back to index2017-05-21 Christ on the Emmaus Road
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All right, this morning we have a kind of a guest speaker because he's here and most 00:00:13.040 |
He was, him and his family was down here for Becky and Sung's wedding yesterday and so 00:00:17.620 |
we thought we'd take advantage of him and I know how much we enjoy and are blessed by 00:00:25.800 |
He was our college pastor about four or five years ago and they took a team up and planted 00:00:29.980 |
a church up in Millbrae and it's a growing church. 00:00:33.680 |
They have about 140, 150 members and again it's growing and thriving and so we're blessed 00:00:41.320 |
If you have anybody up in the Bay Area looking for a church, I strongly encourage you guys 00:00:45.200 |
to look up that church, Berean Mission Church up at Millbrae. 00:00:50.240 |
So again, he was down here so I thought it'd be a great opportunity for us to be blessed 00:00:56.440 |
So let's ask and welcome Pastor Aaron up here. 00:01:14.800 |
I got a few comments from people as I was walking in. 00:01:20.280 |
And the answer is yes, we were here for another wedding. 00:01:23.600 |
But yeah, if I have to preach every time I'm down here, then I'm going to stop coming. 00:01:32.480 |
Now it is a joy to be here and a joy to fellowship with all of you. 00:01:37.560 |
I was hoping that we could explore a topic and subject this morning that a lot of times 00:01:43.820 |
in the church we only give attention to just for a few days out of the year, namely during 00:01:48.920 |
Holy Week and during Easter and that's the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:01:53.360 |
This is a subject matter that really is central to our faith and yet oftentimes it kind of 00:01:59.760 |
And so hopefully as we turn our attention to God's Word this morning, God would speak 00:02:03.920 |
to us and really impress upon us again just the importance and how significant it is that 00:02:11.960 |
And so on that note, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 24. 00:02:18.760 |
This morning we're going to be reading from verse 13 through verse 35. 00:02:35.060 |
That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from 00:02:40.480 |
Jerusalem and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 00:02:46.400 |
While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, 00:02:51.680 |
but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 00:02:55.200 |
And he said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you 00:03:03.680 |
Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who 00:03:08.480 |
does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" 00:03:14.880 |
And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty 00:03:19.040 |
in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered 00:03:24.520 |
him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. 00:03:28.400 |
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. 00:03:30.640 |
Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened." 00:03:35.200 |
Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. 00:03:38.560 |
They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body, they 00:03:42.760 |
came back saying they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 00:03:48.640 |
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, 00:03:56.120 |
And he said to them, "O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 00:04:00.240 |
have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter 00:04:07.280 |
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures 00:04:15.960 |
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. 00:04:19.120 |
He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly saying, "Stay with 00:04:23.320 |
us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." 00:04:30.240 |
When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it 00:04:34.600 |
And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. 00:04:41.360 |
They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the 00:04:50.680 |
And they arose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. 00:04:53.400 |
And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying, "The 00:04:57.600 |
Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon." 00:05:02.400 |
Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking 00:05:12.560 |
Our Heavenly Father, with your Word before us, we do ask that you would find us humble 00:05:24.320 |
We pray, Lord God, that we will be challenged and equipped this morning through the scriptures 00:05:30.160 |
and that, Lord, through our lives, we might seek to give honor and glory to Christ, in 00:05:38.720 |
Well, just to set up a little bit of context for us, as you guys can tell, this is a long 00:05:45.320 |
The preceding passage, so basically the first twelve verses of Luke chapter 24, features 00:05:50.680 |
a number of different reactions that various people had to the empty tomb. 00:05:55.680 |
You have a group of women, you have a pair of angels, and then you have the eleven remaining 00:06:03.320 |
