#1452 Luke 24 Part 3 Eyes Were Opened

 

28 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. 29 But they urged Him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. 30 And it happened that when He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and after breaking it, He was giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. 32 And they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?” 33 And they stood up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those with them, 34 who were saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 And they were relating their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Luke 24: 28-35 Legacy Standard Bible

Luke 24: 28-35 Eyes were opened

…19Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. 20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. 21To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.… Revelation 3: 19-21

He acted as though He were going farther - He had just revealed the Passover to them, the scarlet cloth hanging from His great great etc... grandmother Rahab's window. Jesus preached to them, for is that not what He did this whole way to Emmaus, showing them Himself in the Scriptures, revealing to them the plan and purpose of redemption. You are no preacher that points to yourself rather than taking men to The Preacher, no worshiper who comes looking for a concert rather than bringing glory to the one that makes your existence possible. Follow His example, He shows them Himself in the OT, this is God's plan, His purpose, the gospel. It's there for the hearing and the telling, and He gives no show, no lights, no fog machines, in fact He just keeps walking as though He has no intention of staying. When His disciples write the NT gospel accounts later, they point out often that these accounts fulfilled very specific prophecies from the OT prophets and the Law. 

1You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. 2Now I commend you for remembering me in everything and for maintaining the traditions, just as I passed them on to you. 3But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.… 1 Corinthians 11: 1-3

…7which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! 9As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!… Galatians 1: 7-9

V. 29 But they urged Him strongly - It is a land of hospitality, a custom of those in the Middle East, but Jesus did not request their hospitality, all indications were that He was going to continue on, but they had heard the message and received it gladly. They wanted more of this food, this drink, to continue this communion with Him, learning from the Master. Like the Bible says, "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God", it is great evidence of the Holy Spirit's work when a man or woman starts to crave and understand God's word. 

…2and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” 3But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.… Genesis 19: 2-4

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat. 9Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.… 2 kings 4: 8-9

…14Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. 16One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.… Acts 16: 14-16

THOUGHT - HERE IS BACKGROUND FOR THIS GREAT HYMN WRITTEN IN 1847: In 1818 minister Henry Francis Lyte found himself in a curious position: he was giving comfort to a dying clergyman and found, to his shock, that the clergyman was unsure of his own salvation. Lyte was painfully aware that he himself was in the same position. Both men began to search the Bible, and both underwent a conversion. Lyte from that time on began to take his duties as a pastor more seriously. The typical Church of England pastor of that time was content to baptize, marry, bury, and preach a brief Sunday sermon for which he had little enthusiasm. Lyte could not be satisfied with this: he became a devoted spiritual counselor to his parish in a coastal town in southwest England. He wore himself out for this church, composed of fishermen and their families, counseling with them, organizing Sunday schools, training teachers, and writing hymns, many of which are still popular. The most famous of his hymns was written just a few weeks before he died. On September 4, 1847, Lyte took a walk along the seashore and contemplated the sunset. Returning home, he quickly wrote down “Abide with Me” with its memorable first lines: “Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide; / The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.” The hymn was based on the scripture he had preached on earlier that day, Luke 24, the story of the risen Jesus encountering two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:29 reads, “They constrained him, saying, ‘Abide with us, for it is toward evening; the day is far spent.’ And he went in to tarry with them” (KJV). Lyte’s health had been failing for several years, and it is possible that when he wrote “Abide with Me,” he knew it would be his last hymn and that he would soon be abiding with the Lord forever. He died on November 20 that same year. - Precept Austin

V. 31 Then their eyes were opened - One of the last things they saw Him do was break bread before He was taken to trial. When you think of the physical miracles He performed, restoring sight to the blind, it is the same with all men spiritually, in fact we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and so to be born again is the equivalent of the physical miracle of being raised from the dead.

…23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, 24and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”… 1 Corinthians 11: 23-25

Through the fall the spiritual taste of man became perverted, so that he puts bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter; he chooses the poison of hell and loathes the bread of heaven; he licks the dust of the serpent and rejects the food of angels. The spiritual hearing became grievously injured, for man naturally no longer hears God’s word, but stops his ears at the Maker’s voice. Let the gospel minister charm never so wisely, yet is the unconverted soul like the deaf adder which hears not the charmer’s voice. The spiritual feeling by virtue of our depravity is fearfully deadened. Whether the thunders of Sinai or the turtle notes of Calvary claim his attention, man is resolutely deaf to both. Even the spiritual smell with which man should discern between that which is pure and holy and that which is unsavoury to the Most High has become defiled, and now man’s spiritual nostril while unrenewed derives no enjoyment from the sweet savour which is in Christ Jesus, but seeks after the putrid joys of sin. As with other senses so is it with man’s sight. He is so spiritually blind that things most plain and clear he cannot and will not see. The understanding, which is the soul’s eye, is covered with scales of ignorance, and when these are removed by the finger of instruction, the visual orb is still so affected that it sees men as trees walking. Our condition is thus most terrible, but at the same time it affords ample room for a display of the splendours of divine grace. Dear friends, we are naturally so entirely ruined, that if saved the whole work must be of God, and the whole glory must crown the head of the Triune Jehovah. (365 Days with Spurgeon - Volume 2) C. H. Spurgeon

