Luke 24:13-35 • A Great Destiny
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Our reading today is from Luke 24 verses 13 through 35. I'm going to ask that you stay seated this morning because it's an extra long reading and because it's long, Josh Boyle is going to help me in reading from Luke chapter 24. He'll be beginning at verse 13. Josh.
"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? 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, 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. Continuing in verse 25, thank you, Josh.
And he said to them, O foolish ones and 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 farther, but 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. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed it 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 eleven 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.
Let's pray together.
Holy Father, would You break now the Word of life to us, opening our eyes and our hearts to receive the nourishment of the gospel.
It can just be form and sentiment, ceremonial services and fun songs, where there can be something that profound happens.
When you by your Spirit take the Word of truth and bring it to life in us so that we know new life and new hope and new strength, so do that work in us, we pray, because Jesus would be in this place by His Spirit even now. Teach us of Him through Your Word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
So with Easter past, now what?
I mean it can just be a letdown, it can be all the adrenaline past, and Christian writer Paul Tripp honestly asked us the question, "So now that Easter is over, what do you do with Easter?"
When a particular area of sin looks attractive to you and you feel weak and vulnerable, what do you do with Easter?
When you've been betrayed by someone and thoughts of vengeance enter your head, what do you do with Easter?
When you're struggling in your marriage and it seems impossible to love another person as God designed.
What do you do with Easter?
When you're facing another situation with a rebellious child and you feel there is no patience left, what do you do with Easter?
What do you do with Easter when you lay in bed tonight mulling over yesterday and today
and tomorrow and wonder whether God is for you in any of those places?
What do you do with Easter?
Now that it's past, what's your takeaway?
I mean we know there's supposed to be a message and we kind of get the essence of it, "Jesus rose from the dead," but what's the purpose of that?
Apparently there's some mission that the people of God understood and we wonder still, "Is it ours?" And if so, what is the motivation to be on mission for Jesus who may simply seem to be that ancient guy long ago in those pages of Scripture?
All of those things are apparent to us in this account of two disciples who for reasons we don't quite understand are honest enough to say, "He arose and we didn't get it."
He actually appeared to us and it was so out of context, so beyond our expectation, so beyond whatever was supposed to be happening that we didn't even recognize it was Him.
What do you do with Easter when it's past? They help us know. There is a message that they ultimately got, but it was the message first of a might that had been forsaken.
The message that we are supposed to understand is that Jesus forsook the might that was His. Verse 19, right at the middle, they explained to Jesus, who's just said, "What things are you talking about that happened in Jerusalem like He doesn't know?"
So they explained it to Him. "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.
He was a prophet.
He knew what was coming and He kept on coming.
And what He came to was a crucifixion and a death that He Himself had prophesied. He even as He was being taken away from the garden by the troops that would ultimately put Him on trial before Pilate even said to His own disciples, "I could have called twelve legions of angels to stop all of this." But He did not stop it.
He had the foresight and He had the power and He forsook them both in order to fulfill the mission that He says was necessary.
And the reason it was necessary was because He was not just forsaking power, He was fulfilling prophecy.
The startling words of verse 27, "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." As though this same Jesus, even as He is walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, actually begins to say to them, "This thing that happened was no surprise. In fact, beginning at the very beginning of the Scriptures, that which began to be written fifteen hundred years, fifteen centuries before Jesus came, by as many as forty different authors in many different nations, in many different settings, past war and famine and slavery and exile, past all of that, there is a message that the Creator is a Redeemer. And He had this message from the beginning, says Jesus, going through Moses and all the prophets and all the Scriptures, there is no other holy book like it known among humanity. We talk about the uniqueness of Christianity being instead of somehow humanity reaching up to God, God reached down to us. But one of the great expressions of that grace that is unique about a God who had reached to us are the Scriptures themselves.
There is no other holy book written by so many people over so many centuries with one consistent message. It's not just Aesop's fables. It's not just a rule book. It's not just a code of moral standards. Here is a message that humanity is in need, that a holy God establishes standards that humanity cannot keep and therefore requires an action by that same God in providential grace to make us His own. And that is the message from the first page all the way through the end. And it is unique in the human experience that God would use so many over so much time, think of it, a millennia and a half, people who do not know each other, different nations, different places, different times, on message.
