Several years ago, one of our evangelism teams went out calling on some recent visitors of our church, two young men who were rooming together. They knocked on the door and were asked to enter and did so. They introduced themselves on a first-name basis, which is their normal manner of approach, and began to talk. These two young men began to speak about their experience here at Grace Church and their visit.
One of them made a point of saying that he liked the music, he thought the people were friendly, but he said he did not enjoy the pastor's message. Now what he did not realize was that the E-Team was composed of three people, two young men who were being trained and my wife who was the trainer. Well she felt a little flustered not knowing exactly what to do with that comment, and the two team members kind of chuckled to themselves. But the young man did not leave it at that point.
He looked at my wife right in the face and he said, tell me, does the pastor meet your needs? And the two young men who were with her just collapsed on the floor in laughter. And then they explained what the problem was. But I don't think those two guys ever came back to our church. We're going to read this morning in Luke 24 about some men who didn't realize who they were with. Luke recounts a touching story with powerful emotional impact.
It's a fascinating account of Jesus dealing with two disciples. D. Campbell Morgan says regarding this that Jesus dealt with them with tender and beautiful playfulness. An interesting description of the account. There's a certain humor in how the resurrected Christ led these men to discover his identity. It almost reads like a game if you think about it. But at the same time it exposes a very serious heart problem that they had. We begin in Luke 24 verse 13.
And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place. And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them. Eventually the paths converged at some point. Jesus was not coming at them but was going in the same direction.
And it just so happened by divine appointment that they came to that lie in the road at the same time and began to walk together. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And he said to them, what are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you're walking? Luke seems to describe the conversation as being rather vigorous. And so Jesus' question was a natural one. They were walking along during this whole time.
But when Jesus asked that question, Luke says, and they stood still. They just stopped in their tracks immediately that anyone could ask such a question. Looking sad, Luke further describes them. And one of them named Pleiapus answered and said to him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? And Jesus said to them, what things?
And they said to him, the things about Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in word and deed in the sight of God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to the sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us.
When they were at the tomb early in the morning, that was that very morning, and did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said, but him they did not see. Pleiapus seems to indicate here that there was a larger group than just the eleven who had met together on that Sunday morning, that he and others were there.
And can you believe it? Maybe some of them went to the tomb to check it out. It seems amazing to me. And he said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart, to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all the scriptures.
And they approached the village where they were going and he acted as though he would go farther. And they urged him saying, Stay with us for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over. And he went in to stay with them. And it came about that when he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it he began giving it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.
And they said to one another, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us? And they arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them saying, The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. That is, that's what was the topic of conversation among those in the room.
And they, that is these two who joined them, began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. This account of Jesus' appearance is the fourth one on the first Easter Sunday as Scripture records them. The first one being to Mary Magdalene in the garden, John chapter 20, and then Jesus' appearance to some other women in Matthew 28.
His appearance to Peter which is not recorded anywhere in Scripture except in the comment that is made in verse 34 of this text and in 1 Corinthians 15. But oh, the volumes that it says to us about Jesus Christ's tender affection for someone who has failed. For there was not a disciple who was lower than Peter after Jesus' crucifixion. He wept with disappointment in himself for having denied his master.
For three days he had lived with that terrible thought that the last time he had seen Jesus was in the courtyard of Pilate. And Jesus had looked out at Peter just when the cock had crowed. And that look brought to Peter's mind the words of Jesus earlier that very night that before the cock would crow three times Peter would deny him. And the look said to Peter, see Peter, I knew what I was talking about. And Peter went out and wept in repentance. But his heart was heavy.
On this resurrection Sunday, Jesus appeared to Peter in a private session. And we can only allow our imaginations to tell us what they might have talked about. And how Peter might have wept in the arms of Jesus as Jesus tenderly spoke love to him and assured him of his faithfulness and his love for Peter despite Peter's failure. I want you to know that Jesus Christ loves those who have failed and those who are willing to admit it like Peter and who are willing to come to him.
After meeting with Peter, Jesus then appeared to Cleopas and his friend. It may have been Mrs. Cleopas, but more than likely it was another male friend. Jesus brought these disciples on the road to Emmaus to a renewed and more intimate knowledge of himself by restoring their spiritual sight. They had lost sight of some things and because of that, their hearts had grown careless and unbelieving. They needed a fresh knowledge of him. And Jesus gave that to him.
And I want to say to you today that Jesus Christ desires to give every one of his disciples that fresh knowledge, that intimate knowledge of himself that we need. And he will do that by opening our spiritual eyes, giving us a renewed spiritual vision. Perhaps today you're going to find that your heart was similar to that of the disciples of that day. And you'll want to take some definite action on your part before leaving to know Jesus in a different way than perhaps you have known him before.
