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  THE WORD BEFORE EXPERIENCE
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon from Luke chapter 24 focuses on the account of the
two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It emphasizes the importance of
building faith on the Word of God rather than seeking experiences or
feelings. Jesus reveals himself through the Scriptures, showing that the
Old Testament points to him as the fulfillment of prophecy. The
disciples' eyes are opened when Jesus breaks bread with them,
highlighting the significance of recognizing Jesus through the Word.

Duration: 50:04 Topics: "Faith in the Word", "Recognizing Jesus in Scripture"
Scripture References: Luke 24:27, John 5:39, Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:105, 2 Timothy 3:16, Romans 10:17, Hebrews 11:1, Proverbs 30:5, John 20:29

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon from Luke chapter 24 focuses on the account of the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus. It emphasizes the importance of
building faith on the Word of God rather than seeking experiences or
feelings. Jesus reveals himself through the Scriptures, showing that the
Old Testament points to him as the fulfillment of prophecy. The
disciples' eyes are opened when Jesus breaks bread with them,
highlighting the significance of recognizing Jesus through the Word.

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CONTENT
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Luke chapter 24 and we have a long reading and a very long passage this
morning. I'm obviously not going to speak on every verse but at the same
time we have to deal with this whole passage in one go because there's a
mainly a main message, a single message that comes out of all of these
verses and so we do need to deal with it all in one. So the reading is
from Luke chapter 24 from verse 13 through 35.

Luke chapter 24 verses 13 through 35 and it's the account of the two on
the road to Emmaus. So Luke chapter 24 verse 13. Now behold two of them
were travelling 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 then the
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 have
happened there in these days and he said to them what things and so they
said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet
mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and how the chief
priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and
crucified him but 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 also 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 woman had said but they him they did not see then he said to them Oh
foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that 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
to 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 further but they constrained him saying abide with us
before it is toward evening and the day is far spent and he went in to
stay with him now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them then
he took bread blessed and broke it and gave it to them then their eyes
were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight and they
said to one another did not our heart burn within it within us while he
talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us and
so they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the
eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying the Lord
has 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 the bread so we know clearly this is the third day this is
the first day of the week the Sunday this is the new beginning for
Israel they counted from Sunday through Saturday and Sunday was the
beginning of the week and Jesus rises and he initiates a new beginning
for his Saints and for the church and so it says two of them were
traveling that same day that was the day of the resurrection that we've
just read off in the previous section and they were traveling to a
village called Emmaus which was seven miles from Jerusalem now I know if
you have a different translation it may give you the the distance in
furlongs or in stadia but it's all translated to approximately seven
miles we don't know where Emmaus is today it was obviously a very small
obscure village which doesn't exist anymore and so they're there on the
road and they talked together of all these things which had happened and
it it was that they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near
and went with them now Jesus obviously is now glorified he is
resurrected and glorified and he is clearly able to translate himself
from one place to the other without having to physically walk from one
place to the other and he is now omniscient has restored the full
capacity of God he knows everything and so he instantly knew about these
two who were going on the road to Emmaus he also recognized that they
were troubled and sometimes when we look at God's omniscience it tends
to be a very cold scientific thing that God somehow understands and
knows everything there is nothing that that that goes on in the face of
this world or anywhere in the universe that he he doesn't know and and
not only does he know something about it but he knows the intimate exact
details of every situation he knows every detail about us he knows what
goes on in our hearts while those who are pastors and shepherds are able
to understand some of what goes on in people's lives and no one knows
exactly what goes on in your heart except the Lord Jesus but he knows
and he knew the the the heartache he knew the frustration the
disappointment that these two were dealing with and in his omniscience
he he he draws alongside them remember we've seen in the book of Hebrews
that he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities he is touched by
our weaknesses by our issues by our struggles and so he is not far from
us he draws near to us and so wherever he was physically manifest at
that stage and remember that's hard now to apply to him human qualities
even though he still has a human body but a resurrected and glorified
body he is he is not limited by time and space anymore but he he sees
these two and he draws near to them and that speaks of God's wonderful
grace and mercy that he draws near to those who are of a broken heart he
