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Reading Luke 24:17-23 where the risen Jesus walks with two disciples who don't recognize Him, and they explain to Him everything that's happened recently in Jerusalem. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus rose from the dead, and a few hours later, he's walking on a road with a couple of disciples. They don't recognize him, and they explain all the things about Jesus to him, but he was about to explain all these things to them when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we come back to chapter 24, reading this account of Jesus having risen from the dead, walking on the road to Emmaus with a couple of disciples who don't recognize him.
I'm gonna pick up reading in verse 13, and let me go through verse 24. Hear 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 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 were 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?
And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our 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 when 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 women had said, but him they did not see.
So let me stop our reading there for now. And then of course, Jesus begins to explain to them the scriptures and how it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and rise again. So this is Jesus telling them about all this, and they don't even recognize that it's him.
It's kind of trolling, isn't it? Jesus is just right there. I just kind of wonder if in his humanity, because remember that he's still very man and very God at this point. He still has a human body, just one that has been risen from the dead.
But even in his humanity here, he's kind of enjoying himself. He's enjoying the fact that these guys don't recognize it's him. And so he's able to teach them and explain to them what the scriptures say.
Surely their minds had to have been blown by this.
Who is this guy?
Who is this that he knows the scriptures so well? And he's explaining to us why all of these things had to take place the way that they did. Now, as I've mentioned many times, as we've been going through these three synoptic gospels, now, we're in the last chapter of the synoptic...
It's a tongue twister to say that too many times. It's the last chapter of the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Synoptic meaning same. So these three gospels explore on a lot of the same stories and ideas and themes and teachings.
So we're in the last chapter of these synoptic gospels. As I've been going through these gospels, I have told you, reminding you again and again about how the disciples expected Jesus to be an emancipator.
That's what they wanted their Messiah to be. He is going to deliver us. Remember what they said there concerning his role over Israel. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. We were redeemed out of slavery in Egypt.
He's gonna redeem us out of this oppression to the Romans. That's what they thought he was gonna do. And yet it's the Romans who put him to death. So maybe he's not the one. They're still going through stages of grief here.
They haven't really fully accepted yet in their minds exactly everything that has taken place, which is why they're talking about this as they go. So as we come into this conversation, or at least their response to Jesus here, we see it divided into two parts.
There's the crucifixion and the resurrection. So they talk about how Jesus in his life did all these amazing things, but he was crucified. And now even stranger still, the women in our group are saying that he's alive again.
He's been resurrected. So we're gonna look at that divided into those two parts. The things that were happening beforehand and now what they're trying to process regarding the most recent announcements about his body and his tomb.
So coming back up again to verse 17, Jesus says to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. So again, they're talking about these things together and still trying to process everything that's happened.
This is still really fresh in their minds. Now it says in verse 13, I didn't reflect on this yesterday so much, but it says in verse 13, that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus.
So this is still happening on resurrection Sunday. Is that not astonishing? Everything we're reading about here is still happening in that same day. Same day that the women went to the tomb, did not find the body of Jesus, came back and told the disciples, Peter Rose ran to the tomb, saw the linen cloths by themselves.
He goes away marveling at what has happened. And now there's two disciples, not among the 11, two disciples are going to a village named Emmaus. This is still happening on resurrection day. So Jesus, having just risen hours before, is coming alongside these two disciples and asking them, what is this conversation?
What are you guys talking about as you're walking along? And they look sad. So they're still trying to process all this. It's still not even really sinking in with them yet that Jesus was crucified because of all the hopeful expectation they had of who he was and what he was going to do.
They really thought this is the fulfillment of the scriptures. And they knew the scriptures, at least pertaining to the coming of the Messiah. Everything is lining up. Jesus fits all the needed qualifications.
We've even had the forerunner, the one who was going to come in the wilderness saying, make way the paths of the Lord, make his paths straight. That was John the Baptist. So everything is coming together.
This has got to be him. And yet he was crucified. This guy who was going to set us free from the Romans and the Romans put him to death. They're disappointed, but still racking their brains over everything that has happened.
