Welcome everyone. It's good to be here today to
worship God in spirit and in truth.
And I would like to say I appreciated not only the song
that Wade LED that we all sang together, but his comments
regarding the author that wrote it.
And that is that God is worthy of our praise regardless of the
circumstances in our life. And sometimes in our life we
have things that are trying and we have things that are
difficult and sometimes we even suffer.
The entire point of what we're going to talk about is 2 men
that traveled on a lonely road and that was to Emmaus, a little
village from Jerusalem about 7 miles away.
And one of the hardest things that they had to deal with in
their mind was they couldn't fathom that the Messiah had to
suffer first before entering into his glory.
As we were singing that song just a moment ago, I thought
about and I reflected on our Christian lives.
And the Bible does say that we're going to have glory one
day, but what does it say after we have suffered a while?
That's life. And while we're going through
that, God is worthy of our praise every step of the way.
This morning I've looked forward to this.
We're starting a brand new series.
I've taken you now from a series prior to this one, beginning
from the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and we
took it all the way through the resurrection.
And now what we're going to do is this morning we're going to
start a series on the 40 days that Jesus spent with his
disciples after the resurrection and before the ascension.
I don't know how many times in Bible studies where I study the
book of Acts with someone, which is very important, I always talk
about, well, I mentioned that I narrate the crucifixion, the
burial, the resurrection of Jesus.
And then I always say, and then skipping 40 days later to Acts
chapter 1 to the ascension and get right into the meat of the
book of Acts. But what I thought I'd do is
back up. Let's study those 40 days.
They were so significant, the 40 days the Lord spent after his
resurrection before he ascended. We're going to do our very best
to keep things in chronological order and sequence as much as
possible. And in doing so, we've got to
bounce around through the different narratives of the
different gospel accounts. But this morning, as we begin at
the beginning, we've got to go to Luke chapter 24.
Now, in Luke chapter 24, Luke focuses on the bodily
resurrection of Jesus, and that's very important.
But what Luke does is Luke leaves out specific details that
the other gospel writers actually include.
And what Luke does is he talks about two appearances, one of
which we're going to discuss today, and that is when Jesus
met those two men on the road to Emmaus.
Later he's going to talk about and that'll be next time.
Later he's going to talk about the time or we're going to refer
to that Luke refers to when Jesus walked through those doors
and met with the 11 and whoever else was present there.
We talk about that next. What Luke does is the Luke
chapter 24. He deals with those two
appearances and then he skips 39 days and gets right to the
ascension. Now we know that the author Luke
understands about all those days because in his sequel when he
wrote Acts, the book of Acts, he actually points out in Acts
chapter 1 and verse three that Jesus showed himself alive for
those 40 days. So we understand that he knew
that. But in the gospel according to
Luke he only mentions two occasions where the Lord was
seen. But in all the Gospel accounts
we find that there are 10 post resurrection appearances of
Jesus, five of which actually occur on this day, the morning
or the day of the resurrection. Let's begin in Luke chapter 24
and verse #1. Luke 24 and verse #1.
Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning,
they and certain other women with them came to the tomb,
bringing the spices which they had prepared.
Notice this phrase on the first day of the week.
This phrase actually in the original is literally translated
among Jews. And you got to look at this by
the way, through a Jewish lens and what they would have
understood. So we go back in our mindset to
what the Jews actually referred to by way of their own calendar.
This phrase, the first day of the week.
If you ever want to know where that came from or what it means,
it actually is translated on the one of the Sabbaths.
And why was that? Well, the Jews didn't have names
for the weekdays like we have. We have Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
We've got that. You know what?
The Jews didn't have that. Everything that they did
regarding their week, 7 day week, everything concerning the
description of every day was always with reference to the
Sabbath because why the Sabbath was the significant day under
the law of Moses. That was the number one
significant day. Now we have a different
significant day, but hold that thought.
I'm going to make a point in just a minute.
We have a new significant day. We don't recognize the Sabbath
anymore or the 7th day. That was an Old Testament under
the law of Moses thing. We know that.