draws near to those who are struggling the problem is that we don't
always recognize him and I think that in this are some important lessons
for us this morning because sometimes we say well God's far away God is
not interested God is not involved as that song that Bette Midler and
Cliff Richard made very famous God is watching us from a distance no he
is not watching us from a distance he is intimately involved in our
suffering he's intimately involved in our heartache and our
disappointments he is intimately involved in the issues that we deal
with and he draws alongside he is that friend that sticks closer than a
brother and so Jesus draws near to them it's interesting that as we've
been looking at the book of Hebrews that we find that word and we're
going to come back to that word in Hebrews where it says let us draw
near we need to draw near to him but he draws near to us and so their
eyes were restrained so they did they did not know him I'm going to come
back to this verse because this is really a very important part of
understanding the message of this passage and so they they see him but
they just recognize him as another man I tried to imagine how this would
have happened I would imagine that he somehow just appeared behind them
in a moment and and thinking of when I'm walking out on the trails and
there's someone else who's behind me and walking faster than me I'm
aware of them and they eventually catch up and may overtake and so but
somehow obviously this is all supernatural miraculous he appears there
behind them and then he catches up with them and he starts walking with
them but they don't recognize him as Jesus they don't recognize him as
anything other than just another man who's on his journey to to Emmaus
or wherever he he was making out that he was going verse 17 and he said
to them what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another
as you walk and are sad so he noticed their sadness he noticed their
frustration he knew exactly what they were talking about and and I thank
God that while we have the privilege of prayer and prayer is absolutely
important that we express our needs and our desires and our hearts
before God at the same time he knows even before we ask even before we
pray he knows our conversation he knows the conversations between the
spouses he knows the conversations between between us and and and
unbelievers he knows the conversations that go on in our own hearts and
minds don't tell me you don't talk to yourself he even knows those
conversations he knows but he's he's asking them what are you talking
about what conversation is that you're so sad about so so clearly he
wants us to express our our issues to him even though he knows and and I
think it's important because sometimes we say well you know if he knows
everything then why do we need to pray well we need to pray because he
wants to hear it from our own lips he wants us to make that confession
and what is the confession the confession is Lord we don't understand we
need help we need you to open our eyes we need you to explain things to
us we need you to answer our prayers and so they then it says in verse
18 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 has
happened there in these days I've never heard it here but in South
Africa we we have a saying particularly in Afrikaans and the saying is
are you a stranger in Jerusalem the the thing simply means where have
you been you under a rock don't you know what's going on and so that's a
question to him and obviously it's clear that what was happening what
had happened was was not obscure as we've said all along Jesus this is a
very public thing there are thousands of thousands of people in
Jerusalem there are thousands of people at the trial many many had come
to see the crucifixion and according to these guys nobody should not
have known what was going on now notice that one of them was Cleopas now
most times when I hear people speak about this passage they assume that
these are two men I'm not sure that they are two men it doesn't tell us
who they who the other one was the one is Cleopas and that is a male
name now we find the name in John chapter 19 verse 25 it's spelt a
little differently but it's the same name there stood by the cross of
Jesus his mother and notice his mother's sister her name is Mary and she
is the wife of Clopas or Cleopas and Mary so Cleopas is then Jesus's
uncle by marriage so so his mother his mother's sister we don't know her
name and sorry her name is Mary and the wife of the wife of Cleopas or
Clopas so it's possible that the two who are traveling on the road to
Emmaus may have been Clopas and his wife there's there's nothing in the
text that says that they were two they were two men if they were they
were people who were very closely related to Jesus who knew him very
well and certainly she was there at the cross one of the few who stood
right at the cross when Jesus was being crucified and so they said are
you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have you not known the things
which happened there in these days and then verse 19 and he said to them
what things so Jesus is obviously playing dumb and and sometimes it's
necessary for him to do that because it's necessary for us to confess
our own hearts the problem is that we we have issues we have problems
things that we don't understand we have emotional problems intellectual
problems spiritual problems and we bear them but we don't want to
express them and Jesus feels the need for them to make a confession he
knows what's in their hearts but he wants them to express them and folk
we need to learn to express our needs before God husbands and wives need
to come learn to confess their needs to one another in order to have and
build a good relationship but in our relationship with the father we
need to express our needs and so he says what things and they said to
him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet so they
recognized that he's a prophet and he's mighty indeed and word before
God and all the people and how the chief priests and our rulers
delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him now obviously
that just looks like a statement of what had happened but I want you to
