Slow of Heart to Believe All
JOHN 14:25-27
25 ¶ These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost (The Holy Ghost was this same Lord Jesus in another form coming in by the teaching of the word and spirit), whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you (In times of trouble the world may try to give you peace by certain means, but Jesus said that he would give us peace but in a different way and by a different teaching to that of how the world would do it, and that it would be his own peace being transferred into us). Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
LUKE 24:25
25 Then he said unto them (this is Jesus speaking to the two on the road to Emmaus), O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Slow of Heart to Believe All
These two men on the road to Emmaus hadn’t been experiencing a lot of peace in their hearts of late with the modern events that had recently been taking place, and their hearts were most certainly troubled and that was because really (if we were to be honest and frank about it) their hearts were slow to believe, that was what Jesus diagnosed their problem as being – so we see a correlation between an unbelieving heart and a troubled heart.
LUKE 24:13-27
13 ¶ And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. (Nearly 7 miles which is around 11 kilometres. Remember that this event is taking place on the same day of the resurrection of the rising of the SON, after the seal had been broken and Jesus public ministry of his first and second pull was over, and now Jesus had begun his private ministry of his third pull on the 8th day, the SON-day – the bride age where he was revealing himself personally to each member of the first church age bride)
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? (When you talk about certain things, your talk can either make you happy or sad – so it depends on what you are talking about)
18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: (This word “fools” = is to do with them not understanding, because He had told them very plainly when he was with them in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, that he would be betrayed and killed and would raise again the third day, but when the crisis actually came upon them, it was like they had completely forgotten his words of what he had said concerning the modern events of that time, and so instead of being at peace in their hearts, knowing that he would resurrect the third day as he had promised to them, they were sad and confused and disillusioned)
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Over the next 6 mile walk He is going to teach them things concerning himself that would take away their sadness and give them His peace – peace I give unto you, how? By the teaching of the word and the revealing of Himself to you)
It seems like for many of us, when we have to face a time of real crisis (just like these two on the road to Emmaus), that all we’ve been taught over the past years by the message of the hour about God and faith and that He has all things in under His control and that he cares for us and He will be our protection and all these great promises that Jesus Himself has promised us as the bride of Christ in this hour, as soon as any sort of major crisis arises, it is surprising to see just how many seem to completely forget everything that they have been taught, and in reaction and response follow in the same way in their behaviour like any other unbeliever who doesn’t even believe in God.
In the message “Modern Events Made clear by Prophecy” preached 6th of December 1965, Brother Branham is telling us that all the events of today is simply the prophecy of the word that has been spoken previously concerning this time coming to pass, so every modern event can be found in prophecy form somewhere in the word – but as we see here as demonstrated by his followers (the ones that believed his message at the time of his first coming), that there seems to be no record of even one of his followers that actually believed that he would raise again the third day as he promised that he would. And their panic and sadness was a direct result of their unbelief.
MATTHEW 17:22-23
22 ¶ And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:
23 And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.
**He was not talking to them in parables when he said this, he was talking to them in very clear language that left no room for misinterpretation – so what was their problem?, it wasn’t that they didn’t understand what he said, it was that they were slow to believe what he said, they actually simply didn’t truly believe his word – they were slow of heart to believe, and that was why in this crisis they were confused and sad.
MATTHEW 27:59-66
59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
61 And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.
62 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. (Notice – that this information of what he had said about His resurrection on the third day was to a large degree publicly known, even by many of his enemies)
64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. (Those of his enemies that were against him seemed to have taken his threat to rise again on the third day even more seriously than his own followers did, because we find that they actually took action in response to what Jesus had said – it was almost like these unbelievers of the word had more faith in what Jesus said than the ones that claimed to have believed him, because the ones who professed to believe him actually didn’t believe him because the only action they took was to hide themselves in their homes like frightened animals)
65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
66 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch. (They were going to make sure he didn’t rise – but you cannot stop the modern event of the prophecy coming to pass regardless of how you try to stop it – wearing face masks won’t stop it, washing hands won’t stop it, guarding the tomb won’t stop it, every one staying at home because they are too scared to mix with other human beings won’t stop it – so why should we as believers be so concerned and all caught up and focused on these things and follow the responses of the world more than we do actually looking into the word to see what the word of God says about it as real believers should.
