About this sermon
On the road to Emmaus two downcast disciples talked with a stranger who asked why they were sad, and they told him their hopes had died with Jesus. The risen Jesus called them slow of heart and, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, interpreted to them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. They knew him in the breaking of bread, their hearts burned within them, and all of Scripture still points to the suffering and risen Savior.
Sermon transcript
You may be seated. This evening, our text will come from Luke chapter 24. As you are turning there to Luke chapter 24, looking at verses 13 through 35. Remind you where this text is located. This is after the resurrection, but not everyone has heard about the resurrection. The women have heard, but most of the disciples, most of the followers of Jesus, even beyond the 12, were despondent and they were depressed in those days. We get an episode that is recorded here, an event after the resurrection, that is actually quite fascinating because the two men that Jesus appears to here after the resurrection were not part of the inner circle, part of the 11 of the 12 that were left. According to the Gospel of Luke, the first people to have interacted with Jesus after the resurrection were the women at the tomb and minor disciples. A fascinating point. Here we’re going to look at the account of the travelers on the road to Emmaus, beginning at verse 13.
But first, before we read the text, let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, Lord, we confess this is your word. where it contains all that we need. for our justification and our sanctification, for edification, for the knowledge that we have of who you are and how it is that we should live our lives in light of that. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit who inspired these words to be recorded would also be present in the reading and expounding of these words. Lord, may we gain from your scriptures a greater understanding of who you are and what it is you require of us. And Lord, we pray that you would do this for the sake of the glory of your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 13. Hear now the word of the Lord.
That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things?
They said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and they did not find his body. They came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them, Oh, foolish ones. slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is not far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures. And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem and they found the 11 And those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. The grass withers, and the flower fades, but this the word of our Lord endures forever. Amen. There’s a lot here. There’s a lot that we could focus on.
But as we look at this text, I just have this question. Have you ever had, I believe we’ve all felt those times of being down, being despondent, dark nights of the soul as Christians used to call it. I don’t think I actually need a whole lot of illustrations for what that is. Everybody here has likely known it if you’ve lived long enough.
There may be many circumstances that spark it. Some of it may be physical in nature. It could be a sickness. It could be suffering. It could be a poor diet and lack of exercise. It could be genetic disposition. It could be relational in nature. It could be empathy for others in the midst of their loss and suffering. It could be hurt caused by others. It could be sin.
You know, despondency, depression, sadness can come on us in so many different ways. It’s not uniform in nature. But spiritual despondency can also come on us unexpected, like clouds that cover the sun. And you know that there’s a sun behind the clouds, but you just can’t see it. This comes from a loss of hope. an inability to see where you’re going, how the road leads from here to where it is that you wanted to go. Loss of hope can come when something that you’ve hoped in fails and those hopes are dashed.
Many of us have experienced that in many different venues. About every four years, it seems like half the country has this experience where they hope in the next person that is going to lead them that might become president. And they talk to their friends and all of their hopes are placed in this. And then lo and behold, they did not campaign enough in Ohio or Wisconsin or wherever, and their hopes are dashed and they have another four years until they can hope again. Some of our hopes though, are more serious.
Many of us. have known our hopes dashed in the relationship that we may have with a parent or with a child when those hopes are dashed. When our child loses the thing that they were going for, whether it’s advancement in sports or college, or they walk away from the faith. Or we lose them because they get sick or they pass away. We can have a loss of hope and the hope that we placed within a marriage or for a parent and they pass away. A spouse and they pass away or disappoint.
The sun is covered. It’s as night. We never think we’re going to see the light again. We’ve all known the death of hope in many ways. And what do we do? There’s many ways that people deal with a loss of hope. Some avoid the thought. Some dwell on it. When hope dies, we understand we don’t want to stay there. We can’t live there forever. It’ll be night for a time, but after a while, the soul starts to die.
What are we to do? Why are we down? It’s because what we wanted more than anything else was thwarted. That’s why these men are despondent and depressed, isn’t it? They’re down on the road to Emmaus because their hopes were dashed. We thought that this would be the one. They placed their hopes in it. The minute the question is asked, they look sad. They see no silver lining. It’s a dark night of the soul. For them, why? What happened? Of course, the reasons that you can be down are so many. There’s physical, relational, spiritual, like I just outlined. But I think we can eliminate some of those reasons.
