050403 Encounter
Encounter on the Emmaus Road April 3, 2005
Many of you would know Stephen Toon, a former worship and arts leader here who went with the church plant that recently emerged out of Tenth called Mosaic.
He is a big fan of the Irish rock band U2.
Steve recently just stood out in the cold for over 4 hours at GM Place awaiting even just a glimpse of U2 band members.
After a security guard tipped them off he headed over to some loading doors at GM and then 2 guys came out warning him not to rush the truck. The doors opened and out came a black suburban type thing. Steve waved a copy of the recent U2 cd "How to Dismantle an Atomic bomb" and his pen.
Bono rolled down his window and said, "How's everyone?"
Steve said, “This is so awesome.” He walked up, shook Bono’s hand and got 2 autographs.
Steve through the tip of a security guard was able to anticipate where Bono might show up.
In our text today we get a clue to the kind of place where Jesus, the greatest one of all time and eternity, might show up in our lives.
Ultimately, the revelation of Jesus depends on the sovereign work and will of God as we see in our text, but there are places where Jesus has a tendency to appear and we’ll seek to identify these on this first Sunday after Easter.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 24:
13That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15Suddenly, Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16But they didn't know who he was, because God kept them from recognizing him.
17"You seem to be in a deep discussion about something," he said. "What are you so concerned about?"
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."
19"What things?" Jesus asked.
"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. 20But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. That all happened three days ago. 22Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said."
25Then Jesus said to them, "You are such foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?" 27Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.
28By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29but they begged him to stay the night with them, since it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God's blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. 31Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
32They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"
It’s been just 3 days since Jesus was crucified and two people, likely friends or perhaps a couple, are depressed because the one they had put their hope in has been executed and so they’re leaving Jerusalem.
They faces look sad, as though they had just lost a close friend.
They’re talking and walking on their way to Emmaus—which means warm springs.
It may be that they are going to the equivalent of our Harrison Hot Springs to sit in some warm water to rejuvenate their bodies and revive their spirits.
Pastor and author Frederick Buechner says that Emmaus was NOT so much a place but a state of mind. A place of mind to escape from pain, loneliness, sorrow, bewilderment, and grief.
The road to Emmaus is the place we want to escape whether it is our job, our school, our family, the people in our lives, or horrible feeling of the loss of something or someone.
It’s as these two are going (as someone has said) on a “power-walk to nowhere” that Jesus joins them on their journey.
In moments of loss, Jesus can come powerfully into our lives.
The Psalmist tells that God is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).
Isaiah tells us that in the year King Uzziah died, i.e in a time of national grief, mourning and loss, Isaiah said I saw the Lord, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah has a deep encounter with God in a time of loss.
I know in my life, there have been times of dark desolation where God has deeply met me…
A number of years ago, in the wake of romantic relationship break up, I sunk into a deep, dark hole. I had had the habit of running each morning, but in this season, I had difficultly getting out of bed in the morning.
God did NOT immediately remove the depression, but there were moments in that valley where he met me in a way that was so sweet that it eclipsed even the pain of the break up…
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the perceptive Jewish writer on the Christian faith, shared about a young man complaining to him about his doubts about God’s existence. He said as a youth I grew up a very religious family, I never had doubts about God, now as a university student I am experiencing pain and doubt. The young man asked Rabbi Heschel, “How can I find the God of my youth?”
And the Rabbi Heschel answered and what makes you think “God wanted your former peace and not your present pain?”
There are times when God allows pain into our life because he wants to meet us there in a new and living way.
Sometimes we think that the only place we could really meet God is in a church, a temple, a time of meditation or while viewing a sunset, the Northern Lights, or a shooting star and he certainly meet us in all these things, but he also meets us in our pain and desolation on our ordinary and extraordinary disappointments.
The text them tells us that Jesus enters into a discussion with them.
18Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, "Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn't heard what's happened during the last few days?"
The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. 20Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. 21And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. 22But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb 23and couldn't find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 24Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn't see Jesus."
25Then he said to them, "So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can't you simply believe all that the prophets said? 26Don't you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?" 27Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
As Jesus walks with these me, he shows them how Scriptures points to a Messiah who will suffer and only then enter glory…
We can meet God in the ordinary pain of our lives, we can also meet God through His Word. The Word of God in Scripture, CAN lead us into an encounter with Jesus Christ…
It’s possible, however, to study the Scriptures diligently and to not experience God. Jesus once to a group of highly religious people, 39"You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.
