If you turn in your Bibles to
Luke chapter 24, I love the way the Scriptures
give us such beautiful, beautiful pictures of who we are in our
Adam flesh. And as that other hymn that we
sing often says, isn't it? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. And the hymn writer looks to
the Lord to bind his heart and looks to the Lord to bring him
healing. In Luke chapter 24 we have Luke's
account of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that extraordinary
day, three days after his crucifixion, and he rose from the dead, a
glorious day, a triumphant day, the most memorable day. What
a remarkable time it was for the believers. What darkness
they must have felt in those three days. What stirrings there
must have been in the hearts and the minds of people like
Peter. Where would he find rest? Where would he find comfort and
peace after what he had done to his Lord and Saviour and all
of the others? hadn't done exactly the same
things as him, but had made the same bold promises. Here on this day we find these
two men, in verse 13, two men wandering wandering to Emmaus. Emmaus is
about 11 kilometres from Jerusalem. And so I'd just like to look
at their journey today, look at their journey and Lord willing
we might see ourselves in their experiences and mercifully. If God is gracious to us, he
might reveal our saviour to us again. He is the great shepherd
of his sheep. I'll just read from verse 13
down. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem,
about eleven kilometres. And they talked together of all
these things that had happened. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were holden, were
held, that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What
manner of communications are these, that you have one with
another as you walk, and are sad? And one of them, whose name
was Cleopas, answered and said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which have come to
pass in these days? And he said unto them, What things?
And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was
a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people,
and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be
condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted, or we had
hoped, that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.
And beside all this, today is the third day since these things
were done. Yea, and certain women also of
our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre,
at the tomb. And when they found not His body,
they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said that He was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulchre and found it even so as the women
had said, but him they saw not. Then the Lord Jesus spoke to
them. He then said unto them, O foolish ones, is better, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not that Christ has suffered these things and enter into His
glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh unto the village
where they went, and he made as though he would have gone
further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for
it is towards evening, and the day is fast bent. And he went
in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke, and
gave to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew him,
and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us? While he talked with us by
the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures, And they
rose up at that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found
the eleven gathered together and with them, them that were
with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared
to Simon. And they told what things were
done in the way, and how he was known to them in the breaking
of the bread." Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we do thank You that the Lord Jesus is a great shepherd and
a great gatherer of His people. And we have before us, Heavenly
Father, these words that He spoke, these words of His testimony
and witness, these words in these scriptures, Heavenly Father,
which speak of Him, Our Father, if you might graciously send
the Blessed Holy Spirit amongst us, that we might see the Lord
Jesus, that our hearts might be opened. Heavenly Father, so
often we need to confess, sometimes moment by moment, that we are
foolish and slow of heart to believe. We praise you, Heavenly
Father. that You are the One who grants
the gift of faith by Your grace and by Your Spirit's work in
Your people. And we pray that that be our measure, Heavenly
Father, again, that we might be caused to see the Lord Jesus
in His glory as revealed in the Scriptures, and that we might
know the extraordinary promises of His presence and His power
and His protection and His guidance. and His great shepherding of
His sheep. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
You bless us this morning. Without Him, we can do nothing. We thank You that You cause us
to be aware of our frailties and aware of our wanderings.
Gather us again, our Father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. What a story. What a great story. These men were believers. Believers
wandering. Believers wandering and sad. Believers who were sad because
they were slow of heart. They were slow of heart and they
were foolish. The first thing we need to remember
that, as I said, these are believers. And so often we can judge people,
can't we? And we can judge them by the
external state. And we need to be very mindful
that these men, downcast and sad and justifiably rebuked by
the Lord, were nonetheless loved by Him. This is a picture of
redeeming love in action. This is one of our Lord Jesus'
first activities after the resurrection. Those activities of He who never
changes. He who is the same yesterday,
today and forever. And His people, His people go
through times of great sadness and despondency and we need to
be mindful that when we see our brothers and sisters and their
state is like the state of these ones, may God cause us to be
as gracious as our Lord would allow us to be to their state. and as honest as he is. What
a journey they had, what an opportunity they had, what an opportunity
they'd walked away from. Here they were on that extraordinary
day. I don't know about you, but I'm
baffled by why they were walking 11 kilometres away from Jerusalem. There was Mary. We have the list
of the women there. It was Mary, verse 10. It was
Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and
other women that were with them. So there were three witnesses
plus extras who had seen the Lord Jesus, had witnessed the
fact that He had risen, that had angels speaking to them. Angels speaking to them. There
was this empty tomb, as promised. There were these people who were
witnesses. And like these men are wandering
away. I don't know about you, but I
would have been there, wouldn't you? I would have examined Mary upside
down. I would have been finding out
everything. I would have gone to the tomb.