It doesn’t seem to be a health problem with them. They can walk about seven miles. So they are obviously healthy and in good condition. They’re not like, I love the story of Elijah when he is despondent and he is complaining about life in 1 Kings 19. Basically, God tells him, why don’t you go to sleep for a while and gives him some cakes, which tells us that sometimes all we need is a snack and a nap in order to feel better. But what they are dealing with here is so much deeper, so much more of a loss of hope than a good walk can take care of. They’re dealing with this loss of hope, this trip of seven miles. If you’re going two or three miles an hour, this is a long time that they can just dwell on this, talk about what had happened as they are going.
And they are two men, one of them Cleopas. Whoever that is, we’re not given any other details of another Cleopas. But what we do know is Luke likes to footnote. In a sense, this is a footnote. Cleopas may have been alive at the time, and he said, if you want to know more about this story, if you want to verify it, go and ask him.
We’re not told who his companion was. There’s all these theories. It could be his wife. It could be just a friend. It could be Luke himself, and he’s being modest and humble about it. Either way, this is coming from someone’s account. This is how Luke writes his gospel as a historian from primary sources. just as we’re taught to write history today.
And so what happened? These two men had been walking back from the experience of going to Jerusalem for the Passover and their hopes had been dashed, believing that Jesus was the Messiah. But how could that be? How could that be if he was executed? How could that be if he suffered? In fact, a hero, a savior, a Messiah cannot suffer, cannot die, cannot be defeated. They wonder if their hopes were misplaced. They’re despondent. They’re sad. And then this man shows up on the road.
Now we know from the text immediately that this man is Jesus, but they don’t recognize him. I take a bit of a hope from the lack of recognition of Jesus. It seemed like his followers had a little bit of trouble recognizing him because he had a resurrection body. There was something different about this resurrection body. I don’t know about you, but when I get a new body, I hope that there are some revisions to that body. When Jesus appears to the disciples, those that knew him, Mary, Thomas, these men, they don’t quite recognize him. He’s different enough that it’s not immediate. So what does that man do?
He says, did you not understand that the Messiah, the Christ, was to suffer? And in verse 27, he says, and beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Jesus showed from Moses, the Torah, the first five books, through all the prophets, that they were pointing towards him. They were pointing towards a suffering savior.
Now, love, this was happening on Sunday. And of all the Sunday school lessons that I wish that I was at, isn’t this a Sunday school lesson that you would most want to be at? Jesus opening up the scriptures, interpreting them and saying how each of them point to himself. It’s so strange to think through Luke’s account of the growing up of Jesus, of how many people would have read the scriptures to Christ.
The priests in the temple, right? And then he starts debating with them even as early as his childhood years with them. And Mary and Joseph, if they were following Deuteronomy 6, what were they doing? When they rise and when they went to bed, when they walked along the way, they were talking to him about the scriptures.
And what was Jesus listening to the entire time? He was listening to, in a sense, his biography, his autobiography, even. He knew the stories because he knew them about himself, how they were all pointing to him, leading to him. He knew them in a way that no one else, up to that point, knew them. And when he opened up the scriptures to these two men, he did not take out his iPhone. He did not take out his leather-bound Bible. He knew them because they were about him and written on his heart. He was the Word made flesh, and so he knew the Word written.
He could quote them. That’s perhaps something that we need to get to a point in which we can quote them. We can open them up with somebody without having to open up our physical Bible. How well do we note them? Not just, you know, the Bible says that God is good and he’s forgiving, but to actually be able to quote, to be able to open them up with somebody.
Jesus had time to teach these things, beginning with Moses and the prophets. He’s opening up these scriptures. Seven miles he has. probably over two, maybe three hours, he could have taught them about all the scriptures and how he was the substance of the entire Bible. You ever wonder what it is that he taught in that three hour, two, three hour, seven mile Sunday school lesson? You know that we actually have, likely, much of the content of that talk, or at least the principles of what he taught.
