{"id":8529,"date":"2019-08-16T11:14:12","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/?p=8529"},"modified":"2019-08-23T08:57:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T12:57:29","slug":"ctpress-august-16-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/2019\/08\/16\/ctpress-august-16-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"CTPress August 16, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pastor John has prepared brief devotions for the newsletter during each week of his sabbatical (July 1-September 30). Each passage is a favorite of Pastor John.<\/em>
This week: Luke 24:13-35 <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite moment in the gospels after the resurrection of Jesus is known as the \u201cEmmaus Road\u201d incident described in detail in Luke 24. It is mere days after the death and resurrection of Jesus. A couple of the disciples, probably two who were not part of the Twelve, but of the larger group of disciples, are on their way to Emmaus, which is about seven miles from Jerusalem. Jesus decides to disguise himself and walk with these two disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him (24:15,16).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear why Jesus doesn\u2019t just come right out and say, \u201cHey, it\u2019s me!\u201d but instead, he learns what they are thinking. He asks what has them so excited, and the two disciples tell Jesus that in recent days a man they thought was the Messiah had come to Jerusalem, and that all signs seemed to point to him being the One. But then, they tell Jesus, he was arrested and put to death. They go on and tell Jesus that the most unbelievable part of all of this is the way some of the women they knew were telling others that Jesus wasn\u2019t in the tomb. At that point, Jesus, whose identity was still hidden from them, decides to walk with them and starts teaching them what the scriptures said about God\u2019s Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (24:27).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the two men and Jesus get to Emmaus, it\u2019s time to eat, and they implore Jesus (still in disguise) to stay and dine with them. And that\u2019s when the story takes in interesting turn.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight (24:30,31)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I love about this passage is that it teaches us about how God reveals his gospel to us: through the scriptures and through the sacraments.<\/strong> This is one of the reasons the scriptures are so important. This is why frequent celebration of the Lord\u2019s Supper is encouraged \u2013 that we would be always learning about and becoming reacquainted with the good news about Jesus Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends, may you always find Christ in the Word and at the Table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessings,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frequent celebration of the Lord\u2019s Supper is encouraged \u2013 that we would be always learning about and becoming reacquainted with the good news about Jesus Christ. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/This-is-my-body.-1.png?fit=755%2C470&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8532,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions\/8532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ctpres.org\/ctpressblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}