And the message is that God would send His Son from the very dawn of humanity. That message that Moses wrote as he talked about the experience of Adam and Eve after the temptation that God would even speak to the tempter and say, "I am going to put enmity, antagonism, a war between your seed and my seed. And what your seed is going to do is strike the heel of my son, but he is going to crush your head." And from that moment, it is game on.
The rest of human history is the unfolding message of a Creator God who would send a Redeemer. And that consistency of message is ultimately not just our hope, it is astounding.
You know, national news was made just a few months ago because of a young woman named Amanda Lamon who after 23 years received letters from her mother who had died of bone cancer.
As the mother was dying, she began to write the letters to her daughter.
But the letters never made it. Had 23 years later after foster care and living in numerous states, Washington State, Texas, Louisiana, back to Texas, agency to agency, foster care to foster care, occasional relative to occasional relative, suddenly there is a packet in the mail from the executor of her mother's estate with a birth certificate and some photos and letters of love 23 years late.
Amanda, honey, you know I will really miss you and not being able to get up with you every day.
Honey, try to keep smiling, try to be brave.
It was only 23 years and it made national headlines.
What would it mean for a parent to say to us, "For thousands of years I have loved you and I have prepared for you and I have sent word to you of my great care." In itself it is astounding that such love letters would come to God through all the centuries and all the people that He has arranged. But there is something better even than the love of looking backwards at what He did. It is the love being expressed in the present. As touching as it is to read the letters of Amanda's mom to her, you recognize there's a certain sadness when the only thing the mom can say is, "Keep smiling and try to be brave."
The message of the Scriptures is this same Jesus who took the penalty for our sin on the cross as His He was being struck by the evil one, but then rose the victor over the dead in order to crush the power of Satan. That same Jesus said, "I will never leave you or forsake you, but by my Spirit I am with you always." This is not just a backward glance. This is the present promise and future security that each of us have that we serve a risen Lord and it's not just a grave back there somewhere that He escaped. It is our presence here now that He enters by His Spirit. Easter is wonderful to celebrate. He rose from the dead, but the more amazing miracle is that He is here.
And in that presence of the moment is the message that we embrace now.
It's not just a determined love from the past, it is a present love for our very lives' sake so that we ultimately would believe the world is not flat.
You know, we're here on Earth Day weekend when our world is celebrating the accomplishments of science, which we applaud as we identify the gifts of God in the intelligence and the experience of those who understand the intricacies of our world and its science.
But that's not all that's being understood in the present age. One of the great contributions of a rising generation who has examined the modernist influences of our culture now is that it is discovering a new spirituality to say the answers of science, if it's presenting reality as if to say the only thing you can know is what is material and can be measured by human machines. That's the only reality there is. It flattens out the world so that even the human heart that begins to experience thought and emotion and love and the things of the Spirit, no, that can't be the whole reality. And the generation that's rising with a new spirituality that I will grant you is sometimes bizarre and off the biblical path. Nonetheless is touching something deep in the human instinct and awareness to say it is not just about molecules and measurement. That is not the only reality. There is something far more complex and layered and rich in the human experience. And that is what the Scriptures are speaking of. And what Easter is declaring is that spiritual reality is powerful and it is here. That this same Jesus works for His people not just long ago, but in the present reality because He is alive and He is here by His Spirit. What difference does it make?
I read recently an essay by Ken Shigematsu who is a Christian writing for scientist.
And he writes these words, "If our life one day simply ends and we just rot in the ground like a carrot and we're no more, and if this world billions of years from now overheats and makes life no longer possible, and then there's nothing, well then our careers which seem so important to us now, and our romantic loves, and our family loves, and our friendships which seem so important to us now really mean nothing.
If this planet one day burns up and there's no more life, it's just over period full stop.
The fact that you've made vice president or partner in the company or that you were in love with somebody or have a family, it won't mean a thing.
It's all over nothingness."
The words simply remind me of the social media post where the mom says, "What is the use of all this? I clean the dishes and they're dirty again.
I wash the diapers and they're messy again."
Or the business woman who says, "I commute and I compute and the next day I do it all over."
Or the family who goes through unspeakable tragedy and wonders what is the use and why.
And if it is only a material world, the answer is it all ultimately means nothing.
