Road To Emmaus: Wrap Up

Laptop: Hey, good morning, Waterway Church. I am Jesse. This is Javon. Hello. Right now it is Wednesday, September 9th. It's about 11 o'clock in the morning when we're coming to you here. Don't know when you will hear us, but I'm glad you tuned in. Thanks for checking us out. As you know, we've been working through this Road to Emmaus sermon series since back in the spring. We've done a whole bunch of sermons on the Old Testament, how it points forward to the New Testament. that sermon series was also sort of the beginning and kickoff of this podcast series that we've been doing. And so I'll talk about that in a couple minutes. But we just wrapped up that sermon series this week on September 13th. We're going to have our tailgate party. We're going to begin a study of the book of James, which will take us up to about Thanksgiving, and then we'll do some Christmas time stuff. But it's been a fun series. The Road to a Maze has always been one of my favorite, just little illustrations of Jesus at work. It's kind of fun to see how there's a playfulness about Jesus. but Javon and I have both enjoyed studying the Old Testament stuff. Javon, what Some of your big takeaways from this Road to Emmaus series, other than the fact that it's hard to paint a brown stripe off of the wall. Yes, yeah. working on that. What are you what what kind of is sticking with you from these last couple months of sermons and study? Yeah, so I was doing I was doing some quick reflection and was turning to the passage of the Road to Emmaus itself in Luke chapter twenty-four. And verse thirty-two, this is right after Jesus sat down, broke bread with them, and left. Yeah. And they finally realize who he is or who he was. and they asked it says they asked each other, verse two or thirty-two, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. I I think there's there was something exciting for me to study the old testament with this intention of trying to see Jesus in it and seeing the connection, seeing how the overarching story of the Bible, how it all fits together. And there's a sense of that burning, that that excitement that you get for diving into the deep study of scripture. And and so I was thinking about it, I think that takeaway continuing on in having a passion and a desire to just dive deep into God's word. When especially I think with the old testament, I think we can all admit there are things that we hit that it's like, huh, you know, what what why? What did it say? Why Do I need to read this genealogy today? Yeah. Right. Yeah. But taking the time to really give it thoughtful consideration, studying it and looking through it, there's just so much packed into God's word. and I my desire for again for myself and for for people in this congregation is that we would just have a a burning within us yeah for God's word. just falling in love with it and wanting to know it more and more. And there's a thought, so something I've been I read the other day that I I think kind of connects to all this. So it's a quote from C. S. Lewis. Okay. And he's talking about our need for using secondary sources, meaning sources that are maybe a commentary, or rather than reading things Abraham Lincoln said, you read a biography about Abraham Lincoln and they break it down. You know, that kind of that's a secondary source. Primary source would be the writing the things, the speeches that Abraham Lincoln made, you know. So here's what C.S. Lewis says is says about that. There's a strange idea that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I found as a tutor in English literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, Plato was a philosopher, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long about isms and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. I think some of us have maybe read some books from theologians that are a little bit that way. Yeah. Instead of we we could we could take a very simple Bible passage and and the right fellows can turn it around and twist it around and get a big book. Read 400 pages and wonder if there's any Bible in it at all. Right, yeah. so He says the error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only, the great man but if he only, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not at all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said, but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has Always therefore been one of my endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire. And then I heard somebody say they feel like this what he's talking about, he's he's talking about with literature, you know, he he taught in literature, but they f he they feel like in theology what he's getting at is very prevalent. People are looking for other sources all the time. to try to break down God's word for them. And there is room for people who've studied, pastors who preach. Sure. but ultimately the the main impetus for for you as a congregant or you as a believer is to go into the word of God yourself. When you hear a sermon that you or I preach, or someone at this pulpit preaches, and you get excited about it. Go to the primary source yourself. Be it's right to the Bible. Digging in digging into it. Yeah. I and I think that's one of the things that's been interesting for me as you know as a pastor is that I do read the commentaries. I read what other people have to say. I read try to read different perspectives. Different people have different theological ideas, and and so what are they saying? But when it all comes down to it, what we have in our commentaries and in our study tools and all those kind of things are. the words and the i ideas of men. Right. And they are focused on God and the men and women who write these books and commentaries may have amazing insight. Right. but we cannot assume that what they're writing is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Right. What I find when I read the Bible itself is that these are the words that God has inspired, right? These we believe that these are inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so there is something different when I'm reading the Bible than when I'm reading really any other book, there is something different happening