Luke 24:28-35
Well, open your Bibles to Luke chapter 24 as we finish this longer narrative of Christ on the Emmaus Road and what I’d like to do one final time starting at verse 13 of Luke 24 is read the entire account. This is going to be our last time to do that together in this kind of a setting and so, let’s get the most out of it, shall we?
Luke 24 starting in verse 13, “And behold, two of them were going that same day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had happened. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself approached and was going with them. Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are these words that you are discussing with one another as you’re walking?’ And they stood still, looking sad.”
“And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to him, ‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?’ And he said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to him, ‘The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a mighty prophet in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death, and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, this is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us astounded us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and not finding his body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also said, but him they did not see.’”
“And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.”
That’s what we’ve covered so far in our expositions, our sermons, but now notice the theme that emerges in this final section, which is a culminating section, verses 28 to 35. The theme, I’ll just give you the bottom line up front. The theme is fellowship. Fellowship, the fellowship of the risen Lord with his disciples. They’re longing for his fellowship and then their desire to fellowship with one another. That’s all here in these verses.
Look at verse 28. “And they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that when he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it, and after breaking it, he was giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
“And they said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures to us?’ And they stood up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered the 11 and those with them who were saying, ‘The Lord really has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ And they were relating their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.”
Again, though the, the words are not used, this section is about the fellowship and the friendship really that Jesus has with his people and that his people have with him. Jesus joins these men in fellowship, accompanying them on the road to Emmaus. They reciprocate his fellowship with their hospitality, and then they returned to Jerusalem to carry on the fellowship, to engage in a broader, wider fellowship. Fellowship and friendship; a fellowship like a church, friendship like Christians have with one another. Really knowing each other, getting into each other’s lives, you could say getting into each other’s business, but caring for one another, really loving each other.
That is foreign in the times in which we live. Even many who profess themselves to be Christians, religious, they could take or leave the fellowship of the church. They could really take or leave people all together. As some people say, I love the ministry, it’s people I can’t stand. We live in a highly distracted and highly diverted age, don’t we? When people are so promiscuous with their time and their attention that the joy of true fellowship and friendship are really at a premium in our time, the more people are ignorant of it, absent from it, not participating in it, the hollower they are, the shallower they are, the more robbed of true relationship that they so desperately need.
The joy of true fellowship and friendship, something that we can maybe tend to take for granted, maybe not press into as we should. These things are at a premium in our time. There are many who go the easy route. They avoid people. They keep people in relationships kind of at arm’s length, at a safe distance, never going too deep into friendship, never risking to build new friendships. And many are quite content at being stingy with their love, staying safe, avoiding relational hurt, avoiding any risk because, and I don’t know how many times you’ve heard it, but if I had a dime for every time I’ve heard this, I’d be a very wealthy man. Oh, we had a bad experience at our last church. We were hurt.
I have yet to find the person who says I had a bad experience in my last church and I was a big part of the problem. In fact, you know, look no further. Me and my sinful heart, my sensitive feelings, my thin skin, my false expectations. No, they don’t say that. They just come expecting that relationships, churches, people, everything should just be heaven on earth right now. Nobody’s really growing. Everybody should be arrived so you can receive me and make me feel good. So many just are stingy. They stay safe, they avoid hurt, they avoid pain, but in the end they die relational misers, isolated, lonely, empty.
There’s much in this modern age with all of its technological gifts, diverting pleasures. All of its opportunities to travel, vacation, be gone, gives a sense I think, in the modern world, a sense of meaningfulness, but without the meaning; gives a feeling that you’re involved in something substantial, but without really any substance. The best we can do is take a bunch of pictures of it and put it online and show our friends what a great time we’re having. It doesn’t need to be that way. We weren’t designed for that.
Our God didn’t create us for shallowness. He created us for depth, the depth of his person, the intertrinitarian relationships that the interpenetrating knowledge and love of one person in the Trinity for another. God intended that that be shared among specially chosen people. And our Lord demonstrates that desire in this text and all really all throughout his ministry, but in this text, it kind of comes to a culmination. Even when these men did not know who he truly was, we’ve been seeing this right? Jesus has been walking beside them, nevertheless, he’s talking with them, he’s engaged with them in a friendship that they don’t really know the depth of.
Though they failed to recognize him, blinded by doubt, weakened faith, Jesus fellowshipped with them. He drew them into his fellowship, and he evoked from them feelings of friendship and a longing for more. In fact, what this text makes plain, first by showing it and then by stating it, is that Jesus is made known to us not by exegesis alone, as if Bible study solves the issue. As we kind of went through last time, Bible study is essential, it’s fundamental. But exegesis alone and Bible study alone, knowledge for knowledge sake is not the answer, but verse 35, he’s recognized in the breaking of the bread; he’s recognized in the fellowship.
So my hope and prayer for you today is that your heart will be stirred with desire and with affection, that your hearts will be set aflame with a sincere and zealous longing for a deepened fellowship of love with Christ and love with his people. I want us as a church and every individual, I want you to know and love him personally and intimately after the manner of these two disciples so that you never let him go and those who would abide with Jesus as these men did, I want you to know you can find all comfort in the promise of Christ when he says I will never leave you or forsake you.
I want you to know that individually. I want us to know it corporately. I want us to share in this resurrection life because this is what that life is about, is bringing us into fellowship with the father and with his son Jesus Christ. As the Apostle John says in that first chapter of his first epistle, it’s for fellowship, it’s for friendship, it’s for knowing, it’s for communing, it’s for joy and rejoicing and gratitude. Our hearts filled and overflowing with God’s life within us.
That’s what he’s designed us for. Not for some thin, wispy substitute that parades itself and distracts us and entices us out in the world, created us for something much deeper. And I want you to know, that I want us to share in that together. This will be the closest to heaven we ever get on this earth, but it’s also be the closest to hell that we ever get on this earth is all our struggles and pains and trials.
