I remain standing this morning for the reading of God's Word, which continues in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Hear now the Word of the Lord. Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And so it was, when they conversed in reason, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him. And Jesus said to them, What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? And then the one whose name was Cleophas answered and said to him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happen there in these days? And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who 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 crucified Him. But we were hoping that He was who was coming to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see. And then Jesus said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them and all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that 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 Jesus went to stay with them. And now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. And then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us when He talked with us on the road and while He opened the Scriptures to us? So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven and those that were with them gathered together saying, the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told about the things that happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your Word. We give You thanks that Your truth has been revealed to us. And we give You thanks, Lord, that we know Your promised Holy Spirit is with us this morning. Help me to rightly divide your word of truth. Let it comfort us and teach us, as Jesus did his disciples on that road so long ago. We ask and pray this in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, Amen. You may be seated. Well, last week, our journey through Luke's orderly account took us to just a single verse. regarding the marveling of Peter. And today, we will tackle I think what is the longest passage that we have studied together in any message on this series in Luke. But it is a passage that is rich in the lessons that it can teach us. As we see Jesus meet with, gently rebuke, teach, and inspire to service these other two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke's account of the resurrection began with the women who were told the good news by the angels. And then he mentioned Peter who came to the empty tomb and went away marveling as we saw last week. And we saw in John's Gospel that John himself also ran to the tomb and began to believe. But he tells us in the 9th verse of his 20th chapter in his Gospel, that for as yet they did not know the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Luke next tells us of the appearance of the risen Jesus to two disciples traveling on a road to Emmaus. We will see that Jesus also brings the Scriptures to their minds. Now Luke is the only writer who gives us any details of this appearance to Jesus, and he does so at great length. I believe that Luke focuses on this particular visit because it represents much of what we're going to see in the book of Acts. as Peter and John and Stephen and Paul and many others show over and over again that Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament. Luke begins this account in verse 13, where we read, Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. The name of the village is given as Emmaus, and the distance as 60 furlongs, or about 7 miles. No one is quite sure today where Emmaus was, but we know that it was about 7 miles from Jerusalem. We have another of those great archaeological finds that are waiting to happen. You know, like the Hittites that many of the liberals for years thought didn't exist other than the pages of scripture. And it should remind us, when we read these accounts, that if the Bible is wrong about history or geography when it presents it, then it would be proper for us to ask why we should trust any of the revelations that are given. If there wasn't a real city called Emmaus that was seven miles from Jerusalem, then why should we believe any of the rest of this story that we're given this morning? Now, we're not told why these two men, who were disciples, were traveling to Emmaus. But I think it's likely that one of them lived in the city, since it appears that they invited Jesus to stay at their home that evening. Emmaus being their residence would also explain why they were traveling away from Jerusalem when so much seemed to be up in the air with all of the various reports coming in that morning. Being close by, they could return on short notice as they actually did later this day. The next verse in the account could very well have been a sermon all to itself. where we read in verse 14, and they talked together of all these things which had happened. You know, these disciples had had a rough few days. They had been scattered, dejected, they were fearful, they were hiding, and now they're in utter confusion with the reports of this day and they don't know what to do. And yet, here we find Two men walking on the road, talking about Jesus. Conversing with each other and reasoning as best they could about what had happened. These two disciples were practicing what we learn, and Lord willing, we'll teach our children, that we find in Proverbs 27, verse 17, as iron sharpens iron. So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. This account appears to be a direct fulfillment of what the prophet Malachi wrote about these days. In the third chapter of his prophecy, he said this, Then those who feared Jehovah spoke one to another. And Jehovah listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him. for those who fear Jehovah and who meditate on His name. They shall be mine, says Jehovah of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then those who fear Jehovah spoke one to another, the prophet said. Those who fear the Lord They speak of the Lord. They meditate on the Lord. They marvel at the things of the Lord. Like Peter last week, and now these two disciples. Even when their circumstances seem dire. No, especially when their circumstances seem dire and even hopeless. That was the time that they spoke. And the prophet says, and Jehovah listened and heard them. You see, we should not talk about the things of the Lord after we have everything figured out in our minds. When we have confidence to be able to speak. We should not wait until our relationship with the Lord is strong before we engage in conversation about the faith. And we should certainly not wait until we are ready in our own mind or feel the way that we think we should before we gather with the saints for worship. It's a sad commentary on much of America that people arise on Sunday morning and think, I don't really feel like going to church. I don't think I'd get anything out of it. That's completely backward. We are to follow the admonition of the writer of Hebrews. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For He is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. That's conversing and reasoning together. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. That is what is really being commanded to parents and to all of us who are responsible for covenant children. The proper upbringing of children is outlined in the book of Deuteronomy, and it is talking about the very thing that we see here on the road to Emmaus. In verse 4 of chapter 6, we have the great statement, Hero Israel, Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one. You shall love Jehovah your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be fontlets before your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." We are to be talking, conversing, and reasoning about the things of the Lord. And parents, if we're not doing that with our children, we are not being responsible parents. And if we as a congregation are not engaging our covenant youth from the youngest ages in these kinds of conversations, we are not being faithful. These lessons that we must learn and practice have to be lessons that we use every day. Rising up and laying down. Because if we don't do that, we won't find the blessing that comes at the 15th verse of Luke's chapter. And so it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. What a great promise. Jesus draws near to them while they are conversing and reasoning about Him And such is the case with all of the situations that I've outlined above, whether it is our personal interaction with other Christians, our gathering to worship, or the instruction of our youth. We cannot find Jesus in our own strength or with our own efforts. We don't get to order Him around. It is Jesus who will find us. when we are walking faithfully in the light that He has given us. It says in verse 16, their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Jesus. Jesus does not desire to be seen at this point, because He is going to draw these disciples out a little bit more. Now, such is often the case, if we think about it, with us as well. All that we need to see and know is not simply dumped into our lap all at one time. Now, sometimes we try that. You know, if somebody comes to the Lord, we hand them Calvin's Institute and a Bible and say, here, read these. You'll be mature in three days. It doesn't work that way. Jesus interacts with all of us in much the same way. Again, God uses elders and deacons. He uses other saints and parents to ask the kind of questions that Jesus asks in this account, which forced these disciples and often forces us today to think some of these things through. In verse 17, Jesus said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? I don't think I have to tell you that Jesus knew what kind of conversation they were having. But He desires to converse with them about the important matters that they have been talking and reasoning about. And they respond just as Jesus expected by repeating what concerned them. Thinking that Jesus must have been hidden away somehow to not have known what was going on in Jerusalem those past few days. We read this in verse 18, Then the one whose name was Cleophas answered and said to him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happened there in these days? How could you have missed it all? Now, Jesus does not want them to get sidetracked at this point over where He had been. And so again, He asks, what things? So they said to Him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty indeed in word before God and all the people. and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him. They are conversing and reasoning about Jesus, but have little understanding at this point of just how great a prophet He is, nor how God's plan of salvation has been worked out. And certainly, they are struggling to understand the good news of this day. They are still blinded by seeing things from their perspective, wanting a great ruler to get them out from under the yoke of Rome. That's what Israel was looking for in Messiah at this time. And we need to think about how often we fail to see some pretty obvious things that God is trying to teach us because we have our own idea of how things should be working. even thinking that we know what God should be doing, just as these disciples had done. Listen to verse 21. But we... we were hoping that He was going to redeem Israel. But you see, the events of the past days had thrown them into much confusion. They didn't understand. And now, They simply did not know what to make of the events of this first Easter morning. Indeed, besides all this, besides all that's happened, today is the third day since these things happened. We're not told. specifically what they were reasoning about as they journeyed, or how they carried on the conversation. But obviously, this being the third day, had struck some sort of chord in their minds. Now I suspect that it may have been some of those memories from the Old Testament, which they probably knew very well. And there were things there that would be coming to their mind as well as the specific teaching of Jesus. In Genesis chapter 22, Abraham looks up on the third day of his journey to the land of Moriah to the sacrifice of his own son. He could very well have been on the very road that these disciples were walking on. In the prophecy of Hosea, They would have read as youth, after two days He will revive us, and on the third day, He will raise us up. Genesis gives us a lengthy account of how Joseph is reconciled with his brothers once he becomes a ruler in Egypt. Which, by the way, if we think about it, is a story that is very similar to how Jesus is now hiding Himself from these two disciples. But in Genesis 42.18 we read, on the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live. In Joshua chapter 2 we have the story of Rahab as she hides the spies and then sends them off into the mountains to keep them safe, telling them, hide there three days. until the pursuers have returned. In the story of the Exodus, God brings His people to Mount Sinai. And in Exodus chapter 19, Jehovah tells Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. And let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, Jehovah will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. When the people were returning from the Babylonian captivity, Ezra had them camped by the river Ava for three days to review them. And when Esther has to risk her life by going before the king to plead for the lives of her people, we read in Esther 5.1, on the third day, Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace. And of course, it was Jesus Himself who had already reminded these disciples that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights. Now, as Mike will often remind us, some people think that a number is just a number. But obviously these disciples were rightly haunted by the fact that this was the third day. God had often done things on the third day. And the disciples go on to tell Jesus what had occurred this very