You might think of these individuals like supporting actors in a movie or film. 00:06:09.000 |
The stone had been rolled away, the body of Jesus was nowhere to be found, and everyone 00:06:15.160 |
was astonished and perplexed as to what was going on. 00:06:18.800 |
Well, in this morning's passage, the supporting cast will be joined by the main lead, Jesus 00:06:26.200 |
Christ, who all of a sudden is thrust back into the spotlight, even though he had been 00:06:34.280 |
Now Luke, our gospel writer, he approaches his account of Jesus' resurrection slightly 00:06:40.880 |
differently compared to the other gospel writers. 00:06:43.600 |
You see, Matthew and Mark, they only provide for us very short snippets of what took place 00:06:49.080 |
after Jesus was resurrected, while John describes the risen Christ through a series of vignettes. 00:06:56.320 |
By comparison, Luke here, he takes a much more focused, a much more in-depth approach. 00:07:01.880 |
First, Luke's account is much more focused in that instead of describing a bunch of different 00:07:08.280 |
resurrection appearances, what Luke does is he elects to zero in on a single story in 00:07:14.160 |
particular, which is the subject of our study this morning. 00:07:17.240 |
At the very same time, Luke's portrayal of Christ on the Emmaus Road is described at 00:07:23.640 |
length and in great detail, which is why I say that his version is a bit more in-depth 00:07:28.880 |
when we compare it to the other gospel writers. 00:07:31.760 |
And so it's important that we read and study through Luke's account carefully if we want 00:07:36.960 |
to fully appreciate everything that's happening here. 00:07:41.200 |
And so to that end, we're going to be breaking up our study by going through it in three 00:07:46.400 |
The first part is this, the risen Christ concealed. 00:07:53.960 |
That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from 00:08:00.760 |
And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 00:08:06.200 |
In very typical Luke fashion, Luke sets up the scene for us with a number of important 00:08:15.920 |
There are two individuals and they're on a road outside of Jerusalem headed toward a 00:08:25.160 |
Well, there's a couple of things that we know for sure, a couple more things that we can 00:08:29.640 |
deduce based on context, and a couple more things that we can try to guess and speculate 00:08:34.760 |
upon if we want to understand anything beyond what Luke provides for us here. 00:08:40.800 |
Now it's certain that the two people we see in this scene are followers of Christ. 00:08:47.200 |
One of them is named Cleopas, the other is left unidentified. 00:08:52.320 |
It's probable that they're on their way home, returning from all the Passover festivities 00:08:58.060 |
that had taken place in Jerusalem just the weekend before. 00:09:02.740 |
And finally, it's possible that Luke mentions and highlights that there are two of them 00:09:08.560 |
because you see, ancient Jews required the presence of at least two witnesses whenever 00:09:13.160 |
they were trying to establish the credibility or veracity of eyewitness testimony. 00:09:19.600 |
Now one kind of interesting tidbit that I came across as I was studying through this 00:09:22.320 |
passage was in learning that the prevailing scholarly opinion seems to point to the Cleopas, 00:09:29.160 |
who's mentioned here in Luke 24, as being the same person as the Clopas who's mentioned 00:09:38.760 |
Here in John 19.25 it says this, "Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and 00:09:45.760 |
his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Clopas." 00:09:52.040 |
Now if it's true that Cleopas and Clopas are the same individual, that would mean that 00:09:57.520 |
Cleopas is the uncle of Jesus, which might also lead us to speculate that the other individual 00:10:06.480 |
who's left unnamed in this passage is Cleopas' wife, Jesus' aunt Mary. 00:10:14.240 |
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter because it doesn't affect our interpretation 00:10:17.760 |
of this text, but I still thought it was kind of interesting to point out because if you're 00:10:21.840 |
anything like me, you've long assumed that these disciples were not related to Jesus, 00:10:26.840 |
and much less that they were a man and woman who were a married couple. 00:10:31.980 |
At any rate, whoever they were, what we know for sure is that these two disciples were 00:10:40.820 |
They're shocked, traumatized, still reeling from the whirlwind of events that had transpired 00:10:48.920 |
It's written all over their faces, and in their body language as well. 00:10:52.400 |
We're told at the end of verse 17, "They stood still looking sad." 00:11:02.520 |
Unfulfilled hopes, unrealized expectations, that's why they were so sad. 00:11:09.160 |
You see, like so many others, they had banked on the hope that Jesus was the long-awaited 00:11:15.880 |
They believed that Jesus had come to rule and reign over them as king, and that as Messiah, 00:11:22.600 |