It’s possible to even what Christians call “quiet time” which typically a time in the Bible and in pray in the morning or evening and NOT have an encounter with the Bible, but not with God.
The respected British minister, the Rev. John R. W. Stott points out a way some Christians approach the Bible.
He says some people are like a person who goes to the doctor because of some ailment they have and the doctor writes out a prescription for the medication and instead using the prescription to get the medication, the patient eats the prescription!
The prescription is the not the end! The prescription is very important, but it’s means to get to the medicine.
In the same way studying the Bible is very important, but it’s not an end in and of itself, we study and reflect on Bible as a bridge to bring us to God and to Jesus Christ.
The primary purpose we gather on Sundays is not so learn more about the Bible or to get a bit inspiration for living or self-help, but we sing, we give, we come to Word and table in order to meet the living God.
And Jesus on the Emmaus road shows how all Scripture pointed to him.
As they meet living God through the teaching of Scripture and they later said to each other in vs. 32 "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"
When we meet God, there are times when we will experience some of kind of sensation.
John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church struggled spiritually as a young man. When he was 34 on the evening of May 14, 1738 John Wesley reluctantly attended a meeting in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. About 8:45 pm while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, he said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Last week during Hanako-san’s baptism she shared about how one of the members of her small group had recently prayed for her. She said I sensed the presence of God in front of me… I felt the warmth of a… mysterious presence…
When we meet God, we may not have a feeling of the burning heart that these 2 people or the warm presence that Wesley and Hanako-san felt, but at some point we’ll likely experience something deep within us: peace, gratitude, joy… or the quiet, but real sense of assurance that God is with us.
After these 2 people and Jesus have talked at some length and Jesus acts as if he is going to go further, but the two men invite him to stay….
In this apparently simple act of hospitality, they experience the presence God through the person of Jesus more fully.
The book of Hebrews (13:2) we’re told that in showing hospitality to strangers, we may in fact be entertaining angels…
There are times when through hospitality or through a connection with people God mediates his presence to us.
Thomas Merton one the great spiritual giants of the 20th century in his spiritual autobiography The 7 Story Mountain talks about how when he was 11 years old, he stayed with a couple of who worked on a farm. Mr. Privat was about 5 foot 3 or 5 foot 4 broad body and no neck… Mrs. Privat was a small and frail like a bird. They were very simple, ordinary people who did common, ordinary work, but the supernatural presence of God was in them. Thomas Merton doesn’t “convert” until he’s in his twenties; but he says he owes his conversion to the grace and love and sincerity of these simple people—whom he’ll thank in heaven.
Hanako-san who was baptized here last Sunday. None of her family is Christian, but when was twelve years old she attended a Catholic School in Japan. One of the nuns taught her to pray when she had problems and to gives thank God when things went well. 2-3 years ago she came to Vancouver and “coincidently” ended up staying with a Christian couple during her homestay: Marku and Leah. She met Choji and friends in a small group Bible study he introduced her to… and each of these people mediated something of the reality of God to her.
It’s often in the presence of another person we experience the presence of God.
This is part of the reason why hospitality is considered such an important practice in the Bible.
In their home, Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and the eyes of these 2 people are opened and they recognize that it is Jesus who is seated before them.
Some commentators argue that Jesus is leading this people in the Lord’s supper. But these 2 people would not likely have been present when Jesus instituted what we call the “Lord’s Supper” about 4 days before. Perhaps they were part of crowd when Jesus miraculously feed the multitude with 5 barley buns and 2 fish and saw him give thanks and break the bread.
Though this meal is probably not the Lord’s Supper, as we break bread with God over the Lord’s Supper… we often meet God in a profound and significant way….
Jesus said in John 6 that unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part of me. Part of way we feed on Christ is through the Lord’s Supper.
The eucharist is another word for what we call the Lord’s Supper, means the “good, grace” (eu means “good”, charis means “grace”). Through the Lord’s Supper we receive the good grace of God’s presence.
Professor Robert Webber teaches theology at Wheaton College. He will have students come to him with various problems: inner pain and conflicts, etc. Professor Webber says I’m a teacher, I’m not a counselor or a therapist and I don’t have the tools to help you.
But this is what I would say to you--flee to the Lord’s Supper, get there as fast as you can, because there is healing there… Professor Webber says many of his students have affirmed that God meet them through the eucharist and that they have been touched by God.
God meets in the loss, in Scripture, in people, and in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper…
Let us meet him now… over the Lord’s Supper…
On the Jesus was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said… this is my body broken for you…
Many of you would know Stephen Toon, a former worship and arts leader here who went with the church plant that recently emerged out of Tenth called Mosaic.
