The Road of Faith
The Miracles of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsThe Road of Faith, just as the disciples faith was blinded, we also can become blind in our faith through doubt and discouragement we can see again as we work through the sciptures. Jesus will reveal Himself if we seek Him.
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The Miracles of Jesus Part 7
THE ROAD OF TRUTH
Scripture: Luke 24:13-35
Praise God, Praise God. Are you glad to be in the house of the Lord today?
Over the last 6 weeks we have been in the preaching series The Miracles of Jesus, we talked about Jesus turning water into wine, Healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus having power over the winds and water, walking on water, we have seen Him have the power over death as He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead, we witnessed the power of forgiveness on the cross, and last week we celebrated the risen Savior and heard how He would first speak to Mary Magdalen as she mourned Her Lord and as she went to the disciples and shared the Jesus Christ, Her Lord, was no longer in the tomb and He was ALIVE!
We watched as Jesus appeared to His some of His disciples and of course being intentional about coming to the Disciple Thomas and after seeing Jesus, he believed.
We talked about how through the resurrection how Jesus can raise us to new life.
Can I tell you today that Jesus is not done!
He continues to do miracles!
In the next few weeks, we will look at the post resurrection and the things that Jesus did the 40 days after His resurrection and what He is doing today.
The Bible tells us in Acts 1 verse 3 “After he suffered, He also presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proves, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the Kingdom of God”
What this tells is that Jesus died, but once resurrected, He proved Himself alive by appearing to the disciples and speaking, eating and preparing the disciples for 40 days before He returned to heaven.
The Bible teaches us of the 40 days after the resurrection and before Jesus returned to heaven. Seeing how Jesus has changed their lives then and how He can change our lives now.
Well, if you have your Bibles with you today, and I am sure you do, open them with me to the New Testament Book of Luke chapter 24. If you are unfamiliar where the book of Luke is, it is the 3rd book of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, then Luke, chapter 23 is where we will be this morning.
After Jesus revealed Himself to Mary, then to a few disciples, then to Thomas and today we find that Jesus is on the Road to Emmaus as we discuss the Road of Truth.
Luke opens his letter to Theophilus and tells him that he has carefully investigate and written this letter in an orderly sequence so that Theophilus would know the certainty of the Gospel. Luke ends the letter with the death, burial, resurrection and Jesus’ appearance to many.
If you are there in the book of Luke chapter 24, begin reading with me from verse 13. This is the word of God and it begins like this.
Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And 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?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
You know what I have found is that this scripture truly depicts what we are like today in our society when it comes to our spiritual, health, knowledge and our belief in God. These two disciples, their vision was obscured, blinded if you will to who Jesus is. What I have come to know and believe is that God is like the optometrist of our Spiritual life. An optometrist is one type of an eye Dr who specializes in vision care and eye care services. They diagnose why we cannot see clearly then give us the tools to use to fix the problem when our vision is affected. But remember this, the Dr can prescribe the tools to correct the sight but it is up to you to use them.
Which brings us to our Take-home truth today and the take-home truth is:
OUR VISION MUST BE CLEAR TO FOLLOW JESUS.
I believe that I have spent my much of my life searching for the spiritual truth of God. Many times, I had looked in the wrong places. Many times, I was blinded, When I was younger it was drugs, then It was alcohol and then there were times that I looked for the truth in church on and off, but as soon as I would be confronted with the truth of my life, I would begin to search for the imperfections of the church, and I would quickly disappear to return to my old life. Even when our family began going to church – I held my distance because I did not want the truth of my life to come into focus. And what I have realized is this: For me to follow Jesus my vision of the truth must be clear.
Let me ask you; is your vision clear today?
The world, the enemy uses its power influencing the arts to change our vision of the truth. The change is so slight that you don’t even notice at first, then all of the sudden there is a shift of truth and we become adjusted to it.
That is what we see with this story. Jesus proclaims boldly to the disciples that He was the Son of God, but through the course of man, the arrest, beating, crucifixion and the death of Jesus and burial, the Religious leaders turned the truth and made Jesus to be a regular man, maybe a prophet, but not God. The influenced others based on their own selfish pride.
Remember how they mocked Jesus on the cross by saying “if you are the Son of God come down from the cross”. Now the disciple’s vision of the truth was changed. And as we look at The Road to the truth today, we find two important facts about Jesus that stand out to us.
The First Fact is this:
OUR VISION OF JESUS CAN BE BLURRED.
Look back at verses 14-16.
Now behold, two of them (disciples of Jesus) were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
Last week we found that Mary did not recognize Jesus and thought that He was the gardener- here the two disciples think He is a visitor from out of town.
V18 “Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” They were speaking of the events of Jesus’, the trail, the beating the crucifixion and the burial.
