Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to just call attention in this chapter to a few instances where we have the thought of returning. There are many that have already started to return to their homes. And all of us, if the Lord leaves us here a little longer, we're going to have to return. And I think there's some very interesting little occasions here where this thought is brought before us. And I just like to read a few verses.
Luke 24 and verse 9.
And return from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the 11, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with him, which told these things.
The apostles then going down to the 13th verse, and behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about 3 score furlongs.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened, and it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding Holden that they should not know him.
Then going down to the 32nd verse. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? And he rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon.
And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of bread.
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them.
Peace be unto you. Then going down a little farther in the chapter in the.
Last verse of the chapter.
The pardon me, the second last verse. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
Well, I was just thinking, brethren, how these instances in this chapter where they return?
And as I say, the Lord will, each of us are going to return, but we see different conditions in connection with their return and different lessons. I believe that we can see, and I trust the Lord will speak to each one of our hearts that there may be something that will be a blessing to us as we return.
The first part of the chapter, we see that there were those women who came out and were the first witnesses of the Lord Jesus resurrection. How beautiful this is to see a sister's part. You know, there's going to be a lot of conversation as we return from these meetings. Sisters have a big part in this conversation and isn't it very lovely to see these women? Spirit of God particularly mentions their names and that they had the privilege of coming.
And it tells us here in this ninth verse, and return from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the 11 and to all the rest. There were those that didn't have the same energy and affection as these dear women had. And so they talked about what they had learned about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Isn't it blessed for us too to speak about him?
We have a risen, living Savior, one who's up there at the right hand of God.
And they had witnessed this, the Lord Jesus himself, as we learned from another gospel.
Had spoken to Mary he'd made himself known to her and said to her, go tell my disciples I ascend unto my father and your father and to my God and your God. What a message these dear women had to carry. What an influence sisters have in the home and in the assembly. And I believe it's beautifully brought out here and so as we return we can carry back something that will be a blessing to.
Who are not here. These women certainly did, must have stirred the hearts of the disciples who perhaps didn't have as much spiritual energy as they did, that they carried this wonderful message back to them. We were speaking a little bit just among ourselves about this. And I've often said a remark that I read some years ago that's been a blessing to me in my life, and that is.
This brother, Brother Darby said Christianity is known by what it brings, not by what it finds.
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And that's always been a help to me, because we can get occupied about the things we find. Maybe things are in a bit of disorder in the home, in the assembly, a lot of things that could burden us and cast us down. The Lord Jesus came into this world. What kind of reception did he have? Well, he was born and placed in a Manger. As he grew up, they led him to the brow of the hill and were going to cast him down headlong. He didn't have.
Very welcome reception here in this world. But oh, what He brought, just think. And the blessing, the healing, the wounded hearts that He healed as well as the physical. And then above all, He brought salvation, and at what a cost. Well, brethren, as we go home, and I can say this to the Sisters too, and we're going to bring something, we can find things to point at. None of us are perfect and we can speak of those things, but they will never.
Edify anyone? But isn't it lovely? Here are these women went back and told the disciples about what they had seen and heard. Well, in a second instance that we have, we have a couple here. We only have the name of one, but we have every reason to believe it was husband and wife because we know that Cleophus did have a wife and we know that they shared the same home. Because of what?
So I believe we could say in this instance it was probably husband and wife. They weren't going back so happy and glad as those women.
They were going back with very sad, discouraged hearts, a lot of things they didn't understand.
They had expected that the Lord Jesus would at that time deliver Israel. They said we trusted that there had been he that would have delivered Israel. That's the that was their expectation. Maybe you came to these meetings and you were expecting something to happen. Especially I think of dear young people, you come, you expect something to happen.
And you go home, a kind of a heavy heart. It didn't happen. The Lord didn't seem to come in the way you had hoped and expected. And you feel just like these two, they were reasoning among themselves and talking over things. Things were pretty disappointing and frustrating to them. I think of a lot of our frustration. Frustration is because we wanted something to happen. We expected it to happen and it didn't happen. And we get kind of downcast as it was mentioned.
To us in the reading, even the dear brother, dear John the Baptist, we think of him, how he was discouraged because the Lord didn't take him out of prison and he had hoped that he would, I am sure. And so maybe the Lord hasn't taken you out of circumstances that you thought you wished he would. Well, they were going along discouraged. Were they going alone? No, it says Jesus himself.