I would have looked in the tomb and found that it wasn't empty.
There were angels in that tomb at times. There were clothes
in that tomb at times. There was evidence in that tomb.
And they walk away. Not only did they walk away,
they actually had Peter and John telling them that the tomb was
empty. It is extraordinary, isn't it,
that we, when we wander, we wander away from so much that we should
be examining closely. And they wandered away, this
extraordinary thing, as he speaks, as they pour out their hearts
to the Lord Jesus, and they said in verse 21, we had hoped. There they were with all of this
evidence, and there they were saying, in a sense, our hopes
are now seemingly dashed. We had hoped. It was He who should
be the one who would redeem Israel. I just want to look at those
two words that the Lord Jesus said to them and we'll look at
them in the context of the rest of this thing. But He says, O
foolish ones, verse 25, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe
This is a great word, isn't it? A little word, but an important
word. All that the prophets have spoken. Is that not your situation, brothers
and sisters? Is that not how so often we are
left like these men? We are wandering away from the
flock of God's people, wandering away from the evidence. And what
were they when the Lord met them? He challenges them and says,
why are you sad? You're sad and you're downcast. Foolish. and slow of heart to
believe, and sad. Unbelief. Unbelief is something
that we need to be very mindful of, isn't it? The Lord Jesus
goes to the very heart of why these men are like they are,
and as his sword cuts and divides and exposes us, May he remind us that we, like
these men, live so much in unbelief which is so unwarranted. You
see, he says unbelief is folly, unbelief is foolishness. And
it arises from so many places, and let's look at them and look
at some of them today, and you'll know more, no doubt, in your
own heart. It arises from a lack of consideration
and a lack of thought of the Scriptures especially.
They had this Word expounded to them by the Lord Jesus for
three plus years. What comfort there was in the
Scriptures. What comfort there was. So the
angels are declaring the same message, aren't they? That heaven
is declaring now and the church is going to declare until the
Lord returns. The angels declare in verse 7,
the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified and the third day rise again. These are the words that they
remind him that the Lord Jesus has said, but they're the words
of Isaiah 53, they are the words of Psalm 22. Again and again
and again we find in the Psalms this extraordinary picture of
this lamb who was slain, this man who was slain under the weight
and under the wrath of Almighty God. And he's slain and he dies
and he's buried and he rises triumphantly. All of those depictions
of his death always finish with him in triumph. It was a triumphal
He triumphed over them, says Colossians 2, triumphed over
them by his cross. He was led like a lamb to the
slaughter. He says in Psalm 22, they pierced my hands and his
feet. He must suffer. He must suffer
and enter into his glory. Unbelief. Unbelief causes us
to have this book closed before us. What an extraordinary thing
unbelief is. How wicked it is. What were Satan's
first words to us in the garden? Did God really say? Did he really say? Did he speak
with truth and conviction? And is his word powerful and
effective? And if we doubt His word, we
end up like these men, wandering and sad. Not only that, they
had the testimony of these women, didn't they? Women that they
should have trusted, men that they should have trusted, and
yet they walked away. Listen to their catalogue of
evidence that they had before them in verse 22, these certain
women. So why are they described as
certain women? Why didn't they name them? It's
almost as if they are doubting their testimony by just declaring
them as certain women. These were women that they had
known for years and they were trustworthy and they were called
certain women. Made us astonished, which were
early at the sepulchre, And when they found not his body, they
came saying that they had seen a vision of angels which said
that he was alive. These women came back with this
testimony, not just two or three, but two or three in a company
that came back and had this testimony. Unbelief turns away from the
testimony of people who should be trusted. And then, he says,
certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, verse
24, and found it, and they found it exactly as the women had said,
but the hymn they saw not. Why do they call them certain
ones? We know that it was Peter and John, and they knew that
it was Peter and John. It's almost as if they are making
light of their testimony. What a shocking thing, verse
11, if you look at verse 11, what a shocking thing it is that
their words seemed to them as idle tales. Unbelief turns faithful
witness into idle tales, the sort of things that people would
make up on a whim. What a day to be doing that. What circumstances to be doing
that, making up idle tales. What people to be making up idle
tales. Do you see how wicked unbelief
is? Do you see why the Lord Jesus
went to the heart of their problem? He says those slow of heart,
foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe. They'd forgotten,
they'd turned away from the testimony that was laid before them, they'd
turned away from this book, these scriptures. They had no doubt
these words in their minds, but they were darkened, weren't they?
