The Breaking of Bread

if you'd all stand to your feet tonight we're going to read from the book of luke chapter 24. i'm very thankful for this opportunity to brother williford honor the williford family and uh in their work that they do uh the impact they've had on my life this family as a student in ugst um brother williford and i had a class maybe two together um we're so thankful to be here tonight we're going to be reading from luke 24 and we're going to start at verse 28. rather than reading the the whole passage that starts in verse 13 we're just going to read the end of it and we may be referencing some earlier verses in this passage as we go verse 28 of luke 24 and they drew nigh into the village whether they went and he made as though he would have gone further but they constrained him saying abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent and he went in to tarry with them and it came to pass as he sat at meat with them he took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight and they said one to another did not our heart burn within us well he talked with us by the way while he opened to us the scriptures and they rose up that same hour and returned to jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them saying the lord has risen and hath appeared to simon and they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of bread i wonder if we could just pray one more time ask the lord to speak to us tonight in the name of jesus we love you and we thank you god we worship you and give you honor and give you glory you are our lord god you are our savior you are our king lord and we humble ourselves and your presence tonight gone we want a word from you tonight jesus we need you to speak to our hearts lord so that we could leave from this place transformed lord jesus and empower lord god to continue your mission in the name of jesus we love you we thank you in jesus name amen let's give the lord a handcuff thank you and you may be seated amen i um

at the conference last year i gave a little bit of background of uh uruguay the the spiritual climate and just kind of the context that we work in so i don't want to bore you repeating the same things but for some of you that might not be have been there or some of you that might not remember because a lot of time as sister amber said it feels like 10 years have passed since february of 2020. but uruguay is a very interesting country it's it's very unique in that in south america it is the only country that uh does not have a national or state religion and uh this is something that in the last few century in the last few decades has been changing the rest of the world has been catching up or lester the latin american world has been catching up to uruguay but nearly 120 years ago uruguay had a president that was very far ahead of his time he was very progressive and he became the first latin american president to cut off funding to the catholic church and he determined to have a true separation of church and state in the country of uruguay so with this came a a change in the philosophy of parliament and recognition and recognition of god and the christian god and religious references were removed from parliament who were removed from the the educational system and so what happened now most latin american countries and most modern countries have gone this way now but back 120 years ago they were some of the first but what this began was one generation after another uh growing up outside of church consciousness so as a as a result what has happened is that fewer and fewer people each generation that passes uh fill a draw toward religion any religion at all and particularly they feel less drawn to the christian religion so now there are more people in uruguay who claim to be either atheist or agnostic than those who claim to be religious there are many denominations many christian denominations in uruguay but none are really as big and if you would do a side-by-side comparison with uruguay to other countries in latin america you would see a staggering difference now when we first got to uruguay we found ourselves in a very unique spiritual climate something we weren't expecting and something we weren't definitely not used to until we started to have conversations and find out a little bit about the culture and a little bit about some of the spiritual issues that the the missionaries who were our supervisory missionaries at the time um as we were aimers who still live some of you know the walmer family a really christian a good friend of ours is involved in in the spanish ministry here they began to share with us some stories and we began to look even further into the what they were talking about and how uruguay has a very high rate of uh depression and suicide um uruguay's uh on the world index is toward the top of the list and it's the highest in latin america for suicide and depression so what we have kind of put together in our minds is there has to be some kind of link between such a high rate of depression and suicide and the the the general feeling toward religion in that country i read recently that um someone once said that that humans are incurably religious because religion provides answers to the big questions of life that no other philosophy really can and so it seems to us as we it seemed to us as we continue to meet people that a very normal a very normal feeling an emotion that that would be expressed in conversation was hopelessness how people who had attempted suicide or it had been who'd been touched by suicide by maybe the suicide of a loved one or a family member there always seemed to be in the background this sense of well there was no other way out there was nothing else that could be done and so we know that as