Before we get started, last I
heard from Eric, he had had his surgery. He broke his leg, in
case you aren't in the know. And that's why I'm here this
morning. And went better than expected, so they're hoping no
more surgery, and I think three weeks before he can start using
a walking boot. I think I have that right. Eric
will set us straight if I have that wrong. You can go ahead
and make your way back to Luke 24. And as you're making your way
back there, Kind of thought about this, had
a little bit of trouble deciding what passage to look at. I didn't
have the luxury, I guess, of looking things over. And then
during the week, I did my normal morning routine. I usually get
up. I let the dog outside. go to
let the dog outside, and then every morning when I'm done with
that, I'll come back upstairs and I'll start the coffee, and
I'll go sit down, spend a little bit of time with the dog, and
usually wait for the beep, right, that lets you know that caffeine
is coming. But I had forgotten a couple
of things, which I discovered quickly, I failed to discern
the need to have a carafe in, which would have been okay if
I wouldn't have also failed to put that plastic pre-filter thing
that has the stopper underneath. So the coffee was everywhere.
Well, what's the point of that story other than, you know, tell
us something we don't already know, Bernie, you can forget
things. It's, the point is, is really the, the inability to
remember and to discern what they had been taught, their failure
to recognize Christ, that really is a prominent part of this story. So I asked John if he would read
the first 12 verses of chapter 24, and those serve as a background
for what I'm gonna look at. I'm gonna look at starting primarily
beginning in verse 13, may make a couple of references back before
that. But what I wanna do with that
passage that we're looking at is I want us to look at this
from two different perspectives. And again, like last week, titles
for sermons don't matter a lot, but as I was thinking about it
on the way down, Really, this talks about our inability, and
it also talks about God's inevitability. That is, our inability to discern
what it is that God is showing us until he opens our eyes. and
the inevitability of us seeing the truth when he does open our
eyes. And that word open or opening
is used several times in this passage as well. That will also
figure prominently in what we're looking at here. So Luke 24,
and I'm gonna read and comment as I read, which is a little
bit different than what I normally do, but before we do that, let's
pray and ask for God's blessing on his word. Father, we thank
you for your goodness and your mercy to us. We thank you once
again that we're able to come together under the hearing of
your word. We thank you for the songs that
we've sung and the truth in them. We thank you for the scripture
that's already been read, but Lord, we pray that you would
open our eyes to see you, that you would open the scriptures
to us. and that you would open our hearts
to believe all that is found in this passage. Thank you for
our brother Eric's surgery going well. We pray for him. Pray for
his mother, our sister Fonda. We pray that you would give her
comfort and healing. And Lord, we continue to pray
for those who've lost loved ones. always on our mind, even if it's
been months or years since their passing, Lord, I pray that you
would bring comfort. But most of all, Lord, I pray
that Christ would be lifted up in all that we hear this morning. And we ask this in his name,
amen. So Luke 24, and verse 13, now that same day, Which day? Well, verse one, the
first day of the week. Two of them were going to a village
called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking
with each other about everything that had happened. And as they
talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself
came up and walked along with them but they were kept from
recognizing him. So we have all the events that
have happened up to this point and we have have the women relating
to the group there, and we have no reason to believe that these
two, and we only hear one man's name, we don't know who the other
person is, but Cleopas and his companion had been there and
heard the reports, and yet they had set out from where they were
and they were talking and discussing. And it's interesting, there are
some translations that said that they were arguing and disputing. Well, regardless of the tone
that was going on, we read a little bit later in what they relate
of what had happened and what our Lord's reaction was to that. What they were doing was trying
to make sense of what had just happened. And what had just happened?
The Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified amongst two thieves. He had been buried, and it was
three days later. And yes, there was this... I'll read the passage so I don't
get myself in trouble on the way home. The words, they did
not believe the women because their words seemed like nonsense. So in that culture, it wasn't
unusual for the word of a woman to be discounted. You would have
hoped amongst believers that wasn't the case, but there was
some doubt about what was going on. And yes, later on, some men,
including Peter, had gone and reviewed that the tomb itself
was indeed empty. But nobody had seen Christ, and
as we'll see, they hadn't come to a realization yet, even though
they had been under the teaching of the Lord, they hadn't come
to realization yet of what it was supposed to look like at
this point. So he comes up alongside. They
don't recognize him. And we don't know entirely why
other than it's a sovereign act of God that prevented them. The
King James, it says they were holden. So when we know the word
behold, that means to see. Holden means to be held back
from being able to recognize. So our translation is good here
in the sense that that's the sense of the words, but they
were kept from recognizing him and he asked them, the risen Lord asked them, certainly
he knew what they were talking about, but he asked them, what
are you discussing together? And again, other translations
say debating with each other as you walk along. And then we read further down,
they stood still, their faces downcast. Now whether or not
it was a case of their walking and they stop and they look at
them and it was obvious that they were sad, that they were
dejected, You can imagine why that would be the case. I mean,
if you put yourself in their shoes and you had an understanding
that something great was going to happen with Jesus, and he
had been their teacher for a while, for years, he was talking about
the need to restore Israel, to redeem Israel, his meaning being
a bit different than theirs, but nevertheless, they, expected
much they thought maybe even during the trials and maybe even
when he was up on the cross they thought maybe something will
happen and yet here they are maybe they remembered the three
days we we aren't told explicitly they think oh that's it um I
don't know what to do I guess I'll just go go back home and
that's what they're doing they're walking and they're going back
And here this stranger to them, who shouldn't have been a stranger,
but who was a stranger to them, comes up and says, hey, what
are you talking about? And one of them, Cleopas, asks
him, are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and you do not know
the things that have happened here in these days? And, I mean, think about it. If you're there, probably the
entire city was abuzz with the discussion. I mean, even in our
day and age, when something notable goes on, if somebody's from those parts,
they're expected to know about those things. It would be, I
guess, akin to two weeks into COVID, somebody going, why is
everybody wearing a mask? Why are you guys staying in your
house, right? I mean, that's how they took it. They didn't
understand how it could be somebody who was from somewhere around
there. They didn't know, perhaps, his
accent. and his direction told them that
he was coming from Jerusalem. It's like, how couldn't you know
about this situation? It wasn't done in a corner. It
was in full display for everyone. And then Jesus replied, what
things? It's kind of humorous. He wants
to hear what they have to say. We know that he does it as a
good teacher. He wants to hear their understanding
before he begins to teach them. And I don't envy Cleopas. I mean,
if you talk about, like, life's most embarrassing moments, for
those of you who remember Now, of course, I'm going to forget
the name. Was it Alan Funt? What was the camera thing? Does anybody remember that? You
know, tell me what that is. You know what I'm talking about
where they had the secret camera? Candid camera. There you go.
Thank you. Thank you for that help from
the audience. So it's like being on candid camera later, right? You know, I'd be worried they'd
be playing this in heaven. It's like, okay, we got a comedy.
What is it? It's Cleopas. He's gonna tell Jesus about what
is going on for the past three days. So if you can imagine that,
that is the situation that's happening here. So Jesus asked
him what things, and you hear about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in
word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priest
and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and
they crucified him. And probably the saddest words
here, but we had hoped. We had hoped that he was the
one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third
day since all this took place. So his summary, I guess the way
that I would put it is his summary isn't bad, but it's incomplete. And even if somebody would try
to defend it, and I actually read a few commentators who tried
to defend Cleopas' understanding here and said, well, he didn't
know if this stranger was for or against Jesus. all the more
reason to tell the truth. I simply think that that Cleopas
and his companion didn't fully understand who Jesus was and
is to them at that very moment. They had managed to sit under
his teaching and yet they had failed to understand the importance
of what he had said and how it applied to them specifically.
Instead, what their hope was, was not a hope for spiritual
Israel to be redeemed and their part in spiritual Israel being
redeemed, but their hope was for a king to be on the throne
of David once again, and of course that would be fulfilled, but
again, not in the way that they would expect. And their hope
was for a restoration of the glory at the temple coming back,
and so on. So here they are, Cleopas and
his companion, and I'm assuming it's primarily Cleopas, but perhaps
both of them are chiming in, telling them about how disappointed
they were You know, that guy isn't gonna do what we thought.
He was a great man, but he didn't finish what we thought. And then
in verse 22, we read, in addition, some of our women amazed us.
