're afraid. Well, well, they might if you think of peace on earth.
But the Lord is showing them a new ground where peace can reign and where they can dwell.
That with himself in the midst.
And so it's, it's, it's as we've had, you know, collectively having him before us that that piece can be enjoyed.
Says here in this chapter that's UMM in verse 33, that they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 gathered together in them that worked with them. And so the means Jerusalem I believe means the UMM.
Possession of peace gauging 1. The believer is not just to have peace. Salem is peace, mean peace, perfect peace. Nothing that can be added to it. But Jerusalem means the possession of peace. It also has the meaning of the abode of harmony. Not nice. It's a picture of the divine Saturn. And God wanted his people to dwell in peace with himself amidst there's something else that's, uh, very precious of my own soul. Perhaps you've enjoyed it. But if you turn to Acts chapter one.
01:25:24
You see there the prominence that in Luke's writing in connection with the Upper Room. And so it says that's chapter one and verse 13. Let's read from, uh, verse 12.
Then return the unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, the 7th day's journey. And when they were coming, they went up into it should say the upper room, where both both Peter and James would get the whole of the company that was there. And the 1St 14 all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And then you get in chapter 2.
I believe that they were this, uh, statement that they were with, uh, all and with one and four, chapter 2, verse one, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one important one place. And perhaps that wasn't that upper room in the church was formed and that we have this little indication, perhaps I suggest that it was in the upper roof and that's with the Lord itself and that, umm, they had left the company of their brand new and how he just gives them to understand, gives us to understand, gives us this encouragement.
That we need one another, and Lord would desire to gather us to where He is in the midst and we need one another. We need everyone. And umm, the Lord is the precious character to shepherd waited for these dear ones to come, and they were there when He appeared. He waited for Him to arrive. And so it's a very strange thing. Not only that He wanted to be with them in the midst, but He wanted those two to be there. And then He himself will say that He's not in there.
I would just ask that do we thank the Lord for the assembly? Do we thank the Lord that we see him in the midst by faith? It's a wonderful faith to take into, uh, enjoy provision of the Lord himself, His heart club. He introduced them to that upper room.
And, uh, and this provision and the biggest, uh, great that we might see in this presence and enjoy in the midst, we all be thankful for it.
And I like the spirit in which you put that out, Brother Robert, because.
Sad to say, let's be honest.
This precious truth has become an object of much controversy and argument and bad feeling and offense.
But it's presented in this chapter.
In a totally different life, it's presented as the focal point of healing and comfort for those that, on the one hand, had experienced a great deal of difficulty, has seen their hopes, their aspirations and everything seemingly shattered.
And yes, the Lord was revealing to them in a far more wonderful way that which would supersede in every way what they had hoped for. They were looking for an earthly Kingdom. The Lord was going to give them a heavenly Kingdom. They were looking for something that would be established down here. The Lord was going to give them something that was far better up there. They were looking for a continuation of everything under Judaism. The Lord says I have something far, far better.
That was, and I admit that it is not revealed here. It's later on, but the seeds of it are here. The Lord is at worse as I'm going to reveal something that has been hidden in God from long before the foundation of the world, and it's about to be brought out, the councils of God concerning the church. And so the Lord's presence here is not given to us as something which is to create controversy and division. Sad to say, in the hands of man. It has done that.
But it's presented here as the one who.
As he had met their needs and met their problems collectively or individually, Now he is going to become, as we've had at the focal point collectively. And what a beautiful thing that is. He'll be, if we could say it, the focal point up there in heaven. And every believer recognizes that. How wonderful that he wants to have that place down here among his people.
01:30:07
Union with Christ could not be experienced when He was down here in this world was good. It was consequent upon His death and resurrection and ascension into glory that now we are brought into that wonderful position of union with Christ and glory. It's a reality, brethren, you and I are intimately connected with the real man of flesh and bones in the glory of God.
He is the head of this church and we are the members of his body. But I, I enjoy this uh in verse 39 says, behold my hands and my feet that it is by myself. Handle me and see for a spirit.
That not flesh and bones, as ye see me have noticed in First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 50.
The apostle here says now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. What characterizes life in our bodies, our natural bodies down here in connection with the first creation is flesh and blood. The life is in the in the blood. You read that?
