We're going to turn to the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, the 24th chapter, and we're going to commence reading in the 13th verse through the 35th verse. Luke 24, beginning in verse 13, wherein Luke, the beloved physician, faithfully records. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which 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 that they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad? And the one of them whose name was Cleopas answering said unto him, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, what things? And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people. And now the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted 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. 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 He said unto them, O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them and all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went. And He made as though He would have gone further. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. 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 brake, 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 the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread." May God bless today, once again, the reading and hearing of His Word, and let us join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, as we stand before the open Bible, we ask for the elimination of the Holy Spirit. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to comprehend. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, in our Lord's Day worship services on this Sunday, we're taking a break from two current preaching series. We've been working through Ephesians. on Wednesday mornings, and we've been looking at various scripture passages and topics related to the doctrine of last things or eschatology in the afternoon services. We're taking a break today to focus on Luke 24 today, part of it here in the morning and part in the afternoon. This sacred account of Christ's resurrection appearances as Luke, the beloved physician, recorded them. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 through 5, a passage that's very important we often turn to, Paul rehearses for the Corinthians the gospel, the good news that he had preached to them. And he focused on four key historical facts that were of the essence of the preaching of the gospel or the good news. There in 1 Corinthians 15, 3-5, Paul said, For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. And there are four basic historical facts that are embedded there within this rehearsal of the gospel that Paul had preached. First of all, the atoning death of Christ upon the cross. Secondly, his burial. It's there in every one of our four gospels. All record how Joseph of Arimathea took his lifeless body down from the cross and placed it in the tomb. Third, though, his resurrection on the third day, according to the scriptures. And then fourthly, his appearances, his resurrection appearances. He appeared to Cephas, or Peter, and to the 12. And then Paul goes on to list some other appearances, including to over 500 brethren at once. And Paul says some of these remain alive to this very day as he was writing to the Corinthians. They could vouch for the validity of what he was reporting. If you notice these four basic facts, the second and the fourth of them affirm or prove the first and the third points. We know that Christ truly died on the cross, the first point, Because, the second point, his lifeless body was placed in the tomb. And we know that he was truly raised again from the dead, the third point, because he appeared to his disciples when he was raised from the dead. He appeared to them in his glorious resurrection body. The resurrection appearances that we're focusing on today are very important. They are proofs for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And it's interesting if you look at our New Testament, which begins with the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each one of them is unique. There are accounts within each individual gospel that aren't found in all the gospels. Some of them will account the same, report the same episodes and events in Christ's life, but some are unique. But when you get to the end of each gospel, they all come into a strong agreement with one another. They all end with telling us about what we call the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. His suffering upon the cross, and then they proceed to tell us of his glorious resurrection. And each one of them also describes how he appeared to his disciples. There was one German scholar of years ago who said that the Gospels are passion narratives with extended introductions. that we're told things like his teaching and his parables and his healings. But really, the climax and what the evangelists driven along by the Holy Spirit would have us know most of all is that this man, Jesus, went to the cross. He died for sinners. He was buried. He was raised again the third day. And then he gloriously appeared. triumphant, the victor, over death and the grave. In fact, there were false gospels that circulated in the early years of Christianity. And there were people who claimed to be apostles who had written them, but they were false gospels, like the Gospel of Thomas, perhaps you've heard of. And part of the reason they knew those gospels were false is because they were just collections of the sayings of Jesus, supposedly. And what did they omit? the cross, his burial, his resurrection, the resurrection appearances. And so those who were saved and had the indwelling Holy Spirit knew that these were inadequate because they did not come to the climax of Christ's work upon the