<TITLE>05. Par 16-20</TITLE>L-16 And as they walked along the road, a strange Man walked out. And they... He--He said unto them, "Why are you so sad?" They should be happy. Said, "Why are you so sad, and what is this conversation that you're speaking of?" And He said...
They said back to Him, "Are you a stranger around Jerusalem? Don't you know the things that's been going on? We had a Prophet by the Name of Jesus of Nazareth. And we hoped in Him that He would be the Deliverer. But this is the third day and our people crucified Him." And they begin to tell the story of what had taken place, how He'd been dead, how they'd expected Him to be the great Deliverer, but... How that prophet of the most high God could stand there in pity, with spit on His face and let a soldier put a rag around His head, and blind His eyes, and hit Him on the head with a stick and say, "Now prophecy, you prophesier, and tell us who hit you, we will believe you." That was more than the people could understand. They was thinking that the Messiah would be something different from that.

L-17 And if that isn't a true picture today, people are expecting the Kingdom of God to be different than what it really is. They're expecting it to come in splendor. They're expecting it to be--arrive in the Vatican City or some great cathedral. But because He brings it amongst a bunch of poor, illiterate, humble-hearted people, it blinds the eyes of the wise and prudent.
Oh, what a mockery for that woman to take and mock, washing His feet with her hair as the true believer had did. What a mockery to see Him hanging there on the cross with His hands tacked to the cross, and to hear the high priest, said now, "If you are the Son of God, perform a miracle here. Just pull your hands loose and come down off the cross and we will believe you."

L-18 Now, in the natural man's mi--mind, the carnal man, the church men, the make-believer... Because every congregation holds three different types of people: that is the true believer, and the make-believer, and the unbeliever. Every congregation has them. And to think that this Man Who had opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, and had raised the man from the dead that had been dead four days, and could make such statements as He did, and then would hang there with spit on His face, and let a high priest rile upon Him, and tell Him such things, and He never opened His mouth and said a word back in debate. For He said, "I do that which always pleases God." And it was pleasing to God to have that to happen.

L-19 Now, we watch Him for a few minutes. Now, these disciples, they couldn't understand why this must be done. So as they went along, and begin to pour out the story, then Jesus stops them. You see, He appeared to them when they were talking about Him. And that's the reason He doesn't appear to too many of the church people today; they don't talk about Him enough. The church is always talking about some big doings they got going on, some big social party, or some picnic they're going to, or some new something that they're going to do, some of the societies. The church is so burdened with societies till it hasn't got any room for Christ. The real church is always unladened with all these societies and turns everything to a prayer meeting, those who know Him and love Him.

L-20 And here He was. They were talking about Him when He appeared. If we would quit talking about our neighbors, and quit talking about the hypocrites in the church, and talk more about Jesus, we'd have more appearings of Jesus. Talking about the faults of the preacher, talking about the faults of something else, and just talk about Jesus, there'd be more things happen.


<A HREF="P6">Next Page</A>