Jesus On The Road To Emmaus

Well, I don't know where you were two weeks ago on Sunday morning, but it was Easter. Can you believe it? All right. As you think about what's transpired the last several weeks, if you go to the biblical record of what took place, we are, in essence, two weeks past the resurrection of Christ, and we're a few weeks yet until the ascension of Christ, and a few weeks even more beyond that before we get to Pentecost or the giving of the Holy Spirit as we read about in the book of Acts.

Now if I ask you, what did Pastor Tim preach on that Sunday, you might be going, wait a minute, he didn't really preach, he said a few words, kind of had a meditation. We had to, remember the choir sang, okay? Some of you are going, oh yeah, I remember that, okay? And even a little more difficult would be you might look at me and think, well, that fellow, he preached some time ago before, but now the question is, what did I preach about the last time I was here?

It gets a little foggy, doesn't it? Okay. I had to look up and see what I preached about the last time I was here. It was Psalm 121 in case you want to go back and look. But I'm saying this to kind of set a context for where we're going. We're going to take a look at a passage in Luke chapter 24 this morning that will remind us of some very important things and we will enter into this kind of biblical chronology, this record of what happened after Easter.

So if you have your Bible you may be wanting to turn to Luke chapter 24. I want to read the passage that we're going to study and that I'm going to preach on this morning and trust God we'll use it in our lives just to help you to understand what's here and what God's word is to us this morning. So as I'm reading, remember this is the Lord speaking and if we were speaking in King James terminology I would say, thus saith the Lord.

It says in Luke 24 verse 13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which is about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all of these things which had taken place And while they were talking and discussing Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them 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 are walking? and they stood still looking sad. One of them named Cleopas 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 he said to them, What things? And they said to him, The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and in word and in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it's the third day since these things happened, but also some women among us, when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body, they came saying what they had also 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 exactly as the women had also said. But him they did not see. And he said to them, O foolish men, and slow to heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Let's pray together. Father in heaven we see from your word more about you more about your son the Lord Jesus more of the work of the spirit of God in people's lives I pray father for all of us this morning that your spirit would come among us and illuminate us and teach us and guide us as you have promised he would I pray, Father, that our hearts would be teachable, that we would all be saying to ourselves, Lord, speak to me, minister to my heart, stir my soul. I pray, Father God, that you would help me as I preach to be your instruments to communicate your truths about you, the true and the living God.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now, as I said a few minutes ago, this is what we would call one of Jesus' post-resurrection, pre-ascension appearances. And he didn't just appear to these men, but he appeared to others. And, you know, I'll let you read those accounts in the Bible for yourself. He's not yet ascended back to heaven, and yet he's risen from the dead, is basically what I'm driving at here.

And we see in these first few verses of this passage that there's two men going to a little town called Emmaus. It's seven miles from Jerusalem. And just in case you're getting ready to go to Israel, there's no record of Emmaus. Nobody has any idea where it was. Okay, it's just recorded in the biblical record here. It does not exist today anymore.

They don't even have any ruins or old street signs or anything. So the men are walking along, and Jesus, second person of the Trinity, appears to them. Look at the passage. Look at verse 15. They're walking along. Jesus approaches and begins walking along or traveling with them.

Now, verse 16, it tells us that their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And then it goes on here and says in 17 where Jesus asks them a question. What are these words you're exchanging with one another as you are walking? Notice what they did. They stopped walking. They're standing there looking at Jesus and looking sad.

And then we get into what Cleopas said there. Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things that have happened here in these days Where have you been Now I want to explain to you from this passage that there are six truths about Jesus And we just saw the first one. We see a gracious Savior. none of us are going to have Christ appear to us like this how gracious and merciful of the Lord to appear to these men it tells us a little bit about them they were prevented from recognizing him as we've read the passage before you might get the idea they didn't quite get what was going on and yet the Lord appeared to them What a wonderful Savior.

You know, we're not going to see angels. We're not going to see Christ like this. What a magnificent experience for these men to enjoy the grace of God to them. In their time of confusion, misunderstanding, they didn't get what happened in Jerusalem on Easter and what led up to Easter. This Jesus, the Nazarene, as they called him, they were hoping, we'll look at in a little bit, that he would be the Redeemer of Israel, and not in the redemption sense that we understand.

