5.14.24 | “They returned at once to Jerusalem…”

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Tuesday Prayer Room – 9am 

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. – Luke 24:33-35

PRAYER GUIDE

These disciples had just spent the past several hours of their lives walking away from Jerusalem. By the time they arrived at home, and prepared a meal for Jesus, it was already dark. Put yourself in their place. They are weary and tired, physically and emotionally. They finally arrived home safe. And it’s almost bedtime. The idea of getting up, and returning to Jerusalem, the place they just came from (in the dark) would be the very last thing on their minds. A journey of seven miles in pitch black in the ancient world, a world with no street lights, no cell phones, no google maps, no 911 in case they met with bandits or animals on the way – would be utterly ridiculous.

And yet it is exactly what they did. Because something utterly tremendous and unexpected and world shattering just happened. They encounter the Resurrected Jesus. And when you encounter the Risen Jesus, truly encounter him, you cannot keep it to yourself. They had to go back to Jerusalem, seven miles, in the dark, in order to tell the others. News this good, this amazing, could not wait…it had to be shared.

And so it is when we truly encounter Jesus. Whether it is in a chapel at Asbury, or in a healing or miracle, or in an encounter with the Holy Spirit. In revival, whether personal or corporate, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to behold the Risen Jesus…to make Jesus real to us. And the result is that we tell others. 

Tim Keller once said that the reason we don’t share about Jesus with others is because on the deepest level, he is not real to us. But when the Spirit makes Jesus real to us…to our hearts…then it is hard to keep us from telling others about him. Let’s pray for that to happen to God’s people in this season!

PRAYER PROMPTS:

  • Pray for the Holy Spirit to make Jesus real to you, to your family, to your church, and to Christians throughout New England.
  • Pray for encounters with Jesus – for Jesus to be revealed to us at a heart level in the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread.
  • Pray for God to activate his people in witness…in telling others what we have experienced of the Risen Jesus.
  • Pray for God to motivate us to go to great lengths to tell others. To inconvenience ourselves as these two did. To cross barriers of discomfort, to tell others about Jesus.
  • Pray particularly that the barriers that have been erected in the hearts of Christians in past years and seasons would be torn down, so that we would begin telling younger generations (Gen Z and Gen Alpha…many of whom have never heard that Jesus rose from the dead…and are interested in knowing more) about Jesus.
  • Pray for God to activate evangelists, like these two disciples on the Emmaus Road, to share the good news that Jesus is alive.