The one who wrote this book is called by the Lord Jesus the
Comforter. Unbelief shuts this book, shuts
this book to those people. And there they are starving,
wandering and starving and sad and in unbelief in the presence
of a feast, a feast of witnesses. what history they had in their
scriptures, what history they had as Jewish people. how much
had they witnessed of God's faithfulness, of God's providential care of
them, of His mercy and His grace to His people, His long-suffering
love, and they had it all laid out before them in the scriptures,
and yet the book was closed. When the book's closed, closed
to our heart through unbelief, All of those beautiful promises,
all of that feast of God's Word is hidden from us. Unbelief. It's folly, isn't it? It's foolishness,
he said. Unbelief takes no cognizance
of the evidence that's around, causes us to forget the scriptures. Unbelief is inconsistent with
our profession, isn't it? So much, so much we are like
these men. We spend so much of our lives
troubled and anxious about things and forgetting the scriptures,
forgetting the character of God, forgetting the promises of God,
forgetting the provision of God. What has He done in the past?
That's exactly what he's doing in the future, isn't it? He's
being perfectly consistent with his character. He's being perfectly
consistent with his word. He's being perfectly faithful
all the time. And we act, don't we? We act
when we're acting in unbelief. We're acting as if we do not
believe the prophets at all. There is an inconsistency in
their profession. There's an inconsistency in our
profession and it causes us to wander. There is a vast gulf, isn't there,
between saying that we believe and then acting as if the promises
are true. It's easy to say, isn't it? It's
easy to make profession, but acting as if it's really true
is something that's a grace gift from God. I want, I want by the
grace of God to live as if this word is true, to have my thoughts,
my opinions, my direction and my actions consistent with what
I claim this book is saying. Oh, how often the Lord, on a
day-by-day basis, a moment-by-moment basis, has every reason to say
to me, a foolish one and slow to believe. Unbelief is folly.
Unbelief is inconsistent with the Scriptures. Unbelief causes
us to be inconsistent with Our own profession, unbelief, as
I said earlier, is contrary to the available evidence. Unbelief is aided and abetted
by impatience, isn't it? We want for God to act, and act
quickly, and yet the timing of things is in His hands. How often We act in unbelief
when things don't happen as quickly or as in a way we want them to
be. He that believes, says Isaiah
28.6, shall not make haste. Here they were, they knew that
this third day was a special day, and yet the day had gone
long but it hadn't finished. And there they were saying, it's
the third day and nothing's happened yet. But in fact remarkable things
had happened. The Lord Jesus had appeared to
Mary. While they were wandering away,
the Lord Jesus had appeared to Peter. While they were wandering
in foolish unbelief, the Lord Jesus was actually walking alongside
them. His promises are true. They that do not believe are always
restless. He that believes shall not make
haste. And like these men, as the Lord
Jesus walked alongside them, He says in verse 17, He says,
you walk and you're sad. Unbelief. brings sadness and
it causes us to be downcast, when in reality the circumstances
around them, seen in light of God's fulfilled promises, were
the most remarkable things of all, weren't they? What a great
day. What a great day. What an extraordinary
day. How unnecessary was sadness. takes us on a journey, doesn't
it? There in Jerusalem were all of
these things, the promises of the Lord Jesus to rise and to
be with these people being fulfilled and there they are heading off
to Emmaus. How often are we wandering? How often does unbelief cause
us to wander away, prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
thy courts above." There was his people gathered and there
were these two wandering off. As his promise was, wasn't it,
where two or three are gathered, there he promises to be with
them. The most likely place to find
him is where he's promised to be and promised to meet with
his people. No foolish ones, and slow of
heart. Not all this sad, is it? What
a glorious thing, what a glorious opportunity their wanderings
were for the Lord Jesus to reveal His grace and to reveal yet again
how He is a great shepherd, gathers His people to Himself. He comes
and He walks alongside them. There they are wandering away
and He comes and He comes alongside and He comes and He speaks to
them in such a way that they are caused to pour out their
hearts before Him. What a good thing it is. What
an extraordinary opportunity we have to pour out our hearts
before God. Be honest. Be honest with him. Just tell him how it is. Lay it out before him. That's what the psalmists do
again and again, don't they? Why are you downcast? They lay
out their cause and their situation before the Lord. And he is tender. He says in Proverbs 22.15, he
says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And
we are children, aren't we? And in our Adam flesh, there
is just foolishness bound up in us, folly. But the Lord Jesus
makes a distinction, doesn't he? He makes a distinction between
these hearts that are acting in folly and those that act in
wickedness and open rebellion. Slow of heart to believe. Slow of heart. Our hearts. Our hearts are so slow to believe. Is that not your situation, brothers
and sisters? Slow. It means to be dull, to
be inactive, to be slow to understand, or to believe. And why is it
so? As I said earlier, it's our Adam
flesh, isn't it? It's this flesh that we live
in until this body is put in the grave. And we are in our
Adam flesh. We are always in this battle,
aren't we? We're in this battle. this spiritual
warfare that begins at conversion, when a new spirit, when Christ
