It seems that much is marching towards the major confrontation between the two Kingdoms, one being of Christ and His God, the other being of Satan and his demons. In this confrontation the Church and her involvement in the rolling out of the eternal programme is key. The Lord has put on my heart that Luke 24 is a pattern we need to walk out now. In understanding the process that the 2 disciples who walked to Emmaus went through we will come into a greater understanding to our own “walk to Emmaus”.
Let us examine the main elements of this chapter.
We had hoped…
In the first instances of their dialogue with the unrecognised Christ, their image, belief about the Messiah, contradictory to God’s purpose, God’s methodology. The concept of the Messiah in their minds was about a political leader who politically and militarily would overthrow the Romans. However, as Jesus started in Scripture showed clearly the true nature of the Messianic mission. Yet I verify from extensive times of prayer that our problem is a cyclical one, we misunderstand Jesus’ Messianic mission, or try to fit it in with our own agenda. This will certainly be blown apart. And in a traumatic way was it shattered for those disciples. I sense for some part “organised religion”, we are seeing a shattering. And we will go onto what is that process till we achieve the full process complete.
“And starting in Moses, the prophets and the psalms…”
The Lord is starting to fill His People with what the Word, says about the Messiah. For Jesus, the only foundation of Scripture was Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. They spoke of Him in the prophetic sphere in those Scriptures, and we see evidence of their efficacy because when Jesus is Transfigured both Moses and Elijah appeared representing a major part of the Messianic process. For them to understand that what they had just experienced for three and a half years, was carefully and clearly mapped out in the known Scriptures. It is apparent that Jesus needs to be Transfigured in the midst of His Church. The reasons are the same, we cannot recognise Him fully because we have superimposed upon Him the ambitions and our ideas of Him. These go contrary to the known Scriptures. We no longer need for Him to start at Moses, the Prophets and Psalms, but we need Him to start at His Gospels, His Acts, His Epistles and His Revelation to make up the clear picture. They spoke of Him then, yet for 300 years it seems that the Church still had to grasp the true identity of the Christ and Messiah. Many heresies span the spectrum between Jesus being fully human, yet from Baptism taking on the Messianic Mantle, to Jesus having no humanity in the true sense of the word, but being just fully divine. This battle has waged for ever till this very day. And because of this constant spiritual disconnect with the true revelation, found in Revelation and in the Theology of the Epistles we find that it clearly reveals the truth about Him. As the overall Church has to unify theology and ground it in vivid personal interaction with Him, we must understand that like these apostles on the Emmaus road we are as much distraught as they.
Many times our projects, our ministry goals take on a subtle guise of personal ambition, and we sometimes fall into systemising Jesus, when all the time we must live and teach a relational base. We must personally interact on an intimate level with this truth for passion to be born in our hearts, so that what we preach comes out with urgency, vivacity, purity. The revelation of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10). How that works is that the prophetic must bring heaven to our comprehension so that in grasping it we begin to walk like Enoch, that this invisible realm is as real as the seen. We can transition as he did. It is not a mechanical process, it is making Jesus, the Father the centre of everything by the Spirit. So when Jesus is comprehended the way He should be our eyes open!
We are with open eyes when we enter the covenant at the Table
It seems for several hours Jesus opens up the Word to the two disciples and their vision is lifted beyond the visible, their time is lifted to eternity. And it is this process that must happen in all of us who care to live for Him and minister on His behalf. So now the sun is setting, on their day, yet the light they are seeing is not the sun, they are beginning to behold the Father’s Glory (Hebrews 1:3). They arrive at the village and beg Him to be at the Table with them. As Jesus speaks to the Church at Loadicea, He says that He is at the door knocking and who will open will have Jesus to sup with Him, along with the Father and the Spirit. It seems that we are seeing the New Testament version of Genesis 18, when Abraham received the Godhead to his Tent, now the Church must enter into that process, because there is a birthing, and then a warning of judgment, and an intercession for the righteous in the context of judgment. What will God do when judgment will fall and the righteous are in the midst. Lot, the righteous man, vexed, by the practices of the ungodly, how many of us relate to him? Jesus is about to visit the world in the moulds of judgment, and like the two disciples as they sit at the table, so Lot sits at the table also with covenant. Seems to be a parallel does it not? Covenant is celebrated in these two cases. The Table of Lot is a place where the covenant of salt is celebrated, with Jesus is the Covenant of Grace. The Church needs to rediscover the power of the Covenant Table, the Shewbread of the Tabernacle. Only this way will Jesus will not be just the prophet, but the Lord of all.
It seems therefore, that the things important for this kairos is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the spirit of prophecy, the Covenant Table, the Open Word, where not just Moses, the Prophets, or the Psalms are opened, but also His Gospels, His Letters, His Acts, His Revelation are set in their rightful place.
He lifts up the Bread to bless…
As they sit at the covenant table so He lifts up the Bread…their eyes are opened, they see Him for who He really is! So in His Body He should be seen. Am not sure that Jesus is seen clearly in the Body. With the divisions, apostasies, heresies, how can Jesus lift up the “Bread” of the Body. Psalm 133 speaks of the type of blessings that come, and come from unity. Unity is a prerequisite of the blessings that Jesus desires to confer. I have spent many a hour asking why so much sickness of every type in the Church, and I come to the same conclusion, lack of unity. So once the Lord lifts the WHOLE and UNIFIED Church, as He did the bread, He can bless. The qualifier to the lifting is unity and love.
Concluding Words: Emmaus Road
The Church needs to walk the Emmaus Road. It needs to go from shedding its own ideas and ambitions to beholding Him. That way the Church is ready for His end time commission.
Maranatha!
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