Luke 24:13-35
Please remain standing and turn
in your copy of the scriptures to Luke chapter 24. Today we’ll
be reading verses 13 through verses 35, 13 to 35. This is the second of three of
the gospel accounts, at least in Luke, of Jesus’ post-resurrection
appearance, as you can read in Matthew. and Mark, as well as
John, other events in Jesus’ post-resurrection life before
his ascension, but we give our attention to those which are
in Luke. So hear the word of God with
me. Luke chapter 24, beginning at verse 13. Before we read,
let’s ask for God’s help. Lord, our eyes fail us, so help
us to see our ears, are in tune with so many other things. So
let us tune out those voices. Our hearts are full of date books
and checkbooks and the things that we desire to do as soon
as we leave from this place. But give us a few moments of
peace and rest in your truth. And we ask for that now in the
name of Christ, amen. 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 these 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 were 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 is a prophet, mighty indeed and
word before God and all the people and how our chief priest 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 have happened. Moreover, some of our 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
that he was alive. Some of those who were with us
went to the tomb. They found it just as the women
had said, 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 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
farther, 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 he blessed it and he broke it and he 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 and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose
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. Amen. This is the word of the
living God. You may be seated. Most of you,
I would imagine, during your childhood years read the classic
Winnie the Pooh stories. And if you didn’t, maybe you
read them to your children or are now reading them to your
grandchildren. But you know the little boy,
Christopher Robin, his hundred acre woods. There’s the tiger
who’s always springing about. There’s the owl who’s wise and
learned. And there’s Eeyore. Eeyore’s
the grumpy one. And in today’s culture, when
somebody’s grumpy and blue and kind of pessimistic or a little
too introspective, we say, oh, what an Eeyore. Well, Eeyore
has a classic line in the Pooh stories. And he says this, the
sky has fallen. I knew that it would. Well, that’s
the attitude of the 11. That’s the attitude of the women
that followed Jesus. That’s the attitude of the company
of disciples who followed Jesus, the life and death of Jesus. for them was a difficult event
that, well, at least on this Sabbath day in the story, Luke
tells us, has them perplexed, has them confused, has them in
a haze, a fog of mourning and loss and wondering what is next. Well, today is one of the multiple
passages in the gospels, the second of three in Luke of Jesus’
post-resurrection appearances. And Jesus’ goal last week, today,
and then next week, as we’ll see in each of these accounts,
his goal is to strengthen the faith of his disciples. Because
pretty soon, within about 40 days or so, right, he will ascend
to the throne. He will receive his kingdom,
which he earned when he accomplished the redemption for sin on the
cross. But before Jesus ascension and
before he commissions, before he great commissions his disciples
to do the work of the church, which will follow through our
study of the acts of the apostles beginning in a few weeks, we
see Jesus strengthening their faith. Now, in today’s passage,
we have two particular disciples. Now, when we say the word disciples,
it’s not two of the 11. The 11 are in Jerusalem. They’re in a room holed up mourning
and wringing their hands and figuring out what to do. But
we have these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, a little
village outside Jerusalem. And we find them in a deep depression.
That’s the first thing we’ll consider from this passage today. We find these two disciples in
a deep depression. Now, why do we become so disappointed
in life? Well, there’s an easy answer
to that. We become disappointed because our expectations are
not met. We go to the grocery store, we
have a list of 10 items. If we come out of there with
eight, most of us don’t say, well, it was a pretty good day.
I batted 80% or 800, right? No, we fuss about the two items
we couldn’t get. And it gets worse from there. You up the ante in life. We become
disappointed because our expectations are unmet. Well, these two disciples,
as well as those still gathered in Jerusalem, have their messianic
expectations unmet. They’ve been with Jesus. They’ve
heard his ministry. He’s read and preached and proclaimed
and lived the Old Testament prophecies about himself. But in God’s providence,
in God’s sovereignty, in the work of the spirit, they don’t
yet see it. They don’t yet see it. And so
their messianic expectations are unfulfilled. We wanted a
king. We wanted a king who was going
to clean house the Romans out of here, the borders of Israel
back to the days of King David and King Solomon, the grandeur
of the temple, ours and ours alone. A people who lived within
borders, who lived for Yahweh. They did what his word commanded.
