I hope that you'll make your plans to come and be with us for that
Luke 24. Let's begin there this morning. "Now, behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem, and 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, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him. And He said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? And then one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happen there these days? He said to them, what things? So they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified Him. And 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 seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 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. And then he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all 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 them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther, but they constrained him, saying, abide with us for this toward the evening and the days far spent, and he went in to stay with them. And now it came to pass, as he sat at the table within, that he took bread and blessed 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 hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the Scriptures to us. So, they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 and those who were with him gathered together saying, The Lord is risen indeed and has 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.'
If I could be somebody else for a day, I think I'd choose Cleopas. We don't know who the other person with Cleopas was. He or she is not named, but Cleopas is named, and so I'll tell you that I'd like to be Cleopas. And I think you can probably figure out who I'd like to be Cleopas. They've been in Jerusalem, and they're coming back, they're going to Emmaus, which was about seven miles southwest of Jerusalem, and they're going back home, and they're talking about the events of the day. The events of the day are such that the body of Jesus can't be found, and there's concern about that, and everybody knows, apparently, except this man, who's about to join the conversation. And while these men are talking about what has happened, this man joins the conversation, and he asked them, what's going on, basically. And they tell him, Are you the only one in the world doesn't know what's going on? And they began to talk about that, and you know what they talk about, but they meet and they see and they talk with Jesus after the resurrection, and in time, in a few hours, they're going to understand who he was, but at the initial point, they don't know. But verse 27 says this about that he says, "and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them, and all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself." They don't recognize who he is and yet, what happens he begins to talk to them about himself. I want you to just think about that. Here these two people are walking, and Jesus is either walking between them or on either side of them, and he's talking to them about what the Scriptures say. And it begins with what Moses said. And Moses said a lot, even in the letters or the books that he wrote early in Scripture in the Old Testament.
Can you imagine Jesus? It says that he expounded, some translations say he opened, some translations say he interpreted, some translations say he explained. Can you imagine walking along and this man is telling you about this person that's talked about in the Old Testament? And the text tells us that he talked to them about all that was said. Now I don't know everything that that means, but evidently he left no stone unturned in explaining to them who he was. I just want you to imagine if he was walking between them, can't you imagine occasionally, one would look at the other and go --. Could you just see it? And can't you imagine what's going on in their mind as they're hearing what Jesus is saying about himself? And the text tells us that what it produced, verse 32 says, "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 Scriptures to us?" I love that passage. I love what him talking to them produced in them. It produced as I, as the title slide really talked about, a heart that was burning, a heart that felt something different than it normally felt because of what was being said. And another thing that's interesting to me is the text tells us that, once they understood who he was and once he had left them, they said what we're going to do. The text says, in verse 33, "they rose the same hour and walked back to Jerusalem." Now I guess we could walk 14 miles in a day, but we'd be tired. And they walked back, and they found the disciples, and they told them, they began to talk to them about what had happened. This isn't just an event, and I really don't know an event in scripture that's documented for us that's similar to this. Do you? I mean, I know Jesus talked to some people, I know he taught some people, but the reaction of the people, as is documented in Scripture, is not anywhere else found in my judgment, other than here. Because the text says their hearts burned.
Here's a question for you. How long do you think their hearts burned? Do you think the next day? You think on that Monday morning, when they woke up, they thought, You know what? Well, yesterday was a good day, but today we're back to ho-hum. What do you think about that? What about the next week? Do you think that in their minds, they kept going over what had happened and the fact that they had seen the risen Savior? Have you ever thought about what happened, not while they were walking with Him, not as they were walking back on the same day, but the days following. If you'd been Cleopas, I want to ask you a question, if you'd been Cleopas, how long would your heart burn? I think we understand what it means that our, that their hearts burned within them. I think we understand that. It is a feeling, but it's a feeling, the text tells us very clearly, it's a feeling that's generated based upon what they had been told and what had been explained to them. I'm goingtell you right now, I believe, with all of my heart, that if the Lord Himself were to walk in here and say, turn your Bibles to Isaiah, and if he started talking like this: what we just read is about me, and what we just read is about what me coming to earth was going to do. And what we just read is about a government that was going to be established, in which I was the king, and in which I would have citizens who, if they would listen to me, would be, would be citizens of my kingdom. If Jesus himself was standing here, I'll tell you what right now, our hearts would be burning. I can guarantee you they'd be feeling differently than they are right now with you, because I'm standing here talking about it. It's a different thing. How long would your heart burn if you were Cleopas?
