Hearts on Fire

Text: Luke 24, 13-35

Focus: Walking with Jesus

Function: When we walk with Jesus, ministry happens.

Form: Storytelling

Intro: I appreciate Jim W and the sign. On it we read the phrase “in the breaking of the bread, they recognized Jesus.”

He takes that from today's scripture lesson.

It is the lesson of two ordinary men. Two men who could have been you and me.

It's called the Emmaus walk. I call it “walking with Jesus.”

Funny: They walked with Jesus and didn't recognize Him.

JB Phillips points out, that when they didn't recognize Jesus, He was present, and after they recognized Him, He disappeared.

I wonder why? Why did He vanish after they knew who He was? We'll get back to that.

Today's scripture lesson says the men reported that their hearts felt like they were on fire when they were walking with Jesus. Something mysterious drew them to Him.

We are Jesus to the lost world.

When we walk with Jesus, people are also drawn into the presence of God.

Wherever you go, and whomever you are with, God is right there with them, in you.

Wherever we are. Walking with Jesus keeps us on Christ's mission. It brings Christ to the world.

Legalism keeps Christians off of their mission. I think it is used as an excuse to keep people from the good we are all called to do.

Once, when Tony Compolo was preaching against legalism, he mentioned how while he was growing up, Christians were not allowed to go to movies.

The thinking was that if we went to movies, we were condoning the sinful lifestyle of Hollywood actors. Remember, cursing the darkness is not shining the light of the gospel.

Consequently, Tony Compolo poked fun at it. And although I do not think that satire ever changes the mind of the other side, he made a good point.

He said that over and over in his head he rehearsed the sermons and they went something like this: “just what would happen if Jesus returned and you were in a movie? How would you face Jesus? How would you explain it to Him?”

And Tony, in his humor finally decided that if Jesus returned while he was in a movie... ...he wouldn't get to see the rest of the movie!

And, I guess I think about that. I really like John Travolta as an actor. He moves me. But when I remember that he is caught up in the Church of Scientology which has anti-Christian teachings, I sort of shiver.

Not because I think it is sin for me to like his art, but because my heart aches for him.

I am convinced that as Christians, instead of running away from people, we are called to run toward them in Christian love.

Last Sunday, Dan Poole talked about the missional emphasis emerging at Bethany Seminary.

It is a shift in mentality that might be best described as instead of circling the wagons to protect ourselves against the encroachment of secular values, a siege mentality that leads to fear instead of faith, we should remember the power that the gospel has to redeem people.

So I love the story of these two men on the way to Emmaus. These men are not afraid of what has just happened. They are quick to share.

A stranger comes up to them. And, somehow, Jesus resurrected body has changed appearance. (1 Corinthians 15)

This stranger comes up to them and all the while talking to them their hearts are burning with passion.

Something mystical is compelling them to this conversation.

They talk first and from the beginning to the end, they explain the events of the previous week.

And then Jesus talks, and from the beginning to the end of scripture, Jesus explains how His death and resurrection is proclaimed all through the OT.

Walking down the road, they had began a ministry of hospitality toward a stranger that ended with a miracle happening to them.

Remember, as we obey, God moves in us and we are blessed in return.

And yet, too often we are tempted to walk away, or to circle the wagons in fear, and miss the blessing.

So, these two men were walking with Jesus and they did not know who He was.

But they recognized Jesus when He broke the bread with them.

Let us look briefly at the bread Jesus broke with them.

The scriptures tell us that including the 12 Apostles, there were approximately 120 people who remained faithful to Jesus.

We assume that this was the size of the crowd that remained after Jesus' sermon in John chapter 6 when He told them that He is the Bread of Life and they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is a bigger crowd than the upper room Love feast where the Last Supper took place.

We assume that crowd was limited to 13 people, Jesus and the 12.

So, it wasn't the communion bread that Jesus served these two disciples.

In today's lesson, we see them merely sharing a meal, and when Jesus broke the bread and handed it to them, their eyes were opened.

Their eyes were opened by something common: a meal.

Their eyes were opened in fellowship/hospitality with Jesus.

They too recognized Jesus by His actions.

I hope Jesus is recognized in us by our actions.

