Seven Miles Changed Everything

All right, guys, I want to talk about the title of my sermon this morning is Seven Miles Changed Everything. Seven Miles Changed Everything. And it's about the two people that walked on the road to Emmaus. You know, a lot of us that have been on a walk to Emmaus, I know this is a fundamental foundation of that experience that you have on the walk to Emmaus. But there's so, so much more to this, and there's no way I can share everything about this, but I'm going to share the things that immediately were cognitive in my heart and that I jotted down on paper and share with you this morning. The verse that I simply want to use is the last verse of that story in Luke 24, 35. it says and they began to relate their experiences on the road that's talking about the road to Emmaus on the road and how he which is Jesus was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread relate their experiences. I'm going to talk about experiences on the road and experiences at that dinner this morning. You know, we all have experiences in life. I remember when I started Aldersgate and in different settings, we had people coming that were getting converted and we were baptizing them on the gymnasium floor over there and they had new stories to tell. And then we had some folks coming that were older seasoned disciples that were connecting with us at Aldersgate. One of those guys was a guy named Milburn Keener. uh milburn grew up in littlefield and and he was going back home uh one weekend when he was in college and and he had a terrible car accident and and uh i don't remember what setting he shared this testimony in this this story uh but he had this terrible car accident and and literally he severed his jugular vein here. And he knew blood was just squirting out of it. And he put his hand on it until he said, I passed out. And he said, in a while, he said, I don't know, he said, I could hear an ambulance coming. but I looked up and there was a man clothed in white holding that jugular vein from him bleeding out and he said I looked at some man in white and basically in a few words whoever this was said you need to get your heart right with God and he said I went out again well when I wake up again he said all the ambulance people were there they tourniqueting me and wrapping me and trying to get me on a, I was all broken up, get me on a stretcher to get me in the ambulance. And he said, I could hardly talk, but I asked them, who was the man in white? who was the man in white holding that hand on my bleeding vein and they said what are you talking about what are you talking about there was no man in white here you were by yourself he said no where is the man in white now he went on in the process with us explaining and defining his experience and how that experience led him to Christ.

You know, all of us have different experiences to share. Different people, different events, different moments, how we came to Christ. in this story on the road to Emmaus these two disciples of Jesus now they were not from the crowd of the eleven I'm going to figure this is simply my opinion that they might have been from the crowd of seventy that he had sent out in ministry to do miraculous things in His name. But it really doesn't matter.

They had been followers of Jesus, these two. They knew what had been going on. They conversed about it. They were on the road saddened about it. They had been following Jesus. and their experiences on the road to Emmaus and during dinner, can you imagine that? During dinner, changed their lives forever. That's why I entitled it, Seven Miles Changed Everything.

And he walks with me. Y'all remember that old song? and he walks with me and he talks with me. Some of us have been on that seven mile journey before. We understand that. How he walked with us and he's talked with us. Before I jump into these things about talking about the experiences on the road, the Greek word here for experiences is exigeomai, which means to explain, to narrate, or to tell a narrative.

It is where we get our English word. I thought this was interesting. I never heard these words until I went to seminary. Exegesis or exegete, to translate, to define, to explain. literally it meant to lead out in explanation to lead out in explanation metaphorically it meant to draw out in a narrative or unfold in a teaching In the explanatory notes in the Greek lexicon the word experiences it says highlights the sacred task of drawing out and setting forth in full the deeds and character of God. I thought that was a good statement. You know, I kind of concluded after the Emmaus encounter these two disciples explained how the risen Lord was recognized in the breaking of the bread. Their narration turns from a private experience into a communal faith. They just didn't stay there and spend the night. Boy, they rushed right back to the community of faith. So let's look at just a second the experiences in the road. the first thing I jotted down here was conversations of sadness by two disciples verses 13 through 21 listen to this I'm going to read these and then I'll make some comments but as time goes on I'll make my comments maybe it's shorter verses 13 through 21 because the narrative itself is what needs to be preached not my comments and behold two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus which was about seven miles from Jerusalem it was probably west of Jerusalem not back toward Galilee but probably west of Jerusalem they really don't know where Emmaus is and conversing with each other about all these things conversing just circling on conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place. And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, when you kind of do a study of those words together, they might have been debating a little bit. It wasn't a simple conversation. They were trying to struggle through what had been taking place. They were conversing and discussing. Jesus himself approached.

