Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Okay. Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Ellie, for hosting us. Well, thank you, Lawson, for leading so well this morning. And.
[00:00:12] Yeah, so excited about outpour.
[00:00:16] Exciting, exciting. Anybody seeing Church News? The little and the angels cry. Holy.
[00:00:23] Was that was the helium balloon or something?
[00:00:25] Can I just say, don't try that at home.
[00:00:28] Apparently it's quite dangerous. Am I right? Is that.
[00:00:31] Oh, I don't know. My husband's done it a few times.
[00:00:34] Terrible.
[00:00:37] Right? Okay. We are in the final, final passage of Luke chapter four today. So if you turn with me to Luke chapter four. I'm excited. This is the last Fullness of Christ series. We have gone through a whole year in the book of Luke.
[00:00:51] I have loved the book of Luke. And as with all things, you know, we experience as much of God as we want to or as little. Right. We only encounter him by having a hungry heart. It all starts with a hungry heart. And this morning my prayer is that we have hungry hearts this morning.
[00:01:14] This day could change your life if you've got a hungry heart.
[00:01:20] If our hearts and our minds are set on him this morning, things can change today. There's lots of possibilities in today. What I want to do this morning, can we honour the word of God this morning by standing as we read this morning?
[00:01:36] You know that we read chunky pieces of scripture here. So I would love us to honor the word of God by standing for. For the reading of God's word this morning. And we've also got some congregation participation.
[00:01:50] We're gonna read.
[00:01:51] We're gonna read the red words in the Bible this morning. In other words, we're gonna read the words of Jesus. They will come up on the screen, so don't worry if you haven't got your paper copies. But here we go on the first day of the week. Very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
[00:02:24] While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them in their fright. The women bowed down with their faces to the ground and. But the men said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you.
[00:02:50] Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee? Let's do it together. The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and. And on the third day, rise to life. Did we not have that one, James.
[00:03:08] Okay, no worries. Are the others there? Yeah.
[00:03:12] All right.
[00:03:14] Then they remembered the words when they came from the tomb. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11 and to all the others.
[00:03:24] It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
[00:03:37] Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves. And he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
[00:03:49] Now, that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything they that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked among them. But they were kept from recognizing Him. He asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along?
[00:04:17] They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?
[00:04:31] What things? He asked about Jesus of Nazareth. They replied, he was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death. And they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
[00:04:57] In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said. But they did not see Jesus.
[00:05:15] He said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
[00:05:24] Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning Himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further. But they urged him strongly, stay with us, for it is nearly evening, the day is almost over.
[00:05:50] So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road? And opened up the Scriptures to us. They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the 11 and those with them assembled together and saying, it's true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke bread. I wonder if they saw the nails in his hands.
[00:06:42] Sorry, the holes in his hands. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, why are you troubled? Why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself.
[00:07:07] Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see. I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it, because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. And he said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you.
[00:07:36] Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, this is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and I am going to send you and what my Father has promised. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.
[00:08:19] When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. I pray this morning, Father Lord, that our hearts would burn as your word is opened up today.
[00:08:47] I pray, Lord, each of us would come with reverence and humility this morning, knowing Jesus, that without you we are nothing and we can go nowhere but with you, Lord, there are so many promises in you, for in life and eternal life.
[00:09:10] Just pray, Lord, that you'd open our hearts to see you fully. Give us a fresh revelation this morning of Jesus died, Jesus crucified, Jesus buried Jesus alive. And Jesus ascended at the right hand of the Father.
[00:09:28] Amen. Amen. Take your seats. This morning you read so beautifully. Church.
[00:09:35] Well, what a journey this morning we have been on, and we're going to conclude it today.
[00:09:40] An incredible journey. Who loves the word of God? Here, give me a wave.
[00:09:44] That's ten of us. Whoa. Okay.
[00:09:48] An amazing, amazing book. All right? And it's such an honor to do this last bit this morning.
[00:09:56] A couple of months ago, Phil and I were on our way back from Dartmouth. Anybody like Dartmouth?
[00:10:05] Yeah. We park at Little Dartmouth, which is a car park at the top, and then we walk all the way down into Dartmouth, grab something to eat and drink, and then we come all the way back. All right, that's our kind of routine. Now, on the way home in the car, alright, as we're driving, we passed this big building. I think it was a children's nursery and inked hotness. Maybe you know it, right? And as we're passing, I saw this enormous, and I mean enormous model of a giraffe, huge, sticking out. We turned the bend at some traffic lights to go left, and there on the corner, there was this huge giraffe. It was huge, okay? Model size.
