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Sunday Morning AM Sermon, Trinity Road Chapel, London, from Luke 24
Of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, I was pondering this morning giving you those greetings and thinking about the fact that I wonder if the men who gathered here in London toward the end of the 17th century who drafted the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, what would they think if they had any knowledge that in hundreds of years hence from their time, there would be someone here in London giving you greetings from a Reformed Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona, which is just under 6 ,000 miles from this place.
I wonder what they would have thought to know that the work that they were doing would be looked at and would be appreciated and applied hundreds of years in the future and that many thousands of miles away in a land that was barely even known at that time.
I truly wonder about that, and it certainly does make me think about the fact that what we do in our day may well have a tremendous impact upon the future. We dare not simply look to ourselves. But I do give you greetings, and I also feel very much at home due to the fact that the first four rows of pews are empty, and that proves that you are Baptists.
I very much appreciate that fact, and it is good to be with you, and I appreciate Doug sharing some of his stories with you. He didn't tell you about the time that we attempted to ride. I think, what were we shooting for?
150 miles that day, as I recall. We only got to about 105 before both of us looked just a tad bit on the weary side, and we decided that was good enough. But yes, we have done some very enjoyable things together.
Please turn with me, please, to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24. Luke, chapter 24. Obviously, especially in light of my debate tomorrow evening, my mind has been very much focused upon the issue of the prophetic witness to the person of Jesus Christ found in Scripture, a subject that I think sometimes is somewhat neglected.
We must remember that the early believers did not have a New Testament. The early believers had the Old Testament, primarily in the Greek Septuagint translation. That was the Bible of the early church.
When Paul writes to Timothy and he says to him, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise in the salvation by faith in Christ Jesus, the only Scriptures that Timothy would have had at that point would have been the Old Testament Scriptures.
And so when we read of the apostles reasoning from the Scriptures with people, they are doing so on the basis of the Old Testament. And I'm afraid we live in a day where for many in the church, the Old Testament has become, once again, a closed book.
For many in my land, I refer to the fact that they are canonically challenged. That is, they have about 27 books in their Bible really functionally, only about three or four. But the Old Testament books have just been, in essence, turned into storybooks that we can use for the children when we have to have them color something with crayons, but really not the word of God for us.
And that certainly was not the case with the early church. And so I want us to go back to Emmaus. There you go, Doug, a title for today's sermon. I'm terrible at sermon titles, but there we go. Back to Emmaus.
Here, the road to Emmaus and the encounter between the risen Lord and the disciples. That takes place there. And so I would like to read through it and then just simply work through the text with you.
That is my preferred way of dealing with the word of God is to simply allow it to provide us with its own outline and its own exhortation. And so I will be giving you somewhat of a free-flowing translation.
I have the original language in front of me as well as a translation you do not have. And so I'll be going between the two as we look at Luke chapter 24, beginning verse 13. I will try to emphasize a few things as we move through the text.
Now that very day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about 60 stadia, or in our language, about seven miles from Jerusalem, about the same distance as the train station and Doug's house, just a little funny thing between he and I, which I have walked uphill and right now.
They were talking to each other. And in fact, they were not just talking, but they were talking intently with one another. They were absorbed in their conversation. They were talking to each other about all the things that had happened.
And while they were talking and debating, dialoguing about these things, Jesus himself, emphasis upon Jesus himself, approached and began to walk along with them. Please note verse 16. Literally, their eyes were grabbed and held.
Their eyes were kept from understanding who he was. This is a power from outside that is keeping them from recognizing who Jesus is. Then he said to them, what are these matters? What are these things that you are discussing so intently as you walk along?
And they stood still, dejected, downcast, looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened in these days? He's somewhat incredulous.
He said, and what things? Well, the things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, they replied. A man who, with his powerful deeds and words, proved to be a prophet before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified.
We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Not only this, but this is now the third day since these things happened. Furthermore, some women of our group have amazed us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and they did not find his body.
They came back and said that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Then some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and they found, just as the women themselves had said, but they did not see him.
So he said to them, you foolish people, how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Messiah, the Christ, to suffer these things and enter into his glory?
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures. So they approached the village where they were going, and he acted, he pretended as though he wanted to go farther, but they strongly urged him and said, stay with us because it is getting toward evening.
