Lake Martin Presbyterian Church April 5, 2026 Podcast

Join Rev. William Skinner for this week’s message from Lake Martin Presbyterian Church. Explore Scripture, hear thoughtful teaching, and be encouraged in your walk with Christ. For more information and resources, visit lakemartinpca.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

This morning we're going to be looking at Luke chapter 24, verses 13 through 35. The passage before us this morning is an account of the same day that the women who followed Jesus discovered an empty tomb. Later on in that day, Luke records an event in which two of the disciples, not the twelve disciples, but the broader category of disciples, followers of Jesus, were walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We're not told why. We really don't know who these two men were. One of them was named Cleopus. And that's all that we know about them. But as they went, they were speaking about the crucifixion of Jesus. And Jesus joined them, walking with them towards Emmaus. And for some reason, we're not told why, these two men couldn't recognize Jesus. They were unable to recognize the one whom they followed, but they were speaking with him as a stranger, a random passerby, someone who just happened to be walking on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus asked them what they were speaking of. What are you talking about? And they proceeded to tell him about his own crucifixion, and how they had hoped that Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel. And it's apparent from this recorded conversation that Jesus' disciples, at least these two of Jesus' disciples, thought that he had failed. They thought that he had failed in his mission. They hoped, they said, that he would redeem Israel. That they would perhaps, he would perhaps deliver them from their Roman oppressors. He would fix all of their troubles, but he had failed because he was convicted, condemned, and killed before he could reach success. It's also clear that these two men had heard the account from the women who visited the empty tomb, but they didn't believe them. In verse 23, they even tell Jesus that the women reported that he was still alive. But it's clear that they do not believe that message. And then in verse 25, Jesus replies. The whole Bible is a central message. That the Christ, the Messiah, must come. He must come to earth, he must suffer, and he must triumph. And then Jesus started from the beginning of the scriptures and explained to these two men how the whole Bible pointed to the person and work of Jesus Christ. His death and his resurrection were necessary according to the Bible. That's the point of it all. And that's the thing that I want you to hear this morning. That Jesus is alive, and that his death and resurrection are the center of it all. They are necessary. And without Christ's death and resurrection, you have no hope in this life. So hear me this morning that Jesus is alive, he is alive, and he is your only hope. Indeed, he's the only hope of the whole world. I'm about to read Luke 24, verses 13 through 35, but particularly this morning we're going to focus on verses 25 through 27. And I want you to see three things with me in this passage this morning. First, I want you to see the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. The offense of Christ's death and resurrection. Secondly, I want you to see the anticipation of Christ's death and resurrection. And thirdly, the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. The offense, the anticipation, and the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. Before we read the text, let's pray and ask God's blessing upon the reading and preaching of His Word. Let's pray. Abba Father, Holy God, we know that your word is powerful. We know that your word is the only thing that can make us wise unto salvation. That your word can divide between soul and spirit, that it will not return void. But we know that our hearts are the problem. Our hearts are hard, our ears are deaf, our eyes are blind. And so we ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit, and that you would soften our hearts, that you would unstop our ears, that you would open our eyes that we might see Jesus this morning. Would you do that? We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 13. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Demaeus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. When they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he had said to them, What is this conversation you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered to him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here, 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, it 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 even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as these women had said, but they but him they did not see. And he said to them, O 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 going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and their eyes 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 rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven, and those who were with them gathered there, 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 bread. This is God's word. First, let's consider