They worshiped according to his laws and they had great hopes
that Jesus was this Messiah. But as they’re walking back to
Emmaus, back home, it’s as if they’ve given up. Our Messiah
is dead. Our messianic expectations unfulfilled. And so you can imagine in today’s
clinical terms, they’re depressed. They’re cast down. They’re worn
out and weary. There is no hope. The sky has
fallen. And you would suppose maybe they
knew it would or they expected that it would. But as they make
their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, this seven mile or so walk, Cleopas,
one of the disciples we know by name at least, possibly Jesus’
uncle, could be that Cleopas was the brother of Joseph the
carpenter. the earthly father of King Jesus. Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t
matter so much, but it’s an interesting detail. They’re, they’re making
their way back home. Why stay in Jerusalem? Passover
is done. Why stay in Jerusalem? Jesus
is dead. May as well go back, get to work,
check email, check the entry machine, wash the car, do the
laundry, do everything we do. When we get back from a trip,
the letdown has come on to them. But as they’re walking to Emmaus,
they’re having this back and forth discussion. It’s a rather
vigorous discussion of all the things that took place, the triumphal
entry, the cleansing of the temple, the teaching of Jesus on Solomon’s
porch. The friction between Jesus and
the powers that be. The healings, the touch of Jesus,
the powerful words that amazed their ears and warmed their hearts. They’re discussing these things,
but they keep coming to this conclusion, but it’s all a nod. It was a waste of time. Nothing
of value took place. They crucified our hero and he
is now dead. And worse, his grave is empty
and him we have not seen. Well, as they’re having this
back and forth discussion, this vigorous, heated discussion on
the way back home, Jesus walks up. He joins the party. And it says the spirit did not
allow them to recognize Jesus. Now you could think for a moment,
wouldn’t he have had some wounds? Wouldn’t he have looked the same
as he did three, four or five days ago? Wouldn’t they have
been in close proximity with them? How do you not recognize
somebody you’ve been with, somebody you love, somebody you follow?
Well, that’s the power of the spirit. God in his providence
does not yet want them to know who he is. Now, a commentator
or two have speculated on why this may be. And I think one
of the most compelling arguments that’s worth our thought for
a minute or two this morning is this. Jesus was preparing
his apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
And it couldn’t be maybe. It couldn’t be sort of. It couldn’t
be, well, we think he rose from the dead. These people, as they
go into the world, just as you and I, as we leave this place
Sunday by Sunday, we need to be convinced that the Bible is
true. We need to be convinced that
Jesus is the eternal son of God who gave up his life for our
sins. We need to be convinced that
He alone saves sinners who come to Him by faith and in repentance. And if we’re not convinced, we
will not be able to serve the world through the ministry of
the church God has commanded and given to us. And I think
that’s a good way to look at this passage. As Jesus walks
up to them, He says to them, unknown to them who He is, He
says to them, what you talking about? He knows exactly what
they’re talking about. He has the nail scars to prove
it. He has the wound in the side
where the spear pierced him, the piercings in his feet. He
has the scourged back. He has the wounds on the head
from the crown of thorns. He has the taunts and the mocking
from all. the religious and Roman officials
ringing in his ears. He knows exactly what they’re
talking about. What you talking about? They
stopped and they looked sad. They were downcast, depressed. They were in a deep depression.
Now, had they known who Jesus was, they would have said, are
you kidding? Do you, do you, you just went through this. They
don’t know him from Adam as we say, but he says, What you talking
about? Cleopas replies with an interesting
answer. It’s as if he says, what planet
are you from? Where have you been? You’re coming
from Jerusalem, too. Did you not hear the uproar?
