Feeling a bit disconnected in your walk with Christ?
Well, Pastor Greg Laurie has a great new book called What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know that'll help. Let's say you're feeling lethargic and tired. You know, if you have a diet of social media and you don't take time for the Word of God, this is going to have a damaging effect.
So this is just one of the things we talk about in this new book called What Every Growing Christian Needs to Know. Available at harvest.org. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you. If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.
Listen, you can open up in your Bibles to Luke chapter 24. Today is the last day. in our series and the book of Luke. Everybody say, ah man. Yeah, yep, I know.
It's a bummer. I've really enjoyed going through it with you guys, but it's been a lot of fun, and I'm excited for our next series, which we're going to be starting next week. My dad's going to be kicking it off, and we're talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Ooh, this is interesting. How many of you like to receive gifts?
You like gifts. You like getting stuff. Yeah, I like gifts, especially when they come from God Himself. How about that? I mean, His gifts are perfect.
His gifts are really good. And His gifts equip us. They're not just meant for us to consume. They're meant to equip us, and they're meant to actually be used to bless other people. And so, we're going to be learning exactly what those gifts are.
We're going to learn how to decipher what gifts that we have. And so, you're going to want to join us for that next week: the gifts of the Spirit.
Well, today we're finishing up, like I said, Luke chapter 24. My message title is Walking with Jesus. Walking with Jesus, and we're going to be looking at the disciples on the Emmaus Road. A great passage of scripture, so encouraging, so challenging, and honestly, so relevant for us today. How many of you here like to run?
You're runners, like you actually enjoy running. Like three of you? Not that many. What? Nobody runs in Riverside?
Orange County, some runners? Maui, runners, anybody?
Okay, someone in the back?
Okay, good. Frankly, I don't understand you if you're a runner. I don't get it. That's not me. That's not my pace.
I always have felt like running is just pain and pain and more pain, right? People talk about the runners high, the endorphins. I've had endorphins from a lot of things, never from running, right? It's just like, okay, I can do a mile.
Okay, I can do two miles.
Okay, after like two and a half miles, I'm like, what's the point of this? This is just, I'm suffering here. I'm not enjoying it at all. But it's good. Obviously, running is good.
I hope if you do run, that you continue to run. We should probably all run a little bit more, shouldn't we? It's great cardio, it's great exercise. I just like to get my cardio in other ways and do different things. But I am a fan of walking.
I like to walk. Man, I have found that walking, it really changes my disposition, changes my attitude. It's great. You can have conversations with people. As you go on walks, everybody can walk.
Little kids, old people, and everybody in between. And so I feel like it's a good opportunity to really get to know people as well. I love to go on walks with my wife, hold her hand, walk down the beach, walk in the neighborhood, walk through a park. And honestly, you know what's interesting about walking is it really helps you process information. Have you found that to be true?
Man, when you're on a walk and you're in a conflict, maybe with your spouse, or, you know, in my case, my boss at work has been really hard on me lately. It's my dad. And no, just kidding. But maybe you have a conflict at work, something's going on, or maybe you've got some family drama, you're in an argument with you know that friend, whatever it might be. Going on a walk actually has a metaphysical dynamic that takes place where you are able to process that information, diagnose what the issue is, reduce it to what it really is, remove some of the emotion away from it.
Because actually, when you walk, this is a scientific fact, it decreases the activity in the brain's fear and emotional reactivity center. I think we could all be a little less emotionally reactive. Don't you? I feel like we can all be a little less emotionally reactive. We go for a scroll on social media and we're just outraged.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe they're saying that. I can't believe that this country is happening. Oh, this is just ridiculous. We're all a little emotionally reactive. Just take a chill pill.
Go for a walk, buddy, right? I found that it helps my wife and I sort through problems as we maybe have a disagreement or we're trying to figure something out. Going on a walk helps us resolve it.
Sometimes when the kids all have a bad attitude, right? Oh, we've been sitting around in the house all day on screens and everybody's kind of frustrated and on each other's nerves.
Okay, guys, everybody put your phones down. We're going on a walk. Oh, I don't want to go on a walk. And then we get down there, or, you know, especially if we go walk on the beach or something or go to a nice park and walk around barefoot, take your shoes off. It like, it transforms everybody.