Now things are fixing to change. And began traveling with them. You see what that's saying? He was walking down the road with them. But their eyes, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And he said to them, what are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you're walking? What are these words you're discussing? What are you exegeting here? What's the exegesis? Jesus going on here? What's the explanation that you're discussing here?

And they hear this, stood still looking sad.

Now if that doesn't describe the moment, I don't know what does.

And one of them named Cleopas answered and said to him Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of these things which have happened here in these days? Where have you been?

And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, The things about Jesus the Nazarene who was a prophet here's a description prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all these people and how our chief priest or they're describing a little bit more here and our rulers delivered him up to the sentence of death and crucified him well don't you know there's a lot of talk about what that meant you know Luke's just summarizing here he's not telling their whole conversation but we were hoping that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel indeed besides all of this it's the third day since these things happened.

Now let me make some comments. Cleopas and the other unnamed disciple are traumatized by sadness.

In my summary of their narrative,

I wrote Jesus invaded their conversation in His questioning causing them to halt, to stand, still and grieve.

And they stood still looking sad.

Now guys, the emotions of their hopes must have ripped through their troubled hearts when Jesus confronted them.

Hopefully they were understanding a little bit about this mighty prophet of God and this mighty miracle worker for the people was the promised Messiah that would deliver Jerusalem from the evil. That was what they were hoping. From the tyranny of Rome and redeem Israel from her sin sick ways. their conversation of sadness now was simply the rehashing of his sentence to death and crucifixion you get stuck in that cycle don't you in the negative things that had just taken place I think that was their mindset in the initial stages of sadness and grief there is a continual process of reliving and rehashing and retelling and remembering the cause for grief. Sometimes it can be so traumatizing that we can lose our sense of hearing and seeing. And we get stuck in the blindness of it all.

Maybe this is one explanation why they did not recognize Him. they were blinded by their own grief.

Now, don't get me wrong here.

God in His sovereignty could have kept them from recognizing Him. He could have shut those ears and closed those eyes. He could have stopped all that. From a divine perspective, that's probably true. He could have done all that.

I would not argue against that one bit. But the Bible does not specifically tell us why they did not recognize Him. from a human perspective maybe their own grief blinded them. They were so traumatized that they couldn't see the truth if it was standing right in front of them.

It doesn't take you long when you're pastoring to see this in people's lives. When I was pastoring in Levelland two of my best friends and they were best friends and had been for years.

Buddy Eerie was one. The other was Jerry Barton.

Buddy was diagnosed with brain cancer.

And I can remember sitting in that little cubicle with his wife and a few friends and family when that doctor told us he had terminal brain cancer.

The immediate effects of traumatized sadness took place. I could see it all over his wife.

Her ears deafened. Her eyes blinded. Brain fog moved in. shock rocked her equilibrium literally she was blinded and consumed with grief in that very moment literally we fell on the floors weeping all of us I'm one of these crying preachers when my people hurt, I hurt.

Six months later,

same scenario with Jerry's family.

Buddy had not yet passed, but he was on his way out.

Same diagnosis, prognosis. Same effects. Traumatization took place.

And I can remember visiting with each one of those wives as after they both died. And we'd talk about them. And they would relive and rehash those moments over and over and over and over. And there was such blindness and such deafness. You ever been there? You ever been with people where you just were traumatized by what was going on?

I think these two followers of Jesus were struggling with that experience in their life.

