Our scripture text this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke.
We are in the last chapter of Luke. We are in Luke 24 and I'm going to be reading verse 13 down to verse 35 so Luke 24 beginning in verse 13, reading the verse 35 if you didn't bring your Bible, don't worry. There are Bibles right in front of you, but I would encourage you to open it up and read. I think it'll you'll find it beneficial to follow along with me. And also just the encouragement too, is to not just listen to my words, but to listen to what God says. Only listen to me so much as this is what God has actually said. So look for yourself.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer first, before we read, let's pray, Father, we thank You that You are a God who is not in a distant land, but that you are here now by the power of your Spirit, you are among and with your people, Lord. I thank you that you are a God who is not silent, but that you speak, and that you speak through us, speak to us through Your Word. And Lord, I pray that you will give us ears to hear it, give us hearts to receive it, and by faith that you would indeed open up our eyes this morning to see and behold Jesus, Christ, crucified, risen and now reigning, Father, I pray for your blessing upon your people.
Be merciful to your people, for those of us whose hearts are hardened, that Lord, I pray that you would soften them and help us to receive your word and to look out to see what you will say to us this morning. And it's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.
People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24 beginning in verse 13. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him, and he said to them, what is this conversation that You're holding with each other as you walk. And they stood still, looking sad.
Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?
And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, yes, and besides all this is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen even that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive, some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. But him, they did not see, and he said to them, Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with him, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them, and the rise were opened and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures. And they arose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated. It is Sunday morning, and Jesus is risen, and he is risen. Indeed, and all of Jesus's followers are sad and depressed because they weren't looking for a resurrection. They had a concept, maybe, of the resurrection at the end of the age, but they weren't anticipating Jesus doing what he said he would do. He said he would be delivered into the hands of sinful men. He said He would be crucified, and he said on the third day he would rise.
And the apostles are downcast.
They are afraid and now maybe even a little irritated that these women have come up with what they think is an idle tale, claiming that the stone is rolled away, that the tomb is empty and that there were angels saying that he is risen and in our passage, what I want us to be able to see is that there's a lot about seeing and not seen in this passage, when what we first see is what they're not able to see. Secondly, we see what they ought to be seen. And then third, we see Christ. They have their eyes opened, but first they don't see. There's a not seen that's happening here in our text. And so our passage begins again with the same Resurrection Sunday, but now it's later in the evening, we are told, and we have these two followers of Jesus who were in Jerusalem when all these things were happening, and they're headed to Emmaus, which is about seven miles away, and they're making their journey there.
We're told that one of the followers, his name is Cleopas, but the other isn't named. Now, some have speculated Luke, who is a doctor, and who is so detailed in his precision, some have said, Could this other passenger, disciple, follower of Christ, be Luke himself? It could be, some have said, this is Cleopas and his wife. We know that he was a married man, or it could be a son, or it could be someone else. We don't know. It doesn't tell us when we get to heaven. Cleopas can tell us who he was with, and these two, as we said, they're heading to Emmaus, and they're talking about all the things that have happened in Jerusalem, and you can just imagine their conversation, their downcast, and said, it's it's over. We were following him, you know, we thought he was going to overturn the oppressors of Rome. We thought he was going to establish a new age, a new world. We thought God's justice was going to come down, but it just didn't happen. So they get the sense that they're defeated, they're sad, they're hopeless.
They didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in the report of the women, but they couldn't stop talking about it. And this is the kind of friend that you want in your life, not one that just can't stop talking, but the ones that will talk to you about Jesus. And that's what they're doing with one another. They're discussing these things. They're having, these spiritual conversations, talking about Jesus and why they're doing that. Jesus draws near and look at verse 16. It tells us, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. It doesn't say that Jesus's body was changed so much that they just couldn't recognize him. No, they are kept from recognizing Jesus. That is that God has not opened up their eyes in a way that they can see and understand who this is. God is keeping them from seeing Jesus right now.
