The final chapter of Luke, Luke 24, page 1,061 of your Pew Bibles. And due to the copious material contained in this passage, we'll read this in two parts, verses one through 24, and 25 to the end in our second worship service. Hear now the word of almighty God inspired by his spirit, profitable for us, the holy gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses one through 24. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words. and returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulcher. And stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about threescore 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. And 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 in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted 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 sepulcher. 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 sepulcher and found it even as the women had said, but him they saw not. And thus far, the reading of God's inspired word from the holy gospel of Luke chapter 24, verses one through 24. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his word. And now the consideration of it. We have here evidences of the resurrection of Jesus Christ given to the women in verses 1-7 that he rose from the dead according to his own prediction. We've considered this previously in Matthew 28 verses 1-7 and Mark 16 verses 1-7. We'll merely look at some distinctions and emphases in the gospel of Luke. Verse one mentions the spices, which they had prepared. You'll recall from the end of chapter 23, that these women saw where Jesus was laid and they were preparing spices and ointments, but they would not bring it because the Sabbath drew on. So they went home for preparation and to keep the Sabbath holy. This is what it's talking about. They had prepared. Well, who's that? Well, it's the women from chapter 23. Mark 16.1 says they brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. Matthew 28 verse 1 mentions that these women included Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Mark 16.1 mentions Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome. Also verse 10 considers who these women were. They were holy women. They loved the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted to do good to him in life and in death. They sought to serve him with all their resources. They feared God and they loved Christ. Ladies among us, you must imitate these holy women. You must love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, these women were the first witnesses by angelic voice of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were told first. Ambrose comments, he says, by ye women death had previously been promoted, by ye women life would be renewed. Be then such holy life renewing women. Women who are raised to life themselves and who give life to others by words of kindness and truth, believing in the Holy Gospel. It says, verse three, that they went into the tomb and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 28 and Mark 16, it mentions the angels telling them that he is not there. Here, Luke identifies their own investigation. They went in and looked for themselves, and they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. It tells us in verse 4 that two men stood by them in shining garments. These, we find, are angels, although only one is mentioned in Matthew. There were two, and they appeared to be men, so they are called men. They appeared as such to these women, but they were holy angels of the Lord. And when they saw these holy angels, they were afraid. They bow down their faces to the earth. This is what people do when they're scared to death, we say. Your life's about to expire, you're so afraid, you fall down to the earth. That's what they're doing. They're told, fear not, Matthew 28, verse five. Be not affrighted, Mark 16, verse six. They had a death-like fear. And the holy angels ask these women in verse five a very important question. Why seek you the living among the dead? Now this word living is what we call a relative participle. The living one. Why do you seek for the living one among people who are just dead? That's an adjective. The dead is an adjective. It describes what they are. But this word, the living, means who he is, not just by a description of his external being as dead or alive, but as the one who possesses life in himself. You remember what Jesus said? I am the resurrection and the what? The life. I'm the living one. Why do you seek for the living one among these dead people? They ask. A very powerful question, is it not? Jesus himself identifies himself in Revelation 2.8. He says, I am the one who died and behold, I am the living one forevermore. He is life. He was declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Remember, they say to these holy women, how he spake unto you while he was yet in Galilee. These words are unique to the gospel of Luke. The various discourses that Christ had given them, do you remember when they are in Galilee? When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Son of God? You remember this? Matthew 16? Then what did Jesus say? Oh, by the way, I'm going to be betrayed to the hands of sinners. They're going to crucify me. And then what? At the end? No. After three days I shall rise again. Matthew 16, 21. Matthew 17, 22-23. Matthew 20, verses 18-19. All in Galilee. Don't you remember what He told you? More evidences. Verses 8-12. The report of the women to the apostles and Peter's visit. We've considered this previously in Matthew 28, eight through 10 and Mark 16, eight through 11. They told all these things, verse nine tells us unto the 11 and to all the rest, remember there were 12 and Judas fell. So it's to the 11, Matthew 28, eight, bring his disciples word. Who are his disciples? Well, it's the 11, principal disciples among the rest. Verse 10 mentions Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women that were with them, who told these things to the apostles, as we considered earlier from the other gospel accounts. Their words, verse 11, tells us, very sad, this recounting here. As these women spoke to them, what did they seem like? Pfft, whatever. Idle tales. Nonsense. What is this? What are you talking about? Nonsense, frivolous tales, idle talk. What is this? I don't believe a word you're saying. Mark 16 11 says that they believed not. Here it shows us that they actually scoffed at what these women said. Now had not they heard from our Lord Jesus Christ that he would rise on the third day? Why don't they believe? But they don't. Peter runs to see the sepulcher. And we'll defer this in John 23 through 10. We have a further exposition of Peter's visit to the tomb. We'll consider it then. Finally, we have a third set of evidences to Christ's resurrection. Not only the angels appearing to the women, not only the women reporting to the 11, now we have Jesus questioning with two disciples going to Emmaus. This is mostly unique to the Gospel of Luke, this entire account. Mark 16.12 mentions it very briefly. They're going from Jerusalem to a place called Emmaus. And from Jerusalem, this is about three score furlongs. That's about seven and a half miles. If you were to get out onto Route 11 here and drive south, you would end up in Verona. That's about, or excuse me, what is it? The high school down there. What's the high school on 11? Mind-slipping. Fort Defiance. You'd get to Fort Defiance. That's about seven and a half miles. That's a good walk. And they go seven and a half miles. And this is usual for men of that age. They did not have automobiles. They