But man, this can be a little slice of heaven here in our church, in our families, in our relationships, in our friendships, right here, right now. We are preparing ourselves for eternity. We’re practicing now what we play there. We’re learning and that growth transfers, by the way, what we invest in now and what we do now, it doesn’t matter. Our status in life doesn’t matter. What our bank account looks like doesn’t matter. What social class we’re in, it does not matter. None of that matters. What matters is new life in Christ and the life that we share with one another and serving one another and growing together, caring for one another in true love, as the Bible describes. And that’s what my prayer is for each and everyone of you, for our church as a body.
We can divide this text into two main points for today. One section we can divide in verses 28 to 31, and another section in verses 32 to 35. So we’ll look at that first section, first point, verses 28 to 31. And you can write this down point number one, long for fellowship with the resurrected Lord. Put that into an imperative. So you write it down that way. Long for fellowship with the resurrected Lord, long for it. If you don’t long for it, pray that you will long for it. Ask God to give to you what you lack, because a true Christian should long for the fellowship with the resurrected Lord.
Notice first, in kind of even taking this section divided even further down in two parts. Notice first the prayer for fellowship in verses 28 to 29 says, “They approached the village where they were going,” so that’s Emmaus, “and he acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.’ And so he went in to stay with them.” Now, some think wrongly that Jesus is kind of play acting in verse 28 as if he didn’t really mean he was gonna go further. He’s just kind of, he’s being disingenuous with these two disciples. The verb here can be translated that way, as to pretend or act, as if that’d be according to a context. But that’s not the case here.
There’s another legitimate meaning for that verb, which means to project intent. That’s what he’s doing. He’s projecting intent, not in any deceitful way, but a genuine way. And that’s what’s going on here. He is indicating to them, we don’t have his words actually recorded here, but somehow he told them he’s planning to walk on; he’s planning to keep going, which he would have done had they not entreated him, had they not stopped him and pleaded with him and urged him strongly.
Did Jesus want to remain with them? Did he want to continue on in the fellowship with them? Did he want to build a deeper friendship? Well, he joined him on the journey, didn’t he? What is, what does his action show? What does, what does his effort show? Does it show disinterest, uninterested in love and friendship? No, he spent all that time teaching them. The risen Lord, though he has risen, and though his body does things we can’t quite explain, he still can only be as a human being in one place at one time. He vanished from where they were in Emmaus and showed up, as we see in the next section in Jerusalem.
He can move all right. He could be anywhere on the planet. He chooses to be with these two guys. He spend all that time with them, three to four hours of his first resurrection day with them. They had every indication he wanted to be with them, he wanted to remain with them. So why did he give the impression of going farther? Why didn’t he say, hey guys, got an extra seat at the table, got a little couch I can crash on? Why didn’t he say anything like that? It’s because of the dignity of his person, the quality of his character. He will not intrude where he is not invited or entreated. Keep in mind, these two are believers. He does not intrude on them where he is not invited, where they don’t entreat him to stay and abide with them.
Think about that for yourself, believer. He will not intrude. He would have you invite him. So by standing back here as, as if he were shy, though he is not. Our Lord waits for us to ask him. He waits upon us to even to insist, to press him for his company. And you could just think about this. Half hearted prayers avail very little with him. He draws near to wholehearted affection. And so if you don’t find in your heart wholehearted affection, as frankly none of us do, it’s not natural to us.
So, what do you do then? Pray for that. We pray for what we don’t have. God give me a wholehearted affection for Christ, and Lord, don’t ever leave me. It wasn’t uncommon in our Lord’s manner to hold back. He did this on a number of occasions. In fact, you can see all through the Old Testament too, where God shows up in kind of a theophany where there’s the Angel of the Lord appears. He appears to Abraham couple of occasions, Manoah, he appears to Jacob and he, he pretends as if he would pass by until he’s pressed to receive hospitality and he comes.
We see another occasion of him doing something similar, seeming to hold back, but only to elicit from a believer love and desire. I’d like to show you that you can just keep a finger in Luke 24 and then turn back to Matthew chapter 15. We could see this in an example of what he does in his interaction with this Syrophoenician woman, Matthew 15:21. We see this pathetic, desperate situation present itself to Jesus and his disciples. The disciples are kind of annoyed with this woman and how she keeps on seeming to pester them and chase after them and follow after them with her pathetic cries for help and pleas. But she’s got this daughter, kind of the most vulnerable creature that you can imagine, tormented by the most cruel and vile monster you can imagine, a demon. And Jesus seems in this text to be aloof, seems uninterested. He even seems to cite some kind of a racial superiority. Isn’t that weird?
Matthew 15:21, “And going away from there, Jesus withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon possessed.’ But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and were pleading with him, saying, ‘Send her away, because she keeps on shouting at us.’ He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’”
I’ve known a lot of pastors in my time, good and bad. A response like this one to a legitimate need seems pretty cold and uncaring. How would you respond to your pastor saying that to you? First not answering you at all, you got a legitimate need, you got a crisis, not answering at all. And then when pressed, I wasn’t sent except to this little favorite group I have inside the church. Sorry. When rebuffed at first, what did the woman do? Did she take offence? Did she slouch away with hurt feelings? Go find a nicer pastor, someone who would with a more soothing voice of comfort.
Whatever her feelings were at the time, she knew nice guys with soothing words are not what she needed right now. She came to Jesus on purpose. She called him Lord. She called him Son of David. This woman had some kind of faith and she needed his words of truth, his acts of power. Soothing niceness is not what she needed. She needed this demon out of her daughter. There’s only one who can do it. But whatever his manner, whatever he’s doing, faith drove her forward to come near to press him.
Look at verse 25, “She came and was bowing down before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me!’” That is such a good prayer. Pray it some time when you’re at your wit’s end, when your heart’s broken, when you don’t know what to say. That’s a really good prayer. Lord help me. He knows, in fact Christ intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father. The Spirit himself pleads for you with groanings too deep for words. Lord help me. And he answered verse 26 and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Wait, did he just call me a dog? It’s not as insulting as it sounds at first glance. This is not the word kyon, it’s related to it. But a kyon would be like a flea bitten cur that roams dirty streets, roots through garbage, snarls, bites, gets in literal dog fights. 2 Peter 2, it’s the dog that returns to its vomit like a pig wallowing in the mire. That’s the word kyon. This is the diminutive form of the word. It’s kynarion. So little dog, little cute little household pet. That’s what he’s calling her. And so that’s how she’s taking his meaning.