They were just traumatized with grief. that they had expected Jesus to rally the troops and storm Jerusalem and run the Romans out and usher in the kingdom And he not doing any of that He submitting In fact he foretelling that he going to be suffer and die and be crucified on the cross.

Secondly, I put conversations of resurrection by angels. Verses 22 through 24. But also some women among us amazed us. when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen, I love this, a vision of angels who said He was alive. And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women also had said. But him they did not see.

In John chapter 20, when Mary Magdalene reported this to the disciples, the Bible says that Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves. You know, I laugh about this. John actually outran Peter. But Peter was the first to go into them. John got there, but I'm not going in that empty tomb. you go in there Peter and then John followed and verse 8 says when John went in he saw and believed Cleopas described this conversation of an angelic visitation as amazing the Greek word here for amazing is expresso. It can mean struck with astonishment or filled with awe and wonder.

Literally, it meant to put out of place. To put out of order. In other words, there was no framework for this occurrence. There was no order for this occurrence. There was no position for this occurrence.

It could literally be translated, but also some women among us blew our senses.

Or we would say it today, blew our minds. We didn't have within our framework of our minds to understand that He is not here. He is alive. He is risen.

Bottom line, I think what was taking place here was that these two disciples had to reconsider the restoration of their hopes. In 1 Thessalonians 4.13 the Apostle Paul says we grieve but with hope.

Why? Because 1 Corinthians 15.20 says Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits. and then we follow.

Conversation with a vision of two angels or an angelic host.

Number three, conversation of redemption by the unrecognizable Jesus.

Verses 25 through 27. and he said to them oh foolish man it wasn the first time Jesus had used this kind of language Oh foolish man is slow to heart to believe in all the prophets have spoken Have you guys forgotten the Old Testament?

If you just got off into that brain fog and grown brain dead, and are you just living in your traumatization? Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Jesus is saying that. He'd already foretold that to them.

And beginning with Moses, I like the Bible study here. And beginning with Moses, and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in the scriptures.

not in your daily newspaper. You can only imagine what the daily newspaper was saying about this. In all the scriptures. What was their, Old Testament was their scriptures.

There are two things he does here. First, he confronts with a challenge in question. His confrontation calls out unbelief.

They have foolish hearts. they have a problem of foolish hearts boy I can relate to that my heart has been very foolish at times as yours his challenge listen to this why have you dismissed the prophets you know I think of Isaiah 53 I've been telling you the last 2 or 3 weeks go home and read Isaiah 53 he was the suffering servant It is prophesied.

I just went down here and wrote out some things. You know, I put secondly, he directed him back to the authority of the Word,

to Scripture, the prophetic Word of God. Isaiah, he is the suffering servant. I just mentioned that. Exodus, just go to Exodus. He is the great deliverer. Leviticus, he is the holiness of God. Numbers, he is a presence in the wilderness. Deuteronomy, he is the covenantal word of God. Ezekiel, he is the son of man. Daniel, he is the stranger in the fire with us. Hosea, he is the faithful husband even when we run away. Joel, he is the baptizer in the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Amos, he is the justice giver to the oppressed. Obadiah he is the judge to those who do evil Jonah he is the great missionary oh man Micah he is the caster of our sins into the depths of the ocean Naum he is our peace Habakkuk he is the crusher of injustice Zephaniah he is the warrior who saves Haggai He is the restorer of worship. Zechariah, he is the pierced Messiah. Malachi, he is the son of righteousness who brings healing. Boy, if that wouldn't get you out of your seat and say hallelujah, I don't know what would.