I believe that there are different reasons in play for them not to recognize. Although He was the same, Jesus was also different in some way. The phrase in verse 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
Everything that I have studied suggests it was God who was keeping these disciples from recognizing Jesus. But, I believe that their unbelief that Jesus had risen had a lot to do with it also.
If the disciple’s attitudes also caused partial blindness to the spiritual truth that it was Jesus.
I believe that as we read this scripture, we also need to understand that we can have things our lives that can prevent us from seeing the truth of the Gospel.
Now, I am at the age where these glasses have become a necessity of life. I am not happy about that, but the truth is without them I cannot read the scripture to you because it is blurred, and I cannot see the words. In fact, I need them for almost everything. Here in our scripture today we can see three things that affected the disciple’s sight and that can cause us to not see clearly.
First our vision can be blurred by discouragement.
Look back at verse 17-18 with me: On their 7-mile journey away from Jerusalem all they were talking about was Jesus.
Jesus is now walking beside with them and He asked why they were arguing they stopped walking and looked discouraged other versions say they looked downcast or sad and Cleopas said, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
Notice with me how discouraged they were? But the question is; Why were they discouraged? They were discouraged because they are living life without the resurrection. They thought Jesus was the real deal, but then they saw mankind kill him.
V19-20 “So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.”
Folks listen when people live their lives without the resurrection there is no hope. If there is no resurrection, then there is no hope beyond death. Death is final. And in their minds, there was no reason to expect Jesus.
Second, our vision can also become blurred through disappointment.
Look back at verse 21 with me: “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”
Look at the word HOPE. They had hoped that Jesus was the one, but they were disappointed.
Have you ever been disappointed in something, some one? I often have high expectations of people and a lot of times. I also become disappointed because they do not live up to my expectations.
Do you know what I am talking about? According to the disciples Jesus did not live up to their expectations. The disciples are let down and it came because they knew that Jesus was dead.
They believed that THE CROSS defeated Jesus and therefore ultimately it defeated their hopes that He might ‘redeem’. This word “redeem” found in this context comes from the Old Testament and it means to set someone free. The term is also used for someone paying a ransom or a price to gain freedom of a slave.
It is a direct correlation of when God used Moses to set Israel free from the slavery of Egypt.
But what the disciples did not understand is, it is on the cross that Jesus paid the ransom price of sin with His own blood, that not just Israel, but the whole world could be freed from the greater spiritual slavery of sin, self and Satan.
Disappointment often can affect our vision of the truth it can have a blinding or blurring effect on us. There will be times where things do not work out as we hoped for, but I want you to know that Jesus is present even during these disappointments, in the midst of heartache, in the midst of job loss, in the midst of bereavement. He is there with you.
Then the third thing that can blur out vision to the truth is doubt.
Verses 22-24 “Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
They show their discouragement, they told Jesus of their disappointment of Him and now they tell Jesus that they doubt Him.
Despite the reports from Mary, Peter and John that the tomb was empty, then the report from Mary about the angles that she had seen and talked to Jesus, their doubt blurred their vision.
Like these two disciples, our doubt and unbelief can blur our vision from the truth of the risen Jesus.
Listen to this story I read: A woman named Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. ‘I just can't believe it!’ she gasped as the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes after her recovery from delicate surgery in an Ontario hospital. She wept for joy when for the first time in her life a dazzling and beautiful world of form and color greeted eyes that now were able to see. The amazing thing about the story, however, is that 20 years of her blindness had been unnecessary. She didn’t know that surgical techniques had been developed, and that an operation could have restored her vision at the age of 30. The doctor said, ‘She just figured there was nothing that could be done about her condition. Much of her life could have been different.’
Here is the good news for us today is that no matter how blurred your spiritual vision, or how spiritually blind you are; there is a cure to see the truth.
Which brings us to our second important fact about The Road to Truth:
2. Our vision of the truth can be corrected.
That is the importance of this scripture that I see today, our vision of the truth of the gospel can be corrected.
Just like the optometrist can use the lens of glasses or the ophthalmologist can use laser surgery to clear up our vision. Jesus uses His appearances to clear the vision of truth for His disciples and us today.
Throughout the 40 days after the resurrection Jesus appears to individuals like Mary, Peter and James, He also appears to small groups of people – the disciples – then the elven – seven of them by the sea- then eleven of them - He also showed himself to large crowds- 500 people.
The point is weather we are together or by ourselves Jesus will always be there for us. How can our vision be corrected today?
Here are three ways that Jesus can correct our vision.
First, Our vision can be corrected through the reading of God’s Word.
Look at the significance of what Jesus did with the two disciples:
Verse 25-27 He said to them, “Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
First let me say that we are often unwise, slow and our eyesight is clouded when we believe that the Old Testament is no longer relates to us because we have the New Testament.