And in what may seem to be at first glance like yet another roadblock, she finds in this an inducement to try again. She actually finds a leverage point to press her case forward with the Lord. But she said, yes, Lord. But even the little dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Checkmate. What a wise woman, full of faith.
An immediate, powerful example of true faith to instruct these Jewish disciples from the house of Israel. Jesus answered and said to her, old woman, your faith is great, it shall be done for you as you wish. Her daughter was healed at once. Just imagine a smile. That story encourages us, doesn’t it? Press through what may at first seem like an obstacle to our weary, sad heart, and to find in any obstacle an encouragement and an inducement to draw near. Press in. Keep making the appeal. In fact, even look for leverage to press God to action. Not that we press the Almighty into anything, but you know what I’m saying. Keep making the appeal.
You can go back to Luke 24. Jesus says the same thing with Cleopas and his companion. He signals his intent here to keep on walking. And because Jesus is not going to presume upon their hospitality, he’s not going to intrude into their company. He’s not gonna barge into their homes. But he will happily accept an invitation. He will most gladly. He will most eagerly respond to their prayers. That’s exactly what he draws out of them in verse 29. “They urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it’s toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.’” The verb there literally means to use force. This urge strongly verb. It’s used figuratively there for prayer or for entreaty, but it’s really used for force in its basic form.
In Matthew 11:12, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” There’s the word right there. It suffers violence and violent men take it by force. That is to say, the kingdom of God is not for the half hearted. Its gates will not open to gentle tapping. You don’t tap out morse code on the gates of heaven, know you press in, barge in with a sense of urgency and fervent desire, even demanding to be there because you must be there. It’s your only hope and from that suffers violence, that literal use of force comes this figurative usage here to urge strongly, so strongly that nothing but acquiescence to the request will bring an end to this pressure and this persuasion.
So the demand ends when the demands are met, is the idea. What’s the demand? What’s the strong urging? What’s it for? Stay with us, remain with us. That’s that familiar verb meno, more familiar in how we translated from Jesus in John 15:4 when he says, “Abide with me, and I in you.” Abide, abide, abide, they’re saying abide with us, Lord, stay with us. They cannot bear the thought of being apart from him. Having, they just enjoyed his fellowship for the last three or four hours. They have just drunk deeply from his teaching, teaching that they acknowledge that verse 32 had set their hearts on fire.
They cannot bear the thought of parting from him. And had they known at that moment of time when they made this appeal to whom they were speaking as we do. What do you think, would their zeal be less or more ardent than we find here? I can imagine them if they had known that this is the risen Lord Jesus Christ himself, the God man, the mediator between God and man.
I can imagine them setting aside all personal decorum, ignore any polite sense of propriety, setting aside any embarrassment or thought of shame, and they would have made an unvarnished demand that he stay, clinging to him even. What about us? We do know the one who accompany the disciples on this journey. We know him. We know who he is and how feeble we can be in our hearts to seek his company if we’re honest. How weak we can be to demand an audience with him, to plead for his time and his attention, even though we know he’s near to all who call upon him of faith.
You pray one thing, he not only grants your small petition, he grants so much more. He does amazingly and abundantly above all we can ask or think. Travis Allen
He’s not going to deny a request, just wants us to utter it; not for his sake, for our sake. As we notice here, I mean, if I’m pleading for him to stay, I’ve got, I know why this guy never heard any teaching like this. I want more of it. I don’t want the day to end. In fact, I don’t want the century to end. I want to keep on keeping on with him. I just want to be there in his presence forever. But notice what shows up in justifying their urgent, strong appeal that he stay with them. It’s not their own desire that forms the basis of their appeal. But it’s kind of tender and sweet, isn’t it?
The thought of losing his company raises their concern not for themselves, but for him. It’s really not about what they want. It’s about, they’re considering what’s best for him. Don’t go anywhere. Stay with us for it’s toward evening. The day is now nearly over. If they had left Jerusalem, let’s say as early as around noon or so, I’d put them in Emmaus around four PM.
So they’re saying don’t continue in the dark and the cold. Sun’s going down. You’re, you’re risking injury on the road. There’s danger from bandits. Don’t, don’t do that. Come into our home, partake of the warmth of our hospitality, recline on our couch, enjoy our table, enjoy the friendship of our company. Well, I mentioned friendship is in high demand in our time. So is hospitality. These guys, it’s Middle Eastern hospitality sure. But this goes further. They really long for this. They know they’re dealing with someone great, someone incredible, someone they could really don’t have a category for. They’re not focused merely on what they want to get out of him, but what they can do for him, how they can serve him, perhaps even better, how they can return thanks to him. He just gave up three or four hours of his time for them. What could we do?
Do you think like that? Or do you take your God for granted? We rightly sing about his grace unmerited. Nothing that we can do to earn his favor, his grace and that’s, that’s appropriate, that’s right, that’s theologically accurate. But I think sometimes the sin within us can take occasion of his grace to take it for granted. Think we don’t have to plead. Think we don’t do for him. We’re just like little birds in the nest opening our beaks and just bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk eating. Just want to consume. That’s how we’re trained even now with social medias. Just keep consuming, keep the content coming, keep the entertainment coming. Just eat, feed me, feed me, feed me, feed me.
I love it that these men don’t, and in what Luke records here, I mean, I’m sure that their hearts were wanting more of him, more of that teaching, more time with him. I, I know that, how could they not? Their hearts were burning within them. But I love what Luke records. By the spirit he records the reason behind their request, their urgent appeal. Stay with us because it’s getting dark, day’s almost gone. Don’t go out there, stay here. How easily our Lord is persuaded, it’s as if he’s just waiting to be asked. Immediately, so he went in to stay with them. He went in to abide with his disciples as he loves to do.
After all, Jesus came from heaven to earth. He crossed the greatest distance that there is, taking on human flesh. He came to earth to die for them, to love them to the uttermost, to have these men for all of eternity with him, the eerie delights to abide in their company, to tarry with him just a little longer, as long as he can, according to the divine plan. So he answers their entreaty. He answers their prayer for fellowship.