They were hoping for deliverance from the Romans by the Messiah. But God was gracious to appear to them. And I would say to everyone here, and anybody listening on the Internet or listens to this later on, This is God's grace to us, that we have the word of God that's recorded these things for us, that God in his goodness and mercy and grace has explained these things to us, and we'll see more about that later on.

So don't miss the grace of God this morning here in Christ, first and foremost. We have a wonderful Savior. That's the first truth I want to share with you. The second truth we see in verse 19. So we've kind of gotten into the sermon here a little bit. Look at verse 19.

It says, And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word, in the sight of God and all the people. Now, if you go back to the book of Genesis, into Deuteronomy, you see about the prophets. You see Moses in Deuteronomy saying there'll be a prophet coming after me, meaning after Moses, greater than he was, referring to the Messiah.

And Jesus was that prophet. The role of the prophet was to proclaim the things of God, and that's what Jesus did. He came to do the will of the Father, to reveal the Father, and to help the people understand the goodness and grace of God and the Messiah and the deliverance from sin. So he came as a prophet. We also know that he came as a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

We read about that in the book of Hebrews. And he is our high priest today making intercession for us. He was the high priest who makes the offering of the sacrifice for sin for us. Jesus also came not just as a prophet and a priest, but he also came as king in the line of David. King David had a greater king, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's who this is.

So he was not only the prophet, but he was the priest and he was the king. And we learn about those in other passages, and those are more sermons. Or you can read about them on your own. Let's talk about this for a minute. These men are saying, Jesus is a prophet, mighty in deed and word. Now think about some of the deeds that Jesus did.

You pull some of those up, a little Bible drill here, think about that. What were some of the deeds of Jesus? Let me start with the first miracle, the water to wine. that's a pretty interesting deal. Anybody done that recently? I see no hands. We can move on.

How about the feeding of the 5,000? And that was the men. And they had leftovers. Let me move to another one. The raising of Lazarus from the dead. That's the kind of deeds.

They're saying deeds. and you know we all sit here it's very easy for us to go why didn't they get it i mean after all jesus raised lazarus from the dead is that not enough well it certainly not enough to anybody dead in their sins and trespasses okay when you blind okay you don see it you don get it all right So that just a few of the deeds I mean we could spend sermons rehearsing the miracles or the deeds of Christ all right, the healings and all the things that he did, all right? Now, how about the word, okay? It says he was a prophet mighty in deed and word.

Can you quote some of the things Jesus said? Can you pull some of those out of the recesses of your mind here this morning? I'll give you one. John 14, 6. Jesus said he's the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by him.

I can see some of your mouths moving. You've memorized that. Some of you understand that because it's a verse that means a lot to you. do you understand that Jesus is your way your truth and your life and he's made a way for you into heaven it's not some general truth out there well these guys still didn't get that they heard those kinds of things but when you're blind and dead in your sins and your trespasses you don't understand these things and it says there in verse 13 their eyes were prevented from recognizing him they hadn't recognized him before either not in his true sense as the Messiah they'd been with him, they'd heard teachings they'd probably seen some of these things they knew what happened in Jerusalem around Easter and the crucifixion and the resurrection they knew the tomb was empty still didn't get it and I'm not being hard on them they happen to be illustrations in the narrative here these kinds of things always make me think about what if I was that guy?

If it said, and one of them was named Dan, you put your name in there. If you're apart from Christ, hey, we're kind of going around blind, is the way to say it. So the second major truth here is that Jesus was a prophet. Now they didn't understand him in the proper way as a prophet. That comes later in other portions of scripture. but the point is they at least recognize this man spoke from God.

They didn't quite understand all that. They going to gain some better understanding a little bit later in the passage So the first truth was we have a gracious and merciful Savior and we see that by him even appearing to these men Second big truth here is that Jesus really was a prophet They understand him totally as they should have, but at least they recognized him as a prophet. Then we go to the next verse, verse 20, to see the third truth and that is that Jesus was crucified.

