Bibles again to Luke 24. And start with verse 13. Now
this was Sunday afternoon. We just read about the women
coming to the tomb early, very early Sunday morning, finding
the tomb empty. And then Sunday afternoon, the
third day after our Lord died on the cross, it says in verse
13, Behold, two of them, two disciples, these were not of
the twelve, eleven. Now, Judas was gone, but these
are two disciples of the seventy. Look over at Luke chapter 10
a moment. Luke chapter 10. After these things the Lord appointed
another seventy, seventy disciples. They were not apostles, they
were not disciples in the sense that Matthew and Mark and John
and these men were disciples. But he appointed seventy and
sent them to and to, before his face unto every city and place,
whether he himself would come. Now, these two men, one of them
is called Cleophas. He's the father of James and
Jude. And the other is Luke, I believe. Many people believe the other
is Luke. He never names himself. Of course, John, when he writes
about himself, doesn't name himself either, out of modesty, humility. But his two disciples, two of
these seventy, two of them that were with our Lord often, they
left Jerusalem and went to a village called Emmaus. Emmaus was about
seven or eight miles from Jerusalem. These men, Sunday afternoon,
after all these things had happened, the Lord had risen, they were
walking together to a village called Emmaus, which was from
Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And they talked together. They
talked of these things which had happened. As they walked
along, they were talking. They were talking about what
has happened in Jerusalem this past week concerning their master,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They talked about how he was
betrayed by Judas and how Judas came back to the temple and threw
the thirty pieces of silver on the floor and went out and hanged
himself. Awesome! They talked about how
the Lord was arrested in the garden by the soldiers in the
night how he was led to the soldiers' hall and how he was brutalized
in that soldiers' hall. They beat him, spat upon him,
lacerated his back, treated him dreadfully. Then they talked
about how he was delivered to Pilate's hall and how he was
tried, false witnesses witnessed against him. And then how Pilate
turned him over to the soldiers to be crucified. And how he died
there on that cross between two thieves. Joseph of Arimathea,
a wealthy man, along with Nicodemus, came and asked for the body.
Pilate permitted them to take him down from the cross and bury
him. And they walked along, they talked about these things. And
they talked about what the women had said. Back here in verse
10, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Maybe the mother of James, other women,
told about the angels. He's not here, he's risen. And
their words seemed to be to them as out-of-tales, and they didn't
believe them. And Peter went to the tomb and came back and
said, He's not there, and they didn't believe that either. So
they walked along talking about these things that had taken place. Verse 15, And it came to pass,
While they walked and talked about these things, while they
communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself, our risen Lord,
drew near and went with them, our Lord Jesus Christ. As they
walked together and reasoned and tried to understand all these
things, the Master came along and started walking with them,
just joined with these two men, walking along. But they didn't
recognize him, and here's the reason, verse 16. Their eyes
were holden that they should not know him. Now, I draw these
conclusions. They saw this man walking beside
them. Some commentators say that their eyes were downcast and
they were so sad and eyes filled with tears that they didn't even
look at him. But they looked at him. He came
walking up beside them and started walking along with them. Of course
they saw him and looked at him, but their eyes were holding,
veiled, so that they would not recognize him. His resurrection
body was of the same quantity, the same color, the same figure,
the same manliness as when he lived on this earth, walked on
this earth. His glorified body was the same body. and would
have been easily recognized had they believed he had risen, would
have been easily recognized. They did recognize him later.
The disciples recognized him later. If they wouldn't have recognized
him, there would be no reason to bail their eyes, wouldn't
they? Christ bailed their eyes. Why? Because he knew they'd recognize
him. He didn't want them to. I'll
tell you why. But it was the Lord himself,
and they would have They would have recognized him had he not
veiled their eyes, holding their eyes so they couldn't. And here's
the reason. He didn't want them to recognize
him at this time. He wanted to talk to them. He
wanted to draw from them their thoughts, their sorrow, their
doubts, their unbelief. He wanted to draw from them what
was on their hearts and minds, and on this occasion use these
things to teach them the scriptures. That's what he's going to do,
he's going to teach them the scriptures. And if they had recognized
him, if he had permitted them to recognize him immediately,
they would have been so awestruck. They wouldn't have heard anything.
