TAKING A TRIP WITH JESUS – PART 1(CONFUSED): PASTOR MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 16TH APRIL, 2023.

SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)

TOPIC: TAKING A TRIP WITH JESUS – PART 1 (CONFUSED)

DATE: 16TH APRIL 2023

BIBLE TEXT: LUKE 24:13-17

Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.

Are you ready? Say with me:

I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.

In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.

In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.

The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.

Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!

I am going to Preach about an Event that happened after Easter when Jesus encountered two (2) of His Disciples on the trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

And as I Study that Passage, it spoke to me at a very different Level this time, because I saw in it the Journey that People are having with Christ and the different Levels that God deals with us for us to come to know Him and to know Jesus Christ as our Lord Saviour.

Today I am going to start a Three-Part Message Titled: Taking a Trip with Jesus. This is Part 1 and my Sub-Title is “Confused.”

The two (2) Disciples that we are going to read about were returning from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Emmaus is about seven (7) Miles from Jerusalem. And they are returning in the Evening of Resurrection Day.

So this will be Sunday and Jesus Christ had resurrected that Day early in the morning and News had spread that Jesus was risen, to His Disciples. And these Disciples had been in Jerusalem trying to figure out what was happening and they were on their way back to their hometown in Emmaus.

And as they were going, the two (2) Disciples were trying to Process the meaning of everything that had happened – All of us do that!

You know, when something happen to us, we talk about it; trying to make sense of it, trying to Process it.

And so that is what this two (2) Disciples are doing – They were Processing what had happened during the day.

And I believed there are People here today hearing me now or reading now on the Label of DMC, and are on a Journey with Jesus. And at different Levels of the journey; some are at the “Confused State” and trying to figure out what this Christianity is all about.

And I Pray that through this Message, you will find yourself to understand somebody you are trying to Minister the Word of God to – Amen.

Now I want you to also remember that the Events we are about to read are happening after the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ – He has died for the sins of the world, He has resurrected. But these two (2) Disciples are yet to believe that.

Although they are called the Disciples of Jesus; I will not call them Born Again Christians. They are not Born Again: yet they are Disciples, they are following Jesus.

Because for you to be Born Again; according to Romans 10:9, you have to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead:

If you don’t believe that, you may be a Good Follower but you are not yet a Christian, and you are not yet Born Again.

So they are followers of Jesus but they are not Born Again – Interesting!

They’ve been with Him for a long time but they are not yet Born Again.

They are not Qualified for what the Bible says we must do in order to be saved.

So let’s start our Narration and our Lesson from Luke’s Gospel 24:13-17;

13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.

14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.

17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”

If you look at the sequence of Events , the Bible talks about two (2) men on a Journey.

1. And these men are Disciples of Jesus – They are moving from one Place to the other.

It’s a 7-Mile Journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

Like these two (2) men, all of us are on a Journey. We are on a Journey trying to know God better and we are at different Levels in our Journey.

Now these two (2) men in all likelihood had accompanied Jesus the Previous week on His Triumphant March to Jerusalem. Because they lived in Emmaus, they don’t live in Jerusalem. And Jesus had come on the routes that included Emmaus.

So they most likely joined the People who cried “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest; blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”

And they entered with those who came with Jesus to Jerusalem with great Pomp and Pageantry – It was an exciting time.

And then as they heard that Jesus had been arrested; and before anybody could say “Jack!” Jesus is Tried and Jesus is Crucified!

Can you imagine the shock of these People?

They are following a “Triumphant Man”: and then He is Crucified, and then they hear He is resurrected.

So many things have gone wrong in about one (1) week in the lives of these men – From when they started joining Jesus on the Triumphant Journey to Jerusalem.

The Bible talks about Two (2) Things that they were doing. The Passage says that “..they Conversed and Reasoned.” Two (2) words talking about two different activities.

1. The first one is that they were Conversing and:

That means they were sharing News about what they have heard. And Probably, they recounted Stories of the Miracles of Jesus, the Triumphant Entry to Jerusalem;

Then they talked about what they heard about His Betrayal, His Arrest, His Judgement, His Crucifixion and His Burial;

Then they talked about the Events of the day (early that morning that) – Jesus is Alive!

So they are conversing about it – Two (2) People who love Jesus; Conversing.

2. But they moved on from simply Conversing to Reasoning:

They were debating the Significance of what they have heard.

The word ‘Reasoning’ has to do with interrogating the information they have heard. It speaks of debate: they were debating the information.