notice something he says how the chief priests and our rulers so that
he's speaking as a Jew delivered him to be condemned to death to the
Romans and crucified him so who crucified him according to him the chief
priests and our rulers crucified him so he is recognizing their guilt in
the process now remember we we want to be careful just by the way we
want to be careful on this point because there are there are Christians
who are anti-semitic who hate Jews because they say well the Jews
crucified Jesus we cannot go there while yes Peter on the day of
Pentecost remember it says that that you took him with wicked hands and
crucified him so so Peter also puts the blame squarely on the on the
shoulders of Israel at the same time this is not a blame game this is
Jesus didn't die because Israel rejected him or because Israel handed
him to the Romans it Jesus died for our sins it was our sins that took
him to the cross if anyone is guilty then each one of us is guilty of
Jesus's death because it is because of our sins that he died so to try
and say well it's the Jews fault or it's the Romans fault no it's not
their fault it's my fault if anyone is guilty I am guilty because my
sins necessitated him to die on that cross of Calvary so so while they
take responsibility on behalf of the nation at the same time we cannot
look at Israel and say well you know you are the Christ killers that's a
that's a word that is popular in some in some circles no the Israel yes
they crucified the Messiah they but the Romans were also part of that
whole deal as we've seen and you can't really shift the blame because at
the end of the day Pilate makes the decision Pilate had life and death
in his hands Pilate could have released Jesus he could have put him in
protective custody as they later did with Paul but Pilate hands him over
to be crucified so they are both there are both guilty anyway so there's
the there's the story but we were hoping that he was the one who was
going to redeem Israel indeed beside all this today is the third day
since these things happened I've spoken many times about the fact that
they were looking to Jesus as a political Messiah and and here it is
again when they say we were hoping he was going to redeem Israel they're
not meaning this in a spiritual sense but they're meaning it in a
political sense that he was going to save Israel from the Romans this is
a huge problem they had and it is it is becoming an increasing problem
here in America I I listened to a famous preacher this morning very
briefly and and what he does is and and this is the thing and I'll
probably do a study on this in the in the next few months one of the
errors we have in Christianity is what we call replacement theology
replacement theology says that God is done with Israel all of the
promises of the Old Testament are now given to the church we don't
believe that replacement theology is right because that makes God a liar
God made irrevocable covenants with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob
confirmed it with Moses and with Israel at Mount Sinai so if God has
finally and totally rejected Israel then God has broken his covenants
it's as simple as that so God is dealing with a church today he will
come back to Israel so that is the classical problem but we have a new
form of replacement theology which is risen in these last couple of
years and it does not replace Israel with a church but replaces Israel
with America so that all of the promises and this is a famous preacher
well known as an expositor taking all Old Testament scriptures that God
applies to Israel and he now applies them to America but we cannot do
that it's about the church right now and it will be about Israel at a
later stage everything else is secondary and so we have to be careful
that we don't get into the same mindset that these people got into where
it was about their nationalism not about their salvation now these are
good guys these two walking on this on the road but they were caught up
by what was commonly accepted and commonly being believed at the time
and they couldn't see the reality that Jesus was not a political Savior
but he was a spiritual Savior and yes obviously he will come as a
political king at a later stage at the end in times so we believe that
he was going to redeem Israel and indeed beside all this today is the
third day since these things happened now you would think that when they
spoke those words this is the third day the penny would have dropped
because many times Jesus had said I will rise on the third day and so
their own confession is this is the third day and yet they don't believe
and yes certain women of our company which we saw last week who arrived
at the tomb early astonished us and when they did not find his body they
came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he
was alive and certain of those who were with us that was those who were
in the upper room remember Peter and John went to the tomb and found it
just as the woman had said but him they did not see now notice that
there's one thing missing in their description of what happened and that
is the word he is risen the angel said he is risen but for them there
was no resurrection all that happened was Jesus was missing the body was
not there they didn't understand anything beyond that and the reason I
say that is Jesus's response and Jesus then said to them Oh foolish ones
and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken so
clearly they did not believe the resurrection otherwise Jesus would not
have rebuked him Jesus is not unfair he's not going to rebuke someone
for something that they're not guilty of but they clearly don't believe
now remember I said last week that there is a pattern in these three
appearances Jesus well these three accounts of the resurrection the the
one at the tomb and the angels speaking to the woman the road to Emmaus
and then the upper room Luke selects those three of the many appearances
of Jesus and in each one of those three there is a pattern and the
pattern begins with unbelief a statement of unbelief on the part of the
observers the response is a rebuke in the first case a rebuke from the
angels here it's a rebuke from Jesus Oh foolish ones you're so stupid