Today it's almost done. So he went in to stay with them. When he had taken his place at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. And at that very point, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
Then he'd vanish out of their sight. They said to each other, didn't our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us? So they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.
They found the 11, and those with them gathered together and sang, the Lord has already risen, as appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.
I'm not gonna read the rest of the chapter, but please note Jesus then appears to them. And then look at verse 44 if you will please. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, notice Moses, the prophets and the Psalms, must be fulfilled.
This is what Jesus says to them. And so I'd like to go back to Emmaus. I would like you if you can for the brief time that we have together this morning to consider with me what it was like to be on the road to Emmaus.
First, try to put yourself in the shoes of these disciples. We can tell from the text, they even say, we had hoped, we had hoped that he would be the one who would redeem Israel. We had hoped, but our hopes have been dashed.
What was it like in those dark hours between the time when the stone is rolled in front of the sepulcher and now the arrival of the women back from the tomb to say he's alive? What utter darkness was theirs?
What darkness we experience when our hopes, our dreams have been shattered? But you see, the revelation of the resurrection is not yet full, it is not yet complete in these men's minds, and so they are walking along and they are deep in discussion.
What do these things mean? We thought we saw the coming one, the miracles that he did. How could God allow one who had such power, such graciousness, one who could raise the dead, how could God allow that one to suffer what he suffered at the hands of the Romans?
Such a degrading death, the death of rebels against the all-powerful Roman Empire. How could this be? And yet, on this Lord's Day morning, they have something else to speak of because something is, some news is rumbling about amongst the believers who are, in essence, in hiding themselves.
What do the women mean? They've gone to the tomb, his body's not there. Angels saying he's alive? Well, it was just women reporting this, and even in that day and age, the testimony of women was not considered to be as valuable as that of a man.
And yet, these were faithful women. They said they had seen Jesus alive. Could it be? So they're in a state of concerned agitation, and they're talking with one another about these things, and there's everything good about that, but the one place that could have given them consolation, could have given them answers, because that's not the one place they're looking.
They are debating amongst themselves, and Jesus joins them. What condescension. Have you ever thought God purposely did this? The very fact that, as I pointed out to you, God supernaturally precludes them from recognizing this.
Very important to see. This was not because Jesus had assumed some other shape. Jesus is not merely some sort of phantasm that can assume one shape or another. He is the resurrected Lord. He is going to stand before Thomas and say, see the hands, see the prints of the nails in my hands.
Yes, he has his resurrection body, but there is a connection between the seed that falls from the ground and that which grows up therefrom. And Jesus is recognizable to the disciples when there is not a supernatural reason for God to withhold that recognition, and he does so here.
He literally restrains it. They would have naturally, as soon as they looked up, said, this is Jesus, but he keeps that from happening. Why? Because they could not have had the conversation that they're about to have if they knew they were walking with Jesus.
They wouldn't be looking at the scriptures when they're walking with Jesus. So Jesus joins them, and he quizzes them. He knows what they're talking about, but he wants to bring that confession out of their own mouths and say, what things are you talking about?
Are you the only person in Jerusalem that doesn't know these things? We're talking about Jesus of Nazarene and his powerful deeds and words. He proved himself to be a prophet before God and all the people.
But our chief priests, notice, our chief priests, the original believers saw themselves as the children of Abraham, just as anyone else. They weren't rebels trying to start a new religion. Our chief priests, our rulers, handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him.
You're not allowed to say that, especially in modern European theology. You cannot allow the biblical testimony to exist because, well, people might use that in the wrong way. Look what happened in Germany.
Well, think for just a moment. Was any of that badness? Did any of that even take into consideration? For example, we read from Acts chapter three where the Jewish disciples say the Jewish people, repent and times of refreshment will come upon you.
Any truth of God can be twisted. Any truth of God can be taken out of context. They understood, our leaders crucified this one that we thought, we thought, would be the one who would redeem Israel. We had hoped, verse 21, that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Can you hear the disappointment in those words? Can you sense the devastated hope? Remember the book of Proverbs tells us there's few things more devastating to the heart than hope that is deferred. It's put off, it's destroyed, and this is what has happened to them.
