ON THE EMMAUS ROAD

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: LUKE 24:13-35




INTRODUCTION:


  1. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most important doctrines in the Bible. If you study all of the great sermons in the book of Acts, you will see that it was the central theme of the apostles’ preaching.
  2. The apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:17-19, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."
  3. We must be careful not to let all of the worldly trappings obscure the true meaning of Easter, which is that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead.
  4. Our English word Easter comes from the name of a heathen goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April.
  5. Like Christmas, there is no trace of Easter celebration in the New Testament. The early Christians were mostly all Jewish and they continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal lamb.
  6. This naturally led to a commemoration of the death and resurrection of our Lord and to what is now known as Easter.
  7. Ever since I was a child I always wondered why the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrated Easter on a different Sunday from everyone else.
  8. The answer is quite simple: they use a different calendar. The Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII) was adopted in 1582, but was rejected by the Eastern Orthodox churches, which still hold to the Julian calendar (established by Julius Caesar in 46 BC).
  9. And yet it really does not matter, because to the Christian, every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. This is why Christians do not worship on Saturday. Saturday was the Jewish sabbath, but Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day.
  10. This Resurrection Sunday I would like for us to look at a wonderful passage of Scripture, describing for us some of the things that happened on that first Easter Sunday.

  1. THEIR EYES WERE HOLDEN ON THE EMMAUS ROAD
  2. THEIR HEARTS WERE BURNING ON THE EMMAUS ROAD
  3. THEIR EYES WERE OPENED ON THE EMMAUS ROAD
  4. THEIR MOUTHS WERE OPENED ON THE EMMAUS ROAD

 

I. THEIR EYES WERE HOLDEN (LUKE 24:13-24).

    1. The word "holden" (24:16) is an old English word that is seldom used today. It means "restricted." The NKJV says, "their eyes were restrained."
    2. Years ago, a large group of students and teachers were up from BJ. They were riding the subway in Brooklyn when one of the teachers kept adjusting the eyeglasses of a young lady he thought was a student. He must have felt embarrassed when all the students got off at their appointed stop and the young lady with the glasses stayed on the train. She was not part of their group!
    3. We do not know the identity of these two disciples on the Emmaus Road (24:13), other than one of them was named Cleophas (24:18). Mary, the wife of Cleophas, stood by the cross, but we do not know if this was the same Cleophas (cf. John 19:25).
    4. We do know that these disciples were not part of the original twelve apostles (cf. 24:33).
    5. Our Lord quietly "drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him" (24:15,16).
    6. At first glance, this is hard to understand, but there is a Biblical principle: Oftentimes our eyes cannot see God at work (cf. II Kings 6:8-17).
    7. Another problem with these two men was that their understanding of our Lord was rather limited (24:19-21). Oftentimes, we limit God because of our limited understanding of the Bible. We need to ask God to open our eyes so we can understand His Word.
    8. These men were "sad" (24:17), but they should have been glad.

 

II. THEIR HEARTS WERE BURNING.

    1. After they explained to Him the reason for their sadness, the Lord rebuked them for being "slow of heart" (24:25).
    2. But after He opened up the Scriptures to them, their "hearts burned within" them (24:32). This is a good case of "heart burn."
    3. Our Lord showed them from the Old Testament that He was the Messiah and that He had to suffer and die for the sins of the world (24:25-27; cf. 24:44,45).
    4. The Bible says, "And beginning at Moses…" (24:27), i.e. Genesis (cf. Gen.22).
    5. He must have taken them through Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, and all the other great Messianic prophecies in the O.T. It must have been quite a Bible study!
    6. All of the great preachers in the New Testament, beginning with our Lord and including Peter, and Stephen, and Paul – all of them used the OT to demonstrate that Jesus was the Messiah (24:25,26).

 

III. THEIR EYES WERE OPENED.

    1. Something happened as our Lord took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to them. At this point He opened their eyes and allowed them to see (24:28-31).
    2. Perhaps it was the way He prayed over the food. Maybe they saw the nail-prints in His hands (cf. 24:38-40). The Bible does not say exactly how it happened. It just says, "And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him" (24:31).
    3. "…And He vanished out of their sight" (24:31b). As soon as they realized who it was they were talking to, our Lord vanished. And then they recollected all the marvelous things that He had taught them that day.
    4. "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us…" (24:32). Does your heart burn when the Gospel is preached or is your heart cold?
    5. John Wesley said that when he was saved he felt his heart "strangely warmed." And his heart continued to burn all those years he traveled about preaching the Word of God.

 

IV. THEIR MOUTHS WERE OPENED (24:33-35).

    1. These two disciples did not want our Lord to travel at night because it was dangerous. There were many thieves, wild animals and other dangers. So "they constrained Him" to stay with them for the night (24:29).
    2. Yet now, upon realizing that they had just spoken with the resurrected Lord, "they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem" (24:33-35).
    3. Before their eyes were holden, but now their eyes were opened, and their hearts were burning and their mouths were open. Now they went all the way to Jerusalem (about 7 miles, cf. 24:13) and could proclaim with the other disciples: "The Lord is risen indeed" (24:34).

CONCLUSION:

  1. Michael Faraday was a great English physicist and chemist – one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century.
  2. He discovered the principle of the electric motor, was the first to liquefy chlorine, and was a pioneer in the field of electromagnetism.
  3. When he was dying, a journalist asked him if he had any speculations for a life after death.
  4. "Speculations!" said Michael Faraday. "I know nothing about speculations. I’m resting on certainties. ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ and because He lives, I shall live also."
  5. Perhaps there is someone here this Easter Sunday that does not have this kind of assurance. Are you saved? (Romans 10:9)


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