cross. Well, today we're going to give the whole day in our service of worship to looking at Luke 24 and these resurrection appearances. This morning, we're going to look at the inspired account of Christ's appearance to two disciples as they fled from Jerusalem. And we sometimes call this the road to Emmaus account. where Christ will appear to two disciples who are going to a little village outside of Jerusalem called Emmaus. And then this afternoon, God willing, we will look at the account in Luke 24, starting in verse 36 to the end of the chapter, of how Christ appeared to the apostles in the upper room in Jerusalem on the first Lord's Day evening. So we're going to give our time and attention today to meditating upon these resurrection appearances. The account before us is a reliable historical narrative. It is not a fantasy. It is not a children's tale. It does not begin once upon a time. But it starts in verse 13. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus. It is an historical account and we believe it is absolutely true because it is the Lord's God breathed word and God does not lie. This is what happened. And that is the most important level of significance that we can find in this account. It is a true report of what happened to Christ after he had gone to the cross. and He had breathed His last and was placed in the tomb that He was gloriously raised, and then He appeared to His disciples. As Paul will put it in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 14, if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. We stake everything on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he's not raised, then let's leave and bar the doors and cut off electricity to this building, and let's never meet again if Christ is not raised from the dead. That's the first most significant level of meaning. But the gospel writers, men like Luke, not only recorded These events, they did not record all events that happened in the life of our Lord. They were driven along by the Holy Spirit. John in his gospel says, if we tried to write everything down that Christ did, there wouldn't be enough books in the whole world to record it. And so the gospel writers were driven along by the Holy Spirit to choose just the right things to record for us. So these are selective accounts. Again, as John says in his gospel, these things are written that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name. And so they're guided by the Holy Spirit. And some of the things that are here within this account of Luke 24 not only tell us exactly what happened to Christ, but they also provide for us what we could call a template or a master plan that will be followed and experienced by generations of believers across the ages, even up to this very day. So the first level is the historical significance. The second is this template that's being placed here before us that will continue to be followed by believers up to this very day. What these two men on the road to Emmaus experienced in an unrepeatable historical way, we also continue to experience in a spiritual way, week by week, Sunday by Sunday, Lord's Day by Lord's Day. And it is the experience of meeting with the risen Christ. The experience of meeting with Him as He is pleased to make Himself known unto us. So let's turn and let's begin to look at the passage. And I'm going to back up a little bit And I want to look briefly at, first of all, Luke's account of the empty tomb, the resurrection. And so let's just look at these opening verses. In verse 1 of Luke 24, it says, now, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning. And so it was on the first day of the week, on Sunday. This is a dramatic change that is taking place. Up until the resurrection of Christ, the Sabbath day had been the seventh day of the week. And with the raising of Christ from the dead, God himself, who is the Lord of the Sabbath, changes the day of worship. And on that first day of the week, very early in the morning, there are a group of women and they came to the sepulcher. They brought spices which they had prepared. And there were certain others with them. And when they came to the place where Christ's lifeless body had been placed by Joseph of Arimathea, we're told in verse two, they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. Matthew gives us more detail in his gospel telling how the soldiers had set a large stone there. They had sealed it. And the stone was rolled away. And when they entered in, it says in verse three, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And again, this is the this is the fundamental claim that we stake everything on. And they came to the tomb. They found not the body of the Lord Jesus. The remains or the relics of Buddha were supposedly carried to various places after his body was cremated. In Sri Lanka, if you go there today, you can find a place called the Temple of the Sacred Tooth that claims to have one of Buddha's teeth that is venerated and worshiped. One can go, if he's a Muslim, to Medina in Saudi Arabia and visit the so-called Prophet's Mosque and see the so-called sacred chamber where the body of Muhammad, the Prophet, was buried. But friends, there is no burial site in the world that contains any part of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the tomb was empty. And we'll stake everything on that. We're told in verse 4 that the women were much perplexed. They were much perplexed. Well, this is something that doesn't happen, does it? The tomb was empty. And then we're told in verse four, two men stood by them in shining garments. And these two men, ones that appear to be men, are angels, just as the angels came to Abraham at Mamre. And so God often works in these ways. And it says in verse