It’s called the New Testament. It is the part in the Bible that tells how everything else was leading to Christ. And we obviously don’t have the time together to go through the entire New Testament to wonder what it was that they were taught. There’s entire books people have written on this subject. Jesus on Every Page by David Murray, The Unfolding Mystery by Clowney, Look Unto the Rock by Moyer, Biblical Theology by Voss. There’s so many different ways that you can explain this, so much richness that’s in the New Testament.
But I wonder if he quoted Genesis 3.15 and began there in the books of Moses, right? The seed of the woman that will crush the head of the seed of the serpent and how Paul will go on to tell us, you know what that’s talking about? That’s talking about Christ crushing and us in the church as his body crushing the head of the serpent in Romans 16. He could have gone to Abraham and talked about the seed, the promise to Abraham, and then gone and explained how that seed was pointing to him, just as Paul does in Galatians 3.
He could have gone to Isaiah 53, as I did one time when I was working together with a Jewish friend of mine. We just sat there and read through Isaiah 53, and he wondered, why are you reading the New Testament to me? Don’t you know that I’m Jewish and I don’t believe that? And I said, no, that’s Isaiah 53. It’s so obvious when you read these things that Jesus is the New Testament.
He’s in the New Testament as a fulfillment of all of these hopes of a better suffering servant, of a better prophet, priest, and king. Deuteronomy 18, right? The greater prophet that was to come that, in fact, they were looking for when Jesus encounters the woman at the well. We are waiting for this prophet. And I perceive that you are a prophet. Zechariah 3, the greater priest that’s to come that Hebrews tells us about. Second Samuel 7, the greater son of David that’s promised. My Lord that will sit at my right hand, right? From Psalm 110. And as we know, Jesus is crucified with a sign.
This is what he was king. of the Jews. You could go to so many promises in the Old Testament, how the temple was pointing to Jesus, how lamb sacrifice was pointing, how the Passover was prefiguring him, the rock in the wilderness, deliverance from the waters in the Red Sea pointing to Christ’s work. Those are just some of the things that Paul lists in his letters. That’s all to say I would love to be at that Sunday school lesson, but brothers and sisters, we have the class notes. It’s called the New Testament. It’s something that we can open up and see how all scripture is pointing in the Old and New Testament to Christ. And Christ himself was opening it to these two men. What is the Bible about? In John 5, 39, Jesus explains how you can read the Bible but miss the main point when he says to the Pharisees, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
And it is they that bear witness about me. And you refuse to come to me that you may have life. When you see it, it’s exciting. And the men in the end, what do they say? When they realized all of this had always been pointing to Christ, it had always been pointing to the suffering servant, their hopes were not dashed. They say, did not our hearts burn within us? It was exciting for them to see.
Did you ever have that moment in your early Christian life when you started to see how it all knit together in Christ, that you were excited about it? There was a joy that was produced about it. You couldn’t get enough of it. Remember my earliest Bible that I actually did reading of and didn’t just carry around because I was supposed to. It was a Scofield, a reference Bible. But the minute that I came to faith, I opened it up and I started underlining in the text. I was excited about, there’s grace here in John, there’s grace here in Paul, and there’s grace all over the place.
Underlining each part that I got to. And for them, it was so exciting. It was joy producing. Their hearts burned. In fact, there’s this interesting image here. What do they do after this happens? They turn around and they walk seven miles back to Jerusalem. The word that’s used there is returned. It’s an image in a sense of repentance. They had a joy from hearing that, that fueled repentance.
And I wonder if in reading our Bibles and finding Christ there, if it doesn’t end in joy and repentance, then we’re not doing it right. We will not have joy without Christ and without repentance. And when we have a hope that will not fail, that is greater than any of the hopes that we had placed in others, that we placed in people, our spouses, our parents. children in our careers that we have this advancement that we had placed in power or achieving this or that. All of those hopes could be dashed, but they found that hope that wasn’t dashed. Even when they thought it was, they found out, no, their hope was true in Christ. When we know our Savior, repentance and joy kiss in our hearts burned. The message there that Jesus preached, that Jesus taught them, resulted in joy and, in a sense, repentance as they returned to Jerusalem. They returned to the place where they thought their hopes were dashed, but actually they were realized.