I mentioned the verb meno, abide, remain, stay. But notice what follows meno or they abide or stay verb, those prepositional phrases there, attached to the verb. First in the prayer, stay with us. And then so he went in to stay with them. So with us, with them. You say, wow, very clever. In the request, stay with us. In the request you can’t see this in the English, but the preposition in the Greek is meta, meta. Which is the desire that Jesus should stay or remain with them in their company, keep associating with us, stay in our company is what the meta preposition indicates. Sharing a meal, continuing conversation, staying the night even.
The answer that preposition changes. Looks the same in English, but the preposition in Greek is soon. Not meta, but syn. And by this, Luke is showing us that Jesus not only answered the request that they made, but he gave them more than they asked. Paul often ends his epistles with a benediction. Grace be with you. You know what I’m talking about. Grace be with you. Romans 16:20, 1 Corinthians 16:23, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Philippians 4:9, Colossians 4:18. I could go on.
All those are meta, as in may grace and peace accompany you, be your companion, attend to you, remain with you. When Paul comforts Christians, though, about their identity in Christ, about their union with Christ, about the benefits and the blessings that accrue to them in Christ, never uses the meta preposition, always the, syn preposition. Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up before us all, how will he not also with him,” syn autos, “freely give us all things?”
So it’s with him in a, an intimate way, in a fellowship way, in a friendship way, in a spiritual communion way. Colossians 2:13 “When you were dead in your transgressions, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him,” syn autos, “having forgiven us all our transgressions.” Colossians 3:4. “When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him,” syn autos, “in glory.”
1 Thessalonians 4:14, 4:17, 5:10, 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring those who have fallen asleep in Jesus with him.” There it is again syn autos. 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Syn kyrio esometha, with him, in the intimate fellowship with him, in communion with him, not just beside him in his company and presence, but he and us, and us in him.
It’s this in Christ idea. Christ in you the hope of glory. 1 Thessalonians 5:10 “Christ died with us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him,” syn autos. You get the idea. This is so common with God, so common with our Lord Jesus Christ, that when we pray for one thing, as Paul did, crying out that, that we may know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, be assured, beloved, fully assured. Our Lord is pleased to draw us near, draw near to us, bless us with his company, his fellowship, his nearness, by his word, by his spirit, by the fellowship of his people, he’s pleased to enter into us by his spirit, unite us to the body.
Yes, the resurrected Lord after all, will remain in the company of these two disciples, answering their prayer, yes. But he intends to grant them something even greater, something deeper. Jesus comes near, in close and intimate fellowship, and later, by the Holy Spirit, he intends not only to enter into their homes, but into their hearts. He’s affecting a union with them, identifying with them and they with him, that he might benefit and bless them forever and ever and ever. You pray one thing, he not only grants your small petition, he grants so much more. He does amazingly and abundantly above all we can ask or think, doesn’t he?
So beloved, I say it again, long, long for fellowship with the resurrected Lord. Long for it. Press him for it. Plead with him, entreat him. Don’t let him continue down that road without you. Don’t let him walk away from your home or your heart. Plead that he stay, and it’s for the sake of his own honor that he’d be esteemed by you and by others. As you plead with him, as you show how great he is to you by pleading with him, by longing for him and expressing that. Not cast out into the cold, not barely aware.
Just know this. You can’t out give Jesus. He always gives more than we ask. Greater than we can know, deeper than that we can comprehend because such it is with his love. A love the transcends knowledge is broader, higher, deeper, wider than anything. Seek his fellowship and he’ll give you his friendship. He’ll provide for you by his generous lordship, provide for you.
And that brings us to the second part of this in verses 30 to 31. We’ve seen the prayer for fellowship; now the provision for fellowship. “It happened that when he had reclined up the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it, and after breaking it, he was giving it to them. Then their eyes were open and they recognized him.” There’s no Christian fellowship, no actual fellowship, which we do not recognize the resurrected Lord for who he actually is, right? Makes sense, doesn’t it? We don’t properly love a stranger, someone who we’re ignorant of, someone that we don’t know his true nature, don’t know his history, don’t know his background, don’t know his testimony, don’t know his life. How can we love such a one?
So in love, our Lord is pleased not to leave us in ignorance, but to remove the veil and that’s what he must do for these men. He enters their home, waits as they prepare a simple meal that reclines at the table with them, taking his rest with them, finding refreshment in their company. And then something happens that they did not anticipate. But we, the readers of Luke’s Gospel, we’ve been well prepared for this because Jesus has done this before. The guest becomes the host.
It’s not Cleopas or his companion who break the bread, bless it, break it, give it out. Jesus takes that role. He steps into the role of the host, even though he’s the invited guest. He takes the leadership. He acts as the Lord that he truly is. And neither of them say, hey, what do you think you’re doing? Why? Because it’s so appropriate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But of course, you. I have no doubt that they in the company of this very well esteemed but as yet unknown person, credible Bible teacher, heavenly demeanor, perfect character, holy bearing.
I have no doubt that Cleopas and his companion believed it was the most fitting thing imaginable for this man to play host to them. And look, they’d say it’s our home, but this is your meal. It’s your prerogative. You’re in charge. We’re just blessed to be in your presence. We’re honored by your company. We’re honored that you’d accept this invitation for of our hospitality. Thank you. Thank you. Give us whatever you want. Don’t give us. I don’t care. Do whatever you want. Your Lord. We’re just glad you’re remaining with us.
There are some who see in this meal a close connection to the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper. And before we make a beeline to such a view or before we reject such a view outright, I think it’s important for us to see what Luke has conveyed already in the writing of his Gospel. First, when we consider the Lord’s Supper, which Jesus did institute on Passover night just a few nights before this, he set the pattern for our communion ordinance.
It says in Luke 22:19 that, “When he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them.” Same order there as we see here, right. So you understand why some people say, hey, I, is he, is he doing communion there in the house in Emmaus? Resurrection day, there’s a, wouldn’t that be a cool thing? It’s, it is the same order as in Luke 24:30, but there’s one difference. He took the bread and blessed it, not had given thanks. Had given thanks is in Luke 22:19.