Their attitude shifts and it's incredible. It is amazing how much your disposition will change just on a A walk.
Well, we see that walking is actually very near to God's heart. Walking is something that is very important. It's a central theme we see throughout the Bible, from the Old Testament all the way to the book of Revelation. We see Adam and Eve. They walked in the garden, right?
They walked in the garden, but not just by themselves. They walked in the garden with God in the cool of the day. I mean, could you imagine walking with God Himself in the Garden of Eden? That's a box I would like to check in the future. Enoch, he walked with God, the Bible says, and was not.
He walked with God and was not, which actually means he walked with God and God raptured him and took him to heaven. He was a guy that had a daily routine. He walked with God all the time, spent time with God. They would have conversations. And I think what happened there is he basically got to the end of his walk one day and God said, Well, Enoch, we're a little closer to my house than your house today.
Why don't you come home with me? And God raptured him. Pretty cool. That's a good way to go. I take that.
We see that Moses, when he was leading the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, he walked through the Red Sea. That's incredible right there to that God parted the Red Sea and allowed the Israelites, thousands, millions of them, to march through. They walked through the Red Sea. We also see that Joshua walked or marched around the walls of Jericho, this enemy stronghold in the land of Canaan, the land of milk and honey that was promised to the Israelites for them to inhabit. They were so afraid.
How are they going to conquer this huge kingdom, a place that had walls so thick that you could race chariots around on them? How are they going to bring those walls down, this enemy stronghold? And God said, walk around it. Walk around it. And that's what they did.
A few other things that happened with that as well, but they walked. And then, of course, we look at Jesus' life, and we see Jesus, he was a walker, wasn't he? In fact, during Jesus' physical ministry on earth, just in those three years that are recorded in Scripture, it is believed that a conservative number of miles that Jesus walked was 3,000. 3,000 miles in three years. That's 1,000 miles a year.
I can do math. And it's just incredible to know that he walked everywhere. He walked everywhere. Not only did he walk. From Jerusalem to Galilee to Samaria to Tyre to Sidon to Caesarea, Philippi, all these different places in Israel.
But he also, he's the only guy, to walk on the water.
So that's pretty cool. Jesus walked. He walked. And we see that even after Jesus rose again from the dead. Even when he had this ability to like supernaturally appear and disappear and present himself and then disappear and pass through walls, and basically, I think we would call it teleporting, right?
Jesus still walked. He still walked, and that's what we're going to see right now as Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
So let's read together in Luke chapter 24, starting. And verse 13. The Christian life. is a walk. It says this: this is now the same day that Jesus rose again from the dead, right?
The scene at the tomb where the tomb was empty, Mary Magdalene and the disciples, John and And Peter ran there, and John beat him there, and that, and that, all that, that was earlier that morning, and so this is just later that day. It says in verse 13, now behold, two men. were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus. which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they walked together.
Of all these things, excuse me. They talked together. They talked together of all these things which had happened. And so it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus himself drew near. and went with them.
Let's pause right there. That brings us to our first point. I mean, we can't get a couple verses into this passage without recognizing something amazing is happening here. The two disciples. They're processing, they're talking about what just took place.
Jesus, their master. The one they thought was the Messiah, right? They had such high hopes for him. He was going to overthrow Rome and kick them out, and it was going to be, you know, this amazing time for Jerusalem, like the days of King David. He was just publicly murdered.
He was executed on a Roman cross in front of thousands of people. And they're just, they're devastated, they're heartbroken. And they're processing these things. They're on a talk, right? You know what that is?
That's when you go on a walk, but it's actually a talk. You have a long, prolonged conversation, and you just process these things. That's what they were doing. They had seven miles is approximately the distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and they were just talking about Jesus. How could this be?
Man, did you see that? Did you hear that? Oh, we heard about this this morning. The tomb was empty. That's, wow, okay, that's interesting.
What does this mean? They were processing. And what happens? Jesus himself. drew near.
And our first point is that Jesus walks in our conversations. Jesus walks in our conversations. You know, when we get together with our friends, we love to talk about every topic under the sun, right? We talk about sports, we talk about the economy, we talk about investments, we talk about our health, we talk about our ailments, we talk about our family, we talk about our education, all kinds of things, and that's good. We're created to be social creatures.