So every day concerning the week was always described with
reference to the Sabbath. So what was the first day of the
week? It was the first day after the
Sabbath. So that's why it was called the
first day of the week. Now in the New Testament, early
Christians continued the same practice of reckoning their days
in sequence from the Sabbath. 2 Very important passages that we
all know very, very well with regards to our worship.
Acts 20 and 7. Now on the first day of the
week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul,
ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his
message until midnight. How about this a passage that we
use with reference to the contribution after we commune.
We do this, and customarily we choose out of expediency to do
it. After that, after the communion
doesn't matter when we do it as long as we do the five items of
worship on the Lord's Day. Notice on the first day of the
week, First Corinthians 16 and two, let everyone of you lay
something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no
collections when I come. OK, so the first day of the week
is the first day following the Sabbath.
And I don't mean to insult anyone.
We just have to lay some. We got to set the table here.
It's talking about Sunday, and Sunday is the New Testament day
of significance, not the 7th day, not the Sabbath.
Just a little side note here, and I have a lot to cover so I'm
not going to get bogged down with side points here today, but
I got to just make this one point.
When people describe and religious people describe Sunday
as the Sunday Sabbath, that is a contradiction of terms.
Sabbath is 7th first day of the week.
Sunday is first. There are two different days,
and Jesus marked the transition between the Old Testament
Sabbath and the New Testament first day of the week.
OK. By the way, one of the reasons I
hated him, He said I'm the Son of God.
Why else did they hate him? The way he handled the Sabbath?
Jesus said I can do whatever I want on the Sabbath.
I'm Lord of the Sabbath, I'm greater than the Sabbath.
He also marked the transition between the Old Testament
Sabbath day and the New Testament significant day, the
first day of the week, which is Sunday.
OK, with all of that being involved here, let's talk about
the Jewish idiom, an idiomatic expression or a common
expression of the day. What about this phrase right
here, 3 days and three nights? The phrase 3 days and three
nights is used in the Scriptures to describe the amount of time
that Jesus is going to spend in the grave.
It is a phrase, by the way, that is so misunderstood and
misapplied and I just want to make a couple of points about
this. You remember in Matthew chapter
12 and verse 40, they came to Jesus and they said, give us a
sign. In other words, show us some
kind of a magic trick. And Jesus says an evil and
adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
And the only sign I'm going to give you is the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For his Jonah was 3 days and
three nights in the belly of a great fish.
So also shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. OK, that idiomatic expression 3
days and three nights. Very important here is simply
referring to what it means. And that is the third day.
Now remember, there are only three days identified by the
gospel writers with regards to the connection of the death, the
burial and the resurrection of Jesus.
There's only three days. And by the way, this is really
important, understand three days preparation day, Sabbath day and
1st day. Now do you remember when I said
the first day of the week? Is there expression meaning on
the one of the Sabbath meaning day one after the Sabbath?
The first day of the week is the first day after the Sabbath.
What was the preparation day? The word preparation is the word
Paris QA, which means the day before the Sabbath.
Very significant. Notice what Jesus did.
He was crucified on the day of preparation.
OK, we know that he was crucified at 3:00.
According to John's account, 3:00 PM on the day of
preparation. Day of preparation was the day
before the Sabbath. He's in the ground.
He's buried all the way through the Sabbath day.
Guess what happens on the first day, which is the new
significant religious day under the New Testament times.
He rose from the dead. Do you see a picture here?
When we are baptized for the remission of sins, what happens?
We go down into the waters of baptism.
We died of sin, we are buried, and then we rise like Jesus rose
too. Don't you see?
Jesus took the old Law of Moses according to Colossians.
He took the Sabbath and He buried it as the old man of sin
in our baptism symbolizes a burial too, and we rise to walk
in newness of life. And Jesus rose to bring in the
new significant day, the first day of the week.
Remember this too, the Sabbath day began at Friday at 6:00 PM.
It continued until Saturday at 6:00 PM.
Jesus was crucified on the day before that, on the day of
preparation at 3:00. That means in order for the
Bible to be true, there's three hours that Jesus has to get
buried in to count that day. So you've got 3 days and three
nights. I just want to make one fast
point about this. This is not 324 hour periods.
It is a Jewish colloquial phrase meaning any part of the day.