The other night in Leviticus 17. And so that's what is characteristic of life in these bodies today. But in new creation, and I like to think of it, brethren, it's not the second creation, it's new creation because it is characteristically new. It will always be new. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot die. Its connection with incorruption and immortality.
Wonderful to think of it. Never age, Never ever any.
Thought of dying in connection with new creation and so the Lord Jesus in new creation says a spirit hath not flesh and bones, so it's very real body that he had he said handle me and see.
Yes, they can touch him. He was very real physically, but not in flesh and blood. It was in flesh and bones because it was a connection with new creation.
I'd like to hear a mark. I'm sorry. Excuse me. You're going to finish your remark. Go ahead.
Well, only going to reiterate what was said the other day and that is that what a thought it is to our hearts that the Lord Jesus.
Has a resurrection body today, and he ascended up to heaven with that resurrection body. And when the Lord comes for us, you and I too will have a resurrection body. And as you say, Brother Bob, there will be nothing.
In that resurrection body to remind us in any way of sin. I remember being at a funeral quite a few years ago.
And a husband and father had gone to be with the Lord, and his body had been wasted by.
Along both with cancer that had so shall we say? I don't know whether the word disfigured is right, but so wasted his body that he was scarcely recognizable, and to such an extent that the casket was closed.
And I remember saying to his son, who was about my age, I said to him, his name was Bob. I said, well, Bob, I said, the next time we see your father, it will be a body of glory. And he responded beautifully because he knew the Lord, too. And he said, oh, yes, Bill, won't it be wonderful? And I said, your father won't even have Gray hair.
Well, his father was one of those people who had had a full head of hair all his life.
But he had gone prematurely Gray, so that his son had never remembered him with anything but Gray hair. Oh, he said. I never thought of that. He said. My father without Gray hair.
01:35:03
But suddenly it dawned on him. Yes, his father was not born with Gray hair. His father didn't have Gray hair in grade school. His father would have not one little aspect of sin when he saw him again. Well, that's intended to be a practical encouragement to our hearts.
But there is one that will have marks in his body up there, and that's the Lord Jesus. He'll have those marks, the only one that will have any mark that will remind us of this world and shall we say it, of sin in order that we might never forget that He suffered force. This morning we had a loaf and a cup of force, and we won't have that in heaven. But there will be those nail prints in that spear mark in His side that will always remind us for all eternity.
How are we there? Because he hung on Calvary's crumbs. Sorry, Bob, Go ahead.
Well, I was just going to ask the question. In verse 40 it says he showed them his hands and his feet.
Why is it in John's Gospel he shows them his hands and his side? Why the difference?
Well, it is John and only John that records that a soldier with a spear appears to his side and forth with came throughout blood and water. And it's John who later on in his epistle takes up the ground of our fellowship and communion. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and as a result fellowship one with another.
Brought into that circle of fellowship and what is the basis of it? The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sins. We use that part of that verse in the gospel last night. I used to wonder why it was that that that statement was there where he's speaking about fellowship and communion there in the first chapter of first John. But that's really it, isn't it? It's the basis of our fellowship. How can we have fellowship with the Father and with the sons? How are we brought into the circle of fellowship with one another as a result?
It's the blood of Christ that's the basis. So John is the one who records the soldier with a spear piercing his side. And John and John, he shows them that mark that he had received at that time when forthwith flowed throughout blood and water. But in Luke, he's the perfect man in the circumstances of life down here. And so it's his, his hands and his feet, those hands that had served and dispensed blessing on every hand.
Those feats that had traversed the dusty streets of Palestine as the perfect man, they had been pierced. And so, as Bill said, he's going to retain those marks. I think it's illustrated very beautiful in the what we often refer to as the law of the leopard, where you have the two birds.
Remember, in Leviticus 14, one of those birds was killed in an earthen vessel over running water.
That bird speaks of Christ going into death, but then there was a second bird which speaks of Christ in resurrection and ascension, because after the first bird was killed and his blood was shed, the second bird was let loose in an open field.
But before that bird was let loose in the open field, the blood from the first bird was taken and sprinkled on the feathers of the live bird. And as that bird winged its way to the open heavens, it bore on its feathers the marks of atonement. And so we sometimes sing that hymn. And his own wounds in heaven declare the atoning work is done. And when we see those wounds, brethren, it's interesting that it never refers to them as scars.