All right, Let's go to verse 20. So he was mighty indeed in word and 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. Well, we hear about that a lot. We talk about that a lot. That's a vocabulary word for us, crucifixion, crucified, those kinds of things. I mean, even the children in here have got that in their vocabulary probably.

All right? What's going on at the crucifixion? Just remember that for a few minutes. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Jesus shed his blood as the sacrificial lamb for the forgiveness of our sins. Why?

To satisfy God's requirements in his law. And see, whenever we talk about the law of God and the requirement of the law, we want to talk about Christ. Because without Jesus, we are stuck in the law trying to somehow get our own salvation taken care of. And guess what, folks? It doesn't work. There's no amount of self-discipline or self-righteousness or, I'll say, institutional righteousness or being a part of some religious organization is going to get you to heaven.

Only Jesus pays the penalty and sheds the blood for the remission of sin. And that's what we're talking about in the crucifixion. Jesus atoned for our sins. Go home and think about that this afternoon. And without the shedding of blood, we are all still in our sins and trespasses. And when you think about Passover, remember Easter, okay, Good Friday, all that time of the year, The Jews are doing Passover at the same time Christians are doing Easter and Palm Sunday and all that kind of stuff But they don have the Messiah Think about that Still under the law still in bondage to the law still hoping for a Messiah, all right?

We have a different message. The Messiah's come. Sins are forgiven. The blood's been shed. There's no need for sacrifices anymore, all right? The atonement's been paid for, all right?

So Jesus is a crucified Savior. Let's not forget that. But there's another truth, okay? A couple more truths here, several more. Let's look on here and see the next truth, and that is that Jesus was misunderstood. Go to the next verse here.

So verse 20, delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him. Verse 21, here's the next truth, fourth truth. but we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel. Do you hear what they're saying? We were hoping for something else. We didn't want Jesus just to die. And by the way, I'll just put a little parenthesis in here.

They're confused about the resurrection. They know the tomb's empty, but they don't know how this all works. He died. What's the resurrection? They were hoping that he would redeem Israel. In other words, they were looking for a Messiah that we would probably classify as a political leader or a military leader.

Somebody that was going to get them free from Rome and let them be their own country again. You know, have their own king like David and, you know, like all the other countries. And no more oppression by Rome. No more taxes to Caesar. That was the kind of Messiah they're looking for. Just as an aside, are our political leaders ever going to fix this world?

No, they are not. Why? People are dead in their trespasses and sins. As long as people are sinful, the political leaders of this world are never going to be able to fix these things. Because people, about the time they try to get something fixed up, somebody else over here is going to do something sinful to mess up what they tried to fix. It's just an ongoing battle.

Well, to a certain degree, that's what the Jews were looking for. They were looking for somebody to fix all these problems, all right? And they were looking in the wrong place. They misunderstood who Jesus really was, all right? And they were hoping for something else. And folks, if you're here today without Christ, you're looking in the wrong place to solve the issues of life.

You know, if somebody's listening to this live streaming on the computer this morning, they're looking and they're apart from Christ they're looking the wrong place for the solution okay Christ is the solution and again I'm not trying to run down the Jews okay they run down these two men in particular okay they their eyes were blind to who Jesus was yet they knew a lot of this stuff all right they had been there to experience some of these things so that's the fourth truth. People misunderstand Jesus all the time. It's still going on in our times.

Now, fifth truth about Jesus. We've got to read a few more verses here. The rest of 21 down through 26 if you're following in your Bible. Let me kind of back up and begin 21 here again. We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Now here's beginning of the section on the next truth.

Indeed, besides all this, it's 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 and did not find his body. They came saying that they had also 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 exactly as the women also had said.

But him they did not see. Verse 25, he said to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? This next truth is that Jesus is risen. The women testified to that in verse 23 and they reported it to other people He alive Other people ran looked in the tomb and said it just like the women said he not here And then in verse 26 there Jesus is saying that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things in other words, be crucified, buried, to enter into his glory.

And the term glory there is referring to all of these resurrection, ascension, exaltation, seated at the right hand kind of things, even some yet to come. And he's reminding them, wait a second, folks, look at 25. The prophets spoke about these things. And we're going to talk about that a little bit more when we look at 27. So this next truth is, let's not forget Jesus is risen.