We should discuss the things that are happening in our lives. We weren't created to do life alone. We're supposed to have friends. We're supposed to talk about what's going on with us. And so.
We talk about all kinds of things. Uh it's so funny. Uh I have a small group and I have a bunch of guys in my group, and then my wife has a small group, and she has a bunch of girls in her small group. And a lot of our group members are married to each other, which is cool.
So she's got the wives, I've got the husbands. And it's so funny to me how I have my group on Tuesday night, and we'll ask a question, throw the question out there, and it'll just sit there. And sit there, and then somebody will jump in, and then somebody else will jump in, and then somebody else, it's just kind of like this ping-pong thing, right? Where it goes like, here, here, here, here, here, right? I go to my wife's group, and it's like, chaos.
I don't know how I don't know how to Interpret what is being said. All the girls are talking simultaneously about the same thing over each other, but across the room, I'm like, How do you understand what is being said here? This is crazy. Men and women, in case you didn't know, are very different. But we are still all called to be in community.
And the best types of relationships, the best conversations that we engage in are the ones about the Lord. are the ones that are built on a foundation of faith. Those are the best ones where you spur each other on in your faith. The type of relationships and friendships that keep you accountable. When you say something that isn't true.
You know, I love it when. A guy in one of my groups will say something and the other guys will say, like, hey, no, you shouldn't do that. No, no, you're off there. And they'll call him out, whether it's, you know, whatever thing that he's bringing up. And they'll do it in a loving way, but to redirect him, to guide him, right?
And it's so important that we talk about what God is doing in our lives, that we share with others the goodness of God. We were just singing about that. After church, first service, I bumped into a couple and they couldn't shut up about all that God had done in their lives. And I mean that in the best way possible. They literally could not stop talking about what God had done for them, how he answered that prayer, how he had done a miracle in their dad's life, how they healed him, how they were prospering him, how God had changed everything, and how God had even used bad things to do good things.
They could not stop. It was such a blessing to hear. It was such a blessing to hear. Those are the best kinds of conversations where you talk about what God is doing in your life, how He stepped into that particular season. The kind of relationships where you can say to each other, let's pray about that right now.
Let's bring that to the Lord right now. You're talking, sometimes our conversations turn into venting, right? Frustrations. And then, if we're not careful, they start turning into gossip, right? And then we're slandering the person.
Those aren't productive. Those aren't good things to do. In those moments, we should say, hey, you know what? Let's bring it to the Lord right now. Clearly, you're frustrated.
I'm frustrated with the situation. Us demeaning this person and just going over it and over and over it isn't going to help anything. Let's pray about it right now. Lord, we pray for so-and-so. Those are the best kinds of relationships.
And we see this with the two disciples: one named Cleopas. And the other remains unnamed. They were talking about Jesus and everything that had just happened.
Now, talk about big news, right? This was the biggest news ever. Jesus had just been crucified. Of course, we know that Jesus is the most important man who ever lived. In fact, we divide history by him.
We know the time before Jesus was born as BC or before Christ. And AD is Annodomine, which basically means the year of our Lord, the year that Jesus was born. That is what we divide time by. Isn't that incredible? Even time itself is defined by Jesus.
And so this is really big news. This is huge news. And it says that as they were discussing these things, Jesus himself. drew near. He drew near.
He was interested to hear. And I love that picture. And it's actually promised not just to the first century believers that he would draw near, it's promised to us as well. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 18, he says, wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be in the midst of them.
So that promises for us today as well. In this room, I think there's a few more than two or three gathered in Jesus' name, right? We're here today gathered in Jesus' name. Yes, amen. And so we can know: here's the best part, and you should applaud for this: Jesus is present here right now.
Jesus is present here. He is aware of what's happening. His presence is here with us today. Later in our text. As the two disciples realized that this was actually Jesus walking with them, because for a short time their eyes were closed to this fact, it says.
They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he opened up the scriptures to us? Did not our hearts burn within us?
Now, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know exactly what they're talking about: that spiritual heartburn. Did not our hearts burn within us?
Whenever you have somebody that just has that perfect passage that speaks exactly to what you are going through, it's like the best words you could ever hear. If you're going through something difficult and you're in the hospital room and you're suffering and you're grieving or something, and someone comes with that passage of scripture to you and they read it to you and they pray for you, and just the peace that it brings-you feel like you can breathe, right? That is such a blessing. Did not our hearts burn within us?