**We get so caught up with all the unbelief with the rest of the unbelievers that it seems like all of what we have been previously taught by the word temporarily goes out the window so much so that even some of the unbelievers seem to have more faith in God in times of crisis than we do.
***So Jesus first words to these two on the road to Emmaus in the eighth day after the breaking of the seal and after the rising of the SON of His Resurrection was a rebuke for their unbelief - O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
***I am wondering that if in light of the modern events of these last few weeks that if Jesus would dropped down amongst us right now in some form that we would not recognise Him in, that we as the professed followers of the revealed word of this hour would also receive a rebuke at this time just as these two on the road to Emmaus did. Would he also call us fools because of our lack of wisdom and our lack of understanding regarding the modern events of this hour of what he has already told us of these things, would he also rebuke us because we have also been of such a slow heart to believe all the things that we have been told concerning this hour.
**We have been told and taught many things by a vindicated prophet that God has sent to us in this day, but as soon and crisis really strikes, it is surprizing how that for some much of what has been taught seems to go out the window of our minds just like it did with what Jesus had told his followers about the events in their day.
EVENTS.MADE.CLEAR.BY.PROPHECY_ JEFF.IN V-12 N-3 SUNDAY_ 65-0801E
109 They give Him the story. They knowed all the events that happened. They was all sad. (They’d been watching Fox News and CNN and they had studied and knew every little detail about covid-19 and how to sing happy birthday twice and all the details and it had not made them happy, it had not given them peace, they had been self-isolating with the other disciples and still it had not brought them peace, in fact it had made them sad) They begin to tell Him, "Are You just a stranger here, or You don't know what's happened in Jerusalem?" (Haven’t you been watching CNN 24/7 like we have been regarding all these modern events – that is why we are sad and our hearts are troubled, because it is all these modern events that have made us sad?)
110 He said, "What things?" like He didn't know. See, He does things some time just to see what you'll do about it. See? Said, "What things? Who was it? What's happened?" (This whole thing of this covid-19 is actually just a little test for the believers of this hour)
111 "Are You just a stranger?" And was talking right to the Man they had lived with for three and a half years, and didn't know Him. (Their eyes had been holden from seeing him because their eyes had become so blurred over by watching so much Fox News that now they couldn’t recognise the very one that they had been with for three and a half years prior)
"What things? What happened?" (Oh they were going to pore out all the new to him of what had gone wrong and the doom and the gloom and how they thought they were on to something wonderful by believing the message of the hour but now all their hopes had been dashed upon the rocks)
112 "Well," they said, "Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet. There's no doubt in our mind. He was mighty in Word and deed before all the people. We seen Him do things that He was identified the Prophet of God for this age. We know that. And we believed that He would be the Redeemer, that He would redeem Israel."
113 Then He turns and said, "You fools, slow of heart to believe that all that the prophets said about Him wouldn't come to pass?" See? Watch Him now go back to prophecy. What a rebuke for believers, claimed they believed Him!
***Notice what Jesus had to do to bring them out of their fear and back into faith, he had to take these modern events and showed them from the scriptures that all these things must come to pass including the fact that it all ends happily ever after because of the resurrection of the dead – that is what we are forgetting, there is promised a resurrection of the dead in this hour.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.THREE_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0901M
4 …There's no more Gospel that America will receive. Oh, you get a few stragglings, now and then. But, just as the Gospel, it's over. And you can't even preach to them, can't talk to them. They won't believe nothing. See? They just got their own hardheaded ideas, and they're set.
And the next things for this nation is judgment. She is going to have it, too. It may be through depression. It may be through an atomic bomb. It may be through a great plague, a disease or something, but, she is ready. It's coming. Thousands times thousands will fall.
JEZEBEL.RELIGION_ MIDDLETOWN.OH V-6 N-14 SUNDAY_ 61-0319
100 When God sends forth a message and tells the people, and they don't receive it, then He withdraws His servant and sends His plagues: famine, death, spiritually speaking, physically also. You watch for a depression, brother. You think you've seen something; you just wait after while. You haven't seen nothing.
***Notice that He is telling us in plain language what we can expect – brother Branham is not talking in parables here.
So the Modern Events of this day are made clear by the prophecy of the Prophet, and this prophecy sounds like doom and gloom, and it is, but that is exactly what Jesus told his disciples of that hour in that he would be betrayed and killed, that was also doom and gloom, but the problem was is that they stopped there and we stop there too, and that is what made them sad because they stopped at the doom and gloom and forgot about the rest of the prophecy which was the resurrection part, they didn’t believe all that the prophet had said.
