Last Sunday we talked about two weary travelers that had many great expectations, but all of their great expectations came crashing down one day. These two guys really had a bad day. A day when it seemed that evil had won and all hope was lost.
We looked at Luke 24:13-35 where these two weary travelers while walking on the road to a village called Emmaus are joined by Jesus. As Jesus joins them, their eyes are blinded to exactly who He is. Jesus and the travelers talk about the things have happened concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.
Then beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus gave them a quick bible study from the Scriptures concerning Himself. After the study was over, the two travelers invite Jesus to spend the night with them. As Jesus takes the form of a servant and passes them the bread, their eyes are open to who He is. At that moment they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
We looked at many things that these travelers learned from their time with Jesus including:
They learned not to believe every thing they saw with their own eyes. These two had seen Jesus die on the cross but they soon learned that God was in the business of changing the imagine they saw earlier to the imagine they saw standing in front of them three days later which was Jesus raised from the dead. When things go wrong in your life. When your job doesn’t work out, when people give you problems, when you have problems in school, just remember, God hasn’t given up on you, and if you love the Lord, He is working it to your good.
The second thing they learned was that God can take the worst and bring about the best. These two travelers had witnessed the greatest tragedy the world has ever known. A perfectly righteous man, who had never done anything wrong, was crucified at the hands of wicked and evil men. Yet, when mankind was at it’s worst, God was at His best, and on the darkest of days, He was using the worst act in history to bring about His great redemption plan. If God can take the most tragic event in history and turn it into the grandest gift of all time, just imagine what He can do with your life and mine.
The third thing they learned was that God could exceed their greatest expectations. They had witnessed the greatest miracle of God. They had witnessed Jesus raised from the dead but they would also witness amazing acts of God the rest of their lives. For after Jesus was gone into heaven they began to see how God loved all people and how He wanted everyone to have a relationship with Him. They saw thousands upon thousands of people born again and baptized. They saw a ruthless persecutor named Saul change from someone who once victimized the Church, to someone that would bend his knee to the risen Lord. God exceeded their greatest expectations and God will do the same for each one of us. I pray that each of us has high expectations for what God will do in our life.
The "Road to Emmaus" is in many ways a lot like our life because we are on a road of our own. A journey of life, a journey in which God longs to use us to far exceed the greatest expectations WE have of ourselves. And on this road we call life; we will encounter many disappointments and setbacks. Like the two travelers, we will have many times when we find our heads hanging low as the struggles of the world weigh heavy on our live. Many times when our disappointments and our heartaches cause us to lose joy and hope. But just when we think all is lost, for the Follower of Jesus, we find that someone else has joined us on our journey. And that person is not a stranger, He is Jesus and He walks along the road of life with us.
We looked at Luke 24:13-35 where these two weary travelers while walking on the road to a village called Emmaus are joined by Jesus. As Jesus joins them, their eyes are blinded to exactly who He is. Jesus and the travelers talk about the things have happened concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.
Then beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus gave them a quick bible study from the Scriptures concerning Himself. After the study was over, the two travelers invite Jesus to spend the night with them. As Jesus takes the form of a servant and passes them the bread, their eyes are open to who He is. At that moment they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
We looked at many things that these travelers learned from their time with Jesus including:
They learned not to believe every thing they saw with their own eyes. These two had seen Jesus die on the cross but they soon learned that God was in the business of changing the imagine they saw earlier to the imagine they saw standing in front of them three days later which was Jesus raised from the dead. When things go wrong in your life. When your job doesn’t work out, when people give you problems, when you have problems in school, just remember, God hasn’t given up on you, and if you love the Lord, He is working it to your good.
The second thing they learned was that God can take the worst and bring about the best. These two travelers had witnessed the greatest tragedy the world has ever known. A perfectly righteous man, who had never done anything wrong, was crucified at the hands of wicked and evil men. Yet, when mankind was at it’s worst, God was at His best, and on the darkest of days, He was using the worst act in history to bring about His great redemption plan. If God can take the most tragic event in history and turn it into the grandest gift of all time, just imagine what He can do with your life and mine.
The third thing they learned was that God could exceed their greatest expectations. They had witnessed the greatest miracle of God. They had witnessed Jesus raised from the dead but they would also witness amazing acts of God the rest of their lives. For after Jesus was gone into heaven they began to see how God loved all people and how He wanted everyone to have a relationship with Him. They saw thousands upon thousands of people born again and baptized. They saw a ruthless persecutor named Saul change from someone who once victimized the Church, to someone that would bend his knee to the risen Lord. God exceeded their greatest expectations and God will do the same for each one of us. I pray that each of us has high expectations for what God will do in our life.
The "Road to Emmaus" is in many ways a lot like our life because we are on a road of our own. A journey of life, a journey in which God longs to use us to far exceed the greatest expectations WE have of ourselves. And on this road we call life; we will encounter many disappointments and setbacks. Like the two travelers, we will have many times when we find our heads hanging low as the struggles of the world weigh heavy on our live. Many times when our disappointments and our heartaches cause us to lose joy and hope. But just when we think all is lost, for the Follower of Jesus, we find that someone else has joined us on our journey. And that person is not a stranger, He is Jesus and He walks along the road of life with us.
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