In the Bible Christian Ministry
Sunday 9-20-26 (Communion, Part 3)
  • I Love to Praise Him
  • He Is
  • Let It Rise
  • O How I Love Jesus
  • Welcome Into This Place

  • Introduction

    Look around at the culture we navigate every single day. We are living in what historians call the most information-dense era in the history of the world. If you go back two thousand years to the Biblical world, to the cities of the Mediterranean, people who wanted new information had to leave their houses and walk into public places, open colonnades, and central courtyards.
    You had to physically stand there, listen to philosophers and rabbis debate, evaluate their rhetoric in real time, and determine what was worth taking home. It required physical presence. It required patience.
    Today, we don't have to walk to an open courtyard. We don't even have to get out of bed.
    With a single flick of your thumb on a glass screen, you can summon the accumulated libraries of human history.
    You can decide in a split second:
    Do I want entertainment?
    Do I want career strategies?
    Do I want financial metrics?
    Do I want theological podcasts?
    We have hours of podcasts queued up in our cars.
    We have smartwatches buzzing against our wrists. We drive down the highway with GPS prompts barking directions, billboards screaming commercial promises, and talk radio blaring through the speakers.
    Our minds are completely saturated with data.
    And because our heads are full, we make a dangerous assumption: we assume that because we are stimulated, we must be spiritually directed. We feel smart. We feel informed. We feel like we finally know where we need to go and how we need to play the game.
    Yet beneath all that noise, our souls are running on empty.
    That exhaustion is exactly where we find two disciples on the first Easter afternoon.

    I. The Saturated Mind on a Seven-Mile Road

    Now after Jesus had risen from the dead.
    Luke 24:13–17 NIV
    13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.
    The Gospel of Luke records that on that very day, two of them were walking to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles west of Jerusalem.
    Seven Roman miles of winding, steep, dusty mountain road.
    They were walking away from the epicenter of the resurrection rumors.
    They had just spent three days watching their entire movement collapse. Their expectations were shattered.
    As they walked, the Bible says they were talking and debating.
    Their minds were racing.
    They were analyzing the politics, breaking down the rumors of the empty tomb, replaying the horror of the crucifixion, and trying to make sense of their shattered dreams.
    They were in the thick fog of an intellectual commuter’s commute—slumped posture, heavy hearts, totally consumed by their own analytical spin.
    And right in the middle of their debate, Jesus Himself drew near and walked with them.
    Do not miss the tragedy of Luke 24:16: "But their eyes were kept from recognizing him."
    Think about that scene.
    They are having the greatest seven-mile Bible study ever recorded.
    The Author of the Scriptures is walking in stride with them, opening up Moses and all the Prophets, explaining why the Messiah had to suffer and enter His glory. Verse 32 tells us their hearts were burning within them. But even with burning hearts, their eyes were still locked shut.
    You can listen to five Christian podcasts a day. You can stack your nightstand with leadership books. You can memorize doctrinal formulas until your head aches. You can even sit under great preaching where your emotional heart burns within your chest.
    But you can still be utterly blind to the living presence of Jesus walking right beside you in your daily life.
    Information informs the intellect, but it does not open the eye

    II. The Illusion of the Game and the Knock at the Door

    Revelation 3:17–20 NIV
    17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
    How many of us have spent decades of our lives exhausting ourselves trying to learn the rules of the game?
    You go into your career, and you learn the unspoken politics:
    it’s not just what you know, it’s who you know.
    You learn whose ego to stroke, who you have to placate, what meetings you have to be seen in, and what corporate mask you have to wear to get that promotion. You play the game because you think that’s how you survive.
    Then we bring those same worldly formulas into our private lives.
    In marriage, we grab cultural clichés: "happy wife, happy life."
    We treat covenant like a business transaction:
    If I do steps A, B, and C, you are required to give me peace, love, and respect XYZ.
    In parenting, we tell ourselves that if we just check every worldly box, buy the right curriculum, and manage their schedules, nothing will ever go sideways.
    We convince ourselves that we have the manual.
    PERSONAL:
    I spent years thinking I had the answers. I played by the rules. I didn't break the protocol. I did what the worldly formulas dictated. And yet, there were times where I woke up to an outcome that was the complete, shocking opposite of what the game promised.
    I watched formulas collapse.
    I watched self-reliance fail utterly.
    Why? Because the game of the world is rigged to keep you self-sufficient, exhausted, and blind.
    That is why Jesus speaks so urgently in Revelation chapter 3.
    For generations, we have taken Revelation 3:20 and painted it on tracts for the street. Something we tell sinners: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
    But Jesus was not standing outside the house of a sinner. He was standing on the doorstep of His own church in Laodicea!
    Revelation 3:20 NIV
    20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
    The Laodicean church was wealthy, credentialed, and culturally successful.
    In verse 17, they boasted: "I am rich, I have prospered, and I have need of nothing." They had great programs. They had impressive administration. But they had locked the Master outside of His own sanctuary!
    Notice they weren’t trying to ignore. He said if you can HEAR me over all that stuff. If you can hear me over YOU!!!
    Jesus wasn't knocking on the door to inspect their credentials.
    He was knocking to enter in and share a meal. The original text uses the word for Dinner (deipnéō). In the ancient world, breakfast (ariston) was a hurried snack eaten on the run. But deipnon was the main evening meal—the unhurried, intimate gathering where people reclined, laid down their defenses, and engaged in deep, covenantal communion (met' autou).
    Jesus is standing at the door of your private world today. He doesn't want to be a polite weekend guest who stays in the front foyer while you manage the rest of the house. He is knocking to enter the private, uncurated spaces of your life.