You know, a scar is something that heals over, a wound is something that's fresh. And even the God's earthly people, when they're restored in a coming day, what do they say? What are these? Not scars, but what are these wounds? A wound is something I say that's fresh. And rather, there will be a fresh reminder for all eternity of what the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross for the glory of God and for our eternal blessing. And we're never going to forget for all eternity the basis on which.
We have been brought into eternal blessings.
Was that your thought too, Bob? Do you see it that way? Hmm.
I'd like to make just a very, very practical application, brethren, in connection with something that we've already said and spoken of at great lengths. And then the fact that the Lord Jesus says to them, have ye here any meat? Now we've been speaking about the assembly and the corporate aspect of things and so on. And perhaps there's a hint here that in this chapter that there are two things, other things, but in this chapter two things.
01:40:29
That ought to characterize the place where the Lord is in the midst. One is peace, we've spoken of that, and the other is food or sustenance. And I just want to say a word to those of us who are a little further along in the past and have responsibility. I know there's brothers here who have responsibility in your local assembly and so on. You know, we ought to keep this before our souls at all times.
Are our local assemblies a place of peace and rest for ourselves, for our families, and for our brethren? And are they a place where the Saints of God can come and be fed? Notice he says to the disciples, he could have produced something to eat, as he did on other occasions. But he says to them, Have ye any need often think of that We go home, you know, we come together on an occasion like this, and.
Been some good things before us to feed our souls. But brethren, what about on Wednesday night? What about in the local reading meetings? In the local meetings for ministry, are we exercised that we would come with some meat that there would be food for, for those that are there? I want to, if you'll allow me, I want to connect 2 verses in the Old Testament in this regard that I've exercised my own soul. Going to read them. They might seem like strange verses, but we'll make a little application.
The first one is in Proverbs chapter 26.
Proverbs, chapter 26.
And verse two. Now I'm going to read this in Mr. Darby's translation.
Progress 26 and verse 2 as the Sparrow for flitting about as the Sparrow as the swallow by flying. Going to stop there because that's what I want to point out, the Sparrow flitting about, the swallow flying. Now let's go to Psalm 84 where you have those two birds brought together again.
Psalm 84 and verse 3.
Yeah, the Sparrow hath found in house.
And the swallow and nest for herself where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God, my wife likes to feed the birds in the winter. And we have a bird feeder outside our kitchen window. And if you watch those sparrows as they come to the feeder, they're continually flitting about. They seem like a very nervous bird. They just never seem to stop. And they they're on the feeder and down on the snow and on the branches continually flitting about.
The swallow is brought before us in Scripture as the restless bird. We used to watch them at the cottage when I was a boy. They'd come out at the twilight and they'd just swoop back and forth across the lake, no doubt getting those insects that fly at twilight a very restless bird. But here we find in the 84th Psalm that the nervous bird and the restless bird have found a place of rest for themselves and for their young.
A place of peace, a place where there can be that rest and sustenance that's needed. And rather, that's what the assembly ought to be. You notice in the 84 song, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. And when we come to the assembly, brethren, do we make it a place where there's contention? Do we come with a lack of something to offer for the sustenance of ourselves and for our brethren?
Or are we exercise that rather than it being a place where everybody is nervous about what's gonna happen or be said, or some problem where everybody's restless because of things that are going on? No, that ought not to characterize the assembly. Well, I know we've got a little way. It's just an application. But I just thought he said peace be to them, peace be unto you. You don't have to be a place of peace. And he said, have the enemy, brethren, do we have any meat when we come to the local assembly?
01:45:04
Can you say?
Jim that the Lord could have produced it, which is true, but it is interesting and even in his life down here He is the means that were at end and even though they were perhaps something that was so small like this. 5 loaves and two fishes.
Got that little boy brought. What was that in comparison with the need when that was put into the Lord's hands?
It became enough to feed all. And there was.
Something to take back with them when they went back 12 baskets fallen. I I think that's an encouragement too. To us. You might say, what do? I don't have anything.
Don't despise small things, put it into the hands of Lord. You younger brother, you have a question. Sometimes a question opens things up in a very good way in an assembly meeting, but the exercise in the Lord's presence with little you may have.
To bring it out so that the Lord can take it and use that with our souls. I think that's an important point.