That's what these disciples experienced us. And again, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know exactly what they are talking about: a spiritual heartburn.
Now, that's not. from the Mexican food that you ate the night before. But it's actually speaking of a burning Passion for Jesus. A heart that burns for him. On fire, to be on fire for Jesus.
Have you ever heard of that phrase before? Being on fire for God? It's biblical. You find it in Scripture. And actually, we see that fire is a common theme, a common point of reference throughout Scripture to describe the presence of God in a believer's life.
We see that in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers and the Holy Spirit came, that on their heads they had what looked like tongues of fire, little flames on top of their heads. to symbolize that The Spirit was with them and it had enabled them to powerfully proclaim the gospel. John the Baptist spoke of Jesus, saying Jesus would come and baptize with the Holy Spirit and of fire. Jesus tells us that we are to stay dressed for action and to keep our lamps burning. As he talks about his return, our spiritual lamps should be lit.
And then in Revelation, John's vision of Jesus is that his hair was white like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire. You know, fire is really very similar to our faith. Fire is similar to our faith because fire, like faith, it can be kindled. It can be fed. It purifies.
It can smolder. It can be quenched. And ultimately we see that when you put Fires next to each other, or when you put embers of a fire next to each other. They burn longer and they last longer, and they actually burn hotter. This is what happens when you get believers together in fellowship, in community, in a small group, praying with each other, iron sharpening iron, two embers burning each other on, keeping each other hotter.
They will last longer if they are kept closer together. And that is why we put such an emphasis here. Amen. You should be in fellowship with other believers. You should have other people burning for Jesus around you.
Because what happens when you burn out? If you burn out and then you have another believer who's totally on fire, what's that going to do? It can reignite you. It can reignite you. It can get you back on fire for the Lord.
Even hearing what these people were sharing after first service, how God had done so much for them, man, it got me charged up. It got me fired up. I was excited. Yeah, you know what? You're exactly right.
God did do that for you. And He's done that for me as well. He's blessed me. He's answered my prayers. He's met me in places that I needed Him to be.
It got me excited. And that is why we put such an emphasis here at Harvest on being in a Harvest group. One of the best ways that you can have your spiritual fire burning is to be in a small group with other believers, people. that have never studied the Bible. Sitting alongside people who have studied the Bible their entire lives and have wisdom and insight into your season of life, sharing things, asking questions.
It's amazing. Young, old, married, single, men, women, students.
Now attending church On Sunday is really important and it's incredible without question. We get to see each other and I think of Sunday morning kind of as like Sunday night dinner, right? Through the week, you know, the whole family is out doing different things, and especially as the kids get older, they're off doing their thing. And sometimes they even have their own families that they're with, and you don't get to see each other as often. But then there's that one night of the week where everybody comes home from dinner, for dinner, and it's just great to catch up with everybody.
That's what I think of Sunday mornings as, right? Because it's the whole family. Sunday morning is the whole church. But being in a small group is where you're able to do things you can't do on a Sunday morning. On Sunday morning, we don't have an opportunity for QA.
You can't raise your hand and say, Pastor Jonathan, I have a question. One of our ushers will escort you out and kill you if you do that. No, just kidding. Definitely not. But there's not an opportunity for a QA time.
There's not an opportunity to go on rabbit trails. And that's some of the stuff that's fun to do in the small group. Oh man, what are some of the places that Jesus talked about himself that pointed to him? You know, I've got a couple that I'll point out to you. But that's the kind of thing in a small group where you could spend the whole time together saying, let's look at the Old Testament, all the places that we see that Jesus appeared before he was born.
All the places that Jesus, obviously, these prophecies point to him.
So it's an awesome opportunity for rabbit trails to ask questions, to share testimonies. To talk about what God is doing in your life or the need that God is meeting in someone's life, it is for everyone. And they're such a blessing. It is such a blessing. And most importantly and most incredibly, in our small groups, in our conversations, as we just saw, Jesus Himself is present in those conversations.
The Spirit of God is present with you, listening. Interested, bending his ear. you will have your heart burn within you. But it's not just our conversations Jesus is present for, not just the theological and technical, eschatological discussions we might have in our small groups. Jesus walks with us in every season of life as well.