And on top of this, all the announcements that have come to them today. Like, what are we supposed to make of this? He was put to death. That confused us enough. But now the women in our company are saying the tomb is empty.
And when Jesus asked them, what are you talking about? It's one of them named Cleopas who answers him. Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here in these days?
Why do we even need to tell you what it is that I'm talking about? If you've overheard anything that we've said, surely you got to know what is going on. Now, we don't know for sure who this Cleopas was.
We don't know at all who the other disciple was. There was one of the early church fathers, I believe it was, said it was Nathaniel, but that would be speculative. We still don't know. We don't know who the second disciple was.
And even when we have Cleopas's name, we can't really trace it. Though it's a contraction of the name Cleopatros. So it would have been somebody who had either Hellenistic or Alexandrian ties. But it's definitely someone that Luke mentions as a witness that anyone can go and talk to.
And likely Luke has talked to Cleopas face-to-face. Like they've had an actual personal interaction with one another, which is why Luke so uniquely includes this story that you don't have in the other three gospels.
He was able to talk to Cleopas who recalled to him exactly this was what had happened. This is what had taken place. So Luke in mentioning the name is saying, this is who I got it from. And you can go and talk to him yourself.
That Jesus actually joined them on the road on the day of his resurrection. He joined them and went to Emmaus with them and taught them as they went. But Cleopas's answer to him at first, and this is why it's singled out that Cleopas is the one that says to him, where later when they respond, it says they said to him.
So the two of them together explain Jesus of Nazareth and everything connected with his death and his supposed resurrection, according to them. But at first it's Cleopas that answers. So this is Cleopas's first person account to Luke saying, well, I was the first one to speak up to him.
And I didn't even see that it was him when I was saying to him, how do you not know what has been going on here these last few days? So Cleopas's answer is, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem? And this indicating that all of these things that have taken place concerning Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection, this was known to everybody.
This was not a very small minority group of people that went outside Jerusalem to see the crucifixion, but most of the rest of the city was clueless as to what is taking place. I had said to you when we were in chapter 23 concerning his crucifixion, that there were massive crowds that were there.
So we have it in, it is right at, hang on, I'm going back to chapter 23 here, verse 48. So it's right after the centurion says, surely this man was innocent, that the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.
So there were a lot of people who had seen all of this. And once they saw Jesus die and they experienced the darkness and they knew of the earthquake and the tearing of the curtain in the temple, when all of these things had transpired, for the first three hours of Jesus hanging on the cross, it probably seemed rather uneventful.
And they just mocked and they watched and they listened to the things that he said. But then in those second three hours, that was when darkness came upon the land and suddenly it was something everybody was paying attention to.
This is obviously different than, this is obviously not what we expected was gonna happen. And so they go away from that place once he had died beating their breasts, recognizing they had done something wicked and the judgment of God was going to come upon this place because of what had transpired.
But then you had in verse 49, it mentioning the acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee, they stood at a distance watching these things. So there were people who loved Jesus who were there and there were people who were just kind of curious bystanders and there were those who supremely hated him.
And they were the reason why he was hanging there on the cross. But even those who may have been indifferent to his trial, they may not have been among those who were calling out crucify him, but they were still there witnessing everything that had happened.
Even they would have been beating their breasts as they went home because they didn't do anything, because they didn't speak up, because they knew what had happened was an abomination in the eyes of God.
It was whether or not they believed he was the son of God, it was certainly injustice. And God would have hated this act of injustice that was done to an innocent man. And so they're beating their breasts as they go home thinking the judgment of God is clearly coming upon us because of what happened to this man.
Maybe they just thought he was a prophet, whatever reason they would have had in their minds to think of Jesus, but still within their hearts, knowing that judgment was due because of what we had just stood there and witnessed and didn't do anything about.
And so with everybody knowing these things that had happened with Jesus, this prophet from Nazareth, Jesus is asking, what are you guys talking about? Cleopas says, are you the only one that doesn't know what's happened?
And then Jesus, as I mentioned, you know, trolling, whatever is in his mind to mess with these guys, says to them in verse 19, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.
