I invite you to turn in the Scriptures this morning to Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24. I'm going to be reading from verse 13 to verse 49 of Luke chapter 24. The well-known account of the men on the road to Emmaus. So this is at verse 13 of Luke's gospel, chapter 24. This is the word of the Lord. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? and they stood still looking sad then one of them named cleopas answered him are you the only visitor to jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days and he said to them what things and they said to him concerning jesus of nazareth a man who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before god and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see 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 christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself so they drew near to the village to which they were going He acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took 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 eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying the lord is risen indeed and has appeared to simon then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread and they were talking as they were talking about these things jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace to you but they were startled and frightened and thought they saw spirit and he said to them why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts see my hands and my feet that it is i myself touch me and see for spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that i have and when i had and when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet and while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling he said to them have you anything to eat they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate before them 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 and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled then he's opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer on the third day, rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. Beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high may the lord bless the hearing of his word there was an article floating around last week uh that i stumbled upon i was titled 11 reasons that pastors struggle on easter and as i read uh the 11 of them i found some of them a little odd a little too focused on pastors and then some of them helpful but a few included this the pressure to do well at this time is increased the crowd is bigger but many are giving the church uh coming into the church only this one time and this is the opportunity to grab their attention no church leader wants to mess up on Easter Sunday. Consequently, every small issue, each off note, every stumbled over word, every unintended delay gets magnified. I've long not worried about that one. Pastors see members that they haven't seen since last Easter. That's not good. Pastors see lostness enter and people leave unchanged. Finding a unique approach to the Easter story is not easy. The story is itself enough, of course, but some pastors find this need to present the story in a fresh and enlightening way. Some pastors have no resurrection joy themselves. It is a challenging time. I don't think you understand the challenge that this time is. I think those last two are interesting because they really do expose a sad reality that as we come to celebrate, as we come to think about the person in the work of Christ, as we come to think about his death as we did on Friday and now the resurrection on Sunday here, as we come and we gather to do this, that it's possible that we could celebrate this without understanding? That troubles me. It always has. Understanding was something that greatly concerned our Lord. In fact, if we celebrate the fact of the resurrection without understanding, well, then we've merely made it a custom and a church tradition, and that would make sense why there's no real resurrection joy conversely you might even say if somebody comes in today and somebody comes in and they're not even a believer and they've they've come into church because they know that's probably what they should do once a year if they come in here and they don't come with understanding what this ultimately will be to you is very confusing it will be under confusing and it won't really make sense what is this all about and why are we celebrating this? What Christ wants this morning is the kind of understanding that leads us to believe Him, to worship Him, to trust Him, to see what He has done and why the resurrection was even necessary. Why was it so necessary? Think about when you've understood something and how it changed your life. I will never forget the time when the Lord did open up my understanding to the doctrine of justification and for the first time i understood how i was right with god i'll never forget it i'd had that preached to me all my life but i never understood it and one day he opened my understanding to grasp it and and it was true i was i was a new person i i finally grasped that it's not my righteousness it's a righteousness holy outside of me that god provides in his son understanding understanding is so important i think of nehemiah 8 when the nation had been carried off into babylon and they're brought back and they have their first kind of worship service and a platform of wood is put up and they preach they preach the scribes preached the word and it says at the end of nehemiah 8 and all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were proclaimed