So these men are distraught. They don't know what to do. We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but you see, our understanding of the Messiah is such that the Messiah can never die.
The Messiah could not die such an agonizing, pitiful death at the hands of the Romans. He's supposed to deliver us from the Romans. But not only this, it's now the third day since these things have happened, and some women of our group have amazed us.
We know the story from the other Gospels. They've gone to the tomb, they've seen angels. The angel said he was alive. And then some of us, we went to the tomb and we verified it, it's empty, just as the women had said.
But the appearance to Peter hasn't taken place yet when these disciples leave the disciple band, and for whatever reason, we're not told, head for the manors. So here they tell the story. Here we are given a wonderful insight into where the disciples were at this point in time, the confusion that was there.
Sometimes we say, how could there have been confusion? Jesus told them, didn't he? Remember Matthew chapter 16? It is necessary that I go to Jerusalem, and yet the Jewish leaders are going to arrest me, they're going to kill me, and the third day I'm going to rise again.
And for us, it's very difficult to begin to understand how, given the clarity of the teaching of Jesus before this, how could they now be going, we don't know what's going on? But remember just a couple of things.
First of all, the Holy Spirit is yet to come and is ministering to the believers as he does at Pentecost. But even more than that, I think we need to recognize that the Jewish understanding of what the Messiah was to be was so strong that even at Jesus's ascension, the disciples are still going, ah, it's time.
Are we ready to usher the king in? They don't understand the nature of the kingdom. They don't understand the nature even of the Messiah, the suffering Messiah before the victorious Messiah, and the nature of that victory.
They don't see that. They don't understand that. And so there's a strong tradition, and it is amazing how our traditions can blind us. As Paul will say, even to that day, there is a veil in the mind of the Jew who reads the scriptures and cannot see Jesus.
And I've seen that very same kind of veil in my ministry amongst the Muslims because of their belief in the Quran and Muhammad. Muhammad says Jesus isn't the son of God. The Bible says he's the son of God, so no matter how clear it is, there is a veil.
And if it were up to us to try to remove those things, if it were up to us to try to convince people to use argumentation, I wouldn't do what I do. I wouldn't even try. I'm so thankful that it's the spirit of God that gives life.
It's the spirit of God that opens the heart and the mind. When God is pleased to do so, he does so. We have the privilege of being used as instruments in his hand. That's why we never shave off the rough edges of the gospel.
We never have to edit the gospel to make it more palatable to men. Christ's sheep will hear Christ's voice. And so Jesus' response, it's not a, it's not, oh, I have good news for you. There's another way of understanding these things.
No, he says, oh, you foolish people. You people without understanding. How is it that you're so slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken? There can be no question from Jesus' perspective about the first portion of the debate that we're gonna have tomorrow evening as Jesus prophesied in the Old Testament.
From his perspective, that is the teaching of all of the prophets. They all testify of Jesus Christ. Wasn't it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory? Verse 26, and then I don't know about you, but people frequently say, oh, I would love to have been this person, this prophet.
I would like to have been a Moses or a David or at least observed David's battle with Goliath or something like that. Found it interesting that just a few weeks ago they found the most ancient Hebrew inscription that's ever been found in the world.
And it was on the walls, it was in the hills surrounding the very place where David battled Goliath. Ancient Hebrew inscription going right back to that time period. It's fascinating how it's historical.
But I think if I wanted to be anyone, if I wanted to observe something, I would have wanted to change the story to the three disciples. And I'd be the third. Because look at verse 27. Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures.
Now I teach seminary classes, graduate level classes, and I try to make my classes interesting and I try to make them very focused on the scriptures. But no one has ever been in a class like those disciples were in that day.
What must have been like to have the word of God opened by the author himself. Freshly risen from the dead and his victory over death and sin. To be the first ones, in essence, to hear him teach and preach.
Personal ministry as you walk along the road to Emmaus. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures. All the scriptures. He opened up, he explained to them.
That's the root word for which we get hermeneutics. He interpreted God's word to them. We see, I think, the result of that in the preaching of the apostles and acts because Jesus ministers to them during that time period before Pentecost.
Before the ascension, I'm sorry. So we see the results of that. So we can take those early sermons and have a pretty good idea that this is what Jesus delivered to them at that point. But what must it have been like?