[00:10:44] And I said, did you see that, Phil? Phil was driving. And Phil says, see what? And I said, the huge giraffe. And he says, no, it was a rhino.
[00:10:55] I said, no, it wasn't. It was a giraffe. And he goes, no, it was a rhino, right? We had this conversation, honestly, for about five minutes as we're going up the road, I am convinced, I mean, absolutely convinced it was a giraffe. Now, Phil and I, we're actually a good pair together, but we're also bad because we're so competitive. Both of us are competitive. And Phil was going, it was a rhino. And I said, listen, I am so convinced it was giraffe. All right? I said, we need to go back, honestly. And after a mile of driving away from what I believed was the giraffe, right? I said, turn this car around.
[00:11:36] You are in the wrong. I am in the right.
[00:11:39] We turned around, drove back to the spot, all right? And there was the giraffe, okay, in all its glory.
[00:11:50] But next to it was a rhino.
[00:11:57] And Phil and I are just like, okay. We had driven past the same spot.
[00:12:05] I never saw the rhino. I just saw this huge giraffe. Phil didn't see the giraffe. He saw the rhino. All right? So we both saw and were there and witnessed this building, but we saw different things.
[00:12:21] And this morning, what I want to say that in the Gospels, if you go through the resurrection accounts, you will see differing, varying eyewitness accounts. Okay, does this mean that scripture contradicts itself?
[00:12:39] No. All right, so in fact, if you talk to police, and I've got some family in the police force, they actually say if you round up some suspects, all right, and they all tell the exact story when you question them word for word, you know, they've concocted up a story to sound like the same so that it was the real thing that happened. All right, so the police tell us that, right? And the reality is they probably made the whole thing up to sound the same.
[00:13:09] So over the centuries.
[00:13:11] So just quickly on that, the gospels do not contradict themselves, all right? Just eyewitnesses honed in on different things that day.
[00:13:21] All right?
[00:13:22] And over the centuries, so many people have tried to prove that Jesus did not rise from the dead. Because if we can prove that Jesus did not rise from the dead, everything we have believed over the centuries would be a waste of time. They could say, ha ha, there is no Christianity. Ha ha, there is no Jesus. He was just some man that lived at a time he didn't rise from the dead. And a few Oxford students in the 1920s, their names were Littleton and Gilbert west, they set out one summer during their summer holidays to say, you know, you'll go to your home, you go on your home. But during the holiday season, we're going to try and prove that the resurrection never ever happened. Alright, so in the 1920s, that's what these Oxford College students tried to do is disprove that Jesus is ever rose from the grave. Well, embarrassingly, when they got back together with tears in their eyes, they had met Jesus in the summer holidays and they concluded that Jesus there was enough historical evidence to prove, in fact, more than Julius Caesar, to prove not only that Jesus existed at that time, but he did in fact rise from the dead. They actually went on to write a book in 1920 about observations on the history and evidences of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As you would imagine from some Oxford students.
[00:14:56] I don't know if it's still around today.
[00:14:58] So the first thing you should know this morning, we are starting on the premise that Jesus is alive.
[00:15:04] Will you stand up? If you believe with me that Jesus is alive. If you don't stay where you are. It's okay.
[00:15:09] Okay, you can sit down.
[00:15:11] We are starting that Jesus is alive. And in seven Sundays time, we've got. My favorite time of the year, outside of Christmas, is when Christians all over the globe will celebrate Resurrection Sunday together. We're going to have a party here Easter morning, All right? And celebrate that Jesus is alive.
[00:15:33] So the last.
[00:15:35] The last chapter, Luke 24, today it covers six weeks of Jesus life, six weeks in the life of Jesus. And there is so much to cover. In fact, we could do a couple of months on this chapter alone. There's so much.
[00:15:50] But as I was asking the Lord, how am I going to cover so much in so little time?
[00:15:54] We're going to look at the characters, and I believe looking at these characters today that are in this narrative, it's going to either remind us of ourselves, believe the Holy Spirit is going to open our hearts today, it's going to remind us of ourselves, or it'll inspire us.
[00:16:12] Yeah. So the first one today I want to talk about the women. And then we're going to wrap this up, maybe do some ministry at the end. So start preparing your heart. Say, Lord, speak to me this morning, the women.
[00:16:24] Do I need my glasses? I'm at that stage, you know, you think, do I need them or not?