In fact, if you look at the Talmud, the Talmud says a day
and a night equals one ona, and any part of an ona is as the
whole. It's not referring to 324 hour
periods. The phraseology of three days
and three nights that he would be raised is the same thing as
saying he would be raised on the third day, which is the first
day of the week, which was early that Sunday morning.
OK, notice what happens. Here came the women and they
come to the tomb bringing spices which they had prepared.
You know, I thought about this a couple of days ago as I was
writing this sermon. This is even more proof that
Jesus was crucified on Friday and not tried on Wednesday and
crucified on Thursday. And listen, I know I've read
that too. I know about the double Sabbath
theory. I get it, I get it, and I get
what people try to do to back it up, to get the days and nights
in, But you know, this actually proves that Jesus was not tried
on Wednesday and not crucified on Thursday.
Why was that? These women waited until after
the Sabbath. He's crucified at 3:00 PM on
Friday, the day of preparation. There wasn't enough time for
them to come and prepare the body of Jesus and still
recognize the Sabbath. What did the Sabbath law tell
them? They had a Sabbath day's
journey. They could not exceed another
word. They were only allowed to travel
a certain distance. I read that scholars have said
these women lived or where they were was about two miles from
where Jesus was buried. Keep that in mind about a
Sabbath day's journey. I'm going to get back to that.
My point is this. If Jesus was crucified on
Thursday, there would have been plenty of time for those
precious women to prepare the body before he was buried.
But there was no time. You know why?
Because the Sabbath is kicking in in three hours.
Further proof, I believe it was on Friday.
Remember, there's only three significant days now.
Preparation day, Sabbath day, first day of the week when he
was raised. OK, now since I have gone in
great detail on the resurrection, I'm not going to
go into those things. I'm going to read verses 2
through 10 on the screen with no comment at all because we've
already dealt with the resurrection.
Here we go beginning in verse 2. But they found the stone rolled
away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not
find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were
greatly perplexed about this, that behold, 2 men stood by them
in shining garments. Then as they were afraid, bowed
their faces to the earth, and said to them, Why do you seek
the living among the dead? He is not here, but he's risen.
Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee,
saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of
sinful men and be crucified. And the third day rise again.
And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb
and told all these things to the 11 and to the all the rest.
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and
the other women with them who told these things to the
apostles. Now verse 11 look at their
response and their words seem to them like idle tales.
You know what that means? Foolish talk or nonsense?
It actually this foolish tale or foolish talk and nonsense is
medical language, according to Vincent, used in reference to
the wild talk of a delirious patient.
I got to say, I think it's dangerous for us sometimes and
maybe a little bit irresponsible for us to say what we would have
done and how we would have responded if we were there.
Because we know what the book says, it's easy for us to say.
How did they not get it? But I got to tell you, I don't
know how they didn't get it. How many times did Jesus say I'm
going to die and I'm going to be raised from the dead?
They should have understood, but they didn't understand.
So notice what happens. They say that's foolish talk,
that's nonsense. Now you look at verse 12.
But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, and stooping down, he saw
the linen cloth lying by themselves, and he departed,
marvelling to himself at what had happened.
OK, there's two possibilities why Luke includes this
particular clip at this point. 2.2 different interpretations,
two different ideas. I'll throw them out.
I really don't think it matters #1 This record of Peter,
according to Kaufman visiting the tomb, is possibly a
flashback of the earlier visit to the grave by Peter, and a
condensed version of a more detailed account that we read
about in John chapter 20, verses 3 through 10.
It's possible. Indeed, this is Luke's account
of a flashback and not necessarily a specific narrative
of the chronological sequence. That's possible.
Conclusion #1 Possible conclusion #2 This is another
possibility that Luke is recording a second visit to the
tomb by Peter after which Jesus appeared to the apostle.
Remember in verse 34 of this chapter it says he appeared unto
Peter. Then we find in First
Corinthians 15, three through 7, he appeared to Cephas, which by
the way is Peter, and then also to the apostles or the
disciples. So it's entirely possible one of
those two things are possible, that Luke is recanting or going
over a flashback of an event that already happened, or it's a
second one. We don't know.