When I was converted, I feel like I have a story that I talk to other people about that is very similar. I lived in the New Testament, right? Everybody has their gospel. Mine was John, right? I was going through John, and I was underlining. I went through Paul’s letters. I felt like Augustine, who basically just sat in Paul when he was converted. And I loved those things. But let me tell you, when I had my Schofield reference Bible, I wasn’t finding any help with 2 thirds of my Bible. Two thirds of my Bible seemed to be closed. What was it about? What was two thirds of my Bible pointing towards?
And then the words of Christ and John. Once I got there, it was amazing to say, you read the Bible, the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is they that testify to me. Then you can start to read the Bible and say, when I read through Job, how does Job testify to Christ? His longing for a mediator in chapter 10, his longing for resurrection in chapter 14, his longing for a redeemer later on. When you read Habakkuk, you can say, how does this judgment come? How does that point to Christ? How does that testify to Christ?
You can read Genesis and say, how is this testifying to Christ, to the Savior of Abraham, the Savior of Jacob to the Savior, the hope of Noah, the seed of the woman. Every passage then becomes a picture of the one who saves and how he saves and the sufficiency of his salvation. It becomes a picture of the hope that does not disappoint. And as we read the Old Testament almost becomes a mystery novel. Where is Jesus here? How is he longed for here? How is he prefigured here? How is he predicted? How is he an answer to all of the questions that people are asking, but they don’t seem to quite have the answer for yet.
It makes first Corinthians. 119 come alive where it says, for the son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you was not yes and no, but in him was always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in him. And that is why through him, we utter our amen to God for his glory. Career, family, fame, power, whatever.
They’re not always yes. Our hopes are dashed. In every page of Scripture, though, there is a question that comes. When you read through Adam and Eve, their question comes, can it be fixed? This broken relationship through sin, this broken creation, can it be fixed? And we find out, and the answer in Christ is, yes, it can be fixed. We read through Adam or through Abraham, and we have the question, will God be with me here as well as over here?
And in Christ, the answer is yes. In Jacob, we have the question, is it impossible to outrun God’s grace? And we find out yes, even Jacob could not outrun God’s grace. In Christ, the answer is yes. In Exodus, can God save us from slavery? And in Christ, the answer is yes. In Joshua, can God provide for us despite the sins of our father and the enemies all around us? And in Christ, the answer is yes. And judges, can God save us in the midst of sinful leaders?
Is there a warrior that’s coming that is better? And in Christ, the answer is yes. Jesus was the one that was better than any of the deliverers of the Old Testament, better than Moses. He’s a better warrior than Joshua, a better king than David, a better priest than the Levites, a better savior of his people even than Esther.
Every page is God saying yes. in Jesus Christ. Every page is a cell in his face. If you want to see the face of God, then see it in Jesus Christ and his scriptures. Read your Bible. There is joy, fuel for repentance and our Savior and a hope that does not disappoint. It’s the Sunday school lesson we get every time that we open up our scriptures and say, how does this point me to the hope that I can have in Christ that does not disappoint? It’s what we get to hear every every morning, Sunday morning and Sunday evening, when the Old Testament is open and we’re searching for him there, the New Testament is open and he’s revealed there every Sunday. And every time we open up our scriptures, we’re on the road to Emmaus, or more accurately, the road to Christ and his gospel and his joy and his new life there.
Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, Lord, as we journey through our life, We ask that you would continue to show us how Christ answers every problem and question that we have. Lord, that he is the answer to how might we be reconciled to you? What must we do with our sins? Can a thing die and live again? Lord, direct us to Christ as our mediator, our redeemer, our prophet, our priest, our king. Lord, excite us about who he is and our Savior that we might take joy and that joy might be the fruit for our repentance. throughout this life, this new life you give to us in the spirit.
Lord, only you can do this. Only a spirit who testifies to who Christ is as we open up the scriptures. Lord, help us to open them up for Moses and the prophets to see how all the scriptures were pointing to our suffering Savior. Lord, we pray this in the name of our Savior, your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. We’ll sing as a closing hymn, number 170, God in the Gospel of His Son. 170, would you stand as we sing this as our closing hymn.
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