Have you not heard the murmuring in the streets, the marketplace
gossip of all that has taken place? A criminal let loose. but a favored teacher of Israel
put to death on a Roman cross and hung there as a spectacle
before the eyes of Jerusalem. Cleopas speaks all the right
words. He speaks of Jesus, a man, a
prophet who was mighty in power, mighty indeed. He was delivered
over to the officials. He was, condemned to death and
he was crucified. And then with a last gasp, he
says, and we hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. But it’s
as if he says, all is lost. We’re going home back to the
grindstone. Life has no meaning. Religion
has no value in my life. So we had hoped he was the one
to redeem Israel. And they say, and beyond that,
he died. That was three days ago. We’re
headed home. And who’s right under their nose?
It’s Jesus, who’s right before their eyes. It’s Jesus, his wounds,
the the lamb of God, the risen savior. But the spirit keeps
them from seeing it. Their expectations unmet. Sometimes we wring our hands
when difficulty comes to our lives. And we say. I wish God could have helped. We say, if only God had shown
up, we say as if God is helpless and unable. We say things like
all is lost. We say things just like these
disciples. And there’s Jesus right in our face. There’s his
truth on the tip of our tongue. And we can’t see. We live in
a day and age where we don’t know our Bibles. One great theologian
wrote a book some years ago called Spiritual Depression, and You
want to know the way to become spiritually undepressed? It’s
read your Bible. See again who God is. See again
what God has done. See again who you are and what
God has done for you in Jesus Christ. We’re living in a day
and age where the church in America preaches a prosperity gospel.
God wants you to be happy. God wants you to be healthy.
God wants you to be wealthy. And if you’re not happy and wealthy
and healthy, then something must be wrong with you because you’re
doing something to hinder God’s blessings. We’re living in a
day and age in the American church where moralistic, therapeutic
deism is the soup of the day. Moralistic, be good. Therapeutic,
feel good, deism. There is a God and he exists.
And when he gets around to it, or if he’s able, or if he has
a mind to, or if you pray hard enough, or if you name it and
claim it well enough, he’ll come be in your life. Well, that prosperity
gospel, that moralistic therapeutic deism, those aren’t the way God
operates. Or the social justice. God exists
for Jesus to be the greatest teacher there ever was. Friends,
we live in a fallen world, a broken world, and just because we come
to faith in Jesus does not mean all our problems go away. No,
God uses those things to sanctify us and to shape us. We live in
a fallen world with tragedies. Look at the news and read your
Bible. It’s exactly how God says things will be. And so these
disciples are in a funk. They’re in a deep depression
because why? They’ve not taken a deep dive
into the scriptures. And that’s the second thing we
want to see from this passage. It comes from the middle section
of the passage. Jesus takes them on a deep underwater
search of the scriptures. You know, we like little magic
pills in our day. You look at magazine advertisements, you
look at the ads on the television, you pop this pill, and your belly
fat will go away. I would love that because I hate
sit-ups. I hate crunches. I am not going
to run because I’ll have to have knee surgery and hip surgery
and back surgery. But we love little magic pills. And the diet
side is funny. But we have a little magic pill
that will make a night of poor judgment go away. It’s the abortion
pill. We love little magic pills that
make our pain go away. And so we have an opioid crisis.
And hasn’t it leaked right into the church? We love magic pills. And it’s why nearly, well, I
need to be careful how I say this. It’s why American preaching,
American churchianity today is about magic pills. They’re peddling
snake oil, right? You name it, you claim it, you
ask God for it. No, we need a deep dive into
the scriptures. There’s way more to Christian
living than we have made of it these days. And Jesus takes the
disciples and we ought to therefore take ourselves on a 66 book tour. of the work of redemptive history.
