I can imagine the stunned look on the faces of the two disciples as they sat at the table with the
recently vacated seat on the other side. He was gone, but He wasn’t! What hope filled their hearts! What inexpressible joy had just fallen on them! The devastation of recent events surrounding Jesus, who had so caught their attention, had been dissolved in a moment.
They had an unshakable assurance that He had never really left–perhaps for a moment, having died on the cross and been buried in the tomb, but all that had changed. He was alive! He had returned to them. He had risen, and now a greater, more amazing hope filled their heart.
You see, these disciples experienced what every disciple needs to experience: they needed the light of the first day–the light that shone out of the darkness when God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3)! Paul deliberately alludes to the creation event in the passage found in 2 Corinthians.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6, NKJV)
Jesus, the true light of the world, had dawned in the darkness of their hearts, and what was now permanently etched there was an irreversible sighting. He truly ‘went in and stayed with them’! (Luke 24:29).
This revealing of Jesus Christ is the secret of the church’s strength and power. It is its only foundation. You see, the church cannot exist without it. We need to see the Lord, not with our natural eyes in the same way as the disciples did, but with the illumination of the eyes of our hearts–if the church is ever going to be manifest in the world today. Only by seeing the light, just like in Genesis, ‘In the beginning’, can the church become something that is built by God.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18b, NKJV)
The greatest tragedy today is that Jesus has been relegated to a topic of study, something to understand with our minds more so than our hearts. He has become a topic to study within the spectrum of church activities; the doctrine of Christology. We study the person rather than meet with Him. This has happened because we have allowed other things to take His place. Things like preaching, teaching, gifts of the Spirit, evangelism, doctrines, bible study, leadership, missions and outreach etc. All of these other things, other subjects of interest in the church, can distract from the main thing. The sole source of power, life and purpose can be cut off simply because we are distracted by other things garnishing greater appeal over and above Jesus Himself. This is where the church has suffered loss: loss of power, loss of passion, loss of direction, loss of its foundation, loss of interest and a loss of heavenly vision.
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.(Matthew 16:18a, NKJV)
When God shines into our hearts the light of the true knowledge of Himself in the face of Jesus Christ, this founds the church upon Jesus alone. Only by having this experiential and revelatory knowledge of Christ, can we see the highest thought in God’s mind.
The church is conceived in the heart and mind of God, not by sticking a group of people together and meeting as something we call ‘church’ because we all have God and Christianity as our common interest.
There are many believers today who share a common bond in knowing, believing, and following God. But the deficit of revelation concerning Christ impoverishes any such gathering. If we lack light, we lack power. If we lack light, we lack knowledge. If we lack light, we lack life, purpose, and the main thing that God wants. Only after the original creation’s light became apparent was anything else spoken into being by God. Seas teeming with life, trees, plants animal life etc. Only when the right conditions existed did everything else appear.
The only foundation for the church is Jesus Christ. When we have genuinely seen Him, we will begin to see the church that God intended to start to emerge, and we will want to pursue nothing else! We will, in fact, lay down our lives so we can have Him.
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7-8 NKJV)
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21, NKJV)
These two disciples from Emmaus saw the Lord with their own physical eyes. For us today, it is with the eyes of our hearts. The same in-shining must take place. This is nonetheless a true sighting and a true event. Once it has taken place in your life, you will know it and will never be the same. Without this light, the church will not return to its original state of glory. There is no other way, no other means. Not even becoming a biblical scholar or a doctor of divinity will give you the authentic light of true knowledge if Christ has not shone into your heart by God. Once this light has truly shone into the heart then the church will be made one in vision. That vision is the only Son in whom the father is well pleased.
God is no respecter of men. The kingdom of God is for all who will humble themselves and seek after this revelation of the Son. The kingdom is for babes, those who are needy and dependent (Matthew 18:2-5), for all those who will humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and seek the king and His kingdom. For all who will come.
And I am going further. We may have the most thoroughgoing knowledge of the Bible, so that we are able to analyse every book of the Bible, and have it there in our head clearly, and tell anybody at any moment what is in this book, and that chapter. We may have the whole thing, and yet it may still be in the natural mind, and neither change us nor the people to whom we give it. And worse than that, it may entirely incapacitate us for understanding spiritual things! We may be altogether in another realm from what is real, spiritual understanding. It is necessary to recognize this, that it is not a matter of Bible knowledge, though that is so important. It is not a matter of brain and intellect and scholarship, it is not at all a matter of our attainments in that realm, however valuable such things may be, given the other; but it is a matter of “God having shined in our hearts to give the knowledge”. It is another kind of knowledge; an altogether different knowledge comes by the in-shining. – T. Austin-Sparks
Knowing Jesus intellectually is a poor substitute for knowing Him with your spirit and your heart having been enlightened. The saints of the first century were mainly illiterate. They didn’t have Bibles, dedicated buildings to worship in, or a professional clergy. But what they did have was a true revelation of Jesus Christ. It is for this end that we live; it is for this end that we die.
These and many other disciples have given up their lives after receiving one glimpse of this Christ. To see Him is to have the light of life shine into our hearts. They had seen the true light! And so must we!