They would have been so astounded. They saw him die. They saw him
take him down and put him in a tomb. And if they'd recognized
him immediately, they would have been so bewildered, so awestruck,
so emotionally high, so excited, they wouldn't have heard his
teaching. If we're going to learn anything,
we're going to have to learn it settled down, quietly, waiting
upon God, not up on some wing-ding emotional high, bewildered, awestruck,
with strange happenings. I tell you, God teaches us the
most when we're at the bottom. Troubles and trials and all these
things. Quietness. In a moment of need,
he comes and teaches. He's going to keep them in there.
He's walking along here with them, but he's not going to recognize
them. He's a stranger. We're going to leave it like
that. while he teaches them, and then he'll reveal himself.
Now listen. Verse 17, so he said to them,
what manner of communications are these that you have one to
another as you walk along? And it's so sad. They were crushed,
crushed, just brokenhearted. And verse 18, one of them whose
name was Cleophas. That's the father of James and
Jude. Answered and said, Are you a
stranger in these parts? Are you a stranger in Jerusalem,
and has not known the things which have come to pass in these
days? And he said to them, What things?
Drawing out of them now, getting them to, King, where's your brother? The Lord said to them. One time
the disciples were arguing about who was going to be the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord Jesus, when he came in,
said, What were you fellows talking about coming down I want to hear
from him, I want to hear from him." So he said, what things?
And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a
prophet, mighty indeed and worthy, before God and the people. And how the chief priest and
our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, they crucified
him on a cross. between two thieves. But we trusted,
we thought, we thought, this was what we thought, this is
what we really believed, that it had been he which should have
redeemed Israel. We thought he was the Messiah.
We thought he was the Christ. We thought he was the one for
whom Israel had lived all these years, that would come and redeem
Israel. We thought he was the Christ.
And beside all this, today is the third day since these things
were done. Don't you imagine they thought
in their minds also about that third day? I'll arise the third
day. The angels reminded the women
of that. That's what he said. And certain women, yes, and certain
women also of our company made us astonished, which were early
at the sepulchre. They went early this morning
to the grave. And when they found not his body, they came saying
that they'd seen a vision of angels. And these angels said,
he's not here, he's risen. They said he was alive. The angels
said it. These women came back and said that. They said they
saw some angels. They said he'd risen. And certain
of them which were with us, Peter and John, they went to the sepulchre.
They found it empty, just like the women said. But what's this?
They didn't see him. See those doubts? They didn't
see him. These men had plenty of reasons
to believe that Christ had risen. Plenty of reasons. Christ himself
told them he'd rise. Look back at Matthew 16. Oh, one time our Lord said, little faith, how long will I
be with you? Back in Matthew 16, listen to
this. Matthew 16, verse 21. From that
time forward, Jesus began to show to his disciples, to all
these men, how he must go to Jerusalem, he must suffer many
things of the elders, the chief priests and scribes, he must
be killed, He must be raised again the third day. And Peter
said to him, he rebuked him and said, Lord, Peter is far from
thee. This shall not be unto thee.
He turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are
an offence unto me. You savour not the things that
be of God, but those that be of men. These men, the Master
told them, he told them. They just recounted to him all
that had happened this week. He died, didn't die. But they
didn't believe he'd rise again. He told them that. And then these
reliable women, there was Magdalene, there was Joanna, there was Mary,
the mother of James, came and told them. We saw an angel. He said he's risen. Peter and John went to the sepulchre
and came back and said, he's not dying. What's the problem? Well, one old writer said this.