he would conquer over Caesar, and he would free them from the yoke of Roman rule. 00:11:28.440 |
But instead of doing any of those things, Jesus had been crucified. 00:11:33.440 |
He'd been executed like a common criminal, and they still could not believe what had 00:11:38.960 |
You see, when Jesus died, all their hopes that he might be their Messiah also died with 00:11:46.240 |
And so disoriented and distraught, their hearts heavy with pain and grief, they walk around 00:11:57.060 |
But then seemingly out of nowhere, a stranger appears. 00:12:02.840 |
"While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, 00:12:10.160 |
but their eyes were kept from recognizing him." 00:12:15.240 |
Why do you think they were unable to recognize Jesus? 00:12:21.200 |
It's not as if he were a ghost or an apparition, because if you notice, they're talking to 00:12:27.480 |
They're interacting with him like he's a normal human being, like an average pastor 00:12:32.040 |
So why is it that these two disciples fail to recognize Jesus? 00:12:36.240 |
Well, perhaps in their distress, they simply were not in their right minds. 00:12:42.380 |
Maybe they were so emotionally affected, so traumatized by Jesus's death that it somehow 00:12:47.680 |
short-circuited their brains so they were no longer able to see or perceive things properly. 00:12:52.640 |
Maybe this was a form of PTSD that they were experiencing. 00:12:56.680 |
Or maybe Jesus's physical appearance had changed or been altered in some way following his 00:13:04.120 |
Mark 16, verse 12 actually tells us that the risen Christ appeared in another form, whatever 00:13:12.520 |
In fact, these two disciples, you know, they're hardly alone in their inability to recognize 00:13:21.160 |
One of the things that you'll notice when you read through the resurrection accounts 00:13:24.720 |
is that people don't seem to discern when they're standing before the risen Christ. 00:13:30.400 |
In fact, Mary Magdalene mistakens Jesus to be a gardener in John chapter 20. 00:13:37.080 |
We also know that Jesus's glorified body was somehow different than it was prior to his 00:13:43.520 |
In other words, his body was no longer normal, at least in the way that you and I would think 00:13:49.600 |
For one thing, this body had the ability to disappear and then to reappear. 00:13:54.720 |
In fact, we see him doing this later on in this passage. 00:13:58.760 |
Jesus is even able in his glorified state to pass through locked doors as he does in 00:14:08.440 |
But you know, as compelling as those theories might be, I actually believe that the real 00:14:13.040 |
reason why these Emmaus disciples were unable to recognize Jesus is far more simple because 00:14:21.280 |
the reason is actually laid out for us right there in the text itself. 00:14:34.280 |
This is what theologians and commentators refer to as a divine passive. 00:14:39.440 |
This is in the passive voice in the Greek text. 00:14:42.400 |
In other words, God was keeping them from seeing and recognizing Jesus. 00:14:52.880 |
God was doing that because he wanted to illustrate for them the reality of their spiritual blindness. 00:15:01.520 |
In other words, God had temporarily veiled Jesus from their sight so that he could prove 00:15:06.880 |
Namely, that their inability to see and understand who Jesus was was much more of a faith issue 00:15:14.320 |
and much more of a heart issue than it was a physical one. 00:15:17.560 |
As a matter of fact, Jesus himself later rebukes these disciples in verse 25, not because they 00:15:25.240 |
He rebukes them because they were slow of heart. 00:15:29.880 |
Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. 00:15:33.680 |
Which leads us to a really important point, and the point is this. 00:15:41.760 |
God and God alone is capable of opening up our eyes so that we might see the beauty and 00:15:50.880 |
Without him, we remain in complete spiritual darkness. 00:15:56.960 |
Even if Jesus were to come here to Berean this morning and stand here in this room at 00:16:01.560 |
this very moment, not a single one of us would be able to recognize him as Savior and Lord 00:16:07.280 |
unless God, by his grace, willed for it to happen. 00:16:12.640 |
See the hardness and the blindness of the human heart, that is symptomatic of our fallen 00:16:18.800 |
Our inability to see things spiritually is a result of our sin. 00:16:25.480 |
So apart from God intervening by his grace, sin and unbelief, it renders us completely 00:16:39.760 |
So how then can you and I see and behold Christ in a saving way? 00:16:45.600 |
That's an important question to consider, especially if there are any of you who are 00:16:49.960 |
really doing your best to reach out to loved ones in your lives. 00:16:53.680 |
You're doing everything you can to convince them that the gospel is true. 00:16:59.640 |
How can we get those people, and maybe even for ourselves, how can we get ourselves to 00:17:12.840 |
Or as the Bible puts it, we need to be born again. 00:17:18.960 |
But being born again is something that cannot and will not ever happen because of our choice. 00:17:23.640 |