I'm going to come back to a question, to that question in a minute, but I want you to turn to another passage. I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Ezra three. This is the passage that Mike just read for us. You know, you remember King Cyrus of Persia. He had allowed the captives to come back from Israel. They were going to return to Jerusalem. And when they got back to Jerusalem God had told him, you're going to go back in the king and allowed them to go back. But he said, When you go back, I want you to, in essence, rebuild what has been torn down. It wasn't going to be what it was in Solomon's day, but he did want them to go back and, to some degree, reestablish some things. And so they went back. And Ezra three tells us that the builders laid the foundation of the temple. I'm not going to go back and read everything that Mike read, but the initially, the foundation was laid, and the work began to stop. And the work began to stop because the people forgot about what their business was really about. The foundation was there. They'd gone back, and they'd been, they'd been passionate about it. Their hearts burned, if you will. When they got back, their hearts burned, and then at some point during that process, their hearts waned. And a contemporary of Ezra, who was a prophet whose name was Haggai. He wrote a short, what in our Bibles, is a two chapter short document. And the purpose of him writing that document was to say, What's wrong with you people is that you have stopped doing what you intend to do. In other words, your heart's not what it once was. And he wanted to deliver a message. And here was the message.
Look at look at beginning in Haggai, the first chapter, "In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the Prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, This people says, The time has now come." I gotta move this. It's hard for me to read this from this point. Y'all hang with me. Maybe hard again. "The time has now come that the Lord's house should be built. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, it is time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins. Now therefore, Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much and have brought in little. You eat, but do not have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earn wages to put into the bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways, go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little, and when you brought it home, it blew away. Why? Says the LORD of hosts, because of my house that's in ruins while every one of you turns to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew and the earth withholds its fruit. For I call for a drought on the land and the mountains and on the grain and on the new wine and the oil, and on whatever the ground brings forth, on man and livestock and on all the labor of your hands." He says, The problem here is that you're you're going back, and you have created, and you've built for yourself, panel houses that that idea of panel has to do with the cedars of Lebanon. They were not only building houses folks. They were bringing in the best. They were making their houses the absolute best they could be, because they could. And what Haggai says is the word of the Lord has come to me to tell you that you need to stop building your house and you need to start building my house on the foundation that you originally built 20 years ago. And he said, there's a problem.
I want you to listen to what happened. "Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai, the Prophet, as the Lord their God had told him. And the people feared the presence of the Lord. Then Haggai, the Lord's Messenger, spoke the Lord's message to the people, saying, I am with you, says the Lord. So, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts their God, and on the 24th day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius." What happened? They got busy. Why did they get busy? Because the word of the Lord had come to them, the God's message had come, and the Lord, I want you to look at the text, the Lord stirred up the governor, the Lord stirred up the high priest, and the Lord stirred up the people. Their spirits were stirred by reminding them of the most important work they had. I want to suggest to you that our hearts burn within us when we remember what our purpose on earth is. And our passion, if you will, and our burning hearts wane when we forget, or even when we minimize, what our primary task in life is. I think the lessons for us from both these stories that we looked at this morning is quite clear, is that what ought to be passionate about us can wane if we're not careful. And what typically makes it wane? It's not the only thing that makes it wane. But a lot of times, the thing that makes it wane is we forget what the Lord's business is.
When you get to chapter two and verse one, the text says, "In the seventh month, on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came to Haggai, the prophet, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest and the remnant of the people saying, who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory and how you see it now, in comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?" In other words, look at what's happened and look at what is going on. And when you get to verse nine, and when you get to between verse between verse four and verse nine, I'm not going to take the time to read that. Basically, what he's telling them is that the way you're stirred is you be strong in what you know you ought to be doing. That there's not a lot of explanation when it just talks about the Lord stirred the governor, the Lord stirred the high priest, and the Lord stirred the people. The question is, how did that happen? I'll tell you how it happened. They remembered the word of the Lord. They were moved by what they heard. They they hadn't forgotten it. It just had kind of become stagnant. And it wasn't just stagnant for a short period of time. It was stagnant for years, until these prophets came back and said, You better get busy with what the Lord's work is. Get busy and stay passionate.