But if there is a spiritual reality, if we operate on one plane and God is at the same time opening up a spiritual reality that is eternal on new heavens and a new earth that we are preparing for, that the children whose dishes are being cleaned and diapers who are being washed are eternal souls that we are investing in, that they are learning by patience and tolerance and the care of a parent what it means to have a God who loves them not just for the moments of their childhood but for eternity that our relationships, whether they are romantic or whether they are career, are God putting us into the opportunity to say who He is for people who will be our eternal mansion mates. That God is saying to us, "I am taking every prayer, every moment, every act of kindness, everything that you endure and I am making it infinitely and eternally significant because it's not just a material world. The world is not flat." God is saying there is texture and richness and complexity and spirituality beyond your fathoming and He's letting us into the material world and glimpsing the spiritual world by Easter itself to say that greater reality is what I am promising to you so that you begin to recognize in that richness and infinite duration of God's care that you can trust me.
Even when the world looks bleak, even when you don't have immediate answers, "I have shown you myself, I have pulled back the curtain," here is the spirituality.
Your world is not flat. It is a spiritual world into which God has not only shown Himself strong. He is operating to our great advantage and from the beginning He was letting it be known and even in the miracle of the Scriptures themselves, He is telling us that we can trust Him. What would it mean if the message now is, "Here is this God who is Creator and He's also Redeemer. Is yours yours to know and yours to tell?" You would begin to recognize there's a mission here. If this is really who this Jesus is and I see it now really, there is mission for us to let others know.
I've mentioned to you before in 1601, Michelangelo Caravaggio painted what became one of the world's most famous paintings known as "The Supper at Emmaus." He's capturing this event that Luke describes. You know on that road to Emmaus after the resurrection, Jesus begins to walk with His disciples and we don't even understand why they do not recognize Him.
But finally they get to Emmaus, they have supper, and there is a moment at which they recognize it is Jesus. What does He do when they say it's Him? He breaks the bread. And in that most Christ-like of actions where He is reminding them of His body broken in their behalf, they see Him. And it's that moment of recognition that Caravaggio captures. And the reason it's captured for such note is that He's breaking all the conventions of His era. Neither Jesus nor His disciples have aristocratic beards. They are shaven like working men would have been in that time so they can sweat and wash off the fish guts and the sawdust.
They're just common men.
And they don't have halos.
And when they see this is Jesus, they don't kind of sit back in glassy-eyed wonder. Instead the moment that Caravaggio captures is the disciples rising from their seats. Their muscles are taught. They are ready to act. One reaches out towards you, the observer, and pulls you toward Jesus as if to say, "If this is Jesus, the long prophesied Messiah, the one predicted from the beginning of the world, the one who came to say, the one of whom all the prophets, all the Scriptures have written, He comes to save and He's alive and He's here. You know they must tell." They are now on mission. And the Scriptures say that same hour they get up to go back and tell people. Already remember they were saying to Jesus, "No, you're not. Don't go on to the other town. The day is already far spent. Have supper with us." But the same hour that they recognize it's Jesus, though the day is far spent, they go back to Jerusalem to say, "We have seen Him." There is this note of urgency.
And the reason there is urgency in their mission is they are telling of His victory.
He's not in the grave anymore.
He is here. And you recognize that is our story too, to say, "He's not just in the grave. He is here."
And they are able to say it with transparency even to those other believers that are back in Jerusalem. What did they say? You know what?
We were walking with Him and we didn't even recognize Him.
He was appearing and we were blind to Him.
And we were leaving Jerusalem. We were trying to get out of there. We thought He had failed. We thought our hopes were dashed. We were in despair. And though we were fleeing from His work, He came into our journey.
We had lost hope and He gave us hope again. What do you understand about mission? But if this same Jesus has made Himself aware in our consciousness, then we have to tell people. We have to say, "You need to know Him too." There was a plan from the beginning of the ages for men and women, boys and girls, to know this Jesus, that they would not be in the flat world of non-spiritual reality, that that would be their only hope, the material world that's going in. I've got to tell you about this Jesus.
And what I tell you is about His victory. He crushed the penalty of sin. So those who trust in Him, who hide behind Him, who repent of their sin, who say, "I've got to have this one. I'm not going to make it on my own. I need Him that those people are made right with God by the victory of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you about it with honesty and transparency."
I didn't even get it. I was despairing. I had all the information in front of me, and still I had trouble believing it.