HERE it is not the Master to the disciple, but the disciple to the Master, that is saying, Come. It is not the Lord that is standing at the door and saying, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me”; it is the disciple that is saying, “Come in thou blessed of the Lord.” As of old, He said to Jacob at Peniel, “Let me go for the day breaketh,” so here it is said, “He made as though He would have gone further”; but as Jacob said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me,” so do the two disciples here, “they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us”; and as He blest Jacob ere He parted from him, so here He does go in and sit down with them, and when He quits them He leaves a blessing behind Him, for the house seems filled with the odour of the ointment, doubtless to retain its fragrance for many a day.

The request seems to have been made for two reasons,—on their own account and on his. They had enjoyed his converse and fellowship by the way so much that they are unwilling to part; and, besides, the evening is coming on, and He must not expose Himself to the dews, and cold, and darkness of the night.

The latter of these reasons we cannot use now in the sense in which they were used by the disciples. The risen Christ is now far beyond the days and nights of time; beyond the mists and clouds of earth; far beyond the chills and the gloom of this world. He needs no earthly roof to shelter Him, and no earthly table to sit at. He is now in his Father’s house, and on his Father’s throne, compassed about with light, and majesty, and glory, and honour.

But in his members He is now passing through the same hardships, and sufferings, and privations as when He was here. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me” is still his expostulation; and still He so identifies Himself with his saints that we may use the words which originally meant Him personally in reference to ourselves as one with Him. Without, however, confining it to this sense, let us meditate as follows upon these words, “Abide with us.”

1. Abide with us, for past days have been so pleasant. Since first we apprehended Thee, or rather since Thou didst apprehend us,—since thou didst overtake us on the way, we have found such blessedness, that we cannot bear the thought of parting. Thy fellowship has been so sweet that we must have more of it. The little that we tasted in the past, makes us long for more. Abide with us.

2. Abide with us, for the world would be a blank without thee. Life would not be life if thou wert gone. We should be like the disciples on the stormy sea,—“It was night, and Jesus had not come to them.” Night and tempest, without moon and stars, would be nothing to this world without thee. A house left desolate without an inmate, without a sound, or a voice, or footstep, would be nothing to the dreariness of our earth and of our homes without thee. All would be blank and chilling. It is Thou who fillest hearts, and lightest up homes, and gladdenest even wildernesses with thy presence.

A wilderness is populous enough

So had I but thy heavenly company;

For where thou art, there is the world itself,

With every several pleasure in the world;

And where thou art not, desolation.

Oh abide with us.

3. Abide with us, for we know not what our future is to be. We know the past, we know the present, but the future is hid. For that future and all its uncertainties, we need a guide and a protector; one who will light up our path, who will fight for us, who will deliver us and keep us to the last, in all changes, trials, sorrows, joys. Abide with us. Leave us not, neither forsake us, O God of our salvation, O rest of the weary, O light of the dark, O Saviour of the lost, O joy of the sorrowful, O helper of the helpless,—unchanging companion, friend and kinsman, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning,—the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever! Lead us out, leads us in, lead us along the way, lead us by the still waters, lead us into thy banquetting house, and let thy banner over us be love!

4. Abide with us, for earth’s night is at hand. Time’s shadows are lengthening; its sun is going down behind the hills of earth. The end of all things is at hand; the day of the Lord hasteth greatly; the time of vengeance and judgment cometh; Satan is about to do his worst; Antichrist will rage; evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse; perilous times will come; wars and rumours of wars will disquiet us; earthquakes shall be in diverse places, the sea and its waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after the things that are coming on the earth. Oh abide with us! Abide with us in all thy love and grace; in all thy strength and help; in all thy joy and peace. Abide with us for evermore. - Horatius Bonar

V. 32 Were not our hearts burning within us - A quickening, the fire has been lit.

…2I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred. 3My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue: 4“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.… Psalm 39: 2-4

4The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple. 5The Lord GOD has opened My ears, and I have not been rebellious, nor have I turned back.… Isaiah 50: 4-5

…15You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor. 16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts. 17I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.… Jeremiah 15: 15-17

…8For whenever I speak, I cry out; I proclaim violence and destruction. For the word of the LORD has become to me a reproach and derision all day long. 9If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail. 10For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”… Jeremiah 20: 8-10

…62Then what will happen if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before? 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64However, there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him.)… John 6: 62-64

While He was opening the Scripture to us - It is opened to them, and then they go out to open unto others, that is Christian, little Christs, followers, imitators. This is our job, our great privilege, in word and deed. Do your work, whether plowing the field, stocking the shelf, doing the dishes, painting someone's house or managing their business, do it unto the Lord, and it becomes your testimony and opens the door for you to open up His word to them.