Drew near and went with them. Were they conscious that he was there? No.
They were talking among themselves as though he were not present. But he is, brethren, a silent listener to every conversation.
He hears all and He's there in love. Do you think he came down to condemn them? Not one word of condemnation did he give. He asked them a few questions. Questions that searched their hearts, I'm sure. What things? And so they pour out their hearts and He invites us to do that.
Tells us in the 62nd Psalm, Pour out your hearts before Him. Trust in Him at all times. He is our rock. Yes, we can come to Him with confidence when no one understands but the Lord.
But he does, he fully understood just exactly how these disciples felt as they went down there toward their home in Emmaus, so discouraged that they actually, perhaps I could say we're going to miss a meeting. Yes, there was something going to go on at Jerusalem. And if it hadn't been with the Lord, met them and talked to them along the way, they wouldn't have been there. They were too discouraged. They didn't feel like going. Perhaps you feel like that sometimes I just don't feel like going out tonight.
Down. And so this is the way they felt. But wasn't it wonderful? The Lord Jesus came and he stirred their hearts, what with telling them that everything was going to be set righteous then, now, but he brought before them the things concerning himself.
He showed them that they would have to wait God's time. God's time was a long time. It hasn't taken place yet. The Lord hasn't yet redeemed Israel, but the time is going to come. And so the Lord encouraged their hearts and so much so that when they finally did reach their home, they said to the Lord, abide with us. Oh, how beautiful this is.
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As the little poem says, be not to me like a passing stranger who comes in to tarry for the night, abide with me.
Isn't that lovely? Not just to know him when we're at a three days meetings, not just to know him when we're together with the Lorde people, but when we return to our homes to have him. I believe this is a cure for many situations. We often talk about company manners.
We don't say and do things sometimes when we have company in our homes because we know they're watching, but we might act differently if the company were not there. But there is company in our home all the time, far more important than any company that we could think of inviting to our home. The Lord of glory, He's there, and He was in this home. And there, as they met and the meal was provided, He made himself known to them.
Oh, how precious that was. What a moment for their souls.
And I say again, we've heard quite a bit about the home. Wouldn't it be nice too, if we, when we went home, just did what these disciples did, said to the Lord Jesus, abide with us. I'm sure that would correct a lot of situations. Things that might be said wouldn't be sad if we were conscious that He was right there and that He cared and that He knew the whole situation and entered into it with us and for us. I believe it would be the cure for many things.
Abide with us. But the Lord didn't want them to be so discouraged that they wouldn't go back and be identified with their brethren. Maybe they weren't very faithful because they hadn't been there at the sepulchre like the women had been. And they might have said, oh, there's not much use going. There's not much spiritual energy in that little gathering. They didn't even come out to the sepulchre, and just a short time before they'd all forsook him in, fled.
But they knew that God did have a place where He wanted His people to be.
And they rose up the same hour of the night and went there. They went there not because they could look at the people and say it's a wonderful group of people, but I believe they would went they went there because they believed that that was where the Lord wanted his people to be, place where he had put his name. And they weren't disappointed.
They went there, and the Lord stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. What a lovely return this was. First we have those who return from the sepulchre with good news. Then we have those who are returning to their homes discouraged. Then we have these who return from their homes back to Jerusalem, to be where the Lord was in the midst, to see his blessed hands, and his feet and his side.
To know he was there, to know that redemption was accomplished, to know that blessing was now secured for them. Oh, how wonderful. How true for us brethren. How may we value the privilege? Not because of the people. In that 27 Psalm the psalmist said, one thing of I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to be with my brethren. No, to behold the beauty.
Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Yes, that's what we have to have before us, to behold the beauty of the Lord. We do like to be with our brethren. They can be, and they often are a real cheer and a help. Perhaps I hear somebody save it when I get with them. I don't know what to say, and I don't never seem to be able to say something to encourage them. Well, I'll just say this to you, that I got a lot of comfort out of that little passage in the last chapter of Acts.
Where Paul after that?