It was after they recognized Jesus that they understood why they felt this burning passion.

Oh to feel that same passion!

I submit that it is in the presence of Christians like this, like us, we too meet Jesus.

So let me tell you the story of a friend of mine who was restored to God's family by a pastor who didn't shrink away from something we might consider to be evil.

It is the story of Gilbert Romero's conversion.

He is the pastor to the Bittersweet ministry in Tijuana MX.

In Tijuana, we have a mission that supports women who have been displaced either through divorce or murder. These women have little resources and they are trying to raise children.

In the canyon, that is what they call the area where the work is happening, there is a old dump.

The dump has been reclaimed, earth has been moved over it in order to foster recycling and on the sides of the dump, squatters have built cardboard castles. They are buildings cobbled together with anything they can find, old palettes, cardboard, sheets of roofing material, broken boards, one family had a roof that was made from a giant roll of discarded sandpaper.

The mission started before the dump was reclaimed. It started to provide child care for these women who were taking their children onto the dump site. They would scavenge the dump site for recyclable material which they could sell, earning them about $5 per day.

The ministry now feeds over 70 children per day, every day. They sponsor 100 children each year who would not be able to get an education without their support. They have bible studies, VBS and other evangelical works and during the summers, teams of people from the USA go there to build permanent houses to replace the cardboard castles that many families live in.

That ministry was started by this Church of the Brethren mission Church in East LA. The poor people there were reaching out to people poorer than they are in Tijuana.

Gilbert's ministry has been cycles of work from place to place and a great inspiration.

Because a man walked with God, Gilbert was saved and this great ministry began.

Before he came to know Jesus, he was a musician in the late 60's in LA. He is a good musician, because he is played with Carlos Santana, of the rock group Santana.

Before he knew Christ, he got involved in drugs.

And then... ...he met this girl.

There was an older Brethren preacher there. He has served faithfully for many years, but the church didn't experience much growth.

The girl that Gilbert met was the grand daughter of that minister.

He wanted to date her.

She said she would as long as he came to Church with her and won her grand father's approval.

The first time he attended, he was high on drugs.

The next week he went back, again high on drugs, but something really odd happened to him before the service.

The grandpa pastor asked him to lead the singing.

The next week, the same thing happened, while high on drugs he was installed as their music minister.

And by the 4^th week, Gilbert got saved and delivered from his drug habit.

And he has been walking with Jesus ever since.

That pastor wasn't afraid to take a risk. He was walking with Jesus and he saw Gilbert for who he could become instead of who he was.

This is the story of the Emmaus walk.

These two men were walking with Jesus.

And walking with Jesus changed them.

And we, when we walk with Jesus, bring other people into Jesus' presence as well.

The Holy Spirit was in their hearts, drawing them to Christ.

He is in our hearts, drawing us and others to Christ as well.

So, back to Jesus vanishing after they recognized Him.

I can imagine the disciples just wanting to grab at the air in order to keep this deeply spiritual and moving moment alive.

But, Jesus didn't want them stuck in the moment.

This is important.

He doesn't want us stuck in the moments of the past. He wants us to walk with Him into the future.

It reminds me of what happened with God's people in the wilderness.

For 40 years, every single day except Saturday, God provided a quart of food per person. On Friday, 2 quarts.

I got to tell you, think about the way that felt secure.

They knew that God was moving in their midst.

They could see God's physical provision every single day.

So, when they first spied out the promised land, the future of God's blessing for them, the thought had to occur to them, why would they exchange the present glory for something new?

We are all afraid of change.

We all want to hold on to the past.

But God is always about the future.

I believe that Jesus vanished because He wanted them on the move. He didn't want them merely wishing for the past, but He wanted them, us, to keep on moving forward in the power of the Spirit.

And this is something that we face every day.

Every day, the Lord calls us to walk with Him into the same future mystery he has for us.

Every day, as we walk with Jesus, that same mysterious power is inside of us and it draws others to Christ, just as Gilbert Romero was drawn to Christ.

God wants us to trust Him as we walk with Jesus into the future.

Remember, Jesus is always here with us and the future, with Jesus, has unlimited possibilities.