So there's often in Scripture, too, if you reflect anything really on the miracles that we've done in Luke there, the physical inability is often a spiritual reflection of the heart. If you remember blind Bartimaeus, and in Christ, you know Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And remember how the the blindness of Bartimaeus was a picture of, really, all of our hearts and the spiritual inability to see the things of God. And the whole irony of that text is, at the end, this blind man who sees he actually sees Jesus for who he is, even in his blind state, because he says, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. But these people that had physical sight the Pharisees, they could not see who Jesus really was, and so the inability to see Jesus is a reflection, really, of their hearts, not only physically, but there's a spiritual blindness that they cannot see and understand that God. Not yet opened up their eyes to behold the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Jesus says to them, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad, these disciples, they have just suffered a great tragedy, and they're having a very deep and serious and somber conversation, and then this stranger comes in and pretty much says, Hey, what are you guys talking about? Have you ever had that happen to you where you're having a serious conversation with somebody, and then someone who is not involved in the conversation at all, and maybe, if it's in a child just comes up and says, Hey, what's what's got? What do you what's going on? What are you guys talking about over here? Can I What does that? What did you mean when you said that? And what's going on here? And you can just feel maybe some irritation of what's of Cleopas.
And I think we see maybe Cleopas is irritation, and his response, they're sad and they can't hide it. And Cleopas responds, are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? Essentially, Cleopas is saying, Where have you been at? You know, have you been under a rock? How do you not know what we're talking about? Don't you know what has happened? You know this crucifixion, the burial, and even now people are talking about this resurrection. It's not some secret thing that only a few people have heard and have talked about. Everyone in Jerusalem is talking about this.
Have you not heard about this?
Where have you been at? And Jesus says, What things now Jesus knows even better than Cleopas and his companion, what has truly happened in Jerusalem.
Jesus could tell them better than anyone. What has really happened there, right? So, why is Jesus asking this question?
Why is Jesus asking them questions like this? If he knows well, God often does this to us to draw our own hearts out to show us our own hearts disposition. They'll often show us our need and our position before him, he did it all the way back in the garden. Do you remember Adam and Eve? They take and they eat of the forbidden fruit, and then they hide. And God says, Where are you? Does God not know where they're at?
Of course he does. And then he says what you know, who told you that you were naked? And he's drawing them out in a way that God often lovingly does, and to sovereignly pursue us and to help us see our need and our disposition. And Jesus is doing that here with these beloved disciples of his and this is also just a good evangelistic tactic for us to keep in mind, to ask people questions, who are you? You know, sometimes we just want to walk up to people and say, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. There. You got it. But we actually need to engage with people, to talk to people, to understand their hearts. Who, who are they? Where are they spiritually? And Jesus draws them out here as a good friend would do. And so we need to do the same thing for one another, not just declare statements, but actually ask questions and try to understand where people are coming from, that that they might better understand their position before God and what they believe and why. Now these followers here of Christ, they express their disappointment. And what's interesting here is, at the very end of Luke we actually have one of the longest speeches recorded in all the Gospels, right here, and it actually reads as as many have pointed out, it reads like a creed. You know how you just recently recited the Apostles Creed? It's actually sounds very similar to the Apostles Creed, but you'll notice there's a few important things missing. It says there concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered enough to be condemned to death and crucified Him. And then, dot, dot, dot.
What's what isn't there is that he's risen and reigning, and we'll come again to judge the living and the dead. No, they say, but, but we had hoped. We had hoped past tense, we're not open anymore. We had hope. We don't have hope. We had it. It's gone. We had hoped he would redeem Israel. We had hoped Jesus would purchase our.
Salvation, not by dying on the cross, but but delivering us from the Romans. I hope he'd be the one. You know they they know Jesus's life, and they can recite it, but the cross seems as foolish to them, and this is how most people view the cross.