It doesn't really matter. OK, but let's notice now verse
13. Now behold 2 of them.
These men, these disciples, were traveling at the same day to a
village called Emmaus, which was 7 miles from Jerusalem.
These two men, by the way, are clearly not apostles.
They're clearly not apostles. How do we know that for sure?
Well, we know the names of the apostles, but these men are not
apostles. One of them is called Cleopas,
or Cleopas however you want to pronounce his name as evidenced
in verse 18. And by the way, I know this is a
long narrative. I'm not going to break down and
keep you here for two hours and talk about every little thing
about all these verses. Some of these verses we're going
to narrate, some we're going to go through, and some we're going
to make detailed comments, OK? I know there's a lot in this
narrative on this great journey this day, right?
Cleopas obviously was one of those disciples.
Now, there's conjecture as to who was the other one.
Well, some commentators say it could have been Luke.
Could it? I don't know.
Maybe. And maybe his name's not
included because he wrote the Gospel of Luke.
Is it somebody else? It doesn't matter.
If God wanted us to know specifically who it was, then we
would know who it was. OK Emmaus, though, is likely the
home of these two disciples who remained in Jerusalem.
Why? Because it was the Sabbath and
they couldn't travel. Remember I said those women
couldn't travel? The women couldn't travel.
They lived 2 miles away. It would have exceeded the
Sabbath day's journey. Under the Sabbath Day law, these
men live 7 miles away. That would have exceeded the
Sabbath day's journey. And why were they in Jerusalem?
They were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
So this Sabbath was not a run-of-the-mill.
Sabbath, in fact, the Bible calls it the high day or a high
Sabbath or a Passover Sabbath. Very significant.
And that's why they were there. Guess what?
Once the Sabbath kicked in, they couldn't leave.
They couldn't travel 7 miles. OK, let's go further.
Remember when I said we're going to talk about how far they were
allowed to travel? If you look in the Old
Testament, even a number of translations, I didn't look at a
lot of translations, but all the ones that I looked at in the Old
Testament that said this, they were only allowed to travel 2002
thousand cubits. Now maybe you have cubics in
your mind and you know all about cubics and spans and all those
things that the Bible talks about and maybe you know exactly
how far that is. I do not.
I had to do a little calculation. 2000 cubits is the
equivalent of .5 sevenths of a mile.
We might just say in an approximate or roundabout way,
about a half a mile. So in other words, a Sabbath
day's journey could not exceed a half a mile.
Women, they were stuck on the Sabbath.
They were two miles away. These men, they were stuck too.
They were 7 miles away. OK, where is Emmaus today?
Modern day. OK, nobody knows exactly.
And I say nobody knows because some have interpretations or
ideologies or different ideas. So they all differ.
So we don't know for sure. All we know for sure is this.
It was 7 miles or 11 kilometers from Jerusalem.
We know that it was northwest of Jerusalem.
Therefore, it was at least we know, still in Judea.
So early on this resurrection morning, they left Jerusalem.
They went NW 7 miles to that little village.
Oh, and some significant things are about to happen on that day.
We look at verse 14 and they talked together of all these
things which had happened. Can you imagine what was going
through their minds? Here they are, these two guys,
they're walking along and they're talking about
everything. They're discussing everything
that happened. Can you imagine what their
mindset was? The frustrations that were going
through their mind, the details of that conversation we find out
later. We find out what those details
are when Jesus shows up. We're going to get to that in
just a second. But here these two men are
walking along and they're discussing all these things.
In fact, in verse 15 it says so it was while they conversed and
reasoned that Jesus himself went with them.
What the word reason means, it means to seek or examine
together to discuss or dispute. According to Mr. Thayer, a
modern word for this. It's not just they were having a
conversation. Here's a modern word debate.
Have you ever gotten into a heated conversation with
somebody? And not necessarily heated as in
I mean intense. I'm not talking about like
angry. I'm just talking about an
intense conversation and dispute.
One person's very strong about one opinion, one person's very
strong about this fact over there, and pretty soon what are
you doing? You're debating the issue.
That's exactly what they were doing.
They were reasoning together. They were examining, discussing,
disputing, or they were simply debating.