christians that our hope is in christ amen we know that our hope is in the coming of the lord and his new creation and that is a lot of times what gets us through those dark and dreary times in our life amen knowing that one day whether on earth or whether in heaven everything will eventually be better amen but what happens when that sense of hope is lost or a family cannot provide a loved one with any other sense of hope other than well we're not religious we don't believe in god we don't believe in an afterlife good luck working through all your problems well then if life is really that meaningless it becomes easier and easier to end it at your own will so we began to notice and as we talked with people that every single person we met had either attempted suicide once in their life or was related to or had a friend or family member that had attempted suicide or committed suicide so we knew that we were in deep in this spiritual darkness that we'd never quite experienced before but god called us to an area to start a church where there was no apostolic witness before and so trying to equip ourselves as best as we could through prayer and through other forms of preparation we set out to do a work that we felt god was calling us to during the process god drew us to this passage that we read tonight and this is one of my favorite passages in all of the bible how many are familiar with this road to emmaus passage so powerful and really this was what gave us life and this passage breathed life into our church planting efforts in such a context that seemed completely dark and at times unable to be penetrated but an interesting thing that we see on this passage is two men who are walking in depression and without hope these two men these two disciples after jesus had died and been resurrected they hadn't received the news yet they're walking home to their village of emmaus and here comes jesus up alongside them but the bible says in verse 16 that their eyes were holding that they should not know him jesus comes by and he says what are you guys talking about why are you so sad and they said they got a little smart with him they said are you the only stranger in jerusalem and you haven't heard what's happened they said didn't you hear about this man jesus we thought he was the one who would liberate us we thought he was the one that would come to redeem israel he was the hope that we had been hoping for he was the one we thought our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents had been telling us about all our lives we thought that we knew and had the messiah in our midst and that soon everything was going to get better they put their hopes in the messiah but they told jesus it's all over they crucified him he's dead you see when you are hopeless you kind of find yourself wandering you don't know what's coming next and you don't know where to look you're walking but really you're always looking back what could have been what might have been what should have been but what's interesting is that while these two disciples find themselves in their depression with their hopes dash to pieces jesus comes walking alongside them and they don't even know it we have found in uruguay in these last few years we've noticed an increase in what you might call alternative spiritualities some might know it as the new age movement or new age spirituality we hear a lot of talk about stones and energies and the universe is anyone familiar with this reiki massage techniques that channel the right energies into your body and they put you at peace with the universe and meditation and in all these different things that really are a way for people to connect with something that's bigger than them so while we see that there is there are a lot of atheists and agnostics and a lot of people who don't go to church we do see that there is a hunger we do see that people are reaching out for some kind of connection they're calling it the universe because they sense that there's something bigger and some greater meaning and some greater purpose out there and they're striving to commune with it whoever or whatever it is you see i believe that that's a sign that jesus is walking with them you see they might not yet understand who he is or what he is and they're using the language that's popular that other people are using to describe this great big other that's out there somewhere see they don't know but god is drawing them amen in our job as missionaries is not to bring jesus to a place where he was not because jesus is already everywhere he's walked the places that you and i have not walked yet he's gone there ahead of time and when he calls us there it's with the understanding that he knows what's up it's our job to figure out what he's doing and so as missionaries we are not bringing god to these poor depressed people we are there to introduce these people to the god that's been walking with them all along amen so jesus is walking with these men in their depression their dreams and hopes have been shattered and we don't see until later in the passage that as he talked with them their hearts burned within them you know they can even fill the presence of god they might be reaching and doing their their practices and and and and practicing this kind of spirituality and it might give them a good feeling because something happens when people start to reach out amen that's why that's why god needs a church because there are people who are feeling god's presence there are people who are searching and hungry and they need someone to tell them let me tell you who that god is amen the church is full of apostle paul's on mars hill amen and we are telling the world about the unknown god the god they've been worshiping all along but here jesus