Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the purpose of fellowship?

We live in a technological age.

At just the click of a button we can receive any kind of information we would like.

We can learn how to take apart a car engine if we like, get cheats and maps for video games and we can even speak face to face with people across the ocean.

We can even at the click of a button listen to any preacher we like.

We can hear seasoned veterans in exposition clearly explain the Scripture.

The thing is all to often those who do so feel they are getting what they need from listening to those sermons but the problem is they are missing out on something that is so important to the Christian life.

That is the fellowship with other believers.

I understand life is busy but we need to make time for God’s Word and God’s people.

As we continue to look at Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus this morning we are going to see the importance of the gathering of believers and the motive behind true fellowship.

We have been traveling down the road to Emmaus for the passed two weeks.

It is the day Jesus has risen from the grave, it is later in the afternoon on the same day the women went to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial and have found the tomb empty, were greeted by two angels who told them He is risen.

The same day the women came and announced this wonderful news to the eleven and the other disciples, although there was amazement at Jesus’ body not being found in the tomb this didn’t mean the eleven or the rest of the disciples except I would have to say the women would be excluded from this, truly believed Jesus had risen from the dead.

Faith in God’s plan was very weak as we looked at the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

It wasn’t until the stranger to them and as we know Jesus revealed Himself to them through the Scripture.

The two disciples on the road were so distraught at their hope being gone that they didn’t even realize the fulfilment of the Scripture in Jesus’ suffering and now in His resurrection.

They were working hard at rationalizing everything that they were missing out on what God was actually doing.

God had prevented these men from seeing Jesus physically before them.

They saw a man, but were not able to see this man was no ordinary man, He is the Christ who has demonstrated perfect obedience to the Father and fulfilled the Scripture God has provided which point to Him.

These men had a very serious problem they were looking with physical eyes at what God was doing and when it comes to faith it deals more with seeing first spiritually what God is doing before our physical eyes catch up.

The faith of those who followed Jesus was strong when Jesus walked with them and they could see Him physically but the real test comes when we need to rely on the spiritual not on the physical.

These men were tested by Jesus to see were their faith was.

As we saw last week they really tried hard to rationalize all of the events that took place in the last few days.

Then Jesus points out to them how they have not believed with everything they have.

It was only a head knowledge not a heart knowledge and if it doesn’t go from the head to the heart it is empty knowledge and you try to make sense of it instead of trusting in it.

Jesus made it very clear to them what they have just experienced in the passed few days is what God has been pointing to since the dawn of time.

Jesus did this not by physically revealing Himself, that would have been easy, but He did it in the same way He reveals Himself to us today, through His Word, the Holy Scripture.

So we saw last week that we need to Seek Jesus with our Mind and Heart and we need to seek a clear explanation of Scripture.

We does this with the understanding that the Scripture is the only true revelation of Jesus Christ.

It is only through His revealing Himself through His word that we will truly see Him.

This morning we are going to continue to seek out Jesus through His revealed word.

We can only see Him if we believe His word is true and as we seek the Scripture to Reveal Jesus and we believe He is revealed through Scripture we will see Him then we need to respond to this clear explanation of Jesus.

We will see the responses this morning as we continue our study of Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus.

Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus

This morning we are going to focus on the correct responses to the revealing of God’s Word.

Correctly Responding to Scriptures Unveiling

We will see this in Luke 24:27-35,

As we look at Luke’s setting up this next section we see in verses 28-29 the first response to the Scriptures Unveiling.

And the first response is a desire for fellowship.

Desire for His Presence

Verse 28-29 read, “And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther.

But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.”

So He went in to stay with them.”

The journey was over for two of these men, the ones who were originally on the journey.

Jesus, however, was not on the journey to Emmaus He was on a journey of revelation, reveling Himself to these men.

From the moment Jesus appeared on the scene and the asking of the questions Jesus was testing their faith in the events which have taken place.

When Jesus asked His questions in verse 17, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” and verse 19 when He turns to ask for elaboration as to “What things” have taken place in Jerusalem, all of which is a test of the faith of these two disciples.

The men recounted the proofs of Jesus’ resurrection but they still had not believed the word of God and Jesus’ word.

Now the test continues, now that Jesus has explained the Scriptures to them now, being the master teacher that He is provides another test, He makes it look as though He is continuing on His journey.