It's really just what God is calling us to do now. If we think about friends and family and coworkers, and we're wondering, "What do I say?
How do I talk to people?"
If you could be a little transparent to say, "You know what? I don't get it all either.
I'm struggling at times to see Him for real in my life, but here's what I know. I was blind, but now I see. I begin to get it. I was trusting in my ability. Now I trust in His work. I was despairing that my life could be made right, that my sin could be forgiven, that my relationships could be made right, that the addiction could be… I just needn't have hope anymore."
And Jesus came in, and when we are able to talk that way, not just with a formula, not just we have all the words right, maybe it's better if you don't have all the words right so that people know you're just being honest, sharing from your heart, that this transparency is in itself transforming.
We're scared to, of course. We all know that. What if they get upset? What if they get angry?
I read prior to Easter one of the more recent reports of Ed Stetser, who's the researcher who works at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois, and he began to survey people who are not regular church attenders and asked this question.
Would you be willing to have a conversation with someone who would talk to you honestly about their faith?
78% of non-church-going people say they would be willing to have that conversation. Now I know there's still 20% there roughly who aren't willing, but 80% of the people in our lives who are not regular churchgoers, who do not understand Christ's victory, if you would speak with transparency and honesty to them, are willing to have the conversation. Why is that important?
Because 90% of the people who are in any evangelical Bible-believing church are here because a friend or family member invited them. Isn't that true? It's not just the television, it's not the brochure, it's not the track. 90% of the people who are here. Just think of yourself. Why are you here?
Just all of you, because a friend or family member introduced me to the things of God, brought me to church, got me to understand the things of God. And if I begin to understand that, it's the invitation recognizing it's unlikely to be rejected at least in its early stages of just willing to have the conversation. You know what confirmed that to me recently? I've mentioned it to you several times. It's when Mike Jackson with Campus Outreach began to survey our local college campuses and ask the standard questions, "What is your hope of heaven?" If you believe there's an afterlife, what makes you believe you're going to get on the positive side of that?
And here in this kind of Bible-rich, lots of Sunday schools, lots of churches community, the most common answer on the college campuses of this community was, "I think I've been good enough."
The exact wrong answer.
Instead of saying, "I trust Christ's grace and provision," not my goodness, the most common answer of the educated, the best of our people in the college campuses is, "I'm going to try to be good enough for a holy God to receive me." Now we know that's the right answer. What's going to get people to say, "I trust Jesus to make away from me," not my goodness, but his?
It's having a conversation with people. Mike asked the next question of those same people. If somebody felt they had an answer for you of what it would take to be on the good side of the afterlife, would you be willing to have a conversation with them? And the vast majority of those students say, "Yeah, if they were willing to be honest with me, I'd talk with someone."
It's exactly the same thing. If people feel from us candor and honesty and care, they are willing to have that conversation. And the power of it is recognizing, "I'm not speaking on my own. It is Christ to become present with me by his spirit. I'm not just fearfully trembling having this conversation, and God is somewhere in another universe. Here is Christ right here with me, helping me, even as I pray. God, I don't know what to say, but in this moment, would you just give me the right words to be transparent? I was blind, but now I begin to see some things. I was despairing, but now Jesus gave me some hope. I didn't deserve it, but he gave himself for me, and I believe that.
And that truth is transforming if we can speak just with that kind of transparency. What would make you do that? Why would you become so motivated to share Christ in a way that you know 20% of the people won't want to hear, though 80% will? What would motivate you? Two things.
Burning hearts and breaking bread.
The burning hearts, obviously, verse 32.
These disciples, after Jesus has revealed themselves, think back on the conversation. Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road and opened to us the Scriptures? Listen, one thing that should motivate us to let people know about our faith is that we look back over the miracle of the Bible as well as the miracle of Easter, and we say, it is incredible that this Jesus was revealing himself through so many centuries in such a profound and inexplicable way by purely human measures. That's amazing. And we're just kind of inspired by that knowledge of the uniqueness and the speciality of our Scriptures. That's inspiring.
That's not enough.
I mean, it's kind of like when you come to Easter and you're a little thrilled by the music and you like seeing family, and it's kind of fun to be in the big crowd on Easter Day, and we're inspired by that. But it can kind of be like Presidents Day, you know, that you kind of feel that Lincoln-ish appreciation. Yeah, that was inspiring, that Abraham Lincoln experience.