Let's continue reading now in verse 16. It says But their eyes, speaking of the two disciples, their eyes were restrained so that they did not recognize Jesus. And Jesus said to them, What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Jesus, Are you the only person in Jerusalem that doesn't know what's happened in the last few days? And Jesus said to them, Well, what things are you talking of?
And so they said to him, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth. A man who was a mighty prophet in deed and word before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. 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.
Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us. When they did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Verse 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. Then Jesus said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And then they drew near to the village where they were going, and Jesus indicated that he would have gone farther. 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.
Now as it came to pass, as he sat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. And then their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight. 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 scripture to us? Let's pause there. That brings us to point number two.
Jesus walks in our suffering. Jesus walks in our suffering. First of all, I just love this scene. That again, they're on the road to Emmaus, they're talking about Jesus, everything that just took place, and then Jesus himself shows up. You ever have that happen?
You're talking about somebody, then they walk into the room, and you're just like, just play it cool, play it off, it's all right. That goes back to that conversation of not gossiping about people, right?
Okay. But Jesus himself, he shows up. He shows up in the middle of their conversation. He asks them what they're talking about. And then they become indignant at Jesus for not hearing about Jesus, right?
They're like, are you living under a rock the last few days? Haven't you heard about what happened to Jesus? And basically, they then proceed to tell Jesus about Jesus. And they were devastated. The disciples were devastated.
They were heartbroken. Again, Jesus, the Messiah they'd been waiting for, the one that they'd been hearing about since their childhood, the coming Jewish Messiah that would deliver Israel from the captivity of the Babylonians and the Assyrians and now the Romans, right? Oh, he's going to deliver us from enemy occupation, and we're ultimately going to make Jerusalem into the former glory that it once was. It's going to be amazing.
Well, The one they had hoped would do that, Jesus, had just been publicly executed, and they are heartbroken. When Jesus asks them what they're talking about, it actually says they stood still. Looking sad. Like they stopped dead in their tracks. They're walking along, and Jesus asked them what they're talking about.
They stopped dead in their tracks, and they just look at him. with sadness written on their face. It says in verse 16. That as they looked at Jesus, that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. It says that their eyes were restrained so they wouldn't know him.
Now, this actually tells us that Jesus did this supernaturally. It's not that their eyes were so blurry from grief and sadness, like Mary Magdalene's were, but they were actually kept from recognizing Jesus.
Now, If you think about that, It should kind of bother you. These two guys, they're devastated, sadness written on their face. And here's Jesus resurrected, and he asks them what's wrong. And they say, you know, haven't you heard about Jesus? They're devastated.
And Jesus actually keeps them from recognizing him. Why would he do that? Why would he do that? Is it because he wanted to watch them suffer and grieve and laugh at their misfortune? Of course not.
Did you want to play some sick game of cosmic peekaboo? No. Here's what's actually happening. Jesus knows that if he reveals himself right away, what do you think is going to happen? The two disciples, when they see that it's Jesus, they're going to turn into a puddle.
I mean, they're going to melt. They're going to burst into tears, into joy. They're going to cling to Jesus. They're going to fall at his feet. They're going to turn into, you know, melting groupies, really.
And rightfully so, as any of us would if we saw Jesus face to face. That's the right thing. But the experience, the emotion, and the shock of seeing Jesus would overshadow what Jesus wanted to teach them in this moment. Jesus wanted to point them to a much greater truth than just the emotional sensation of seeing him. He wanted to point them to the prophecies.
He wanted to point them to the truth of God's word. And so instead of an encounter, instead of a you should have been there story, Jesus opens their eyes to the scriptures. And in verse 27, it says, beginning at Moses, which is Genesis, and all the prophets. He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus proceeds to walk them through centuries of prophecy, foreshadowing, millennia, and all history that points to him.
This was not just some cherry-picked Bible verses that point to Jesus as the Messiah. This was Jesus pointing out and revealing that all scripture ultimately points to him. All of scripture, all of prophecy, everything that ever took place was all building up to this very moment. This was something that they had not realized up until right here and right now. And by keeping their eyes restrained, keeping them from recognizing them, recognizing Jesus, allowed them to listen to his words again rather than turning into just some melting fanboys here.
This time with Jesus anchored their understanding of the resurrection in Scripture and not in their own eyewitness account.