Blessed it is in Luke 24:30. He blessed it and after breaking it, he was giving it to them. Same order. The second verb though, is changed from eucharisteo, he gave thanks, to eulogeo, he blessed. Giving thanks and blessing, though related, they’re not the same verb, thus not the same idea or the same intention or purpose and I am not going to get into a explanation of that now for the sake of time.
But also notice in Luke 22:19 that accompanying the communion bread was the communion cup, verse 20, which was poured out for you, which represents as Jesus says, the new covenant in my blood. There’s no wine recorded here at this meal in, at Emmaus, right? Luke could have penciled it in. He could have added it if it was there. It’s not there. In the broader context in fact, we see that not only did Jesus, you know, there’s this bread, the presence of the bread here, no wine. What’s something else that he did consume in this wider context? If you look down in verse 42, they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. So he consumed maybe bread.
It doesn’t really say whether he actually consumed the bread. But see the bread and the fish. This is not a recapitulation of a communion in the home of these two disciples, neither of whom were with Jesus in the upper room on the night of his betrayal. But I do think that a connection with communion is not wholly absent here either, and I’ll explain that a little bit. But Jesus broke bread in the home of Emmaus. He’ll eat fish in the upper room in Jerusalem. And where else do we see bread and fish joined together? Go back to Luke Chapter 9 in your Bibles. Just flip back a few chapters, or in our sense, about five years.
Go back to Luke 9:12, Now the end of the day was, Luke 9:12, “The day was ending.” It’s familiar isn’t it? Same thing as on the road to Emmaus. “The day was ending, the Twelve came and said to him, ‘Send the crowd away, they may go in the surrounding villages in the countryside and obtain lodging and find provisions, for here we are in a desolate place.’ But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat!’ And they said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people. (For there are about 5000 men.) He said to his disciples, ‘Have them sit down in groups of about 50 each.’
“They did so, he had them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves, the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. And he broke them and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces they had leftover were picked up, twelve baskets full.”
Again see the pattern there? Luke 9:12. Luke 24:29. People are hungry. They’re hungry because the day is ending, it’s getting dark. It’s time to turn in, get into the home, have that evening meal. Best for everybody to stay, to abide, to remain, eat something. Jesus says no, don’t send them away. I don’t want them to get injured on the journey. I don’t want them to be overtaken by bandits on the road. You give them some to eat, you show hospitality.
Luke 9:14. Luke 24:30, the Lord takes over the leadership, plays the role of host. He offered it to his disciples here too, you give them some to eat loaf, we don’t have enough money? So he takes over the leadership. He plays the role of the host. The verb order sets that familiar pattern, Luke 9:16, he took the five loaves, two fish, looking up to the heaven, he blessed them, he broke them. He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude and that verb there, he kept giving, again it’s like a imperfect tense; same thing in our text too. That’s the only imperfect tense in that section of that pattern of verbs.
Imperfect tense, probably not in Luke 24:30, that he kept giving, but they began to give, which is also a, a use of the imperfect tense. Point here is that Jesus is provisioning the fellowship. He’s providing for his people. He’s providing for this vast multitude. We now find out from John 6, which go ahead and turn to John 6 and we’ll take a look at that as well. But we find out from John 6 that were, there were just actually really a few of those who were true disciples in the end.
But he’s provisioning for his people. He’s provisioning the fellowship. He’s taking care of their needs. He’s showing hospitality. He’s feeding them, he’s making sure they’re well provided for, and in John 6, we see what happened after Jesus fed that vast multitude. Do you remember, the Jews having had their bellies filled, they intend to come and make Jesus king by force. That would have circumvented the suffering of the cross, which he could not do and so he withdrew from that multitude, went back to Capernaum.
The crowd caught up with him in John 6:27 and Jesus told him don’t work for food that perishes, work for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. So you don’t even need to work for it, the Son of Man is going to give it to you. Crowd answered back challenging Jesus to give him a sign as Moses did; he gave them bread from heaven to eat. What are you gonna do? Jesus said we can start reading there in verse 32, “Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, Truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’
“They said to him, ‘Lord, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them,” I, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, he who believes in Me will never thirst.’” And many of those carnal professing disciples were dissatisfied with that answer. Offended. I speak in parables again. All this goofy talk about what? Me what? Bread. I’m bread. What are you bread? I don’t get that. Where’s the food? Show me to the buffet. Start pumping out some mana.
Skip ahead a few verses to verse 47. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” Look, if you believe, you get it. You understand what I’m saying. You understand the metaphor. You understand the life-giving nature of bread for your physical life and the life-giving nature of me for you, for your spiritual life. “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.” They died. That’s not the bread you need.
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Now they have gone from confused to angry. “The Jews began to argue with one another, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you,’” he, he’s not backing off, he presses in. He says, “‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh, true food, and My blood, true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread, he’ll live forever.’”
Many of his disciples, it says in verse 60 when they heard this said it’s too hard. It’s making me creeped out. Sounds like cannibalism and vampirism and I’ll, I’m not, I don’t know. This is kind of where I draw the line guys, so I’m going back home, back to the shop. Well, I have quite a story to tell. I eat miraculous bread. Then heard this weird guy teaching; I got stories. Not the disciples, not the Twelve; Peter said, when Jesus said, where, ‘Do you want to go to a too?” You want to leave too? “Peter said, ‘Where we gonna go? You have the words of eternal life.’” Didn’t you just say you’re the bread? That, that’s what I want.
So go back to Luke 24:30. I’ll just say that there in John 6, even though that’s not exactly about the Eucharist either, it’s not exactly about communion, but it is portrayed in communion. And there’s something going on in our communion celebration, our fellowship ordinance that is life giving to our souls as a church, as individual Christians, we need the communion celebration. And it always dismays me when Christians don’t come to communion, don’t regard it, think it’s something they can just set aside willy nilly.
We still have sin and it still is the power of God and by his grace and his mercy that he removed the blinding power of sin. Travis Allen
I’m not talking about you Christians here. I know you’re very faithful to attend to the communion service, but I’ve seen in so many other places where people just ignore it or use it for their own personal interests. It’s kind of to make something more important and private. There’s something life giving in the bread and the cup, it’s pictured there. Something spiritually, mystically is happening as Christ comes and visits with us in that time, that simple celebration. But what that’s pictured in the bread and the cup, what that’s pictured in that time is the reality of our actual fellowship with him.