Now if you're sitting there going, oh, it would be so great if that could happen today. It does, and it can. We really tend, I think, to downplay the role of the Holy Spirit. And God's delight in leading us into a knowledge of his word.
The person who, with humility, approaches the word of God and desires to know the Spirit is still very much active amongst his people. He's not giving you revelation. There's no need for that. But to understand, to apply, to see the harmony and consistency of the word of God is still the delight of the Spirit of God if we will but shut the world out long enough to allow him to minister to us.
And that's more than a few minutes in the morning. There are times we need to be disciplined to set aside the things that distract us, and there are so many things. So many things in other contexts are good that can become bad when we do not keep them in balance.
So many things that get in the way of our allowing the Spirit to bring us on the road to advance. And so what takes place, they approach the village where they were going, and he acted, and the Greek term is frequently used for pretending to do something.
He's doing this on purpose, just as he knows that their eyes have been kept from recognizing who he is. So in the same way, he acts as if he would continue to go on, and they urged him, they strongly exhorted him, stay with us, it's getting toward evening, the day is almost done.
So he goes in to stay with them. And when he had taken his place at the table with them, took the bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. How many times had they seen that blessed event before the crucifixion?
How many times had Jesus taken the bread and broken it and he had given thanks, even at the establishment of the Lord's Supper, with the disciples, this happens, and it had happened so many times. And so in that simple act, at that point, their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
At that very point, their eyes were opened. They recognized him. What thoughts flooded their minds? They must have been shocked in one sense, to all of a sudden recognize who he is. First, what would be the first thought across our minds?
How could I have not known? I have not recognized him. He is alive, and then he disappears from their sight and people go, it's hard to believe the physical resurrection of Jesus and the physical body of Jesus can just go poof.
Remember, Jesus will appear to the disciples in a locked room. People say, see, this must be a spirit. Can't really have a physical body because physical bodies don't do that. Well, what is the description of the physical body that even the Apostle Paul gives to us?
This glorified body, it's no longer subject to corruption. And what is the only thing that is keeping a physical body from being on one side of a locked door when it's on the other side of a locked door?
It's the amount of time to go through. I would suggest to you this has nothing to do with the physicality of Jesus' body. Jesus is gonna emphasize, if you read the rest of this very chapter, he's gonna emphasize when the disciples think they're seeing a spirit, a ghost, Jesus is gonna say, I have flesh and bones, did you see that I have?
Give me something to eat, I'll prove it. So he goes out of his way to get rid of that false impression, but still, how are we to understand this? Well, I think the issue has to do with how the resurrected body experiences time, not with its physicality.
The only thing that is going on here is that in the resurrection, the resurrected body is not limited in the same way that our physical bodies are limited in time. Jesus broke the bread, and he could have eaten that bread.
He eats the disciples on the seashore. He eats the disciples later on. He is able to do all those things. This is my physical body, but it is no longer corruptible. It's not limited in the way that our current physical bodies are.
That's Paul's point. He likens our current physical bodies to the seed that is cast from the ground, and then the resurrection body, that which comes out, must die before that new life can come forth.
And so they recognize who he is, and he vanishes from their sight. They said to one another, I love these words, listen to these words, didn't our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us?
Didn't our hearts burn? Do you ever read the writings of old? And I don't mean the New Testament, I mean even from your own nation, the great men who even stood in this place, churches around here in London, around the United Kingdom, and they preached sermons that would cause people to weep.
Men would stand for hours to listen to these men who spoke, and they were not bored. Instead, their hearts were indeed caused to burn within them. What causes that? Well, certainly we know first and foremost it's the work of the Spirit of God, but these were men, these were men who, and here when the incarnate Lord brings the word of God to bear upon them, the heart that is being ministered to by God burns with passion for His truth.
I don't mean that people lose their sense of discipline or decorum or anything else. There is a passion that can burn within the heart, and there's a kind of burning that can be explosive and then it's done.
But there can be a kind of burning that is hot and white and it abides, and it changes that which burns. I suggest to you that the great fervor, the great holiness that we see in the Puritans and those who came after them was not from some kind of explosive, emotional passion.