to them understood that is so crucial to the text this morning that is so crucial the disciples in front of us did not understand why jesus had to die and rise again it's an amazing thing to say and because they didn't understand the necessity of his death they didn't understand why the resurrection was so necessary they're confused about it they didn't know what it would bring about and the scene before you is really one of the most dramatic in the scriptures and you'll see how and the goal here is jesus is opening of their understandings to comprehend the scriptures and that's the goal here for you today there's nothing different there's nothing that we need to reinvent the wheel here about this the story is the story the question is do you understand the story that's what jesus has to do for you or else you'll sit here and you'll pick this and pick that and pick apart whatever you won't your heart won't be here at all. That very day, two of them here are traveling on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. We read that they were talking with each other about these things that had happened. These two men are deeply sorrowful over the fact that from their perspective, their Messiah has died. And for them, what we're going to find here is an issue of being slow to believe, but they're deeply troubled over the fact that the whole thing seems to have gotten out away from the Lord Jesus. Everything is turned into really the worst possible outcome. This is how they're feeling. This is what they're experiencing. We can't believe that it went like this. And they're walking away. The imagery is they're walking away from Jerusalem full of sorrow, Full of grief, the death of Christ was a stumbling block to them. They're talking. They're confused. The conversation probably went something like this. Jesus did all these powerful things. I mean, we can begin to talk about all the things that we saw Him do. We even saw Him at one point raise somebody from the dead in Lazarus. His own life just got taken. did you see the bloody crucifixion that he had to endure they're trying to process all of this it makes no sense how could he heal the blind how could he raise lazarus how could he do all these marvelous things help all these people do all these kind things do all these saving things and this is the outcome do you feel that this doesn't make any sense to us why would he need to die like this why would he need to suffer like this i mean that's the that's the struggle they're going through and i suppose that if if somebody were an unbeliever here today that would be the real question why would why would that need to happen why would that really need to happen well as this is going on we read in verse 14 that our resurrected lord comes up to them. And he starts walking with them. Which I've always been amazed that he never went into Caesar's palace. He never went into Pilate and said, see, he walks to these guys. He walks to these guys. But in verse 16, something so crucial is said that if you're a highlighter, you want to highlight. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. That's not very nice, is it? He blinded them. He blinded them. Why? Look at the drama here. Look at the excitement here. We're reading this now. How many years later? Put yourself in their shoes. What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? They stood still, looking sad. Cleopas answers in shock. are you who are you are you the only guy here in jerusalem that does not know what's happened in these days where have you been checked out what things i love that answer i just have always stopped at that what things tell me about it that's what any good teacher does by the way Any good teacher, let somebody work out their problem. Let somebody explain their problem. This is the good teacher. What things? What are you talking about? Tell me about it. So they do. Concerning this Jesus of Nazareth, who is this mighty prophet in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests, our very chief priests, You know what they did to Him? They delivered Him up to be condemned to death. They crucified Him. They're overwhelmed with grief about this. They gave Him the death of a criminal. They struck blows to His face. They crucified our Lord. They stripped Him naked. They shamed Him. I mean, you go through all the event of the cross and all that awful mockery and shame and the despising of Him. Releasing a criminal instead in Barabbas. But here's their issue. But you see, we had hoped that He was going to be the one to redeem Israel. But you see, besides this, it's the third day. He hasn't shown up. No resurrection. Now, in verse 10, I want you to, if you were to actually look back up in this section to verse 10, what you'll notice here is that Mary had been to the tomb and she saw the angels and she runs back to tell the disciples. And in verse 11, what we read there is that these words seem to be like them an idle tale. They did not believe them. So the whole real sense we get from the disciples is they're not believing, they're disillusioned, they're frustrated, they don't understand, and they did not believe. So they're not really grasping why this whole thing had to even occur. They're not even understanding why Jesus had to die, why the death and resurrection was so necessary. Our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and they crucified Him. That had to have been a mistake. That had to have gotten away from God. And you stand back from this as you study this and you start thinking and you say, well, wait, didn't they know this? Didn't Jesus