The incident recorded in our text revolves around two descriptions of the eyesight of the two disciples. The first description is, their eyes were closed. And we see this in verse 16. Their eyes were closed in the first place to the identity of Jesus. They did not recognize him. Now we can't be too quick to criticize them because they were not the only ones who failed to recognize the resurrected Christ.
In fact, the very first person Jesus appeared to, Mary Magdalene, did not recognize him at first in the garden, did she? And even later when the disciples were fishing on the Sea of Galilee and the Lord was at the shore, they did not at first recognize who he was. And here we see these two disciples, eyes were closed to the identity of Jesus. And then their eyes were closed as well to the fact of the resurrection. They simply did not believe it.
And apparently they were among those who stayed wherever the disciples were meeting when the news came about the events at the tomb. Only some of the disciples went to the tomb. And the Gospels read that only John, seeing what happened there, believed. Even Peter returned, not accepting the fact of the resurrection. These two disciples apparently did not even bother to go to the tomb. Their eyes were closed to the fact of the resurrection.
And thirdly, their eyes were closed to the meaning of Scripture. Jesus had to explain to them what the Old Testament meant. Again, we must be careful not to criticize them too harshly. The Holy Spirit had not yet come to live in the believers, to be the teacher to the believers as he has now in fullness in this age. They did not understand the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus explained to them the meaning of the Messianic Scriptures.
What a Bible conference that must have been, although the attendance wasn't real good. But the two who were there were listening closely as this stranger who was walking with him began to explain from the Old Testament that Christ had to suffer before he could enter into his glory. Their eyes were closed. What an interesting description of them. What closed their eyes? Well perhaps it was their emotional state. Luke, the physician, describes them as being sad. You can understand that, can't you?
They were overcome with grief that the master whom they had followed was dead, so they thought. They were sad. Sadness has a way of dulling our senses, doesn't it? It may have been their mental state. Verse 21 suggests to us that they were a disappointed group. He says, we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. There you see hope that is shattered. Their mental state was one of disappointment. And not only that, but some bewilderment.
Because they say in verse 22 that they were amazed at what the women who had gone to the tomb came back and reported. They could not understand what was taking place. They were amazed and bewildered by these events. Their mental state was not such as that they could easily recognize someone who had joined them on the path. But then their spiritual state is further described. Jesus tells us very plainly in verse 25 what it was like. O foolish men and slow of heart to believe.
They were unbelieving. That was their spiritual state. They were disciples. They had given faith to Christ in some sense. But faith was not active in their lives at this point and Jesus mildly rebukes them for it. Those were the human factors involved for their eyes being closed. But I think beyond that we probably find here also some divine design. That is because of the condition of their hearts, their minds, their emotions.
The Lord went a step further and just caused their eyes for a period of time to be blinded to who He really was. Why would God do that? Doesn't the Lord desire for us to see Him in every circumstance? To always recognize His presence? It seems that on this occasion the Lord blinded them to His identity so that He might draw out from themselves what their true spiritual condition was. He wanted them to recognize the condition of their own hearts.
And so for a period of time He hid Himself from their eyes. There are times in my life and in yours when we wonder where the Lord is. We don't recognize His presence with us. And we even say, God, where are you? When in fact He is right there. Why is it that the Lord allows us to enter into times like that when we fail to recognize His presence? Well, I want to suggest to you that perhaps He does it for us for the same reasons He seems to have done it for them.
And that is so that our true heart's condition might be exposed. It's not always very pleasant because sometimes that heart condition involves foolishness and slowness of heart and unbelief as it did with them. But you see, that has to be exposed for our Lord really to give us a renewed spiritual vision. And so He allows Himself as it were to be hidden from our eyes in our circumstances of life so that the end result might be that we might know Him better.
But we have to go through the process first of seeing our hearts and what our problems are. I'm glad that Jesus doesn't leave us in the middle of that process. Having exposed to us the condition of our hearts, He goes on then to deal with that. Some of you may feel that you're in the middle of the process and you wonder just where God is in all of this. Let me assure you that He's involved. Don't give up on Him. He has not given up on you.
The second description of the eyes sight of these two disciples is that their eyes were opened. First, their eyes were closed. Then their eyes were opened. Verse 31 tells us of that. They recognized Him. And how were their eyes opened? Well, in the first place, we must point out the immediate context of verse 30 as well as their response in verse 35. It was in the breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened.
Some have accused Jesus of being deceitful and acting as though He would go further on. That's a terrible thing to say about our Lord. He is not deceitful ever. He does not play tricks. I believe He does have a sense of humor. And I think we see it a little bit in this text. But our Lord was simply acting in the customary oriental manner, for they are very gentle and courteous people. And He pretended as though He would go on. He did not want to impose Himself on them.