Give us a conquering king, not a suffering one that can deliver us from eternal redemption. You know, we often forget, like these disciples here, our real need, our true bondage to sin and to Satan. We forget our Redeemer. We forget his words, we forget that he is our only hope, and we start looking at the world and the things in the world. And as soon as we turn our eyes from Jesus and begin to look around us in the world and to find hope there and redemption there, and the health and wealth here and now and not looking to our heavenly home, well, we begin to feel as these disciples are feeling sad and hopeless when we take our eyes off of what the Word says and says about Christ and there, in verse 24 It tells us why they're really feeling sad, why they're really feeling depressed and dejected and and hopeless, is because they says they they didn't see him, they don't see him, and that's how that part ends. But what should they see?
Well then this stranger who they have just met, he says, You're foolish. You know, he just met this guy. And he says, oh, foolish one slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now, why does Jesus call them foolish? Is it because he's staring right at them, and they can't see him. No, you know. And what I would expect, I think if, if I were writing this, what I would expect to happen if I was reading this for the first time, I would expect Jesus at that very moment to just open up their eyes and say, guys, it's me. It's been me the whole time. I'm here, right in front of you, see, but he doesn't do that here. He doesn't say, bam, I'm here. I'm risen.
Believe. What does Jesus reveal to them to convince these disciples of the resurrection?
You the scriptures. I want you to just highlight this point, the risen Jesus points to the Bible to point his disciples to himself, the proof of the resurrection that he's trying to give to the disciples is not just bam, I'm here. Look at me.
He says, Now though, look at the word, and you're foolish if you don't if you're foolish if you don't believe. In verse 27 he says, in beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them, and all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself and this raising Moses and all the prophets, just how they would often say all of the Old Testament, Moses and the prophets of the summary of just saying all the Old Testament and man, wouldn't you like to listen to that sermon, probably better than the one you're listening to right now.
But what parts of the scriptures did Jesus talk to about? It doesn't tell us. And to be honest, it actually doesn't really matter, because all of it is about him. That's the point.
J, c, Ryle says Christ was the substance of every Old Testament, sacrifice. Christ was the true deliverer and King, the true judge. Christ was the coming Prophet greater than Moses. Christ, with the was the true seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's head. Through Jesus, all the nations would be blessed. Jesus is the true scapegoat, the true bronze serpent, the true sacrificial lamb, the true high priest, that every high priest was a figure of and you could go on and on and on, and every single passage would tell you about Jesus. Go back into Genesis, and remember, Abraham is going to sacrifice his son. Well, guess who's that's a picture of Jesus, and that the ram caught in the thicket, who was sacrificed rather than Isaac? Who's that a picture of? It's Jesus Psalm 16.
It says, The Holy One will not be abandoned in the grave. Well, who's Psalm 16? Talking About Jesus Psalm 23 you know that one, the Lord's my shepherd. I shall not want. Yes, and He leads me in green pastures. And then even when I go to the valley the shadow of death, I don't have to fear because who's who's with me, and who is it about Jesus, or even Jonah. I remember Jonah gets swallowed by a big fish. And how long is Jonah in the fish? For three days, and then, and then he's, he's, he's almost like he's back alive, like swallowed almost by death of the water, and then back alive. Well, who's that about Jesus? Or Daniel chapter seven, where we have this vision of the Son of man, who's given glory and a kingdom with all nations that will never fade, that that will never be taken away. Who's that? A picture of Jesus, the temple, all the whole the temple in the Old Testament, going into the presence of God.
How can I get into the presence of God? Now, the temples destroyed. Who's that? A picture of Jesus. You can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on. It is all about Jesus. The Old Testament has one theme. You know what it is? I think you know it by now. Jesus, good.
Now. The New Testament also has one theme. You want to guess what that is? Jesus, good, good.
This is what Jesus is teaching us and what he was teaching his disciples. When we look at scriptures, we shouldn't just see the it's accurate history.
When we look at the scriptures, we shouldn't just see a beautiful poetry or interesting prophecies. We must see Jesus, ladies, when you start the book of Judges this week, it is not just about remarkable characters to whether you should emulate and imitate or not. And the lesson is not to don't be like Israel, and just do whatever is right in your own sight. The lesson is, Jesus is the true judge. Jesus is the true king, and our sins were placed upon him. You still should go to the women's study, even though I just summarized it all for you, still go and men, when we start the back into the book of Revelation. We shouldn't read it just for intriguing, apocalyptic material, trying to guess, if the time is getting closer, is the time getting closer? Yes, it is. It's closer than it was yesterday and maybe even today.