[00:16:30] I think I'm okay. Ellie, take my glasses. There you go.
[00:16:34] Mary. So the women at the tomb we have in this account, Mary Magdalene, Joanna. Mary, the mother of James and others. So there was a pack of women.
[00:16:44] Pack of women, Yeah. I was one of three sisters, all right, Pack of girls.
[00:16:50] And they were very early on the Sunday morning because they couldn't. On the Sabbath, all right, the Jewish Sabbath, they couldn't go and do any work on the Sabbath. So very early when they could, and they could go back and do their work. So I imagine, I don't know, really early, early hours of that Sunday, they took their spices to finish off the preparation for Jesus body. It had been a rushed job, you can imagine, from the cross at three buried.
[00:17:16] It would have been a very rushed job on that morning that Jesus died. So on that afternoon that Jesus died, but they decided they would take the spices to the tomb and finish off the preparation for Jesus's body. These women loved Jesus.
[00:17:32] They turned up everywhere in the Gospels. They ministered, they held things, they carried things, they made things, all right? They loved Jesus. They loved him. But here's the thing, right? They were wondering when they got to the tomb so that the tomb had moved away, which it needed to be. Maybe the guards would have pushed that away. So they thought, right, but there was no one in the tomb.
[00:17:59] Just some linen, just some clothing, all right? And the Bible says that they were wondering what had happened.
[00:18:07] Now, I have a bit of a problem about this and I'll tell you why I have a problem, right?
[00:18:13] I have a Problem, because Jesus already told them what was going to happen.
[00:18:18] If you go Back to Luke 9, you don't have to turn to it. But Jesus told them plainly, the Son of Man is going to have to suffer. He's going to be handed over to the elders. He's going to die, but on the third day, he's going to rise again.
[00:18:31] But they're wondering, but Jesus has already told them in Luke 9, in Luke 12, Jesus tells them again. He said, I'm going to go through a baptism, a trial, and you know what? I'm distressed until this is going to be over.
[00:18:45] But they were wondering, still wondering, still wondering. And you know what?
[00:18:53] I don't think that they even stopped to think about Jesus words.
[00:18:59] Just think about it for a moment. You've walked with Jesus for so many years, right? Two or three years, he's been telling you a load of things. And there were times when Jesus took his disciples to the side and he's sharing what's going to happen. He's predicting all of this. And don't forget, they have the Old Testament as well, parts of the Old Testament.
[00:19:19] And he's talking very plainly with them. All right? But I don't think they ever stopped to think about the words of Jesus because they were wondering. And the angel of the Lord has to. An angel, sorry, comes to remind them exactly what had happened.
[00:19:40] The first thing I want to say to us as a church this morning is that we need to stop daily to remember the words of the Lord.
[00:19:52] Stop, Stop our busyness, stop letting distraction take over our lives. And stop to listen to, to remember, to remind ourselves what the word of the Lord says.
[00:20:10] This is the time we need to do it.
[00:20:12] Because there is so much division, there is so much chaos, there is so many opinions landing in our inboxes, on our TV screens.
[00:20:23] Like podcasts are great, great. But unless a preacher is going to open up the scriptures and talk from the scriptures, be careful, very careful, what you are listening to, what they are saying.
[00:20:37] The church needs to go back to knowing the words of Jesus.
[00:20:42] You know, so many of us, I put myself in this as well. We do a lot of guesswork when it comes to the word of God.
[00:20:49] We do a lot of guesswork. Wow, that's gone quiet.
[00:20:53] We spend too much time wondering. Everyone say wondering, wondering.
[00:21:01] Some of us have been brought up in the Christian life, in the Christian home. And Phil spoke about that this morning. And we've not really studied the book for ourselves. We've just lived off something we heard 25 years ago.
[00:21:12] And we're basing our ideals on what we heard 25 years ago. Let me tell you, 25 years ago, I heard something and I went back to scripture to check it out.
[00:21:20] And I've changed my view, God. I've checked it out for myself.
[00:21:26] And sometimes as Christians, we spend too much time wondering, guessing, speculating, pondering.
[00:21:36] You know, there are many Christians today fearful about the future.
[00:21:40] Oh, our nation's in a mess.
[00:21:42] All the nations of the world are a mess. You should have been on our Bible, on zoom. We're in the most exciting time for the church. It is a most exciting time for the church.
[00:21:54] All right. Oh, it's exciting. Things are ramping up. The glorious day of the Lord is coming, and Christians will either be ready for it or they'll be fearful hiding under a rock.
