A Word in Season: On the Road With Christ (Luke 24:25–27)

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Are there any occasions or situations in the Gospels of which you have said

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I would have loved to be there? I wish I could have seen and heard the things that were taking place on that occasion and in that situation.

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There are any number of candidates for such a choice, but one that's always attracted me was on the road to a place called

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Emmaus on the day of Christ's resurrection. There were two disciples, two dejected disciples, who were wandering out of Jerusalem, and they were on their way to this village, and as they talk, the

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Lord Jesus, the risen Christ, steps alongside them, travelling with them in the same direction, and he asks them what is it they're talking about, and Cleopas, the one disciple whose name we know, answers and says to him,

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Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which happen there in these days?

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Luke chapter 24 and verse 18, and I love the Lord Christ's answer.

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I wonder if he had a smile on his face or a twinkle in his eye as he said, What things?

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And Cleopas and his friend begin to explain to the Lord Jesus how all their hopes have been dashed, how all their expectations have been brought low.

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They had hoped that this Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, was going to redeem

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Israel, and besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened, the tomb is empty, and they are bewildered because they haven't seen

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Christ. And this is what I would like to have been present for.

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He said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the

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Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

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I think I could have borne any rebuke, even firmer than the gentle one that the

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Christ administers, in order to hear the Lord Jesus himself expound the truth concerning himself from the

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Old Testament. I would have loved to see how from Genesis 3 .15 and onwards through the unfolding of the covenants of promise, the

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Lord Jesus explained to these men how he was in that word, where he was, how he could be seen.

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I thought to myself, wouldn't that revolutionize, reinvigorate all preaching of the

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Old Testament in order to be able to hear those things from the lips of Christ himself, to trace through the prophets, to work through the wisdom literature, and again and again to see the brightness of Christ gleaming forth, perhaps only glimpses of it, perhaps only flashes of illumination, but nevertheless clearly and plainly in those places.

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And then I remind myself, I do in fact have all

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I need in order to see Christ in all the scriptures. First of all, I have the word of God.

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It is not a dead, but a living word. Every syllable, every word proceeds from the mouth of God.

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It is all breathed out by him. I have as much the revelation of God in my hands in the scriptures as those disciples had as Christ spoke to them on the road to Emmaus.

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And beyond that, I have the Spirit of God. In addition to the word of God, Christ, this risen

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Jesus, has poured out his Spirit on his church. And the promises that were made that the

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Spirit would take and would show the things that belonged to Christ, I think have at least some, if not even primary reference to this matter, that as we read our

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Bibles, we see Christ in Moses and all the prophets, and our hearts should burn.

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Whatever other dejections or disappointments we may have, the first day of the week is the day in particular on which

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Christ, through his word, preached by gifted men themselves, equipped and enabled by the

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Holy Spirit, to congregations upon whom the Holy Spirit is operating, Christ draws near to show us the truth about him.

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And when he does, our hearts should burn within us, just like the hearts of those disciples on the road to Emmaus.