The sad fact that we are spiritually blind means that on our own we are absolutely and 00:17:36.680 |
God by his grace, God by his mercy, needs to come and do something. 00:17:45.240 |
And that is why Christians rejoice in the fact that salvation is a free gift. 00:17:52.400 |
It's not earned or attained by our merit, our worthiness. 00:17:56.040 |
No, salvation is totally owing to God, sovereignly moving within our hearts by the power of his 00:18:02.080 |
Holy Spirit so that we might have saving faith. 00:18:06.880 |
So then I want to ask you this morning, have you asked God for the eyes of faith? 00:18:15.160 |
If you're not a Christian this morning, it's great that you're here, but my encouragement 00:18:19.680 |
to you is don't be satisfied with simply coming to church. 00:18:24.560 |
Ask God for eyes to see, for the spiritual vision to see and behold Christ so that you 00:18:33.880 |
And if you are a Christian this morning, then we praise God. 00:18:37.120 |
We praise God that we have received this spiritual vision that we're talking about. 00:18:42.680 |
But it's all the more reason why you and I should be eager to dedicate and devote our 00:18:47.560 |
entire lives to giving God glory, honor, and praise. 00:18:59.360 |
And he said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you 00:19:07.120 |
Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who 00:19:11.760 |
does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" 00:19:17.920 |
And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty 00:19:21.840 |
in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered 00:19:26.720 |
him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. 00:19:30.400 |
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. 00:19:33.960 |
Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened." 00:19:43.200 |
Such as he did throughout the time when he was alive. 00:19:45.400 |
When Jesus died, it generated great buzz throughout ancient Palestine. 00:19:50.400 |
It was headline news, which is why Cleopas is so taken aback by Jesus' question here. 00:20:05.080 |
Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who is unaware of the things that have happened 00:20:11.160 |
In the Greek text, the word "you" in Cleopas' reply in verse 18 is actually placed at the 00:20:16.520 |
head of the sentence, which means that it's in the emphatic position. 00:20:20.960 |
So it's as if Cleopas is pointing his finger at the stranger who stands before him, and 00:20:28.280 |
He's incredulous that he somehow remains uninformed about Jesus' crucifixion. 00:20:34.480 |
Now, of course, the great irony of this entire situation is that what Cleopas says is the 00:20:43.240 |
exact opposite of what's actually taking place. 00:20:48.680 |
He's claiming that the man he speaks to is the only one who does not understand the things 00:20:54.440 |
that happen in Jerusalem, when the reality is the man he speaks to is the only one who 00:21:11.240 |
For everybody else, they assume that's where the story ended. 00:21:14.280 |
Jesus died, but Jesus himself understood that he did not just die, but he died for our sins. 00:21:23.000 |
In other words, he embraced his role to be our atoning sacrifice. 00:21:28.920 |
He knew full well all that he would have to endure upon the cross. 00:21:33.040 |
He said so himself on multiple occasions throughout the gospel accounts. 00:21:37.200 |
Repeatedly, again and again, he claimed that it was necessary that the Son of Man suffer 00:21:46.640 |
It was everyone else who failed to understand. 00:21:49.960 |
Well, these disciples, they continue to reveal their ignorance. 00:21:55.680 |
"Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. 00:21:58.960 |
They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they 00:22:03.360 |
came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 00:22:08.800 |
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, 00:22:23.120 |
These disciples, they're just relaying a report. 00:22:27.080 |
No one saw when they went to the tomb, no one saw Jesus, but that description might 00:22:37.160 |
The risen Christ remained concealed from their sight. 00:22:41.600 |
Despite the fact that by this point in time, multiple parties had come forward to testify 00:22:47.240 |
that Jesus' body was no longer in the tomb, these two individuals simply could not consider 00:22:55.360 |
even the remote possibility that Jesus might have been resurrected from the dead. 00:23:02.400 |
You know, we have this tendency as modern day readers of Scripture to look at the ancients, 00:23:06.600 |
to look at those who lived in the first century, and to dismiss them as being unintellectual, 00:23:16.200 |
But the gospel accounts portray them as being just as skeptical as any of us might be if 00:23:29.460 |
The thing is, God had provided all the proof they should have needed. 00:23:40.000 |
But again, the problem was not their physical eyes. 00:23:50.080 |
And so they wondered to themselves, "What happened to Jesus' body? 00:24:01.920 |
Apparently for them, standing before a resurrected man was not enough. 00:24:08.480 |