now gets smart with them they said are you the only stranger in jerusalem and jesus they they begin to tell them what happened and jesus then he gets smart back and he says in verse 25 oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken and this is interesting right here verse 26 ought not christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory verse 27 and beginning at moses in all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself i don't know about you church but if i could choose my bible teacher i think i would choose jesus i think if anyone could expound the scriptures if anyone could pull the meaning out if anyone could drop serious scriptural knowledge it would be the word himself incarnate right so jesus walking along the way with these two disciples depressed hopes had been dashed looking back on what could have been jesus himself begins to begins to give them a bible study but still they didn't know who he was but it wasn't until he entered into the house with them and he sat down he took bread he blessed it broke it and gave it once that happened through the breaking of bread jesus was revealed to them in 2016 we moved to the city of san jose in the southwestern region of uruguay this is a region uh six departments clustered together combined population of nearly one million people not a single apostolic church so god called us to that region as aimers traveling through the country we'd leave early in the early hours of the morning before the sun rose and on that bus everyone in the as we left the terminal would drift back into sleep but as the sun rose the bus would start to stir people would start to wake up and we're always around this city called san jose it was the point of reference as we would travel up to the to visit the churches in the north it wasn't long until we realized that from the time we left the bus terminal and drove two hours out of the capital city stopped in san jose and continued on two more hours we'd never passed another apostolic church and in those experiences on those drives that's where god called us to that region so we moved to the very city of san jose the the dead center of the southwestern region we didn't know a single soul we had no contacts if i told you i wasn't afraid and a little fearful i would be lying to you but by faith i stepped out and tried to obey god the best as best as i could there was a little bit of opposition maybe that's an understatement there was quite a bit of opposition spiritually and otherwise you know when you start a church from the ground up for the first time you can read all the manuals and you can listen to the testimonies you can attend seminars and talk with other church planters all you want but no one's going to have the same exact situation you did no one's going to have the same exact problems you did so we found ourselves looking for someone that had been exactly in our situation and we never found anybody people would give us advice based on what they did but they had a completely different set of circumstances there were lots of moments of discouragement but we kept pressing on finally one day we decided to go to the city building and just inquire about opportunities there might be in our city for us to at least get plugged in somewhere and god directed us to the director of social development for the entire department of san jose she was an elected government official and she oversaw social services i guess that's what you would call it here so we told her that we were there to start a church and we just wanted to be a blessing and we asked if there was anything we could do so she invited us to start volunteering in these places in the underserved and and impoverished neighborhoods called merenderos and what that is a merienda is a an afternoon snack that uruguayans take it's kind of like high tea but a merendero is for children that get off of school and it's a place where they can go and get a meal for free and for most of them it's the last meal they would eat because at home being from poor families and poor households many of them did not have access to food as easily as others so these are the the impoverished neighborhoods underserved neighborhoods the government would place these these soup kitchen type deals for children there so this uh this lady the director of social development invited us to start volunteering there so we would go and we'd go in the afternoons and we'd play with the kids we'd play soccer we'd color draw with them my wife would bring a curling iron and she would fix the little girl's hair and we'd just have a great time with them then at four o'clock we would serve them a tiny loaf of bread and hot milk and the kids would rush to the to that counter and they'd and they'd try to yell single file everyone's staying in line but they would rush to that line and they'd be grabbing they'd be their little hands would go going in the baskets as we're trying to serve them and and they would two three bites and they would just you know they would be done they would devour these little loafs of bread and everyone would go back off doing what they were doing so one morning remember the situation we're starting a church in our home we had been building up we built up about two groups but something would happen one time or you know one thing or another would happen and they would leave and we'd be back to square one again one morning as i was in between consciousness and unconsciousness this verse this this passage this scene began to play in my mind and as i remembered this phrase he was made known to them in the breaking of bread i envisioned in that moment the little hand stretching out and grabbing that loaf of bread and i felt the lord speak to me in that moment telling me that