Think about what they would have maybe debated.
I just, I'm going to throw a few highlights.
Maybe this came to mind. I don't know.
How about on that Sunday when Jesus made his triumphal entry
into Jerusalem, maybe their minds went back a whole week, a
whole week now and Jesus makes his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem on the back of a cult of the donkey.
And the people that then would stand opposed to Jesus at the
time threw their coats down on the path, on the road, so that
that donkey can walk on the path.
And they said, Josanna of the heist.
Then maybe they talked about the cleansing of the temple.
Then maybe they talked about his daily teaching in the temple.
How about this? How about the rush trial?
How about the rush to judgement? How things began to turn and
things began to change. Maybe they're talking about all
that, the significance of all that.
How about the trials that were illegal and then how man tried
to make legal what was illegal? How Pilot says I find no fault
in him six times and yet his shocking crucifixion where he
was nailed to a Roman cross and died for the sins of the world.
Here's my point. Get this please.
What was their problem? The problem was, their
expectations did not allow them to embrace or imagine any
scenario whatsoever that their Messiah had to suffer and die.
That's the point. They couldn't wrap their minds
around the concept that the Messiah had to die, especially
at the bidding of their own religious Jewish leaders, by the
hands of the Romans. These two disciples struggle.
Let me ask you a question. Don't, don't answer it out loud
just to yourself. I don't care what your answer is
to either, by the way, because I already know what it is.
I already know what it is because you're human, and so
mine. Have you ever struggled?
Have you ever struggled in your life?
You don't have to answer that. I know what the answer is.
And again, I don't mean to be cute here, but if if you have
it, then you're perfect and correct.
Congratulations. But for the rest of us, yeah, we
struggle. You know what they did?
They struggled three ways. Very important.
Number one, they struggled emotionally #2 it LED them to
struggle intellectually #3 it led to the most important thing
and the most dangerous thing. They struggled spiritually.
And you know, that's what happens to us sometimes.
We struggle emotionally and then because of that, because of
that, we are, for example, one way we can do that.
We struggle because we are not looking through the eye of
faith, we're looking through the eye of fear and we struggle
emotionally as a result. You know what that does?
Then our mind kicks in. We start thinking, oh, that's a
bad thing. Think it's good if your thinking
is based upon the right standard, God, Jesus, the word
of God. When it's the right standard, no
problem. But when we start thinking that
we can outsmart things, reason on our own, oh, careful, then we
know what happens after that. Then we struggle spiritually.
And that's exactly what happened to them.
They struggled emotionally, intellectually, then
spiritually. So Jesus draws near and he
begins to walk alongside them. Here we go, this is beautiful.
Can you imagine? They are debating back and forth
what in the world happened, and then all of a sudden here comes
Jesus. Here he comes.
But notice. But it says their eyes were
restrained so that they did not know him.
In other words, they perceived Him as a human being.
They perceived Him as flesh and bone, but they didn't recognize
who it was. And you know, there are other
post resurrection appearances of Jesus where he's not immediately
recognized. And there are reasons like #1
how about this? There's sorrow over his death.
Those that loved Jesus so much, they had so much incredible
sorrow over his death. They couldn't fathom that that
was Jesus after he rose from the dead.
So that's one reason. How about this?
How about distance? Do you remember in John's
account, I believe John 21. And I can't wait to get to that
story in this series. The disciples go out at night
and the Bible says they're fishing and they're fishing at
night. You know what?
They caught nothing. They look out and they see Jesus
on the shore walking told them and they don't know what it is
or don't. They don't know who he is
because of the distance. How about this?
How about in this very chapter in verse 37 that we're getting
to next time when Jesus appears before the disciples and they
didn't recognize and why they were scared out of their mind.
They were frightened. So my question is, if those
things are true, then why were they restrained and why couldn't
they recognize Jesus? Again, I'm going to give you 2
possibilities, 1 possibility, and they both have merit, but I
think 1 is more effective or makes more sense.
But #1A continuation of their earlier failure to understand
that He was going to suffer. For example, going back to Luke
Chapter 9, verse 44 and 45, Jesus says, let these words sink
down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed
into the hands of men. But they did not understand this
saying and it was hidden from them, so they did not perceive
it and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.