five, and as they, the women, those with them were afraid, they bowed down their faces to the earth. And they, meaning the men in the shining garments who are angels, said unto them, verse 5, Why seek ye the living among the dead? And they continue then in verse 6 to say, He is not here, but is risen. And then they call upon these disciples to remember, and that's going to be important, this is going to come up with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and even with the apostles. Later on, as we'll see in this chapter, remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee. And Christ had taught them. He had prophesied all the things that would happen to Him. He had taught them from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah, the Christ, would be rejected. He would suffer. He would die. But on the third day, He would be raised again. And they had not understood. These angels are announcing this and telling them to remember. And then it says in verse 8, and they remembered His words. And then in verse 9, they returned from the sepulcher and they told all these things to the eleven. Remember, Judas Iscariot has betrayed our Lord and he has gone to a betrayer's death, hanging himself. But they report to the 11 and to all the rest, the other disciples who are with them. And we're even told in verse 10, the names of at least three of the women who were there in Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary, the mother of James. There were other women there as well. And they told these things to the apostles. But the apostles in the very beginning, again, they didn't believe this. They had hardness of heart. It says in verse 11, And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then Luke gives us just one verse in verse 12, describing how Peter rose up and ran to the sepulcher. He looked within, and it says he was wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And some of you may well know that John in his gospel gives A more extended account of this, what Luke gives just one verse to in verse 12. But if you look at John 20, verses 3 through 10, he says not only did Peter run there, but also what he calls the other disciple. And this is likely a reference to himself. That John actually outran Peter, and he got there first. Although he didn't go in, he waited on Peter. John would say in his gospel in John 20, verse 8, of this other disciple that he saw and believed. And so in some sense, he's the first believer in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. All of this now sets the stage for the risen Lord's appearance to these two disciples on their road to Emmaus. And again, Each of the gospel writers in some ways are telling the same story. On the other hand, each of them are telling it guided by the Holy Spirit in his own manner as the Spirit directs him. And this account here, the Christ's appearance to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, is given a very long treatment here by Luke. In fact, there's only one other gospel that gives us an account of this. It's Mark, and he really only gives two verses to it, in some sense only one verse to it. In Mark 16, verse 12, it says, after that he appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country. And it continues then in Mark 16, 13, and they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them. Luke, however, what Mark gives really one verse to Mark 16, verse 12, Luke gives 23 verses. to this account, verses 13 through 35, here in Luke 24. And this is a reminder that really we need all four of the gospels. Some have asked, why don't we just have one gospel? Why didn't they put the whole story together? But we really need all four witnesses to get the total account of what took place, all the things that we need to know about this. And so Luke was guided by the Spirit to give us this more detailed account. And so it begins in verse 13. Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. If you look at a modern translation, like the New King James Version, it'll render that three score furlongs into our modern distance measurement. It'll say it's about seven miles. from Jerusalem. And so these two disciples are leaving Jerusalem. Why were they leaving? No doubt because they were afraid for their own lives. They had been followers of Jesus. And He had gone to the cross and He had died a slave's death there. A brutal death. He had been accused by the high priest of blasphemy. Because he was making himself equal with God. He was accused by the Roman authorities of insurrection, claiming that he was the king of the Jews. And they misconstrued all of his teachings about the kingdom of God, even though he said before Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. And they were his followers. No doubt they were fearing that they too would be targeted next by Jews or by Romans. John concurs in John 20, verse 19, when he describes the disciples meeting in Jerusalem on the evening of this first Lord's Day. We're told that they met behind shut doors for fear of the Jews. So these men are getting out of Dodge to save their own necks. And as they leave, we might imagine Understandably, they began to rehash all the things that had taken place. Verse 14, and they talked together of all these things which had happened. And who wouldn't be, you had this disorienting thing happen, who wouldn't be talking about it, trying to figure it out? What happened? And as they have been discombobulated, things didn't happen the way they thought. They thought Christ was going to come and perhaps set up a political kingdom. And how disappointed, how sad they must have been. They were told in verse 15, that as they communed together and reasoned, that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Now, for