And so Jesus chose to reveal himself in a different, we might even say a more ordinary 00:24:17.080 |
kind of way, bringing us to our second point this morning. 00:24:25.660 |
"And he said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the 00:24:33.380 |
Is it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' 00:24:38.560 |
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures 00:24:48.000 |
You know, if there was ever a time where it was okay or appropriate to share the gospel 00:24:54.800 |
without using the Bible, this would have been it. 00:24:58.840 |
Jesus had all the empirical data, all the evidence he needed to convince these disciples 00:25:06.420 |
All he needed to do was point them to his body. 00:25:09.680 |
Look at my body, my glorified body, incontrovertible proof that the gospel is true." 00:25:16.280 |
But notice that instead of pointing to himself, what does our Savior do? 00:25:25.280 |
I can't even begin to tell you guys the number of times where I've shared the gospel 00:25:29.280 |
with someone, where I've been in an evangelistic conversation, where I've wished for the 00:25:34.440 |
power to perform some sign or do some miracle. 00:25:38.480 |
Because it would make so many things so much easier in evangelism. 00:25:41.960 |
"Oh, you don't believe that the gospel is true? 00:25:48.800 |
"Oh, you don't believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross? 00:25:56.480 |
There would be converts left and right, or so we would assume. 00:26:00.720 |
But notice here, rather than simply pointing these two individuals to the greatest miracle 00:26:07.160 |
of all human history, the resurrection, his own resurrected body, Jesus directs them to 00:26:17.360 |
See, signs and miracles, as great as they might be, they are insufficient grounds for 00:26:27.120 |
First Romans 10.17 explains, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the what? 00:26:37.080 |
That's the reason why Berean Community Church has always strived to place such a high premium 00:26:45.840 |
Our leaders know that these days people are very likely to come into the church if there's 00:26:51.680 |
glitz and flash and well thought out programs and strategies. 00:26:55.880 |
But what is practical is not always what's biblical. 00:27:01.880 |
And so even if people consider it to be boring, even if some of you consider this exercise 00:27:07.260 |
to be dry, it is every church's responsibility to preach the Word of God. 00:27:26.080 |
This is just a copy of a translation of some original manuscripts that date back thousands 00:27:32.680 |
We're not saying that the Word of God is important because this physical book has some sort of 00:27:38.080 |
We believe that the Word of God is important because it's Christ who saves, and it is through 00:27:43.040 |
the written Word that the living Word is revealed. 00:27:46.520 |
And that is why we place our confidence and our trust in Scripture. 00:27:53.120 |
So I want to ask you, Christian, do you know your Bible well enough to explain who Jesus 00:28:04.640 |
Are you familiar enough with the teachings of Scripture to articulate the gospel clearly? 00:28:11.360 |
When you evangelize, is your confidence based on your personality, your charisma, your strategy, 00:28:17.840 |
your knowledge, or is it based upon the sufficiency of Christ and His Word? 00:28:27.760 |
Once again, the main thing that keeps people from believing in Jesus, the main thing that 00:28:34.360 |
keeps people from the kingdom of God has never been a lack or absence of physical proof and 00:28:43.240 |
Rather, it is the simple fact that we as sinners are spiritually blind. 00:28:50.520 |
And so then the only solution to this problem we have of our spiritual blindness is to bring 00:28:55.640 |
forth the illumination that can only come from God's Spirit working through His Word. 00:29:06.400 |
If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone 00:29:16.400 |
And how true that was even here in this passage. 00:29:29.900 |
He reveals Himself by using what the Bible says. 00:29:33.880 |
Besides the Sermon on the Mount, this sermon that was preached that afternoon on the Emmaus 00:29:38.200 |
Road is perhaps the most famous message that our Lord ever taught. 00:29:42.320 |
As a matter of fact, I would argue that it was the most Christ-centered, Gospel-centered, 00:29:52.680 |
Because beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures 00:30:04.160 |
That phrase, Moses and the prophets, there in verse 27, was just another way that first-century 00:30:09.240 |
Jews referred to the Hebrew Scriptures, what you and I call today the Old Testament. 00:30:16.860 |
And generally speaking, a lot of us have made the mistake of assuming that only the New 00:30:22.380 |
Testament talks about Jesus, but that the Old Testament never ever speaks about Him 00:30:30.200 |
The problem with that understanding is that the Old Testament, the first 39 books in your 00:30:38.820 |
The Old Testament is fundamentally about Christ. 00:30:42.080 |