OK, one possibility then is this.
Their lack of recognition was a reflection of their unreadiness
to deal with Jesus's death, according to Mr. Tannehill.
Is that possible? That's possible, except for
this. Do you know if this word
restrained here is a verb? And this verb in context is
passive. By the way, just like later on
when it says their eyes were opened and they're going to
recognize Jesus in just a little bit, that verb is also passive.
What's all that mean? All that means is this.
They had nothing to do with it. In other words, whatever was
happening to them was supernatural and it happened to
them. It wasn't a choice.
There was a reason for that too. We're going to get to that
reason. But notice their eyes were
restrained and they did not know Him.
So therefore, it denotes an outside agent is responsible for
their inability to recognize Jesus.
In other words, his identity seems to be miraculously veiled
for a time to allow him to test them and prepare them to
understand the Scriptures concerning him.
That makes more sense. So here comes Jesus.
I love this. And he says to them, what kind
of conversation is this that you have with one another and you
walk and are sad? Oh, the Lord's brilliant.
He's setting up a teaching moment.
The first thing he says is what are you talking about?
This making you sad? Why were they sad by the way?
They were grieving over their dashed hopes.
Hold that thought they were grieving over their dashed
hopes. Then in verse 18, then one of
these, whose name is Cleopas, answered and said, Are you the
only stranger in town, and you have not known the things which
are which happened there in these days?
First of all, Cleopas, who was he?
Again? Conjecture.
Some say he is Clopas, the husband of one of the Marys that
was at the Crucifixion. Possibility #1 possibility #2
again, conjecture. Some say his name was Clopas
also, but he was the brother of Joseph.
We have made him the relative of Jesus.
Is that possible? Yeah, it's possible.
Is it? Is it important?
No. Or the Bible has told us exactly
the importance of that. So his identity is not known for
sure. Then the question, are you the
only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which
have happened there in these days?
They're absolutely blown away. Surely, if you don't know what
we're talking about, are you the only one that's a stranger?
You've got to be the only visitor in the world that came
to Jerusalem over the past overtime and not know what we're
talking about. You know what the irony is here?
He was the only one that knew the significance of all the
events that had happened during these days.
He knew exactly the answer. And I love this.
So he says this. What things?
At this point Jesus knew their
understanding was incomplete. So Jesus asked the question to
expose their partial knowledge. He says what things?
So they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth who
was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the
people. Then in verse 20 and how the
chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to
death and crucified him. Now there is something here
that's very important that they did recognize and they were
right. While they did recognize the
obvious that the Romans crucified Jesus, that the Romans
actually went through with it, nailing him to the cross.
You know what they really recognized?
It was the Jews fault. The chief priests and rulers
delivered him to be crucified. I was on the Radio One time
listening to this religious discussion back and forth and
there were some people that really took exception, really
took exception. They said no, the Romans
crucified Jesus. The the Jews didn't do that
wasn't their fault. Oh, remember when Pilate took
Jesus and Barabbas and stood them before the people, and one
was going to be released over the Passover and they said,
which one do you want me to release unto you?
And they said, Barabbas, He said, what do you want me to do
with Jesus, which is called Christ?
What they say? Crucify him.
And Pilate said, why, what evil has he done?
You know what they said? They said all the more the
religious leader stirred up the people and they cried out,
crucify him. And then they said this, Let his
blood be on us and on our children.
Ouch. These these disciples understood
that very thing. So they were correct about that.
They had insufficient knowledge about other things, but they
were correct about that. But notice in verse 21, But we
were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.
In other words, we were hoping that He was the Messiah and we
had expectations of His messianic fulfillment.
Now what happened when Jesus died?
Their hopes were abandoned, their expectations that He was
the Messiah was abandoned. They lost their faith and then
they lost their hope. Please remember this faith and
hope is very important in our life.
Our brother prayed in our prayer about hope.
Do you know why we have hope? Because we have expectation.
You know why we have expectation?
Because of our faith. Faith is trusting God in the
present. Hope is trusting God for the
future. If you lose your faith, you will
lose your expectation, which leads to losing your hope.