Now, it's really easy for us to lean on our own understanding, but the Bible tells us as the heavens are higher than the earth, so the ways of God are higher than ours. Again, Jesus wasn't anchoring their faith to an experience, he was anchoring it to his word. He made scripture the focus during their walk, and it brought them great peace and perspective. And that is exactly what happens when we walk with Jesus in our suffering. These two men, they were grieving.
They were sad about the loss of their friend, but Jesus pointed them to His Word, and His presence brought them great peace. And ultimately, because Jesus conquered the grave, he walks with them in their sorrow. He doesn't have to hide from it. He doesn't have to dance around the topic. He talks directly about it to them.
And this is the hope for every Christian, anybody who's had to go through the death of a loved one. We read in Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Now notice in that first verse there, I will fear no evil. For You will fix all my problems in the way that I want you to. No, it doesn't say that. I will fear no evil, for you will resolve this on my timeline. And it's going to be great according to me.
It doesn't say that either. It says, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. You are with me. The presence of God in our suffering drives out all fear, all uncertainty, and it gives us peace. The presence of God himself is with us in our suffering, and we see that in our text here.
Jesus walks with the disciples, and he points them to his word, and it brings them great peace and perspective. My dad said in a sermon on Luke 24, actually, he said, Sometimes we are content to keep Jesus at a distance. We let him join us on the road, but we won't let him into the more intimate parts of our lives. You know, sometimes we just want Jesus to give us the answered prayer. Jesus, just let me marry the hot chick.
Just make me the millionaire. Just let me find the money laying on the side of the road. Just snap your fingers and deliver me from this cancer. Just do it, God. Come on.
And we really, what we're asking is for Jesus to be a genie in a bottle. And he doesn't afford that option to us. I'm thankful that he doesn't, because he has something much greater, something much more important in mind. He doesn't want to just be kept at arm's distance. He wants to enter into every part of our lives, our time, our talents, our suffering, these things that make us human.
He wants to be with us in them. And I will tell you, in my personal experience, in 2008, when I lost my brother, I went through a great time of suffering. And it still hurts. 18 years later, I still think about him. I still have dreams about him.
I still wake up with a tear-stained pillow thinking about how much I miss him. He comes to me in my dream, and it's like this wonderful sense of joy and ecstasy, and we're there. And I don't totally understand in my dream why I feel that way. And then, when I realize, oh my gosh, you're here. Christopher, you're here.
I haven't seen you in so long. In my dream, the moment I realize that, he leaves. It's so hard. It's so hard, it's still something that I process, but I want to tell you. As I look back now, I see how near God was to me and my family.
How our church was here for us, how the church was surrounding us like those embers keeping a fire white hot. The prayers, the scripture, the acts of love and sacrifice being there for us in that time meant the world to us. And it changed my life, it changed our lives. In the moment, it didn't feel like things would ever improve. God was there for me.
He walked with me. And like the two disciples, I learned more while I was in that state of grief because I was hungry for it. There were things that I learned in that season that I never could have been taught otherwise because I wasn't open to it. I wasn't as absorbent. I was hardened.
I was calloused. I wasn't interested in that stuff. It didn't relate to me, right? If I told you, hey, I want to teach you how to fly a plane after church today, you'd say, I'm good. I'm watching the football game later.
Like, I've got stuff going on. I've got some tacos that I'm making. Like, I'm excited to have some friends over. But if I told you, hey, well, the reason I want to tell you that is because tomorrow night, you're going to be on a plane flying somewhere, and the pilot's going to pass out, and you're going to have to fly the plane.
Okay, I'm clearing my schedule for that, right? You're going to pay attention with special ears. You're going to be really focused on what I'm saying.
Well, in the same way, there's certain things that God can only teach us when we're in those seasons. He can only teach us when we're in those seasons. He walked with me. He walked with me and he ministered to me.
Now I'm not telling you. to be grateful for suffering. I'm not telling you to be grateful for pain even. Cleopas wasn't grateful, Jesus was killed. But I am telling you that God is present in it.
And if he is present in that season with you, then it is not wasted. It is not wasted. Do not waste your pain. It's not just something to survive, it's something that can transform you if. You will let it.
