Verse 32 of what the pastor just read. And they said to one another, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened up the scriptures to us. So we come this afternoon to what I've just called the most remarkable journey. Luke who gave us this account wasn't an eyewitness of Christ's ministry. but he was diligent in reaching out to others, Mark and Peter and so forth, who had told him about the Nazarene. So with Luke we find stories, accounts, that the other Gospels perhaps do not mention at all, or maybe in a more shorter version. So here under the divine inspiration, Luke reveals to us I think the most beautiful account of a journey of that on that sad day from Jerusalem to Emmaus by two of Jesus' followers. As I was listening to Sinclair Ferguson a while ago, he gave me some insight as to who these two were that I've never heard before. And I'll give you what he said. He says we were given the name Cleopas in verse 18, who scholars say is the Cleopas who was married to Mary, one of the women at the cross. Cleopas was a brother of Joseph, Jesus' stepfather. So these two men would have been, these two then would have seen Jesus, uncle and aunt, family members. They would have known him. They were now returning to their home in the little village some five, seven miles away from Jerusalem. A long walk in those days, even today. And what I want us to see this afternoon is this is not only an actual journey that these two took, a little journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but more profoundly, a journey to a true understanding of a living faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. It's a journey that begins with a sense of confusion, depression, melancholy, you might say, on the part of these two followers. And the first things we notice here is confusion and dismay. Verse 16, but their eyes were restrained, so they did not know him. Mark tells us he appeared unto them in another form. Why was it that these disciples did not recognize Jesus as he appointed them of the Lord. Well, Jesus gives us a hint in verse 17. They were sad. Jesus had heard them discussing his crucifixion in Jerusalem. First, they were obviously heartbroken. They were full of sorrow, their eyes perhaps full of tears at what had happened in the city. They were grieved indeed with They were overcome with grief for they had lost their dear friend, they had lost their master, their teacher, whom they deeply loved. Now he was gone, they did not know where. Even if they could have found his body, said Spurgeon, they would have been glad. They knew, they heard about the certain women who had gone to the tomb and come back with the wonderful story about a vision of angels that the Lord was risen. Yet we are told in one of the accounts, their words seemed like idle tales. And surely there is no sorrow to the believer than a sense of the absence of the presence of Christ. For once you've been born again and brought into the Lord's presence, to loss that is unbearable. Oh, I know, oh, that I would know where I might find them, says one of the scriptures. These two were in deep depression. They had thought that Jesus was the one, that he was the great prophet. He was going to redeem Israel. But now their religious leaders, along with the Roman authorities had put him to death. So they were bewildered. They didn't know what was going on. They were depressed. They were full of melancholy. And melancholy is something that the believer ought to guard against. And many believers are given to it. But when we are in such a state, we need to reach out to other believers who have not been in that state or maybe gone through it and had the victory. In their disappointment of Jesus, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which happened in these days? But I believe another reason, and more spiritual, why their eyes were restrained is surely on belief. In a small measure, it was divine judgment. God was truly in this. Why do we say that? Well, as we shall see, our Lord would open up the scriptures to them. He took the time to take them to the word and explain it to them. For if they could not see him in the world, they would not see him at all. It's the same with all of us. We will not see Christ outside of the scriptures. If they had left the city and gone home to a mess, fully believing that Jesus was somewhere on earth, as soon as he approached them, they would have said, at least this virgin, perhaps this is the master. But they looked at him and they said, he's a stranger. and said to Jesus, have you not known the things that have happened these days in Jerusalem? You see, these disciples had failed to see what was plain enough. Jesus, in fact, had told his disciples, his followers, over and over again, that he would die, that he would suffer and bleed and die and rise again. They had their sacred scriptures. For Christ is all over the Old Testament scriptures. That they knew intellectually, but they did not perceive it was Jesus. How often I think those of us who profess Christ may also in our own experience have times of unbelief, of times of doubt. And the Lord's presence seems to be hidden from our eyes. Look how the Lord teaches. Jesus quoting from Isaiah in Matthew 13, 14 says, Here were two of Jesus' disciples, very close to him, but they didn't recognize him. They didn't see Jesus. They didn't hear Jesus at that point. Often, you know, when some listen to the word and do not understand, they blame the preacher. And then their hearts, they were just, these disciples were disappointed and perhaps blaming Jesus in some respects because their hopes were dashed. But Jesus says to them, as it were, you claim I do not know, but you are the ones who are not knowing. You're slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. They