From Knowing About Jesus to Really Knowing Him

You see, Jesus understood that what these two followers had missed was not the information, it was the interpretation. They had read the scriptures, but they had read them without seeing Jesus at the center scriptures, of them all. Because without Jesus at the center, the cross, it does look like defeat. But with it, the cross becomes the very means that we see redemption taking place. And you see, this matters for us because we can do the same thing, can't we? [00:46:24] (37 seconds)  #SeeJesusAtCenter

It says here that Jesus says in verse 25, how foolish you are, how slow to believe all the things the prophets have spoken. And now that might sound harsh to us at first, but don't miss what's going on here. Jesus is not rebuking them for being uninformed. He's rebuking them for misbelieving. It's not that they have an information problem. What the two have is a faith problem because everything that just happened, the cross, the crucifixion, the death, all of it was not something outside of God's plan. It was not a mistake. It was necessary. [00:43:56] (45 seconds)  #FaithNotInfo

You see, that's the problem why they're so confused in the first place. Their theology and their understanding of Jesus is way off. They call him a prophet, powerful in word and deed, but not God in the flesh. They hoped that he was the one who would come to redeem Israel and free them from their oppressors, but assumed that his death means that he failed in doing that. You see, they see the cross as the end of the story, not the very means of redemption itself. [00:41:19] (34 seconds)  #CrossMeansRedemption

Because it is possible for us to be near Jesus, to talk about Jesus, to know about him, but to still not truly know him, to not see him right in front of us. You know, a few weeks ago, pastor Lyle asked us the question on Palm Sunday, do we know about Jesus or do we really know him? And today's text wrestles with that same question and it reveals to us how we move from that place of knowing about Jesus to really knowing him. [00:34:12] (38 seconds)  #KnowVsAbout

We can read the bible. We can know the stories. We can even know the right answers and still completely miss Jesus in it. We can build a picture of who we think Jesus is supposed to be and have this framework in our minds of how he is supposed to act and what he is supposed to do. And when he doesn't live up to that mental framework that we've created, we become frustrated and confused and even disappointed. But what if the problem isn't that Jesus has failed us? What if the problem is actually that we've just misunderstood him? [00:47:00] (41 seconds)  #MentalFrameworkTrap

You might know the right answers. But if you're honest with yourself, you don't yet really know Jesus. And if that's you, I have good news for you this morning. This this text is good news for our souls because it reminds us that Jesus does not wait for us to get it right. Jesus does not wait for us to figure him out completely before revealing himself to us. No. He walks with us. He asks us questions. And then eventually, he opens our eyes so that we can see him. [00:55:08] (46 seconds)  #JesusWalksWithYou

But when God does open our eyes to receive and perceive Jesus as Lord and savior, we can then begin to continue to encounter him and grow in our relationship with him in some really important ways. And two of those ways are exactly what Luke gives us in this story. What was the first thing that Jesus did when he was walking along questioning these two on their way to Emmaus? Well, he opened the scriptures with them. You see, we encounter Jesus and grow in our relationship with him Christ, when we come into reading scripture and reading God's word as an encounter, as a place where we meet Jesus in these pages. [00:52:36] (49 seconds)  #ScriptureAsEncounter

And if you haven't yet experienced Jesus in that real way, I encourage you to ask God to open your eyes to see him. And if you have, then we continue to grow and build our relationship with him through these things, through breaking open his word, through reading scripture, seeking to encounter Jesus in these verses and in these stories. And by coming to the table not just as an abstract thing, but aware of what's really taking place, being reminded that he broke his body for you, that he poured out his blood for you, and that when you come to the table, you join with him in a real and powerful way. [00:55:56] (49 seconds)  #MeetJesusAtTable