the offense of Christ's death and resurrection, the offense. In verse 21 of the text, the two disciples told Jesus that they had hoped that he would be the one to redeem God's people. But evidently, the crucifixion, what had happened in the two days, three days prior to this conversation, had put an end to their hope. They were now hope blessed. When Jesus was arrested, condemned, and executed, he had failed in their minds. And then Jesus in verses 25 and 26 rebukes these two disciples. There's something in their thinking, something in the way that they perceived the events of the preceding days that Jesus wanted to put his finger on and say, you have it all wrong. You can't think this way. They were revealing not only who they wanted their Savior to be, but the type of salvation that they wanted, that they were expecting. They were revealing what they wanted to be saved from. They were telling God the type of redemption that they needed. They thought they needed. And when they didn't get it, they assumed that Jesus had failed. What the disciples wanted was a Christ who was mighty in word and deed before God. And that's what they told Jesus about himself in verse 19 of the text. They wanted a hero. They wanted a mighty man. They wanted someone who could change course, who could change the status quo. They wanted someone who could come in and lead them to victory, who could solve all of their problems. They wanted someone who would come and overthrow the Roman government, who could fix all the societal evils in Jerusalem. They wanted someone who could set God's people free from their hardships and who could change the culture while they were at it. They wanted someone who would restore the glory of Israel. And they expected their Savior to come in and be victorious. Not to suffer, not to experience defeat, but to be victorious. If you're a college football fan, what they wanted was a Tim Tebow or a Cam Newton, someone who comes in and takes you on the perfect, undefeated season. And it's clearly the result of that one talented player. That's who they wanted. They wanted their champion. They wanted their leader who could come in and take them from strength to strength, who could lead them straight to victory. But that's not what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to bring his people to a knowledge of their sin. He came to make his people recognize that their greatest problem was not the Roman government or their culture or any of the things that they thought it was, their greatest problem was their own sin. Their greatest problem was within themselves. What did he keep telling the Pharisees? Out of the heart the mouth speaks. You're a whitewashed tomb, you're a cup that's clean on the outside, but the inside is filthy. He was trying to bring his people to a knowledge of their own sin, of their own hearts. Jesus came preaching that salvation begins with a sinner's recognition of their need for a savior. That we are born in sin. We are dead in sin. We are sinners in our very DNA. We are not good, and we cannot save ourselves. We are enemies of God, enemies of the King of the universe, and we can only expect the treatment of enemies. And so Jesus came both to preach that we are sinners in need of the Savior and to give himself as the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. He came as the Savior of sinners, the Savior for sinners. And to do that, he had to give himself as a sacrifice for sins. In his death and resurrection, Jesus was proclaiming that God had come down to earth to satisfy divine judgment on sinners. That all who were found in him, everyone found in Christ, everyone sprinkled by the blood of his sacrifice, would be cleansed from their sin. That's what Christ came for. And that's not the Christ that sinners want. That's not the Christ that sinners want. Because sinners don't want to admit, do we, that we're so bad, that I'm so bad that God Himself had to take on flesh and be killed for my sin. That hurts to admit that. That's offensive to admit that. Sinners do not want to confess that God had to hang naked upon a cross to pay the price for our wrongdoing. That is an offensive gospel. No, we want the victorious Jesus. The champion Christ, who is never hurt, who never has to get hurt, who never has to suffer. We don't want the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. It's kind of ironic that even at Easter, the very time that we celebrate Christ's death and resurrection, we wear pastel colors and decorate our homes with cute sweet bunny rabbits and eggs and flowers and wonderful sweet things. And we take family photos in front of the Azaleas if they're still left. And we eat classic family recipes and hunt for eggs, and it's happy and everything looks nice, but what are we celebrating? We're celebrating the fact that the God who made heaven and earth came down and died for our sins, that we are that bad, that you and I are that bad. That he came down to die for our sins. And there's nothing wrong with those traditions, by the way. I'm not trying to make you feel bad for doing those things. But do you pause to consider that what we're celebrating is that God came down to earth to die because you were that bad? Because you and I are so rebellious, so wicked, so twisted and corrupted in sin, such vile worms that