Notice what Jesus does here He directs them to what the Old Testament scriptures say about Himself. Jesus carefully interpreted the meaning of how He was to suffer and His entering glory, through the death burial and resurrection.
He does not at this point say, ‘Don’t be stupid, it’s me, Jesus!’ He doesn’t draw their attention to His physical presence, but He speaks about what Scriptures say about Him. Now remember that the Bible is formed with 66 books and it is divided into two Testaments, now by definition a testament is a proof or tribute. So we have 66 books that give proof to Jesus. Listen when Jesus walked the earth the New Testament was forming, but not written. Therefore, the only thing they had was the Old Testament.
The Bible tells us in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing and hearting by the word of God. From the very beginning to the end the Old Testament it exhorts an expectation that someone was coming to redeem the people.
In some right the Old Testament can be hard to understand at times, but if I were to give you one statement of what the Old Testament is about it is this, God the Father preparing the way for the Son of God to redeem His people. Now the New Testament is all about Jesus. The writers speak the truth about His birth, life, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension, even the second coming and how our lives can be changed if we have faith. If you are a Born- again believer the Bible, Scriptures, God’s Holy Word will guide you with Jesus and how-to live your life according to the guidelines that God has laid out for us.
If you are not a Believer the Bible will guide you to the truth of God, that Jesus died on the cross and that according to the scriptures was risen from the dead so that you can be alive with Him in eternity – the Bible will guide you to a personal relationship with Christ.
The second way our vision of truth can be corrected is by welcoming Jesus’ presence.
Look back at verses 28-29 with me: “Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.”
The crippling truth for us today that even after Jesus revealed everything that the scriptures said about Him to the disciples, they still did not believe it was Him, they were still blind.
It was not until they responded to His presence as they offered for Him to stay with them that Jesus truly revealed Himself to them.
In the book of Revelation 3:20 Jesus says: “Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in, to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me.”
Now if you don’t know that scripture, you need to know it because Jesus says anyone who welcomes HIS presence, HE will be with them and they will be with HIM. Jesus is knocking, but He only comes in when He is invited. So, if you are wondering today, where is Jesus I need to ask you; have you invited Jesus in?
Each time I searched for God as I entered church after church, I was too afraid of seeing the truth of my own life, so I would find a reason to leave. I remember when someone said that God wants me to love Him more than my family. Although I know that this is the truth, my eyesight wasn’t that good and it gave me a reason to leave… Just like those two disciples. If they had believed Mary, Peter and John they would have stayed in Jerusalem waiting on Jesus.
It is sad that so many are aware of Christ, but they won’t welcome Him into their lives. Jesus Christ is knocking on the door of your soul; have you let Him in?
Our Christian life really is a journey of increasing revelation and an ongoing deepening awareness of Him. We must actively welcome the presence of His Spirit.
And that leads us to our third way our vision of truth can be corrected and that is by breaking bread with Jesus.
Focus your attention on verses 30-31
“Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.”
Jesus walked 7 miles with the disciples. He explained everything that the scriptures said about Him, they invited Him in. Then they broke bread with Jesus and that is when it happened. Bread then was a major component of any meal. Growing up in Flint, MI most meals we had bread. Here Jesus, the visitor, took on the host by taking the bread and blessed it and broke it, just as He did feed the five thousand and just as He did at the last supper. The way that Jesus spoke to them grabbed their attention, just as it did when He called Mary’s name.
WOW! No longer where their eyes clouded, they could see that it was Jesus.
Here is the significance of this great moment, it is a stark contrast to the first meal that is recorded in the Bible with Adam and Eve- Eve gave Adam some of that forbidden fruit, they both ate, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized their nakedness and shame. The result: sin, guilt, shame and death came in with all the consequences that we are still in today. But here, on the first day of the resurrection, on the first day of the week (symbolizing the start of the new creation), the resurrected Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. Now their eyes are opened not to their shame, but to the glory of the risen Jesus. The long curse has been reversed, the price for sin has been paid for; death itself has been defeated.
Jesus really is alive, so we can really live! Their vision was no longer blurred- they had a new step in their walk- the Bible says that they returned 7 miles that night to tell everyone that Jesus was truly alive no more discouragement, disappointment and doubt they are now living with the resurrected Jesus.
Folks this highlights the importance of us having fellowship and eating together with other believers, and the fact that Jesus loves to present Himself in the midst of His people. What great news, our eyes can be opened, we can see the risen Jesus, and our lives can be changed forever. Once our vision has been corrected and our lives have been changed, the most naturally supernatural thing is to go and share the good news with others. This is what the two disciples did in verse 33- 35“That very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, 34 who said, “The Lord has certainly been raised, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
Notice that their first response on seeing Jesus was to go and tell others.
What will you do with this great news? Invitation