day. Yes, and certain of our women in the company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with Him went to the tomb and found it, as the women had said. But Him they did not see. Jesus had drawn them out. And now, He is ready to begin to teach them what they need to learn. about these events after a gentle rebuke. In verse 25 we read this, And then Jesus said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter His glory? You see, they had seen, heard, and believed all of the Old Testament verses that talked about Messiah coming in His glory and conquering His enemies. That's why they thought it was going to be a military conquest of Rome that the Messiah would bring in. But they had missed all of the Old Testament verses that revealed how the Messiah had to suffer for the sins of His people. That's what they had missed. That's why they didn't understand what was going on. And you see, how often today do we see Christians, especially here in America, who know all of the verses about how Jesus suffered for His people to save them from their sins. And these are truly important verses that we have to understand and preach. But they fail to see all of the verses in the Old Testament and the New Testament that show how Jesus is going to rule in glory with His Kingdom, filling the whole earth. That goes right over their heads. And those verses include, sadly, the Great Commission. Now, with many of us having been there, I think this should remind us to be a little understanding and certainly more compassionate about how confused these disciples on the road to Emmaus were and others today. Let's bring people along gently. Jesus takes them, as we should, to the Scriptures, which is what we will see the saints in the book of Acts do over and over again. We must go today to the Scriptures if we're going to understand all that God would teach us. In verse 27 we read, This is a major lesson for us to learn. If you want to unlock the wisdom and the power of the Old Testament, we need to learn how to see Jesus everywhere in the Law and the Prophets. In verse 28, they drew near to the village where they were going, and Jesus indicated that He would have gone further. Now, some stumble here thinking that Jesus was somehow being deceptive. But He was simply continuing to draw these disciples out, to bring the best out in these confused saints. If you want to really understand how all of this interacts and why it's not a violation of the commandment to not bear false witness, your homework can be the account, which is actually quite lengthy. of Joseph in Egypt after he's come to power and how he restores himself in chapters 41-50 with his wayward brothers. Just as Jesus is restoring Himself to these wayward disciples, which He called brothers. In verse 29 it says, "...but they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." and He went to stay with them. Now it came to pass as they sat at the table with them that He took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them." Now again, there's a lot of confusion over what is meant by this verse and exactly what's happening here, but I think we should just let the text speak for itself. It is obviously not Jesus giving them the Lord's Supper. It would have been a strange Lord's Supper because He left right in the middle of it, and there was no wine. But you see, the taking of bread... and the giving of thanks would have been a very familiar thing for these disciples that had probably been with Jesus for years. And they would have even seen it at the First Lord's Supper during the meal. And it says in verse 31, Then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. And He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, Did not our hearts burn within us? while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us. Their eyes were blinded, and now their eyes were opened. God withheld the Lord's identity, and God revealed the Lord to them. But you see, at the same time, we have to remember that these disciples were doing what they should have been doing. conversing and reasoning about Jesus. It's another beautiful picture of how we often see responsibility and providence working together in the Scriptures and in our lives. In fact, I hope that we begin to see a pattern here. Jesus first appears to the women who came to the tomb to serve Him, even in death. And then Jesus appears to Peter, who left the empty tomb marveling at what had taken place. Now Jesus appears to two disciples who are conversing and reasoning about Jesus. And next week, Jesus will appear to the disciples who have gathered. There's faithful obedience to whatever point they understood in each of those cases. In verse 33, we read that they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. These two disciples have now joined the growing crowd of witnesses who have met the risen Jesus. And remember that Jesus told Thomas, blessed are those who do not see and yet believe. This is not a blind faith in the modern leap of faith way of thinking. We do have many eyewitnesses who bear witness for us that Jesus is risen from the dead. We are responsible to believe them. But even today, we have the risen Jesus who comes alongside of us as we converse and reason and worship the way that we should. Jesus, just as He did with these disciples, will draw us out. Jesus understands how confused we often are. And He gently rebukes us for our errors, but more importantly, He opens our eyes so that we can see Him more and more each day in the pages of the Scriptures and in our lives. This is the lesson that the Apostle Paul The Hebrew of the Hebrews had learned and wanted to pass along to the saints at Philippi and to us. He says in Philippians 3 beginning at verse 8, Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Paul's desire was that his eyes be opened to see all that Jesus was doing. And his prayer is that it be the same for all of us as we strive to live the Christian life. In verse 12, he says, not that I have already attained or have already perfected. But I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself as having apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. When their eyes were opened, these disciples returned immediately to Jerusalem to share the good news. They saw Jesus there again. And then they were empowered by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, just as Jesus had promised. Going forth in that power to fill the earth with the Kingdom of Jesus. Therefore, I've got enough light. Let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. We are to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection. We are to know that our sins are forgiven. That's why it's proclaimed to us each and every week. We are to know that the power of death has been broken. Satan is no longer the ruler of this world. And we are to go forth and serve our risen and reigning Savior. Just as we'll sing in just a moment, our attitude should be that it is truly the year of Jubilee that has come. Let's pray.