So let’s consider what’s going on in this meal in this home, village of Emmaus. Accompany these two disciples in Luke 24:30. I think we’d have a hard time making the case Jesus intention is to replicate exactly the Eucharist, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, that which he instituted a few nights ago. I don’t think that’s what he’s doing here. Neither of these men, as I said, were present at the Passover meal a few nights before. There’s no wine here at the table, absence of the language of communion liturgy, definitely no interpreting of the elements and what Jesus is about to do here.
All these reasons. I don’t think this is the celebration of first post resurrection communion. And yet when we broaden our view so that we see Jesus’ intent. I really do believe he’s helping these men and through them to the Eleven, as they go back to Jerusalem, relay all these experiences they teach, by extension reaching to all Christians throughout church history, including us who read this text and learn. I think what Jesus is doing is he’s showing us the nature of our fellowship.
He’s teaching us to discern the profound meaning symbolized in the Lord’s table. And that’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, he says don’t partake at the table in an unworthy manner, to do so is to sin against the body of the Lord. Could it be he’s talking about the fellowship, the union we have with Christ? It’s a sin to the meaning. It’s a sin, sin against all that Christ did, came to do, to die for, to win.
Baptism is what we call the entrance ordinance into the church. The Lord’s Table is what we call the fellowship ordinance of the church. So it’s by believing baptism that were identified as true Christians as belonging to the church. It’s by communion though that were identified as Christians who are in fellowship and friendship with Christ and with his church. So whether it’s in the feeding of the 5000 in Luke 9, whether it’s in the communion Jesus ordained in Luke 22 or here in the home of these disciples in Luke 24, as Jesus meets them in fellowship and friendship, notice that Jesus provisions this fellowship; he provides for it, for these men at this time in post resurrection history. And verse 31 says, “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.”
They encountered the resurrected Lord Jesus, knew him for the first time who it was. He indeed is the resurrected Lord Jesus. Hope is not lost. We’re not, we’re not stuck under the thumb of those bad religious leaders that we grew up with. There really is a new people. All these promises are yes and Amen in him. It’s dawning on them. They recognize and they encountered him as he truly is, but only in the physical sense, in a split second.
How do they recognize him? Some say because they saw the nail prints in his hands. Lift up his hand to bless the bread and they’re like, hey, nails. I don’t think so, because Luke would have said that. Maybe they put it together because of that afternoon’s Bible survey. They saw the connection, many connections that he showed them, Deuteronomy, Jesus, manna from God, true bread from heaven, maybe they saw that. Did they recognize in this pattern of speech what we already pointed out, how he fed the 5000; what he said here, all those verbs being in the order that they’re in? Perhaps it was in the praying, his true identity was revealed. They heard him pray for hundreds of meals, heard the piety of his prayers, the intimate familiarity with God his father, his obvious affection for God, and all things holy. Maybe that’s what they heard.
I think we can speculate all day about what it was that caught their attention in a subjective sense, because we can’t get into their heads right here. But objectively, Luke tells us using a passive voice verb in verse 31, God removed the blindfold. God opened their eyes. We know doubt set expectations low in verse 16 with a passive voice verb that they were prevented from seeing him, prevented from recognizing him. But here their doubts overcome, because God sent his son to teach them, open their minds to the Scripture, inform the understanding of their faith, and by the Spirit they saw, they recognized, they rejoiced.
God the Father, through the ministry of his son and by the power of the Holy Spirit, removed the blindfold of doubt, lifted that veil, enabled them to believe in him, to recognize him for who he is, to see him as he is. And I like to pause here, just say that even now as Christians, we’re not in our elevated state yet. Obviously for some of us, we’re not there yet. We still have sin and it still is the power of God and by his grace and his mercy that he removed the blinding power of sin.
That’s why attending to your heart and pursuing repentance every single day and confessing your sin and keeping shorts account with God is so vital; to be humble and teachable. So vital, that anytime we turn to the Lord, God’s showing favor to us. Every time we confess our sins, God’s showing favor to us. It’s a good and glorious thing to confess our sins. It’s a good and glorious thing to take up the, the good work of repentance and pursue it and live that out, day, by day, by day.
That’s God’s gifts to us. It’s his kindness, it’s his love. So why did Jesus vanish from their sight? Why didn’t he stay with them just a bit longer and let them enjoy the sight? Take it in, take a look. According to the context, Jesus had more on the schedule for that evening and not in Emmaus. In fact, they didn’t know it yet, but he had more on their schedule as well and not in Emmaus. His sudden departure sent them back to Jerusalem to join the gathered church, which is where he wanted them next because it’s where he went next.
But we learned something else about Christian fellowship from the Lord’s vanishing in the moment of his revelation. Something very special about the fellowship that we are to long for with the resurrected Lord, and that is this, fellowship with him does not depend on physical sight. Fellowship with him does not depend on physical presence. Fellowship with him does not depend on spatial location of his physical body. Fellowship with him does not even depend on our physical state and our physical body.
In the upper room discourse, demonstrated then in Acts, all through the New Testament. It was his physical departure, where he is spatially located in one place at one time, here on this earth, even post resurrection. It’s his physical departure, his ascension into heaven, whereby he merited the gift of the Spirit and the promise of the Spirit was fulfilled as he sent the Spirit to the Church. It’s by the sending of the Holy Spirit from the father and the son that Jesus takes up his individual residence in the hearts of his people. So the Holy Spirit can properly be called the Spirit of Christ within us.
So our personal fellowship of the resurrected Lord can happen at any place, at any time, in any circumstances, in any situation. The loss of a job, at the loss of a relationship, at the loss of life, in sadness and sorrow, in happiness and joy, everywhere that fellowship can happen. But he would have us entreat him to stay, to abide with us, not haphazardly bumping into him and saying, Oh, you’re here pleading with him, longing for him, asking him to remain and to share our company, to receive the hospitality of our praise and our worship and our service and our obedience.