The men don’t want Jesus to go on.

Look in verse 29 Luke tells us, “but they urged Him.”

The word in the Greek that we get the word urged from is only used one other time in Scripture and it is by this particular writer.

It is used in Acts 16:15

These men were forcing Jesus to stay, you kind of get the idea here Jesus was really pushing to move on.

Look though at what they said, “stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.”

Look it is getting dark and well you don’t want to keep on going, you could get robbed or worse be mould by a wild animal.

Stay with us.

You need to understand something here, although they would have probably asked a stranger not to continue on and might even have invited a stranger to stay with them until morning but what is important here is not the inviting a stranger to stay it is the force in with they are asking.

Luke has made it a point to express the force behind their plea and we can’t miss that.

Why would their be such force behind the plea.

Simply put it was the teaching.

These men have just heard powerful, incredible teaching from Jesus Himself and even though Jesus had not yet revealed Himself physically to these men they wanted to hear more.

They saw this man as an authority in the Scripture and they wanted more time with Him.

They wanted to be in His presence for some more time.

Their desire was to have Jesus revealed to them some more.

Isn’t that true though, when you are in the word, doing a deep, rich study and you find yourself lost in what God is saying, and Jesus being revealed through His word, isn’t it the biggest bummer in the world when you have to pack it up.

I don’t know maybe that’s just me.

I can’t find anything more fulfilling more rewarding then just sitting at God’s Word and reading it and studying it.

When God open’s my eyes to what He has done for the nation of Israel, how He has stayed faithful to a faithless nation.

How He has made promises that He didn’t have to make but did any way because He is a gracious and merciful God.

Studying through the crucifixion and knowing that the injustice that was brought on Jesus was so that I would escape judgment myself.

It boggles the mind and when I am finished with my study I look forward to studying some more.

It is not a chore for me to prepare for Sunday morning, yes it is a task that must be made but it is a thrill as I am reading these words and the are more then just Word’s they are the unveiling of a gracious and merciful heavenly God and Father and this is His heart being poured out to us so that, even though we will only scratch the surface of knowing Him, it is a revelation of Him and what He has done and what He will do.

These men have just recieved an unveiling of Jesus through His own word and through His own words.

Now that they have recieved this unveiling of Him through a clear explanation of the Hebrew Scripture they don’t want this teacher to go away.

They beg Him to stick around because through the clear explanation of the Scripture they have been brought into the presence of Jesus.

And even though they don’t realize this is Jesus teaching them they know and sense very clearly this man has shown them Christ and they don’t want it to end.

This is further stressed with the next verse.

Look at verse 30 with me.

“When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.”

We don’t know who’s house this is but it is safe to assume it was one of the disciples homes.

If this was the home of one of the disciples then it is also safe to assume they were not Galilean because this village, Emmaus, is only about 7 miles from Jerusalem which is situated south of Galilee.

Now here is the most interesting thing about this.

This is not a picture of the Last Supper, the only ones who were privy to the events of the Last Supper were the Apostles and these two men are not apostles so they were not there.

This is actually a typical start to a ancient Israelite meal.

They would begin with the breaking of bread and a blessing.

What is unique about the breaking of the bread and the blessing is it was customarily done by the host not the guest and Jesus is their guest.

The only reason why Jesus would be performing the right of a host is if He were viewed by the host as a very important individual.

The way He explained the Scriptures placed Him on par with a very important individual.

These men respected Jesus and what He had to teach.

So Jesus is their teacher and becomes the host who provides the blessing over the meal.

These men were desiring to be in the presence of Christ through the preaching of the Scripture.

See to them Jesus had died and His body was now missing.

To them this strangers words and teaching about Jesus through the Hebrew Scriptures was unveiling to them the Jesus they have followed.

To them it was apparent they felt as though they were in His presence once again.

Little do they know they truly are in His presence and Jesus is about to reveal Himself physically.

Faith causes unveiling

Look with me at verses 31-32, “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

32 They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” Now I love how the commentators all try to figure out how and what it was about Jesus that caused them to recognize Him.

Some say it was when He raised His hands to bless the bread or when He handed out the bread that the two saw His wrists and suddenly they realized it was Jesus.