Have you ever been asked the question, “If you could have a conversation with anyone, from any period in history, who would it be?”
Without hesitation, my answer would be, “I want to be with Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, as He explains the Scriptures to me.”
“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
Luke 24:27 (NASB)
Jesus’ disciples were all Jews who knew the Scriptures and were looking for the promised messiah. Before Jesus came to earth, God spoke to His people through prophets, telling them of a messiah who would come and rescue them. These prophecies, found all throughout the Hebrew scriptures, pointed God’s people to a time when He would make a new covenant with Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
For these Jewish disciples, this particular conversation with Jesus had to be the ultimate light bulb moment! The disciples said “…’Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’” Luke 24:32 (NASB)
The good news for the rest of us who were not on that road to Emmaus two thousand years ago, is that the New Testament (or the New Covenant) opens up the prophecies to us. As people living after Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, we have the privilege of reading God’s Word and having hundreds or thousands of our own light bulb moments.
As we read Isaiah 53, written over 700 years before Jesus, we see that God promised He would send a servant who would be pierced for our transgressions, take the penalty of our sin, and account many righteous (the best kind of accounting!). Jesus fulfilled so many Old Testament prophecies that it would be statistically impossible for it all to be a coincidence. With His arrival to earth, Jesus suddenly illuminated the Old Testament (or Old Covenant) Scriptures. “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” John 1:9 (ESV)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 (ESV)
The Bible reads as one book, although written by forty different authors over a period of fifteen hundred years (see Reliable Truth by Richard Simmons). So, each time I read, I get to discover more fulfilled prophecies for myself. Jesus told His disciples that although He (the Word made flesh) had to leave them, God the Father would send the Holy Spirit to help them.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:26 (NASB)
When we trust Jesus for our salvation, God gifts us the same amazing gift of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift, I get to have my own road to Emmaus experience with Jesus.
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*Photo credit: Clay Clark