What will actually motivate you to share your soul with another person?
The breaking bread.
He knew all along that he would have to give himself, and still he came.
He knew what would be needed for my salvation, the forgiveness of my sin, the putting away as far as the East is from the West, my guilt, my shame. He knew what it would take, and still he offered himself. And what that brings out of me is not just inspiration, but affection, profound love. I have to tell you about the love of my life. That's what's motivating me now. Not just inspiration, not got a great story to tell. I need to tell you about the lover of my soul.
When he knew the worst about me, he gave himself for me, and that means everything now. What's the difference? I think of the difference for some people who have that father who is either distant or was abusive.
And they are in a relationship with that father. They can't help but be, you know, that's my family. I'm in a relationship. What about the father that they begin to recognize, gave up everything, the promotion, the recreation, the self-serving, to make a way for you.
Now you recognize it's not just inspiration. I have profound affection for that, and I want to give and make known the love that was given to me.
That type of father is the one who so motivates us when he says, "I will give you my own son
that you too may be my child."
That father is our father whom we share.
How do we know what makes a difference? I think of probably the most famous scene out of the Barcelona Olympics. Some of you will remember the name Eric Redman who was expected to win the 400 meter.
But in the 400 meter sprint after only 150 meters, he pulled up short with a torn hamstring, tearing, pain going down his leg. And as he fell to the track, the various officials tried to keep him down. "You're hurt. You don't need to get up. You can't make it on your own now."
But he got up and began to limp. It was apparent. He was not going to end well no matter how hard he tried. And even as some of the officials were trying to get him back down, you saw this figure break through the security lines onto the track and come up and take his arm and put it over his shoulder immediately. The shock of somebody else coming onto the track and taking his arm made Redman react. Who are you? Didn't even recognize that it was his father who had broken through the lines to help him. And as soon as Eric recognized it was his father, two things, he wept.
So much sacrifice, so much pain, but here is my father for me.
He wept at his plight and then he leaned on his father.
If we begin to recognize what we should do with Easter, we begin to weep for the plight and then we begin to lean on the father who gave us his son. What does that mean? It means when a particular area of sin looks attractive to you and you feel weak and vulnerable, you weep for your vulnerability. You weep for the guilt that you feel and then you lean on your father and you say, "God, help me to remember that not only will you provide a way of escape, there's no temptation greater than your provision and you gave Jesus to forgive my sin and give me strength by your spirit."
And when you've been betrayed by someone and thoughts of vengeance enter your head, what do you do with Easter then? You weep for the betrayal. You have a right to do that. And then you pray, God, that you would forgive as he has forgiven you, lest the bitterness go into your own soul and destroy it by the acid of anger in your own heart.
And when you're struggling in your marriage and it seems impossible to love another as God has designed, then you weep for the struggle. That is right and good to say this is not what God intended. And at the same moment you say, "God, teach me again of your son who loved me and gave himself for me, even as you are now calling me to do for my spouse. I am not giving myself until they return the right favor, until they give me tit for tat." No, my Savior gave himself without condition and I recognize this marriage will not turn around until you enable me to do the same. I'm going to need your help to do that. I lean on you, my father, to help me. And when you're facing another situation with a rebellious child and you feel as though there is no patience left, you remember that Easter. Where Christ who rose from the dead told you about His Father, who had a prodigal son who when the son was still a long way off, His father ran to Him and threw his arms around Him and kissed Him and said, "This is my son who was lost and now he was found. He was dead but now he's alive again." And we say, "Father, teach me of your fatherhood that I might so deal with my own child." And when you're in bed tonight mulling over yesterday, today, and tomorrow, how will you face tomorrow? By recognizing the risen Jesus is there in the yesterday and the day and tomorrow and because He is with me.
That is the Easter miracle I still celebrate, not just out of the tomb. With me I weep for the worry but lean on the Father who gave me His son.
And for that reason I have strength for today and tomorrow.
May God so enable you to weep and to lean for your heart and the risen Lord. Lean on Him.
He would have you know His hope. Father, so work in us the truths of the gospel that you have given with such patience and care and determination that we would know how great is the gospel of your love and in knowing it would lean upon it. Turn our hearts to you in prayer that we might weep for the hurts but lean on the Father who gave us Jesus.
That we might know your strength through Him.
So work in us even now, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.