THE ROAD TO EMMAUS

The road to Emmaus is the road we take after we’ve been to Golgotha. It’s the road out of town... the get-away road, when other roads we’ve tried turn into dead ends and cul-de-sacs. It’s the road of disillusionment, when earthly hopes and dreams fail to become reality, adversity finds our door, suffering isn’t relieved, and questions aren’t answered... the road to blaming God. Much like the first century Christians we try to drag the promised blessings and glory of God’s eternal Kingdom into our present earthly reality... into now. They had the presence of God in Jesus Himself, and God’s power was manifested in signs so numerous that if recorded “even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” But, they loved their life and wanted freedom from the world’s oppression, adversity, affliction and suffering. They wanted a king to bring them their best life now... not a martyr... crucified between two thieves. We want that too... health, wealth, our best life now, not the thorns and nails of our cross, not the transforming pressure of the crucified life, not the fellowship of our Lord’s sufferings... not adversity in any form, shape or fashion. The road to Emmaus is well marked in the battlefield of our mind, pockmarked with the doubts, fears and dead-end whys our half-truths spawn in misplaced faith... we have no difficulty finding it: “How foolish you are, says our Lord, and how slow of heart to believe all that I have spoken.” But even as we walk away our Lord is walking after us, wanting to draw us near, offering His companionship, and revealing His Truth that sets us free from false hopes... causing our hearts to burn within us... burning with our eternal hope in Him. The road to Emmaus is the road of great transformation as we finally lay aside our will... our wants... our earthly desires, in submission to His Lordship... moving ever further into God.

THE ROAD TO TRUTH

THE SON CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF

“And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.”(Luke 5:17, NKJV): This is an odd phraseology, as if there were times when the Lord’s healing power was not present. Let’s deconstruct this passage: “Power” is the Greek dumanis, God’s anywhere, anytime, anyhow... to be able power, and is in the anarthrous construction denoting a particular quality of power... contextually healing power. “Lord” is the Greek kurios, translated Lord 712 times in the N.T. and used of both God and Christ. “Present” is a word added by the translators for clarity, not found in the Greek manuscripts. “Heal” is the Greek iaomai, to heal, cure, restore to bodily health, an articular infinitive used in the accusative sense denoting purpose. “Them” is the Greek autos, a feminine neutered pronoun incorrectly translated as if referring to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who were not there for healing but to entrap Jesus, or the “multitudes” of verse 15, a totally different event. Autos is used here as a third person objective case pronoun for Jesus, a Greek construction which is very common in Luke’s gospel, and should be translated “Him.”  Literal translation: “And the healing power of God was with Him (Jesus) to heal.” 

Jesus did not exercise God’s power independently: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do ... I can of Myself do nothing ... but the will of the Father who sent me.” (Jn. 5:19, 20, 30) Jesus in His “self-empting” life was one with the Father and only did what the Father showed Him to do, saying and doing what he heard and seen from the Father -- identity of action based on identity of nature -- in perfect union with the Father’s will.  God healed the woman with the issue of blood through Jesus... for power went out of Him, but independent of Jesus’ foreknowledge or will... for He asked “Who touched Me.” (Lk. 8:43-46) God healed through Jesus one of a “great multitude” of sick, blind, lame and paralyzed people at the Pool of Bethesda... just one... who did not even know who Jesus was... whose faith was misplaced in the “stirring of the waters.” (Jn. 5:1-15) Scriptures like these should challenge our tidy precepts of when, how and why God heals... More remains in the mystery of supernatural healing then in the revelation...

