[Darris McNeely] Would it be possible that you or I may not hear Christ, in a sense, knocking at the door, wanting to fellowship, wanting to guide our lives, wanting to be a part of our life?

There's a story, a great story in the Bible, called the road to Emmaus. It's a post-resurrection story of disciples walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a short distance, after Christ's resurrection. And Christ pulls up alongside of them. He kind of appears in their midst and begins to talk with them, and they do not recognize Him. They do not know who He was. They had known Him in His earthly ministry. Now in the resurrected state, they didn't recognize Him. But He begins to talk to them. 

And down in verse 28, they come to a point where as the two disciples, Christ walking with them, drew near to the village which was Emmaus where they were going, Christ indicated that He would go on, He would part from them. But they constrained Him, it says, saying, "Abide with us." In other words, stay with us. It's evening, the day is gone, and come on in. Let's sit down and talk more. Let's, you know, share hospitality. Let's have a meal. 

So Christ went in to stay with them, it says in verse 29. And they sat down to have a meal, in verse 30. They set a table, Christ took the bread that was a part of the meal, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And it's when He did this, it says, that their eyes were opened and they knew Him. They knew now that they were talking with Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus Christ. And when that happened, after the breaking of the bread and the blessing of the bread and the recognition, Christ vanished. He vanished from their sight and they were sitting the table by themselves. 

Now here's what happened, verse 32. They said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us?" They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 of the remaining disciples, and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen and indeed, he's appeared to Simon." And they told the things that had happened to them with Christ on that road, the road to Emmaus.

They invited Christ in. They were talking about Christ. I covered in the first part of this series, they were walking and talking about Christ and the things that had happened trying to figure it all out, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the empty tomb. What did it all mean? They didn't recognize Christ coming in their midst and talking with them until they invited Him into their home and He sat with them and blessed and broke the bread. Then they recognized who He was. 

A point that we have to understand is, they didn't recognize fully Jesus Christ until they invited Him into their home and they sat down for a meal. Now, Christ is not going to set a table with us in the same way, but the resurrected Christ, through the Spirit, does dwell with us, does live within us. And we do have fellowship with the Father and with the Son. But we have to invite Them into our life, we have to respond to the knock.

In Revelation 3, there's an interesting scene in the message to the church at Laodicea where Jesus stands at the door, it says, and He knocks wanting to come into the church, the members of this congregation, in the city of Laodicea. And they were not hearing that. 

Can we hear Christ, His words, His teaching? We have to be talking about it. We have to be studying the Word of God. And we have to be seeking that relationship. Christ said, "None can come to me, except the Spirit of the Father draw them." When we engage in that correct way of understanding God the Father, Jesus Christ, then They can dwell with us and come in and lead us and teach us. 

The road to Emmaus has a tremendous story for us to learn about making God a part of our life, His word, His way so that it burns within us like it did with these two disciples. When we get to that point, then we are aimed at a relationship with God that can literally change our lives. And that's what it's all about. That's at the heart and core of the story of the road to Emmaus. 

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.