God Himself, the second person of the Trinity, had to come down and hang naked on a cross and be buried. What we are celebrating is that our leader, our king, our savior was arrested, condemned, and killed, and it's your fault. It's your fault. You did it. It was your sin that he was suffering for. That's the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. We preach an offensive gospel. In this church, we have an offensive gospel. And I must ask you before I go any further, is that the savior that you hope in? Is that the savior that you trust in? Is that the savior that you want? That you're hoping for? Is that the Christ that you trust? A Christ who came to die? A Christ who shed his blood because you were that bad? A different Christ can do you no good. A different Christ leaves you with no hope. You need a Christ who came for your sin. And that's the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. So we've seen the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. Now let's consider the anticipation of Christ's death and resurrection. In verse 25, as Jesus begins to rebuke his disciples, the first thing that he says is that they were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. They were slow of heart. Let's unpack what that means. First of all, he doesn't say they were slow of mind. He's not turning to these two followers of him and saying, you know, y'all are really stupid. It's not an intellectual problem. It's not a mind problem. He's telling them that they're slow of heart, they're spiritually slow. Because of the offense of the cross, the offense of Christ's death and resurrection, his followers are not willing to understand with their hearts. But secondly, look at what Jesus is saying that they should have understood. Why they should have known what Christ would do. He says, all that the prophets have spoken. All that the prophets have spoken. Jesus is using, you might say, theological shorthand, theological code language, to say all of the Old Testament scriptures, all of the scriptures that you have, we're pointing to this moment. We're pointing to this very moment. In other words, Jesus is saying, Cleopist and unidentified disciple, if you had been reading your Bibles and understanding them correctly, then you would have known that this is precisely why I came. The whole Bible, the whole scriptures have been speaking about this very thing. This is why I came to earth. Because the whole Bible is about me, both who I am and what I came to do. It's all about Christ's person and work. It's the center of the scriptures. It's all about Him. So if you this morning are like these two disciples, and you are slow of heart, not mine, but slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, let me quickly give you a sampling of some of the clues that the Old Testament gives us to the person and work of Christ. And you don't have to go very far to get to the first one. As soon as Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit in the garden, as soon as they had sinned against God and fallen from their state of innocence in the Garden of Eden, when God was cursing mankind, he said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, that the serpent would strike his heel, but that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. Meaning that the promised offspring, the promised Messiah, right there in Genesis, as soon as the fall happens, you get the first promise of the gospel, and in it, you get this promise that the Messiah, the Christ, would bring salvation to mankind. But it would cost him. His heel would be struck. He would suffer, but he would be victorious. His heel would be struck, but he would crush the head. So right there in the beginning of Genesis, you have your first anticipation of Christ's death and resurrection. And then if you fast forward to the Exodus, as God's people were being led out of their slavery to Egypt, on the night before the Passover, God instructed every family of his people to sacrifice a lamb, a spotless lamb, and to collect the blood of that lamb, and to paint it over their doorposts, that as God was judging the people of Egypt, that he might, because of the shed blood of the lamb, pass over the sins of his people. And so right there in the Passover, we get a picture that it's only through the blood of the Lamb that God will spare his own people from judgment for sin. And then if you fast forward to the book of Leviticus, to the sacrificial system, to the book of Old Testament worship, the very height of Jewish worship, the height of the Jewish calendar, was of course the Day of Atonement in Leviticus chapter 16. And on this day, bulls and goats would be sacrificed. And they were sacrificed for the sins of the people. And it was a bloody day, a gruesome day. You would hear the sounds of death, of animals being killed. You would smell the smells of death. And you would literally have blood being thrown on you. Branches would be dipped in the blood of these animals and thrown on the people to atone for their sins. And all of this served to remind God's people that their sin deserved bloodshed. Their sin brought forth death. And that God was bringing forth the Messiah, the Christ who would be the day of atonement for them. The Christ would take upon himself the judgment for the sins