These are serious Minded People; they are not just Followers who don’t think – They think! They are Submitting all the Stories of Jesus to Good Scrutiny and Reasoning.

One of the things we have to understand is that, Christianity is a “Reasonable Faith”.

In other words, Christianity must include our Minds and our Thinking – Not just our Spirit alone but our Thinking.

For most of us, we have the ‘Heart’ of Christianity but not the ‘Head’ of Christianity. Our Christianity is full of Passion but no Intellect. Because for some reasons, People don’t like the Reasoning of Christianity.

But the Strength of Christianity is its Reasonableness – It is a “Reasonable Faith”.

In other words, you can reason through it and come to a firm Conclusion that Jesus is who He says He was – We don’t just believe, we also think!

They were Conversing and they were Reasoning. And as they were doing all of that, something happened that they had not thought of: Jesus joined them and walked with them.

The Passage says “Jesus Himself…”

Now the Passage could easily have said Jesus joined them. But it says “Jesus Himself”. It’s an emphasis!

This is not another Person: this is the “Real Jesus”. This is not an Appellation, it’s not a Ghost. This is not a Figment of their imagination, this is not Hallucination – This is Jesus, ‘The Resurrected Lord’ Himself: the One they are talking about shows up!

One of the things that happens when we want to know about the Lord is; as we start talking about God, Jesus in Truth shows up!

Because the Path of Faith is different for many People.

I. There are People who come to Church several times and have still not come to the full realisation that they need Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour;

II. There are People who have been Members of a Church for ten (10) years and are still not Born Again because they are still trying to come to a certain Point of Faith and they are not there yet.

Like these Disciples, they’ve been with Jesus for a while but they are not at the Point of Salvation yet.

And Jesus joins them – He is Participating, He is walking with them on their Journey.

And I like how the Passage puts it, “Jesus Himself.”

Because Christianity is about the Person of Jesus and not only what He teaches.

You know, many times People will say “Church is all about what Jesus taught.

He said, Love your Neighbour – So we Love our Neighbours.

If you do that, you are a Christian.”

It is Good to Love your Neighbours as Jesus said. But Christianity is not just about the teachings of Jesus, it is about the Person of Jesus.

If you don’t accept the Person of Jesus, His teachings are of no effect to you.

There are many People in the world who accept the teachings of Jesus – They quote it and they talk about His Moral Teachings, but they don’t accept Him for who He is.

And if you don’t accept Him (The Person) His teachings mean nothing to you.

Christianity is not just about accepting the teachings of Jesus, but accepting the Person of the Lord Jesus.

THE TWO (2) MEN DID NOT RECOGNISE JESUS.

Although He was in their midst, their eyes were restrained. They saw that there was a man walking with them, their Minds were not able to recognise who He was.

I. So it is Possible to feel the Presence of God in your midst and still not know Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

II. It is Possible to walk with God for a long while and still not have Christ as your Lord and Saviour;

III. It is Possible to have a Spiritual Experience and still not know Christ as Lord and Saviour.

These days there is a lot of emphasis on Experience – People go to Meetings and only have Experiences.

You can have Jesus in your midst and still not know Him!

And there are many People going to Church who don’t know Jesus.

I dare say that there are many People Preaching in the Pulpit who don’t know Jesus.

The Lord Himself said, in that day many will come and say Lord I did this in Your Name and He will say I don’t know you.

Doing something in His Name is not equivalent to knowing Him.

There are People called “Man of God” who are not Born Again. They are doing things in the Name of Jesus. Some of them even sincerely; although I will say some of them also insincerely. But doing something in His Name does not mean you know Him.

If you saw these two (2) Disciples of Jesus, you would say they are Born Again but they are not! They are following the “Real Jesus” but they are not saved yet.

And it is a very important thing for us to know – Christianity is not just about Memorizing Bible Verses, going to Church, feeling the Power of God, falling under the Power of God, rolling on the floor, having a Prophecy said about you, having a Dream.

They are all fantastic things!

But you have to know the Man Jesus for Who He is!

So Jesus joins them: and the Bible says they couldn’t recognise him.

Jesus takes His intervention a little further. He decides to Participate in the Conversation.

I want you to watch what happens when Jesus decides to Participate in the Conversation.

Luke 24:17-18 says:

And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only Stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”

Have you noticed how the Lord interjected?

He didn’t come in whilst they were talking: “hey! I am Jesus.” He started with Questions.

And when you read the Passage, there are Three (3) Questions. And we are going to look at them very shortly.