he brought us to san jose so that he would be made known to the people that are searching my wife is an incredible baker and it's too bad that we're only here for a night because if we were here for longer i can guarantee you someone would taste something if we had access to a kitchen someone would taste something she bakes but we decided later a little while after that i would say maybe in the days after that time after reflecting on that reflecting on this passage my wife started baking like crazy she made several batches of snickerdoodles because snickerdoodles don't exist in uruguay they're an exotic american treat so she made batches of snickerdoodles and wrapped them in cellophane tied a ribbon around them and put a card on each one of them with our church name our information and we went around that city to every single person that we'd had ongoing conversations with we went to the ladies at the post office the gas attendants the the mechanic the people who cut our grass the people who watched our dogs when we traveled we went everywhere where there were people who knew us who we knew and we'd had several conversations with them we brought them these cookies and said we just want you to know that we're praying for you we want you we want god to bless you is there anything specific we can pray for and these cookies miraculously open the door to more conversations and eventually these conversations turned into invitations and within a little while our doors of our home were open and many of these people that had received these cookies were coming into our home sitting around our table as jesus was being revealed to them in the breaking of bread have you ever given to mother's memorial you know mother's memorial is isn't it that ministry that blesses missionaries with appliances so they can live an easier life isn't that what it's all about to us that's not what it's all about mother's memorial provided the oven in the stove that baked the bread and baked the cakes and break baked the cookies and cooked the stews amen that we shared over a table with people who didn't believe in god who didn't know who jesus was those appliances are the means by which jesus is being revealed in our city amen you see what we see here this pattern of jesus taking bread blessing it breaking it and giving it is something that it's a pattern that we find throughout the bible old testament and new testament first with abraham and melchizedek melchizedek brings out bread blesses it breaks it gives it shares it with abraham jesus the miracle the loaves and fishes he takes the bread he blesses it breaks it gives it right on the last night the last supper he institute he took the bread he blessed it he broke it he gave it paul during a shipwreck he takes bread he blesses it breaks it and gives it and this began a tradition in the church throughout the centuries of this practice some traditions practice it weekly but we as often as we practice it isn't it amazing how it can never just be another service isn't it amazing how when we come together to share the lord's supper there's that holy hush that comes over the congregation isn't it strange how just in eating that little wafer and drinking that little thimble of grape juice can uh can provoke such emotion within us and the spirit of god moves in so strongly we might not be able to understand it and i'm still trying to understand it theologically i think about it a lot but all i can say is there's a special presence of god in the communion service because he is made known in the breaking of bread we also see many parables about the kingdom of god where jesus says the kingdom of god is like this it's like a man who has a supper and he invites so many of his his friends and they all you know they kind of have their different plans and so he says okay well go out and invite other people and his servants come back and say well they didn't want to come either so he says okay then go out to the highways and byways and go to the lame into the maimed and to the crippled and to the sinners and the scum of society and compel them to come in see jesus is saying the kingdom of god is like a table amen it's not just for the wealthy it's not just for the noble it's not just for those who think that they deserve the kingdom no the kingdom of god is for everybody the kingdom of god is for your enemies the kingdom of god is for my enemies the kingdom of god is for those who have no other place in the world amen so when jesus said the kingdom of god is like a table what he means is the table is where i am made known the table is where people come to know me amen it's not just a meal it's a ministry amen it's not just a meal it's the kingdom come amen on earth as it is in heaven because enemies can't share a table amen the moment you bring someone to your table you're telling them i love you the minute you invite someone to your table you're saying jesus loves you the minute you bring someone to your table you're saying i want to hear your story i want to bless you and if all they know of christians are people who are angry or people who are uh you know different people who have no interest in the real world if all they know of people who judge and hate and if that's what that's what the media tells them that's what the world tells people about us but if we could start to break down those walls simply by opening up our homes inviting people to our table every single stereotype that they think about us is going to come crashing down over a piece of bread because he's made known in the breaking of bread we began to invite more people to our house more people began to share our table with us people who had never prayed before we'd bring them to our house and before we sat down we'd say look our