tell them this? Yeah, He said it over and over. He kept telling them over and over. The Son of Man, they will scourge Him. They will kill Him. He will rise the third day. Over and over. And it compounds, too, when, you know, what did they believe about the Old Testament, you start to think. Well, what did they see in the Old Testament? What did they know about the Old Testament? I want you to listen to what Luke records right after Jesus told them that this would occur. He said plainly, I'm going to die, I'm going to rise. Listen to this. This is Luke 18, verse 34. but they understood, understood, none of these things. This saying was hidden from them. He said it and hid it. Is it hidden from you today? What you have in front of you are Christ's disciples with no understanding. What does that look like? What does that translate to? He had not yet opened up their understandings. And now He has purposely blinded them to even to be able to gaze their eyes and see Him. He's standing there with a body. He's standing there with the resurrected body. He blinds them. What were they after? We were hoping Israel was finally going to get redeemed. Is that what you think this was? What were their expectations for Jesus? Well, it always bothered the Jews immensely that they were under these Romans. This had to be the one finally God would send to redeem and bring about the kingdom of God and we would never have to be in this kind of arrangement again. The problem is that it was our leaders, our own leaders who took out the Messiah. They took out our Messiah. The answer. Now what? Jesus dealt with this problem all over the Gospels of wrong agendas for him, misunderstanding his purpose, wanting him to be king and reign earthly in Jerusalem and conquer the Romans. That was all over the Gospels. It was a big problem. But we were hoping, they say, we were hoping he would be the one to buy back Israel from its oppression. I wonder today, how do you think Jesus is being presented today around the world. How is he being presented? How is the resurrection being presented? Do you think? Is the resurrection being from world leaders a launch pad for earthly agendas? Is it a launch pad to end poverty? Is it a launch pad to stop ISIS? Is it a launch pad? I mean, we could go right down the line to end persecution. How is the resurrection being presented? What is the ultimate goal here that Jesus was after? Well, this was always on their minds. And this is what Jesus was dealing with. So Jesus comes up to these two struggling little disciples, knowing that they do not understand and blinds them so that they cannot see. And because of their misunderstanding, what has happened in their lives is mass discouragement and fear and sadness, which you kind of understand if you have made the resurrection immediately about the solving of all the world's problems, isn't that going to create some kind of disillusionment in the listeners? Oh, it ultimately will solve all the problems. But what is the immediate problem that it has solved? For the people. This is why I believe Luke 24 is so important for us this morning. I never can get away from its simple meaning and help to us when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. One day, when the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no more war, There will be no more poverty. Sure, the resurrection secures those things. But what about now? What has the resurrection done for us now? Jesus now speaks in the midst of their confusion. And he says to them in verse 25, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that 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. Don't you understand that this had to happen? Now, they don't know it's him. Remember that. They're still blinded. And Jesus here, they were so focused on Jewish kingdom renewal now, They missed the whole purpose of the gospel. They missed what this was ultimately all about. And so he's blinding them to open their understandings to the true meaning of it. Now of all the things that Jesus could have done to help them, I think about that. Of all the things that he could have done to help them, what does he do? Nothing you would think is very exciting, by the way, in our own fleshly humanity. Sinful humanity. You know what he does? He goes back to the Old Testament and he starts preaching it. Of all things you could do after the resurrection. He goes back to the Old Testament and he starts preaching. And what is the simple thing that he says as he starts preaching the Old Testament? What is the simple thing he's doing and showing as he starts preaching the Old Testament? This is his immediate focus after the resurrection. what is it? He preaches himself. It's such an amazing thing. I want you to hold that thought for one moment. He preaches himself, his person and work from the Old Testament. They begin to draw near to the village, which they're going, and he acts as if he's going to go further. It's a kind of test for a moment to see what's going on in their hearts. Do they want him to stay or not verse 29 says they urged him strongly don't leave us stay with us abide with us for it's toward evening and the day is now far spent so he went in to stay with them they employed him by force don't you dare leave us well what happens as he enters in with them is that when he's at the table with them you'll notice here that he takes bread in verse 30 and he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it to them and their eyes were opened and then he vanishes from their sight he takes bread he blesses it and he breaks it does that sound familiar? it's