knew the writings of the prophets. What Wallace said here, we have a real profound insight into the human heart, how the human heart works. How sad, how tragic it is to hear the word of God and having heard the word of God, you've heard nothing. And you go away. You perhaps blame the church. You blame the people, you blame the preacher, and even some blame God, the God of heaven. When did you last hear Jesus speak from the scriptures to you? Remember the words of the master, we quoted this morning, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So we need to ask ourselves, when is the last time we've heard the voice of Jesus speak to us from holy scriptures? Some would say, well, it's not my fault, Pastor, but it is your fault. He says to his close relatives here, his followers, how foolish you are. Oh, Pastor, Jesus would never say that to me. Really? Would he say it to you? Would he? Ask yourself that question. He might say to some of us, he said to Philip, have I been so long with you? And you have not known me at all. Oh, blessed people of God, by reason of our own belief at times, we have not dived into the mysteries of our own hearts. We have not understood the fullness of our Lord's love for us. She let the cry of our hearts, O Lord, give us more faith. As one Puritan has put it, faith has the eagle's eye of love. It can see where other eyes cannot penetrate. Oh, for the eyes of love, he says, by the rivers of water washed with the milk and fitly said. For faith and love together make up a blessed pair of optics which can see the Lord Jesus Christ, even when darkness is all around about him. God giveth more grace, more insight into your redeeming love. That should be the cry of our hearts. So they are slow of heart to believe. That brings this element of judgment in Jesus' mild rebuke. How then does Jesus respond to their sense of confusion, their dismay and their disorientation? Well, he is the great physician of souls. He is the tender shepherd. He brings them to the green pastures of the scriptures, his own precious word. He comes with instruction, with revelation and illumination. Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to suffer these things that we enter into glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Oh, think of it, dear friends. This is, I believe, one of the most precious scriptures I have often thought in my life, my Christian life. Where would I have loved to sit and listen to Jesus? I would have loved to walk along that road to a mess with those disciples. Think of it. The master preacher, teacher, Our God spent a whole afternoon in the seven mile walk, opening up the Holy Scriptures to these two dear disciples, perhaps three or four hours of walking. They had all the facts. They heard about the angels. They were reminded about the women and the disciples were told this. That this was God's covenant promise that Jesus has spoken so often to them. The son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. They knew Jesus to be the prophet mighty indeed in word. Before God and all the people. They said they thought he would be the redeemer of Israel. Alice Stigler Ferguson once said, if they simply could not, they simply could not put the jigsaw puzzle together in their minds of God fulfilling his covenant love to his people, they couldn't put it together. See, Jesus had not yet transformed them completely, their lives completely, but they were on the road. The journey they were on. was with Jesus. And as he said to them, it's not he that knows not, it is they that know not. And it isn't difficult. I don't, I don't think to grasp what our Lord taught them that day. Would he not have begun in the book of Genesis, the third chapter, Genesis 3, 15, the seed of the woman overcoming the serpent. of David, that a seed would sit upon the throne in Jeremiah 33, 17. God's promised to David, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. And then about Solomon, he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever, eternally. And he promised, it would bring him to the promise of Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, a seed in whom all nations would be blessed. a saviour who would suffer for the sins of his people. We see that pattern of suffering and glory right throughout different characters of the scripture. One can think of Joseph, you remember, who suffered much, but God would raise him up, exalt him to the glorious position in Egypt and be the prime minister of Egypt so as to be a blessing to God's own covenant people. Moses himself suffered much and God you would use him to deliver the covenant nation out of the bondage of Egypt and time and time again in the book of Psalms we see this picture of suffering followed by glory and deliverance and he would have reminded them of Daniel how he revealed to Daniel that that prophecy of the stone that was cut out without hands which struck the great image that was destroy everything and become a great mountain filling the earth, Daniel 7, speaking of the kingdom crushing all earthly kingdoms. But perhaps I think the passage that the Lord would have spent a great deal of time upon would have been the fourth of the servant's songs. The one who would be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows equated with grief, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, wounded for all his people's sins, and bruised for their iniquities. For three to four hours, our Lord expounded these scriptures." And notice what the text says, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. It's so important for us, dear friends, for our understanding of the Bible, The Old Testament pictures of the Messiah is not confined to a number of specific passages. The Word of God's central