The Burning Hearts

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07 Apr 2024

The Burning Hearts

Passage Luke 24:13-35

Speaker Ben Lucas

Service Evening

Series Easter Hope with Dr. Luke

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Passage: Luke 24:13-35

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognising him.

17 He asked them, ‘What are you discussing together as you walk along?’

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’

19 ‘What things?’ he asked.

‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.’

25 He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further. 29 But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread.

New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Thank you. James, do you have your bibles with you?

I do have your bible open with you. As we read this text, we pray as we begin, Father, we do pray that you would open the eyes of our hearts, that we might understand your word for us, Lord, that we wouldn't just be reading words for a book, but that we will be hearing your voice. In Jesus name and for his glory, we ask it. Amen. Well, let's set the scene.

Last week, we heard all about the. The women going to the tomb. The women went to the tomb, if you remember, and they saw the empty tomb and the angels appeared to them and said, why are you looking for the living amongst the dead? Well, then they went back and the blokes were typical blokes and were like, no, that's just a womanish thing to say. Peter ran off to the tomb and then the story sort of breaks off there and that's where we pick up our story today.

But I do just want to. Something occurred to me as James was reading it. It's interesting that we haven't actually seen Jesus yet. We've seen a bunch of evidence, we've seen a bunch of, like, the empty tomb. We've had an angel come and make an announcement and then we see Simon running off and like the film.

If you imagine. If Luke's sort of like directing a film, he's like, right, let's have Simon run off and then fade to black and go to the Emmaus road like a new scene. Why don't we find out the end of what. What Simon does there? It's interesting.

At the end of our passage, if you look in verse 35, we. Verse 34 when. When the guys from the Emmaus road come back, they arrive back and they're like, oh, by the way, Jesus appeared to Simon. They said, oh, well, that was happening, presumably, in the meantime, wasn't it? So Luke's taking some care to make sure that actually we haven't got a risen Jesus yet.

We haven't sort of seen the risen Jesus. We haven't recognised him yet. That's going to be a key theme in our story. But anyway, that doesn't count in the sermon because I only realised it as the reading was happening. That's just a recap, really.

This text and that point does actually lead into. It is all about recognition. Where do we. Where do we see Jesus? How do we recognise him, really?

What do we make of all these events of Easter? Because we've had all sorts of events, haven't we? We've had like a triumphal entry. We've had a last supper, we've had Jesus on the cross, we've had his arrest, obviously, before we've even had the empty tomb. All sorts of events and how do they tie together?

How are they going to actually hang as one piece? What do they mean? What do they mean? Well, that's what this text is about, because Jesus is going to tell them. I'm going to tell you what all this stuff means.

This is how it's all going to hang together. But just because we've been sitting for some time, I'm going to give you a little bit of brain teaser. Can we stick something on the quiz? If you've seen this before, don't shout it out. Right.

You've got nine dots on the screen. Okay? That's correct. Yeah. So I've seen blank faces and thinking, my math can't be that bad, can it?

There are nine dots on the screen. What I want you to do, and you're going to have 1 minute to do this. It's gonna be very difficult without a pen and paper. Try to connect all the dots with four straight lines.

We should have some of that interlude music, shouldn't we?

If anyone knows how to do it, don't say, I wonder if anyone's turned off straight away. Just like, this is not my kind of thing. It can be done. Has anyone got it who didn't know already? Helen's got it.

I would ask you to prove it, but that's quite difficult, isn't it? Right, okay, can we go to the answer? There you go. It can be done. Can you see that?

I'm hoping to see, like, I was hoping to see sort of faces of amazement that were like, what an epiphany that is. That's unbelievable. Do you know what? I went to church tonight and I can do something, something impossible. Connect these dots.

The next time you need to wager with someone, can you connect these four dots? My non tenuous point here, we can blank the screen now, is that you have all these sort of data points and little facts, but you're really not sure what the solution is, how they're going to all hang together until someone tells you. And then you're like, oh, that is so obvious. Maybe that didn't quite happen with this, but that's what I was going for. Can you imagine that?

That's what happened when you were here today? We can take that off the screen because otherwise. Thank you. You see, this is sort of what happens is because we find some disciples on this road. And they really have no idea what to make of these events.

And Jesus says, actually, I'm going to tell you. Well, there are two real parts to this story. The first part is that he says, actually, the scriptures. I've told you what all of this means. The Bible has told you all along that actually it's all about me.

It's all about me, the messiah. And then in the second half, he says that this isn't just a story out there. You know, he's eating a meal with them and they finally recognise him when he breaks bread and gives it to them, when they know that actually, this isn't a story from the distant past, but this is a story for them anyway. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that.

Let's turn first to Jesus being the meaning of. Of scripture, because this is a pretty massive point, because, as I say, we find these disciples on the road and it's quite funny, actually. I think we've got to find this scene quite humorous. I think Luke Prairie had a sense of humour and the Lord, when he inspired it, definitely, because you've got these guys going along the road and, you know, just think how much stuff they know about Easter. They know everything, right?