The personal individual experience is not all that the Lord wants for us because he sends these men into a wider fellowship, a broader fellowship and the friendship of a gathered church. So let’s come to a second point. And this will be much shorter, I promise you. Number two, this is also a command, long for fellowship with the gathered church, long for fellowship with the gathered church. So first, long for fellowship with the resurrected Lord. Now long for fellowship with the gathered church. Because our Lord rejoices in the gathered church.
He’s eager to gather them for all of eternity and be with them forever should we desire anything less. Notice in this section of verses 32 to 35. They reflected, they returned and they rejoiced. Starting in verse 32, first they reflected on an illuminated fellowship. “They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures to us.’”
In our fellowship with one another it’s so fitting for us to speak to one another as these two disciples did, to share with one another, to encourage one another. They had shared a common experience. They’re the, they’re the, the burning hearts club. That’s the verb kaio. It literally refers to the illumination of like a fire and a candle or a torch or the consuming fire of flame burning a building down. We used either way in a literal sense and here it’s obviously in a figurative sense because it’s inside, it’s spiritual, it’s mental, it’s emotional, it’s affection. And two things have had this effect on them, Jesus speaking to them and Jesus opening the scriptures to them. In fact, opening the scriptures and that voice and the voice of Jesus, it’s not discernible which is which. They speak with the same voice.
Jesus came, John 1:18, to explain or interpret the father to his people. The verb exegeomai, to exegete, interpret, describe, make known the invisible God to us. That’s used here. God opens our eyes when Jesus opens the Scripture, taking divinely inspired written words of Holy Scripture, opening them up to his disciples, illuminating their meaning, explaining and teaching the truths, and then pressing the implications into their hearts to affect salvation and to affect sanctification.
In fact, it’s the same verb to open in verse 31, verse 32, dianoigo. Dianoigo, which means to open up the perception, allowing physical recognition in physical sight, verse 31. But it’s by means of the spiritual side of verse 32 that it happens, opening up spiritual sight. In fact, if Jesus had not opened up the Scripture for them, God wouldn’t have opened up their eyes to allow recognition. And their hearts are on fire here.
Both they’re intellectually illuminated and on fire from the illumination of truth. They’re also emotionally consumed in their hearts, in the joy of believing, and the emphasis here is on the emotion and the affection that results from the intellectual illumination. The light that comes into their minds now goes to their hearts, and that’s always the order, mental intellectual first and emotional affectational second.
That’s the way it’s got to be for us. That’s the way it is here. The mind informed, the emotion deeply affected, and those two things together, powerful force to drive the will. Their wills are engaged to drive them back to the fellowship of the apostles of the disciples in Jerusalem. They can’t wait. So next they returned to a believing fellowship. First they reflected on an illuminated fellowship. Now they returned to a believing fellowship. They stood up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, found gathered the Eleven and those with them who were saying the Lord has really risen, has appeared to Simon.
So what time was it at that very hour, five pm or so, six pm. They left Jerusalem around noon, travelled four hours, arrived in Emmaus around four PM ready to the simple meal, reclined at the table, started the meal, barely started the meal probably when Jesus vanished. Did they even get a bite? After a moment’s reflection in verse 32, a Fire in their hearts gave them an energy boost, set their Red Bulls aside.
All the concern about the lateness of the hour, the day almost gone, hazards and darkness, danger on the road. No thought about those things here. They left the bread on the table. They booked it back to Jerusalem. Earliest they could arrive was around eight PM. No later than nine PM, maybe. They found the Eleven, technical term for the apostles here, the Eleven, because we do know from comparing this with John chapter 20 that Thomas was not with them on this first day.
In fact, he it’s not until eight days later that Jesus shows up and Thomas is there with the Eleven. So it’s a technical term, the Eleven, it’s replacing the Twelve. The defection of Judas left them with just eleven. So here they are, the Eleven, the gathered apostles, and they’re gathered with the rest of the disciples. And Cleopas and his companion, companion evidently knew exactly where to go. Perhaps they went to the upper room where Passover had been held.
Whatever it was, they met behind closed doors, locked doors, according to John 20:19, likely in a covert location for fear of the Jews it says there. The key verb in verse 33, though collected, gathered, it’s in the perfect passive form, meaning they had been gathered, the subjects not identified. They had been collected by someone or something. They’d been brought there, shepherded there, corralled there together for a purpose.
I’m going to come back to that purpose next time. But one purpose is to make a very special announcement, which is the only announcement you’re going to find about this in the Gospels. Cleopas and his friend, they burst through the door. You can imagine having to catch their breath after a seven mile night run. Did they run with torches in their hands? I don’t know. I mean the effect of some of that can be a blinding light. Maybe they had some kind of shield around it, like a torch that aimed down ahead of them.
Whatever the case, they didn’t break any ankles. Maybe angels supported their run, but here they are, bursting through the door, catching their breath. Before they can let out and tell their news, they’re interrupted. There’s a chorus of voices that announce the Lord. He’s really risen. He has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. Maybe better, he’s been seen by Simon. He’s been recognized by Simon. This is the same experience as Cleopas and his companion, according to the verb tense, it’s aorist passive. It’s been done to him. The veil has been removed; the blindfold’s been removed. Now Peter is made to see, made to recognize, just as they had been. What is he? What do they announce? The Lord has really risen. He has indeed risen. He’s truly risen. As if to say, hey, you know, those women weren’t crazy after all. Go figure. I love Luke, he’s an expert storyteller, amazing, brilliant narrator and he closes some open loops that started out this narrative.
Last time we saw the larger group of the disciples gathered together in verse 9, they were uncharitably skeptical, dismissive of the women’s report in verse 11. Remember that? Last time we saw Peter, where’d we leave him? He went and confirmed the women’s report, verified the tomb was indeed empty, but he went away alone, marveling in verse 12. That’s where we left him.
So Luke circles back, closes the loop, gives a final disposition on Peter, who represents the Apostolic inner circle, and then on the wider group of the disciples as well. It might be nice if the Scripture recorded an apology to the women, right, disregarded, dismissed as they were. Hey, really sorry, we thought you were out of your minds. Not cool. Bigger things are afoot here.