The Bible is one long story of redemption, but it is made up
of 66 books of the Bible. There’s law, there’s prophets,
there’s poetry, there’s writings, there’s wisdom, there’s gospel,
there are epistles, there are commands that we must do. And
there are stories that are indicative of the character of God and the
need of man for a savior like Jesus Christ. And until we understand
these 66 books of the Bible and still until we grasp the whole
of the story of redemption, we are like these two who Jesus
says to them, oh, foolish ones. How slow of heart are you to
understand? Now, what would have been the
magic pill, the easy button? Jesus could have popped off his robe
and said, look at my back. He could have rolled up his sleeves
and said, look at my hands. He could have hiked up the edge
of his tunic and said, look at these feet. And he could have
pulled back his hair and said, look at the crown wounds in my
head. But he takes them on a tour of
the Bible. We love mountaintop experiences.
We love the woohoos of life, right? We love epic events. And what is Jesus saying? You
need to read your Bibles. You need to understand that everything
this book says about me has just come true. We need to know the
word of the living God. Oh, foolish ones, oh, slow of
heart to believe. Oh, we think of Jesus, little
Jesus, meek and mild. It’s like he backhands both of
them. What’s your problem? You’re foolish. You are slow
of heart. And he takes them to school.
We say all the time, don’t we? There’s no such thing as a dumb
question. Oh, there’s there’s such a thing
as a dumb question, isn’t there? And these two are asking it if
they are asking a question at all. They’re asking a dumb question. What’s the purpose of scripture?
What are we to understand it to be? The purpose of scripture
according to our confession of faith is for God to reveal himself
to us. Without the scriptures, we know
nothing specific about God. The purpose of scripture is not
only to reveal God, it’s to hear his declared will for our lives. This is who you are. This is
how you ought to live. This is what is the way of salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ. The purpose of scripture is to
reveal, it’s to declare, but it’s also to put in a whole book
that’s passed down through the ages, the truth of God, and it
can be preached and proclaimed, and it can be protected by the
church throughout the centuries. And what’s the benefit of this?
It protects us from the malice of Satan. It protects us from
the ways and the systems of the world, but it also curbs our
flesh, our remaining sin, and shows us what God desires, and
it takes away from us our sinful desires. And so the scripture
is an important part of the life of the Christian. We have a lifetime,
when we come to faith in Jesus, we have a lifetime to spend in
the word, hearing it preached, hearing it read, In our private
devotions, picking up Table Talk Magazine, listening to sermons
on our podcast. You know, just this week, I’ll
give you an example. I sat through my own two sermons
last Sunday. I sat through a Sunday school lesson on the life of
Samson. On Monday morning, I listened
to a sermon by R.C. Sproul on my morning walk. I
did the same on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I listened
to a series of podcasts, both on my walk and while I did yard
work on who a minister ought to be. And I’ll tell you, and
that’s plus studying for all of this and all the rest, I still
heard the voice of the world pretty loudly. I still had the
tug of the flesh in my life and Satan Boy, he comes with both
feet kicking. If you aim to be a Christian
man, a Christian husband, a Christian parent, a Christian pastor, you
fill in the blank who you are and what God has called you to
do, the world and the flesh and the devil come with both feet
ready to kick you down and say, you’ll never make it. Don’t you
honor Christ? Don’t you proclaim his name?
Don’t you read his Bible? Watch Fox News instead all night?