It is better to walk through the valley of the shadow of death with God. than to stand on the mountain top of bliss without him. It's better to have God with you in your suffering than to have a life that is completely devoid of all suffering, all pain. Everything is good. Every business deal you make is perfect.
Your family is in perfect health. I would rather be in the place of suffering with God than to have that. without God. God needs to be with us in our lives. That is what we were created for.
And that's What happens when we talk of God in our conversations? Jesus is with us in our conversations, Jesus is with us in our suffering. But we see that the disciples, our story isn't over yet. They keep walking. Let's watch what happens next in verse 33.
So they rose up that very hour and they returned to Jerusalem and found the 11. And those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and He appeared to Simon. And they told about the things that had happened on the road and how. He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
Now, as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. He again, boom, he appears. He's in the room now. He stood in the midst of them and he said, Peace to you. But they were terrified, they were frightened, and they had supposed that they had seen a spirit.
But Jesus said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet it is I myself. Handle me and see me. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.
And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they stood there, And did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, Do you have anything to eat? And so they gave him they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. And he took it and he ate in their presence. And then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all these things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me.
And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. And he said to them, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for me to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.
Verse 50. And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.
Now it came to pass, while he blessed them, that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. This is the end of the book of Luke.
And it brings us to our third and final point. Amen. And it brings us to our third and final point: Jesus walks with us, so we can walk with others. Jesus walks with us, so we can walk with others. Notice in verse 33: what did the disciples do as soon as they recognized Jesus and he disappeared from their presence?
Did they sit there and just have like a little powwow and a debrief? And let's talk about this. Let's explore some of these things. No, I mean, maybe they did. But no, the first thing they knew that they had to do, it says, that they rose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.
They arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.
Now, I mentioned it's a seven-mile journey going from point A to point B.
Now, Jerusalem was up high on a hill, and Emmaus was not up high on a hill.
So, it was a downhill walk.
Now they're saying, we need to go back to Jerusalem. It's dark. It's after dinner. And they're going back in the dark when there's scavengers, when there's bad guys, bandits out there, wild animals. And they go back up that hill seven miles so they could go be with the other believers.
And they didn't hesitate. They wanted to share their encounter. They wanted to tell the other disciples what Jesus had revealed to them. A few hours earlier, they were leaving Jerusalem. Right?
They were leaving all that sorrow, all that grief, all that trauma of seeing Jesus on the cross behind them. They were probably like, we can't get out of here fast enough. But now they couldn't get back there fast enough. Their walk with Jesus didn't put them in a lazy boy chair the time with Him. No, it got them on their feet, headed towards people that needed to hear this truth.
And when they got there, you know, I love it. They start explaining what Jesus had done for them on the road to Emmaus. They're telling everybody in the upper room, the 11 disciples and everybody else, what had happened, what Jesus revealed to them, how he appeared to them. It was incredible. And then what happens in the middle of their conversation?
Jesus himself shows up. Jesus himself shows up. And this is exactly what happens when we tell others about Jesus. You know, think about what was happening to these disciples. They just ventured back uphill seven miles.
Their hearts are on fire. Their lungs are on fire. And their minds are probably on fire trying to remember every single prophecy that they just had told to them. Every place in Scripture that Jesus had just pointed out to them as they walked those seven miles, trying to remember everything.
So they're just, you know, they're probably all over the place, right? Talking over each other, clamoring, out of breath. In their passion, in their zeal, what happens? Jesus himself appears. You know, this is what happens when we share our faith, when we share our testimony, when we share what God has done for us.
We sometimes start off clamoring and going off, and we're not even making sense.
Sometimes we're just kind of all over the place. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I realize. I am not doing a very good job talking about Jesus right now. I'm kind of all over the place, and I don't think I'm acting very coherent. You know, I don't think that it's landing the way that I'm hoping that it does.
But at a certain point, when you do it, Jesus does show up, doesn't he? Jesus shows up in that conversation, and it's amazing. And the presence of God comes in, and then suddenly you're listening to yourself sharing coherently, and you're like, I need to take notes on what I'm saying right now. I didn't even know I knew that Bible verse, you know? That's what Jesus does.
That is why we need to share what God has done for us. Jesus walks with us so we can walk with others, so we can show others how to walk. This is what happens when we spend time with Jesus. This is what happens when we Are in that walk with Him. The Apostle Paul talks about how we need to walk in Jesus Christ.