That kind of long-term, life-changing, priority-changing, heart and mind forming, passion and burning that only the Spirit of God can bring. And that's what we need in the church today, as we need in our own lives, especially as we live in a culture that is more and more opposed to godliness in its every action.
But what do they do? They get up, and even though it's already dark, and even though they're risking the robbers along the way, I don't think they walked back to Jerusalem. They were moving along. They returned to Jerusalem, and they find the 11 and those with them gathered together, and they're saying, the Lord has risen, it's appeared to Simon.
And they say, you better believe it, you gotta hear our story. They told them what happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread. It seems that just as they finished telling the story, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be with you, peace be with you.
And what does he do with the disciples? He reminds them, he shows them his hands and his feet, he eats something, and then he says, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled, must be fulfilled, or God becomes a liar.
Must be fulfilled, cannot be any other. Do I think that just tomorrow evening, the bare announcement on my part of the fulfilled prophecies of Jesus is gonna be enough to change anyone's heart or mind?
No, I know exactly what verse 45 says. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, and said to them, thus it stands written that the Christ who suffered and rise to the dead on the third day.
Am I saying that the only way that we can look at the Old Testament and find fulfilled prophecies of Jesus is if we just have some sort of a spiritual experience? No. But there's a difference between coming to recognize the content of the scriptures and being ready to be obedient to what the scriptures say.
Something had to happen here. Jesus had to minister to his people. He had to open their minds so they could understand the scriptures. Indeed, when some people speak to me, and they say, I just don't understand, well then pray that God would open your heart, your mind to understand what the scriptures are saying.
We need to remain biblically balanced. We have those on one end who become so focused solely upon rational thought that they become the cold, dead orthodoxy. On the other side, we have those that have to be excited into fits of passion, and then it goes away, and then they have to do it again the next Lord's day, and it goes away.
The Bible tells us that God has made us his image, that we are to love God with our minds, that we are to search the scriptures, we are to study, and we are to handle them right, but we can never, ever truly understand them, embrace them, love them, see them as they are, until God, by his Spirit, is pleased to open our hearts and our minds.
This is what Jesus does. And when he does so, we see who the Christ is. And so obviously, it is my prayer, tomorrow evening, the Spirit of God will do, in the debate that I'll be doing, what Jesus did to the disciples in Luke chapter 24.
But that for all of us, even in this hour, this day, I know that many of you, most of you, have always, as far back maybe as you can remember, have heard about Jesus, and many of you have bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, and you follow him.
I don't know, there might be some visitors here this morning. And you don't know about this Jesus, you really don't know about the background of all these things. But let me say to you, that as Jesus said, thus it stands written that the Messiah, the Christ, would suffer and arise from the dead on the third day.
He did so because that is how God brings about the salvation of sinners. Sin separates us from God, his wrath abides upon us. There is nothing we can do once we even recognize our sin, there's nothing we can do about our sin, we stand condemned and guilty before him.
So what must be done? There will never be injustice in God's world. Every injustice will someday be righted. Every sin will be punished. Your sin will be punished in one of two ways. It will either be punished in you, in your eternal separation from God and judgment, or it will be punished in Jesus Christ.
For the wrath of God fell upon him in perfection on behalf of all those who believe in Christ, all those who would be united with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. So I say to you, my prayer for you is that God, by his spirit, would open your heart and your mind, that you would see Jesus as he is and see yourself, understand your sin, and understand that by faith in him, you can have as a present possession eternal life.
That was his promise. His promise remains just as true and just as valid today as ever. Let us pray together. Indeed, our blessed heavenly father, we thank you and praise you for your scriptures, that these scriptures record for us this blessed event wherein your providence, you ministered in such a personal way through Jesus Christ to these disciples.
Take us back to Emmaus, father. Take us back to that road. Cause our hearts to burn within us as we consider your scriptures. May Jesus Christ be to us our all in all. And if there be some amongst us, within the sound of my voice, who do not know Jesus Christ, who do not know their own estates and his perfect work as savior, may your spirit once again work that mighty miracle, opening hearts and minds to understand and to see Jesus as he is.
We do thank you for the freedom we have yet to gather together. May we use these freedoms we have to your honor and glory. And indeed, may you be glorified in all that has been done here. We pray in Jesus' name.