is formed in you, then there becomes a battle between the
flesh and the spirit. The eyes of faith are looking
at things that aren't seen, but the eyes of our flesh are looking
around all the time, and we see so much through carnal eyes until
the Lord comes in grace again and reminds us of how foolish
we are, and reminds us how slow of heart we are, and draws us
back to Himself. And we keep saying, don't we,
we say, well, look at this world around us. How can this book
be true? Where is the God of justice? Why does he seem to be so silent? Why does he seem to be so unsuccessful? Why do his children seem so few? Why do their voices seem to just
fall like dirt in the street and be ignored by others? They're
speaking as God's ambassadors and yet so few listen. Why do
the things of eternity, why when we speak to people about their
eternal destiny, does it seem to mean nothing to them, to have
so little weight? We, like Abraham and Sarah, become
impatient with God and think that we have to act, don't we? Because of all that we see around
us we must act. And as I remind you so often,
when we act, When we act in unbelief, when we act in foolishness, when
we act doubting and not waiting for God, we produce ishmaels. Do you want to know what the
Middle East is all about? One of the reasons the Middle
East is a mess is because it's ishmaels, ishmaels at each other's
throats. It's a reminder for God's people
to wait in patience, wait in patience and wait in belief. May God give us hearts that look
to His Word and just trust and wait for Him to fulfil His promises. What a constant need of grace
we're in all the time. It's one of the reasons for us
being in this atom flesh is that we are never in much of a state
where we can presume upon God. We are beggars. We are constantly
in need of His grace, of Him to come
alongside, for Him to walk alongside us, for Him to open the scriptures. We are so prone, aren't we, with
these hearts that are slow. We're so prone to believe all
sorts of other things and we're reluctant to believe God. prone to believe him about the
big things of eternity and not believe him about the little
things of today and now. Real faith lives in Shulila,
doesn't it? It walks moment by moment, day
by day. His provision is a constant one. His care is a constant one. The hairs of your head are numbered. They were numbered from eternity.
Almost the most insignificant thing about us, isn't it? Hares
come and they go and they fall out and most of us spend very
little time troubled about them. God numbered them from eternity. If He cares about the little
things, if He cares about the sparrows, how much more does
He care about us? Not just in little, in the big
things, but cares about us in all the little things. We're
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,
all that the prophets have spoken. Our ignorance of scripture is
inexcusable, isn't it? Our ignorance of scripture is
something for which we ought to repent of and ask God for
mercy upon us. It's so easy, isn't it, to spend
hours and hours and hours studying all sorts of other things and
yet this precious book. You think of the moments of comfort
that you've had as you've opened this book and you've found it
deal with a situation, the exact situation that you're in and
it speaks words of wisdom and comfort and it speaks gracious
words about the Lord Jesus to your heart. And yet we're slow
of heart and we're foolish. That's how I am anyway. I'll
speak for myself. I might be looking at some incredibly
wise people, but slow of heart, slow of heart to believe all. These men had just spent three
years under the greatest teacher that had ever lived. on this
planet. The Lord Jesus had been their
teacher. He was a living exposition of the Old Testament. They had
witnessed the most extraordinary things and every word that he
said and every deed that he did was a word and a deed which was
written in the Old Testament prophecies. He was just a living
embodiment of the Old Testament prophecies, promises. What a great message it is in
a sense. Their weakness and their frailty
is a comfort, isn't it? Comfort to us, because we're
slow of heart and we're foolish. Manna was laid out before them
and it's laid out before us and so often People sit in their
tents and are sad and downcast and hungry in the presence of
a feast. And we wander. I think it's a
great picture of us, isn't it, that we wander. We wander away. And I love the Lord Jesus' solution
to this problem, isn't it? His solution to these wandering
ones like me and you is to come alongside. to come alongside
and then he draws out their hearts to lay their lives out before
him. And they lay out their lives
and they lay out that witness that was before them and then
he says these words that I've often quoted, that it's slow
of heart and foolish, and then he begins. He begins to bring
them the only comfort for broken-hearted sinners there is. Verse 26. He says, Ought not
the Christ have suffered these things and entered into his glory? They have just witnessed with
great sadness half of that and yet they hadn't entered into
the second half of it. They'd witnessed that the Lord
Jesus had suffered these things and they hadn't seen that He
had now entered into His glory. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, verse 27, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning Himself. All of the scriptures. This is
a book about Him. It's a Him book. You take this
book and you look for the Lord Jesus on every page, in every
paragraph, in every story, and He's there. We may not see it
all the time. Wait patiently and pray and you'll
find Him there just everywhere. That's what He says, doesn't
He? He says, expounded unto them in all the scriptures. He started
at Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God, Jesus Christ, the Creator,
all the things, and he went all the way through to Malachi. He expounded them. the things concerning himself."
