And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
Luke 24:32 KJV

It has been a while! However life has had its processes to walk out and ascertain. Off to Hereford this week to lead a retreat and ascertain the workings of Jesus’ judicial programme for our time.

Recently on arrival in a certain place this verse came to me in Luke 24. The Lord seemed to instruct me concerning this burning of heart. As they were going along oblivious to what implications were being manifest through Jesus’ death, and now Jesus appearing to the women was now confusing them overall.

As Jesus heard their limited appraisal of what happened through their experiences of disappointment, confusion, as He opened the Scriptures so they began to see Jesus’ death in the context of a plan which had been well documented in prophetic scripture.

We very often see life events in this way, lack of comprehension being a symptom of the lack of a visitation from Jesus which will open our understanding. The visitation of Jesus TO us will always open the prophetic dimension of Scripture. The consistency of the description and purpose of the life and death of the Messiah is prevalent throughout scripture.

This visitation to us, opening us up to the eternal substance of scripture brings us into an elevation from seeing Jesus on one level and see Him in Lordship. This Lordship will cause us to touch Him in a way which is beyond what we have understood till now.

It is not by chance that the attempt by Mary Magdalene to embrace Him was met by saying “Do not touch me now before I have yet to go to the Father.” We must embrace Him in His Lordship so that we may walk out in understanding not only WHO He is, but walk out His Eternal Programme set in motion in His Ascension.

The disciples on the Road to Emmaus became the Apostles of the Church sent forth to proclaim His Lordship.

Once they saw Him, and said “we have seen the Lord” they went to the apostles in Jerusalem and proclaimed Him as Lord. Immediately He appeared among them.

What I see in this is a spiritual process walked out. We meet them on a Road punctuated by confusion, a sense of loss. We see Jesus appear and walk with them. He expounds Scripture to them. Their hearts burned because they were intimately learned in those Scriptures.

Their understanding of Scripture and their Scriptural foundation was sound as to be prepared to have their eyes opened.

It seems safe to assume that when Jesus is coming TO us to reveal Himself to us, He takes us through Scripture so that we arrive at the Covenant Table.

The covenant Table is where God brings us into fullness of a given work. These disciples are in a period of preparation for which Jesus would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to consecrate a Temple not made with hands.

So once we are at His Table at His Bidding, after we have invited Him to stay with us, so He lifts up Himself in the Bread and breaks it.

They instantly remember the Supper at the Upper Room where He proclaimed that once He had entered His Kingdom He would break bread at His Table. In His Risen state, now Lord over death and Hades, having now the Keys of Life, He invites us to recognise Him in Covenant.

They recognised Him, and recognised the inner preparation. The Scripture they knew immediately was set on fire and burned within them a new understanding.

This then leads them to return to the centre where the Spirit would descend, the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Here Jesus appears to all. And they see Him in His humanity, in His Wounds, and see Him in His Divinity as a Risen Glorified Body that had no limits, no door could prevent His entry.

This passage is very dear to me in that we see mapped out the programme of Jesus to His Church. We need a fresh understanding again where our focus changes from our small egocentric understanding. We built Church and ministry and for some had great ambition in the Name of Jesus. However circumstances have ravaged our witness and scandals abound.

Maybe we used our faith on ourselves and tried to use this same faith to reach some kind of fulfilment and success. Yet in it all we never thought that following Jesus would first lead us to Calvary where we would have to die to that kind of focus.

Luke 24 is focussed on Jesus the Lord! Once we come away from that we miss a great opportunity to see Jesus’ eternal plan that we can flow in. It is not a plan we can lock into. We need to allow Jesus to come TO us on our Emmaus Road, after we have seen everything die in front of our eyes.

We must allow Him to open To us the Scripture, even those we are well conversant, to bring us into a preparation. This preparation is where Jesus Himself brings us to His Covenant Table. We will see Him not only as Saviour but also Lord. This full revelation will bring us into a season of intense interaction with Him. He will open to us His plan, and our part in it.

And once He has prepared us, He will send His Spirit without limit.

Every spiritual work must have a particular process and the Scriptures, however they are expounded must be a key in any of our progressive transition. That is why the ministry of the Teacher is fundamental in our day.

We focus on being labelled, and all covet a great title, like apostle or prophet. Some have a limited understanding of the pastor. Even more so the Teacher.

The Holy Spirit by Jesus’ Ascension installed the Teacher to guide the Church through spiritual transitions. Antioch became a great teaching centre. Acts 13 says that it was prophets and teachers who birthed the apostolic among them in obeying the Holy Spirit in the separation of Barnabas and Paul.

The Church needs the teacher to understand with a sound foundation the season we are living in today and live out the processes of Scripture in daily life.

It was the burning of the Scripture of Luke 24 that opened their eyes to who Jesus is.

It is imperative we see Him today for who He is.

Shalom!