The Lord seems to be established as well with some union or fellowship with them in the act of need this year. There's something about when you leave it together that the bonding is more close and it's it's the way of one way of expressing fellowship business.
They actively even the world recognizes this principle and they were they were having a hard time getting this concept of the Lord of Allah and that in that notation he be killed was near them incapable of enjoying fellowship with them. Now we don't see the Lord in our midst, but it's he is taking great care and especially in asking them for food. That's one thing they can produce the food, but it's another thing to ask them for the food they contributed to food and then he took it and ate it before them.
That really bonded them together, didn't it? And uh, so how it shows us how the Lord's desires our fellowship.
Well, going on here, we find that the Lord then begins to speak to them.
In verse 43, he takes what they had offered and eats it. As you say, Doug, it bonds them together. But then he points out that all of this was what he had said to them. It was only a reflection of what had been given very clearly in the law and the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms.
What a wonderful revelation.
He had no doubt gone over all of that with those on the way to Emmaus, but now he reminds his disciples, and what does he do here? He opens their understanding.
Sometimes you and I find a bit of fault with the disciples, at least I do, in not being more intelligent. The Lord had over and over again told them he had to go to the cross, He had to suffer, and that he would rise again the third day. They couldn't seem to get it, as we would say in modern language, and even after he had obviously risen from the dead and the evidence was very clear, somehow, as we see here, it was very hard for them to.
Understand what all of that meant.
But we need to remember too that they were operating as we might say.
On Old Testament ground, they hadn't yet received the Spirit of God. What a difference it means when the Lord opens our understanding. Now we know, of course, that the Spirit of God didn't come down until some time after this, on the day of Pentecost. Well, what a difference it is when the Lord opens our understanding. And I would suggest that there is an order here that is important to us.
On the one hand, we find individuals who are in difficulty, individuals who didn't understand, individuals who evidently were in the wrong path, and the Lord meets them, as we have said, where they were and brings them back. Then there is the collective aspect brought in. The Lord brings them to the place where He is in the midst.
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And what is the result? He opens their understanding.
I appreciated what our brother Don said in the address as to how busy Satan is today seeking to turn souls aside from the pathway of obedience, seeking to draw us into error, and how much error there is in the world today. How many strange ideas there are concerning even the Word of God. How many winds of doctrine as we get in Ephesians 4 there are blowing around and how many deer Saints of God there are being caught up in it.
Is there an antidote to that?
I believe there is. We don't have to be that way. Are we willing to again use that word synchronize? Are we willing to be synchronized with the Lord's thoughts? Are we willing to have Him show us His mind? Are we willing to be where He is?
Then we'll find that he will open up our understanding, I believe.
Nice to see here too, that he says to them in verse 41, how do you hear any need? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and even honeycomb, and he took it and didn't eat the four of them. And so I suggested as his portion, he desires to have a first place, a place of preeminence. And he comes into the assembly and he is to be missed. And he desires a portion for his own heart. And what a privilege it is for us rather than to be in the presence of the Lord and to give him a fortunate rightfully is and is a sweetness to his own soul.
And means to himself.
And so it's a privilege not only to come and they seem to be fed ourselves, but uh, what approved it is to give them a portion for his little soul. We find too, that on the road to Emmaus He expounded unto them from Moses and the prophets. But now there's something else, isn't there? Moses the prophet and the Psalms. Now I can't say I fully enter into why if the Psalms are added here and why he didn't expound to them from the Psalms on the Emmaus Rd. But.
I suggest that perhaps their hearts weren't in a condition for Him to expound from the Psalms on the Emmaus Road, and that it took being back in the place, if I can put it this way, of corporate obedience before He could expound to them in that way. Because it is the psalms, the sufferings of Christ in the Psalms, that largely bring out our affect. Our hearts tug at our heartstrings.
It's often been pointed out that in the Gospels we have the facts concerning the life and work of the Lord Jesus, but we must go back to the Psalms to get the feelings and expressions and the innermost breathing of the Lord Jesus. Expressions that you don't have in the Gospel Gospels are brought out in the Psalms. And isn't that why, brethren, on Lord's Day morning, when we're together to remember the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread, we often go back.
And read those psalms, the 22nd Psalm, the 69th Psalm, the 102nd Psalm, and so many of those psalms that bring before us the expressions of the Lord Jesus as He took up the work of the work of atonement.