of his people. And so all of the worship of the Old Testament was pointing towards the Christ who would come and die and be raised again. And then in the very prophets themselves, all the Old Testament prophets, we wouldn't have time to go through all of them, of all the ways that they are predicting and prophesying Christ's death and resurrection. But one place where it's crystal clear is in Isaiah, in his suffering servant Songs. Isaiah was crystal clear that the Messiah must suffer for the sins of God's people. That he would be crushed for their iniquities. That he would be bruised. By his stripes, God's people would be healed. If we had all the time in the world, we could sit here and go through Old Testament text by text and just see that they all point to Christ, to his person, and to his work. All of the scriptures were anticipating, are anticipating, are pointing forward to the Messiah, to the Christ who would come and suffer for the sins of God's chosen people, and who would not only suffer for them but triumph over it, who would defeat both sin and death by dying and raising, rising from the dead. Jesus is the seed of the woman, who would be wounded in his heel and yet crush the head of the serpent. Jesus is the Passover lamb who spared God's people from judgment. Jesus is the day of atonement himself, washing his people with his blood, and he is the suffering servant who ransomed God's people from their sin. The whole Bible anticipated this Christ in both his person and his work. So I ask you, are you slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken? Even though God has clearly set forth the Savior that you need, He's clearly told you what your sins deserve and what He did to save you. Do you still want a different Savior? Do you still want a different type of Savior? Do you want a Savior who doesn't deal with your sins but just fixes your problems? That's not the Savior that God says you need. If God doesn't deal with your sins, you cannot abide with God. You need a Savior who suffered and conquered sin. You need Jesus. Jesus is the anticipation of all the scriptures. The whole Old Testament points to his person and his work. Let's now consider the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. We've seen the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. Sinners do not want to admit that we're bad enough that God had to come and die for us. We've seen the anticipation of Christ's death and resurrection, that the whole Old Testament was pointing towards the fact that the Messiah must suffer for the sins of his people. Let's now look at the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. Look with me at verse 26. Jesus asked his disciples a rhetorical question. Was it not necessary? Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Was it not necessary? And that's really the key question. That's the question that we must address this morning. That's the question that you must answer today. Was it necessary that God came down, took your form, suffered, crucified on a Roman cross, and rose from the dead? Was it necessary? Was there some other way? Is there some other hope for the world? The Jews thought there was. The Jews didn't think this was the Messiah. Couldn't be. Even though they had the Old Testament scriptures, they didn't believe that this was God's plan to redeem his people. There must be some other way. The Gentiles didn't think so. This was foolishness to the Gentiles. A man who claimed to be God who was killed on a Roman cross? How could that save the world? This was foolishness. The doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. God himself tells us that in his word. Natural man, sinful man, does not believe that what Jesus did 2,000 years ago matters at all? Not a bit. So what do you think? Do you believe that Jesus, what Jesus did on the cross and in his rising from the dead, do you believe that that's your only hope? Do you believe that what Jesus did on the cross and in his rising from the dead is the only hope of humanity? Moreover, do you believe that Jesus even did rise from the dead? Modern rationalism doesn't. Science doesn't. The universities and the institutions of higher education would laugh at the idea that Jesus physically rose from the dead 2,000 years ago. And you may feel compelled to be here this morning because it's Easter Sunday and we're in the South. And that's what you do in the South on Easter Sunday, is you go to church. And not to be offensive, but that's not enough. You must answer my question. You must answer for yourself. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Did he rise from the dead, and is that your hope? Was it necessary? Did it matter? Listen with me to the Apostle Paul and how he handles this in 2 Corinthians. Paul says that if Christ Jesus did not rise from the dead, if the Jews were right, or the Greeks were right, or the modern scientists were right, or the rationalists, or the university people were right, if Christ did not die on the cross and rise from the dead, then our preaching is completely in vain. That's what Paul says. Yes, if Jesus did not die, and if he did not rise, if this is all a myth, and if this was not necessary, then you're wasting your time here this morning. You shouldn't have gotten up early and come to Watson Chapel this morning. Your time has been wasted. In fact, I've really wasted my life. I'm a preacher. I have that the worst of all. My career is meaningless. Paul goes on to say that if Christ did not die and rise, if this is all hoax, then you really shouldn't be here. What you should do is you should go eat the best food you can, you should go get drunk, and you should go party. That's what you should do. Because everything is meaningless. Nothing matters. Paul says, if Christ did not die and rise, then you're still in your sin. You're still in your sin, you have no hope. You only have judgment coming, so you better live it up right now. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. You have no hope beyond what's here, beyond what you can see, taste, and touch. It's all vanity, it's all meaningless. If Christ did not die on the cross and rise from the dead, then you yourselves are dead in your sins, and you have no hope at all. So let me tell you why you do have hope and why it was necessary that Christ died and rose from the dead. It was necessary because you and I have a debt that we cannot repay. We have sinned against a holy God. All mankind is guilty of this debt. There was not one of us on the earth who could repay this debt. Who could repay this debt of sinning against God. And moreover, we were born, no matter how cute babies are, all of us are born dead in our sins. You are not, and I am not, someone who sometimes sins or has a sin problem. We are born in our sins. We are sinners. And we don't have the ability to reconcile for any of our sins. So we have a debt against the most powerful being in the universe, and no ability to reconcile that debt. That's our condition. That's the sum of it. But there's hope, and there's good news. The good news is that God is love. Not that God chooses to love, not that God is loving, but God is love. It's who he is. It's not something he can decide to do or turn off or turn on. It's who he is. And in his love, he sent his son into the world to take your form and to suffer and to give himself as a propitiation for your sin. Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, took your form, was born of the Virgin, and was condemned in the flesh. He was put to death on the cross, and he paid the price for the sins of all of God's chosen people. From the eating of the forbidden fruit into the very last sin that humanity will commit on this earth. Christ paid for the sins of all God's elect people. Every single one of them was paid on the cross. And Jesus rose from the dead, conquering sin and death forever. And the good news, the good part of that, is that this Jesus that I preach is freely offered to you today. That if you take Jesus Christ by faith, then your sin, past, present, and future, was all paid for on that Roman cross. And his righteousness, all of Christ's righteousness, the righteousness of God Himself is freely given to you. And a promise with it that at the last day you will participate in Christ's resurrection. Physically, your body will be raised again, that you will experience Jesus' victory over death, and that you will live with him forever. This Jesus is the only hope for sinners. For sinners, Christ's death and resurrection is 100% necessary. There's no other option. It's the only hope. If Christ did not die and rise, then you have no hope. But Christ did die. And he did rise from the grave. And that hope in Christ is your only hope in life and in death. That is the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. Because it's the only hope of the world. Let me tie these things together. We've seen the offense of Christ's death and resurrection. Sinners who are dead in their sins do not want to admit that we are so bad that we needed God Himself to come and die for our sins. We've seen the anticipation of Christ's death and resurrection, that the whole Bible was pointing to Christ's person and work. It's all about Christ and what he did. It's the center moment of all human history. And we've seen the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. That it's the only hope of humanity. So I ask you finally this morning, was it all worth it? Was there another way? Was Jesus' death and resurrection really necessary? I hope your answer is this. And I hope your answer is this, your whole life. That Jesus Christ, his person and work are my only hope in life and death. I hope that they are your only hope in life and in death, the person and work of Jesus Christ. That you can say that Jesus lives, and so shall I. This gospel may be a stumbling block to the Jews, it may be foolishness to the Greeks, but as for me, I have no other confidence. I have no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Make that your answer. Make that your only hope today. There is no other. Let's pray. Abba Father, holy God, we confess that we do preach an offensive gospel. That it is hard for us to admit that we are so wicked, so evil that your son had to come to earth and suffer for us. But we confess that there is no other way. There is no other hope for us outside of Jesus Christ. Would you please give us the faith to embrace him as he's offered in your word this morning, and to make him our only trust for all of our days. It's in his name we do pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.