The sermon for August 27th 2023 is now available on the New Life web-site.
In this sermon, which is based on 2 Kings 6:8-23, I talk about “A Bigger Vision.”
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God Is Spirit, and He Communicates In Spirit and In Truth
When the two disciples walked the road to Emmaus, they encountered Jesus. The two men saw Jesus, they walked and talked with Jesus, yet they did not recognize Him as the resurrected Lord (see Luke 24:17). Jesus had taken on a new, glorious form – as He often does.
Jesus sometimes comes in a form we are not familiar with, and it offends our minds. Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man, the Word, the Lamb and the Lion, the Advocate, Friend, Defender, Provider, Lord and Savior of the world, and so much more. God is Spirit, so He communicates to us through the Spirit of Truth. The Bible tells us that where two or more are gathered “I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20).
The disciples felt that they knew this man who walked and talked with them. Jesus asked, “What are you discussing?” They answered Him:
“‘But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find 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 had said; but Him they did not see.’ And He said to them, ‘O foolish men 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 explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:17, 22-27).
Their understanding was quickened by His spiritual Words of wisdom. They listened as Jesus, the resurrected Son of God, the Master Teacher, taught about Jesus the Prophet and Seer. Their spiritual ears bore witness to His greatness, but their eyes did not recognize Him in the natural because He came in a different form – Jesus had entered into His glory!
God Wants to Open Our Eyes to See So that We Can Know Him in a New Way
And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. Luke 24:28-29
Jesus always desires to take us farther down the road than we are willing to walk with Him. We set the limits on the heights, depths, or distances Jesus can take us. But in His mercy and great grace, He is willing to recline and rest with us. He will bless us and commune with us until we are ready to take the next step. We are destined to know Him from glory to glory.
Jesus continued to commune with the men as they rested around the dinner table. Jesus remained with the men until their eyes were opened to see Him for who He is and to discern truth.
When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. Luke 24:30-31
The disciple’s eyes were opened to recognize Jesus when He broke the communion bread. Jesus came to share a meal with the disciples to release the promises of the words He had spoken on the road to Emmaus. Prophetic promises are released in the covenant meal of communion if we are able to rightly discern His body. The bread represented His body that had been broken for the salvation of the world.
But God healed Jesus’ broken body. Jesus walked and talked in resurrection power. When the disciples recognized Jesus in His resurrected state, He vanished from their sight. When our dim eyes are opened to see at one level or dimension, Jesus will start the process of enabling us to see Him on an ever-increasing level of clarity.
Once Jesus vanished from their presence, “They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’ And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, ‘The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.’ They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:32-35).
When we discover who Jesus is at one level, He will empower us to know Him in a deeper and more profound way. Our hearts are ignited to burn with a passionate love. The living, resurrected Word will manifest in flesh once again.
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