Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation within throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone. Happy Tuesday morning.
Welcome to the Together on Mission podcast. We are in Luke chapter 24, and I'm having so much fun in Luke chapter 24. I mean, the whole gospel of Luke is rushing toward Luke 24. It's the crescendo.
It's the high point. It's where it's all going. It's the resurrection of Jesus. And I've been having so much fun the last couple of days just reading it and thinking about podcasting.
And anyway, I hope you are enjoying the journey as well. I probably already said this, but if I didn't, Happy Tuesday morning. Open up to Luke chapter 24, the famous story, The Road to Emmaus, and I don't know what to call this podcast, Opened Eyes, Burning Hearts. I think I'm going to go with opened eyes.
And so the question, of course, is what is God opening your eyes to see this morning right now in this season? What is God reopening your eyes to see? Because I truly believe that in this season, and even particularly on this Tuesday morning, as we find a spot, open up scripture, grab a cup of coffee or tea if that's your fancy, that God is opening eyes to see or to re-see. So what are you seeing that you haven't seen before or that you haven't seen in quite a while?
What is God reawakening in you? You know, reminding you of, we're allowing hope to rush back in where hope has been lost. What must you return to? Maybe you walked away and now it's time to run back, right?
Maybe you think you failed, but it was really just training, right? What's in your heart? What's been spoken over you? And, you know, just a couple of days ago, actually, while I was in Luke 24, God resurrected something in my heart and he opened my eyes and caused my heart to burn again.
And I need to go back to that. You know, I walked away, but I need to run back. And so what is God doing? What's he allowing you to see a need, a person to venture, you know, whatever?
And let's just ponder that question. How is God opening our eyes? How is he reopening our eyes? And so when we get to Luke chapter 24, we get a famous story, Cleopas, who is one of the disciples, maybe one of the 70, not one of the 12.
Cleopas and his wife are walking away from Jerusalem. They're on the road to Emmaus. They're walking away and they're depressed. Jesus failed because he was crucified.
The mission has failed. Everything went dark. No hope. Downcast.
You know, it's done. It's over. And they're walking away and they've lost hope. And I believe that we can relate.
And what Jesus does is he pulls up to them incognito there for whatever reason, they're kept from recognizing the resurrected Jesus. And he pulls up to them and he starts talking to them on the road to Emmaus as they're walking away from Jerusalem and he begins to explain the scripture to them. And they're like, wow, this guy really knows what he's doing with the scripture, but they're still kept from recognizing him. And they get to the place where they're going.
And we pick up reading chapter 24, verse 30. When Jesus was at table with them, Cleopas and his wife, Jesus took bread. He gave thanks. He broke it and he gave it to them.
And verse 31 is so good. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus. They recognized him and they disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us?
And remember, I almost titled this podcast burning hearts because it's such a significant part of the story. Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened up the scripture to us? And in verse 33, they got up, Cleopas and his wife, and they returned at once to Jerusalem. They ran back to Jerusalem.
They found the 11 assembling together. And they said, it's true. The Lord has risen. And in verse 35, when the two of them had told everything that happened on the way, how they recognized Jesus in the midst of the breaking of the bread.
What a story, the road to Emmaus. Their eyes were opened. They were walking away. Jesus met them.
Their eyes were opened. And Luke wants us to remember back to Genesis. Remember when Adam and his wife Eve were in the garden. They took the fruit of the tree and it says that their eyes were opened and they recognized that they were naked.
That was the death of vision, of humanity, of mission. And now we have Cleopas and his wife, this new couple, as new creation is breaking forth and they take and they eat of the bread and wine that Jesus provides. And their eyes are open and they recognize Jesus. That's the putting together of this new world.
It's the renewing or the releasing of hope. It's the getting back on track. It's eyes open. It's hearts burning.
And eyes being open and hearts burning go together. And I think the spirit of God is even doing something right now as he's opening our eyes and causing our hearts to burn again. And notice that it's in the opening up of scripture, which is what we're doing right now. And then what they do, notice verse 33, is they get up and they run back to Jerusalem.
They walked away, but they run back. We've walked away, but it's time to run back. And they run back and they speak and they gather and they live out of this resurrection of hope, this renewed call back to what God is opening their eyes to see. So what is God opening your eyes to see or to re-see?
What message? What must you say? What does it look like to return to hope, to mission, to go back, you know, to pick that back up? And maybe what we're realizing is what happened in our past wasn't a failure.
It was training for what God is opening our eyes to see right here and right now. And honestly, there are seasons where we do walk away, where our eyes, for whatever reason, get closed, where it's difficult to recognize Jesus. It's like we can't see anything but hopelessness. And we have to walk through those seasons.
And then there's a breaking of bread through scripture. There's an opening of eyes. There's a burning of hearts. There's a, even though we walked away, there's a running back.
So what does it look like for you to go back to Jerusalem, to have that hope, that mission, that call renewed? And so here's our prayer this morning. Jesus, as I fix my eyes on you, open my eyes, cause my heart to burn again and show me what you want me to see. And I just want to give you that prayer again.
Jesus, as I fix my eyes on you, open my eyes, cause my heart to burn again and show me what you want me to see. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today.
If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store. And check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram, or even check out our website at inlandvineyard.org. In theranbourne shootings, it comes to the future. And we'll talk through the next week.
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