Expressions concerning His sufferings at the hand of man and at the hand of God. And that is what really tugs at our heartstrings. But it seemed like it wasn't until they were back with the others now.
And their hearts had burned within them. They were in the place of obedience, He in the midst. Then he brings out the things concerning himself, not only in Moses and the prophets, but in the Psalms. But maybe there's more to it than that.
No, I think that's to me anyway, that's right on Jim, because it's we Get the facts of the God of the Lord's sufferings in the Gospels. You get the breathings of his heart and how he felt inwardly, whether from himself, from the sufferings from man, or shall we say it with reverence, His sufferings from the hands of God In Psalm 22, you get that in Psalms and that involves.
Our hearts getting close to him, doesn't it? It draws out our affection. It's not merely head knowledge, it's heart knowledge.
Don't we see in his his questions? Also, just to come back a little bit to the hands and the feet again. His hands he used for blessings when he touched the leopard who nobody was supposed to touch.
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He touched the lever and was healed.
It goes through babies that were brought to him into his arms, but his disciples were trying to hinder them. He told me through his arms and he stroked him as a lease and and he blessed them. How much of A joy in my fantasy for the mothers when they could say about this space has been in the eyes of the Lord.
Thank you to that.
What? What a joy for the whole night that you must have been.
So no land trials is crucially blessed by the gorgeous and so I read all personally blessed by him when we are living in his presence. When we come together, we are blessed by him and we we might not realize that that it is true and when we think of his fees.
How many trips did you make with it? He he went all the way out his tire and came back. How many times did he come back to Jerusalem then just to do a service for his people? How many extra trips did he do? All walking with his feet. And then when we laid, he had no horse. Ever Let me read them.
And when we think of the suffering also when they grow those Mayo shoes to hand and their feet, there were suffering involved police. When we think that if that should ever happen to us, the suffering that this would cause and the suffering that also caused.
To him and the enemies, they must have done that on purpose, that they would just use his hands as a peaceful nail in my hair on the trees cause an extra suffering.
We see these shows in the hands of his feet and then he he has fellowship with them. He says, do you have any food? And and they give him some food they need to eat and then he eat it. That's like having a fellowship with them. It's preparing them before to send them out and serve as witnesses to him. But he shares to them the suffering that he has to endure. And I want to suggest that. So let's first go over to.
Her computer, Chapter one, chapter 2.
It's the Lord puts on your heart to serve Him.
Prepared to have fellowship in his suffering, and I believe that may be why he showed it. I think that his hands were to speak to show them that he had to suffer for them. And he says here in first Peter chapter 2.
And verse 21 For even here unto where you fall, because Christ also suffered through us, leaving us an example that he should follow and finish steps. And so if you're going to fall in the steps of the Lord to serve him who may encounter some suffering. And I'd like to turn to a verse in Matthew 26.
Lord Jesus here and inverted 3036 onwards. He's in prayer to the Father. Verse 38 He says my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
And he still says he praised the father of the father. It could be possible.
If this comes in, I'll pass away from you, except I drink it. Thy will be done.
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And the Lord is comparing his disciples. He gives them the message He understands, so they understand what the sufferings were, so they could present the gospel, and so that they might know that they could have to have fellowship.
Suffering, we may have to take up the truck and follow the Lord Jesus when Abraham the Lord told him.
Take your son and offer him up on the mouth, and I shall tell him.
As a service that Abraham was doing.
But cost him. It cost him the life of his son and he suffered during that encounter. The Lord preserved his son, but Abraham had to sustain. And the Lord is going to. He wants to work with us to get us to the point where where our malignant is the same as his life. And we may need to go through some suffering before we get to that point.
And then one of the thirds in, uh, Roman chapter 8.
Roman Chapter 3 and 3017.
If so, be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.
And so the Lord Jesus wants to guide us and direct us.
And and prepare us for for service for him. But it's not for all about us. It's about the Lord Jesus and his glory.
In that connection, Tim, I would suggest that there are two aspects of.
Sharing.
The fellowship of the Lord's sufferings. On the one hand, as we well know, we can never share anything to do with the sufferings.
That brought us to himself. We know that. And in Philippians 3 there the fellowship of his sufferings, I believe, is in connection.