whatever reason, the disciples at this point did not recognize the risen Lord. And so Christ, the risen Christ, joins them in walking on the road. But to them, he seems to be just another traveler. And this is consistent with what we see across all the gospels that report to us that immediately after his resurrection, the disciples often did not at first recognize the Lord Jesus. Mark says, again in Mark 16, verse 12, that He appeared to them in another form, in another morphic. John, when he describes how the risen Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene, tells us that at first she thought He was the gardener. John 20, verse 15. When He appeared to seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and He stood on the shore cooking them breakfast over a fire as they were fishing, it says in John 21, verse 4, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. In appearance, after His resurrection, He seemed apparently to the natural eye to be but an ordinary man. He was not floating. 12 inches above the ground. He was not glowing. It is not like the medieval portraits that Gianna may have seen while she was in Italy of him having a halo around his head. Humanly speaking, he looked like a man. There was continuity between his pre-resurrection body and his post-resurrection body. As we shall see later in Luke 24, and as John tells us about in John 20 with Thomas, his body still had the marks of the passion upon them. He had wounds in his hand and in his side. But for whatever reason, at this point, these disciples don't recognize him. And we're told in verse 16, but their eyes were holden that they should not know him. God did not, for His own purposes, permit them, at this point, to recognize Jesus, and that purpose was for their own edification, as we'll see. This is the start, I think, of this being a template, an ordained template, indicating to us some spiritual truths about how Christ will continue to be experienced in our day. That is that most men who encounter Christ do not immediately recognize Him as Lord when they encounter Him. His true identity remains hidden to them because their eyes are holden. And then we see that the risen Lord, here incognito, initiates the conversation by asking them a question. Look at verse 17. He says, what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad? And so he's just traveling along with them, overhearing the conversation. And he asks them what they're talking about. He notices that they are distraught, that they are sad. And what we might ask ourselves at this point, do you think that the risen Jesus answers this question because he does not know what they're talking about? I can just see the Muslim apologist saying, see, he doesn't know what they're even talking about. Well, that's to miss the point, isn't it? Of course he knows what they're talking about. He knows all things. He asks that they might articulate an answer. He is testing them. He is trying them. He is probing their consciences to measure their level of comprehension. Teachers give their students tests to measure and evaluate their level of learning. Christ is the master teacher probing the understandings of these men. In verse 18, we get one of the names of these fellows. And one of them whose name was Cleopas. Now, this is interesting because this is someone that we know very little about. He was not one of the 12. So this is one of the other disciples who was not among the 12. In John chapter 19, verse 25, one of the women who was there at the cross of Christ alongside Mary, his mother, and Mary Magdalene. There's also a third Mary, the three Marys, at the foot of the cross of Christ, whose name was Mary of Cleophas, or Mary the wife of Cleophas. And apparently, this is the same person. He and his wife were disciples of Christ. He wasn't one of the 12. And then there was the other guy. We're not even given his name. Given that we are not provided his name, we might assume that he, too, was not an apostle but an ordinary disciple. But it's Cleopas who answers and says to this stranger, this curious stranger, verse 18, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass in these days. And I think we are meant to smile at least at this. It's ironic, right? He's talking to Christ. Does he know anything about what has happened in these last few days? Well, he happens to have been at the center of it, what it was really all about. And it's just a reminder to us that so many times Christ is not properly recognized and properly understood, even when it's as obvious as the nose on your face. Think about in John's gospel when he talks to Nicodemus and says, to enter the kingdom, you must be born again. And Nicodemus says, you mean I must go again a second time into my mother's womb? Or when he talks to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and says, I can give you living water. And she says, how are you going to give me living water when you don't even have anything to draw? with from the well. And here is the risen Christ speaking to this man and he says, don't you know anything about what's happened? Yes, duh, he does. Our Lord poses another question in verse 19. What things? What things? Is he acting like a cat, toying with a mouse? No, he's not making sport of them. He is taking opportunity to test them and edify them, and their answer exposes the limits of their understanding at this point, and even their false conceptions of Christ. Look at verse 19, as they respond unto Him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Now truly, they had a high view of the Lord Jesus. They saw Him as a prophet, mighty indeed and word. He was another Isaiah, another Elijah. But as high as this esteem was, what does this