He is a big fan of the Irish rock band U2.
Steve recently just stood out in the cold for over 4 hours at GM Place awaiting even just a glimpse of U2 band members.
After a security guard tipped them off he headed over to some loading doors at GM and then 2 guys came out warning him not to rush the truck. The doors opened and out came a black suburban type thing. Steve waved a copy of the recent U2 cd "How to Dismantle an Atomic bomb" and his pen.
Bono rolled down his window and said, "How's everyone?"
Steve said, “This is so awesome.” He walked up, shook Bono’s hand and got 2 autographs.
Steve through the tip of a security guard was able to anticipate where Bono might show up.
In our text today we get a clue to the kind of place where Jesus, the greatest one of all time and eternity, might show up in our lives.
Ultimately, the revelation of Jesus depends on the sovereign work and will of God as we see in our text, but there are places where Jesus has a tendency to appear and we’ll seek to identify these on this first Sunday after Easter.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 24:
13That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. 15Suddenly, Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16But they didn't know who he was, because God kept them from recognizing him.
17"You seem to be in a deep discussion about something," he said. "What are you so concerned about?"
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days."
19"What things?" Jesus asked.
"The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. 20But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. That all happened three days ago. 22Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. 23They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said."
25Then Jesus said to them, "You are such foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?" 27Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.
28By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29but they begged him to stay the night with them, since it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God's blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. 31Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!
32They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"
It’s been just 3 days since Jesus was crucified and two people, likely friends or perhaps a couple, are depressed because the one they had put their hope in has been executed and so they’re leaving Jerusalem.
They faces look sad, as though they had just lost a close friend.
They’re talking and walking on their way to Emmaus—which means warm springs.
It may be that they are going to the equivalent of our Harrison Hot Springs to sit in some warm water to rejuvenate their bodies and revive their spirits.
Pastor and author Frederick Buechner says that Emmaus was NOT so much a place but a state of mind. A place of mind to escape from pain, loneliness, sorrow, bewilderment, and grief.
The road to Emmaus is the place we want to escape whether it is our job, our school, our family, the people in our lives, or horrible feeling of the loss of something or someone.
It’s as these two are going (as someone has said) on a “power-walk to nowhere” that Jesus joins them on their journey.
In moments of loss, Jesus can come powerfully into our lives.
The Psalmist tells that God is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).
Isaiah tells us that in the year King Uzziah died, i.e in a time of national grief, mourning and loss, Isaiah said I saw the Lord, high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah has a deep encounter with God in a time of loss.
I know in my life, there have been times of dark desolation where God has deeply met me…
A number of years ago, in the wake of romantic relationship break up, I sunk into a deep, dark hole. I had had the habit of running each morning, but in this season, I had difficultly getting out of bed in the morning.
God did NOT immediately remove the depression, but there were moments in that valley where he met me in a way that was so sweet that it eclipsed even the pain of the break up…
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the perceptive Jewish writer on the Christian faith, shared about a young man complaining to him about his doubts about God’s existence. He said as a youth I grew up a very religious family, I never had doubts about God, now as a university student I am experiencing pain and doubt. The young man asked Rabbi Heschel, “How can I find the God of my youth?”
And the Rabbi Heschel answered and what makes you think “God wanted your former peace and not your present pain?”
There are times when God allows pain into our life because he wants to meet us there in a new and living way.
Sometimes we think that the only place we could really meet God is in a church, a temple, a time of meditation or while viewing a sunset, the Northern Lights, or a shooting star and he certainly meet us in all these things, but he also meets us in our pain and desolation on our ordinary and extraordinary disappointments.
The text them tells us that Jesus enters into a discussion with them.
18Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, "Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn't heard what's happened during the last few days?"
The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. 20Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. 21And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. 22But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb 23and couldn't find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 24Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn't see Jesus."
25Then he said to them, "So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can't you simply believe all that the prophets said? 26Don't you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?" 27Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
As Jesus walks with these me, he shows them how Scriptures points to a Messiah who will suffer and only then enter glory…
We can meet God in the ordinary pain of our lives, we can also meet God through His Word. The Word of God in Scripture, CAN lead us into an encounter with Jesus Christ…
It’s possible, however, to study the Scriptures diligently and to not experience God. Jesus once to a group of highly religious people, 39"You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.
It’s possible to even what Christians call “quiet time” which typically a time in the Bible and in pray in the morning or evening and NOT have an encounter with the Bible, but not with God.