and then in the upper room the same thing happens Jesus rebukes them for
their unbelief and then a revelation of the truth so the same pattern
happens in all three and obviously Luke is making a very important point
and so he's noticed that he does not say what the angel said the angel
said don't you remember what he told you he said he was going to rise
but here Jesus is saying don't you believe the prophets obviously
referring to the Old Testament and so foolish ones and slow of heart to
believe in all that the prophets have spoken so they believed some of
what the prophets said but they didn't believe the parts about the
resurrection and they didn't believe the parts about Jesus being
despised and rejected Isaiah 53 so they believed some parts but not all
and isn't that the problem today I think that probably all of us believe
in some maybe even most of the Bible but do we believe all of it and
that's the problem because the bits that we don't believe may just be
the most important parts the most difficult parts to understand from a
human point of view how do you understand the resurrection how do you
understand that the Messiah the deliverer of Israel the Savior is going
to die on the cross and yet we have to believe the things that even look
like they're impossible that that look like they just don't make sense
and and you say well you know does that mean that we we have to park our
brains at the door when we when we come to church or when we open no
I've always advocated that we must have an intellectual understanding it
supported by a spiritual understanding and I'm going to come back to
that idea in a moment we must understand but there are certain things we
have to accept by faith there are certain things that we cannot prove
and those are the things that sometimes we reject and we say well how
could God have created everything in six literal days which is becoming
increasingly difficult to believe as we are being bombarded with all
sorts of pseudo evidence against a literal six-day creation and then
obviously the problem with that is that if you reject that then you have
to reject the resurrection because if one part is not true then the rest
cannot be true so either we believe the whole of the Word of God or we
don't believe at all and so you're slow of heart you're slow of heart
notice he's they there he's saying can't you get it verse 26 ought not
the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory so
it's a reciprocal question he's not asking them to answer because he
knows they can't answer they don't know the answer but if they had
understood the scriptures if they'd understood the Old Testament they
would have understood that he had to suffer and then enter into his
glory speaking about his resurrection and his glorification verse 27 and
beginning at Moses the first five books and all the prophets including
the Psalms he expounded to them in the scriptures the things concerning
himself this is this is the heart of this passage I know that we get
caught up in the him being made known to them as they broke bread we get
caught up in other aspects but this really is the heart of the passage
he explains to them from the scriptures I'm going to come back to this
again in a moment but notice he expounds to them in all the scriptures
in other words that the Old Testament from Genesis through Malachi their
order is like a little bit different at the end all of them reveal Jesus
and don't just reveal him as the Messiah but reveal him as the sacrifice
Jesus is revealed in the tabernacle Jesus is revealed in the sacrifices
that are made day after day after day Jesus is revealed right through
the Old Testament and Jesus goes through the scriptures now obviously in
the in the walk and I don't know how long it took couple hours he
couldn't have gone into every single scripture but he goes through all
of the Old Testament all of the books and shows how that each one of
them reveals Jesus and of course in John chapter 5 Jesus himself said
and remember if they were one of his followers they may have heard these
words and yet didn't pay attention he says you search the scriptures
he's speaking to the Pharisees you search the scriptures meaning the Old
Testament remember they didn't have the New Testament you search the
scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are
they which testify of me so if they had been there they would have got
this or maybe not but the statement is very very clear but we have to be
careful how we deal with the Old Testament as I said earlier people are
using the Old Testament to come up with all sorts of harebrained ideas
and all sorts of doctrines and theologies that are not scriptural the
Old Testament primarily teaches us about Jesus teaches us about Jesus
and when we start getting into the Old Testament and we start seeing
pictures about America and about Russia and about this and that and
Ukraine and whatever else we've missed the point the point of the Old
Testament is not about anything other than Jesus Christ the same with
the New Testament and so Jesus accusation to the Pharisees is you you
you search the scriptures they knew the scriptures they could they could
recite many of them could those scriptures verse by verse from the
beginning right through to the end not only did they know them but they
debated them they discussed them they argued about the meaning and the
interpretation of the various scriptures but he says but you are not
willing to come to me that you may have life so he says you search the
Old Testament because you think that the scriptures will give you life
but he says no it's the scriptures don't give you life I am the life and
if you don't find me you're not going to find life many people are
trying to find life in the Bible in the New Testament but they don't
want to find it in Jesus Jesus is the only one who can give life and I'm
rushing along because we have quite a bit of ground to cover this
morning then they drew near to the village where they were going and
indicated that he would have gone further so he's again looking for some
kind of response I think this is another important step in this whole
passage sometimes it looks like the Lord wants to do something different
but what was he doing he was testing them he was testing them he was