reveal to us? They didn't really understand who Jesus is. They did not yet see Him as the Christ, even though they may have been there when Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And here is a template, again, for many men who think they understand who Jesus is. How many people do we meet and we say, can I invite you to church? Oh, I'm a Christian. Yeah, oh, I know all about Jesus. I read my Bible last year once. And yes, I know all about Jesus. Well, there's a lot of ignorance of who Jesus is that's out there. And that's why we can't just rely on somebody saying, oh yeah, I know who he is. They thought he was a prophet, mighty in deed and word, but they didn't know that he is the suffering servant who would go to the cross and then be gloriously raised. And they explained to him this Curious man they say don't you know verse 20 how the chief priests and our rulers? Delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him they're getting him up to speed with the news of the day and of course they're dealing themselves with how he had been rejected and crucified at the hands of their religious leaders and This recalls what Paul will say of his fellow Jews and their rejection of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 2.15. He says of them that they both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us. And they pleased not God and are contrary to all men. They expressed their disappointment in Christ. We look at verse 21. They say, but we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. And now we're getting another level of their lack of comprehension of Christ. Similarly, in Acts chapter 1, when Luke describes the ascension of our Lord, he notes in Acts 1.6 how some Jewish disciples ask the risen Lord, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? They did not yet know the mystery of which Paul will speak at Ephesians, that Christ came to redeem by his blood both Jews and Gentiles and to make one new people. And they note that this is now the third day since his crucifixion. Look at verse 21. And besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Sometimes people ask about that. What do we mean when we say he rose on the third day? And in the Jewish account of time, any part of a day counted as a day. So he went to the cross on Friday. He was in the tomb on Saturday and early on Sunday morning. He's raised Friday, Saturday, Sunday. On the third day, he rose. But this shows they had also failed to grasp Christ's own prophecy. As in Matthew chapter 12, verse 40, he said, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. They also convey to this most curious but seemingly uninformed stranger the experience of the women from their group who had gone to the sepulchre. Look at verse 22. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels. This tells us plainly that those men in the shining garments they took to be angels, which said that He was alive. Notice, by the way, when he says that they had a vision, the Greek word is aptasia. It doesn't mean that this was a fantasy or simply a mental experience, but it has more the sense of there appeared before their eyes these angels who told us that he was alive. Then he even further reports in verse 24 that certain of them, meaning more than one, cohering with John's account, that it wasn't just Peter, but also Peter and the other disciple, had gone to the tomb. Look at verse 24. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not. It is at this point that the stranger, the risen Lord himself, begins plainly to exhort these men. Verse 25, he says, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. He calls them fools and slow of heart. They have not believed the scriptures, the holy scriptures. They have not understood them. And he proceeds to say to them in verse 26, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory. They had not in particular understood the prophets when they declared that the Messiah, the Christ, when He came, that He would suffer before entering into His glory. And then Christ, Luke says, began instructing, teaching these men, verse 27, and beginning at Moses, And all the prophets, starting with the Torah, the Law, the first five books of the Old Testament, and proceeding to the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And so here is Christ teaching, instructing these men. What text did He point toward? No verses are listed here for us. But we might well speculate as to some of the passages that Christ spoke to these men about. Perhaps he went to Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, a passage we went to very often in our Genesis series, when there was the cursing of the serpent. And it says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Maybe he took them there, the prophecy of the one who would come from the woman who had crushed the head of the serpent, even as he was bruised, as he crushed the serpent. Maybe he took them to Genesis 49, verse 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah. There will come a king from Judah who will rule forever. Or maybe Deuteronomy 18, 18, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth. A prophet, but more than a prophet. And from there, perhaps he turned to Isaiah 53 and the prophecy of the suffering servant. Some have called Isaiah 53 a fifth passion narrative to be laid alongside Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You well know, perhaps, some of what Isaiah wrote. Isaiah 53, verse 3, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed." And so Christ, can you imagine this seminar class where there are just two students and the master teacher is going through the Old Testament and showing them all these passages pointed to him. But they still don't get