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The Road to Emmaus

“What things?”

Luke 24:13-35

Redhill. 5 May 2019. Presented by Gordon Green

Why did Jesus come? Why did Jesus cross all worlds to come to us?  Why did Jesus die? Why was Jesus resurrected?

Luke 24: The road to Emmaus is one of the great resurrection stories.  Let’s look at one powerful and meaningful lesson from this story.

The two disciples were shattered. All their hopes, dreams and  expectations were crushed.    They were feeling sad, let down, and possibly even angry. They were so immersed in their conversation that they didn’t notice a stranger approaching them – it was Jesus.

They were shocked that Jesus didn’t know what had happened.  “Don’t you know about all the things that have happened?”  Jesus asked “What things?”

That’s a strange question.  Doesn’t God know everything?

Jesus came to:

• Show us God’s love and grace and all he has and knows
• Die that we might live
• Give himself to us .
• Offer us a loving relationship with God

It all boils down to relationship – a personal relationship

Jesus was saying “talk to me.” “I’ve done everything to establish a relationship with you, please respond.”

What is prayer?

Prayer is about having intimate contact with God. It means sharing all the details with someone you trust and talking about everything that is on your mind and happening in your life – things that are worrying you, discouraging you etc. We can come boldly to our Father.  He wants us to do that. Prayer is about sharing, being real.  Prayer is an intimate expression of our relationship with God. Prayer is relationship in action.

When Jesus asked “what things?” he was wanting them to talk to him about their sadness, their disappointment etc. “Share the details with me” – which they did (verses 21-24)

What about your life?

• Do you have unfilled expectations?. “God didn’t do the things I wanted him to do.”  Jesus asks “What things? Talk to me about it.”
• “I just feel so discouraged” Jesus asks “what are you discouraged about?”  You answer “things”  and Jesus asks “what things? – talk to me.”
• “I feel so worried” Jesus asks “what do you feel worried about?  You answer “some things going on in my life”  Jesus asks “what things? – talk to me about them.” “Give me the details.  Share your life with me.  Pour out your heart, pour out your troubles.”

Why must I talk to God if he knows all these things?

Is it possible that God chooses to limit himself?  He loves us so much that his greatest desire for us is to have a real, genuine relationship – and so he has chosen to need us. He humbles himself to need to know our lives from our point of view.  It’s as if God wants to hear it through your eyes.  How do you feel, see, hear it? Only when the two disciples spilled their hearts out Jesus told them the answers.

Revelation 3:20

Why must we talk to God if he’s going to do his will anyway?

The will of God is not written in concrete (John 2:1-11) The purpose of our lives is very broad – it’s not like steel railway lines that your life must run along.

At the centre of the universe  is a relationship. It is out of that relationship that you and I were created and redeemed.  And it is for that relationship that you and I were created and redeemed  God has always existed in relationship and he created us to share what the Father, Son and Spirit have with us – to experience it.

The extraordinary, unique, intimate relationship that Jesus himself had enjoyed with the father is now open to everyone. Now he wants humans to freely respond into intimate fellowship with himself. He wants to draw us into this relationship.

What a privilege we have in sharing the intimate life of the triune God himself – made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Talk to him.

Listen to him.