With knowing him, that I may know him in the fellowship of his sufferings, and then something that doesn't seem to fit the power of his resurrection, but the power of his resurrection is mentioned first. It says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings. A brother made this statement many years ago, and I repeat it because it's worth remembering. He said all our blessings come through the.
Obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus.
And our enjoyment of those blessings comes in the same way. And so I would suggest that in following a rejected Christ, we are going to appreciate Him and appreciate our blessings through suffering. Not very pleasant in one sense, not very pleasant to think about, but yet that's the way the Lord works with us. But then there is the aspect of service, and that's brought in next in the chapter here because.
What we have here in verse 47 and 48, I would suggest is properly the Commission to the church today. There are other commissions given, for example, in Matthew that have more of a Jewish context to them, and we don't of course, object in any way to their being used in application today. But the fulfillment really awaits the tribulation period and the ushering into the Millennium.
And so that's why the Lord says I am with you in Matthew 28 until the end of the age. Not I am with you until I come, but till the end of the age. But here in Luke, as befitting the character of the gospel, it's really the Christian Commission. And where does the blessing start? Right in the very place where the Lord had been crucified. What a what a tribute to the grace of God.
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The very place where there had been the worst opposition to the Lord, the worst acts of hatred and enmity against God's beloved Son. There God says, as it were, and I'm going to start right here where the worst sin has been manifested. The blessing is going to begin. And that Commission goes on with you and me today. We have that responsibility today year, witnesses of these things, remission of sins preached in his name among all nations.
Is there going to be suffering in connection with that? Yes, there is, in one way or another. We don't feel that much of it in these favored lands, but we feel it. And some of our dear brethren that are laboring for the Lord in other places are feeling a lot more of it. But nevertheless, this is the pathway that the Lord has given us. And so they're suffering in two senses. First of all, in knowing Christ, in identifying with Him and suffering with Him.
And learning of him, learning the power of his resurrection.
But then there is suffering for him in service. Both are part of the life of the believer, aren't they? And then he tells them that he's going to give them the power that's needed in his absence to go forth with the message and to suffer. And whatever was ahead for them, he wasn't going to leave them without power. And so he tells them to remain at Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from on high. And we know that on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God descended.
The Lord Jesus had explained it in John's gospel in the upper room, how He wasn't going to leave them comfortless, He was going to send the Spirit and he would abide with them and in them and so on, and that he would be the power for their lives in His absence. And isn't that wonderful, brethren, to realize that whatever He puts before us, we have all the power that's needed. We spoke of the power of His resurrection. The same power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead is not our disposal the Spirit of God.
Innocent with us is the power for us to go forth with the message.
We often speak of how when we present the gospel, we pray that we'll do it in the power of the Spirit, because it's the Spirit of God that is the mighty energy in which God has always worked. And So what a comfort this must have been if the disciples understood it fully. What a comfort it must have been for them to realize that he, well, he was giving them a Commission here he says, I'm going to give you everything that's needed. You know, I might give one of my children a task to do.
Or I might be in business and give one of my employees a task to do, but I may not give the mall the tools that are needed to do it, may not give the mall the resources that are needed or be able to. But the Lord Jesus, he doesn't set this before the disciples and then say, now figure out how to do it on your own. Or you go out and round up some power to do it. Now he says you stay right here and the moment will come when you'll get the power the Spirit of God will be given, and then you can go forth in that power. And so when we come to the book of Acts and Luke develops and gives us this, the pattern of things in the early church.
We find that it probably would be probably better to call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. Not so much the Acts of the Apostles that they were the instruments, they were the players at the time, so to speak, but it's the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and that Spirit is with us until the work is done. Can I just say one thing on that? I want others to take part too, but I think this is important.
That power is at our disposal.
When we are in the mind of the Lord and in the pathway of obedience.
We can do much with human energy.
A believer in China who had spent some time, and this is not a slam at the United States, He probably would have said something the same in Canada. But America being so much bigger, of course, he was here in the United States for a while and someone asked him. He was a believer. Someone asked him, he said, and what impressed you most in the United States? And his answer was revealing. He said what impressed me was how much Americans can do without God.
What did he mean? He meant that they were confident. And again, we don't pick on the United States. We're guilty of it in other nations, too. But there is a tendency where we have a lot of things at our disposal, a lot of resources, a lot of wealth, a lot of technology to rely on that even in the Christian pathway, and much can be accomplished. That man spoke from a Chinese perspective where they didn't have all that, at least not the believers anyway.