But the important thing is that Jesus did not just say “I am He.”

You know many times we think, if God will do something Miraculous and announce His Presence, People will be afraid.

Maybe God write in the sky “I AM GOD” – People will still not believe it.

I. The children of Israel saw the Red Sea opened, they walked through it,; but they still didn’t believe it; they still murmured.

II. They ate Manna for forty (40) years they still murmured.

III They drank water from the Rock, they still murmured.

IV. They ate Quails, saw fire, yet they still murmured.

What else should they see?

This tells you that Signs, Miracles and Wonders may not lead you to Faith.

Jesus says, I want you to know me; but I am not going to show Myself and say, “here am I folks, I Am the One you are talking about- I Am Alive.” No!

He started with Questions.

What do Questions deal with? – Reasoning!

He wants to help them in their thinking – to come to Faith.

And there are three (3) Questions in that Passage:

1. The first one is a Question of Concern, it is a question of Empathy – “What are you talking about?”

These are His Disciples; they followed Him, they’ve Hailed Him, they’ve Praised Him, they’ve Worshipped Him, they’ve Honoured Him.

He says, “what are you talking about?”

He showed interest – He wanted to be Part of their Journey.

And if you look at the Question, there are Two (2) Kinds of Questions, but both of them are directed at the two (2) men.

“What are you talking about?” Jesus is showing interest!

2. “Why are you so sad?” – It is a question that invites them to look at themselves.

Have you ever heard the Lord ask you a Question? When God begins to deal with you and He is asking:

“What are you looking for in this world? Why do you spend all your time looking for Me? Why are you so much in a hurry, what are you trying to achieve? Why are you so depressed?” And you just feel the question in your heart.

That is what is happening to these People.

I wondered what you would say if Jesus asked you these Questions – “What are you talking about?”

It is a Question of concerned from Jesus; but the response is that of contempt.

The People responded rashly – “Don’t You know what has happened? Are you a Stranger?

They really rubbish Jesus. They didn’t say “Thank You for showing interest.” Rather, “what are you talking about? My friend, are You the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard?

Now there is a Special Note here and I want you to pay attention to: The name “Cleopas”.

There are things that the Bible does and you have to pay attention to.

Apostle Luke is writing this account and he mentions one of the names (noth the names of both men). He says “Cleopas”.

WHY DID HE USE A PERSONAL NAME?

I. First, to show – This is a real thing happening because it is a Personal name.

II. Also, it is a way of telling the Readers at that time – Because Luke is writing this about Twenty five (25) years after the Resurrection. And hw puts in the name “Cleopas.”

Why? Because Cleopas us still alive!

*Luke is in a way, telling the Readers – If you want to check this Story out, go and ask Cleopas. It really happened, he and his friend were on the road to Emmaus.

He is telling the People: this is not a fable, because Cleopas can testify that it truly happened as it was said. And that is why he puts in the name Cleopas. Because Cleopas is the one who asked the Question.

He later became a Believer. But at this time he is an “Unbelieving Believer”; and he shows contempt.

Jesus asked a Genuine Question, he responded with – In Ghana we say, “Get away there!”

It’s like you are trying to talk to somebody about Christ and he just blows. You can really get offended.

So Jesus can say: “Alright, you don’t want me in your Conversation, go ahead.” But that is not what He does.

He teaches us, when we are trying to bring people to Christ Jesus, there may be moments when People will be rude and nasty to us; but you don’t stop the Conversation.

So He Persisted.

3. And the third Question is a Question of Compassion – He says alright, what is it that has happened, Tell me about it?

So the People let down their guard!

But if Jesus had stopped the Conversation because He didn’t get a good response, there will be no Salvation for these two (2).men.

We don’t give up on People because they were nasty to us, or they were nasty to God, nasty to Jesus, nasty to the Bible or to Christians; but we have to be Compassionate..

And Jesus says, tell me, what happened?

So the people told Jesus what happened – They narrated all the Events that have happened.

But in Luke 24:20-24 they said, and how the Chief Priests and our Rulers delivered Him to be condemned to Death, and Crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our Company, who arrived at the Tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His Body, they came saying that they had also seen a Vision of Angels who said He was Alive.And certain of those who were with us went to the Tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”

… Very interesting Narration!

But in there you see the Two (2) stumbling blocks that is making these People not believe in the Resurrection.

Two (2) Main Things – and I am going to show them to you – One of them is Political and the other is Culture.

WHY THEY CAN’T BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.