But the point of Revelation is that Jesus rules over all things, even our sufferings, and he is triumphant, and He will wipe away every tear when He comes to judge the living and the dead. Again and again. It is always and always about Jesus.
You know what the sad history of Israel is. They've had these Scriptures, the very Scriptures that Jesus was opening up.
They've had Isaiah 53 for hundreds of years, 700 years before even Jesus was born, Israel had the scriptures, but they reject them. They don't see Jesus here in them, and this is why Jesus says they are foolish and slow of heart because they don't believe the testimony of the scriptures. You know knowing your Bible really well, it's good, and we should know our Bible really well. But did you know that biblical knowledge won't save you? Did you know that coming to church is good, and you should do it, but coming to church won't save you. We must see Jesus by faith and receive Him. We must rest upon him like these disciples, we often find ourselves in life on this road between unbelief and faith and somewhere in between trust and doubt in our circumstances, but the best thing we can do for each other is what Jesus does here for these distressed disciples. Let us go back to the Word and find Jesus. Let us see him who was not only crucified, but now risen and reigning. And so they draw near to the village they are now, don't you wish you were there that seven mile stretch just to hear what Jesus would have said one day, we will, we'll hear it and all for eternity. We'll get to see and talk about Jesus with each other forever and ever. But we can start today, and we should start today. They are here now in Emmaus to which they were going, and he act as if he were to go farther, but they urged him strongly, stay with us for His toward evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. Now, some people say, Now, isn't that Jesus? He's he's just deceiving them, pretending like he's going to go further, but he knows he's going to stay. Well, no, it's not Jesus being deceitful. It's Jesus would have kept going if there wasn't an invitation. And that's the point. I think Luke is making Jesus doesn't always do what he did with that Zacchaeus and saying, I'm coming to your house today. I'm going to come, and I'm going to stay with you, and you're going to make me a dinner. I'm going to come no sometimes he waits on people to invite him. You remember Jacob, he wrestles with God, and until you bless me, or even the parable that Jesus tells of the unjust judge, the parable is that God isn't like that at all, but there's this stingy judge, and this woman is pleading and pleading and pleading, and it's telling us that we too, we can plead to God, but know that He hears us and loves us. So he's waiting for their invitation. And maybe they don't want their Bible study the end, I know I wouldn't. And then we're told it's toward evening. If it's toward evening or it's tiring, they've just gone seven miles.
And also, night brings danger.
This is often when the thieves and robbers would come out at night, and they're practicing hospitality. Great. We should be doing that as well. They have a meal together, and the Jewish meal formally begins with the blessing and prayer, thanking God, and with the breaking of bread. And ordinarily, the host would be the one to offer the prayer and break the bread, but Jesus here, he takes that role, and he also takes the roll bread, and he breaks it and he passes it out. I thought that, you know, thought that was funny. Probably not that funny.
But some, some people say that Jesus is having communion here with them, but that's probably not the case. There's no words of institution, there's no wine, and also we'll see that Jesus leaves like halfway through. So that's probably not communion, but there is a rich spiritual implication of this normal act of giving and breaking and distributing bread. If you remember, Jesus said, I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. And you remember, even in the Old Testament, God sent bread down from heaven, manna and provided for the people of Israel's needs. Do you know who that picture? Do you know what that manna was a picture of bread coming from heaven. I bet you could guess by now, Jesus, good. It was a picture of Jesus that the bread of life coming down from heaven.
And once Jesus starts handing this bread out, it doesn't say, then their eyes. Then they opened up their eyes. It's verse 31 and their eyes were opened and they recognized him. That is the Holy Spirit opens up their eyes finally, not only to see him physically, but spiritually by faith for the first time in their life. Even though they had seen Jesus before in His earthly ministry, they are now truly seeing Jesus by faith as the risen Lord and Savior, My Lord and my God, they're no longer on the road between faith and unbelief. They are on faith in Christ. And then we're told Jesus vanishes. And in our text here, it says, Jesus vanishes.