Whether we believe it or not, whether we understand it or not, he is a living Savior. He is no longer in the grave. Folks, that's the difference with Christianity and Islam and Judaism. And Buddhism and animisms and Americanisms and isms and whatever. okay because a lot of people got i'll just call it kind of scrambled eggs religion okay it's just kind of slushing around in there they've concocted something on their own we have a risen savior you know what we're doing here today on sunday the first day of the week we are worshiping the risen savior christians do not worship on saturday like the jews It's the first day of the week.

Every time we come to worship on Sunday, we're acknowledging what our forefathers understood, and the scriptures reveal this is Resurrection Day. Every time you get up on a Sunday morning from now on, remember, it's Sunday. Jesus rose the first day of the week. That's why we're here, not Saturday, not Monday. And of course our forefathers in Western civilization, they cranked the entire calendar around to mark this.

Interesting, isn't it? So Jesus is the risen Savior. He's no longer in the grave. And if he not risen what does the word of God tell us It would tell us that we are fools We are still in our sins if he not risen If you could disprove the resurrection, you could disprove Christianity as the biggest hoax that's ever come along. But Jesus is risen from the dead.

He's a living Savior. And what that does for us, it stamps God's approval on his son that everything he said and did is true. He's no longer in the grave. And for those of us thinking about the chronology here, he's crucified at Easter. He's ascended on Ascension Sunday, we call it. And Pentecost comes a little bit later.

Folks, this is showing us this is all true. so we are dead in our trespasses and sins still if Jesus is not risen from the dead he is not in the grave and we need to remember that so that's another truth for us to gain from this passage now that's five of the six truths if you're counting and taking notes or trying to figure out what's going on here and I hope you can go back through this passage and see these things about Jesus here on the road to Emmaus and what he does Now, we need to get to the last verse of the passage that we're studying and preaching on this morning. That's verse 27, where Jesus is recorded what Jesus then did with these men as they're still walking to Emmaus. It says, then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Now, the question to you and I this morning is, where in the Old Testament, because that's what the scriptures are talking about here, does Jesus talk about himself? In other words, if you've got a friend that's a Jew and he says, I believe in the Old Testament, can you show me in the Old Testament where it talks about the Messiah? What would you tell him?

That's what Jesus would do in here. and in case you're counting or want to do a quick study this afternoon there's 351 references technically to Jesus in the Old Testament so it's a lot to cover if you're going to read that all this afternoon there's a lot of them in there this morning we don know what Jesus told him we just know he began with Moses and with all the prophets and explained these things but we don know which one of these 351 he covered I doubt he got them all covered because from Jerusalem to Emmaus seven miles if you just kind of walking along at a pretty steady pace you probably do that in about two hours And we don't know whether he showed up at the beginning of the two-hour walk or five minutes to the end. I don't know. But, you know, beginning with Moses, and of course the books of Moses, that's, what are they?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Those are the books of Moses. So where in those five books do we learn about Jesus? Let me just give you one. Genesis 3.15. The Lord is going to bruise Satan's heel.

Okay. Let me just go back there and make sure I read that right. Genesis 3.15. Satan's going to bruise the heel and God's going to bruise the head. All right. Let me get it straight here.

3.15. All right. It says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. And he shall bruise you on the head, that's the Lord Jesus bruising Satan on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. That's an Old Testament, Pentateuch, Books of Moses reference to Christ. And if you go to Hebrews 2.14, which we won't do for the sake of time, you would see that referenced in the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament.

So maybe that's one of the verses that Jesus said, by the way, fellas, have you read Genesis 3.15? And they might say, well, yeah, we probably heard the rabbi talk about that. I don't remember, and he could tell. Let me give you another one. Exodus. This is still out of the books of Moses.

In Exodus 12, if you're writing these things down, 21 to 27, we're not going to look these all up, talks about the Passover lamb I alluded to that earlier Jesus is the Passover lamb so when we talk about Passover you see that blood and the blood on the doorways and deliverance from Egypt and all those kinds of things going on that's all an illusion or a type or a reference to Christ. And if you go to 1 Corinthians 5, 7, you see the New Testament affirmation of that's what it's really all about. So maybe Jesus went to the Exodus passage.