They went to the tomb early this morning, but they didn't find
his body. They came and told us that they
had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive, Then some
of our companions went into the tomb and found it, just as the
women had said, but him they did not see. So if you're a woman,
you, in verse 24, you knew you didn't need a man to go in to
verify that what those women had seen was correct, but apparently
these individuals, Cleopas and his companion did. So they still listen to the elements
of unbelief or disbelief and fail to recognize the importance
of things. And think about it this way,
if you're there and you remember the teaching of our Lord, three
days, just like Jonah was in the belly three days, so the
Son of Man will be, you know, the Son of Man will be lifted
up. There were many indications about the resurrection. They
should have known from our Lord's words, and I'm getting a little
ahead of myself, but instead their words were along the lines,
they said they didn't find his body. They
told us they had seen a vision. They said they found it just
as the women had said, but him they did not see. So there's
an element of disbelief in how it's put together there. They
wanted to believe their report, and yet their actions of leaving
town betrayed their true understanding. They could have even said, yeah,
you know, maybe that's a correct report, but why aren't you there? And we'll see in a little bit
here that they do go back, but it's only after some intervention
here by our Lord. But lest we feel like we're more
worthy than they, I would say and submit to you, at least for
myself, that it's very easy for me based on the circumstances
in front of me to fail to see God at work in my life. It's
very difficult at times to believe that he's there and he is not
silent. So let's go on here. He said
to them, verse 25, how foolish you are and how slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now, some have suggested, even
though almost every translation translates this as foolish, and
my Greek is rusty, but I'm able to follow along fairly well,
the word here is more along the lines of unthinking. And you
know what that's like is you'll, well maybe you don't know, I
know, I do this quite often. You're in a social situation
and you say something and everybody's all of a sudden silent. And then
later on somebody's like, Bernie, how could you say that, right?
Weren't you thinking when you said that? It's not that they
don't have knowledge, It's not that they don't have some generic
idea of what's going on, but what Jesus is saying here is
if you had put the last three days, especially this morning,
into perspective with what the prophets of the Old Testament
have said, you wouldn't be so unthinking and you wouldn't be
so slow of heart to believe what has just happened. And then he
goes on here in verse 26, did not the Christ have to suffer
these things and enter his glory? You know, that's still a problem
today in so-called Christian circles, there's this I'll use
the technical term, over-realized eschatology. Everybody wants
Christ to be on the throne, the kingdom to be fully ushered in,
and everything to be dealt with right now. And certainly that
was true of them back then, but it's true of us at times, and
it's true in greater degrees in some aberrant teachings inside
of professed Christianity where they'll talk about you can gain
the victory if you do these three things, whether it's victorious
Christian living or it's prosperity teaching or what have you, they
have this idea That there's no suffering. And yet, if we read
in the Old Testament about our Lord Jesus Christ, it was inevitable
that the Christ would suffer. And that's what Jesus is telling
them. is all throughout the pages of
the Old Testament, their suffering. But the same is true in the New
Testament. Peter says, don't be amazed about
suffering, and that's Bernie's paraphrase. But there's a number
of passages throughout the New Testament that talk about the
suffering of the saints. And so while we can look at this,
and we do need to look at this primarily as speaking to Christ's
suffering before he enters his glory, the same is true with
us. Do you have suffering today?
Do I have suffering today as a believer? If you suffer as
a believer, That is the greatest thing. Not that the suffering
is great, but suffering as a believer means that God is working something
in you, that God cares for you, that God is working through whatever
that trial or tribulation is, he's working something in you
for his glory. And we are to live in light of
that. But he says to them that they're
foolish, they haven't understood what the prophets have said,
they didn't understand that Christ had to suffer first before he
entered his glory. And then it says, verse 27, beginning
with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was
said in all the scriptures concerning himself. And as somebody has
said, is if there was one sermon that I could go back and wish
it was recorded so I could listen to it, that would be it. And
we don't know how long that sermon was. We read later on that it
was beginning to be dark. We know that the distance there
possibly would take three to four hours to walk. But as somebody
else had said regarding this incident, it's like, that was
probably the fastest three, and don't worry, I won't do this,
that was probably the fastest four-hour sermon they had ever
heard in the sense that he, was a master teacher and he was able
to perfectly explain every point and bring out every illustration
he could go all the way back to the creation and the fall
and the promise of the seed and he could go forward in time through
all of Moses and all the prophets and then later on all the writings
which would be Psalms and Proverbs and passages that would trip
up lesser people like myself and others, he would be able
to exposit with ease and show himself as the center of all
those things. Well, the lesson was there. He explained, and we get our word
hermeneutics if I'm not mistaken from that particular word there,
he laid out everything to them concerning the scriptures, and
it says in verse 28, as they approached the village to where
they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther and
just a quick word about that. I don't think he meant to deceive
I think he wanted to see what their reaction was going to be
and he was already Continuing to walk and they were ready to
turn off and they said Stay with us For it is nearly evening. The day is almost over and And
this urging is a command. If you wanted to be very literal
here, they compelled him. So if you want to win at Bible
trivia, has anybody ever compelled Jesus to do anything? Well, this
might be one of the passages somebody wouldn't think about.
But very interesting thing, and they go, verse 30, it says, they
go in. When he was at the table with
them, he took the bread, he gave thanks and broke it and began
to give it to them. And then it says, then their
eyes were opened and they recognized him. Their eyes were opened and
they recognized him. I would have thought that the
teaching capabilities of the Lord would have brought it out,
but we know from earlier on that they had been prevented or holden
from being able to recognize our Lord, and here, Because it's
a passive, we believe that this is just like the preventing was
a divine operation, this was a divine operation, and it is
instructive to us as well. Yes, somebody can explain God's
word very carefully. No better teacher ever existed
than our Lord. His topic was not a parable meant
to prevent people from understanding, but he went very carefully through
Moses and the prophets explaining in the scriptures what they said
about him. And yet they didn't understand.
But the moment that God opened their eyes, they were able to
recognize him. Just like the moment I got up
and saw the coffee all over the floor, I was able to recognize
my earlier error. Not obviously on the same spiritual
significance, but the same sort of aha moment in that situation. So just as they had their eyes
open in recognition, he disappears from their sight. And as one commentator said,
somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they didn't say, oh, that's what a
resurrection body is like. No, if we look at her text, they
say to themselves, were our hearts, were not our hearts burning within
us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures
to us? And I think the same sort of
thing happens to somebody as a believer or as a new believer. Maybe they had had people explain
parts of scripture before and they didn't understand them and
all of a sudden God regenerates them, causes them to believe
the truth, and then they can look back and see the significance
of what was said. If I... Mess it up, Paula will straighten
me out later, but I believe she said she had a habit, they had
a family Bible, and when you're a certain type of person, it
was one of those big Catholic family Bibles, you open it up
and start it at the beginning, right, Paula? That was what she
did. And of course, when you do that,
you get into all those sacrifices. And if I remember correctly,
he didn't make it all the way into the later books. He always bogged down early on. But because she was determined
to read her way through that, when the Lord was pleased to
bring her to himself, now she's able to understand those things
that were puzzling to her back then. She understands that now
that those sacrifices were meant to depict what the Lord had done
for us at Calvary, for his people. And here, I think it's the same
sort of thing. There was a burning in their
heart, a realization, a warm feeling of, wow, that was Jesus
and he took the time to set us straight and he taught us all
these things and now he's gone what what are we gonna do well Even though they had said to
Jesus and compelled him, it's too dark, they're worried about
robbers and people coming in, even though they told him that,
they, verse 33, got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. I'm sure that the walk was not
slowed down by arguing with each other. They wanted to go back
to where they assumed everybody was gathered. And then it says, they found
the 11 and those with them assembled together and saying, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared
to Simon. So that's the group that was
already assembled, not the two who are coming back. They heard from them that the
Lord had risen and appeared to Simon. So that was sometime after
verse 12 of chapter 24 and before where we're at now, not recorded
for us in Luke's gospel. Then the two, verse 35, told
what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized
by them when he broke the bread. Just keep an eye on the time.
Don't worry, I don't have a three to four hour sermon planned here,
so I didn't know how long it would take to get through this
this way. So verse 36, while they were still talking about
this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace
be with you. They were startled and frightened,
thinking they had seen a ghost or had saw or saw a ghost. And he said to them, why are
you troubled and why do doubts arise in your mind? Look at my
hands and my feet, it is I myself. Touch me and see a ghost does
not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When he had said
this, he showed them his hands and his feet and while they still
did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything
here to eat? Kind of an interesting thing,
but I think it was to demonstrate he's not a ghost. They gave him
a piece of broiled fish. He took it and ate it in their
presence. Then once again, verse 44, he
said to them, this is what I told you when I was with you. Everything
must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses,
the prophets and the Psalms. And then verse 45, then he opened
their minds so they could understand the scriptures. And he told them,
this is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from
the dead. And on the third day, repentance
and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all
nations beginning at Jerusalem. So this opening happened again. I believe it was J.C. Ryle, and I don't have the exact
quote in front of me, but I believe it was J.C. Ryle that observed
how tender the Lord is here. I mean, if you think about the
events, everyone left, Peter, denied the Lord three times.
And even in his appearances here to the disciples and to Cleopas
and his companion, and even in the exposition, as it were, of
what they should be looking for to the two women in the tomb,
there was an element of disbelief of what was going on. And yet
God The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord God, speaks tenderly to them and yet
again opens the scriptures to them and yet again explains to
him what needs to be, what needed to be done so they could understand
it. That's what we need, and we need
it regularly in our flesh. Even those of us who are truly
believers in Christ, we still struggle with our flesh. We still
have these elements of disbelief. We still wonder if God is alive
and well, whether or not he cares about us when we go through certain
trials. But we need these openings that
are spoken of here. We need the scriptures open to
us. We need our hearts and minds
open to understand. We need to be commanded as the
women were to remember what the Lord said here. when he was with
his people on earth. It's important for us to remember
what Christ has done. It's important for us, the other
command that's found here, remember is back in verse six, but when
he's with them, he says to them to look, to look at him, to look
at his hands and feet. Why his hands and feet? Those
were the symbols of what he had done for his people. Those bore,
we believe, the marks, and probably not in the center of the palm,
but probably up here is how it was, but the hand would have
included the wrist in that discussion. But those bore the marks and
are ways for us to remember his suffering on behalf of his people. We need to have that understanding.
We need to look and be reminded by our Lord Jesus Christ of what
he's done for us. And then we need to trust in
him. When I contemplated what passage
to teach on, part of the reason that I was drawn to even think
about this passage was it's an important twice-over text here
of talking to us about the centrality of Christ in Scripture. Came
across this quote from Don Fortner. When you read the word of God,
look for Christ. When you study the word of God,
study Christ. When you talk about the word
of God, talk of Christ. When you live by the word of
God, live Christ. And when you preach the word
of God, preach Christ. And when I first started to look
at this, I was like, I really want to look at this passage
because it talks about the centrality of our Lord in scripture. And
yet, to a certain extent, I was rebuked by it. On the way in,
I don't remember the context, I was listening to one of Joe's
sermons, and he made a quip about, we don't have anything to worry
about, we're sovereign gracers, right? We'll get into heaven.
And I think the same sort of thing can be here, is even in
something as simple as this, where all of our attention should
be on Christ, we can manage to make it a debate. Even like those
two, Cleopas and his companion probably did. What does this
mean? I think of, for those who are alive and old enough to remember,
uh... for whatever reason the eighties
probably the proximity to of forty years from when uh... the
nation israel was returned to palestine but it was you know
eighty eight reasons why jesus is coming in in 1988, and, you
know, I think about that, I think about debates on the internet,
nobody's mind ever gets changed by that, or discussions about
other things, whether it's false doctrine or true, let the blind
lead the blind. Jesus said, come, follow me. What does Jesus say the most
important thing it is for us to get out of scripture? Him,
not some debate. And again, I'm not saying believe
false doctrine, be gullible about those things, but understand
while other people are there looking at the tea leaves and
trying to understand some minor doctrinal point, if you see Christ
and are fed by Him, you are much, much more blessed, and
I am much, much more blessed than if we win a minor point
on a minor doctrinal discussion. I remember And every time I have these remembrances,
it's with some sadness, but I remember talking to Joe and I must have
gotten him annoyed a little bit because I kept saying the doctrines
of grace, the doctrines of grace, and Joe looked at me and he said,
don't worry about the doctrines of grace, worry that you get
the grace of the doctrines. And that is my admonition for
all of us here. Make sure in seeing the scriptures
that you see Christ and in seeing Christ, you come to know him
and believe him and trust in him. James.