Tempestuous journey when they were wrecked at Melita, and when they finally got to Rome, it says that the brethren came out from Rome to meet him. And what did they say to Paul? I don't know. All it says is when he saw the brethren, he thanked God and took courage. Do you say I don't know what to say but a smile, just some little smile, Your presence, your happy presence to greet someone.
May mean an awful lot, might be a turning point in their lives. So here we find they went back, they weren't disappointed. And we find the Lord then commissioning these disciples that they could go out. Notice the 47th verse. And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem and ye.
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Are witnesses of these things, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tear ye in the city of Jerusalem until he be endued.
With power from on high. Well, we find here that the Lord was now commissioning that disciples, giving them a service that they could carry on during his absence. This is so lovely, isn't it? And then he led them out to Bethany. I believe it means the House of bread. So he is the one who feeds our souls, but he's gone up on high.
And he leads us out, as it were, and reminds us that our rest is not here. It's no longer a physical center.
It's a person. He's gone up on high. And so it tells us here. He brought them out now to Bethany. He had encouraged their hearts. And it says he lifted up his hands and blessed them. Oh, how blessed this is. How are we blessed? Well, with Israel there were material things blessed in their storehouse and in their barn.
Promises of health, promises of many things that God would bestow if they would walk in obedience.
And that he will bestow upon them in a millennial day and sovereign grace these promises. But for us, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Have sometimes thought about how Mary mistook the Lord and supposed him to be the gardener. I think I've done the same thing. I've mistaken the Lord for a gardener to make everything sort of nice and pretty and beautiful in my life. But.
He wasn't the gardener, he said to Mary. Now he said, I'm going back. The garden is up there. Down here, everything has been spoiled. Shall I say there's a sepulchre in the garden? Our precious Savior was crucified in the place where Jesus was laid was in a garden, a new sepulchre in Neverman yet laid. That's where the Lord Jesus was placed. That's what the world gave to him. But he's not in that sepulchre.
He's up there in glory. So he lifted up his hands and he blessed them, and as he blessed him, blessed them. He was parted from them. And what happened? Here's the last return. It says here the 52nd verse. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.
Amen. Yes, their hearts now were filled with worship.
And surely we after all the precious things that have been brought before us about our Lord and Savior.
And all these things that we see in this chapter and so many of the meetings occupying us with himself and the one that's gone up on high, the one whose last act was to lift up his hands and bless his people. And always say again, brethren, how richly were blessed the unsearchable riches of Christ. And he's up there on high. We see him. The cloud has received him, so to speak, out of our sight for the time being. And what are we doing?
Are we going to be like the two on the road to Emmaus, go back to our homes discouraged, things didn't happen the way we expected. There was a lot of frustration and disappointment. Or are we going to look up and say, oh, but all my hopes, everything that I expect and look for is in him and he's up there. And it says they returned with great joy. Oh, may we carry something of this joy with us. We all know that.
Prostate for joy.
JOY, Jesus first, others next, yourself last. That's the acrostic for joy. That's what the letters stand for. That's really what true joy is, to give the Lord his rightful place to seek to be a blessing to others. I say again, Christianity is known by what it brings, not by what it finds. And they were continually in the temple.
A brother is brought before us about that continuance, that going on.
May he enable us to continue on because there's a last return. It's not in this chapter.
But He's coming again. We find that in the first chapter of Acts, all these have to do with the returns of different ones of His own. The ones who returned from the sepulchre, the ones who are returning to their homes discouraged. The ones who encouraged went back to Jerusalem where the Lord was in the midst. Then when He commissioned them going away, and He has gone back to heaven, and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. But we're waiting for the last return.
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The return of the Lord Jesus, He's coming back, and we find that in Acts one. I won't turn to it. There He says these men were looking up to heaven, and the Angel came and said, this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven shall so come again in light manner as ye have seen him going to heaven. That's our blessed hope. May He give us grace, brethren, to live each day in the expectancy. May we be exercised by these.
Little thoughts in this chapter which the Spirit of God has brought before us in such a way about returning. And I just would like to close with a verse in Isaiah chapter 30. Isaiah chapter 30. I think that's the chapter, yes, Isaiah chapter 30.
Verse 15 For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. I don't like to add this to what I'm saying, but it's a little warning, isn't it? It says and you would not. I hope none of us will say no. I hope we will return in quietness and in confidence and.
That we need for life's difficult pathway till he returns for us.