    III. The Inversion of the Table

    Go back to our story:
    Luke 24:28–30 NIV
    28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
    Notice what happens when the two disciples arrive at their house in Emmaus.
    Jesus makes as if He is going to travel further down the road.
    He will walk beside you all day long, but He will never kick down the door of your private space. He waits for the authentic invitation.
    The text says they said to Him: "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So He went in to stay with them.
    Now picture the scene.
    In first-century Jewish culture, the master of the home held indisputable social and legal authority over the dining room.
    He sat at the head of the table.
    It was his exclusive legal right to take the bread, pronounce the blessing , break the loaf by hand, and distribute portions to the guests and dependents.
    A traveling person, an invited stranger, was bound by strict Mediterranean etiquette to sit back, keep his hands off the loaf, and receive whatever was handed to him.
    Look at Luke 24:30 The moment they sit down to eat, an absolute social rupture takes place:
    Luke 24:30 NIV
    30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
    Someone come in your home: you invite them for dinner—a stranger and they start fixing plates
    Without asking permission from the homeowner, the traveling Guest reaches across the table, picks up the unbroken loaf, speaks the blessing, fractures it with His own hands, and distributes it to the masters of the house.
    In a single moment, the invited Guest becomes the Sovereign Host!
    This is what happens when you truly welcome Jesus into your life.
    You cannot invite Jesus into your private space and expect to keep the head of the table.
    You cannot bring Him into your home, your marriage, your career, or your finances and ask Him to be a co-pilot while you run the agenda.
    The moment He crosses the threshold, He strips away the worldly game. He removes the petty traditions, the human standards, and the prideful checklists we thought we needed to survive.
    And when Jesus takes the table, He doesn't just help you win the game—He breaks the game board entirely.
    The game of the world was set up against you.
    The rules were designed to keep you performing on a treadmill. But when you stop paying attention to worldly formulas and give Christ the head of your table, He reorders your life. He begins moving you into spaces, into callings, into rooms of purpose that were not even drawn on the world's board!
    The board didn't have a square for your destiny, but the Sovereign Host who made the universe bypasses human gatekeepers and places you exactly where He desires you to be.
    Personal Story:
    I thought i had the game. I thought I was moving within the rules
    Here comes Jesus and broke every rule. But the rules broke in my FAVOR.
    I’m playing MONOPOLY