These guys have been with Jesus, right? They were there when the donkey was walking in, waving their palm branches, shouting Hosanna to the son of David. You know, they were around when the crowd turned. They were around when Jesus was arrested, wondering what was going to happen to him. They would have been able to see Jesus walking along the road, carrying his cross.

They would have seen him die. They've even seen that there's an empty tomb. At least they've heard that. I mean, they would be able to answer all sorts of questions that would be amazing for us to answer from Easter. You know?

What kind of wine was used in the last supper? Was it like, a really good one? I would name cheque a wine, but I didn't know any good ones. I'd be like, was it blue nun? That's the.

It was better than that. I know for sure. But beyond that, don't know what colour was the donkey? You know, when people put their cloaks down, did they get them back? You know, all sorts of questions.

I don't know. Maybe you could think of some other questions from me. Was the wood smooth on the cross? You know, did you kind of get, like, all sorts of questions? They had all sorts of facts that we will never know the answer to.

Enviable knowledge. They had. And yet they didn't get the meaning. They are walking along the road on Resurrection day. We've heard in verse 13, that same day, the same day Jesus is actually risen.

They found out about it. Jesus is standing right next to them. And we read verse 17. They stood still, their faces downcast. The happiest day of history.

Their faces downcast because they didn't get it. They know more facts than we will ever know about it, but they don't understand how it all hangs together.

And right there, I think there are just two things that we can draw out from this. You know, they're on the road speaking to Jesus. They don't recognise him. It's not because Jesus looked different, it's because he was kept from recognising. In verse 16, they were kept from recognising him because.

Because they would have recognised him, right? Because the resurrected body is the same body he went into the grave with, as we will be resurrected with our same body. So they would have recognised him, but they were kept from it because of what he wanted to do. But Jesus was right there. And I just wonder how many of us have had Jesus right there sometimes, you know, it's like he's right there next to us and we're like, oh, where are you?

And he's like, I'm here probably lots of the time. Most of the time. Why? Because he's the ever present God and yet they just couldn't see him. I wonder whether we're going to be reading stories like this.

We're going to be in heaven and we'll be reading the memoirs of our life and be like, oh, he was just right there. That's a bit embarrassing. Now. I can see that they didn't recognise him. We don't always recognise Christ when he's right with us.

The second thing is sometimes we can be tempted to think, you know what? People just need to know a bunch more stuff, you know, to recognise Jesus. We just need to know some more. We just need to know some more facts. What facts do we need to sort of get this over the line?

But look, if they could know everything about Easter, if they could have been at the first Easter, watch the whole thing unfold and still not get it, it's not surprising, is it, that some people will not. Will not understand who Jesus is. Why? Because he has to open their hearts as we're going to see. Well, anyway, let's continue with our story.

They ask Jesus. This is the funny bit. They ask Jesus.

Well, Jesus asked them, what are you discussing. And then Cleopatra says, 18. He must be like, he must be thinking in heaven. Oh, this is so embarrassing. Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who did not know the things that have gone on?

He's literally, like, staring at Jesus in the face, the one all of this happens to. And it's like, don't you know? How can you not know me? And you know he's speaking to Jesus. He thinks he's got it all, Sus.

He thinks he knows all the facts. The facts are in for me. This is embarrassing. You've got egg on your face. You don't know what's gone in Jerusalem, do you?

But actually, it's of course him that has absolutely no idea. They're the ones that don't know. They're the ones that don't know it. So Jesus says, do you know what? I'm going to show you the lid of the puzzle.

Did you ever do that? You need the lid of the puzzle, don't you? It's really hard to do the puzzle without a lid. Jesus is like, I'm going to show you the lid of the puzzle. Then you're going to be able to find out where all these pieces go.

We're going to slot them together. He does it gently and kindly, but he does expect them to have known more, actually.

And he explains to them that actually, the whole of scripture was talking about me. The whole of scripture is talking about me. You should have known this. You should have known this. And I think that's interesting, isn't it?

Just stop there for a second, because we might take this for granted if we know this story. Well, why did Jesus not just say, ta da, it's me? You know? That would have been so tempting, wouldn't it? So tempting.

You know, like when a toddler plays hide and seek, you're like, go on, go and hide. Where are you? I'm here. So. Oh, that's not what you're supposed to do in hide and seek.

It'd be so tempting. But Jesus doesn't sort of ping out and say, it's me here. What does he do? He says, go to the scriptures. Because that's the place that you're supposed to understand all about me.

This is what they should have known. What should they know?

What should they know? But it's not that they didn't know the facts. It's not that they just didn't have enough knowledge. It's like, oh, you should have, should have noticed more stuff. You should have really realised about that empty tomb.

He didn't even say, actually, you were wrong not to believe the women about the empty tomb. He says, verse 25, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? That's what they should have known. What they should have realised from the Bible is that Christ had to suffer and then enter his glory.

And then he begins with Moses and the prophet. That's the Old Testament for us. He begins with Moses and the prophet goes through the old testament and explains to them how this is what they should have noticed all along, all of those texts that pointed to me.

Now we should. There's always been a part of me that thinks, I wish we had this sermon on record, because it would have been amazing, wouldn't it? But, you know, I think we do. I think we actually do, because Luke is really one half of a big book, Luke act. It's really one book that goes together and in acts over and over again, we have sermons in chapter four, in chapter five, and on and on, all the way to the end.

And in each one of those sermons, it goes through the Old Testament saying, didn't you know that the Christ is the one that had to come and suffer? So you can just go and read acts and I think you find really what Jesus told them.

But this is the thing. The whole of scripture points to Jesus. This is the purpose of scripture.

And here's an important point for us. It's possible to read the Bible wrong. It's possible to read it and miss the point. You could be really strong in the knowledge of just knowing all the details. You could be someone who knows, who figured out, finally, where Emmaus is.

No one knows, by the way. You know? Oh, wow. You know, that could be really interesting. And that's a worthy thing to do, right?

But unless you understand that it's pointed to Christ, you've missed. You've missed the plot. I'm telling you, this is absolutely true and makes a massive difference. I had the privilege of studying in a quite well respected university to learn theology. And I had one particular teacher.

I've never met anybody who had more knowledge about the Bible in my whole life. Unbelievable. I was talking about him, talking to him one day and I was asking him about some word. I was like, oh, I think the Hebrew word is such and such. And he was like, yes, that occurs one other time in Ezekiel 40 something.

I was like, mate, what does the inside of your head look like? An encyclopaedia. Of some sort. Unbelievable knowledge in the scriptures. And yet, as soon as I graduated, in fact, he was working on a commentary on proverbs wisdom, how to live wisely and sensibly.

The second term ended, he was arrested for heinous, for heinous crimes. It's as if he'd been reading the scriptures. He'd plumped his head through and none of it had got to his heart. He didn't get it. He didn't get that the whole scriptures were supposed to lead him to Christ.

You can be really strong in knowledge. These guys knew everything about Easter, but they didn't know its meaningful. Okay, so if you can read the Bible wrong, how do you read the Bible? Well, it means that when we're reading our, our Old Testament, we need to read it pointing to Christ, because the, because Jesus is really the whole point. He is the end of the law.

He's the meaning of the whole thing. He's the goal. But I wonder whether you, you sometimes think, okay, I hear this sort of thing and I'm really, you know, how do you actually do that? Does that mean you sort of grasp onto little details and, you know, you sort of make it say something about Jesus when it, when it doesn't really, it doesn't mean that it does. Jesus doesn't mean that because he's not telling them.

Oh, by the way, here's, here's the enigma code that I've cracked for you, and now you can go back and find it all out because he says, you should have noticed this. What it means is that if you just plainly and straight read your Bible, you will see that time and again points to Christ. There are lots of texts that explicitly point to Christ, but more than that, it means that the problems and the issues that the Bible raises are answered in Jesus. So whether the original author really was thinking, you know, I'm thinking about this guy Jesus, he's going to come. That's not necessarily what he means, because actually, if you have a king, let's say we have King Saul, and Saul has been sent to be the king of Israel.

And he seemed like he was going to be a really, really great king, but he lets everybody down. He's not the king he should have been. Then you're still left with the question, aren't they? Will there ever be a king that we need? Of course there is.

Yeah. I was going to be pointing to Jesus, isn't it? You know, you're reading judges and it just seems like everything is going wrong and people are doing terrible things to each other. And as you're reading this, you're thinking, will this ever be sorted out? Will people always behave this way?

Will there ever be justice? If this can happen? Yeah, there will be the answers in Christ. And so as you read our bible, the whole thing is about Jesus, not because we're sort of stretching it, because it plainly is about him. Anyway, let's move on.

The second thing, and shorter, I promise you it is that Jesus reveals himself in a meal. In a meal. So let's pick up the story again. Verse 28. They're approaching the village to which they're going.

Jesus acted as if he was going on. And they invite him to dinner. Okay? They invite him to dinner. They say, the hour's quite late.

You know, you really should come in for tea. So he goes in and they eat. Verse 30. When he was at the table with him, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Two things.

The first thing is that Jesus is acting quite surprisingly here because he's just been invited into someone else's house for dinner. And then he's the one acting as the host. That's a bit of a surprise, isn't it? You know, if Hugh invites me around for dinner, I'm not like, come on, Hugh, up to the table. I'm going to give thanks.

Now, that's not what you do, is it? But Jesus has come in to this other meal and he started to act as the host for the meal. So that's kind of okay, something's going on here. Who is this bloke?

And actually, just think of those words. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Does that remind you of anything? You know, he's alluding to the last supper, isn't he? The last supper where he broke bread, gave it to them, saying, take, eat, this is my body.

Give them for you. And, you know, Luke records two other occasions where Jesus is the host at a meal. The first one is the feeding of the 5000. Back in Luke, chapter nine, we read how Jesus is on a mountainside. And you remember that lots of people were hungry and they were in the wilderness.

There was no food. And Jesus took a few loaves and fishes, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. There was enough for everybody. And at that point, Jesus was saying, you know, I am that heavenly king who provides. God provided in the wilderness, didn't he?

He provided that manner in the wilderness. I'm the one here to provide for you, right? I'm the great provider. I'm that king. This is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet for you.

And the next time, of course, the last Supper, which is well familiar, isn't it? Jesus is the host there at that meal. And he has his friend round and breaks bread. And again he's giving them a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, isn't he? He's saying, actually there's going to be a time when we're going to eat this meal, this banquet together in heaven.

This is just an amuse bouche for what's to come. Well, here, he's not doing communion here. Don't hear me wrong. I mean, there's no cup. He doesn't say any of that sort of stuff.

But he's alluding to the fact that there is a time coming where you guys are going to eat with me in my heavenly kingdom, in my banquet. And he's pointing to that. And that matters for this reason.

It matters because they needed to understand the scriptures, that it all pointed to them. But they needed to know that it wasn't just a story that happened in history, but it was, was a story for them. You know, I'm not just the messiah of someone else, I'm the messiah for you, you know, and so as he, as he, as he does this, as he breaks bread, as he offers it to people, he's saying that this promises for you. It's like he's eyeballing you personally and saying, this is promises for you. This isn't just a general promise for some people in the past, which is amazing.

This is for you, as you know, this is for you. And he says, actually, ben, I'm the messiah for you.

Then their eyes are opened. That's interesting, isn't it? Then their eyes are opened.

Verse 31. Then their eyes were opened. You might think their eyes would be opened after he'd just given the most majestic explanation of what the whole scriptures mean. No, not at that point. It's when he reminds them, actually, you're invited to my heavenly banquet.

I'm reminding you of the last Supper. I'm for you.

And this is really key because the Easter events matter for us individually. Not just generally, but individually.

Having a baby is the best thing I can imagine. This too is like having a baby. You know, you kind of, not that I like I've had a baby. Well, you know, anyway, having a baby, you kind of know that having a baby is going to be a big thing. People tell you it's going to be a massive deal that is going to change your life.

And you sort of nod and, oh, I'm sorry, you guys who don't know what I'm talking about, you know, it's coming. Maybe people tell, you know, you believe them, you know, you think, yeah, this is going to be pretty big. Not gonna lie, I've been tired for about ten years now. Same age as my eldest, isn't it, Eliana? I'm not sure why it's been ten years.

Anyway. Having a baby changes your life. It really, really does. But the interesting thing is that when you actually hold your first child in your hand, or a child that's actually yours in your hand, it's totally different. And it's funny because it's not like the facts are different, you know?

I don't. Before you had a baby, you say, yes, I believe it's going to change it. It's going to be difficult. I'm going to love them unconditionally. It's going to be incredible.

I'm looking forward to that baby hair smell, all those sorts of things that you've been told about, but when you hold that baby, it's like all those things are true in a different way. You're suddenly like, oh, but that's true for me now. Like, not because it wasn't true before, but it's like, it's. It's mine now. People have had that experience with know what I'm talking about.

I think there are other things, I'm sure, in your life where you can think that you knew what it might be like, or you could tell someone what it would be like, but when it actually happened, you're like, whoa, that's different. And here's the thing, jesus isn't doing anything new in the breaking of bread. It's not like he said, oh, well, I tried explaining to you the Bible that didn't make a difference, so I'm going to do something else. Let's try communion. Yeah.

It's the same promise, it's the same word. It's just now what is happening is it's being promised to you, right? It's as if. It's as if he's got a wedding ring and it's like, you know, I love you, but now I'm just going to put my love around your finger, you know? And so it's at this moment that they recognise Jesus.

And to come back to the very beginning, just finally, why is it that Luke doesn't give us just a clear sort of, like, jesus tada moment until here. It's interesting is that if he'd have done that, we'd have gone. That's a really cool story. I wish Jesus were tada me. But actually what he's wanting to say is, do you know what you have today?

These means of grace? You have word and sacrament. You have preaching and you have communion. You have these things where you know what the whole end of scripture is about. About me.

You can read that right here. And you know it's a promise for you, because I've given you a sign to tell you that we're in the same position they are, where we can find Christ and discover him. And these means of grace and what a privilege that is, isn't it? What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus does that for him. So what does Easter mean?

Or at least how do we make sense of it all? Well, it's all about Christ, but really at this point, not only that, it all ties together in Christ, it's that it's all for me. You see this promise, this resurrection offer is for you by name.

Maybe you're sort of in the first bit. Maybe you get that the scriptures point to Jesus, but you don't get that it's maybe for you. Why don't you ask Christ to reveal himself to you, to let you know that he loves you by name, personally?

Because it's a wonderful thing. We can know Jesus in the word and in sacraments today. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you for this passage. We thank you for inspiring Luke to write it for our benefit. And we do thank you that you've given us the scriptures and you've given us your visible promise that you are for us, that you love us. I pray today that we wouldn't be just about facts, although those facts matter, but that we would know you are for us. We would know you as our messiah.

We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognising him.

17 He asked them, ‘What are you discussing together as you walk along?’

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’

19 ‘What things?’ he asked.

‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.’

25 He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further. 29 But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread.

New International Version – UK (NIVUK)

Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

This transcript has been automatically generated and therefore may not be 100% accurate

Thank you. James, do you have your bibles with you?

I do have your bible open with you. As we read this text, we pray as we begin, Father, we do pray that you would open the eyes of our hearts, that we might understand your word for us, Lord, that we wouldn’t just be reading words for a book, but that we will be hearing your voice. In Jesus name and for his glory, we ask it. Amen. Well, let’s set the scene.

Last week, we heard all about the. The women going to the tomb. The women went to the tomb, if you remember, and they saw the empty tomb and the angels appeared to them and said, why are you looking for the living amongst the dead? Well, then they went back and the blokes were typical blokes and were like, no, that’s just a womanish thing to say. Peter ran off to the tomb and then the story sort of breaks off there and that’s where we pick up our story today.

But I do just want to. Something occurred to me as James was reading it. It’s interesting that we haven’t actually seen Jesus yet. We’ve seen a bunch of evidence, we’ve seen a bunch of, like, the empty tomb. We’ve had an angel come and make an announcement and then we see Simon running off and like the film.

If you imagine. If Luke’s sort of like directing a film, he’s like, right, let’s have Simon run off and then fade to black and go to the Emmaus road like a new scene. Why don’t we find out the end of what. What Simon does there? It’s interesting.

At the end of our passage, if you look in verse 35, we. Verse 34 when. When the guys from the Emmaus road come back, they arrive back and they’re like, oh, by the way, Jesus appeared to Simon. They said, oh, well, that was happening, presumably, in the meantime, wasn’t it? So Luke’s taking some care to make sure that actually we haven’t got a risen Jesus yet.

We haven’t sort of seen the risen Jesus. We haven’t recognised him yet. That’s going to be a key theme in our story. But anyway, that doesn’t count in the sermon because I only realised it as the reading was happening. That’s just a recap, really.

This text and that point does actually lead into. It is all about recognition. Where do we. Where do we see Jesus? How do we recognise him, really?

What do we make of all these events of Easter? Because we’ve had all sorts of events, haven’t we? We’ve had like a triumphal entry. We’ve had a last supper, we’ve had Jesus on the cross, we’ve had his arrest, obviously, before we’ve even had the empty tomb. All sorts of events and how do they tie together?

How are they going to actually hang as one piece? What do they mean? What do they mean? Well, that’s what this text is about, because Jesus is going to tell them. I’m going to tell you what all this stuff means.

This is how it’s all going to hang together. But just because we’ve been sitting for some time, I’m going to give you a little bit of brain teaser. Can we stick something on the quiz? If you’ve seen this before, don’t shout it out. Right.

You’ve got nine dots on the screen. Okay? That’s correct. Yeah. So I’ve seen blank faces and thinking, my math can’t be that bad, can it?

There are nine dots on the screen. What I want you to do, and you’re going to have 1 minute to do this. It’s gonna be very difficult without a pen and paper. Try to connect all the dots with four straight lines.

We should have some of that interlude music, shouldn’t we?

If anyone knows how to do it, don’t say, I wonder if anyone’s turned off straight away. Just like, this is not my kind of thing. It can be done. Has anyone got it who didn’t know already? Helen’s got it.

I would ask you to prove it, but that’s quite difficult, isn’t it? Right, okay, can we go to the answer? There you go. It can be done. Can you see that?

I’m hoping to see, like, I was hoping to see sort of faces of amazement that were like, what an epiphany that is. That’s unbelievable. Do you know what? I went to church tonight and I can do something, something impossible. Connect these dots.

The next time you need to wager with someone, can you connect these four dots? My non tenuous point here, we can blank the screen now, is that you have all these sort of data points and little facts, but you’re really not sure what the solution is, how they’re going to all hang together until someone tells you. And then you’re like, oh, that is so obvious. Maybe that didn’t quite happen with this, but that’s what I was going for. Can you imagine that?

That’s what happened when you were here today? We can take that off the screen because otherwise. Thank you. You see, this is sort of what happens is because we find some disciples on this road. And they really have no idea what to make of these events.

And Jesus says, actually, I’m going to tell you. Well, there are two real parts to this story. The first part is that he says, actually, the scriptures. I’ve told you what all of this means. The Bible has told you all along that actually it’s all about me.

It’s all about me, the messiah. And then in the second half, he says that this isn’t just a story out there. You know, he’s eating a meal with them and they finally recognise him when he breaks bread and gives it to them, when they know that actually, this isn’t a story from the distant past, but this is a story for them anyway. We’re going to get to that. We’re going to get to that.

Let’s turn first to Jesus being the meaning of. Of scripture, because this is a pretty massive point, because, as I say, we find these disciples on the road and it’s quite funny, actually. I think we’ve got to find this scene quite humorous. I think Luke Prairie had a sense of humour and the Lord, when he inspired it, definitely, because you’ve got these guys going along the road and, you know, just think how much stuff they know about Easter. They know everything, right?

These guys have been with Jesus, right? They were there when the donkey was walking in, waving their palm branches, shouting Hosanna to the son of David. You know, they were around when the crowd turned. They were around when Jesus was arrested, wondering what was going to happen to him. They would have been able to see Jesus walking along the road, carrying his cross.

They would have seen him die. They’ve even seen that there’s an empty tomb. At least they’ve heard that. I mean, they would be able to answer all sorts of questions that would be amazing for us to answer from Easter. You know?

What kind of wine was used in the last supper? Was it like, a really good one? I would name cheque a wine, but I didn’t know any good ones. I’d be like, was it blue nun? That’s the.

It was better than that. I know for sure. But beyond that, don’t know what colour was the donkey? You know, when people put their cloaks down, did they get them back? You know, all sorts of questions.

I don’t know. Maybe you could think of some other questions from me. Was the wood smooth on the cross? You know, did you kind of get, like, all sorts of questions? They had all sorts of facts that we will never know the answer to.

Enviable knowledge. They had. And yet they didn’t get the meaning. They are walking along the road on Resurrection day. We’ve heard in verse 13, that same day, the same day Jesus is actually risen.

They found out about it. Jesus is standing right next to them. And we read verse 17. They stood still, their faces downcast. The happiest day of history.

Their faces downcast because they didn’t get it. They know more facts than we will ever know about it, but they don’t understand how it all hangs together.

And right there, I think there are just two things that we can draw out from this. You know, they’re on the road speaking to Jesus. They don’t recognise him. It’s not because Jesus looked different, it’s because he was kept from recognising. In verse 16, they were kept from recognising him because.

Because they would have recognised him, right? Because the resurrected body is the same body he went into the grave with, as we will be resurrected with our same body. So they would have recognised him, but they were kept from it because of what he wanted to do. But Jesus was right there. And I just wonder how many of us have had Jesus right there sometimes, you know, it’s like he’s right there next to us and we’re like, oh, where are you?

And he’s like, I’m here probably lots of the time. Most of the time. Why? Because he’s the ever present God and yet they just couldn’t see him. I wonder whether we’re going to be reading stories like this.

We’re going to be in heaven and we’ll be reading the memoirs of our life and be like, oh, he was just right there. That’s a bit embarrassing. Now. I can see that they didn’t recognise him. We don’t always recognise Christ when he’s right with us.

The second thing is sometimes we can be tempted to think, you know what? People just need to know a bunch more stuff, you know, to recognise Jesus. We just need to know some more. We just need to know some more facts. What facts do we need to sort of get this over the line?

But look, if they could know everything about Easter, if they could have been at the first Easter, watch the whole thing unfold and still not get it, it’s not surprising, is it, that some people will not. Will not understand who Jesus is. Why? Because he has to open their hearts as we’re going to see. Well, anyway, let’s continue with our story.

They ask Jesus. This is the funny bit. They ask Jesus.

Well, Jesus asked them, what are you discussing. And then Cleopatra says, 18. He must be like, he must be thinking in heaven. Oh, this is so embarrassing. Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who did not know the things that have gone on?

He’s literally, like, staring at Jesus in the face, the one all of this happens to. And it’s like, don’t you know? How can you not know me? And you know he’s speaking to Jesus. He thinks he’s got it all, Sus.

He thinks he knows all the facts. The facts are in for me. This is embarrassing. You’ve got egg on your face. You don’t know what’s gone in Jerusalem, do you?

But actually, it’s of course him that has absolutely no idea. They’re the ones that don’t know. They’re the ones that don’t know it. So Jesus says, do you know what? I’m going to show you the lid of the puzzle.

Did you ever do that? You need the lid of the puzzle, don’t you? It’s really hard to do the puzzle without a lid. Jesus is like, I’m going to show you the lid of the puzzle. Then you’re going to be able to find out where all these pieces go.

We’re going to slot them together. He does it gently and kindly, but he does expect them to have known more, actually.

And he explains to them that actually, the whole of scripture was talking about me. The whole of scripture is talking about me. You should have known this. You should have known this. And I think that’s interesting, isn’t it?

Just stop there for a second, because we might take this for granted if we know this story. Well, why did Jesus not just say, ta da, it’s me? You know? That would have been so tempting, wouldn’t it? So tempting.

You know, like when a toddler plays hide and seek, you’re like, go on, go and hide. Where are you? I’m here. So. Oh, that’s not what you’re supposed to do in hide and seek.

It’d be so tempting. But Jesus doesn’t sort of ping out and say, it’s me here. What does he do? He says, go to the scriptures. Because that’s the place that you’re supposed to understand all about me.

This is what they should have known. What should they know?

What should they know? But it’s not that they didn’t know the facts. It’s not that they just didn’t have enough knowledge. It’s like, oh, you should have, should have noticed more stuff. You should have really realised about that empty tomb.

He didn’t even say, actually, you were wrong not to believe the women about the empty tomb. He says, verse 25, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? That’s what they should have known. What they should have realised from the Bible is that Christ had to suffer and then enter his glory.

And then he begins with Moses and the prophet. That’s the Old Testament for us. He begins with Moses and the prophet goes through the old testament and explains to them how this is what they should have noticed all along, all of those texts that pointed to me.

Now we should. There’s always been a part of me that thinks, I wish we had this sermon on record, because it would have been amazing, wouldn’t it? But, you know, I think we do. I think we actually do, because Luke is really one half of a big book, Luke act. It’s really one book that goes together and in acts over and over again, we have sermons in chapter four, in chapter five, and on and on, all the way to the end.

And in each one of those sermons, it goes through the Old Testament saying, didn’t you know that the Christ is the one that had to come and suffer? So you can just go and read acts and I think you find really what Jesus told them.

But this is the thing. The whole of scripture points to Jesus. This is the purpose of scripture.

And here’s an important point for us. It’s possible to read the Bible wrong. It’s possible to read it and miss the point. You could be really strong in the knowledge of just knowing all the details. You could be someone who knows, who figured out, finally, where Emmaus is.

No one knows, by the way. You know? Oh, wow. You know, that could be really interesting. And that’s a worthy thing to do, right?

But unless you understand that it’s pointed to Christ, you’ve missed. You’ve missed the plot. I’m telling you, this is absolutely true and makes a massive difference. I had the privilege of studying in a quite well respected university to learn theology. And I had one particular teacher.

I’ve never met anybody who had more knowledge about the Bible in my whole life. Unbelievable. I was talking about him, talking to him one day and I was asking him about some word. I was like, oh, I think the Hebrew word is such and such. And he was like, yes, that occurs one other time in Ezekiel 40 something.

I was like, mate, what does the inside of your head look like? An encyclopaedia. Of some sort. Unbelievable knowledge in the scriptures. And yet, as soon as I graduated, in fact, he was working on a commentary on proverbs wisdom, how to live wisely and sensibly.

The second term ended, he was arrested for heinous, for heinous crimes. It’s as if he’d been reading the scriptures. He’d plumped his head through and none of it had got to his heart. He didn’t get it. He didn’t get that the whole scriptures were supposed to lead him to Christ.

You can be really strong in knowledge. These guys knew everything about Easter, but they didn’t know its meaningful. Okay, so if you can read the Bible wrong, how do you read the Bible? Well, it means that when we’re reading our, our Old Testament, we need to read it pointing to Christ, because the, because Jesus is really the whole point. He is the end of the law.

He’s the meaning of the whole thing. He’s the goal. But I wonder whether you, you sometimes think, okay, I hear this sort of thing and I’m really, you know, how do you actually do that? Does that mean you sort of grasp onto little details and, you know, you sort of make it say something about Jesus when it, when it doesn’t really, it doesn’t mean that it does. Jesus doesn’t mean that because he’s not telling them.

Oh, by the way, here’s, here’s the enigma code that I’ve cracked for you, and now you can go back and find it all out because he says, you should have noticed this. What it means is that if you just plainly and straight read your Bible, you will see that time and again points to Christ. There are lots of texts that explicitly point to Christ, but more than that, it means that the problems and the issues that the Bible raises are answered in Jesus. So whether the original author really was thinking, you know, I’m thinking about this guy Jesus, he’s going to come. That’s not necessarily what he means, because actually, if you have a king, let’s say we have King Saul, and Saul has been sent to be the king of Israel.

And he seemed like he was going to be a really, really great king, but he lets everybody down. He’s not the king he should have been. Then you’re still left with the question, aren’t they? Will there ever be a king that we need? Of course there is.

Yeah. I was going to be pointing to Jesus, isn’t it? You know, you’re reading judges and it just seems like everything is going wrong and people are doing terrible things to each other. And as you’re reading this, you’re thinking, will this ever be sorted out? Will people always behave this way?

Will there ever be justice? If this can happen? Yeah, there will be the answers in Christ. And so as you read our bible, the whole thing is about Jesus, not because we’re sort of stretching it, because it plainly is about him. Anyway, let’s move on.

The second thing, and shorter, I promise you it is that Jesus reveals himself in a meal. In a meal. So let’s pick up the story again. Verse 28. They’re approaching the village to which they’re going.

Jesus acted as if he was going on. And they invite him to dinner. Okay? They invite him to dinner. They say, the hour’s quite late.

You know, you really should come in for tea. So he goes in and they eat. Verse 30. When he was at the table with him, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Two things.

The first thing is that Jesus is acting quite surprisingly here because he’s just been invited into someone else’s house for dinner. And then he’s the one acting as the host. That’s a bit of a surprise, isn’t it? You know, if Hugh invites me around for dinner, I’m not like, come on, Hugh, up to the table. I’m going to give thanks.

Now, that’s not what you do, is it? But Jesus has come in to this other meal and he started to act as the host for the meal. So that’s kind of okay, something’s going on here. Who is this bloke?

And actually, just think of those words. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Does that remind you of anything? You know, he’s alluding to the last supper, isn’t he? The last supper where he broke bread, gave it to them, saying, take, eat, this is my body.

Give them for you. And, you know, Luke records two other occasions where Jesus is the host at a meal. The first one is the feeding of the 5000. Back in Luke, chapter nine, we read how Jesus is on a mountainside. And you remember that lots of people were hungry and they were in the wilderness.

There was no food. And Jesus took a few loaves and fishes, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. There was enough for everybody. And at that point, Jesus was saying, you know, I am that heavenly king who provides. God provided in the wilderness, didn’t he?