See, Jesus even rebuked the Pharisees, the so-called experts in the Hebrew Scriptures, 00:30:48.920 |
precisely because their knowledge and expertise of the Old Testament Scriptures did not yield 00:30:58.480 |
So how exactly does Jesus fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures? 00:31:07.680 |
In the book of Genesis, Christ is revealed as the seed of the woman who would one day 00:31:14.460 |
In the book of Exodus, Christ is revealed as a Passover lamb. 00:31:18.040 |
In the book of Leviticus, Christ is revealed as our great high priest. 00:31:21.860 |
In the book of Numbers, Christ is revealed as our ever-present guide. 00:31:25.920 |
In the book of Deuteronomy, Christ is revealed as Moses-like prophet. 00:31:29.680 |
In Joshua, Christ is revealed as commander of the Lord's army. 00:31:33.860 |
In Judges, Christ is revealed as our ultimate deliverer. 00:31:37.660 |
In Ruth, Christ is revealed as kinsman redeemer. 00:31:40.740 |
In 1 and 2 Samuel, Christ is revealed as trustworthy prophet. 00:31:44.620 |
In Kings and Chronicles, Christ is revealed as king of all kings. 00:31:48.600 |
In Ezra, Christ is revealed as faithful scribe. 00:31:51.360 |
In Nehemiah, Christ is revealed as rebuilder of the walls. 00:31:54.620 |
In Esther, Christ is revealed as the advocate of God's people. 00:31:58.280 |
In Job, Christ is revealed as living redeemer. 00:32:01.400 |
In Psalms, Christ is revealed as a good shepherd. 00:32:04.400 |
In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, Christ is revealed as wisdom from above. 00:32:09.200 |
In Song of Solomon, Christ is revealed as loving bridegroom. 00:32:13.240 |
In Isaiah, Christ is revealed as suffering servant. 00:32:16.160 |
In Jeremiah, Christ is revealed as a righteous branch. 00:32:19.180 |
In Lamentations, Christ is revealed as weeping prophet. 00:32:22.240 |
In Ezekiel, Christ is revealed as shepherd king. 00:32:25.080 |
In Daniel, Christ is revealed as a son of man. 00:32:28.440 |
In Hosea, Christ is revealed as faithful husband. 00:32:31.180 |
In Joel, Christ is revealed as the sender of the Holy Spirit. 00:32:34.760 |
In Amos, Christ is revealed as a bearer of our burdens. 00:32:37.880 |
In Obadiah, Christ is revealed as righteous judge. 00:32:40.960 |
In Jonah, Christ is revealed as the one who would rise on the third day. 00:32:45.600 |
In Micah, Christ is revealed as bearer of good news. 00:32:48.200 |
In Nahum, Christ is revealed as the avenger of God's elect. 00:32:51.000 |
In Habakkuk, Christ is revealed as divine watchman. 00:32:53.840 |
In Zephaniah, Christ is revealed as savior of Israel. 00:32:56.200 |
In Haggai, Christ is revealed as a restorer of all things. 00:32:58.880 |
In Zechariah, Christ is revealed as a humble king mounted upon a colt. 00:33:03.640 |
In Malachi, Christ is revealed as the son of righteousness. 00:33:08.920 |
And so you see the entirety of the Old Testament scriptures point to Jesus. 00:33:17.120 |
He's the fulcrum upon which all of redemptive history rests. 00:33:25.680 |
He's the key to understanding what the Bible's all about. 00:33:28.240 |
That is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "For all the promises of God find their yes 00:33:37.320 |
And that is why it is through Him we utter our amen to God for His glory. 00:33:43.480 |
So you see, Jesus, He's not just the link, okay? 00:33:49.280 |
He's not just the glue that holds a random assortment of Bible stories together. 00:34:00.960 |
Well, as the risen Lord delivers His sermon, how do these disciples respond? 00:34:08.400 |
"They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the 00:34:13.720 |
road, while He opened to us the scriptures?'" 00:34:19.800 |
These disciples, they're experiencing what I refer to as a holy heartburn. 00:34:26.280 |
Not the kind of heartburn you experience after eating late night tacos. 00:34:32.080 |
And it happens any time anybody is exposed to the truth of God's Word and God's Spirit 00:34:39.280 |
moves within them to stir up affections and passion and love for Christ. 00:34:45.720 |
And that kind of holy heartburn is the best thing that you and I can ever experience. 00:34:51.200 |
Sadly, however, most of the time when we have God's Word open before us in a sermon, in 00:35:00.280 |
a Bible study, while we're doing our quiet times, our hearts are not burning. 00:35:09.520 |
Our eyes are closing, and our heads are bobbing, and our minds are wandering. 00:35:16.480 |
But if that's the case for you, my encouragement to you is simply this. 00:35:28.440 |
I firmly, firmly believe, as your leaders do, that when we grow in our love and understanding 00:35:34.720 |
of Scripture, we grow in our love and understanding of Christ. 00:35:44.360 |
Ask someone next to you to hold you accountable. 00:35:46.560 |
Cultivate a habit and spiritual discipline of getting to God's Word on a daily basis 00:35:52.560 |
because it is primarily through the Word of God that the beauty of Christ is revealed. 00:36:02.320 |
Our third and final point for this morning, the risen Christ recognized. 00:36:08.440 |