seeing whether they were serious about their relationship with the Lord
Jesus they didn't know this was Jesus but he was declaring Jesus to them
here's a man who opens the scriptures and under and explains to them
Jesus now they're gonna just let him go well thank God they didn't they
said no no no you need to you need to stay here and folks sometimes we
let go of Jesus too easily we say well thank you Lord that was great if
I come particularly concerned that we we come to church and we hear 45
minutes of exposition and that's it we go home and we do whatever we do
but they said no we we we want to hear more they say well we're
concerned that you're going to go on you know on the road and it's it's
dangerous well in fact it wasn't so dangerous that they were not going
to turn around and go back all that way again they just wanted more time
with him and that was the right decision can you imagine what would have
happened if they said okay bye see ya they would have had a wonderful
revelation of the Old Testament but they would never have seen him face-
to-face and folk I think sometimes we give up on our prayer life too
easily too quickly sometimes we move on to whatever else we're busy with
and I can imagine they you know they they had things to do they were
going to have a meal and they were going to see their friends or their
family whoever they were traveling to go and see and there was some
excitement about seeing friends again and having a meal and resting and
and all of these kinds of things but they recognized there was something
more important than just having a meal with their friends or family
Jesus was more important sadly I think many times we fail the test and
this was a test Jesus was testing them and many times we fail the test
because other things are take priority over Jesus other things take
priority over his word and we flip from one thing to the other instead
of spending time and saying Lord no don't go on stay here with me in
John's gospel Jesus says it this way he says abide in me and I in you
remain and they say no Jesus don't or they didn't know his name but
don't go stay here with us and so he indicated that he would have gone
further but they constrained him saying abide with us for it is toward
evening interesting those words abide with us not just come and have a
meal no stay with us remain with us for it is towards evening and the
days far spent and he went in to stay with them Jesus is a very willing
guest if we invite him in he will come in but if we shut the door he
will go and at this point it's up to you you see Jesus had done all the
groundwork he had appeared he had arrived again we understand they
didn't know who he was but he was there he spent time he gave them the
scriptures he gave them everything and then he said now you choose now
he doesn't say that in those words but that's what it's well down to you
choose you want more of me or you want to want me to go and they said no
Lord stay and folk he has done everything to build that relationship
with us he's died for us at the cross he's given us his word but now
it's up to you and up to me to say Lord no we don't want you to go we
want you to stay we want this relationship to continue and he went in to
stay with them now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that
he took bread blessed and broke it and he gave it to them now this is a
difficult verse because there are many who say that they had communion
because the passage near the end I think third last verse says that he
was known to them in the breaking of the bread and normally when we
speak about breaking the breaking of the bread we mean communion the
problem here is that he only took bread he didn't took what take wine
and so the important elements of a communion and I don't like don't want
to use the word service because remember for them it wasn't a service
they would have communion as part of their meal at the end of the meal
that just like Jesus did it at the Last Supper would take bread and they
would take wine and they would remember the Lord now I don't think that
this is what he is doing he's simply the guest of honor and it's up to
him to break the bread and so as he breaks the bread he sorry he blessed
it and he broke it and he gave it to them but maybe they were the ones
who were part of the five thousand where Jesus did exactly the same
thing he broke the bread blessed it and he said to the disciples now go
and give to the people maybe they're beginning to remember things I
don't know says and then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he
vanished from their sight suddenly the Holy Spirit opens their eyes some
speculate that as he broke bread they could see the marks in his hands
that may be possible but clearly what we see in verse 16 which I think
we're going to come back to in a moment but what we saw in verse 16 is
that God had restrained their eyes so that they could not recognize him
so God now opens their eyes and they see him they recognize who Jesus is
and folk here is the important lesson let me deal with the next verse
and then get there and 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 notice what they said we must pay attention to the
details they don't say did our hearts not burn within us as he broke the
bread and we recognized him that wasn't what excited them of course
there was a great thing but what is it that excited them when he opened
the scriptures when he opened the scriptures and so if we go back to
verse 16 then why were their eyes restrained so that they did not know
him and why does he open their eyes at the meal for one important lesson
and this is the point of the passage as far as I'm concerned he did not
want them to build their relationship on him on their experiencing him
seeing him he wanted them to build their faith on the Word of God and so
he opens the word and reveals himself from the word and that excites
them you see here's the problem we say no we don't want the word we want
to see Jesus this is the emphasis in most modern churches today
experience I once did a study and and typed in experiencing Jesus in
Google and came up with thousands and thousands of hits it's all about
experiencing Jesus no if you don't get him in the opening of the word