And that's exactly what happened to these two disciples.
And now they have no hope. And sadly, that happens to us
today too. And notice.
And again, here's that phrase again.
And besides all this, today is the third day since these things
happened. Now notice the next three verses
with no comment. Verses 22 through 24, please.
Yes. And certain women of our company
who arrived at the tomb early astonished us.
When they did not find his body, they came saying that they had
also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.
And certain 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. Then Jesus is going to respond.
Notice he says, Oh, foolish once.
First of all, the disciples are full of unbelief because they
have only partial knowledge of the scriptures.
And because they only have partial knowledge of the
scriptures, Jesus calls them foolish ones.
Now Jesus wasn't name calling here, he was giving a
description. What does the word mean?
Foolish ones? It signifies, according to West
E Vine, senseless and unworthy lack of understanding.
You have a senseless, unworthy lack of understanding.
You know why? Because they put should have put
together the testimony of the Old Testament prophecies.
They should have put together all the testimony of Jesus
himself concerning His death and His resurrection.
They should have known. In other words, there was no
excuse. Now let me ask you this.
Whose fault was it that they had a poor understanding of the
Scriptures? I'm going to tell you what
people say. Sometimes people try to make the
scriptures the reason they can't understand it.
Sometimes people say, well, it's hard to understand, or
everybody's got all these different opinions, so you can't
really know what God wants for your life.
We've heard that a million times.
They misunderstood the Scriptures and they had a
partial understanding. You know what Jesus calls them
foolish. Why?
Because they were slow of heart to believe the emphasis is on
them. In other words, what he's saying
is you have insufficient knowledge of the Word of God and
it's your fault. Wow, it's your fault.
Remember, what does the Bible say?
If our gospel be hid? It is hid to them that are lost.
It also says that God is not the author of confusion, but of
peace. In other words, if we
misunderstand it or we have partial knowledge and base of
religion upon it, it's our fault, just like it was their
fault so long ago. He lays the blame on them for
them not understanding the scriptures.
Then he says this. He asks A rhetorical question.
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to
enter into His glory again? As I said before, they focused
on the promise of His glory. So when He suffered and He died
in the cross, they threw out the expectation.
They lost their hope. Again, their fault.
Why? How many times does the Bible
talk about the predictions of His suffering?
How about Psalm 22? How about Isaiah 52 and 53?
So now Jesus asked this rhetorical question, and now
here it comes, the preaching, Luke 2427 and beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning himself.
In other words, it's significant, I think, that Jesus
does not make himself known to them initially by his
appearance, but through the testimony of the written Word of
God. And that, dear friends, is the
Bible pattern. Romans 10/17.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Faith has to be based on the word, not based on an experience
and not based on emotion. It has to be based on a word on
the Word. It starts with your faith.
It gives you expectation and gives you hope and that should
be every child of God. Then in verse 28, we're getting
close here. Then they drew near to the
village where they were going and he indicated that he would
gone had gone further. You know, I think this is really
significant here. Jesus acts like he's going to go
a little further. Do you know Jesus never forces
himself on anyone? The door, your heart's door, the
knobs on your side. Jesus stands there as the song
we used to sing so many times. He's standing and knocking at
your heart's door, but you got to open up and let him in.
Jesus was there. He knew they had impartial
knowledge of the scriptures. He preached A sermon.
You know what he's doing. He threw the word out.
Let's see what the word does. Oh, I love that they still don't
know it's Jesus. See what the word does.
He acts like he's going to keep going.
Oh, but guess what they constrained him saying abide
with us for it is toward evening and the day is far speed and he
went in to stay with them. I love that he's not going to
force himself. He's going right on by, but they
constrained him to stay. Notice, please.
One scholar said it this way. If the man of Emmaus had not
invited Jesus into their home, He would have passed on, and how
poor would be their lives, or their lives would have been.
But because He had spoken to them thus on the way, their
hearts burned with love for Him, and they invited Him in and thus
received the richest blessings, even the Lord himself as the
living King in their lives. How often does the Lord or does
he address us also on life's way?
And He still desires to enter where He's invited.
So all of a sudden now we go inside their house.