As a footnote, as I mentioned, this is the only place in any of the Gospels that notes the resurrection appearance to Peter. No details, just the bare announcement, the statement. But he features, doesn’t he in 1 Corinthians 15, the order of resurrection appearances that Paul sites there. He bypasses Paul does the appearance to Mary, Mary Magdalene, which was first in John chapter 20. Bypasses the women who returned from the tomb and saw Jesus in Matthew 28:9 and 10. And instead he goes right to Peter.
He appeared to Cephas 1 Corinthians 15:5, to Peter, and to the Twelve. Why’d you do that? Is Paul a chauvinist does not like women? Doesn’t want to include them in the record? No, he’s just citing the authoritative witness of the church in that letter, and he’s doing it with purpose and intent to deal with the false apostles, the pseudo apostles, in the Corinthian church.
Nonetheless, here God had gathered these disciples together, men and women in the room, the city of Jerusalem. The fellowship, though, was not complete, not until Cleopas and his companion arrived. Now it’s complete. The disciples reflected on an illuminated fellowship with one another, which caused them to return to a believing fellowship with the rest of the gathered believers in Jerusalem. And we come to a final little point here. Finally, they rejoiced in an experiential fellowship. They rejoiced in an experiential fellowship.
I tried to imagine what kind of conversation Cleopas and his companion may have had on the way back to Jerusalem. But then I kind of remembered, wait a minute, they were running the whole way. They really, I know how I am when I’m running. I cannot have a, you ever run with somebody and they’re just chattering like a, like a parrot next to you, you know, like, what are you? Are you from this planet? Do you breathe air? Because I cannot breathe. They were running the whole way. You can’t have a conversation like that when you’re running in low light conditions, uneven terrain. But they’ve had to stifle their own news as they’ve been hearing about the Lord’s appearance to Peter.
And now here it is in verse 35, they can finally talk about what have been burning in their hearts. It’s being contained. I’d imagine they’re about to explode, but they’re relating their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them. Here’s where they’re gonna unpack it, with the wider church, with a group of people, these two are put into the role of teachers sharing everything. So guys get your Old Testament, for them is just get your Testament, open up to Genesis.
Let me show you what he showed us. Let me show you all the figures and types that he fulfilled. Let me show you the prophet, priest, and king. Let me show you his mediatorship. Let me show you his suffering that had to be, but also his glory to follow; Check this out, check this out, check this out. When did they sleep? Recognized not by the nail prints in his hands, as it says here; not by the pattern that we identified from Luke 9, Luke 22.
He wasn’t identified maybe from the prayer he prayed to the Father. Luke emphasizes here, he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Again, folks, as I mentioned earlier, the point of exegesis, the point of studying Scripture, the point of doctrinal clarity, and theological precision, the point of all that is that we recognize our risen and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and our friend, But that we do that, it takes us further to fellowship with him, to friendship with him. Fellowship is friendship.
It’s a reconciled, standing with God because of the finished work of Christ. He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, to substitute himself, his death for ours. The one that we deserved, took the just wrath of God for our sins, and he did that to bring us to God, to give us life, to reconcile us to God, to bring us into the family, to bring us into the friendship, the fellowship of the living God. Fellowship is communion. It’s an intimate relationship with God, our Creator, the one who is our satisfied judge, and our loving Redeemer, the one who is our Savior and our sanctifier.
That’s what fellowship is; to fellowship with him is to know him intimately and truly, communing with him according to his word, as he prescribes, not in any old way we want to, but in the way he prescribes. Why would we want to like, wing it? Why would we want to innovate from our little sinful, puny little minds? Why don’t just take the instruction book and learn? How does he want us to approach him? How does he say to commune with him? He had pretty precise instructions in the Old Testament for the building of the Tabernacle.
Wonder if he does the same thing in the New Testament? Oh, he does. Fellowship is partnership. It’s to join with him and his purposes, to obey his will, to do according to all his good pleasure. So we long to carry on his work, don’t we? To fulfil his mission, achieve his good purposes with our lives, to serve him in cheerfulness and contentment and satisfaction. This is meaning, this is substance, this is friendship, this is fellowship. This is fellowship of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ with the gathered saints, all those who believe in him and share a like heart, who recognize him, who love him, who follow him.
For you who may be here and you don’t know this fellowship, your hearts not lifted with just some of what’s being said here. I just want you to know Jesus is a friend to sinners. He loves you, dear sinner. He wants to come and wipe away your sin, dry your tears, draw you close, love you, pour his affection upon you, teach you, illuminate the Word to you, unite you to his people, bring you into his body, bring you into his life, his communion, his mind, and to do that for all of eternity.
Dear Sinner, does that not sound appealing to you? What is it you’re enjoying here in this life, in this world filled with sorrow and brokenness and sin and ugliness? Whatever you think you enjoy and hold on to, you’re going to lose the moment of death and you’ll stand before God to give an account for your life. Don’t go there unprepared.
Go there covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, with every sin forgiven, reconciled to him, so that when you enter into that courtroom, you make a beeline for the throne and you run into the lap of your father. You look up and say, home. If you long for this fellowship, Christian, press him for it. Pray that he abides with you. And if you don’t long for it, you can repent. I’ve had to repent of that plenty of times. Pray that he’ll bless you with the greatest of all longings, that he might fulfill it with his friendship and with his fellowship. Let’s pray.
Our God, we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our friend. We thank you so much for giving us this fellowship with Christ, fellowship in the spirit, a fellowship in the truth, and a fellowship in your love. What are we just mere individual souls? And yet when David asked that question, what is man that you’re mindful of him, the Son of Man, that you care for him? But you did make him a little lower than the angels, and you crowned him with glory and honor and power, and you’ve done that in Christ.
He is our forerunner. He’s gone before us. He’s now resurrected and glorified and at your, ascended to your right hand. And he is coming one day for us. We long for that day. We just pray that every single one of us would be awakened to this longing to, to commune with him and fellowship with him and have friendship with him. We pray that you would help us to overcome our weaknesses with one another and to love the fellowship of the saints, to love the fellowship of this Church, to count it as such a great privilege week after week to come and remember what we’ve forgotten, repent where we need to, and engage once again in the life of the body. We ask that you would save those who do not yet know you and sanctify all the rest, in Jesus’ name, and for his name’s sake. Amen.