Let's see where are we? And their eyes were open. They recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. And they said to each other, you know what I would say at that point, where did he go? That's what I would say. What just happened? Where did he go? That's the first thing I would say. Jesus is there, and he vanishes.
Where did he go? But what did they say? Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?
What made their heart burn and yearn? It does it say our hearts burned and they we they yearn when we finally, when we finally physically saw Jesus in the flesh. No what captivated their hearts and made them yearn with excitement. What was it when he opened up the scriptures, when he opened up the scriptures, when he opened up the scriptures, when he opened up the scriptures. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever been reading the Bible and you read it in a new way, that you hadn't read it before? Well, you're in a text, and you didn't see Jesus, and then, boom, there he is, right there in the text. I didn't see him before, but there he is. And it's excitement in your heart. I didn't see him, but there he is. How could I have missed him? He's there now, and I love it, because I love him, and here he is, and again, like the women in the previous Texas news is too great. Write the keep to themselves, and so we are told in verse 33 and they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. Now, remember, it is late, they are tired, it's dark and even dangerous, and how many miles back Do we have to go? Seven? The journey back is a different, different journey.
There's no more sadness, but joy. And what has turned their sadness into joy? What's the report that they give and what is it that they give in verse 34 the Lord has risen. Indeed, no more sadness. Joy, hope, truth.
Jesus is what we need. And they share with the apostles all that they had seen and heard and how Jesus has all they also hear how Jesus has appeared to Simon, Peter. And I just want to end with this is, have you ever seen Jesus, not physically, but spiritually, like they see him spiritually in the Word of God?
Because this is what the text is pleading for us to do, Oh foolish ones, let your eyes be open and see Christ risen and reigning that he is in here and all the scriptures that he is the one who has died for your sins, and He is alive, and he will one day come to judge the living and the dead. Do you believe it? Do you have faith?
Or have you been foolish? And are you so of heart? And it could be that some of you you have never invited Christ to come into your life, never asked for your sins to be forgiven, never asked that Jesus would be your Lord and Savior. Well, let today be that day Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with Me. Behave and let us confess our foolishness. Let us hear the the loving correction of Our Lord that we we have been so at heart. We've been foolish.
We we have not seen Jesus like we, like we ought to like, like we should we get so wrapped up in the things of this world, and it leads to sadness and depression and hopelessness. But let us see Jesus, who's risen and reigning, and he's reign he, he's risen indeed, and he's on the throne, and he's going to come again to bring us home. Let us plead with Jesus this morning, open up our eyes to see, see more and more and more of Jesus. I cannot have enough of him. This is what we need.
Church. This is what we need.
Beloved. In fact, let us go to the Lord and do that now. We'll just have a time of silent prayer where you can plead to the Lord. You can confess your sin, you can plead that he will open up your eyes to see, invite Him in, and then I'll close with some prayer. Let's pray...
Our Lord Jesus, we pray that you would please come into our lives. Please. We beg that you wouldn't just move on from here, but that you would stay with us.
Would we confess our slowness of heart and our foolishness, our fears, our worries, our sadness and Lord, I pray that you will help us to see Jesus by faith.
Help us to look into your Word.
Help us to remember that there's not a there's not a single hair that can fall from our head apart from your will. There's not a sparrow that falls to the ground apart from your sovereign will. And Lord, we are more valuable than them. Let us not be people that worry or have fears. Let us not worry about our death, because Christ is risen, he has conquered our greatest enemies. Our sins have been washed away. And Lord, as we already read this morning, that you made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And that is our hope, the righteousness of Christ given to us, received by faith alone. Lord, forgive us and open up our eyes. Help us to study your word and give us the power of your Spirit to see Christ in all of the scriptures. Lord, be merciful to your people, and it's in Jesus's name we pray.
Amen.