Oh man. When we did the Bethel series, we learned how Jesus was all through the Old Testament. he was prophesied guys let talk about experiences during dinner I got five minutes the dinner guest invitation Look at 28 through 29

And they approached the village where they were going and he acted as though he would go farther. And they urged. The literal word there would be they constrained him. They wrapped around him. You're not going anywhere buddy. You're going to go stay with us. They urged him saying stay with us for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over and he went and stayed with them. The Greek word here basically meant they were not going to let this man out of their sight. They knew something was different about him. Secondly, the dinner guests breaking and serving the bread, verse 30 through 31. And it came about that when he had reclined at the table and with them, he took the bread and he blessed it and breaking it, he began giving it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished out of their sight. Now guys, what I want you to notice here, this order was not customary. The host was to bless and break and serve the bread. Jesus was the guest who became the host the reversal took place you hear that? He was the guest who became the host it was in this reversal that their eyes were opened upon the immediacy of their recognition Jesus disappears why? his mission was complete.

He had taken the scales off their eyes. Their grief, their traumatization, the restoration of hope came back. Their eyes were open. You know, I don't think this is referring to the upper room experience in the breaking of bread at all because these two were not there for that. I think, and I'll talk about this in my conclusion in a minute, I think the breaking of the bread was in the normal blessing of eating. Normal day life. And these two were around a lot of meals with Jesus. Thirdly, the diner's heartburn revelation. Verse 32, And they said to one another, were not our hearts burning within us when he was speaking to us on the road while he was explaining the scripture to us, our hearts burning within us. Have you ever heard of the term residual effects? When I was in sales, I knew if I could complete a sale with a happy customer, he would be back and buy more. There was a residual effect. I'm going to tell you the residual effect of a burning heart and a believing heart was still glowing in these two disciples. The eyes and ears of revelation were being opened. They recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

Because their hearts were already on fire.

This seven mile walk changed everything. Last, fourthly, the dinner exit and they arose that very hour this is this is where it goes from private to communal and they arose that very hour and returned to

Jerusalem and found gathered together eleven and those who were with them saying the Lord has really risen and appeared to Simon.

What they had experienced was now being confirmed by the others.

Why didn't they not just simply wait until the morning in return? They couldn't.

They would not have slept a wink that night.

From grief to gratitude to glory.

They had to return to Jerusalem.

Because the words of Peter that he said later was a reality in their life. You are a chosen race. you are a priesthood a holy nation a people of God's own possession that you may proclaim listen to this the excellencies the experiences of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light for once you were no people but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.

You know I thought how do you conclude this In Jewish traditional customs before they broke the bread at a common meal there was what was called a hamatsai blessing.

I'm going to guarantee you these disciples had heard Jesus. They had lots of meals with Jesus.

You know, they'd been with him three years. I don't know if they ate three meals a day. I don't know how much they ate, but I know they ate together. Those things are not recorded, but you know they had to eat together. the women, I think the women were the ones who were the meal cookers there was a blessing Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam Haimataz Lechumen Haaretz blessed are you Lord our God King of the universe who brings forth bread from the ground I'm not going to read John 6 32 through 40 to you but I encourage you to go read it but it talks about how he descended and was like bread from the ground Jesus said I am the bread of life

Baruch atah Adonai.

Blessed are you. Eloheinu melech hallowed. Lord our God. King of the universe who brings forth bread from the ground.

He is your provision.

Those guys learned that that day. They learned in their seven mile walk that He was the bread of life.

Are you hungry? Well, it's about lunchtime.

We're going to eat here in a little while, aren't we?

Maybe you ought to say that prayer before you eat. He brings bread from the earth.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Let's bow together in prayer.

Lord, I thank you for these two followers on the road to Emmaus that were discussing everything that had been taking place and were so blinded by their own grief

And yet the Redeemer showed up.

He loved them. He challenged them. He taught them.

And then he proved himself to them in the breaking of the bread. And Lord, when they heard him blessing that bread, maybe they saw the scars in his hands or maybe they did. I don't know.

But I feel certain they said within their hearts, we've heard this voice before. We've heard this kind of prayer. We've heard the connotations of this prayer. This is Jesus.

Their eyes were opened in the breaking of the bread.

Common, a common meal. Not a special meal, just a common meal.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life. if you're hungry and you eat you'll never be hungry again Lord may that be the experience the experience that we declare in Jesus name I pray Amen