There's a reason we call it your walk with God. People will ask you in shorthand at church: hey, how's your walk, man? How's your walk? How are you doing? Are you stumbling?
Are you getting ahead of him? Are you falling behind? Are you lagging behind? It is a perfect picture of what our relationship with God is. It is a walk.
He meets our needs. He hears our questions. He walks with us in the difficulties and ultimately is present in our lives. And when he does, you won't be able to keep it to yourself. You'll want to share it with other people.
You'll want to talk about the testimony in your life, what God has done for you. I mean, look at the disciples here. Look at the ark. They go from grief and sorrow and sadness and despair written all over their faces to now they're rejoicing after being with Jesus. They come back to the other believers and they're proclaiming and celebrating what God has done.
They go from silence to praise. That's what God does for us. Has your walk with Jesus ever directed you to somebody? Has your relationship with God ever pointed you to a person that needs to hear that exact thing? Listen, Jesus didn't walk with Cleopas and the other disciple so they could keep the story to themselves.
He walked with them so eventually that walk would reach us today. Yes, that very thing that Jesus was revealing to them, we carry with us today. All the places in the Old Testament, men have studied the scriptures for thousands of years, and we think we've come up with pretty much every story, every example of where Jesus was present called Christophanes. Every time there was a prophecy about Jesus, every character we see that is a type of Christ, a foreshadowing of Christ, we do that to this very day. He did it with them so that it would ultimately reach us today in 2026.
And now he's walking with you.
so it can continue to reach somebody else. Verse 46, Jesus said to them, It was written, and it was necessary for me to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, so that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in Jesus' name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Now listen. We are all called to do the work of an evangelist.
We are all called to share what God has done in our lives.
Now, you might think, Jonathan, I'm not a preacher. I can't do that. I'm not a public speaker. That's okay. God's not asking you to be a preacher.
We don't need more preachers. We need more people in their everyday lives talking about what Jesus has done for them, to their coworkers, to the people on the job site, people in the gym, people in the classroom, talking about what Jesus has done for you. And pointing others in the same direction. He did it for me, he can do it for you as well. Can you seriously not tell others what Jesus has done for you?
Is it really that hard? Listen, if you look at your life and you have nothing to say about Jesus, then I would venture to say Jesus has nothing to say about you. If you have nothing to say, about Jesus after walking with him for one day, one week, One month, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and you have nothing to say about him. and I would venture to say Jesus may have nothing to say about you. And that's a scary thought.
That is why we must be consistent in our walk with Jesus. Not every testimony needs to be some dramatic rags to riches story. But you should be able to share what he has done for you. He commands you to, as his follower, it is the great commission. And in closing today, I want to ask you: have you repented of your sin?
Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Do you walk with Jesus? If not, You can have that hope today. You can enter into a relationship with him. He made it all possible 2,000 years ago that you could be forgiven of your sin because of what he did on the cross.
He shed his blood for you, he made a way when there was no way. The Bible tells us without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. There had to be a sacrifice. And you know whose blood was expected? Yours.
Mine. We were going to pay for our own sin, but Jesus stepped in and He literally put Himself on the line. He is the propitiation for our sin, the perfect sacrifice. That God expects. And so you can have that hope today.
You can be forgiven of your sin. You can have a walk with Jesus. You can have those miracles in your life. He will be with you in your suffering. Would you like to have that today?
If so. Respond to this invitation now. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you.
For the hope we have in Jesus Christ, we thank you that He walks with us in our conversations, in our suffering, and ultimately, so we can walk with others in their seasons of life. We can be a light to others. God, we are called to comfort with the comfort we have been comforted with. You show us things. You bless us with things.
And Lord, we want to do. That in return for others.
So use us, we pray. And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, we're praying together. If there's somebody here who hasn't yet put their faith in Jesus Christ and you would like to do that, You want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die. Pray this prayer out loud after me. Mean it in your heart.
This is you talking to God. Pray this now. Dear God. I know I'm a sinner. But I know Jesus Christ is the Saviour.
who died for me. And I turn from my sin now. And I turn to you from this moment forward. Lord, would you fill me with your Holy Spirit? And would you help me to walk with you?
and to know you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it, just go to harvest.org.
And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God. Mm-hmm.