Now that expression before God is important. At Jesus' baptism, there were probably hundreds of witnesses that were there when John the Baptist baptized Jesus and heard the voice of heaven say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased and saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descend upon him.
There were many people that had witnessed that. There's also an account in John 12 about the voice of the father speaking from heaven as Jesus was teaching there in Jerusalem. And that startled a lot of people.
So there were many who could testify to the word of God, having verified this man and all of his teaching. He was a prophet, they say of him, mighty indeed and word before God. He had clearly received God's seal of approval on him.
And the words that he was speaking were from God. These men are acknowledging that. And there were many other people in Jerusalem that would have said the same. He was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people.
So all of his acts, everything that he did showed the signs of a man who had been sent from God. That's in John three, when we get there, remember Nicodemus talking with Jesus says, we know that you were a man sent from God because no one could do the amazing things that you do unless God was with him.
All the people would testify to this as well. And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. So they're naming who exactly were the players behind Jesus' death.
It was the chief priests and the rulers. Rulers meaning those who ruled in the synagogue. They delivered him up to be condemned to death and they demanded his crucifixion and it happened. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel and redeeming here, not meaning that he was gonna forgive us of all of our sins, that his death was an atoning sacrifice for us so that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life in his eternal heavenly kingdom.
That's not what they mean by that. Redeem Israel, they mean, we thought he was gonna set us free from the oppression of the Romans. Just like Israel had been redeemed from Egypt. That was what God said to Israel.
I have redeemed you from your captivity in Egypt. So they're looking for that same kind of redemption. He's going to possess us. He is going to buy us out of our oppression from the Romans but what Jesus was actually setting us free from was much greater than any sort of occupation on earth.
He was setting us free from our captivity to sin. Jesus has redeemed us by his death but they did not understand these things. They didn't get it, but we understand it now. Lest any of us, you know, think that we would have been walking along that road going, ah, come on guys, I could explain this to you.
Why don't you know this? If we were in their sandals, we would have been in the same place. We would not have known what this was. The apostle Paul talks about this, Ephesians 3, Colossians 1 and other places about how this was a mystery.
We did not know how the Christ was going to reconcile Jew and Gentile to himself, but now we know. They don't have it explained to them yet but they're going to. Jesus is about to tell them exactly what this was supposed to mean, that they are not understanding, that they are slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken is what he says in verse 25.
We'll get to that tomorrow. But we had hoped that he was going to be the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things have happened. And moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
They were at the tomb in the early morning. And when 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. That of course is verses one through 12.
Some 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 that in reference to Peter, Peter being the one who ran to the tomb and looked inside and did not see the body of Jesus.
So there are others likewise can testify the body is not there. So they're perplexed by the Christ that we thought was going to redeem us from Israel being put to death, him being buried in a tomb. And now they're even all the more confused at this testimony of the women who say the body is gone.
And even some from our own company were able to go and verify and see that the body is not there. We don't know what to make of all of this. That's what we're talking about stranger. That's what we can't comprehend or wrap our minds around.
And then when we come back to this tomorrow, we'll understand what it was that Jesus explained to them exactly. But once again, my friends, we are all enslaved, held captive to our sin, ensnared by Satan, as the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 .26, and to be set free takes the sacrifice of the righteous son of God, Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins.
And whoever believes in him, we are free. If the son has set you free, you are free indeed, as the apostle John said. And by faith in him, those bonds have been broken and we are adopted into the family of God.
We become fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom. And these are the things that Christ has purchased for us by his blood. It is all who believe in him. We will not be under God's judgment. We have nothing to fear of his wrath, which everyone deserves because of their sin against God.
But now in Christ Jesus, we've been made righteous. And so live righteously before him today. Heavenly father, we thank you for again, these reminders that we often need. Even reminders of the truths that we have come to believe as Christians, that Jesus died and he was risen again, according to the scriptures.
And that his death and his resurrection mean for us justification when we put our faith in him, we are forgiven our sins and you count them against us no more. So lead us that we may walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called as said in Ephesians 4 .1, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
It's these things we ask in the name of our Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word. When we understand the text.