it. We're told then in verse 28, as they got close to Emmaus, they drew near to the village, and it seemed that he was going to go on further. But we're told in verse 29, they constrained him and they said, abide with us. It was already evening, and these times you didn't travel at night. There were no external lights. And he acquiesced, verse 29, it says, and he went in to tarry with them. And then in verse 30, it says, it came to pass as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it and break and gave to them. And we're back to the template again. What does that sound like? It sounds like what he instituted in the upper room, the breaking of bread. And he's with them. They're in the same room with him. And then the moment happens, the moment of enlightenment. Verse 31, and their eyes were opened and they knew him. No longer were their eyes holden, but they were enlightened. They saw him and they knew him as he is. And no sooner was he recognized by them, but we're told in verse 31, according to the sovereign will of God, he vanished out of their sight. Much as in Acts 8, after Philip is used of God to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch and to baptize him, he also is removed immediately from that man's presence. And then in verse 32, they have another, they were rehashing on the road, everything that happened. Now they have another rehash session, communing and speaking with one another. And verse 32 says, 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 there is here too, is there not, a template for us. What still happens some near 2,000 years later, we come together and we open the scriptures, we have the ministry of the word, and we break the bread, and our eyes are opened. and He makes Himself known to us. We'll pick up verses 33 through 35, God willing, this afternoon. For now, let's reflect a little bit more about why God in His wisdom has placed us within the Scriptures. Well, today, the first Significant level of meaning, as I've said, is by looking at this today, we are announcing, proclaiming once again in our midst. Through God's inspired and inscripturated word, the true truth that Christ died upon the cross for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas or Peter and the 12. And according to Luke's inspired and reliable account, he also appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus as corroborated by Mark in Mark 16, verse 12. We wholeheartedly affirm this true truth again today in the company of God's people. And beyond its full historical reliability, We also acknowledge something else, a template that continues to this very day. On the Lord's day, on the day he rose from the dead, Christ himself continues to come alongside of us as we make our way in this life. Very often at first encounter, we do not recognize him. Our eyes are holding. He initiates a conversation with us, however. He begins to ask probing questions of us. He enrolls us without our even knowing it into his school. And he begins to teach us. He unlocks for us the meaning of the Holy Scriptures. and shows us how every word of the Old and New Testaments point to him as the way, the truth, and the life. He confronts our foolishness, our slowness of heart, our simplicity of thought. He does so patiently and yet persistently until all our resistances are broken down and he makes himself known to us in his word so that we say, as did the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, did not our heart burn within us. And then he bids us begin a life of obedient discipleship that begins with our baptism and our coming frequently to the table as he continues to make himself known to us in the breaking of bread. We'll see later in our study of Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 20 and 21, Paul says something that might seem kind of strange to the believers of Ephesus, which is in modern day Turkey, in Asia Minor, on the Mediterranean. And the people in that church had not been in Palestine in the first century. They had not seen Jesus in the flesh. But Paul says this to them, Ephesians 4 verse 20, but ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Wait a second. They never saw Jesus with the eye. They never heard him with the ear. How is it that Paul can say when you heard from him and when he taught you? Well, those believers in Ephesus are like us. They had never seen Christ in the flesh, but after he had ascended, was exalted, and seated in the heavens, they met him in the assembly of God's people on the Lord's days. with the saints, the faithful in Christ. And as the Scriptures were read and the Holy Spirit was present, their eyes were opened. Last Sunday, in looking at 1 Corinthians 14, 1 and 2, and setting Ben apart to the office of elder, we looked at what Paul called the mysteries of God. And we noted that Paul said that the ministers of Christ are stewards of the mysteries of God, And we also looked, remember, at Matthew Poole's statement that, what are those mysteries? He said, it's the word and the sacraments. Let us be committed to Christ, the living word. And let us be committed to the understanding of him and obedience to his commands. As the angels rightly said, he is not here, but is risen. He has risen. and is ascended and will one day come again. But he is also here by the Holy Spirit right now. And does not our heart burn within us? Amen. Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for thy word and this testimony to the resurrection and also to our own experience of Christ by the Spirit. And so help us today to be drawn closer unto Him and to let our slowness of learning be taken away with a firmer and a more fixed understanding of who He is. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake, amen.