    IV. Sight Through the Broken Loaf

    Luke 24:30–35 NIV
    30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
    Luke 24:30–35
    The moment Jesus assumed command of the table, verse 31 happens:
    "And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight."
    The Greek verb Luke uses here is a compound word: meaning thoroughly or through, and to open.
    It means to cleave completely in two, to surgically split open what was once barred, barricaded, and sealed shut.
    Luke uses this exact word three distinct times in this chapter:
    3 different words but it was the surgical reference to open—to cut through.
    In verse 31: their eyes were opened (diēnoichthēsan).
    Luke 24:31 NIV
    31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
    In verse 32: He opened (diēnoigen) the Scriptures.
    Luke 24:32 NIV
    32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
    In verse 45: He opened (diēnoixen) their minds to understand.
    Luke 24:45 NIV
    45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
    He does the same with us:
    Open your eyes to see Him
    Open the Scriptures to see the word
    Open your mind to understand more
    Spiritual sight is not something you figure out on your own. ALL THAT TALKING THEY DID.
    It is not an intellectual deduction you arrive at by listening to a thousand hours of podcasts or scrolling through religious feeds. Human intellect cannot generate divine sight. Revelation requires a sovereign surgical cut from the Holy Spirit!
    And look at where the surgery took place.
    Their eyes weren't opened during the seven-mile sermon on the highway.
    Their eyes weren't opened while they were arguing theology in the heat of the day.
    Their eyes were opened in the breaking of the bread. AFTER THEY INVITED HIM IN
    Imagine that small dining room in Emmaus. After seven miles of non-stop talking, debating, walking, and mental noise, Jesus takes the loaf. Suddenly, all the chatter stops. The room falls dead silent.
    And in that sacred, reverent stillness, the only sound left in the room is the audible, crisp, sacred tear of the crust of bread.
    As the bread tears, they look at the hands holding the loaf. They see the nail scars. They see the sacred signature of the Savior. And in a flash, all the fog of the road evaporates. The One they thought they were hosting is the Living God who sustains their very breath!
    True revelation always reverses your direction.
    They didn't go to sleep. They were exhausted after walking seven miles uphill, but the moment their eyes were opened, their energy was restored. They stood up from the table and ran the seven miles back to Jerusalem in the pitch black of night just to tell the body of believers: "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"

    The Climax: Breaking the Board and Opening the Heart

    He opens your eyes to see Him.
    He opens the Scriptures to reveal His Word.
    He opens your mind to understand the depth of His truth.
    Because spiritual sight is not something you figure out on your own. Revelation requires a sovereign, surgical cut from the Holy Spirit!
    Their eyes were opened in the breaking of the bread—AFTER THEY INVITED HIM IN.
    For years, many of us have lived under the exhaustion of trying to learn the rules of the game.
    You learn the rules at work:
    You try to apply those same worldly formulas at home:
    We convince ourselves that we know the rules. But let me tell you what happens when you spend years playing that game: there will come moments where you do everything the game demands—you don’t cut corners, you don’t break the rules, you do everything right—and you still end up staring at an outcome that fails you completely. The board collapses under your feet.
    Why? Because the game of this world was never designed to give you life.
    And that is why Jesus is standing outside the door in knocking. He’s not knocking on the sinner’s door; He’s knocking on the door of a church that thought it had the rules figured out! A church that said, "I have prospered, and I have need of nothing."
    He is saying: "Invite Me in. Hand Me the table. Stop playing by their rules."
    Because when you finally stop obsessing over the rules of the game and start paying attention to God—Jesus doesn't just help you win the game; He breaks the board entirely!
    He blows the worldly formulas out of the water.
    After seven miles of talking, debating, walking, and mental noise, Jesus takes the loaf. Suddenly, all the chatter stops. The room falls dead silent.
    sacred tear of the crust of bread.
    As the bread tears, they look at the hands holding the loaf. They see the nail scars. They see the sacred signature of the Savior. And in a flash, all the fog of the road evaporates. The One they thought they were hosting is the Living God who sustains their very breath!
    True revelation always reverses your direction.
    They didn’t go to sleep. They were exhausted after walking seven miles uphill, but the moment their eyes were opened, their energy was restored. They stood up from that table and ran those seven miles back to Jerusalem in the pitch black of night just to tell the body of believers: "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"

    The Final Transition to the Elements

    As we prepare our hearts to accept what has already been done for us, let’s stop trying to play the game of this world. Let’s stop trying to manage our own strength, negotiate our own peace, and run our own lives.
    Right now, at this sacred moment, let's open our hearts to Him.
    You have walked seven miles in your own static this week. You have carried your own plans, worried over your own formulas, and listened to a thousand competing voices barking in your ears. But at this altar, the chatter stops. The room goes quiet.
    You did not bake this bread. You did not press these grapes. You did not earn this seat. The Guest who walked with you down the road has taken His rightful place as Host.
    As our ministers prepare to serve the bread and the cup, step away from the noise of your week. Hand Him the head of your table. Say to Him: "Lord, take the bread. Reorder my house. Break the board, and open my eyes."
    Be still, behold His scarred hands, and encounter the Living Lord who sustains your very breath.
    CARDS: Invitation to God.
    1 Corinthians 11:23–32 NIV
    23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

      • Luke 24:13–17NIV2011

      • Revelation 3:17–20NIV2011

      • Revelation 3:20NIV2011

      • Luke 24:28–30NIV2011

      • Luke 24:30NIV2011

      • Luke 24:30–35NIV2011

      • Luke 24:31NIV2011

      • Luke 24:32NIV2011

      • Luke 24:45NIV2011

      • 1 Corinthians 11:23–32NIV2011

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