1. They couldn’t believe because they said, “we thought He was the One Who was going to redeem Israel: but He was Crucified.”

They couldn’t handle the idea of a Messiah who has been Crucified – And this was a Political Stumbling Block.

Why do I say so?

They said, and how the Chief Priests and our Rulers delivered Him to be condemned to Death, and Crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel – Luke 24:20-21.

… But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.

What do they mean by that?

At this time in the Jewish History, the Jews are under the Romans. They’ve been under the Egyptians, they’ve been under the Babylonians, they’ve been under the Asyrians; and now they are under Romans – And they are tired.

And they are looking for a Redeemer; and John shows up, they thought ‘he is the one.’ But John says, I am not the one. He Says, that other guy is the One.

So they said finally, we have found the Redeemer of Israel.

Redeemer from what? – From Political Oppression.

They had an expectation of Jesus: He is going to redeem us; He is going to take His sword, He is going to go to Jerusalem, He is going to take over as well as going to build an Army. And He is going to go against Time.

That is why when He went to the Temple and did what He did they thought finally, “the Redeemer has come! He is going to get rid of the Romans.”

So their expectation is not somebody who is going to fight for their Souls or their Spirits; but they wanted Political liberation.

They had an expectation.

And then this guy Who is supposed to deliver them from the Romans is killed by the Romans and they couldn’t get it.

You know, sometimes why People stumble and the Gospel? It is because something they expected or thought God will do, He didn’t do. They say “I Prayed, I Prayed and I Prayed! and God didn’t do it – Why?”

And you can show them every evidence of Christ, they wouldn’t believe it; because they have a Pain that their expectation was not met.

It’s also one of the reasons why People sometimes leave the Christian Faith. Because they Prayed, they believed and then it didn’t happen!

So I won’t worship God again.”

They couldn’t understand, “what kind of Messiah gets killed and gets Crucified?”

They’ve heard about the Resurrection but it still doesn’t make sense to them because, “why was He even killed in the first Place? Why did He allow Himself to be killed? We expected Him to redeem us, now the Romans have defeated Him.”

So that is the first Stumbling Block – It’s Political, it is beyond their expectations.

2. The second one – “A Message announced by Women.”

If you listen to them carefully as they went, and the most astonishing is: “Some women went to the Tomb and then they said they saw an Angel.”

I will tell you why they had a Problem; if you listen to them they said, “and some of the men went and they saw nothing (that is what they said)!

“The women saw an Angel, the men said nothing!”

What kind of Message is that? Because they lived in a time when a woman’s Testimony was not respected.

Tn the Jewish world of that time a woman’s word does not Stand in Court.

The woman caught in Adultery couldn’t even say “but the man too..”

They were just going to stone her.

They won’t ask a woman for a word – A woman’s world is Nothing!

“What kind of Resurrection is that?”

“If He is truly risen why has He Chosen the wrong Group of People to announce Him?”

… It is a Culture Stumbling Block!

If Peter was the one who came to announce, “we saw Him”; these guys will not be having this Conversation;

If John has said “we saw Him”, they wouldn’t have this Conversation.

After all the woman who saw Him was Mary of Magdalene – She doesn’t have a good background.

The Carrier of the Message has a History; and because of her History they don’t think the Resurrection is true!

There are people who have Problems with Christianity because of the Messenger – They say look at this Prophet! And you say this is a Christian? I don’t believe in him.

Did the Prophet die for you? Is the Message about the Prophets of Ghana or about Jesus who died and rose again?

Christianity is not about the Messengers who carry the Message; it is about the Message that is embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there are People in Church who have Problems with Christ because of what some Pastors did. So because of that they don’t even want to accept the reality of Christ. You may doubt a Man of God, but actually it is not about them; it is about Jesus Christ: who died and who rose again.

If you can look beyond the Stumbling Block you will find the Reality.

That is why these men are confused: and expectation of a Political Redeemer that is not met:

A Message carried by a Culturally Unacceptable Group of People.

So the Man Jesus Christ is talking with them, but they can’t see Him.

Do you know Knowledge can so blind you that Reality will stand right in front of you but you can’t see it?

Next week we are going to see the Reality of the Journey; and eventually how they came to accept Jesus Christ as the risen Lord.

And I hope that for each one of us as we go through this Journey, we would come to that firm Assurance in Jesus who died, rose again from the dead, Glorified as Lord; the only Redeemer and Saviour of the Human Race.

And that in Him there is Life and there is Abundant Life – Amen!

Thank you so much for staying all through to read.

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