BUT ONE THING IS NEEDED

“But one thing is needed, and Mary has choose the good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10:42 NKJV).  Mary appears three times in scripture in three     different episodes of her life, and on each occasion she is sitting at the feet of Jesus, bearing the brunt of someone’s harsh words for her single minded devotion to our Lord. (Lk. 10:39; Jn. 11:32; 12:3) Mary was a person of one thing... whole-hearted passion for Jesus. Her life was centered on Him in full submission to His Lordship, a symphony sung in one key... love, for her audience of One. The world listened in and could not understand, but Mary prized every second in her Lord’s presence. In a sense this passage paints a comparison of soul-life and Spirit-life... a picture of Romans 8:5:  “For those who live according to the flesh (soul) set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Martha, representing soul-life, is “worried and troubled about many things”.  Our soul is never at rest and always distracted by the natural realm.  These distractions are not always “bad things” in and of themselves” as in   this case where “much serving” had distracted Martha from intimate fellowship with Jesus.  Remember, “good” is always the greatest enemy of “best”:  Martha wasn’t out hitting the local pub; she was serving food to Jesus and His disciples.  But she was “distracted” from the “one thing that was needed”, and missed out on the “good part”... her mind was set on the natural blinding her to the supernatural.  Mary, representing Spirit-life, is determined to abide in the presence of God with passionate, single-minded devotion... her mind is set on things above. This is the “one thing that is needed”, the “good part” - passionate, whole hearted, intimate devotion to our Savior.  But we must willfully choose to be a person of one thing, refusing to allow our soul to distract us from the wooing of the Holy Spirit... to draw us to lovers less wild.  In all her fussing about, Martha never realized that Jesus could have easily “created” dinner... He had twice proven His supernatural catering abilities, and the miraculous is never far behind passionate intimacy.

GOOD IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF BEST

THE FACE IN THE MIRROR

Mankind is flawed and most of Christendom is flawed because we haven’t individually realized and dealt with the flawed depravity of our nature.  Our hearts are out of control with self-absorption. And we have not tasted the good word of God, or partaken of the Holy Spirit, or submitted to the Lordship of Jesus, allowing His nature and character to glaringly illuminate our flawedness. We are all flawed, from the corrupt politician to the pious Sunday school teacher... we are all flawed.  True life-giving, God honoring change must start with the face in the mirror... we are all broken.  The soul was not designed for brokenness, we were supposed to be good, all of us... we were supposed to be good.

All this is flash rhetoric about loving you.

I never had a selfless thought since I was born.

I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;

I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,

I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;

I talk of love - a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek-

But, Self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

(C.S. Lewis)

So here we sit, comfortably swinging in our cage, reciting church doctrine, and having no idea what we are saying... and we talk of love.  The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me.  No drug is as powerful as the drug of Self.  No rut in the mind is as deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, and all people are characters in my play.  There is no addiction as powerful as Self addiction.  Jesus told us what we must do to experience His transforming life: “Deny yourself” and “take up your cross daily” and “follow Me.” We deny Self by nailing it to our cross daily... dying daily to Self’s self-interests, then we carry it for all the world to see. Only in death can the nature of Christ and the light of His love shine through... this is what they see... they see His love! If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to the desires of the face in the mirror... die to our Self, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether or not we are really following Jesus.

AND THEY WILL KNOW WE ARE CHRISTIANS

BY OUR …

THE OBJECT OF FAITH

Faith is not some magical force conjured up through pat formulas, and it certainly is not a physical substance carried around in word-containers. Faith is the firm conviction that God “IS”, exists, and, by extension, is faith in His written word by which He defines Himself to mankind. God means exactly what He says in His word, and will do exactly what He has promised in His word. Faith recognizes God is Supreme... independently matchless and incomparable in rank, Sovereign... independently matchless and incomparable in rule and authority, Majestic... independently matchless and incomparable in royalty, Truth... we can trust and rely upon His word, Gracious... His free unmerited favor...totally without obligation, superabounds in the forgiveness of our sins, Merciful... in sympathy, shrouded in lovingkindness, He extends grace to alleviate the consequences of our sins, Kind... He is benevolent and goodhearted toward us, Compassionate... He is deeply concerned about our well being, Loving... He passionately pursues our heart, Relational... He wants to be our Lord and Master, Intentional... He has a plan for us, Unfathomable... we won’t understand His plan, Unrelenting... He won’t give up on His plan for us, Patient... He loves us to the end, and Good... He works all our “things” into accord with His own purposes. And, our faith recognizes God is a Consuming Fire... and not to be trifled with!           