[00:22:05] Don't know which one you want to be. Okay. Anyway. And you know, we've got to say, what, hey, Jesus, what are you saying?
[00:22:12] Right? We've got to grab the word of God. We've got to memorize it, let it go into every part of our being.
[00:22:18] See, Mark 13 says, and I'll give you the answer to that. For some of you here, you may be fearful. And I don't mean to, you know, just by wash it. I understand there are people who are genuinely fearful, all right? But Mark 13 says, Heaven and earth are going to pass away. There's your answer.
[00:22:36] Might as well face it now. Here's the truth. It's going to pass away because there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth that God's going to create. But he says, my words will never pass away.
[00:22:46] So we either focus on the negative, we either focus on the fear, or we focus on the words of God. Instead of wondering, speculating, pondering, let's focus on the word of God. Come on, church. You know, wandering won't lead you to the right answers.
[00:23:00] It will not lead you to the right answers. Wondering will lead you to speculate, possible outcomes. You know, speculation is the devil's work.
[00:23:08] God forgive us. When we speculate, we base our judgments based on things we might have seen, we might have heard.
[00:23:16] Okay, we've all done it and got into a lot of trouble.
[00:23:20] And what happens? We wonder and we speculate, and we come up with our own possible scenarios and outcomes and answers.
[00:23:28] And then when we do that, we then go for the most spiritual answer, whatever in our mind thinks like the most spiritual outcome. We go, yeah, that could be the truth, but it's not truth.
[00:23:40] There's Only one truth, and it's Jesus Christ, and it's in his word. We must make it our goal, our priority to hear the exact words of Jesus. Otherwise we are in a danger zone, a danger zone of twisting truth.
[00:23:59] This is the time. This is the time to make it our goal. You know, thank goodness the angel came and reminded them of the truth.
[00:24:09] Oh, thank goodness. Can you imagine a pack of women going back to the group, going, well, should we speculate? Can you imagine on the way back they'd speculate, go, well, I think, I think, I don't know, that Joseph took his body and placed it in a better tomb? Well, I think, da, da, da. Can you imagine a group of women? No. Is it just me?
[00:24:29] Okay, Just me.
[00:24:31] And so I'm so glad the angel came and, and told them the truth.
[00:24:36] But women, it's not all on you today, all right? Just because they were fearful, just because they were wondering, they didn't really know and they didn't remember what Jesus said. It's not all on the women.
[00:24:47] The women go back to the 11. They go back to others. So there's others there. We know there's about 120 on the day of Pentecost in the upper room. So we know there's. There's about over a hundred of gathered people, believers gathered. So there was others there. So here's the second group of people. We've got the women, and then the second group is the 11. And the others. Now what do they say? If you go to verse 11, it says they did not believe the women because the women were talking nonsense.
[00:25:20] How offensive.
[00:25:22] Can you imagine? You just had this incredible vision.
[00:25:26] You've been told Jesus is alive, and you go back to the apostles, like the esteemed men of faith, and they say, away.
[00:25:37] You're talking nonsense. Women. I mean, can you imagine?
[00:25:41] Incredible. All right, now I'm going to cut to the chase this morning really quickly. Can I just talk for a moment about common sense?
[00:25:49] Can I tell you what common sense is? Here's common sense, right? Common sense is saying it's raining outside, so what do you need a raincoat or a everyone umbrella? Umbrella. Okay. Common said if it's winter and you're going outside, you need a coat. Okay? Common says that if there's a fire and there's a child there, secure the child, all right? Yeah. Commons says, says, don't walk across the motorway.
[00:26:24] Like, please don't walk. We all know that, okay? Common sense is something that is considered common because the majority of people hold that view.
[00:26:37] Let Me just say that again. Common sense is something that is considered common because the majority of people hold that view.
[00:26:50] The men and the others that were with them replied that the women were complete nonsense in what they were saying.
[00:27:00] The men had also forgotten the words of Jesus.
[00:27:03] What Jesus said in Luke 9 and Luke 12, okay, and the others there. But they had also stopped believing.
[00:27:15] They had stopped walking by faith and gone to sight.
[00:27:28] Church, we've got to get some backbone.
[00:27:32] The Christian faith is not common sense.
[00:27:36] It is not about common sense.
[00:27:39] But common sense took over in that moment.
[00:27:42] It can't be possible. It just can't be possible.
[00:27:48] It cannot be possible. They'd stopped believing. They had disregarded the words that Jesus had spoken to them.