custom in our home is to thank god for our food before we eat i know you're not religious i know you don't believe in our god and i hope it doesn't offend you but would you mind we're just going to pray feel free to do what you want if you'd like to pray with us if you'd like to just bow your head if you don't want to do anything we're going to pray because this is our custom and not a single person ever ever felt at least showed us that they didn't like what they were doing that they didn't like what we were doing nobody ever said no i'd rather you not pray but people who had never prayed before we watched them around our table close their eyes bow their head and we thanked god for our food jesus is made known in the breaking of bread we noticed that we were getting people into our house sharing meals with us praying with us who would never have stepped foot in a church before now jesus is drawing them he'd been drawing them for a while and they might even have heard the bible being spoken or preached at them maybe on a street corner somewhere maybe flipping through the radio stations but until just like the disciples on the road to emmaus until there was some kind of action put with those words not even jesus himself could convince him by convince them by the word only it took hospitality it took sharing a meal before their eyes were actually opened

so we realize church it's easy to overcomplicate things it's easy to get a narrow focus and think that it's all about words and as pentecostals we're all about demonstration amen but if we're not careful we can fall into either one of those two spheres but this story here lets us know that as these disciples walked in their depression hopes dashed dreams come crashing down searching hoping maybe something will happen again we don't know but jesus was walking with them they heard the word jesus himself expounded the scriptures opened their understanding they understood what he was saying but they didn't know him until he broke bread with them so tonight i want to encourage someone to think who might need a loaf of banana bread this week let's think about who in our neighborhood maybe someone in our neighborhood has just suffered a tragedy maybe someone in our neighborhood has lost their job and now they're looking for an answer maybe a lasagna would be a blessing to them one less meal they'd have to pay for

let's stand to our feet tonight i i feel like this is a good stopping point i'm running out of time too but why do we make it so complicated sometimes you know i didn't think as a young 16 year old when god called me to be a missionary i didn't think that i had what it took to be what i thought was a great super spiritual giant someone who was set apart in my mind i thought missionaries were just you know apostle paul then modern day missionaries that's what i thought and i thought god i can't do that i'll never i'll never be able to be that spiritual or that anointed and you know i realize that even as a missionary starting a church i might not have said it in those same words but a lot of my prayers expressed to god that god i don't i don't know what i'm doing i don't know what to do next maybe i missed it maybe i'm not cut out to do this for those who might not think themselves equipped or eloquent enough maybe you might think of yourself as i'm i'm not the kind of person that can convince someone with my words that they ought to come to church or that they ought to believe in jesus maybe maybe you might see yourself as someone who doesn't have what it takes to to bring people into the church and to make disciples but i'll just ask you can you bless someone can you make cookies can you extend an invitation the weather is getting nice i'm so happy to see spring we've had a long winter traveling cancellations getting snowed in plows coming by and building a four four and a half five foot wall around our vehicle can't leave for three days because i don't travel with a shovel i'm happy to see spring but you know what this weather is a gift from god i wonder if anyone would hear the lord speaking into their ear tonight why don't you fire up that grill and invite those people over those people that that don't go to church who can you bless tonight it's not that difficult because jesus is made known in the breaking of bread and i know as pentecostals we love to eat well as human beings we love to eat so really we're already at an advantage god has given us the tools he's given us the resources he's even given us a strategy just share your table amen

i wonder if we could lift our hands tonight i'm going to turn this back over to brother williford i just want to say a quick prayer of blessing over this congregation in jesus name lord we i pray your blessing lord over this congregation lord your provision lord in abundance jesus that you've showered our our lives with lord i pray right now in jesus name that you begin to speak to us and direct us lord toward those who who are right there lord god walking with you yet they don't know you yet those who are searching lord god and on this journey god they they don't know who's walking with them yet god but something is compelling them god something has their hearts burning within them lord i pray that you would speak those people into our hearts tonight lord god in jesus name and that and that we would make that invitation god and we would offer that gift lord we would extend that invitation lord with the blessing god you've poured out upon us god we pray that we would steward these blessings lord god for your kingdom the name of jesus lord bless this congregation even more abundantly than you have lord god so there would be more room god at your table in the name of jesus we love you we thank you in jesus name amen