On the Road Again

Luke 24:13-35

Introduction

• Today we celebrate resurrection; and while we do this every Sunday it is especially significant on the anniversary of the event
• The early church understood the significance of both the cross and the resurrection and one of the things they would say to one another was the little phrase “He is risen” and the listener would respond with “He is risen indeed”
• So today I joyfully say to you “He is risen” and then you say …
• Easter is the most significant holiday on the Christian’s calendar
• It eclipses all other holidays in significance because it was on the day we know as Good Friday that our Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, was sacrificed to make atonement, or to pay, the penalty for our sin.
• And it was while he was on the cross that he declared in a loud voice that the debt was paid in full just before he died
• Now on this date, 3 days latter by Jewish calculations, we celebrate the empty tomb
• Tanner read for us the account from Luke’s gospel of the women making their way to the tomb
• They were going not because they thought Jesus was risen but to finish anointing his body for burial; you see they had been delayed because the sun had begun to set on Friday and no work can continue on the Sabbath so they had to wait until their first opportunity and that was Sunday morning
• When the arrive at the tomb what do they find, not a rock, and soldiers and a body; but instead a rolled back stone, angels and an empty tomb and the message that he is not here but risen just as he said
• Christianity is the story of resurrection; that is why we have cause to celebrate; for if our story ended with Christ on the cross then we wouldn’t have a story to tell but it is the risen Savior we love to proclaim
• Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:14 If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain
• Resurrection changed everything for the rest of history, but I ask you has resurrection changed your life and the life of your family?
• This story we will look at today is about disciples of Jesus (not the 11 apostles) but some of the applications could just as easily be about those who are not yet Jesus’ disciples
• Let us turn our attention now to Luke chapter 24 and verse 13

#1 He drew near to them

• ¹³That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
• There is great comfort for the believer in this verse because here we see a model of Christ carrying our burdens
• These guys were walking along on Sunday and talking about what had happened on Friday and Jesus joins their little duo and walks with them
• They were talking about what was heavy on their heart but Jesus was there; do you have burdens on your heart today; burdens you need to share?
• Jesus promised the Comforter after he left, the Holy Spirit; while he was in the world he fulfilled this role just as he is here in this narrative
• Today the burdens we carry are needless; the Jesus has sent the Spirit, the Comforter to bear our burdens
• If you have burdens that you brought with you today can I ask, may I ask you to leave them at the empty tomb?
• Don’t carry a burden Jesus is willing to bear for you.
• Jesus said in Matthew 11:30 that if we follow him His yoke is easy and his burden is light

#2 Their eyes were kept from Him

• ¹⁶But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then 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?"
• The text says their eyes were kept from recognizing him
• Have you ever played a game where you looked at a picture and tried to figure out what it is, it may be something really common that you know really well but you can’t recognize it.
• I was sitting with Carol John earlier this week and I had my laptop open we were looking at some Bible study software on the computer and Carol asked what the picture was of on the background of my laptop
• I sort of smiled a sly smile and asked her to see if she could figure it out; she looked for a few moments and made some observations but never really saw what was in the picture
• Once she gave up and I started pointing out the major outlines of the picture she began ignoring those things that were not important and the picture became clear to her
• The entire time it was the same picture but a different impression once I started pointing out the major features
• That is somewhat like what happens in this story; the disciples can’t recognize their master
• Over the years this has prompted lots of questions, such as:
• Why do you think they couldn’t recognize him? Who do you think prevented them from recognizing him?
• The answer to the second question is somewhat obvious; the men didn’t prevent their own eyes from seeing so clearly it was God who chose not to allow them to see Jesus for who he was right then
• Now for the harder of the two questions; why were they prevented?
• It would seem if you your friend had died and was now back alive you would want to know as soon as possible right?
• It may even seem cruel of Jesus to continue to prolong the agony by asking them to discuss the events that happened but never revealing who he really was but the reality was it was a grace to do what he did
• Observe what he will do through the rest of passage; see how he takes this opportunity to teach truth
• Folks it is important to realize that truth is more important than emotional feelings or responses
• Had Jesus said I am He, the Christ the Son of David, the Son of God they would have fallen down and worshiped Him
• They would have worshiped but they might not have worshiped him in truth until he explained to them what his mission as Messiah really was; and we will see how he does that in a moment
• If you are here today and you can remember an emotional experience with Jesus I would like to encourage you that you have experienced a good thing; but I want to also encourage you if you don’t understand the truth of who Jesus is, what he did and what he wants for your life then you may be like these two guys
• You may be very enthusiastic but still short of really knowing Jesus; don’t leave here today having had only an emotional experience and letting it stop there, know truth!