Jesus, He wraps up His sermon, and here's what happens next in verse 28. 00:36:16.440 |
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. 00:36:19.680 |
He acted as if He were going farther, but they urged Him strongly, saying, "Stay with 00:36:23.920 |
us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent." 00:36:30.640 |
In fact, the wording pictures these two individuals basically coercing Jesus to stay with them. 00:36:37.640 |
So this is not just another example of ancient Near Eastern hospitality at work. 00:36:44.200 |
This is a desperate, forceful plea by these disciples to get this mysterious stranger 00:36:51.280 |
to stay with them for just a little while longer. 00:36:54.720 |
In other words, they're not just being insistent, okay? 00:36:58.440 |
They don't know who this man is, but they're drawn to Him. 00:37:05.640 |
They're compelled and intrigued by what He has to say. 00:37:10.080 |
So Luke tells us that He went in to stay with them. 00:37:14.280 |
When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it 00:37:20.320 |
And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight. 00:37:28.240 |
I want you to notice that even though Jesus was invited as a guest, here He becomes the 00:37:38.360 |
He starts to serve those who have invited Him into their home. 00:37:42.760 |
Do you guys remember it was just a few days before, on the night before He was betrayed, 00:37:48.080 |
where Christ took bread, He broke it, He said a blessing, and He had what's called the last 00:37:57.760 |
Well here in Luke 24, we have the first supper of the risen Lord. 00:38:03.240 |
And it's as they sit around this table that their eyes were opened, verse 31 says. 00:38:10.840 |
It's a grammatical parallel to what was said in verse 16, that divine passage, their eyes 00:38:21.880 |
Here God reveals, and as a result, they are able to recognize Jesus. 00:38:31.960 |
And they arose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and 00:38:35.960 |
those who were with them, and gathered together, saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has 00:38:42.520 |
Then they told what had happened on the road and how He was known to them in the breaking 00:38:47.920 |
So if you guys have been tracking with me, that's a long passage, but now we've come 00:38:53.320 |
The passage began with two disciples looking sad as they walked away from Jerusalem. 00:39:01.020 |
And now the passage ends with two disciples rejoicing and glad as they run toward Jerusalem. 00:39:10.800 |
Despite the lateness of the hour, these two disciples, they make that seven-mile journey 00:39:22.440 |
They're walking on foot back to Jerusalem, even though they had just come from there 00:39:26.720 |
earlier that same day, but what they had seen and what they had heard was just way too amazing 00:39:35.960 |
They go so they might tell other people, because that's what happens when you encounter the 00:39:44.640 |
You don't go home and plop on the couch and turn on Netflix and waste the remainder of 00:39:52.080 |
No, you go and you share the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead. 00:40:02.040 |
And when they finally arrive in Jerusalem, no doubt by this time it's very, very late, 00:40:06.840 |
the two amazed disciples, they burst through the doors and they immediately inform Jesus' 00:40:11.760 |
11 remaining disciples that Christ has resurrected from the dead. 00:40:17.040 |
But as it turns out, the 11, they already know, because the news of Christ's resurrection 00:40:27.680 |
This must have been kind of disappointing for the two disciples, you know? 00:40:30.840 |
I mean, that seven-mile journey back, they're like, "Man, they're going to be overjoyed 00:40:34.720 |
when they hear us deliver this news that they haven't heard." 00:40:37.760 |
And then so they come through the doors, they're like, "Christ is risen." 00:40:45.720 |
That Paschal greeting, the Easter greeting that we always exchange to one another on 00:40:53.320 |
In closing, I just want to ask one final question. 00:40:58.880 |
I know Easter was like last month, so why are we talking about this now? 00:41:03.960 |
Too often the resurrection is attached as an addendum, a postscript to our faith, as 00:41:09.800 |
if it's kind of important but not really like something that belongs front and center. 00:41:16.200 |
No doubt the cross of Jesus Christ is central. 00:41:22.360 |
But not to diminish the cross, the resurrection is equally important. 00:41:30.320 |
For one, the resurrection matters because it means that Christ has accepted the penalty 00:41:37.200 |
Of course, more than one preacher throughout church history has likened the resurrection 00:41:44.640 |
When you guys walk into Target, you guys walk into Lucky or what do you guys have here? 00:41:55.640 |
That receipt is proof of payment that you've purchased this thing. 00:41:59.880 |
Well, when Jesus was raised from the dead, it was as if God himself handed a receipt 00:42:06.520 |
to the world saying that the penalty that was rendered at Calvary was accepted, which 00:42:13.480 |
means there's no further penalty for you to pay. 00:42:17.800 |