The problem at any time with unbelief is the impotence and
perverseness of the human will. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. That's the problem. He said,
I come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. Let another
come in his name, and him you will receive. Thomas, you remember
what Thomas said? Look at John 20, verse 25. You remember what Thomas said
when they told him the Lord had risen? John 20, verse 25. Thomas, verse 24, one of the
twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The
other disciples therefore said to Thomas, We have seen the Lord.
They had seen him. But he said to them, Except I
see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand in his side,
I will not believe." That's the problem. I will not. I will not. Our Lord gave this illustration.
He said, the rich man died and in hell, he lifted up his eyes
and saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. And he said, Father Abraham,
send Lazarus down that he may dip his finger in water and cool
my tongue. I'm tormented in this flame."
Abraham said, Son, remember on earth you had good things and
Lazarus had evil things, and now you're tormented and he's
comforted. He said, Well, Father Abraham, I have five brothers
on the earth. Send Lazarus back to the earth
to preach to them that they come not to this dreadful place. And
Abraham said, They have the word of God. They have Moses and the
prophets, they have the word of God. Oh, he said, but if one
rose from the dead, they'd believe. These men didn't. If one rose
from the dead, they'd believe. Abraham said, if they believe
not Moses and the prophets, they'll not believe, though one rose
from the dead. They will not believe. is the
problem here, the human will, the impotence and perverseness
of the human will. And here we're going to see how
our Lord takes the Word, the Law and the Prophets, takes the
Word. That's where we have to start. Miracles won't do it, the Word.
They saw his miracles and didn't believe. Even the soldiers, when he rose
from the grave, The angels came and struck the soldiers down
and moved the stone, and Christ came out. And these soldiers
went and told the high priest. And the high priest gave them
money and said, Now you tell Pilate and these people that
his disciples stole his body away. And that's what they did.
They didn't believe the old one rose from the grave. And all
this had happened. Christ told them. The women told
them. Peter and John told them. They
didn't believe. Now, watch this. Let me show
you a verse over here in Psalm, and then I'll come back. Let
me just read it to you. Our faith. Our people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. And we're going to see our risen
Lord in his power take the Word and reveal to these men redemption. All right, verse 20. And then he said to them, well,
let's look at verse 24 again. They said the women came and
said these things, and James and John, but him they didn't
see, they didn't see him. You know, Christ said something
about not seeing, blessed are they that see not and yet believe.
So he said to them, And he's not speaking in anger, he's speaking
in love. Just like Paul, when he spoke
to the Galatians, he said, O foolish Galatians, foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you don't believe the word of God?
Christ said, O fools and slow of heart to believe, what? All
that the prophets have spoken. All that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? ought not Christ
to have endured the cross and to enter into his glory? And
so beginning back at Moses and all the prophets, he expanded
unto them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself."
Let me give you a little lesson right here. Turn to the book
of Peter to give you a little lesson what our Lord is doing
here. 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, verse 17. Our Lord received from God the
Father, honoring glory. When there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mountain.
Peter sang to us. I was on top of that mountain
with Christ when he was glorified, when his clothes glistened and
shone like the sun. And when Moses and Elijah appeared
with him, I was there, I saw them. And I heard God the Father
speak from heaven. I heard him say, This is my beloved
Son, hear ye him. I saw that, I heard it. But,
look at the next verse, We have a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well, you take
heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, unto the day
dawn, and the day star rise in your hearts. Knowing this, that
no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. is going to take the only foundation
of faith, the sure foundation of faith, the Word of God, and
base these men's faith on God's Word, God's promise, and not
upon things they've seen, sights, visions, miracles, and these
things. He's going to ground them in the Word. And that's
how men are born again, by the Word of God. That's how they
are regenerated. That's how they're converted.
That's how they're brought to faith, the Word of God. Not visions,
a vision of faith. Not dreams, a dream will be forgotten. Not a sight of a miracle, they
come and go. The Word, the Word. So here he doesn't tell them
who he is. He's walking along with them, all sad and broken-hearted. He said, your problem is you
don't believe Moses and the prophets. That's your problem. If you would
have believed the scriptures, you would have believed he had
risen from the grave when he was hanging on that cross. If you would have
believed the scriptures, you would have believed it no matter
what happened to him. Believe God. God's word does
not depend upon what we see and feel, it depends on God's word.