This is what preaching is, isn't it? It's taking the scriptures
and showing people from the scriptures the things concerning himself.
That was Paul's activity, wasn't it? When he went on his missionary
journeys, he had just one task before him. That was to prove,
to show, opening and alleging, explaining and demonstrating
that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead,
and that this Jesus, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, whom I preach
to, is the Christ. The message hasn't changed, has
it? It was the message from eternity. It was the message of the angels.
It was the message of the Old Testament prophets. It's the
message of heaven. It's the song of heaven. And
when Moses and Elijah came down on that mountain of transfiguration
and there they were discussing with the Lord Jesus, the words
are beautiful. What was the topic of conversation?
When Moses and Elijah came back to earth and there they were
on that mountain, they were talking about his departure that he would
accomplish at Jerusalem. You know what the word is? His
exodus. They were talking about him being
the exodus. The exodus was about him. The
Passover is about him. Noah's Ark is about him. The brazen serpent is about him. The temple is about him and every
little tiny bit of the temple is about him. All of the Scriptures
are about Him. I was shocked to hear someone
who is a professor of some note saying that he was asked by someone
to give him a Gospel exposition out of the Old Testament and
he says, I struggled. I struggled to find it. The Lord
Jesus on this day didn't have any struggles at all, did he?
He had no problem at all. He started at Genesis 1 and he
went through. He expounded the things concerning
Himself. The answer to our situation,
isn't it, is for Him to come and for Him to open the Scriptures. These people like us, we've wandered
away in unbelief. We've wandered away from the
promises of the Scriptures. We've wandered away from our
companions and our fellow believers. who would speak to us. We wander
away from a place where he promises to meet with his people. And
all our wanderings are foolishness and they come from a heart that
are slow to believe, and they make us sad and downcast, but
what a picture we have of Him. He came to seek and to save the
lost. He came as the Messiah, didn't
He? His first sermon was that He
came to preach the Gospel to the poor. Are you poor? He came to heal the brokenhearted. Are you broken hearted? He came
to preach deliverance to the captives. Are you feeling captive
to something? He came to preach recovery of
sight to the blind. Do you need eyes to see Him afresh? This is Him. He. He creates the need. He creates the hunger. and He
fulfills it beautifully, and to set at liberty them that are
bruised. Have these wanderings caused
you to be bruised? He comes. He comes to His wandering
lost ones. He comes, and even their absence
are designed for their good and for His glory. He comes always
in love. He comes to His own. He'll never
forsake them. And He comes wonderfully as a
shepherd. He comes to where we are at. And He comes in such a way that
He draws out our hearts to Him. He comes to reveal Himself. And what's beautiful about this
picture and so significant is that He revealed the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified in the Scriptures to these men, and
he expounded the Scriptures to them. He wanted them to have
a faith that was based on what was written in the Word, rather
than what was seen by the eyes of their flesh. He came and he began, verse 27,
at Moses and all the prophets. And then they drew near to the
village where they went and he made as if he would have gone
further, but they constrained him. Such was his exposition
of the scriptures that the word is that they actually laid hold
of him. It wasn't just some politeness, it was almost as if they grabbed
him. grabbed him physically and says, you're not leaving, you're
not leaving us at all. But he only expounded Christ
in the scriptures to them. But he had become precious to
them because of his exposition. And they have those beautiful
words, abide. Isn't that the most beautiful
word, isn't it? What a prayer. What a prayer of God's people.