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And what they had to accomplish, they accomplished in God's power and independence upon Him, because they had nothing else. And that's what you and I need, don't we? If we're in the pathway of the Lord's will, if we're in the pathway of obedience, all His powers behind us, far, far more than human energy.
That should encourage us to do what we can with what's before us. And each one of us. Don't wait for somebody else to do it. If the Lord lays it on your heart, you do it. The Lord will open it up in the measure that you are faithful in what He has put into your hands. Oh, I have seen so much blessing in Latin America by ones you would least expect, but they in their measure used what God gave to them.
So it's an encouragement to us all.
The sequence that we see in these verses is, uh, is, is very revealing. If there's that we talked about the corporate relationship, our relationship to the Lord in a corporate sense and, uh, going into him.
Comes first, followed by the understanding being opened, followed by the Commission to serve him, and that's a sequence that we all should be following.
If we're going to be, umm, faithful servants, because, uh, without that, it's so likely to be in our own strength. And we see plenty of that where the, the sequence has been reversed. And among certain kinds of fellowships where the preaching of the gospel is absolutely number one and it's only relegated to a pretty minor position. The occasional remembrance of the Lord going into his presence. I think the power comes from.
Following the sequence as it's outlined in the scripture.
While the chapter began, our time is almost gone. The chapter began with resurrection, the empty tomb, but now it ends with the open heavens to receive the Lord Jesus in ascension. And that's important, isn't it? Because Christianity not only sets us in relationship with Christ in resurrection, but ascension Christianity connects us with a glorified head of the right hand of God.
And so on the day of Pentecost, as Luke will takes up in the second chapter of Acts, we find that the Spirit of God descended and connected those believers that were gathered there in obedience to the word of the Lord. He told them to remain at Jerusalem and there were about 120 there in that upper room, and it linked them, connected them with the man in the glory. And so Christianity sets us in relationship with the man in the glory.
And someone has said, I think you've said it rather, Clem, that Christianity starts the other side of the cloud. Maybe you can give us something of that. Yeah. Perhaps. Yeah. Because it. Yeah.
So that's where we're going.
The glory. But it is beautiful to see Him. The last they saw of Him as He went up, His hands were uplifted in blessing. And so now we can look up into the heavens by faith, and see Him there with His hands still uplifted, His interceding for us brethren. There His service goes on, and if it wasn't for His.
The power of his intercession as our great High Priest.
To help us in our weaknesses and our advocate when we fail.
Two of us would be still here. You and I would not be here if it wasn't for the power of His resurrection. Not because of our abilities, not because of our strength, but because of that man and the glory that we can go on by. The Lord leads us down here.
And that we read and he let them out as far as the bathroom.
And you live through that. And then the last seven it says.
You let them as far as preventative, there was quite a stretch to go. He didn't just say, OK, now it's time for me to go and go leave. No, he left them first.
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And that must have been quite a few of them that followed there on their way. Just a word for us to be led by Him and to follow Him.
And then spread the production that also comes those who were left behind, they did not receive the blessings.
So they are more and I believe they are difficult. And he sent to follow him. He left him out as far not as close as far as the Bethany. And there you have stood up his hands. And today what a wonderful.
Day on instant redmanship range to stand there and be blessed by him.
And those that were left behind, there were three things characterized them, worship, joy, and praise. And that ought to be what characterizes us. We have a man in the glory with, as Bob said, with his hands uplifted for us, interceding for us the right hand of God. And as we realize that, brethren, does not produce worship, doesn't that give us joy in the midst of difficult circumstances? Doesn't that create praise in our souls? It will if we're really looking up.
And occupied with that man, you'd think that they'd be sorrowful in his absence, that there would have been sorrow. But when they realized what had taken place, I say there was worship, there was joy, there was praise. And as we leave this place, we've taken up this chapter, we've enjoyed some things together rather than I trust that there is that result in our souls as we've got a fresh glimpse of the Lord Jesus and where he is now.
That there might be that worship and joy and praise in our souls as well.
It says the 22nd of Revelation worship God.
Worship Him, give him the 1St place.
295.
Holy Savior, we adore thee.
Holy slave, your will an only.
Threatened.
On the throne.
Of God.
Save your Wimbledon.
What I'm saying by the sea.