Welcome to our services today and a special welcome to any worshipping
with us for the first time. The journey’s over … or maybe, it’s just begun!
This coming Friday we are going to have a retreat, a quiet day, a prayer day at
Brockworth Court. It’s not too late to sign up to join us – have a word with
Judi Marsh or sign the list on the piano in church. Just before Easter we
joined Jesus on the long journey as he ‘made up his mind and set out on his way
to Jerusalem’. That was way back in Luke’s Gospel at chapter 9 verse 51. The
journey, with all its wonderful story-parables, takes up no fewer than 10
chapters in Luke’s Gospel – almost half the Gospel! On Easter Sunday, in Luke’s
Gospel, Jesus is on the road again. This time he joins two of his followers on the
Road to Emmaus, a distance of approximately 7 miles. It was great re-living
that journey dramatically in our Easter morning service and around the Lord’s
table in our Easter evening service. But for Luke that journey doesn’t mark the
end of the story he has to tell: it’s the beginning of something new. There’s a
second part to his story of Jesus. In the Book of Acts, Luke takes us on a
sequence of journeys from Jerusalem to the heart of the Roman Empire, to Rome
itself. On all those journeys Jesus was the guide and the Bible was the guide
book. There are all sorts of journeys ahead of us through the summer and into
the future. We’re going to join Luke and reflect on the way Jesus is the guide
and the Bible the guide book we need for the journeys we make.
Welcome and Call
to Worship
410 Jesus Christ
is risen today!
Prayer and the
Lord’s Prayer
The Seriously
Surprising Story
Reading: Luke
24:36-49
A Hy-Spirit Song
Activities for all
Over 3
The Journey Goes
on
A Guide … and a
Guide Book
Just
before Easter we joined Jesus on the long journey as he ‘made up his mind and
set out on his way to Jerusalem’. That was way back in Luke’s Gospel at chapter
9 verse 51.
The
journey, with all its wonderful story-parables, takes up no fewer than 10 chapters
in Luke’s Gospel – almost half the Gospel!
On
Easter Sunday, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is on the road again. This time he joins
two of his followers on the Road to Emmaus, a distance of approximately 7
miles. It was great re-living that journey dramatically in our Easter morning
service and around the Lord’s table in our Easter evening service.
But
for Luke that journey doesn’t mark the end of the story he has to tell: it’s
the beginning of something new.
There’s
a second part to his story of Jesus.
In
the Book of Acts, there’s a drama to the way Luke tells the story of the way
the Good of News of Jesus spreads. It starts in a tense Jerusalem awaiting the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit – it is Jesus who maps out all that is going to
happen.
But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth. Acts 1:8.
Then
in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit is poured out and we remain in Jerusalem and Judea until
chapter 7. And then in chapter 8 the Gospel spreads through Judea and Samaria
and into Africa in Ethiopia. By chapter 9 the followers of the Way as Jesus’
followers are called have spread north to Damascus in Syria. It reaches the
Roman capital of Judea and Samaria Caesarea Maritima in chapters 10 and 11 and
then the coastal lands of Phoenicia, the island of Cyprus and Antioch a leading
city in Syria in chapter 11. In chapter 13 it spreads to what we think of now
as Western Turkey and as far as Pisidian Antioch, a really important Roman city
that is the capital of the province of Galatia, still minland Turkey.
It
reaches the Mediterranean coast at Ephesus and crosses over into what we think
of now as Europe – Philippi, Corinth and Athens by chapter 20.
Paul
makes his own journey to Jerusalem in chapter 21 where he is arrested, put on
trial and held captive in Caesarea Maritima through to 26. In chapters 27 and
28 he makes his journey to Rome, being shipwrecked on the shores of Malta and
eventually in chapter 28 arriving in Rome where Luke leaves him.
It
is not just Paul who has arrived in Rome – it is the Good News of Jesus Christ,
more than that it is the presence of the living Christ let loose by the Holy
Spirit that has we now see at the very heart of the Roman Empire, Rome itself.
The
first part of Luke’s story is built around Jesus’ journey to Jerusaloem and the
heart of the Jewish world while the second part of Luke’s story is built around
the journeys that take the Gospel to very heart of the Roman Empire, to Rome
itself.
It
is here in Acts that we learn that one of the very earliest titles for the
Christian Church was taken from the imagery of the journey. The followers of
Jesus are known as The Way.
I
love that image.
I
think it’s a metaphor for life. It’s a metaphor for faith as well. We are
always on a journey … but to follow Jesus is to be part of the Way he has
opened up for us. That makes the journey a purposeful one.
For
Luke it is the presence of Jesus that is there for the whole of the journey.
That’s the first thing I want to take with us into the future that lies ahead of us. Life’s a journey, Faith’s a journey – but it has purpose and direction if we look to Jesus every step of the Way.
He
is our guide for the journey. He gives us a sense of direction – as he maps out
the way of life for us all to follow with love for God and love for neighbour
too. It’s a challenge to follow his way – as we have been recalling in
celebrating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin
Luther King – to put that love into practice is the challenge he gives.
But
there is also a comfort and a strengthening as we were recalling as we
celebrated David’s life on Thursday – it’s always good to know you’re not
alone, there’s someone with you on the way – the last image on a lovely collage
of pictures had David standing on a beach – bringing to mind the footprints
poem that meant such a great deal to Danny too. Jesus with us along the way …
and at the most difficult times carrying us in his arms.