come and live with me, come and stay with me, come and remain
with me." And he went in. What a remarkable thing that
like Jacob who wrestled with the Lord, the Lord wrestled with
Jacob. He began the wrestling. And what
was Jacob's response? He says, I will not let you go
unless you bless me. They constrained him. God's people
have the remarkable capacity to constrain God Almighty. What if those blind men outside
Jericho, they called out and they called out, and the more
they called out, the more people told them to stop calling out? And what happened? Jesus stood
still. God stood still. God is constrained by the cries
of His people when they call out to Him. Abide with us for
His toward evening. And He went in to tarry with
them and it came to pass as He sat at meet with them. They were
eating their meal and He took bread. I think it's more than
just a normal part of the meal. I think he was showing them what
he'd shown his disciples in that upper room just three nights
beforehand. He broke bread. He was signifying
his body broken and he blessed it and he broke and he gave it
to them. And this is the most wonderful thing, isn't it? Then
their eyes were opened. They'd seen Him in the scriptures
from Moses to Malachi. Now their eyes were opened. If
you're going to see Him, you're going to see Him in the scriptures
first. He's going to honour His word. Eyes were opened and they knew
Him. This is eternal life, that you
know the Lord Jesus and He vanished out of their sight. The solution, isn't it, is for
Him to come. What a gracious Saviour. What a great Shepherd we have. He comes to draw His people to
Himself. He comes to reveal Himself as
the Christ of the Scriptures. He comes to reveal Himself as
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's remarkable how often this
message of Him crucified on this resurrection day. It's the message
of the angels, isn't it, in verse 7. The Son of Man must be delivered
and be crucified and the third day arise again. It's the witness
of these men and the other people in Jerusalem in verse 20, they've
crucified Him. And then when the Lord Jesus
comes to speak, He speaks of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Ought not the Christ suffer these things and enter into His glory?
He speaks of that as the things concerning Himself in verse 27. He speaks of it and acts it out,
in a sense, and acts it in breaking that bread. And when He meets
with these disciples, His words to them are, behold my hands
and my feet. And in verse 44 he talks about
the words that he's spoken and he says that all things must
be fulfilled. What a book we have that must
be fulfilled. And in verse 46 he says it is
written that it was necessary, it behoved Christ that he must
suffer and rise from the dead the third day, that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all
nations." You see, God's servants are witnesses to Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, which is why the whole issue of salvation
is tied up with what happened to Him on the cross. that He,
as God, is a successful Saviour, a successful Saviour who saved
His people. He bore their sins and He bore
them away perfectly and completely and forever, which is why He
can come He can come in perfect holiness and walk alongside a
wandering stray sheep because there is no sin in them. He can
have communion and fellowship with them in perfect peace and
perfect justice. They are complete in Him. And the end result. It's a good
thing to remember, isn't it? That what you do when he comes
after the foolish and the slow of heart ones that are wandering
away, where do they finish up? Instead of wandering to Emmaus,
he's gathered them together. He's gathered them together with
all of the others. I was amazed when I read it. I hadn't realised. I thought
that in that upper room were just eleven. There's 11 plus
these two. And in verse 33, there's 11 plus
these two now. They returned and found the 11
gathered together and them that were with them. There was a crowd
at the church gathered together, gathered by the Great Shepherd,
proclaiming Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The great shepherd
of the sheep. I'm a wandering sheep. I don't
know about you. I'm a wandering sheep. But I
love a shepherd who continually comes alongside. and draws out
of me the truth of what I am, and I can lay my life out before
Him, and He gathers me together, He gathers me again, He gathers
His people to Himself. and they see him in the scriptures
and they know him and then he gathers them together because
the church is the place where he gets glory for himself. The
church is the place where he reveals himself to his own. The church is the place where
those who are wandering and sad and downcast and those who are
troubled by unbelief and troubled by our own foolishness are gathered
and put back together again and comforted and reminded. Reminded
again of the gospel. We need the Gospel again and
again. We need to hear that comforting
story of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that perfectly successful
Saviour, that glorious substitute, that glorious surety, that glorious
covenant-making and covenant-keeping God that we can call our friend. a friend who sticks closer than
a brother. May he gather our wandering hearts
together again and again. Let's pray.