did not have bicycles. They walked on foot. Verse 14, they speak together of the events that had fallen out. They communed together and reasoned. This word commune is homileo. It's where we get our word homily from, a sermon or divine communication via words, a discourse, a preaching, or a teaching. They asked one another questions. They inquired together or reasoned about this, and Christ joins in. It tells us that their eyes were holden, arrested, held fast, overpowered, restrained, or prevented. There Jesus is right in front of them. Do they see him? They can't. Their eyes are held fast. And this was on purpose. Our Lord withheld their capacity to see that they should not know him, that they should not recognize him, that they should not see him. He was there in the object, but he could not be seen in the subject. The eyes were the problem, not the Lord himself. It is not a given that just because you have eyes that you will be able to see, that just because you have a mind that you will be able to think, that just because you have ears that you will be able to hear. Calvin comments, he says, our members do indeed possess their natural properties. but to make us more fully sensible that they are held by us at the will of another. God retains in his own hand the use of them. so that we ought ever to reckon it to be one of his daily favors that our ears hear and our eyes see. For if he does not every hour quicken our senses, all their power will immediately give way. Just because you have eyes, you cannot assume that you can see. And if you can see, to whom do you owe that? Well, you owe it to Christ. He gives your eyes power to see, or he can take away that power. Let us then beg the Lord. Remember what the psalmist says? Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Pray to God, open my eyes, Lord. I want to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to see the truth as it is in him. I want to know what it is you say to me. Or he will hold your eyes fast and we will remain blind. Pray that he may open your eyes and enable you to see. I notice also this truth. After Jesus rose from the dead, was he a phantom of a human being? No. You could see him. In fact, we'll see later. He says, touch me. Flesh and bones a spirit does not have. You can see me with your eyes. You can behold and you can touch me, he says. You can handle my hands. I'm not a spirit. You know who said that Jesus was a spirit? Heretics. We call them the doketics because the Greek verb dokeo means to seem or to appear to be such, but not really to be so. Jesus appeared to have a real body, but not really. No, no, no, no. You see, his body is a spirit and spirits can be present in several places at once if they are a divine spirit, right? So then, when they observe what we call and what the Bible calls the Lord's table, what do they think? His body is present in several places at once. They are doketics. It seems to be a normal body, but actually it's a spirit that can be present several places at once. No, it can't. He has a real body. If we stood in his presence right now, you could see his body, you could touch his body. After the resurrection, he had a normal, natural body. Gone is the mortality of death, not the natural body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reason they couldn't see him is not because he was a spirit and would just be like a ghost. No, it's because their eyes were the problem. His body was present. Our Lord then inquires of them, not because he did not know, but for their sakes. What are you talking about? Why are you so sad? What's this all about? Cleopas expresses some level of shock. You visited Jerusalem? You didn't see this? Everybody knows what happened. Jesus asks them again, what things are you talking about? Not again a question of ignorance, but a question of omniscience. You remember God came to Adam? What hast thou done? You think he didn't know? Of course he knew. He wants Adam to confess his sins. So here the Lord draws out from them. What are you talking about? Well, let us tell you. This is what happened. He tees up with a master stroke the discourse that we'll consider this afternoon. What things? And they describe this Jesus of Nazareth, his miracles, his oracles, the ruler's conspiracy to murder Christ, how they executed him, and the disciples' disappointed hopes. That's what they say. We thought he was going to redeem us. Well, did he? Yes, he did. But they didn't think so, you see. They thought that Christ's redemption meant something entirely different from what it actually meant. We trusted, Cleopas says in verse 21, we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. This is why they thought the women were telling idle tales, because what they expected was that Jesus would cast Pontius Pilate and Herod off and would sit in Jerusalem and rule over the nations. That's what the Jews expect to this day. They'll have some great political figure who will come along and cast off all the nations and everybody else will have to do what they say. Yeah, that's what they think. That's what they thought. It's mistaken. Jesus, our Lord, redeemed us by dying upon the cross. That's not a failure of him to redeem us. That's his actual accomplishment of redemption by suffering for our sins. We trusted that it had been he, but you know, I'm not sure what to believe anymore. It's been three days. He said he would rise. These women said they went to the tomb, they saw angels. Peter went. He didn't find the body. Nobody's been able to confirm that he actually rose from the dead. The Westminster Annotations comment, they yet understood not What was the deliverance which Christ purchased for His elect, but looked for some worldly kingdom, and therein deliverance from the Romans? Let us trust in the redemption in Christ, even the forgiveness of sins, the life everlasting, the resurrection of the body, the mansions promised by our Savior. That's what redemption means. means that your sins are forgiven you. And you shall be raised immortal, incorruptible in due time, that you shall inherit all that Jesus has right entitled to as the son of God being adopted into God's family. That is redemption. Let us trust that it is not he that we thought would redeem us, but who actually redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. And beside all this, Cleopas says, today is the third day since these things were done. And so it seems that his promise has not come to pass. Cleopas struggles between faith and unbelief. Then he describes the ecstasy, literally, caused by these women's report, which they took for idle tales. They did not believe. They were astonished. What in the world are you talking about? You saw angels and he wasn't there. The prior events are described in detail. And thus these two disciples on the road to Emmaus set the stage. This is why Jesus asked them, what are you talking about? Why are you so sad? Tell me about it. They now spill their guts, so to speak. They tell him all, this is what we hope for. This is what we see. This is how our hopes have been disappointed, it seems. Our Lord, the great teacher and prophet of his church, lays the foundation for the following discourse. The rebuke and the succeeding exposition of scripture is based off of their misunderstanding and confession of it. They will learn of his person. of his work, of the nature of redemption, and they will consider that all these things were foretold by the scriptures of the prophets. And God willing, we will consider that this afternoon. Thus far, the exposition of the Holy Gospel of Luke, chapter 24,