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Emmaus is a Reformed Baptist church in Hemet, California. We are a community of Christ followers who love God, love one another, and serve the church, community, and nations, for the glory of God and for our joy.
Our hope is that you will make Emmaus your home and that you will begin to grow with us as we study the scriptures and, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live in a way that honors our great King.
LORD'S DAY WORSHIP (SUNDAYS)
10:00am Corporate Worship
In the Emmaus Chapel at Cornerstone
26089 Girard St.
Hemet, CA 92544
EMMAUS ESSENTIALS
Sunday School For Adults
9:00am to 9:45am most Sundays (Schedule)
In the Chapel
MAILING ADDRESS
43430 E. Florida Ave. #F329
Hemet, CA 92544
The Realm is our church's online network. We use this tool as our primary means of communication. Be sure to check it often and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Interested in becoming a member? Please join us for a four-week study in which we will make a case from the scriptures for local church membership and introduce the ministries, government, doctrines, and distinctive's of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church.
Learn MoreEmmaus Essentials classes are currently offered online Sundays at 9AM. It is through our Emmaus Essentials (Sunday School) that we hope to experience an in depth study of the scriptures and Christian theology. These classes focus on the study of systematic theology, biblical theology, church history, and other topics practical to Christian living.
An audio teaching series through the Baptist Catechism aimed to instruct in foundational Christian doctrine and to encourage obedience within God’s people.
A podcast produced for International Reformed Baptist Seminary: a forum for discussion of important scriptural and theological subjects by faculty, administrators, and friends of IRBS.
A podcast devoted to discussions concerning Christian doctrine and the Christian life from a confessionally Reformed Baptist perspective.
A fourteen-week Bible study in which we consider “what man ought to believe concerning God, and what duty God requireth of man” (Baptist Catechism #6).
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At Emmaus we believe that God has given parents, especially fathers the authority and responsibility to train and instruct children up in the Lord. In addition, we believe that God has ordained the gathering of all generations, young to old, to worship Him together in one place and at one time. Therefore, each and every Sunday our children worship the Lord alongside their parents and other members of God’s family.
Learn MoreEmmaus Reformed Baptist Church is committed to the fullfilment of the Great Commision given by our Lord when he said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV), through the planting of local churches, both at home and abroad.
Mar 15
25
It is true that it can be difficult to forgive someone who has wronged you, but forgiveness is the Christian way!
Jesus said, “Pray then like this… ‘forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’” (Matthew 6:12, ESV)
In my short time in pastoral ministry I have noticed that Christians sometimes struggle to forgive. There are times when the unforgiving disposition is indeed due to a hardness of heart. But often I find that the Christian’s unwillingness to forgive is due, in part, to a lack of understanding concerning what forgiveness is, and what it is not, according to the scriptures.
May I encourage all of you, and especially those struggling with the issue of forgiveness now, to prayerfully, thoroughly, and thoughtfully read the attached article. It’s a bit longer than a Twitter post, but it presents the Bible’s teaching on this issue with the depth and breadth necessary to help move the Christian to a God honoring place when it comes to forgiving others from the heart.
Enjoy!
Pastor Joe
Sep 13
12
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–11, ESV)
Jun 11
16
Psalm 130 (ESV)
A SONG OF ASCENTS.
“1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
You can probably imagine what it would feel like to be a watchmen on the night shift. It’s cold outside, everything in you wants to sleep, you are a little bit afraid, and you are straining to see and to listen for the enemy approaching. The night is long, and you want more than anything to see the eastern horizon begin to show signs of light.
The psalmist compares this kind of anticipation to the sense of hope that we should have in the Lord. With all of the difficulties of life pressing in, our hope needs to rest firmly in Christ. We must wait on Him, trust in Him, and live with a sense of anticipation, knowing that our God’s love is steadfast. I see in this passage a heart posture of complete dependence upon Christ; it is the kind of heart posture that every Christ follower needs to be marked by. I see a man on his knees and yet confident and sure. He is confident, not in himself, but in Lord. God, fill our churches with men and women like this!
Jun 11
5
Luke 24:13-35
What should we expect from Christ when our hearts are full of sorrow and confusion?