on a spiritual plane in that right, you know, I believe that scre scripture teaches us that the Holy Spirit is alongside of us helping us to interpret God's word. Now, I believe that the Holy Spirit can help us understand all kinds of things as we read, but there is a there is a living and active kind of piece to reading the Bible. So make sure that and as you study, no matter how smart you get and no matter how interesting the commentaries, right, make sure that as you study, That you are focusing on reading the Bible itself and then add to that the commentaries, you know, if you need a another layer of interpretation or a way to sort through. and that was something that hit me a lot as I was preparing these last couple of months for these Old Testament sermons. I I tend to enjoy the gospels the most. That's just my favorite part of reading the Bible. If I'm gonna just sit down to read, I like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, especially Matthew. I d I I don't fully know why. It's just that the way that Matthew writes and the the the pacing of it just really hits me well. But but as you said, we need to be reading all of scripture. And so for me, one of the big takeaways from this series is the incredible value of remembering to read the Old Testament and seeing how it connects with the New Testament in a natural, organic way. And and here's what I mean. I've been challenged to read beyond the gospels, and that's been true forever. But these last couple months, read beyond the gospels and make sure that what I'm reading is not something that is a product of my imagination or just looking for some kind of interesting connection, but seeing what the Bible says. And so many of the things that we preached about in these types and shadows are just very clear allusions to Jesus Christ. We didn't have to, we didn't have to really go out on a limb with too many of these sermons and and make odd connections, you know, or coincidental but but it's just striking me how God really has put together his word in a way that helps us to understand. And so going back to the old testament, seeing how it connects to the New Testament in a natural way, not in a contrived way. Right. that's been a lot of fun. Yeah. And I've really enjoyed that. And I real quick to add to that, I think one of the thoughts too that comes to my mind is if you read a passage of scripture and the thing that stands out stands out to you is the gospel. That's good. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sometimes we can we can sit there and try to just find some weird thing. And sometimes sometimes we can't. Sometimes we stumble across something that that's like, I never saw it that way or I haven't heard it that way. But and and that's cool. That's fun. But at the end of the day, if you walk away with a the gospel message 'cause it's talking about Christ and what he's done and you hear that over and over and over again as you're reading scripture, that's good. That's great. Yeah. And there and there's a there's a there's a be careful in this, right? There's a warning because we know, and I hope you understand, you listeners, that anytime we come to the scriptures with our own agenda, with our own idea of what we're looking for, that can get twisted really quick. We need to read the Bible for what it is, right? God has an intention there for us. And so let's look for God's leading, let's look for God's intention and understand the Bible for what it says, instead of trying to make the Bible, you know, prove what I wish. That's it, you know, approve my agenda. What but but still to be able to look for the gospel in the whole Bible is really exciting. Yeah. And a lot of fun. Do you know that song that went went Josiah McQueen it kind of went cr viral, I guess. I don't know if viral's the word, but it was one of do you know who Josiah McQueen is? I'm antiviral. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Josiah McQueen is this maybe I shouldn't be mentioned. I don't know if I should be mentioned. Are you gonna make me feel old now? No. No, he's how's song go? we got our bottle. And brand new iPhones. Wonder why we feel this. You know that? Wonder why we feel this way. I actually did hear that one. But that's exactly true. He's got youth in him. I heard a song once. Yeah. But no, that's true. I mean, there's dust on our Bibles, but brand new iPhones, so many times we're looking for what we want instead of really seeking out what has God said. Yeah. Recognizing that what God has said will speak to what we need. Amen. And so that can that stuff can get all kind of funky. But it's been really fun to work through this stuff. Yeah. Preaching through it with you, studying it together, talking about it on these podcasts. Which kind of takes me just to final plug here today. these podcasts, we started them up back in the spring. We've been doing them just about every week as we reflect on these sermons and and on some of the little minor points in between the bigger issues of the sermons. are these podcasts helpful for you? We have a couple of statistics about how many people are downloading or how many people are listening, but Don't know too much about who you are or what you're doing. And so like I said, today is September 9th. And here in the next week or two of September, Javon and I are thinking about do we keep doing these podcasts? Should we do them every week or would every other week be better? are they an appropriate length or it's too long? Shorten it down or boy, we'd like to go deeper. Let's have a little bit more. let us know what you would like. And the best way to do that, send an email to Jesse at WaterwayChurch. dot com. So J-E-S-S-E at waterwaychurch.com. Let us know what would be helpful for you related to this podcast. Or maybe you don't care at all and say, well, just let it go. Spend your time doing something else. Those are the kind of things that that we're thinking about right now. But if this has been a blessing to you, just let us know how it touched you and that'll help us figure out how we can be helpful in the future. But so glad that you guys have have checked in today and thanks for checking in here this summer. Blessings to you. We'll see you next time.