Warm and Comfortable the Day after Easter?
It is getting to the point that we may need to turn the A/C on during the day, but the evening air might be a little cool. As we kick off our shoes and reach for the newspaper or maybe a cup of hot chocolate we get that comfortable cozy feeling.
We are home and all is well. The day’s problems will be there tomorrow, but tonight is a time to relax and forget about all its problems.
Matthew 6:34 (NLT) “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
We maybe don’t worry too much, but we do have some concerns about what tomorrow might bring, don’t we? There are problems and events that we know are going to happen to us and about us that may not be what we want or expect.
We can let ourselves get so worked up over what might happen that we can’t sleep or think about anything else.
I have jobs where I had to commute some distances to and from work myself. It can be very tiresome and costly, but the benefit is that it gives you time to think about the day’s events. If you have someone with you, you can talk it over and get someone else’s point of view.
Luke 24:13-35 brings us to this very important point that happened 2,000 years ago. The day’s problems and events brought two men to a troubling discussion as they headed home at the end of the day.
Luke 24:13-35
I always talk about tunnel vision and this is a perfect example of tunnel vision. The very subject of their conversation is standing right in front of these two men and they don’t see Him.
We can get so caught up in our own thoughts and ideas that we do not see what is right in front of us.
These two men were believers, they may not have believed Jesus was the Son of God, but they considered Him as a prophet and powerful in word and deed of God. 100 per cent disciples, no, but they knew that Jesus was special and that He had true disciples. Was He their Messiah, deliverer and King? I don’t think they were convinced as yet. They were still in the believing and learning stages of their faith, just as we do.
If you have not noticed yet, Jesus can only be in one place at a time. His mood of transportation has taken on a different look and feel, but still only one place at a time. Locked doors and distance is no longer a problem, He has taken on some of the spiritual properties of His God-ness hasn’t He?
(Come-on Holy Spirit)
When they received the blessed food, they saw who this man really was. All the chit-chat, all the hospitality and manners were set aside now, their comfort, relaxation and their weariness was gone. Their lives had just been changed. They had met the Master.
They were at the end of their day, evening had set in and it was about seven miles down a dark lonely dangerous road back to Jerusalem.
In verse 33 it says they got up and returned at once to the city. At once, not in the morning when they had rested and the sun was shining and it was safe to travel. At once, it says.
They knew that they had been the presence of the Son of God, the Christ, the Alfa and Omega and they had to tell somebody. They went first to the believers.
The disciple and other believers were given the good news. Why, Why, Why. So their faith would be strengthen, their excitement of resurrection would continue not just through Sunday, but thought the rest of the week, months and years and through their life.
The Easter Resurrection is not just a one-day celebration. It is not a single event for the year; it is a celebration for the entire life-time of the WORLD.
At the end of the day, these men, got up and went back to minister to the hurting, the ones that felt just as they did, that they had been abandoned and betrayed by the death of Jesus.
Being in the trenches of everyday life sometimes makes it hard to see and hear what is going on. It is hard to see the big picture when you are the one digging the ditch.
All most every Sunday I ask Dian about the service. Of course you know she says it was wonderful, the best she has ever heard . . . right!
Most of the time she doesn’t have an in-depth answer. She is in the trenches running the computer and trying to stay with the timing of the songs and the reading of scripture. She does not hear what you hear. She does not see what you see. She is concentrating on how you hear and see the message and not so much on what you hear and see. Does that make sense to you?
The duties of life can sucks us up to where we miss the present and we forget about yesterday and worry about tomorrow.
We need to remember the yesterdays, not in a worrying way, but in a learning way. Away to remember what we have learned and how we can apply that to our lives today and tomorrow.
God has provided all the knowledge and teachings we need to not only to tell people about Jesus, He has given us proof.
Just for an example:
The 39 books of the Old Testament were written over the course of 1500 years, starting with the creation of the universe and ending about 400 years before the coming of Jesus Christ.
To better understand Jesus Christ, in God’s perfect process, I think it’s a good reminder to look at where he came from. In the Old Testament, there are 61 major Messianic prophesies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ.
Look at this example concerning the Messianic prophesies fulfilled, not 61, not half, but only 8. “We find that the chance of any man or woman might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all 8 prophesies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (17 zeros after the 1.) In order to comprehend this staggering probability, suppose we take 10 to the 17th power of silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now paint one silver dollar red and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but at some point he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have in getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophesies would have had in writing these 8 prophesies (only 8) and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them according to their own wisdom.” But they all came true in Jesus Christ.
Jesus met these men as they traveled home to their warm and comfortable homes, a place where they could just think about the events of Sunday and continue to wonder about who and what this Jesus really was.
And then, the raisin Savior, Jesus the living Son of God, took these men virtually by hand and once again explained what this was all about again.
From Moses’ teachings, all the way through the blood line, right up to the His death and resurrection.
He left no stone unturned, as He brought them into His presences as He sat at their table, breaking bread with them.
Luke 24:25-27 (NLT) Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26 Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” 27 Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
These men were tired, sorrowful, disconnected, maybe depressed. Life was not happening the way they had expected. They wanted a messiah to come and take care of them. They wanted and expected no worries, no pain, no evil or sin.
They were no different than we are today. Peace, love and joy; warm and cozy in our life.
Yes, He does want us to be cozy and warm. He wants us to rest in His arms. He wants us to commune with Him in the cool of the day, while we enjoy life in His presence. The Disciples needed to hear from these two men.
They needed to hear about the wonders of THIS DAY, for it was to be the first day after Jesus arose and He is still alive and sitting on the right hand of His Father.
I have worked at least two jobs most all my life and when there were just one job, it was never a 40 hour a week job. Many times my day could last 16 – 20 hours a day. That does not leave a lot of time for anything else.
What is so wonderful and exciting is that when God ask you to go beyond the everyday, the norm, He provides more rest and energy necessary to accomplish the ministry.