The respected British minister, the Rev. John R. W. Stott points out a way some Christians approach the Bible.
He says some people are like a person who goes to the doctor because of some ailment they have and the doctor writes out a prescription for the medication and instead using the prescription to get the medication, the patient eats the prescription!
The prescription is the not the end! The prescription is very important, but it’s means to get to the medicine.
In the same way studying the Bible is very important, but it’s not an end in and of itself, we study and reflect on Bible as a bridge to bring us to God and to Jesus Christ.
The primary purpose we gather on Sundays is not so learn more about the Bible or to get a bit inspiration for living or self-help, but we sing, we give, we come to Word and table in order to meet the living God.
And Jesus on the Emmaus road shows how all Scripture pointed to him.
As they meet living God through the teaching of Scripture and they later said to each other in vs. 32 "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?"
When we meet God, there are times when we will experience some of kind of sensation.
John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church struggled spiritually as a young man. When he was 34 on the evening of May 14, 1738 John Wesley reluctantly attended a meeting in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. About 8:45 pm while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, he said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Last week during Hanako-san’s baptism she shared about how one of the members of her small group had recently prayed for her. She said I sensed the presence of God in front of me… I felt the warmth of a… mysterious presence…
When we meet God, we may not have a feeling of the burning heart that these 2 people or the warm presence that Wesley and Hanako-san felt, but at some point we’ll likely experience something deep within us: peace, gratitude, joy… or the quiet, but real sense of assurance that God is with us.
After these 2 people and Jesus have talked at some length and Jesus acts as if he is going to go further, but the two men invite him to stay….
In this apparently simple act of hospitality, they experience the presence God through the person of Jesus more fully.
The book of Hebrews (13:2) we’re told that in showing hospitality to strangers, we may in fact be entertaining angels…
There are times when through hospitality or through a connection with people God mediates his presence to us.
Thomas Merton one the great spiritual giants of the 20th century in his spiritual autobiography The 7 Story Mountain talks about how when he was 11 years old, he stayed with a couple of who worked on a farm. Mr. Privat was about 5 foot 3 or 5 foot 4 broad body and no neck… Mrs. Privat was a small and frail like a bird. They were very simple, ordinary people who did common, ordinary work, but the supernatural presence of God was in them. Thomas Merton doesn’t “convert” until he’s in his twenties; but he says he owes his conversion to the grace and love and sincerity of these simple people—whom he’ll thank in heaven.
Hanako-san who was baptized here last Sunday. None of her family is Christian, but when was twelve years old she attended a Catholic School in Japan. One of the nuns taught her to pray when she had problems and to gives thank God when things went well. 2-3 years ago she came to Vancouver and “coincidently” ended up staying with a Christian couple during her homestay: Marku and Leah. She met Choji and friends in a small group Bible study he introduced her to… and each of these people mediated something of the reality of God to her.
It’s often in the presence of another person we experience the presence of God.
This is part of the reason why hospitality is considered such an important practice in the Bible.
In their home, Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and the eyes of these 2 people are opened and they recognize that it is Jesus who is seated before them.
Some commentators argue that Jesus is leading this people in the Lord’s supper. But these 2 people would not likely have been present when Jesus instituted what we call the “Lord’s Supper” about 4 days before. Perhaps they were part of crowd when Jesus miraculously feed the multitude with 5 barley buns and 2 fish and saw him give thanks and break the bread.
Though this meal is probably not the Lord’s Supper, as we break bread with God over the Lord’s Supper… we often meet God in a profound and significant way….
Jesus said in John 6 that unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part of me. Part of way we feed on Christ is through the Lord’s Supper.
The eucharist is another word for what we call the Lord’s Supper, means the “good, grace” (eu means “good”, charis means “grace”). Through the Lord’s Supper we receive the good grace of God’s presence.
Professor Robert Webber teaches theology at Wheaton College. He will have students come to him with various problems: inner pain and conflicts, etc. Professor Webber says I’m a teacher, I’m not a counselor or a therapist and I don’t have the tools to help you.
But this is what I would say to you--flee to the Lord’s Supper, get there as fast as you can, because there is healing there… Professor Webber says many of his students have affirmed that God meet them through the eucharist and that they have been touched by God.
God meets in the loss, in Scripture, in people, and in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper…
Let us meet him now… over the Lord’s Supper…
On the Jesus was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said… this is my body broken for you…
posted by Shigematsu at 4:57 PM
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