The Unexpected Jesus 200425
Ian Anderson   -   April 22, 2025

Key Text: Luke 24:13-32

  • The most important prayer in all of Judaism begins with just one word; ‘Hear’ known as the Shema. ‘Hear. O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ Deuteronomy 6:4-5
  • Hearing God is not a fringe activity, it’s essential to our Christian lives. Hearing God is essential to the very purpose for which you and I were created. Without it everything falls apart.
  • Jesus said: ‘People shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ – Matthew 4:4
  • Christianity is in its essence a resurrection religion The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. if you remove it, Christianity is destroyed. – John Stott. The gospel message is based on the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus 1 Corinthians 15:1-8

 

  • The earthquake and the angel Matthew 28:2-4 opened the tomb, not to let Jesus out but to let us in, so that the early disciples and we can see what God has done. ‘Come and see, Go and tell’ is what the church is supposed to do.
  • Witnessing is not something that we do for Jesus; it is something He does through us when we are filled with Holy Spirit who gives us the power and strength to share His message.
  • …Faith comes by hearing the word and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17
  • Maybe this explains why Jesus opened the word to the two men, as the three of them walked the seven miles to Emmaus.

 

  • We see in 25, 32 & 38 that their real problem wasn’t in their heads but in their hearts.
  • What they needed was a fresh revelation of the word of God and Jesus is the one who gave it to them. He opened the scriptures and then opened their eyes to realise that He was not only the living word, alive but right there with them. The covert Christ joins them on their journey and we are reminded that we need to actively, intentionally invite Him into our questions, our relationships, our homes and worlds.
  • Because it’s in these places that our hearts catch fire and the scriptures come alive. In these places he walks and talks with us, patiently answering our questions, realigning our hearts and minds to His.

 

  • The simple fact is that for every person who encounters Jesus dramatically on the Damascus road with blinding lights and booming voice. Hundreds more meet Him slowly, quietly on the Emmaus road through friendship, scripture and conversation.
  • The problem was that they saw Messiah as a conquering redeemer but they failed to see Him as a suffering servant. (The Power of God in Unexpected places) As they read the O.T. they saw the glory but not the grief, the crown but not the cross, the success but not the suffering sacrifice. Isaiah 53

 

  • Jesus did not just teach them doctrine and prophecy; He was teaching them things about Himself 27 The more we receive the word of God, the more we’ll want fellowship with the God of the word.

 

  • Having just Bible knowledge can puff us up but receiving Bible truth and walking  with the saviour will lead to a burning heart. The best proof that we have understood the Bible, applied it to ourselves and met the living Jesus, is that we have something exciting to share with others.
  • Jesus revealed Himself to them during a common meal and that is often how He works. We need to learn to see Him in the everyday unexpected places of life. The ultimate way God communicates in this account isn’t through the Bible, breaking bread or burning hearts within us. It’s through Jesus Himself. He’s the ultimate and final word of God.
  • Jesus went to great lengths to appear to them personally, taking at least an hour to explain everything He said in the scriptures about Himself.
  • One occasion in John 5:39-40 he made it crystal clear that it’s possible to ‘…search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.’ Elsewhere in Hebrews 1:1-2 the same point is made:
  • ‘Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.’

 

  • So what does all this mean for us? Hearing God begins and ends with meeting Jesus.
  • A burning heart doesn’t let us to settle for anything less than ongoing fresh revelations of Jesus as we walk with Him. Nothing can replace and nothing matters more, than a personal encounter with Jesus. It’s Jesus Himself not the Bible, who is the true word of God.
  • Having said this, the Bible is the main way we learn about the purposes and the personality of its subject Jesus. – We meet and experience Jesus in the Bible. The Emmamus Road account, gives us a dynamic picture of the relationship between God’s word in the Bible and His final word in Jesus.
  • God starts with Jesus and leads us right the Bible, which then points us back to Jesus. Any message claiming to be from God but not sounding like Jesus or guiding us deeper into our relationship with Him, isn’t the real deal. It doesn’t matter how supernatural it seems, how deep it sounds or how many Bible verses it wraps around. If it doesn’t smell, taste or look like Jesus it probably isn’t.
  • The good news is that Jesus still appears and speaks to people today the way He did on the Emmaus road
  • Jesus keeps it simple, relational and earthly. ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.’ John 10:2 Jesus tells us His friends will be known by just two things: their ability to recognise His voice and their willingness to follow.

 

  • And here’s the promise from God ‘You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.’ Jeremiah 29:13 So let’s get out there and listen expecting to encounter Jesus in the unexpected places of our ongoing walk with Him.