Not
only do we have the presence of the living Lord Jdesus Christ as the Guide
along the Way, the Guide for the
journey.
We also have a guide book to follow.
This
is the Guide Book – the Bible.
There
is a problem, however. How do we read the Bible? It can be a difficult book –
especially in the Old Testament.
Indeed,
it can be a dangerous book.
How
we read the Bible is something I am passionate about. I believe we each of us
as Chrsitians who are followers of the Way of Jesus Christ need to think
through how we use our Bibles. And Especially how we use the Old Testament.
It
can be problematic.
If
you find it difficult, especially reading the Old Testament it is some comfort
to know that you are in good company.
Those
two on the Road to Emmaus simply hadn’t got it. They had missed the point. It
is in the conversation with the Jesus they do not recognize that this becomes
apparent.
They
were “14 talking with each other about all that had happened, talking and
discussing. There was no concealing the fact that they were sad.
They
were speaking of Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people, how he had been crucified, and how their hopes
had been dashed.
They
had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
There
had been rumours that he was even now alive. But they and none of the other men
believed the women who had passed that message on.
Jesus
then shares something with them.
Luke
24:25-27
25Then
he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should
suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ 27Then beginning with Moses
and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all
the scriptures.
I
think that it’s really significant that this is Jesus’s priority that
resurrection day.
They
had not got it.
They
had spent possibly three years with Jesus and still they had not got it.
They
had not read their Hebrew Scriptures properly.
He
is frustrated – how foolish they are … and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared.
Jesus
spends the time on that walk – maybe an hour and a half left working through the
Hebrew Scriptures – beginning with Moses, that’s the books of Genesis through
to Deuteronomy, the Law, or the Torah, and then going on to all the prophets –
that’s Joshua to II Kings and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and th eBook of the 12
and interprets to them the things about himself in all the Scriptures – which includes Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and the
rest of that miscellany known as ‘The writings’.
It
is as if he is offering them a way in, a way of reading the Hebrew Scriptures
we think of as the Old Testament.
They
recognize him in the breaking of the bread and then they recall how they felt
as Jesus was working through the Scriptures through them. It was as if for the
first time they had got it. They could see how they held together. They really
had got it!
Luke
24:32
32They
said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking
to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’
So
33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem only to find that the
risen Jesus had appeared to the others in the Upper Room, where the eleven and
their companions had gathered together. 34They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen
indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’
35Then
the two companions on the Emmaus Road told what had happened on the road, and
how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
It
is at this point in the story that Jesus himself stood among them and said to
them, ‘Peace be with you.’
They
are startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He
addresses their fear and their doubts and shows them his hands and feet. “Touch
me and see,” he says, “for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see
that I have.”
He
has a meal of broiled fish and ate in
their presence.
Then
notice what happens next. IT may be late. But Jesus has much he wants to share
with this larger gathering of the 11, their companions and the two travelers on
the Road to Emmaus.
Luke
24:44-49
44
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke
to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law
of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 45Then he opened
their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, ‘Thus it is
written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third
day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his
name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things.
49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the
city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
The
key priority of the risen Jesus on this Resurrection Day is to “open their
minds” so that they “understand the
Scriptures., that’s to say, the Hebrew Scriptures we call the Old
Testament.
Notice
again what he says, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still
with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets,
and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
The
whole of the Hebrew Scriptures, Law, Prophets and the writings find their
fulfilment in Jesus.
This
is the key.
And
grasping it makes a world of difference to the first followers of Jesus.
I
have often thought it would be wonderful to have been a fly on the wall in the
Upper room and a fly hovering over the travelers on that road to Emmarus. It
would have been wonderful to have heard what strategy Jesus shared with them.
Actually,
it’s my belief, that we can do the next best thing.
Reading
Luke’s gospel account of the resurrection it seems to me that this is what Luke
wanted us to take away from the Easter story. As he tells the story of the
risen Jesus let loose into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit in the
Book of Acts he shows how the followers of Jesus took to heart Jesus’ way of
reading the Hebrew Scriptures.
Follow
that story through and you can see how the risen Lord Jesus is the guide for us
all on the journey that lies ahead of us … and you begin to see how to read the
Bible through Jesus’ eyes. Get to the end and you reach the point at which Luke
turns his hand to researching the story of Jesus further. Come back then to
Luke’s Gospel and as he tells the story you find that from the very start
Jesus’ way of reading the Hebrew Scriptures is there for all to see if only you
have eyes to see it.
Since
we gave notice of our retirement more seven months ago, we’ve shared in
Harvest, Remembrance, Christmas and now Easter. It’s a bit scary! I don’t think
the next three months will go any more slowly!!!
In
the lead up to Easter I shared what to me is at the heart of the Christian
Faith. In the next three months we’re
all going to be on something of a journey. We’re going to read through the
story Luke tells in Acts and come back to the story he tells in Luke and we’re
going to be on the look out to see how Jesus is the guide we each of us need on
the journey ahead and we’ll also reflect on how vitally important it is to read
the Bible through the eyes of Jesus.
Reading: Luke 24:25-27, 32, 44-49
Hymn: Light of the minds that know him
Prayers of Concern
416 Christ is alive!
Words of Blessing
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