In this day we are promised the supernatural, we are promised a resurrection, we are promised that he will never leave us or forsake us, we are promised that when things become squeezed to watch for the third pull then, we are promised that the comforter will come and bring the word concerning this hour to our remembrance and give us his peace into our hearts.
THE.UNPARDONABLE.SIN_ JEFF.IN V-26 N-8 SUNDAY_ 54-1024
102 I've been through depression. I've been through prosperity. I've seen it, altogether. But I wouldn't turn loose the hand of Jesus Christ for all the money and the wealth that you could pile on the face of this earth, and everything else. He's my Friend when I'm broke. He's my Friend when I got plenty. I love Him when I'm hungry. I love Him when I'm filled. I love Him when I'm in sorrow. I love Him when I'm happy. I love Him because I love Him, because He first loved me. Amen. Hallelujah.
When I was sick, laying, dying, He was my Friend. When I'm feeling good tonight, happy, He's still my Friend When I'm laying yonder, dying somewhere, and my chilly veins coming up my arms like that, He will be my Friend then. And when these brittle threads that I'm walk--walking on, breaks, and I plunge out into Eternity, He will be my Friend then. When the ages roll on, after ten thousand years, you've sung your jubilee songs, He will still by my Friend then. Yes, sir. When there's no more moon, no more sun, no more earth, He will still be my Friend then as the ages roll on. Oh, how we ought to love Him.
WHEN.THEIR.EYES.WERE.OPENED_ SPINDALE.NC FRIDAY_ 56-0420
E-32 And as they're going along, speaking about Him, He walks along their side, and they don't recognize Him. Many times He's been at your side, yonder in the hospital when your doctor turned you down, all he could do. But you got well; you didn't realize that's Who it was.
When that car went right in front of you and you slammed the brakes and just barely missed him. You didn't realize that's Who it was setting at your side. He's been with you in so many things. When the barrel was empty during the depression, the children had no clothes, you never knowed where the next meal was coming from, somehow you made it. You didn't realize it was Him. See? How you've been blessed. If you only knew that's Him that you love, that's with you.
E-33 As they went along, He said to them, "Why are you so sad?" I wonder if He'd say the same thing to this little gathering here tonight? "Why are you so sad? What makes you so weary?"
"Why," they said, "are You just a Stranger?"
They didn't know Him. And you don't know who that is setting right next to you tonight. The Bible said, "We have entertained Angels unaware." God sending His Spirit to an individual and that individual is a mouthpiece, when you receive that individual, you don't receive Him, but you receive Him that sent Him.
***Don’t let the devil make you run around in circles of unbelief in this crisis; God has promised that he will make a way for you supernaturally so you don’t need to be sad, - all the events of this hour are made clear by the message of the hour.
Have faith in GOD, when you have faith in anything else above putting God first, then you are trying to seek peace as the world would seek peace through the hope of man in the things of peace that they try to offer comfort and protection like washing hands and self-isolating and coughing into our sleeves – all these things are ok, but our hope and peace as believers are not in those things, our hope is in the Lord.
These troubles and things God sends by his grace to us to shake us up a little to let us see at what level our faith is really at.
THE.GREATEST.BATTLE.EVER.FOUGHT_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-11 SUNDAY_ 62-0311
55-1 See his attack? Watch. Listen close as closing. His attack is what? Disbelieve God's Word; that's his attack. There, can you see the greatest battle that's ever fought? There's only two forces: Satan and God. And what's Satan's weapon against you? Is to try to get you to disbelieve your Weapon. He disarms you. Let's--let's listen real quiet now, listen.
If he can get you to disbelieve, your Weapon is equivalent; if he gets you to believe that your Weapon is not strong enough, he's disarmed you. Oh, Brother Neville, I hope you never disbelieve that. Look. He disarms you, when he gets you to disbelieve that Weapon. When you lay That down, that finishes your fight; you're done. Hold that Weapon; don't you lay It down.
Your weapon is faith in the word of God – “Have faith in God”.
These two on the road to Emmaus were sad only because they failed to believe all, but when Jesus came what did he have to do to bring them out of their unbelief and sadness, he had to go back to the prophecy and show them the prophecy concerning that hour and raise their faith again.