Introduce the text
I. The Narrative
A. Scene 1 – Two discouraged men on the road to Emmaus (Vs.13-14)
B. Scene 2 – Jesus joins the two men and asks them questions (Vs. 15-24)
C. Scene 3 – Jesus encourages them from the scriptures (Vs. 25-27)
D. Scene 4 – Jesus draws the men into community with Him at the center (Vs. 28-35)
II. [What should we expect from Christ when our hearts are full of sorrow and confusion?] We should we expect Christ to pursue us, to listen to us, to encourage us from the scriptures, and to draw us together as a community of faith with Him at the center.
A. Implication 1 – We should expect Christ to pursue us – (Vs. 13-15)
1. Exegesis
a. Christ’s activity in His resurrection body was a foreshadowing of His activity in this present age.
b. It is Christ who pursues His people in 24:4, 24:15, and 24:36.
c. It should be noted that these were common men, insignificant when compared with the 11 disciples.
d. The gospel is not just that Christ died for our sins, but it is also that Christ lives for us today!
i. Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
ii. 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (ESV)
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
2. Illustration
a. Imagine a sailor saying “I have good news; you are going on a sailing trip around the world!” That is potentially good news, but only if he is going with me!”
3. Application
a. When you are down, trust in Christ to sustain you, not in yourself! We trust in Christ, not only for eternal life, but also for sustenance in this life.
B. Implication 2 – We should expect Christ to listen to us – (Vs. 17-24)
1. Exegesis
a. Vs. 17 “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?”
b. Vs. 19 “What things?”
c. There is in this passage an offer on Christ’s behalf to listen to His people.
d. Prayer is an incredible gift. It is an invitation to speak with Christ Himself.
2. Illustration
a. Good friends ask questions and then listen
3. Application
a. Spend lots of time talking with God. My challenge to you is to speak with God first and more often than you speak with others concerning your frustrations.
C. Implication 3 – We should expect Christ to encourage us from the scriptures – (Vs. 25-27)
1. Exegesis
a. What scriptures did He share?
i. Genesis 3:15 (ESV)
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
ii. Deuteronomy 18:15–18 (ESV)
15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
iii. Isaiah 11:1–5 (ESV)
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
iv. Isaiah 7:14 (ESV)
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
v. Isaiah 53 (ESV)
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
vi. The Passover
vii. The temple worship
viii. The ram caught in the thicket and offered as a substitutionary sacrifice when Abraham went to offer Isaac
b. He emphasized the necessity for the messiah to suffer
i. He predicted this throughout His ministry
ii. You can understand why people would have ignored this teaching. They were already suffering to a degree and they didn’t want any more of it.
c. We tend to miss things in scripture that make us uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s intentional, sometimes unintentional.
d. There has been a trend in the church to soften the message of scripture so as not to offend. In some ways the trend has existed throughout church history, but it seems as if we have just experienced a strong movement toward this sort or thinking over the past 20 years or so. The problem is that the core message of scripture is deeply offensive to us.
2. Illustration
a. Don’t forget that He is the potter and we are the clay. It’s certainly not the other way around!
3. Application
a. We need to be in the scriptures, allowing the Word of God to pierce us and to mold the way we view God, others, and ourselves.
b. One of the most troubling things is to see Christians who are unwilling to truly submit to the authority of God’s Word. I will admit, there are mysteries in the Christian faith, but there are also teachings that are very clear. And if scripture is clear, we must submit to the teaching even if the teaching is an indictment against us — even if the teaching goes against the grain of our culture, or seems prickly to us at first.
c. We need to be students of God’s Word living in true and honest submission to its authority.
D. Implication 4 – We should expect Christ to draw us together as a community of faith with Him at the center – (Vs. 28-35)
1. Exegesis
a. Jesus acted as if he were going farther
b. Hospitality
c. He took the bread and blessed and broke it
d. The significance of Luke’s table scenes
e. The men, who had just finished walking seven miles, returned to Jerusalem “that very hour.” They desired fellowship that intensely.
2. Illustration
a. Our time out with folks in the Church
b. Please do not expect Emmaus to be a busy Church
c. Fast moving water is usually shallow. Slow water is deep and that is where the food settles and the big healthy fish swim.
3. Application
a. Develop deep authentic, Christ centered community.
b. Have people in to your home.
c. Talk about real life, Jesus, and the Word.
d. Join a Gospel Community Group in July but do not expect them to be a continuation of the Small Group culture that you are used to.
"Him we proclaim,
warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
that we may present everyone mature in Christ."
(Colossians 1:28, ESV)