the same formula for the supper it's really important that here the supper was and when he instituted it, he told them, Paul understood in Corinthians, that the supper was a visible proclamation of his what? They aren't understanding that. It's a proclamation of his death. The necessity of it. And he's recalling to their minds right then what he instituted and what it proclaimed when they partook it. They had already celebrated this. They had already anticipated this and didn't understand it. When they ate the bread and drank the cup, they proclaimed his death. And as soon as he gives this to them, he vanishes from their eyes and it says, then their eyes were opened. Well, they are starting to have things happen here. We read that they get up and they got to get down to Jerusalem to find the 11. And as they come there, they announce the Lord's risen. The Lord's risen indeed. We've seen him. And we know that they're all struggling with this at this point. Well, Jesus now enters there. And he stands among them and he says, peace to you. They're frightened. They're scared. They thought it was a ghost. He says, why do doubts arise in your hearts? Feel my hands and my feet. touch them handle me a spirit little ghost running a flying around does not have flesh and bones as you see i have it's a real body it's a real body i'm no ghost i'm no phantom of your imagination i'm resurrected and to prove it you can touch the scars as a matter of fact do you have any food here and they had food and they brought food and so he eats in front of them broiled fish and honeycomb can you imagine watching the resurrected lord eat it goes into his body what's he doing well he's proving the resurrection there's no doubt the immediate plain sense is that he proved to them he's raised from the dead they're overwhelmed with joy they're besides themselves it says that luke showed it says in luke he showed them the hands and feet but they're still struggling they disbelieved for joy they're having a hard time with this now here's my issue they can see him but something greater still needed to happen what is it everyone look at verse 32 when he talked to the two on the road to Emmaus and he had vanished they said something did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the roads while he opened to us the scriptures. Highlight that. He set our hearts on fire. It's an interesting choice of words. Our hearts were set on fire by his words. Notice he didn't just say, it's me. He set them ablaze. He filled them with wonder. He filled them with hunger for more he filled them with desire and longing for more by the word by the word now with all of the disciples in front of him the Emmaus disciples included he has now eaten in front of all of them and then he said to them this is verse 44 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 and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. All of it is about me. I've done it. And the next words is everything I wanted to build to today, so I pray I've done that by God's grace. Look at verse 45. he opened their minds to understand the Scripture. That's a big verse. Notice, he didn't just open their eyes and understanding to see him standing there. He didn't just open their eyes and understanding to see him standing there. He opened their eyes and understanding to see him in the Scriptures. that is so important that's how you see him even when he stood in front of them it wasn't his ultimate goal that they just see him that way his goal was that for the time they live by faith seeing him and understanding him in the scriptures now here's the crucial point that's how hearts are open how do you read the Psalms how do you read the Psalms who are they about when you read his soul was not left in Hades nor did the Holy One see corruption how do you read the Bible what do you think it's about isn't it something that the very first thing he does after the resurrection is preach the gospel of his person and work from the Old Testament. Look, we've gone through Genesis now. We've gone through Exodus. You thought, I've heard you say to me, we thought those were nice moral stories for our kids. Did you think that with Joseph? Thrown in a pit, stripped of all of his clothing, sold into slavery, dumped there, tested and overcame raised up out of the pit raised to the right hand of pharaoh put a ring on his and then becomes the lord of egypt really what are you seeing with israel your story that you are in bondage and in slavery and you need a deliverer to come get you greater than moses it's the whole testament it's everything that we understand about the bible when god at the beginning adam tried and his nakedness to cover his own shame and God wouldn't accept it. And God covered it with skins of an animal and shed blood because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. That story was told to you in Genesis 3. God had planned from the beginning and declared in the fullness of time that he would send his son and that his son would come not to redeem us for earthly greatness or not to restore our personal kingdoms, but to suffer the wrath of God in our place and to forgive us and secure for us the hope of your future resurrection of the body so you don't have to go through this anymore. Pentecost. You know, this Emmaus event had so affected the disciples in the upper room. Do you know what Peter does at the first sermon in Acts? Makes no sense to us. You know, one of the greatest responses ever to a sermon was right there. 3,000 souls become saved. And it's nothing like the sermons we hear today. Nothing like the sermons we hear today. It was a stringing together of Old Testament passages. Stringing together to show and prove one thing. Jesus fulfilled it all. That's how people were saved. Ethiopian eunuch, he's reading Isaiah. He's doing personal Bible study, by the way, and he couldn't get it. I don't understand it. Who is this talking about? And the Lord says, Philip, go preach. Go preach to him. And Philip starts preaching. And do you know what it says? The Ethiopian says, I don't understand Isaiah 53. I don't understand. Is this talking about this? Who? Then Philip, here it is, opened his mouth. And beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. He preached Jesus out of Isaiah 53. There was a certain woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God, was a seller of purple. You know what? It says she heard Paul. As Paul was preaching the Old Testament and preaching the Gospel, the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. He set the heart on fire. Verse 46 tells us this morning, Then he said to them, Thus it is written, And thus it was necessary, is absolutely necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that here we're getting to the ultimate need for the intention that God had for us to understand of this today is this, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. That's what this is about. The resurrection is an announcement that there is a way to escape the wrath to come and that there is a way you won't have to face answering for your sins. But if you don't have this, you're going to have to do that and it's going to be awful. But if you have Jesus, the resurrection is the receipt, the assurance that He had triumphed over death and that He won the victory and that your justification before God is rooted in that resurrection victory, that it's all been validated, that it's all been completed, that the work is finished, that He's triumphant, and that as you have Him, you have gospel and freedom. And now, as you go forward, you can spend out the rest of your days with opened understandings, glorying as God has opened your mind now to study a book you never comprehended but he's opened your mind to study the whole story and to see him everywhere and your fire your hearts are on fire to learn him that's what he's giving you and when you repent of your sins and you turn to me says Christ I forgive them all that's what I've secured that's my program, that's my gospel that's what the sacrament by the way is so important that we have not treasured like we should it's the power of Christ's resurrection notice the joy on the two on the road to Emmaus their sorrow was turned to joy what a tragedy I have to say in closing this morning that today this has turned into a circus this is why I struggle with this time of year i really do i saw so many images of people trying to react the cross and carry the cross and reenact the resurrection and all the focus and emphases on kingdom agendas and temporal things today is the message being preached of forgiveness of sins or is it a show to showcase us and then i wonder when the bible's being open today are people preaching jesus from all of scripture or do they just want to be told how to improve their lives and feel good about it what a tragedy when jesus isn't preached for your children and for you what a tragedy when people don't know him from all what a tragedy when that fire is not being created in people's hearts to want that. The sad consequence is today a bunch of dead worshipers who come who never have joy complete. And I don't ever want any of that you to go away without having your joy fulfilled. Do you hear Him? My peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives. They cannot give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Christ is risen. I can't imagine what it must have been like in verse 50 when He led them out as far as Bethany and He lifted up His hands and it says He blessed them. I'm assuming it was the Aaronic blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His shining, smiling face upon you. and give you his peace. May you understand from all scriptures that it's written about him and believing in him. May today you have life in his name. That's what we celebrate. I leave you with the words of Nehemiah 8. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were proclaimed to them. Heavenly Father, when we open up this Scripture and we see Your great design, we see the plan of salvation unfold, we see what it's all about, we realize that we have desired earthly things in the ministry that do not save. We've made it often too much about us. How we feel about music or buildings or whatever. And we've not come with hearts of fire that want to see Jesus. And yet we know that unless by your power you open up understandings, we'll remain dull and critical and complacent and hardened and ready to do our own thing. You have to break in there. And so today I pray sincerely for myself and everyone here that you would create that hunger and thirst for the pearl of great price. That you would create in us a hunger and thirst to know and understand Jesus. This is what you said, Lord Jesus. This is what your prayer was, that we would know and understand you. The Father and the one whom he has sent. And I pray that that would be the case in all of us today. Thank you for triumphing over death. Thank you for securing the victory. And thank you for announcing to us forgiveness of sins and because of that the promise of our future resurrection of the body and the life everlasting to which we all say in jesus name we all say together amen