We live at peace with God the Father and we have confidence in coming before him because 00:42:25.920 |
As Jesus cried out from the cross, "It is finished." 00:42:30.320 |
The resurrection also matters because it means that eschatology has already begun. 00:42:35.840 |
You guys are currently going through a revelation series during midweeks, am I right? 00:42:41.080 |
And hopefully one of the truths that will begin to emerge as you make your way through 00:42:44.120 |
that book is that eschatology is already here. 00:42:48.920 |
It's not just for some far off distant future because you see when Jesus was risen from 00:42:54.280 |
the dead, here's how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15. 00:42:57.360 |
He became the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 00:43:02.200 |
That's just a euphemism for those who have died. 00:43:04.400 |
Jesus, the resurrected Christ, is the first fruits for those of us who have died and we 00:43:11.040 |
But when Jesus was raised from the dead, that signified to the world a new creation has 00:43:22.320 |
And yet having said that, we take a look at this world around us and we see that it's 00:43:30.560 |
It seems that the old creation is very much in place. 00:43:34.600 |
So yes, a new creation is already here, but it's not yet here. 00:43:39.040 |
We live in the already not yet, this weird in between stage. 00:43:43.660 |
And so as we look forward to the time where God will finish recreating the world, we look 00:43:50.320 |
back at the resurrection of Christ to give us a glimpse and a foreshadowing of what things 00:43:56.020 |
will look like when God has finished making all things new. 00:44:01.160 |
And when He does, it will be a glorious, glorious day. 00:44:06.920 |
Thirdly and finally, the resurrection matters, and this is very simple, because it means 00:44:18.720 |
Far too many of us, we regard Jesus like we regard the historical figures that we studied 00:44:24.080 |
about or read about in school, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Steve Jobs, men 00:44:33.480 |
who at one point in history had great impact, but quite frankly, who bear little to no relevance 00:44:42.320 |
But that's not Jesus, because Jesus is not like them. 00:44:46.320 |
Jesus is alive, and He's right here, and He's right now present among us. 00:44:55.160 |
If there are any in this room who feel something akin to what those disciples felt on the Emmaus 00:45:00.600 |
Road that first Easter afternoon 2,000 years ago, weighed down because of unfulfilled hopes, 00:45:07.760 |
disheartened and discouraged and wearied because life didn't pan out the way that you had planned, 00:45:16.040 |
Christ knows and sees and meets you right where you are, because He is alive. 00:45:31.540 |
He's a person to engage with, a person to pray to, a person to have a relationship with. 00:45:38.360 |
He's actively working in your life right now. 00:45:41.420 |
At this very moment, He's indwelling many of your hearts. 00:45:47.000 |
He can empower you and strengthen you and encourage you and do any of the things that 00:45:50.760 |
any of your friends might be able to do, but He can do it better, because He is the risen 00:45:57.320 |
And if you behold Him with eyes of faith, then you can see Him just as clearly and just 00:46:04.760 |
as vividly as those two disciples did on the Emmaus Road. 00:46:11.600 |
So in closing, I want to ask, have you recognized Jesus for who He truly is, the risen one, 00:46:26.120 |
There's great hope because of Jesus' resurrection, and that hope means everything. 00:46:33.920 |
I want to close by reading from one final passage in 1 Peter 1, and then we'll follow 00:46:43.640 |
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:46:48.320 |
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through 00:46:52.320 |
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, 00:46:57.480 |
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded 00:47:03.280 |
through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 00:47:13.120 |
Father, we thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:47:19.720 |
We thank you, Lord God, that through that resurrection, we have the hope of a new life. 00:47:26.560 |
And we pray, Lord God, that you would remind us and cause us, Lord God, to be encouraged 00:47:34.160 |
in knowing, Lord God, that the living Christ now empowers us today. 00:47:41.080 |
Help us, Lord God, not to hang our heads in despondency or fear. 00:47:44.680 |
Yes, this world around us is harsh, and yes, life can be very, very difficult, but there 00:47:51.240 |
is a new age dawning where a new creation, Lord God, will be consummated in the new heavens 00:47:57.680 |
We are excited, and we long, Lord God, for that day. 00:48:01.320 |
But in the meanwhile, Lord, we remember that Christ has already begun that process. 00:48:07.760 |
So help us, Lord God, to live in light of the new life that we have because of Jesus. 00:48:13.080 |
And may this church be a place, Lord God, that honors and glorifies you in all that