Opening Up To The Lord

HoHum:

When times are hard, I have trouble praying. When that happens, I go walking in a deserted place and talk with the Lord while I walk. This seems to help. On these walks I am able to open myself up to the Lord, express myself. “He walks with me and he talks with me and He tells me I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.” Go out discouraged and come back filled with hope. Started closed but then opened up my heart and lips to the Lord and then open to hearing from him and to doing His will

WBTU:

Two disciples went on a walk. They walked toward Emmaus, weighed down with disillusionment and despair. A few hours later they raced back to Jerusalem invigorated by hope and excitement. An incredible chance meeting that afternoon completely changed their spirits. They had been joined on the way by the risen Christ! He was no longer dead but alive! This same transformation can happen to us if we are open to walking and talking with Christ

Thesis: Things that were opened for these two disciples

For instances:

Opened hearts

A stranger joined them along the way and asked, “What are you talking about?” When asked the disciples were very open about their doubts and concerns. Jesus called them “slow of heart to believe” (Vs. 25), but at least they were teachable. They didn’t claim to know it all or have it all together. Their hearts and minds were open to the truth.

A former atheist, Jordan Monge, says this: I [began] to read through the Bible and was confronted by my sin. I was painfully arrogant and prone to fits of rage. I was unforgiving and unwaveringly selfish. I passed sexual boundaries that I’d promised I wouldn’t. The fact that I had failed to adhere to my own ethical standards filled me with deep regret. Yet I could do nothing to right these wrongs. The Cross no longer looked merely like a symbol of love, but like the answer to an incurable need. When I read the Crucifixion scene ... for the first time, I wept.”

Opened Scriptures

Jesus began with Moses and the Prophets and explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning the Messiah, himself (Vs. 27)

Through the HS, Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible. Jesus went back into the Old Testament and I believe He began with the book of Genesis. I believe Jesus probably started out telling these men the story of Adam and Eve. He would have told them about how Adam and Eve had been created by God, had enjoyed the blessings of God, and walked closely beside Him every day. But then one day… all that changed. Adam and Eve had allowed themselves to be tempted by Satan to sin and disobey. As a result Adam and Eve lost practically everything. They became separated from God. They died spiritually and began to die physically.

But in the midst of all this tragedy, God pronounced a curse upon Satan that goes this way:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”” Genesis 3:15, NIV.

NOTICE, the prophecy was that it would be the offspring of a woman (not a MAN and a woman) who would destroy the power of Satan.

THEN I believe Jesus could have turned them to Deuteronomy 18:15 where Moses declared:

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” Deuteronomy 18:15, NIV.

Now there are many great prophets listed throughout the Old Testament. And yet, none of them quite measured up to what Moses did in his lifetime.

1. Moses came for the specific purpose of freeing his people from slavery

2. And Moses was sent by God to give His people a new and special covenant that would set them apart to be His Holy people.

No other prophet in the Old Testament accomplished anything like that. None had freed their people from slavery or introduced a new relationship with God to their nation. In fact no one ever did… until Jesus came.

BUT WHEN Jesus CAME

1. He freed His people from the slavery of sin

2. And He gave His people a new covenant… and set them apart to be God’s Holy people

Lastly, I think Jesus would have taken them to the last few chapters of Isaiah.

Until Jesus came many had a hard time making sense out of these prophecies:

“See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him--his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness--” Isaiah 52:13, 14, NIV.