point is Christ. Everything converges on Christ, and Bethlehem to Calvary, and long before that. The historical, the typological, the psychological, the prophetical, it's all Christ. As commentators have put it, it is reasonable to believe that our Lord is interpreting in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself only. And that's why we should understand the Old Testament, the pictures of Christ throughout of it, pointing to Him and Him alone. As Peter would say years later in Acts 10 and 43, To him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believed in him will receive remission of sins. And as Paul would testify, the seed, the promised seed is Christ Jesus, Galatians 3, 16. It was at this point, I believe, it appeared they were drawing near to a mass in verse 28. And these words are interesting. Jesus indicated that he would have gone on further. But they insisted, they invited him to come into their home, their home with him. They asked him to stay, no doubt wanting his presence with them. An important point here is that in the plan of God for our lives does not cancel this decision making on our part. In that culture in those days, traveling at night was very dangerous. There was no street lights. Desert, hillside, so forth. It was full of robbers, wild animals and darkness. And there'd be no one to help. But that wasn't the main reason they asked Jesus to stay. These two had become so unarmored with his company. How different when they first met him on the road. I don't think they ever wanted him to be with them. He was a stranger. at the beginning of that journey. But no, they simply did not want to lose his company. They did not want to lose his company. And when they brought him into the home, they honored him as their wonderful guest, asking him to perform the duties of a host and give a blessing for the food. And as he sat at the table with them, we're told he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. And it was at that point, at the breaking of the bread, the one who was born in the house of bread suddenly realized, suddenly vanished from them. And they realized it was the Lord. Their eyes were opened. The scales fell off their eyes. Did they see the nail marks in his hands? Or was it how he broke the bread and gave it to them? Or was it the way he prayed to his father that refreshed their memories? No one knows. But they know. Christ knew. But we see that his resurrection body reacted very differently as he vanished from their sight. Now these two disciples did not know any more scripture at that point as they did intellectually at the beginning of the journey. They knew the scripture. They were Jewish individuals. They knew the scriptures. Props by heart. It's the only writings they thought about in those days in Israel. It's amazing to us in our sophisticated church. We think we know everything. There's books for this and books for that. But these people knew the scriptures. They knew the Old Testament scriptures. They were taught them from their children. But when Jesus left them, They read, they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened up the scriptures to us? As the Lord taught them from all the scriptures, as he expounded on the scriptures that were very familiar to them, it's as if the seals were coming off their eyes and their hearts. And the text says their eyes, formerly blind, were opened, the eyes, their spiritual eyes. And he gave them a new understanding, a new text as it were. He said the Scriptures are all about one person. They're all about this book, 66 books is all about one person. Jesus Christ. All the prophecies meet in one person. And that is the Jesus who died for the sins of his people in Jerusalem. It seems you could put yourself in this little room, and these two sitting there, and Jesus is gone. And one says, did your heart not burn within you as he spoke to us the scriptures? He could feel the joy in their hearts. The hearts caught fire. He taught them the word of God. And the Holy Spirit burked it into the very depths of their beings. Isn't this what the Holy Spirit does? He gives us beloved a burning heart as he works within us. We see this again in Axiat, the Ethiopian traveling back from Jerusalem in his chariot. He had purchased a scroll, probably very expensive in those days, a scroll of Isaiah. And he was reading it in his chariot. The Holy Spirit told Philip to join him in his chariot. And Philip heard him read the prophecy of Isaiah 53. He says, do you understand what you're reading? He says, how can I understand? I need someone to guide me. He wanted to know, was it the prophet speaking about himself or some other man? And God opened his eyes. God burnt within him. He believed and was baptized. This is the kind of language that many have used over the years to speak of the Spirit's work in their hearts. John Wesley, the famous preacher, had gone to Georgia from England, run an orphanage and so forth there, and he was bereft of the Spirit of God. He preached the Word, but he didn't know God at all. On the night when he came back to London, on the night recorded of May the 24th, 1738, he was invited to the Moravian Brothers sort of prayer meeting and Bible study. He didn't want to go, and he reluctantly went to that meeting house in Aldersgate in London, Sweden and London. He writes in his diary, one was reading the Preface to Luther's Cometary in Romans. He says about quarter to nine while he was describing the change which God worked in his heart to faith in Christ. I felt my heart strangely warmed, he says. I felt I did trust in Christ and Christ alone for my salvation. He gave me the assurance that he had taken away my sins. Blaise Pascal, the great 17th century, Man, one of the greatest minds in European history. When he died, they looked inside his cloak and he had his testimony there, pinned inside his cloak when he died. His profession was there and the profession ended with the words far, far, joy, joy, then ended with tears of joy. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, my Lord. That was his experience. And it also happens with different people down through the ages, a burning heart. Because you've been so taken up with Jesus Christ, his love, his mercy and grace. These two had began the day slow of heart, but as Jesus opened up their hearts about himself, their hearts began to burn. They didn't know what was happening, but Jesus knew. You see, the Lord had put them to the test. That's why these words are important here. He indicated that he would have gone further. He was putting them to the test. They begged him to stay. You see, this is the true picture of one who has true faith. They beg Jesus to stay. Like Jacob, I will not let thee go unless thy bless me. What a marvelous place to be. Have you that kind of interest of the spirit working in your heart? Is your heart burning within you? How can I get Jesus to stay with me? Is that the cry of your heart? You asked yourself, everybody needs to ask themselves, or am I on the journey? Am I still slow of heart? Or is my heart burning within me? If you have doubts, I would say, take a scripture like this. This is one of the most beautiful passages in scripture. And pray over it and pray to the Lord, Lord, show me the truth. Write it indelibly upon my heart. But then let's look at the reorientation and witness here. So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together. As they looked at one another, their hearts were full of joy. They had seen and spoken with the risen Christ, the one they loved. And all that he had told them, all that he had prophesied about himself is true. Our Lord has risen. That was the one thing in their mind. Our Lord has risen. And they wasted no time. They rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples. They probably got quicker back to Jerusalem and never came to Emmaus. So excited, so overjoyed. What did they find as the... As our Lord Jesus had done it again. He done it all over again. They were probably expecting a group of men depressed and sad. But as they entered room, they were, they saw the disciples. They were embracing one another, most likely with joy. Saying to one another, the Lord has risen. He has appeared to Simon. And then eventually. The two conveyed their story to the disciples. And at that moment, the Lord appeared in the midst of the room. Peace, a shalom to you. Some of them were terrified, they were afraid. And how compassionate and long-suffering is our Lord, how beautiful his words. Why are you troubled and why Two doubts arise in your hearts. How slow we are, aren't we beloved, to believe at times. Our Lord showed them his wounds, but they still didn't believe. So he said to them, have you any food? And he took the food and he ate the food. As he did to the two of them, he opened up the scriptures to them. They must have said to themselves afterwards, he showed us the marks of his death. We didn't believe. We even put him to the test when he asked for food. We didn't think he would eat like we eat. They thought he was just a spirit. Perhaps they said to themselves, how dumb we are. I slow to believe. But you see, Jesus opens up their understanding so they can understand the truth of scripture and who he was. He done it again in their hearts, and their hearts, I believe, burned within them. And he's been doing this again and again and again, century after century, now 21st century. He's been doing it all along. He is here this afternoon. And they need, if all needed, ask ourselves, has the Lord opened up our hearts? Where are we on this journey? Have we reached the place and that point in our lives that we do not want Jesus ever to let us go? We never want to lose his company. We want them to stay with us forever. Have we reached that point? And the Lord then told them, this is your mission. This is your future, dear disciples. You're to witness to about me and to me, to the world of my life, my death, my resurrection, my offer of salvation. And we need to ask ourselves, do the scriptures make sense to us? Because too many sit in the churches, the scriptures are still a mystery. We need all the time as we approach the word of God, every day that we approach the word of God, we need to pray more and more, Lord, open up my eyes, open up my understanding of the truth of your word. Help me to know more of you. and ask Him, plead with Him to cleanse us from sin, to help us defeat sin in our lives. Lord, give us a burning heart so that we will walk with you in white one day. Because He's promised to those who believe, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Behold, I am with you always. And we see He never left these two on the road to Emmaus. He came in, not only to their house, He came into their hearts. May that be the desire of all who are here this afternoon. Lord, give me a burning heart. And to Him all the praise belongs. Blessed are Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, our God, We thank you, Father, for this account on the road to Emmaus. We have just scraped the surface of this this afternoon, but we thank you for this wonderful account. We thank you for the love of Christ to his disciples, that love that shed abroad in the hearts of all who believe. We ask the Lord he would help us to understand you even more deeply. And God, O Lord, the cry of our hearts, O Lord, do not leave us nor forsake us, and we know you won't. But Lord, give us a heart that burns within us, full of love for you. Bless your word to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.