[00:27:57] They reduced their faith now to some kind of human reasoning. The only thing is their forefathers believed it.
[00:28:07] Abraham saw it from afar.
[00:28:11] Moses saw it from afar.
[00:28:14] David saw it from afar.
[00:28:18] Isaiah the prophet saw it from afar 700 years ago, before Jesus came. So you're telling me these men who'd been with Jesus, they stopped believing and they used common sense?
[00:28:33] Church, we do not live by common sense.
[00:28:37] We don't believe something based on the vast majority.
[00:28:43] We live by the very words of Jesus.
[00:28:47] Let me tell you, the word of God is the norm.
[00:28:51] Everything else is abnormal.
[00:28:53] Let me just say the word of God is the norm. Everything else is abnormal.
[00:28:59] Sickness, decay and death is not normal.
[00:29:04] We know why it happens.
[00:29:07] We know because of greed, because of the sinfulness of mankind, because of selfishness. We know why it happens, but it is not normal. It was never meant to be that way.
[00:29:19] A few weeks ago, somebody came to me and they said, esther, I'm really struggling in my workplace.
[00:29:25] I feel this, just this, you know, I'm. I'm in the minority.
[00:29:30] I'm in the minority and I'm just struggling in the workplace. And I reminded this person, I said to them, you need to start realizing who you are.
[00:29:40] You are the light of Christ, okay?
[00:29:45] The darkness will only invade you if you let it.
[00:29:49] I said, you are the light of Christ. I said, you go in there Monday morning and you are the one who's going to invade the the darkness because of the light of Christ that is living inside of you.
[00:30:04] See, the word of God is normal. The life that Jesus lived is the life that we are supposed to live.
[00:30:12] I feel like a failure when I say that the life Jesus lived is the life that we are supposed to live. One John says, as he is, so are we in the world.
[00:30:31] Have you ever wondered why some people just don't like you.
[00:30:37] It's because you have an authority. God has given you an authority over the darkness.
[00:30:45] And it rattles and exposes people who will not live by the truth.
[00:30:53] Living a holy life is the normal life.
[00:30:57] Living in the truth is the normal life. Living in purity is the normal life. And thank God for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit who enables us and empowers us to live out the life that God intends us to live because we cannot do it without. Without him.
[00:31:17] After three years with Jesus, they still did not believe.
[00:31:22] They still did not believe, still didn't believe what he said. And then we move quickly onto Peter.
[00:31:28] Maybe we have some Peters in this room today. Verse 12. It is astonishing. So the women come back. The others, the apostles say they're nonsense, but Peter, Peter's like, yeah, do you know what? Maybe there is something in this maybe. And it says that Peter runs to the tomb, but he just finds it's empty.
[00:31:56] And Peter too goes away wondering. There's a lot of wondering this morning. I'm just wondering, I'm pondering like what's going on. And Peter goes away wondering. But what I love with Peter, he at least went to go.
[00:32:09] He didn't just stay with the common sense lot.
[00:32:13] He didn't just say, well I'm just going to sit here and common sense, let it, let common sense take over. And I'll just believe with the majority of these lot that yeah, the women are nonsense.
[00:32:23] Peter made a decision to go.
[00:32:25] I'm going to go out by faith and go and check this out.
[00:32:30] If you go further on down in scripture, in verse 34, something wonderful happens to Peter. And this is why we really need to know our Bibles, right? There's two on the road to Emmaus and I haven't got time to go into that this morning so I want to do some ministry. But it's an incredible passage. But verse 34, when the two who are on the road to Emmaus where Jesus comes and appears to them, this is what happens. They come back to tell everybody.
[00:32:58] You know, wherever they are, they come back to tell everybody. But they say Jesus also appeared to Peter.
[00:33:07] Jesus also appeared. Simon. His name is Simon Peter. Jesus also appeared to Simon.
[00:33:14] So at some point between the women finding nothing and then the angel revealing it to telling the common sense apostles, they would hate me calling that now, wouldn't they? Are they looking down and going, esther, shut up. We got it in the end, we got it.
[00:33:31] The common sense apostles. And then Peter goes, but there is a conversation that happens between Peter and Jesus.
[00:33:42] And in Scripture, if you look through the other Gospels, you can kind of work out what that conversation is. And the conversation goes something like this. Lord, I denied you.
[00:33:53] And Peter goes, feed my sheep.
[00:33:56] Peter, you're going to be my first pastor of my church. And you are going to feed my lambs. Feed the church.