And yet they asked Him what He felt that they would ask. They said, come in and spend the night with us. People did not dare to travel alone, particularly at night on the highways of Palestine. And so Jesus went in. And they prepared the food, whatever it was, included bread. Then Jesus did something that was not customary. He did something different. He was the guest, but He took the initiative and assumed the place of the host. It was He who gave thanks for the bread and blessed it.
And then He who broke it and began to distribute it. That was unusual. And that, of course, caught their attention. It seems to be that it was the act of His handing the bread to them that caused them to recognize Him. Now, the text does not say this, but I think that it's a logical conclusion that as He stretched out His hands to hand them the bread, they immediately noticed the wounds in His hand. And that it was that which caused their eyes to be opened, and they recognized Him.
And as soon as they had recognized Him, He vanished from their sight. But it was in the breaking of the bread that they recognized Him. But as they thought back on the experience, there was another clue that they missed the first time around, and that was the explaining of Scripture. Because they say, were not our hearts burning within us while He explained to us the Scriptures? Now, they had not caught that the first time around. They missed it.
But as they thought back on it, they realized that something inside of them was happening as the Scripture was being taught as they walked toward the city of Emmaus. They realized that Jesus had gone back into all of the Scriptures and showed them the truth about Himself. Later in the chapter, He does the same thing for the eleven and others.
He goes back to the writings of Moses, to the prophets, and to the writings of David, the Psalms, the poetry of the Old Testament, and reveals there the things about Himself. Perhaps He went back to the writings of Moses and He talked about Isaac's sacrifice, almost the first sacrifice, by his father Abraham, and how that pointed to His being given as the Lamb. Perhaps He talked about the Passover Lamb.
Perhaps He went to Leviticus 16 and talked about the Day of Atonement, or the early chapters of Leviticus and pointed out the burnt offering and the sin offering and the meal offering and the peace offering. He's pointed out in these how they point to Him as the Christ and the sacrifice that He must make. Perhaps He pointed out the brazen serpent to them as He had to Nicodemus years before. Whatever He did, Jesus explained from the writings of Moses how all of those things pointed to Himself.
And then He went to the prophets, perhaps to Isaiah 53. Perhaps He went to Micah 5 and talked about Bethlehem being His birthplace, or to Zechariah and the smitten shepherd. And then He went to the writings of David. Maybe He talked about Psalm 2 or Psalm 22, the description of the crucifixion a thousand years before He was crucified.
Maybe He went on to Psalm 40, that God had raised Him out of the miry clay, out of the pit and set His feet upon the solid rock, a description of His being delivered from death to resurrection life. Whatever text Jesus pointed to, He showed how all of the scriptures pointed to Him. Oh, what a good lesson that is for us. The scriptures are not merely nice poetry or accurate history, but the scriptures are lessons regarding Jesus Christ. He is the theme of all of scripture.
He went back and wove together the theme of the Messiah from the Old Testament. And in a matter of what, an hour? It could not have been too long. They were already walking toward Emmaus. It doesn't take too long to walk seven miles. And in that period of time, Jesus wove together the theme regarding Himself in the Old Testament. Wouldn't you like to have been there? Don't you wish there were tape recordings of what Jesus said?
There is no inspired record of that exposition of the Old Testament by the Son of God. And yet, many Bible scholars believe that what He said to them on that occasion, and what He said to the disciples later, as recorded in verses 44 through 48 of this chapter, that these expositions of the Lord became the basis for the preaching of the apostles in the Book of Acts.
And that if you see how they used the Old Testament, then you will understand some of the things that Jesus may have said to them to give them that insight in their preaching just a few weeks after this. Peter became a powerful spokesman for Jesus Christ because he had heard from Jesus Himself how these passages of the Old Testament pointed to Him as the Christ. For example, in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, you find him referring to the prophet Joel, a major portion from Joel.
You see him referring to 2 Samuel chapter 7 in the promise regarding someone to sit upon the throne of David. You see him referring to Psalm 16. He pulls upon Psalm 110. Peter knows how the Old Testament refers to Christ, probably because Jesus Himself taught him those things in these expositions that are suggested to us at the end of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus Christ desires to teach you of Himself, too. That brings me to two or three closing lessons that I think we ought to learn from our text.
The first one is this. Jesus wants you to know Him in His resurrection glory. In fact, He wants that even more than you want it. I would point out to you, for example, that Jesus is the one who sought out these two disciples. He could just as well have allowed them to go on to Emmaus and to find out later about His resurrection, to have it confirmed to them.
But Jesus took advantage of the opportunity to go out to them, walk beside them for this hour or two hours or three hours, and began to eat a meal with them. He sought them out because He wanted them to know the truth about Himself. He wanted them to see Him, to recognize Him, to believe on Him in His resurrection glory. I want you to know that He hasn't changed one whit from that. He wants you to know Him far more than you want to know Him.
He is working in the circumstances of your life to draw you to that knowledge. It may be that you are here today and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, but you have had some unusual things happening in your life, and you seem to be drawn to people who are Christians or drawn to worship or drawn to the Scriptures like you never have before in your life, and you really don't understand why, what's coming about in your life.
Well, I can tell you that it's the work of Christ wanting you to know Him. And for those of us who have believed on Him, He is just as eager for you and for me, too, to continue to know Him and to grow in our intimacy of knowledge with Him. Jesus wants us to know Him more than we want to know Him. The second lesson I see is this, that the understanding of Scripture is what leads us to a deeper fellowship with Christ.
If you would like to have spiritual heartburn, like these disciples did, there are two essentials. The first is faith. The second is illumination. Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith. If you and I want to have the reality of the fellowship of Jesus Christ, we must be men and women of faith who are believing God. If we are disciples who are foolishly walking in unbelief, then we are disciples who cannot have our eyes open to see Him and to know Him.
But if we will learn to walk by faith, even if it's baby steps, that is one of the essentials we must meet so that our vision of Him might be open and intimate and growing. But then we also have to be illuminated. On our part, it is the responsibility to take steps of faith. On his part, it is his responsibility to teach us to illuminate or enlighten us. He is the author of the Bible, and he will use this book to illuminate us to himself.
The Scriptures are the light which will show us Jesus Christ. If we dare to ignore this book, then we cannot grow in our knowledge of Him. We will not have a deeper fellowship. It is the understanding of Scripture that leads us to a deeper fellowship with Christ. We will understand it if we will walk by faith and open our hearts to His teaching ministry by the Holy Spirit. Does that describe your heart today? Are you walking by faith?
That is really hard to do in our culture because we have our needs met almost immediately. It's tough to learn to depend upon the Lord. Those steps of faith are so important. Then opening our hearts, saying, Lord, teach me. Just as we sang in that song before the message, open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth Thou hast for me. Open my ears. Open our minds. The understanding of Scripture is what leads us to a deeper fellowship with Christ.
The third lesson is that walking with Jesus daily is the way to keep your heart burning and your spiritual vision working. Walking with Him daily. What prevents that? I'll tell you what prevents it. Just in a nutshell, it's me choosing my own way. We can call it sin, we can call it selfishness, carnality, we can call it a lot of different terms. Basically what it boils down to is me choosing my own way.
When I choose to live my life being in control of it, then what I do is turn off a communion with Christ. I'm no longer walking with Him and my spiritual vision will grow dim just as these disciples had experienced. On the other hand, if I choose daily to surrender to His Lordship and instead of taking charge myself, say, Lord, what would You have me to do? Lord, I give this problem to You.
If we will choose daily to live life that way, then our spiritual energy will remain strong and our vision of Him will remain fresh because we will be walking with Him every day. Friend, that is the way that God wants us to live. That's the way I want to live. I believe if you're a Christian, that's the way you want to live. If it were as easy as saying it, we would all be doing it. There's every pressure in the world against us. I mean every pressure in the world is against us.
The devil is against us. Sin within us battles that. But, oh, may today as we talk about our spiritual vision, may there be rekindled in our hearts, a new desire, indeed a new commitment to daily come to the Scriptures and to daily yield ourselves to His Lordship that we might walk with Him and have spiritual heartburn every day. Would you pray with me as we close? With our heads bowed, I wonder if you like me need to say something to the Lord regarding your own heart condition.
Jesus brought these disciples to a renewed and more intimate knowledge of Himself by restoring their spiritual vision. Some of us have come today with our eyes closed. We're choosing our own way, living for ourselves, living in unbelief, though we call ourselves disciples of Christ. Oh, what we need today is restored spiritual vision.
Will you say something like this, Lord Jesus, open my eyes and teach me to walk with you every day so that my spiritual vision will work and my heart will burn with devotion to you? Lord Jesus, let that be the true attitude and response of the hearts of all of us who are yours today. Amen. I walked today where Jesus walked. In days of long ago I wandered down each path He knew with reverence, step, and slow. Those little lanes they had not changed, a sweet peace fills the air.
I walked today where Jesus walked and felt His presence there. My pathway led through Bethlehem, our memories ever sweet. The little hills of Galilee that knew those childish feet. The Mount of Olives hollowed scenes that Jesus knew before. I saw the mighty Jordan roll as in the days of yore. I knelt today where Jesus knelt where all alone He prayed. The Garden of Gethsemane, my heart felt unafraid. I picked my heavy burden up and with Him by my side I climbed the Hill of Calvary.
I climbed the Hill of Calvary. I climbed the Hill of Calvary where on the cross He died. I walked today where Jesus walked and felt Him close to me. Aren't you glad that He does walk close with us? We can pick up our heavy burdens and bring them to Him. He says, Come unto me all you that are heavy, weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Let's stand together, please.