Well, it doesn't take a whole lot to figure out the point of the lesson, does it? It doesn't take much. May I just, I'm going to say just a couple of things about it, but I want to preface those remarks by just saying this. We can forget, or we can at least dismiss the real purpose for which we're here. I'm not talking about here necessarily. I'm talking about here on this earth. It's very easy for us to think about and, I want you to follow me now. Don't, move away from me. Follow me here. It's very easy for us to think about our paneled houses, isn't it? We think of panel houses we think of the 1970s, at least I do. But you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about houses that, let's just say it like it is, that are some of the best anywhere. And I don't think that's just saying, stop building your house, literal house. I think he's saying, Stop taking so much thought of your own personal affairs, and give some thought to what's going on in My house. And I don't think he's saying in the temple, because obviously the temple was never going to be built back at the same rate as Solomon's was built, and even when Herod would build it later, it didn't come back near of what Solomon's was. But the point to what this story, and I think all these stories, are about, is that when our passion and when our heart, the burn of our heart, begins to wear it's because very often it is just overtaken with things that are part of our lives that need to be less important. May I just say that that way this morning. I think there are variety of ways to say it. I don't know any way to say it any stronger but our lesson is the temple, the house, the purpose for which God has made us is to serve Him and to be, as Peter would say, and as I want to read, living stones in this temple that we are.
I want you to think about this morning. If you're a Christian this morning, you are a living stone. And you're a living stone that's being added, in essence, to Christ'sTemple. It's a spiritual temple. That's how important you are. You are a spiritual stone. Sometimes we talk about the fact that we are a spiritual temple, and I think that's, probably, I understand what we're saying. But we're really living stones that make up the temple, and all who are his make up that temple. Here's how Peter would say it. Peter would say, "coming to him as to a living stone rejected by men," referring to Christ, "but chosen by God and precious. And he says, You also, you also, as living stones are being built up a spiritual house." You see that" "A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." What person offers up spiritual sacrifices? It's a person who's passionate about it. Let me take a little side, let me take a little side job. And we think about this a lot, but let me just say this to you, if the essence of your spiritual life is found in the three hours you spend in this building on a weekly basis, I think you misunderstand what the nature of being built up as a living stone is. If the essence of your spirituality is what happens, just simply in a collective way, as part of this group, in some level of corporate worship, then I think you've misunderstood, because we are living stones to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Now, part of what we're doing today, we're doing that, but that, but it's our whole life that's that. Our whole life is a part of it. He goes on to say, "Behold, I lay in Zion the chief cornerstone. Elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe He's precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." In other words, some people object him. They're objective to him. "They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed, and that you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light." Folks, the easiest place to be that is here. Isn't it? The easiest place to be what Peter says we ought to be all the time is here. I'm not minimizing here. I'm not minimizing now. Matter of fact, I think it's essential to us being everything that we ought to be. But if this is all there is to your spirituality, your heart is not burning for God the way it needs to. You need to think about that. We have got to not be, we must not be consumed with our own house. And all I mean by that is we must not be consumed with our lives to the neglect of God's house.
Now what's, what's the application? I'll tell you what it is. It's whatever. It's whatever you need it to be. It's whatever I need it to be. Because staying, listen carefully, staying passionate is hard. I wish I knew what happened to Cleopas a year from then. You know, I don't know. Maybe Cleopas, maybe he obeyed the gospel on the day of Pentecost, I don't know. But I wish I knew what happened to Cleopas. I know what's said about you, Cleopas, but how long did your heart burn and how intensely did it burn after the fact that you talked to him? Being passionate is hard. So, how do you keep the passion? Let's talk about that. Rreal briefly. How do you keep the passion? How do you wake up every day and your heart is burning to accomplish the will of God? How does that happen? Because none of us, none of us, I think probably maybe I'm speaking, maybe I'm speaking too generally here, but I think it's hard for all of us to maintain that passion on a continual regular basis. I think we go through difficulty sometime where we get discouraged and we have difficulties. How do we get it back? Or how do we maintain it?