you will not experience him you cannot build your relationship on an
experience you must build your experience on the teachings of the Word
of God yes experiencing him is important it's important that they saw
him and they recognized who he was but if that was all they had their
faith would be on shifting sand because our experiences are fleeting can
you think back on the most wonderful experience you had in your life
whatever that may have been can you remember exactly how it all was no
we just know yeah there was that time and it was it was great whatever
it was but the Word of God endures forever our emotions change our
feelings change time moves on but the Word of God endures and if we're
going to build our relationship on saying well I saw Jesus this is what
many I had a vision of Jesus but guaranteed the time will come you say
well was that real or was I just imagining things was it just a dream
you cannot build your faith on your experience no matter how real that
experience may be you have to build it on the Word of God and for this
reason God does not give them an experience Jesus does not give them an
experience until they understood the Scriptures today we wanted the
other way around we want to experience Jesus and we say well then maybe
I'll start studying the Scriptures well the problem is you don't because
you get caught up in the experience and you now go off on a tangent oh I
had a vision oh I saw Jesus I had a near-death experience whatever it
whatever it was I you know I came to church and the worship was so great
and I had goosebumps now your whole face is on that but tomorrow morning
when you wake up and you don't feel so great it's all gone out the
window but if you build your faith on the Word it stands it's firm it's
secure and I think it's important for us to get the point here that yes
Jesus could have appeared to them and he could have said Tara and shown
him then his hands and they would have understood here is Jesus he is
resurrected yes of course he could have done that but he chooses to
reveal himself in the Scriptures first and then to reveal himself in the
breaking of bread and so they rose up that very hour and returned to
Jerusalem seven seven miles can take you a good three hours to walk I
reckon they arrived before dark it seems but now they had another at
least three hours back I suspect that they didn't they didn't stroll
back I suspect that they ran back because they had seen Jesus they had
met with Jesus and so they rose up that very hour that they and they
returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 and those who were with them
gathered together they knew where to go went to the upper room and
there's the 11 plus the others maybe 120 saying the Lord is risen indeed
and he has appeared to Simon so as they get there they say Jesus has
appeared to Simon so remember there was a separate experience that Simon
had as he meets Jesus and they told about the things that had happened
on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread
how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread father we
thank you for your word we thank you Lord that your word reveals Jesus
not only reveals his existence as an historical man but reveals all
about him and particularly that he is the source of life as he said I am
the way the truth and the life and Lord that he is the only one who can
give us eternal life Lord we so many times want some kind of experience
some kind of feeling that would tell us that you are real and that you
are alive but Lord we understand that you choose not to give us feelings
but you choose to give us something far more substantial something far
more secure you give us your word and Lord I pray that you'd forgive us
for chasing after experiences and feelings and emotions and hype and not
being satisfied with your word Lord I pray that that this reality that
as their hearts burned within them as they as the scriptures were open
to them Lord that this may become real for us thank you Lord for the
times that I'm able to open your word and and my heart burns within me
as you as you by your spirit reveal the truth of your word but Lord I
pray that that may be my experience every day and I pray Lord that that
may be the experience of each one of us that as in our studying of the
scriptures it may not just be a dead reading of history or reading of
some kind of philosophy but Lord that as Jesus opened the scriptures to
them that the Holy Spirit would open the scriptures to us and Lord that
our hearts would burn with excitement because of the truths of your word
Lord we we don't want your word to replace Jesus and Lord that can
easily become a reality but Lord we want your scriptures to reveal Jesus
and to lead us to him lead us to knowing him as they knew him in the
breaking of the bread and so Lord I just pray that you would create
within us a new excitement for your word a new excitement for seeing
Jesus in your word forgive us Lord for looking for some kind of
experience whether it be in the world or whether it be in the church but
Lord that we may seek Jesus and that we may seek his word and Lord that
we may be thrilled and excited and Lord I thank you for your grace in my
life that I've that your word remains ever true and ever precious and
ever exciting and Lord week by week as I open your word day by day I
thank you that my heart can burn and does burn as I see Jesus see things
that I haven't seen before and so Lord I pray that you'd help us to get
the priorities right Lord that we may see Jesus not in prophetic events
that we may see him not in certain the miracles or in the signs or
wonders that we may see him not in our experiences or in goosebumps but
that we may see him in his word and Lord that it may become so real that
our hearts would burn within us I ask that this may be a real Lord not
just words but reality in every one of our lives I ask this in Jesus
name I pray that you'd go with us now keep us and protect us bring us
together again safely in the week in Jesus name I pray amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/b6y_Me-kUJg.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/the-word-before-experience/
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