[00:34:07] I believe that special encounter happened all right because Peter left the common sense. He got out of the room where they were and he went to the tomb. He was hungry. He knew something. He knew something had happened.
[00:34:27] Hebrews says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. That whoever comes to him must believe that he is. And he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
[00:34:45] Final group this morning, the two were on the road to Emmaus talking about Jesus. They didn't recognize him. The scripture tells us that they were kept from seeing him. But then the moment when Jesus breaks bread, Jesus hands.
[00:35:02] It is beautiful. All right. And this is what happened. Jesus started to open up the Scriptures.
[00:35:10] You know, those six weeks when Jesus came back from the dead, there isn't any record of a miracle.
[00:35:17] There isn't any record of Jesus feeding thousands and thousands of people. There's no record of the blind eyes opening. There's nothing. Do you know what he did?
[00:35:26] He opened up the Scriptures constantly.
[00:35:31] And he opened up the Old Testament. Let me tell you, you will not know the fullness of Christ without studying the Old Testament.
[00:35:41] And the Old Testament isn't that hard. It isn't that hard. If you go through it slowly but diligently, you will see Jesus. You know, I told the guys on the Zoom on our Bible class that we have every week, I said, go ahead, see Jesus. In the Garden of Eden. When God has to slaughter the first animal, the first animal sacrifice, and clothe the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve, I say, go ahead and see Jesus. When God's people have to put the blood over the doorposts to save their lives, go ahead and see Jesus. When Moses throws a piece of wood into bitter waters to make the waters pure.
[00:36:27] See Jesus on every page.
[00:36:31] But Jesus started to open up the Scriptures and he predicts.
[00:36:39] He's predicting and he's pointing to a future in Christ.
[00:36:45] Verse 32. I'm going to finish with this in a moment. Verse 32 says, were not our hearts burning within us when he spoke, I get a bit teary.
[00:36:55] Sorry, I'm a woman. I get emotional.
[00:36:58] But I long for the church to burn again.
[00:37:02] When the Scriptures are opened, I long. I long for Us to really know the word of God and live the word of God. And we all fall short.
[00:37:14] Like, really fall short. We do.
[00:37:17] And the biggest test for us Christians in the end days is going to be how much we love each other when we offend each other.
[00:37:26] It's true.
[00:37:28] It's true.
[00:37:31] Because it's hard.
[00:37:34] Sheep are messy.
[00:37:36] We're messy people.
[00:37:40] And talking to so many church leaders, so many.
[00:37:45] Well, there's just. It's horrifying really, to know how people can fall from such grace.
[00:37:52] But they do.
[00:37:53] But they do. And my desire is that our hearts would burn within us as we open up the Scriptures. I want to encourage you this morning if you feel dull and we have those times, don't we, where we're just not feeling it right, let me encourage you to keep. Keep reading the scriptures.
[00:38:13] It is the treasure, it is the gold, it is life. It is the living word.
[00:38:26] Takeaway this morning, let us not forget the words of Jesus. Let's be diligent.
[00:38:31] Don't chase common sense. Jesus showed us the kingdom. Life is the normal life. Follow Jesus, don't follow Phil. And I. Follow Jesus.
[00:38:40] Walk by faith.
[00:38:42] It's often a lonely path. Walking by faith.
[00:38:47] It's followed by a few, not the majority.
[00:38:51] But trust God anyway.
[00:38:53] You know, Peter encountered Jesus, I believe, because he didn't trust the majority and common sense, he went in search for Jesus, asked God to open our hearts and minds in 2026.
[00:39:07] Like I said, if you're picking up this Bible and it's dull and it's boring and you think it's nonsense, we need the presence of God to come upon us desperately.
[00:39:19] We need to feel the burn.
[00:39:22] I have to have a fizzy drink at night.
[00:39:25] I have to. It's hereditary.
[00:39:28] It was in my dad. It was in my granddad.
[00:39:31] Big fizzy tango.
[00:39:34] Seriously. And it has to be ice cold. And I swig it from the bottle because it's always better from the bottle.
[00:39:40] And I swig it.
[00:39:43] And I do. Yes.
[00:39:45] And I feel the burn.
[00:39:47] And I love the burn on my throat like ginger. I love the burn.
[00:39:53] I want us to burn for the word of God, that when we pick it up, we feel the burn. We feel the electricity, the excitement, the power of the Holy Spirit. Spirit in us. Will you stand with me this.