Faith... firm conviction, leads to personal surrender, and obedient conduct inspired by this surrender. “Have faith in God”: The object of our faith is not God’s promises, the occasions for exercising it, but God Himself. And the command to “have faith” is self-fulfilling: The clear precise commands of God come with one string attached, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, for Grace enables what it commands. So when God commands to “have faith”, we … have faith! The greatest human demonstration of faith is to trust God even when one does not understand, recognizing His peace is far better than knowing why. And, comparatively, greater faith is required when the miracle doesn’t come than when it does... when God chooses not to intervene, as we refuse to allow anything to affect our love for God and trust in His goodness. We believe in, trust in, rely upon and cling to God, persevering in the midst of affliction, trusting despite the whirlwind, standing fast in the storm of life’s circumstances with faith that is fixed on God. We will all hit speed-bumps on the threshing floor of life that will attempt to derail us... but our faith will keep us on the road home to Daddy! True faith is rooted in the absolute sovereignty of God, who is totally in control, recognizing His purposefulness and accepting His will in all matters of life: “Nevertheless, not as I will but as You will.”

HAVE FAITH IN GOD

DEODORANT ANYONE

The world will hate us if we look like Jesus.  The cross will always be an offense to the spirit of this age.  The gospel does not and will never fit the spirit of this age, and should never be shaped by the spirit of this age. Relevance and acceptance are the ugly stepsisters of tolerance, all enemies of Christian discipleship. Tolerance is a tool employed by the powers of darkness to force upon God’s church acceptance of the world’s unbiblical views and ungodly lifestyle; to challenge or oppose anything marks one with the dreaded prejudicial mark of “Intolerant.”  Many in the Body of Christ have acquiesced to the world’s demand for tolerance  by watering down the natural offensiveness of the message of the Cross, making it more tolerant, relevant and acceptable... more appealing, thinking they are helping to advance God’s Kingdom by making His message more appeasing to the culture and times... as if God needs their help. Far too many saints have removed the offense of the gospel from their lives and from their “Good News” message to such a degree there is not much left for the world to feel offended by... not much “good” left in the “news.” Herein we have neutered the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a neutered gospel only produces cheap grace... grace we bestow on ourselves.  Those who truly follow Christ are to be the aroma of Christ in the world today: “Through us, He (God) brings knowledge of Christ.  Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance.  Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation - an aroma relevant with life.  But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse” (2 Cor. 2:14-16 The Message).  This is the norm.  To the world we give off a smell of death.  Paul is not saying this is wrong; rather, this is the norm.  In the world’s nose, followers of Jesus should stink like a rotting corpse! Tolerance becomes the deodorant of choice many “christians” wear to mask the offensive scent of the Cross of Christ... effectively gagging  the Holy Spirit, so the world will not hold their noses around them. Through tolerance many profess Christ without possessing Him, wearing the label Christian without a lifestyle to match, awaiting the four most terrifying words a human can ever hear... “I Never Knew You.” Deodorant anyone?

SEEKER SENSITIVE GOD SENSITIVE

SHADOW OF YOUR WINGS

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” During David’s time God dwelt in the inner west room of the Tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant on which sat two gold cherubim. The Ninety-first Psalm is not a hypothetical but a real description of what must have been the most terrifyingly wonderful awe inspiring experience possible to humankind this side of Heaven. When the glory of God emanated from between the cherubim their wings would cast shadows. The secret place, God’s holy of Holies, is where David took refuge, abiding under the shadow of God almighty. But the best news is that God has moved, choosing not to live in a building made with hands, choosing to dwell in a fleshly temple, His Holy of holies is now the human heart. We are truly never alone:

I’ve been running trying to find my refuge

Never stopping long enough to see

All the while You were right there waiting

To hide me in the shadow of Your wings

I get so thirsty trying to find Your presence

That I forget to stop and take a drink

All the while You are right there waiting

To pour Your healing water over me

So here I am in need of Your great mercy

My desperate heart longing to be free

For I know You are still there wanting

To take my hand and walk this road with me

Under the shadow

Under the shadow

Under the shadow of Your wings

I will find my rest

(Song lyrics by Jason Upton, except third verse)