GOING ON A WALK WITH JESUS

In the very afternoon of the day Jesus was raised from the dead, he goes for a walk with a couple disciples. One is named, Cleopas, the other is not. We'll call him Anonymous. So we can easily put our own name in that place. So do that just now. I want you to enter the scene of being on this walk with Jesus.

All of a sudden Jesus is just there, they thought he probably caught up with them from behind.

What are you talking about? They were sad. They were totally defeated! Ever been there? Ever needed Jesus to enter the scene just when you needed Him most desperately?

What are you talking about? Innocent question. Good question if your joining someone else's conversation!

But they're a little snippy I think. Who are you? You must be the only person in Jerusalem who is this out-of-touch! You didn't see what went on with Jesus?
We had such high hope's that he was the messiah! He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel!

Jesus had been dealing with this the whole time he was with them? No one among his disciples understood his mission or his means! Peter tried to shut even his talking about it down. The guys were constantly arguing amongst themselves about rank and file; their position in the new kingdom. Jesus had mom's asking him for these kinds of promises for their boys, James and John!

Jesus loses it a little bit here. You're foolish and stupid! Well maybe a little kinder than that. Slow of heart and mind. They're just like us! And Jesus takes them back to his very first confession! With Peter in Galilee ... it was there he first said these things and Peter called him down.
Fact is that the disciples went the whole trip from Galilee to the empty tomb and beyond, and never changed their mind.

What was so hard for them to grasp? What did Jesus say on this trip that gave them heart burn?

It says he began with Moses- with the Torah!
Let's take the same walk. At least a few verses with Jesus as he explains himself, his existence and his mission to us.

Where is Jesus found in the Torah or in the prophets?

Deuteronomy 18:18
‘I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

Jesus used this over and over again to refer to himself and the source of His message! JN 5:19

 “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner."
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Isa 7:14
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

The facts of His divine birth.
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Isa 52:13 - 53:12
13 Behold, My Servant ...
14 His visage was marred more than any man,

53:3. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
4. Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5. But He was wounded for our transgressions,He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,

Few scriptures in the whole Bible carry more weight than these in pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus.

Micah 5:2
2“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”

How can you fake where you're born? How can you choose the place? Jesus didn't, in fact it was Caesar who intervened with a census that created the circumstance of his place of birth!

Zechariah 12:10
then they will look on Me whom they pierced.

Psalm 2:7
7“I will declare the decree:
The LORD has said to Me,
‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

Psalm 22:16b-18
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17. I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.

A factual prophetic picture along with many of the images of Ps 2 & 22. It is Psalm 22 quoted by Jesus on the cross (v.1)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And finally Daniel 9:26
26“And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;...

The simple calculations from the degree to rebuild Jerusalem to the end of the 62 weeks of Daniel's vision, was the year 32, the year of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Friends, there are even more passages but I wanted to see what Jesus talked about on the road they were walking that afternoon. He was able to point out the circumstances of his own life and death foretold by the Torah and the Prophets. And it was about a two to three hour walk. Only 7 miles distance.

The fact is there are over 300 such verses in the OT and the likelihood of one person fulfilling all of them perfectly is in the multiple trillions to one! Someone estimated that if you took that number and made it into 1" ball bearings, they would fill the state of Texas to a depth of about 6 feet!

I urge you to take a walk with Jesus down memory lane this week, like the disciples did on that afternoon. Their hearts were on fire with the news, and as he broke bread with them, their eyes were opened. Then they ran back to Jerusalem that very night to tell the others.

Let us run with the news of who Jesus is in our own day. Amen!

Let us pray.

O God, your Word is eternal and it stands as the anvil on which time itself is tested and shaped. Let us find in your Word the treasures of eternal life and let us take your Word with us into the works in witness to your love and power. For the fame of Jesus' Name and the sake of His Kingdom we pray.

Amen