After all, the Jews, remember, Easter and Passover, same basic time. What's going on? He could have said to those fellows, Remember, we just had Passover. Remember, that was just going on. Well, let me tell you about the real Passover lamb. That's me.

I'm the one who shed his blood. The blood on the door lintels and all those kinds of things in Exodus or in Egypt, that's referring to me. The scapegoat, that stuff's referring to me. All of these things that go with the law and the Passover. So whenever we teach about Passover, whenever we go into Exodus, we need to be sure to teach about Jesus. Because if we teach Exodus and the Passover and all these things without Christ, we're just giving people a Jewish message.

We need to give them the gospel. We need to give them the Christian message, not just the Jewish message. So maybe that's one of the passages that Jesus turned them to. Again, if you think back on this verse, verse 27, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. All right. So there was no New Testament then.

It was just Old Testament only. So that may have been something. How about Psalm 22 one? If you've got your Bible, let's flip to that one, because this is one of these that you go, oh, I've heard that one before. OK. Genesis and not Genesis.

Psalm 22, verse one. Maybe in where Jesus went. Psalm 22, verse one. You've probably heard these words before. You can check them out in Matthew 27, 46. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. You heard that before? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Those are some of Jesus' last words on the cross. Maybe he went to that passage and he might have said to them, were you there when I was crucified? Did you hear me say that?

I don know what he said to them But this may be one of the places where he took them and said this is about me Beginning with Moses and all the prophets How about Psalm 110? Just flip over that one. 110 verse 1. And again, you can go to Mark 16, 19 if you want to see the New Testament cross-reference to this. Psalm 110, verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

And if you're not aware of it, that is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. Put a little star by that. The folks that preached and taught and wrote the Old Testament, they knew this verse. God, the Spirit, took them back to this verse more than any other verse to draw us to a reference to Christ in the Old Testament. And what's that verse telling us about Jesus?

It's telling us, think of the chronology of where we are. He's resurrected. He's not ascended. It's that time frame. That's the road to Emmaus. This verse is telling us that he's an ascended Savior, not just a resurrected Savior, and not only is he ascended, but he's seated back at the right hand of the Father.

That's what this is driving at. Maybe Jesus told them about this verse. He might have said to them, you know what? Psalm 110, verse 1, we've had the crucifixion, the resurrection. I haven't ascended yet, and I'm going back to the Father. Look at what this verse says. and the Lord God Almighty is going to have me sit at his right hand again and make my enemies a footstool.

Maybe that's the kind of thing he said to them. Fellas, you need to know Psalm 110 verse 1. I don't know what he said, but there's another reference to Jesus in the Old Testament. I don't know about you, but that gives us hope. We have a Savior that's ascended back to heaven. When we were driving up here this morning, we were talking about Philippians chapter 2, where Jesus left heaven became a man emptied himself became a man He had all this earthly ministry was crucified buried risen from the dead ascended and seated back at the right hand of the Father.

You see the full cycle there? He went back to where he started, back in heaven. Maybe Jesus talked to him about that. How about Isaiah 7, 14? Look at Isaiah 7.14. Because when I read this, you go, oh yeah, I've heard that.

I've heard that somewhere. It says in Isaiah 7.14. Isaiah 7.14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she shall call his name Emmanuel. Look at Matthew chapter 1.

It's fulfilled. Maybe Jesus said, hey guys, how about Isaiah 7, the virgin birth? Emmanuel, that's me. God with us. That's what Emmanuel means. God with us.

Maybe Jesus talked about, men, it's God with us. I'm God and I'm with you. Wow. Back to my first truth, the first truth of the passage. Talk about a gracious Savior. Here are some fellows going along, perplexed about what had gone on and that they had experienced, trying to sort this stuff out.

And they began to get taught by God Almighty, the second person of the Trinity. So we see these are just five of the 300 plus references to Christ in the Old Testament. In other words, if you've got some spare time tomorrow, you get going on some of these things. It's a lot of passages to study through. Anyway, if you get back to Luke 24 and think this through, there's these six basic truths in this passage about the grace of God to us in Christ, