On the Road to Emmaus
Download MP3I invite you to open in your bibles to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. We're in our 54th week of going through Luke. And tonight, we're gonna look at a familiar story. Beginning in verse 13.
Joel Brooks:That very day, 2 of them were going to a village named Emmaus about 7 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 were holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad.
Joel Brooks: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 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. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Joel Brooks:Yes and besides all this, it is now the 3rd day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. And they were at the tomb early this 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.
Joel Brooks:And he said to them, oh 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 was going further, But they urged him strongly saying, stay with us for this toward evening and the day is now far spent.
Joel Brooks:So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed 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 11.
Joel Brooks: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 made known made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Pray with me. Our father, we ask that through the power of your Spirit, you would open up the eyes of our hearts, that we might see you as we study this text. May our hearts burn in us as we hear the word of God explained.
Joel Brooks:God, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, Lord, but may your words remain, and may they change us. I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Luke gives us 3 stories about the resurrected Jesus. Just 3, which is pretty remarkable considering Jesus was alive for 40 days walking around the earth.
Joel Brooks:I'm sure he had many many encounters with people. I'm sure Luke is aware of many of these, but he gives only 3. And so he chooses these 3 for a very particular purpose. He he's got an agenda behind why he is sharing just these 3. Last week, we looked at the first of these three stories about when the women found the empty tomb, and the angel said, why do you seek the living among the dead?
Joel Brooks:Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why in the world would you treat Jesus as if he were dead? And Luke puts that at the very front of his resurrection stories because that's the question that he wants lingering. That's the question that he wants bouncing around in your head as you as you read these other 2. Why do we seek the living among the dead?
Joel Brooks:How do we treat Jesus as if he were dead? That's the question I want you to let linger as we walk through this. One of the things I want you to notice is how these disciples treat Jesus as if He was dead, yet they've heard the gospel. They they have all of the information, the same information that we have about Jesus, they have. Look at this again.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 19. Sorry, not 19. Look at verse, yeah, 19. 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.
Joel Brooks: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 3rd 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 seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.
Joel Brooks:Now, Cleopas just shared the exact same information that we have been given that Jesus was a man mighty in word and in deed. This was a man who did miracles. This was a man who taught like nobody else taught. We know that. We know the religious leaders crucified him.
Joel Brooks:We know when we have eyewitness testimony recorded to us in scripture that his tomb was empty and on the 3rd day, he rose again. We have the exact same information and yet, these two disciples didn't believe he was alive. They still treated Jesus as if He were dead. And they had a number of stumbling blocks. For starters, they thought, Jesus must be dead because he didn't accomplish what I thought he was gonna accomplish.
Joel Brooks:He didn't do what I thought he was going to do. I mean, my problem is that Rome is occupying all of Israel. He didn't redeem Israel. He didn't get rid of Rome. Therefore, he's not alive.
Joel Brooks:My world's falling in around me. My world's falling apart, therefore, Jesus, of course, he cannot be alive. It's a mistake that perhaps you have made when you when you think your world is just falling apart around you. You chalk that up as evidence to Jesus is not with me. God is not present with me.
Joel Brooks:And if he were present with me, certainly he would not come to me in such ordinary means. I don't know if you thought about this, but this is the resurrected Jesus, and his resurrected body, and he's walking next to them, and they don't even give him a second look. He's so ordinary. There's something there's no beams of light shooting down on him. No no angelic choir.
Joel Brooks:There's none of that. He's just just like one of them. Certainly, that's not how God would come to them. I think that this along with some other reasons is why Luke includes this story in his gospel. Because these two disciples are representative of likely many people here in this room.
Joel Brooks:He writes this to people who will who probably won't believe in Jesus if bad things are happening to them. People who don't think that Jesus would ever come to them in very ordinary ways. Well, let's let's look through this story a little more carefully. Just kind of walk through it. It's the the day of the resurrection.
Joel Brooks:2 disciples are walking away from Jerusalem to a small village named Emmaus. And right there tells you a lot about what's going on with these disciples because they have just heard Jesus is alive. There's an empty tomb. He's risen. And they heard that in Jerusalem.
Joel Brooks:And what did they do? They leave Jerusalem and likely go home to Emmaus. Meaning, they don't believe it. And as they're walking home, they're talking about all that has happened and the word translate discussion in the ESV in verse 15, there's actually an intensity to it. This is a very passionate, heated discussion.
Joel Brooks:Almost a debate about what is happening. And then Jesus himself just kind of walks alongside them, listens in. Luke tells us that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, what are you talking about? And they're like, are you the only visitor in all of Jerusalem who doesn't know what happened?
Joel Brooks:How in the world could you not know? Everybody knows this. And and just as a little side note, it's it's little comments like this that really validate scripture for me. And you you find a bunch of them that Luke would include this in here. Hey, everybody knows about the ministry of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Everybody knows about his death, and what's going on, to talk about his resurrection. Everybody knows this. You can't make a claim like that unless people really did know of this. You find this you don't have to turn there later in Acts 26, which is 25 years removed from this. Paul's on trial, and a governor of Rome comes down to Caesarea.
Joel Brooks:His name is, Felix. Actually, it's Festus. And he's on trial. Paul's on trial, and he's talking about the life and the ministry of Jesus and the death and resurrection. And Festus finally goes, stop right there.
Joel Brooks:You're mad. Paul, you're mad. And and Paul does something very curious. He looks over at king Agrippa, who's not a believer, but is the king over Jerusalem, and says, king, tell him, for these things didn't happen in a corner. Everybody knows about it.
Joel Brooks:Even the king knew all about the life and the ministry and the miracles and the teaching and the death and and what he would say is the apparent resurrection of Jesus. You can't make a claim like that unless it was so widespread. It it would be like me claiming, I was thinking about this on the way over here. If I told you 25 years ago, REM came out with their hit number one single, losing my religion. And I could tell you that.
Joel Brooks:Some of y'all will go, actually, no. No. No. No. You you no.
Joel Brooks:Because that was in 1992 that that came out, and that was not 25 years ago. Joel, 25 years ago with starships, we built this city on rock and roll. That was the number one hit 25 years ago. And some of you would actually remember that. I remember that because I was 12 years old, and I would play drums to it all the time.
Joel Brooks:We built this city on rock and roll. The point is I can't make a claim like all of you know 25 years ago when REM came out with losing my religion because you'd call me on it. You find little statements like this all through scripture. I hope from time to time to give you just little things that you can hang your head on. But even though we know all of these events, to these guys, an empty tomb was not any comfort.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 25. Oh, foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe. Jesus rebukes them. This is a serious rebuke. Any of y'all ever use the word oh in a rebuke?
Joel Brooks:Oh, woman. You know? Oh, shut up. Something like, oh, and we don't even say oh. I've said it probably 2 or 3 times in my life.
Joel Brooks:It's it's when something very passionate. Oh, foolish ones. It's a serious rebuke. Slow of heart to believe. But notice after this rebuke, Jesus doesn't say, tada, look, it's me.
Joel Brooks:You're wrong. See, I'm alive. He doesn't say, hey, foolish people, slow and hard to believe, look at me. I'm right in front of me. He doesn't do that.
Joel Brooks:He does that in other places, but he doesn't do that here. It's not how we encounter Jesus, and I think it's the reason Luke puts this story here. Look at what Jesus does. Verse 27 says, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Jesus begins opening up the Bible and revealing to them scripture, all of scripture as it relates to him.
Joel Brooks:Even when he's standing there right in front of them, he goes to scripture first. This is how we come to believe and to love God is through the expounding of scripture. If you want, go back a few chapters in your Bible to Luke 16. We probably went over this about 6 months ago. It's the the story about the rich man and Lazarus.
Joel Brooks:If you remember, there's a rich man who's in hell and he sees Lazarus in paradise and the rich man is in agony and he talks to father Abraham and he says, Abraham, can you send back Lazarus back from the dead to go and warn my brothers about this horrible place? Can you do that? Just send him back from the dead. And here's the response of verse 27. Here's the rich man said, then I beg you father, to send him Lazarus to my father's house, for I have 5 brothers so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
Joel Brooks:But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. Now this is remarkable.
Joel Brooks:This is remarkable. In in this story, Jesus says that, having the witness of Moses and the prophets is greater than if someone were to come back from the dead. And we see this in practice on the road to Emmaus. Here is Jesus risen from the dead, and he doesn't doesn't go, ta da. Here I am.
Joel Brooks:He goes, no. Look at Moses. Look at the prophets. They witness about me. Actually, he says, Moses and all the prophets and all the scriptures We see here when Jesus says this, that the disciples have made 2 fundamental mistakes when it comes to reading scripture.
Joel Brooks:And these mistakes kept them from recognizing Jesus, the living Jesus. And I think it's probably a good bet that many of us in here make the same mistakes. First mistake that they made was that they did not listen to all that Moses and the prophets had to say. They only listened to a part of what Moses and the prophets had to say. They read scripture through their own little lens.
Joel Brooks:They had created their own little canon of scripture. When they read the Bible, they loved all of these texts that talked about their coming king, their coming messiah, this huge political deliverance. They love that. They quoted that. But the text that talked about a suffering servant, the text that talked about a rejected cornerstone, the text that talked about, you know, someone screaming out, my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?
Joel Brooks:Those texts, they just kinda jumped over. They didn't like those. They were very selective in what they read. They picked and they chose what they wanted, but you cannot get to know a person by picking and choosing only what you want to know. For instance, imagine if I treated one of you like that.
Caleb Chancey:You know, I went up to you
Joel Brooks:and said, hey, how about, you know, for the rest of your life, we get together for lunch every Monday, and we just talk. And a dream come true for some of you all right there. So every Monday, we get together, and I say, well, tell me a little bit about yourself. Oh, let me put some parameters on that. Really, I just wanna hear from you how much you love me, and, how much you get from my teaching.
Joel Brooks:Really, if we could kinda limit the scope to those two things, if you wanna throw in an old story about, you know, my high school basketball years, that's great. You could throw that in, but let's just limit it to that. Okay? And every week, we we we meet, and every week, you you know, you have to tell me just what a wonderful person I am, how much you get out of my teaching, what a great three point shot I used to have, like all these things. 20 years go by, do you know me?
Joel Brooks:Do I know you? Not at all. Not at all. Yet this is how many people approach the word of God. God tell me what I want to hear.
Joel Brooks:And I'm only gonna read those parts that I want to hear. Tell me how wonderful I am. Tell me how how how good I've been. Tell me how much you love me. Tell me, you know, how much you you you forgive me.
Joel Brooks:That's what I want to hear. But the end result of this is not relationship. Not with the living God. You have a relationship with whatever God you've created. And so from this, we learned that we have to listen to all of scripture, even the parts that we don't at first like.
Joel Brooks:This is the only way to know who God is and not just who you want him to be. And what this means, and we've said this before, is there's gonna be times in your life that god is going to rub you the wrong way, and he needs to. There's is a meet times that God is going to speak to you through His word, and you're not going to like it. It's going to go maybe against what you've always believed, what you have felt, what you have thought is right. It's rubbing you the wrong way.
Joel Brooks:What I wanna say is that is a integral part of having a relationship with a holy God. This is how you encounter him. This is how you actually become like him. I would say that that that rubbing process when God rubs you the wrong way is transformation. He's making you look like him.
Joel Brooks:If god never rubs you the wrong way, that just means you've made Him look like you. So if God always acts like you would act, talks like you would talk, loves like you would love, forgive how how you would forgive, That's not the true God. That's the God you're saying, tell me what I wanna hear. Tell me what I wanna hear. In order to know god, we have to listen to all of his word.
Joel Brooks:2nd mistake we make is that we don't see Jesus as being the central message of all the Bible. Verse 27 says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And so the primary reason we read scripture is so we can encounter the living Jesus. It's the primary reason we read. All of scripture is about Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And so when we read the Bible, we need to tell ourselves we are coming to Jesus. Now, I would dare say that most people I know, even most Christians I know, do not see Jesus as the central part of the Bible that all of scripture testifies to him. Perhaps some of you in here were even confused when we read through this, when it says Moses beginning with Moses. He taught to them things concerning himself because all you have to do is look through the 5 books of Moses, and you're not gonna find the name Jesus. So how how can you go to Moses and say, Moses teaches us about Jesus when you you go through and Jesus isn't there, doesn't seem to be there.
Joel Brooks:Jesus will He'll reinforce this next week. I mean, go, go down to verse 44. Another one, the resurrection stories. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. That everything written about me in the law of Moses, everything written about me in the law of Moses.
Joel Brooks:Moses writes about me when he wrote the law of god. So all of scripture is primarily about Jesus. It's not primarily about rules, how to live a good life. It's about Jesus. So when you read through stories like Genesis 22 when Abraham is sacrificing Isaac, he's supposed to sacrifice Isaac, but he god stops him at the last minute.
Joel Brooks:You don't take away from that story. I need to have greater faith. That's what the story is about. I need to have faith like Abraham. You don't even walk away with that story with with this.
Joel Brooks:You know what? This story is telling me I have to do the the reason this story is here is to tell me that I've got to lay down my dreams. I've got to lay down, you know, all of my desires at the altar of god. Just like Abraham did. That's a very moralistic reading of scripture.
Joel Brooks:I'm not saying that's not true. It's just not the primary reason it is written. When you read a story like that, It should remind you of the other only son, Jesus, who was really sacrificed so that we might receive the promises of Abraham. You you should look at that and ask a question, how could Isaac not be sacrificed, yet Abraham still receive all the promises? Because of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:When we read stories about the Exodus, and, we should be thinking of the greater Exodus that Jesus provides, where he doesn't just deliver from pharaoh, he doesn't just deliver from slavery, he delivers us from sin and death. And it all points to Jesus. When manna falls down, we should be thinking, you know what? What does this point to? This points to the true bread from heaven who would later come down.
Joel Brooks:And we should look at, well, that man, when people ate that, they were hungry the next day. But if we feast on Christ, we will never go hungry again. Or when Moses takes the rod and he strikes the rock and water flows from it, Yes, we could think of, oh, yes, this is God's provision, but really, we should think forward and think that represents Christ. Rod of judgment falling on the rock instead of the people. And out of it flows grace and living water.
Joel Brooks:That's Jesus, and we could go through all of these stories. The tabernacle, see how it points to Jesus. Stories like David and Goliath. One of the most abused stories there is that people think, well, it's, you know, have faith and you could conquer giants, or used before big basketball games, you know, just it's so abused. The point of that.
Joel Brooks:I mean, yes, you look at it, David was the least of all his brothers. He was the youngest. So we should say that God uses grace and the least to accomplish His purpose. He uses unexpected means. And just as David got to represent all of Israel in battle, And if David won, they all won.
Joel Brooks:If David lost, they all lost. Later on, there would be another person who would represent all of us in battle. And if he won, we would all win. And he conquered sin and death itself. All of these point to Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Wouldn't you just love to have been there? Jesus walks through all of this. You could tell their hearts are burning. Stay with us. Stay with us, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:I could I could walk through all of the Old Testament. We're gonna look a lot more at this when we look at the patriarchs come this fall. But all of the Bible speaks about Jesus, and Jesus speaks to us through all of the Bible. Alright? All the Bible speaks of Jesus, and Jesus speaks to us through all the Bible.
Joel Brooks:Let me end by just asking you a question. Why do you read your Bible? Why do you read your Bible? Is it primarily to get rules to live by? Is it primarily so you you could be a, you know, pretty good person?
Joel Brooks:For those of you who memorize scripture, that's great. I'm glad you memorize scripture. Why do you memorize scripture? What's the primary reason you do so? Is it to fight sin?
Joel Brooks:Is it to defend your faith? Or do you do these things to know Jesus? To encounter Jesus. Because let me tell you that the Pharisees and the religious leaders read their Bibles. They memorized their scriptures, but it was so they could be good moral people and so they could defend their faith.
Joel Brooks:But in John chapter 5, Jesus looked at them square in the eye and says, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have life, But these scriptures testify about me. Me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life. Memorizing scripture just so you could fight sin, memorizing just so you could defend your faith is useless. We do those things to encounter Jesus.
Joel Brooks:To know him. So when you read your Bible, go to Jesus. I once got to to read a letter. I think it was from my great grandmother. I'm not I'm not certain.
Joel Brooks:It's been a while, but I read it, and basically, all I could get from it, because she had long passed, I never knew her, was basically to who it was written and what the situation was about. Wasn't that engaging to me? Now my wife has written me some letters. When she writes me letters, I I I can almost hear a voice. I I I can get the subtlety in her words.
Joel Brooks:And then when I get the letter, I still go directly to Lauren. It's like, hey, Lauren, tell me more about this story. Lauren, what did you mean by this? I I engage in actual conversation with my wife even though she wrote me a letter. And that's how we need to pursue scripture.
Joel Brooks:Not like Jesus is dead, but he's alive. And so we we we look through this and we're like, so so what did you mean by this, Jesus? Really, what? So what's your heart concerning this? Really could could you could you show me more than this?
Joel Brooks:There's a relationship there. We seek Him through His word, to hear His voice, and to encounter Him. Why do you read the Bible? The progression in this story, Jesus goes from stranger to an expositor, to a close relationship, intimacy, when they break bread. And that's what Jesus wants to do with us.
Joel Brooks:He wants us to go from a stranger to us hearing his voice through his word and to this place of intimacy. And I would have loved to see the the, the reaction of epiphany in the disciples as Jesus lifts up bread, and as he breaks it, and they likely see his scars in his hands as he breaks this, and their eyes are open, and it dawns on them this entire time has been Jesus. I would have loved to see that. I would love to see that in you. As you dig into his words, and he begins to open up the eyes of your heart and begin saying, this is the living Jesus, the living Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. God, You are not just a history. When we read your word, we don't just read stories, not even just true stories. When we come to your word expectant and through the power of your Holy Spirit, we engage you. We join in a conversation with you.
Joel Brooks:You begin to draw us into your heart. Knowing that, I pray that this week, you would draw us into your word with a ferocity. We wanna know you, and I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