#3 They were asked to describe the events to Him

• Remember they asked Jesus if he was the only person who didn’t know what had happened. So he responds in verse 19
• ¹⁹And 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, ²⁰and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
• Jesus knew the details of his own death; but sometimes saying things out loud solidifies how we feel about the matter
• Again like the previous point in the outline; this was grace towards them; when grieving it is sometimes difficult to arrange your thoughts logically and as long as you are with people of like mind and experience you don’t have to give details to grieve together
• But Jesus asked them to tell him what happened
• Have you ever had a child ask you what something means? My son asked me yesterday what it means to pay through the nose; I am familiar with the expression, I know how to use it in a sentence but I had to pause to reflect on what it means so I could explain it to a child
• Jesus did the same thing for them; he forced them to state what they believed; and now look at what they said, they stated that the chief priests and Jewish rulers had put him to death not the Romans
• This was important; the Romans didn’t think he was a threat, the Jews saw him as a threat to their system of rules and laws and didn’t want to share their glory with Jesus so they had him put to death

#4 They were amazed by the report of Him

• Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. ²²Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, ²³and 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. ²⁴Some 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."
• I want you to notice the response of the disciples to the news of the women; they were amazed that angels had said he had risen and was alive
• What would you do if you heard that the greatest teacher you had ever known had been raised from the dead?
• What would your response be? The response of the disciples was one of amazement but I want you to notice something.
• Amazement is never enough!
• Winston Churchill is quoted as saying: “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."
• How have you responded to the truth of resurrection? Did you pick yourself up and hurry on as if nothing happened or did you stop and look at the facts and examine the details and grasp the truth that is there? What have you done with the empty tomb?
• If the tomb is empty as the disciples reported then that means there are ramifications for your life and mine

#5 They were slow to believe in Him

• ²⁵And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
• Jesus lovingly but firmly rebuked them; he called the foolish and slow of heart to believe
• Jesus had predicted his death and resurrection on several occasions but they had always ignored it or looked for some symbolic meaning rather than that plain meaning that he would die and be raised again
• The gospel message has always and in every generation been difficult to believe
• Placing faith in Jesus is not difficult in the sense that it requires great intellect to believe, even though some great minds have believed, but faith in Christ is designed to be accepted by those great and small; that is why Jesus himself referred to it as child-like faith
• The difficulty in the gospel message is it requires us to A) believe things that we have never seen happen before B) it requires us to admit that there is nothing about us desirable yet God still chose to do for us what we could not do for ourselves
• Jesus rebuke was not for a lack of knowledge but for a lack of belief in what they did know
• They had a report from three eye witnesses that angels had said it was raised from the dead but it was hard to believe so they didn’t
• Peter had confirmed the tomb was empty but was still unsure what to believe
• That is where some of you are here today; you find it hard to believe that someone, anyone could be raised from the dead
• But this man, was more than a man; this man claimed to be God himself and if he was raised from the dead then all the other claims he made must be true, he must also be God come in the flesh
• What will you do with the empty tomb?

#6 They wanted Him to stay with them

• ²⁸So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, ²⁹but they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them.
• Notice what the disciples did, they asked Jesus to stay with them, they urged him, they pointed out the late hour
• I like to learn; people that know me well discover I have had the opportunity to learn a little bit about a really wide variety of topics
• I am not an expert on much of anything but I know a little about all kinds of things
• Once when we were driving in Mexico I spotted some cattle and I just started talking about Mexican cattle and especially bulls and how American cattleman often use them to teach young heifers how to be good mothers
• Brad and Kim looked at me in bewilderment because why in the world would someone who had lived his whole life in the suburbs of 2 US cities know anything about cattle
• But you know why; because I got to hang out with someone for a while that actively raised Shorthorn Cattle; any time I got a chance to learn I did but I did it out of curiosity mostly
• I think that is somewhat what these two disciples were doing; they were learning so out of curiosity they asked Jesus to stay with them
• Have you ever done that; have you ever been in the presence of someone who was sharing with you the way of truth and out of simple curiosity you wanted to continue to hang out with them?
• However just being close to Jesus is not the same as inviting him into your life, letting him become the boss and placing your will under his
• You can spend your whole life learning about Jesus; you can come to church every week, you can win a game of Bible trivia against everyone you meet but that won’t be enough when you stand before God, you have to have more than just a curiosity about Jesus – you have to accept him

#7 Their eyes were opened to him

• ³⁰When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. ³¹And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. ³²They 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?"
• First God prevented them from seeing him and now they could clearly seem him with their eyes
• This was another act of grace; for after he taught them he revealed himself to them
• But again without allowing them to become emotional and cling to him he departs and he leaves them with their thoughts
• Look at what they said “Did not our hearts burn within us?”
• Have you ever heard the gospel, did your heart ever burn within you, perhaps it is burning now, perhaps the good news of Jesus is exciting your soul
• Don’t leave today without doing business with God

#8 Their belief caused them to go share about him

• ³³And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, ³⁴saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
• Their belief put them back on the road again
• Belief in the Bible is never just a head belief but it always results in action, look at the action of these men, they returned 7 miles in the dark to tell the others what had happened
• They didn’t have flashlights, they didn’t have Hummvees with big headlights to help them speed down the dirt roads back to Jerusalem
• They walked to Emmaus without animals it looks like they returned without animals, just two sore feet and some old sandals but they were so excited about their experience with Jesus, their faith in his resurrection, his teachings about his death and resurrection they just had to share

Conclusion

• And now we come to you; and to your life
• Do you believe Jesus has drawn himself near to you?
• Perhaps your eyes have seen how close he has been to you for some time now; just like the disciples you are not aware he is right next to you teaching you and preparing you
• Perhaps you have been amazed by the claims you have heard about Jesus
• Maybe you were rebuked in your spirit today when Jesus said “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that has been spoken”
• Maybe you have wanted Jesus to stay with you because you enjoy his teachings but you still haven’t seen him for who he really is, the risen Son of God
• But maybe, just maybe today your eyes were opened; you see him in all of his glory; God in his goodness has revealed himself to you
• Now we come to the action part what do you need to do?
• Romans 10:9 says if you confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead you will be saved
• Is that your desire today?