Now, listen to him. So beginning at Moses, all the
prophets, he expanded to them all the scriptures concerning
himself. ought not Christ to have suffered? Let's just look
back for a moment. Turn to Genesis 4. Let's look way back yonder, when
Adam and Eve had come out of the garden, sons had been born
to them. Verse 3 of Genesis 4, in the
process of time, it came to pass, Cain brought to the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord, and Abel He brought her
the first thing of the flock, he brought a lamb. And the Lord
had respect to Abel and his offering, but to Cain, his offering, he
had no respect. As the first blood shed on an
altar to put away sin, to picture Christ's blood, Abel brought
a lamb. Cain brought the fur of the field.
And Christ took these disciples back here and showed them that.
And then he took them to Genesis 22, when Isaac and Abraham were
walking up the mountain. And Genesis 22, and Isaac said
to his father, verse 7, verse 6, Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering, laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the
fire in his hand and the knife, and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake to Abraham his father and said, My father? He
said, Here am I, my son. He said, Behold, the fire and
the wood. Where's the Lamb? Where's the Lamb for an offering,
for a burnt offering? Where's the Lamb for a sacrifice?
Where's the blood? Ought not Christ to have suffered? Look at Exodus chapter 12. He
told that these men were walking along, and he's showing them
how that the Savior, the Lamb of God, must suffer, must die,
must be crucified, must rise from the grave. Exodus 12, the Lord told Moses, tell them
to take a lamb, kill the lamb, put the blood on the door. Exodus 12, I'll pass through
the land of Egypt this night. I'll smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, man and beast, and against all the gods
of Egypt I'll execute judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood
shall be to you, for I've token upon the houses where you are.
When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. In Abel's offering, we see the
Lamb of God typified. In Abraham's offering, we see
the Lamb prophesied. God will provide himself a Lamb. Don't you know Christ told these
men to come back? God will provide a Lamb. In Exodus
12, we see the blood applied, the blood of the Lamb applied. And here in Isaiah 53, turn to
Isaiah 53. In Moses and all the prophets is the Lamb of God personified.
He is a man. Verse 1, Isaiah 53, Who hath
believed, I report, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out
of a dry ground. He hath no form, no comeliness
when we see him, no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised
and rejected of me and a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
We hear it as it were our faces from him. He's despised, we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Thy stripes were healed. personified. And then John the Baptist pointed
at Jesus of Nazareth and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. Now look at Luke 24. Our Lord said in verse 26, Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things? Isn't this what the scripture
teaches? And to have entered into his glory so beginning at
Moses and all the prophets? For a long time there, walking
along, he expanded unto them in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself. That's our foundation of faith,
the Word of God. Whether I live on that side of
the cross or on this side of the cross, Abraham believed God,
we believe God. Moses believed God and wrote
of Christ, we believe God and preach of Christ, because God
said it. The Word of God is our foundation. And our Lord knew that it had
to be the foundation of these men, it had to be the Word. Not
experience, not feeling, but the Word. We believe God, we believe his
Word. So they drew nigh unto the village,
where they went, Emmaus. Still they hadn't recognized
him, their eyes were still veiled. And he made as though he would
have gone further, but they constrained him, saying, abide with us. They loved what he preached.
They loved what he taught. Just stay with us. We're going
in the house here and have supper, and it's getting late, they said.
It's towards evening. The day's far spent. How beautiful
are the feet of them that preached the gospel. They still didn't
know it was their Lord, but they knew their spirits were lifted.
Their spirits were lifted because of the way he taught Went through
the word of God and showed them the promise of God, the sacrifice
of Christ, all these things, how the scripture must be fulfilled.