or pick up the movie channel for hours and just leave your
Bible over in the corner, dust it off on Sunday and carry it
around rather proudly on the Sunday morning, making everybody
think you’re a great Christian and you were a Bible reader all
week. That’s the reality in each of
our lives, if we’re really honest about it. But we have so many
gifts, so many graces. I want to ask you an important
question. Can you remember Can you remember
a time as you were reading through your Bible and it popped you
upside the head and said, I see it now. This is the most wonderful
book. It’s about Jesus. It’s about
the way of salvation. The cross is at the center, but
the whole Bible tells me who I am and what God requires. Well, that’s what Jesus is doing
for them. He’s taking them on a deep dive
of the scriptures. And can’t you imagine the stories
he told? Genesis three, Adam and Eve, you’re sinning, here’s
Satan, God’s called him to account, but Eve, you’re gonna have an
offspring one day and there’s gonna be a fight, a cosmic battle
between your offspring and between Jesus Christ and Satan. Or how about Abraham and Isaac
and the story of them going all the way up on the mountain on
the third day journey, he ties up his son, he lays him on the
altar, he raises the knife and just as he’s about to plunge
the knife into the heart, the ram and the thicket is exchanged
for the only son. And Jesus could go on about how
he is the ram and the thicket and that his father did not hold
back the knife as did Isaac. And on and on and on through
the scriptures, Jesus went as he interpreted, as he opened
up the scriptures, and showed them the way of salvation through
faith in Jesus. Friends, the scriptures are compelling
to show us God, salvation, sin, and our need. And so we find
our disciples walking on the road in a deep depression, Jesus
taking them on a deep dive in the scriptures. But then we find
them in a third way. There’s deep joy. And this deep
joy comes at the last of the passages. They drew near to their
village and the day is far spent. Night is coming. And they say
to Jesus, who appears to be going on a little farther, stay with
us for the night. Now we know from the book of
Hebrews that we’re supposed to be hospitable for we don’t know
when we may be entertaining angels unaware. Do you think these two
had any idea they would be eating supper with Jesus? Well, they’re
about to find out. Our passage tells us they go
into the house for the night’s lodgings. They sit down to dinner
and Jesus assumes the place of the host. And what does he do?
He breaks bread. He says the blessing. And he
passes the food around. Now, this is not the Lord’s Supper.
May sound like it. It may seem like it, but it’s
not. They’re just eating a common meal together. And what does
the Bible say? Their eyes, which had been closed by the spirit,
are now opened. And as they see Jesus, he disappears. He vanishes from their sight.
And what do they do? They finish their meal like good
boys and girls. They eat their last drop of soup. They do the
dishes. They wipe the kitchen so they
won’t be any ants. No, they leave it. And what do
they do? They are filled with deep joy.
And that slow seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus when
they were down in the dumps, walking and talking like Eeyore
is all of a sudden a sprint. And they make their way to the
room where the disciples are, the 11 and the women and the
others. And those are in there saying, as they come in the door,
he is alive. He appeared to Simon Peter. And
they say, yes, we know we just broke bread with him. Dear friends,
Jesus is close by us in our lives. Jesus. is all over the pages
of scripture. Jesus is right there with his
church to the end of the ages. And by his word, by his spirit,
you can know his way of salvation and you can see it from beginning
to end, Genesis to Revelation. And your faith can be made strong.
Your life can be made strong. in Christ by the minister of
the word and by your own personal Bible reading can understand
the mysteries of the gospel. You may have doubts, though you
may be indifferent, your Bible may not be open the whole week
long, and so let me challenge you to things take up and read. And may the spirit open your
eyes to see Jesus in the whole of scripture. Let us pray together. Our Lord, this day and age, our
eyes are glued to screens. Our minds are in an unhealthy
way, tethered to the potential of information. from every single
website, every social media, every ding and buzz of our gadget
draws our mind and turns us into idiots. And we do not know your
scriptures because we have not read your scriptures. So Lord,
let us put the things away in our lives that keep us from knowing
who you are, what you’ve done and what you’ve promised. Let
us put those things away in order that we might take up our Bibles
and read and we take up a good bit of our time week by week
being in your house, sitting under your word read and preached
and proclaimed, enjoying Christian education together, listening
to recordings and podcasts, reading our own Bibles, looking at study
notes, reading devotionals. Lord, may it be so that we never
live a moment without the knowledge of Jesus, our great Savior. Lord,
we live such ignorant and poor lives because we make poor choices.
May this be a day of change. We might be people of your book,
people of your word. Help us. We do pray in the name
of Christ. Amen. We want to respond to God’s
word by singing of Christ, God and the gospel of his son. So turn to 170 and we’ll stand
and sing.