He provided that manner in the wilderness. I’m the one here to provide for you, right? I’m the great provider. I’m that king. This is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet for you.

And the next time, of course, the last Supper, which is well familiar, isn’t it? Jesus is the host there at that meal. And he has his friend round and breaks bread. And again he’s giving them a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, isn’t he? He’s saying, actually there’s going to be a time when we’re going to eat this meal, this banquet together in heaven.

This is just an amuse bouche for what’s to come. Well, here, he’s not doing communion here. Don’t hear me wrong. I mean, there’s no cup. He doesn’t say any of that sort of stuff.

But he’s alluding to the fact that there is a time coming where you guys are going to eat with me in my heavenly kingdom, in my banquet. And he’s pointing to that. And that matters for this reason.

It matters because they needed to understand the scriptures, that it all pointed to them. But they needed to know that it wasn’t just a story that happened in history, but it was, was a story for them. You know, I’m not just the messiah of someone else, I’m the messiah for you, you know, and so as he, as he, as he does this, as he breaks bread, as he offers it to people, he’s saying that this promises for you. It’s like he’s eyeballing you personally and saying, this is promises for you. This isn’t just a general promise for some people in the past, which is amazing.

This is for you, as you know, this is for you. And he says, actually, ben, I’m the messiah for you.

Then their eyes are opened. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Then their eyes are opened.

Verse 31. Then their eyes were opened. You might think their eyes would be opened after he’d just given the most majestic explanation of what the whole scriptures mean. No, not at that point. It’s when he reminds them, actually, you’re invited to my heavenly banquet.

I’m reminding you of the last Supper. I’m for you.

And this is really key because the Easter events matter for us individually. Not just generally, but individually.

Having a baby is the best thing I can imagine. This too is like having a baby. You know, you kind of, not that I like I’ve had a baby. Well, you know, anyway, having a baby, you kind of know that having a baby is going to be a big thing. People tell you it’s going to be a massive deal that is going to change your life.

And you sort of nod and, oh, I’m sorry, you guys who don’t know what I’m talking about, you know, it’s coming. Maybe people tell, you know, you believe them, you know, you think, yeah, this is going to be pretty big. Not gonna lie, I’ve been tired for about ten years now. Same age as my eldest, isn’t it, Eliana? I’m not sure why it’s been ten years.

Anyway. Having a baby changes your life. It really, really does. But the interesting thing is that when you actually hold your first child in your hand, or a child that’s actually yours in your hand, it’s totally different. And it’s funny because it’s not like the facts are different, you know?

I don’t. Before you had a baby, you say, yes, I believe it’s going to change it. It’s going to be difficult. I’m going to love them unconditionally. It’s going to be incredible.

I’m looking forward to that baby hair smell, all those sorts of things that you’ve been told about, but when you hold that baby, it’s like all those things are true in a different way. You’re suddenly like, oh, but that’s true for me now. Like, not because it wasn’t true before, but it’s like, it’s. It’s mine now. People have had that experience with know what I’m talking about.

I think there are other things, I’m sure, in your life where you can think that you knew what it might be like, or you could tell someone what it would be like, but when it actually happened, you’re like, whoa, that’s different. And here’s the thing, jesus isn’t doing anything new in the breaking of bread. It’s not like he said, oh, well, I tried explaining to you the Bible that didn’t make a difference, so I’m going to do something else. Let’s try communion. Yeah.

It’s the same promise, it’s the same word. It’s just now what is happening is it’s being promised to you, right? It’s as if. It’s as if he’s got a wedding ring and it’s like, you know, I love you, but now I’m just going to put my love around your finger, you know? And so it’s at this moment that they recognise Jesus.

And to come back to the very beginning, just finally, why is it that Luke doesn’t give us just a clear sort of, like, jesus tada moment until here. It’s interesting is that if he’d have done that, we’d have gone. That’s a really cool story. I wish Jesus were tada me. But actually what he’s wanting to say is, do you know what you have today?

These means of grace? You have word and sacrament. You have preaching and you have communion. You have these things where you know what the whole end of scripture is about. About me.

You can read that right here. And you know it’s a promise for you, because I’ve given you a sign to tell you that we’re in the same position they are, where we can find Christ and discover him. And these means of grace and what a privilege that is, isn’t it? What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus does that for him. So what does Easter mean?

Or at least how do we make sense of it all? Well, it’s all about Christ, but really at this point, not only that, it all ties together in Christ, it’s that it’s all for me. You see this promise, this resurrection offer is for you by name.

Maybe you’re sort of in the first bit. Maybe you get that the scriptures point to Jesus, but you don’t get that it’s maybe for you. Why don’t you ask Christ to reveal himself to you, to let you know that he loves you by name, personally?

Because it’s a wonderful thing. We can know Jesus in the word and in sacraments today. Let’s pray.

Father, we do thank you for this passage. We thank you for inspiring Luke to write it for our benefit. And we do thank you that you’ve given us the scriptures and you’ve given us your visible promise that you are for us, that you love us. I pray today that we wouldn’t be just about facts, although those facts matter, but that we would know you are for us. We would know you as our messiah.

We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

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