They're not sad anymore. And they said, Why don't you
just stay with us? The day is gone. So he went in to retire
with them. In verse 30, And it came to pass,
as they sat down at meat, as he sat down at meat with Generally,
if you're a guest in the home, you don't break bread. You don't
start passing things. You sit there and wait. But this
is not a guest. This is the Lord. This is the
Master. So when they came to pass, they
said to me, He took bread. He really took the bread. And
He break it. And He blessed it. And He gave it to them. Their
eyes were open. Their eyes were open. They saw
their Lord, their Master. They saw Him as He is, the Master,
the Lord. Last time they saw Him, He was
hanging on a cross in what they thought was defeat, agony, helplessness. He saved others He himself couldn't
save. They saw a body taken down, put in a grave, and they were
down. There they see him, the master, in charge, the Lord,
distributing to his people, giving to his people the bread of life.
Like Thomas, I imagine, they fell on their knees and said,
My Lord and my God. And that's how men see him who
are saved. They don't see a child in a woman's
arms, a Madonna and a child. They don't see a nativity scene,
a helpless infant. They don't see a farm on a tree. They see a risen Lord, triumphant
King. That's right. Let me show you
something over here in 1 John 3. They see he must
need suffering, he must need to go to Jerusalem, he must die
on the cross, he must be buried, he must rise again, but he must
reign also. 1 John 3, "'Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know when he shall appear we'll be like him.'"
We're going to see him as he is, not as he was as an infant. child, as a man, as a crucified
lamb, as he is, the reigning king. Their eyes were opened. Let me show you something else. Their eyes were opened, they
knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. He slipped out.
He did this on other occasions. He was in that temple, and they
would throw him off the edge of the cliff, and he just, he
was gone. And he was gone. And then they
said, And then they said one to another, didn't our hearts
burn within us? Didn't our hearts burn within
us? When? While he talked to us by the
way and while he opened to us the scriptures. That was their foundation. After they had gotten over their
shock and surprise and the fact they didn't know him, He opened
to us the scriptures, and he's the only one who can. Natural eyes will be closed until
he opens up the scriptures. And he opened the scriptures,
and then they said, that's when our hearts burned within us.
The Word of God. That's our foundation. Abraham
didn't see a cross. He didn't see Christ on earth.
He saw the Word. Moses never did see the Passover
lamb sacrifice, but he had the Word. I've never seen Christ
Jesus in a vision, in a dream, or anything like that, but I
had him in the Word. I had the same thing he gave
these men, the Word. And they said, our hearts burned
within us. He showed them the Word. What does that mean, our hearts
burned within us? Let me take you to a scripture
in Jeremiah for just a moment, Jeremiah chapter 20. Jeremiah was sort of rebellious,
like all of us get sometimes. The Lord kind of put him out
on a limb, left him by himself. He prophesied some things, and
they didn't come to pass like he felt like, or as quickly as
he felt like they should. So he said in Jeremiah 20, verse
9, Then I said, I'll not make mention of him any more. I'm
not going to speak any more in his name. Oh, he's upset, isn't
he, like Elijah? But his word was in my heart
as a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I was weary with
forbearing or refusing, and I could not stay, I had to say something.
And that's what the Lord does when he brings us to faith in
him. is like the light, and it banishes
our foolish thoughts of self and works and burns away the
chaff in our hearts. And our hearts glow with a love
for Christ and a love for his word and gratitude for his grace.
And our spirits in affection are fervent and zealous with
a desire to know him more. As Isaiah said, he picked up
a live coal from the altar and laid it on my mouth and burned
his word in me. That's what they said. You see why he blinded their
eyes? I do. I see why it was necessary
that they were kept down and their mouths shut while he talked
to them about the Word, taught them the Word. Because the Word
is our foundation of faith, the promise of God. Feelings come
and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. I trust
the unchanging Word of God. Nothing else is working. That's
the foundation of faith. All right, the Lord willing,
if you'll put up with my voice another service tonight, I'll
pick up right back and go on with it. But it's not the sound
of the preachers, the words of the preachers that God blesses.
All right, let's sing a closing hymn, 466.