And it came to pass as he sat at the table with them, that he
took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
I got to say, some commentators say that this is the Lords
Supper, this is not the Lords Supper.
How do I know that for sure? Do you remember in Luke 22 when
Jesus instituted the Lords Supper, which already happened?
What did Jesus say about the Lords Supper or partaking of the
Lords Supper after that? Luke 2216 For I say to you, I
will no longer eat of it, of it, until it's fulfilled in the
Kingdom of God. That is not going to be
fulfilled until when Acts chapter 2, when the Kingdom is
established, the church is born, and therefore we are congregants
here doing the very same thing that we're going to do now that
the Kingdom is here when we commute.
So this was not the communion. This is an intentional act to
awaken their recognition and remembrance of him.
Plummer said it this way. There is something familiar in
his manner of taking and breaking the bread, blessing it
and giving it to them that triggers and restores their
ability to recognize him. Notice, please.
Then their eyes were open and they knew him.
Again. The word opened, that verb is
also passive, meaning something happened to them.
Not a choice. Not a choice.
Now please look at the screen. You got Jesus in the middle.
You got these two disciples all of a sudden in the breaking of
bread. And that was their testimony
later. That's when they knew.
They know it's Jesus. And then look what happens right
here. He vanishes out of their sight.
Can you imagine? Pretty good experience, didn't
it? We live in a world where people
say, I want an experience. Let me tell you, that's a pretty
big experience. They're on the road to Emmaus.
They hear the great sermon by the Lord.
The Lord comes back to their house.
He finally reveals himself in the breaking of bread, and then
he disappears. Pretty good experience, isn't
it? You think that's what impressed
him the most? All we got to do is look to the
Word of God. What does the Word say?
This is what they said as soon as Jesus disappeared the very
next verse and they said to one another did not our heartburn
within us while they talked with us on the road and while he
opened the scriptures to us. That's what was important.
That's what was impressive. That's what was the stimulation
for their faith. That's what got him right back
on track. It wasn't the experience, folks,
by the way. Again, pretty big experience.
It was the word of God. You know what they did?
They couldn't sit still. I love this man.
They didn't sit back, relaxed, get up the next day.
No what that's what happened there.
So they rose up the very hour and returned to Jerusalem and
found the 11 and those that were with them gathered together.
That's what they did. So in conclusion, what did we
learn? We learned three very important
things. That's a pattern for our lives
today too. Number one, they heard the Word
of God. It was preached by Jesus
himself. They heard the word of God.
What did the word of God do? It burned in their hearts.
Then what? It produced something and they
went out immediately and told others about Jesus.
And you know what? That is still a pattern for us
in our lives today too. They just couldn't sit still.
They had to get back. Next time we're going to talk
about where they're going. We're going to talk about where
Jesus went next. Fascinating stuff.
Got a lot to talk about next time.
That's all I have this morning. Thank you for your kind
listening. I hope something was said that
was encouraging to you in some way edifying to you as we looked
at this great event that happened so long ago.
We never close a time that we teach from the Word of God
without extending an invitation. Is there someone here at the
sound of my voice that is not a Christian?
The steps to become a child of God based on the word of God.
And we talked about the importance of the Word.
You got to hear the Word of God. Romans 10/17 So faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Just like those men on the road to Emmaus.
Then what? You got a choice to make.
You got to believe with all your heart.
Hebrews 11 and 6. Without faith it's impossible to
please him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Then what? You got to repent of your sins?
Acts 17 and 30. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Then you must confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Then Philip said in Acts 837, If you believe with all your heart,
you may. And he answered and said, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Upon taking these steps, you are now a fit candidate to go to the
point of salvation, and that is to be baptized for the remission
of your sins. Jesus even said, Mark 1616.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned. Is it necessary?
Absolutely. First Peter 321 the like figure
where the even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting
away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we would
love to assist you in that today.
Maybe you have. Maybe there's something in your
life that is just not what it should be.
Maybe you've drifted. Maybe you just need the prayers
of God's people together. If you have something in your
life that is not right, then repent of it.
Confess that we'll pray with you and for you, and God will
forgive and restore. We want to be to class.
Come forward while we stand in what we say.