I think we go back and remember how we got it in the first place. I don't think there's any other way to get it back other than to go back and remember how we got it in the first place. How'd they get it? How did Cleopas and his companion? How did they get that passion? How did they feel that passion? They listened, not just to what Jesus said, but they listened to what it meant to them. Let me offer one illustration that I think is good for us always to think about, that we've already thought about today. We assemble on Sunday, and if you're if you're with us, if you assemble with us next Sunday, what you're going to see next Sunday is very similar to what you see today. And one thing that we're going to do next week is one thing we've already done. We're going to assemble, and we're going to remember the Lord's death. We're going to probably sing a song, and we're going to think about that, and it's going to prepare our hearts, and we're going to have a reading that's going to prepare our hearts, and somebody, like Rob did today, is going to talk to us like he did today, possibly, about the crucifixion and what that meant, and how Jesus dealt with that, and we're going to think about that. Why do we do that? So our passion will burn. Why do we do that regularly? Why did Jesus say, I want you to remember my death till I come? Why does he do that? Because he wants us to remember what he did. Now, let me, let me say, I think it's important for us to do exactly what Rob, I think, was trying to help us do this morning. And that's understand the agony, the mental anguish, the difficulty for ever how long, to Rob's point, ever how long that took, maybe from the time he realized that he was going to have to die. And again, we don't know when that was, but throughout the rest of his life, he knew what was going to happen, and I understand that. And again, I don't know when that was, but that had to be emotionally difficult for Jesus. And what he went through, and for us to think about that. But when all that is is pushed aside, and I don't mean pushed aside in a bad way, I mean pushed aside, just don't, to not think about it in that way. Here's the bottom line, He died for you and me. He died for us, and when we forget that fact, our passion will wane, our hearts will begin to be less inflamed in the right kind of way. That's why Jesus wants us to remember his death till he comes so that our hearts will continue to be impassioned by what he did for us. And may I say something that you know? That's hard. I think that's hard sometimes.
I've heard people say, You know what? Really, what we ought to do is just take the supper maybe once a year. If we do it once a year, everybody kind of looks forward to that once a year time, then it'll really mean something. Well, if that's what case, here's what I suggest, let's take it once a lifetime. Just pick a point in time in your life when you want to take it, and that'll really mean something to you on that day, right? Well, we ought to do something that really helps us, really gets us passionate about that. I'll tell you what we ought to do. Next week, why don't we meet here and crucify somebody? Why don't we crucify? Why don't we crucify somebody on the cross right up here in front of us? That ought to get people's attention, don't you imagine? Let's advertise it. There's going to be a crucifixion at College View next week before the Lord's Supper. Why? So we can all be passionate about what the Lord did. Who's going to volunteer for that? Not me. You see, you see the point of that? What does Jesus say? He said, Just remember what I did for you. Just remember what I did for you, and let that motivate you to do for me when I'm asking you to do. And what is that, Lord? To be passionate about, what it is that you need to do with your life, about, as you become a living stone every day in your life, be passionate about that, and don't let the fire burn out in your life.
Why would I want to talk about that this morning? Well, there's two things, two reasons. First of all, in our men's class this past Tuesday at Doug's house, we studied Haggai. We talked a little bit about that verse that was found that said the Lord stirred their hearts. And I thought about that. I thought about that in reference to some other things that are found in Scripture that I'm not going to go into today, but I thought that's something that I'd like to say to this group, that our hearts need to be stirred. But then, what else Haggai reminds us of is our hearts need to be stirred based upon what the message of God is to us. And then the admonition is, Be strong. Be strong. Go at it. Go do it, and stay at it. That's what he wants. That's what he wants of all of us. I hope that you'll leave here this morning and you'll say to yourself, I gotta pick it up. The flame needs to increase. Flame needs to grow. I need to be less concerned with myself, and I need to be more concerned with him. That's that's what I'm hoping will happen for you, for me, this morning. And if that happens, then the time I think that we spent this morning will be well spent. May God help all of us to do that.
It may be that you need to obey the gospel. It may be that you need to just decide, I want to be a Christian and I want to begin serving God the way that I know he wants me to serve him. Well, a lot of people ask that question in Scripture, and when people ask that question scripture, what Jesus said is, the first thing you have to do is believe that I'm the son of God. You have to believe what I say. You have to believe who I say that I am. Because Jesus said, If you don't believe who I say that I am, you're going to die in your sins. And you know what happens when you die in your sin? You don't go to heaven. Jesus said, If you will believe that I am He, if you'll repent of your sins, confess the fact that I am Lord and Savior and that I am the king of all men, and then submit yourself to me based upon that confession, and based upon the fact that you will have your sins washed away through an obedient faith by being immersed in water to arise to walk in a new life. That's what the Bible says, and that's what we would encourage you to do. If that's a desire that you have this morning, would you make that known by coming to the front as we stand and as we sing.
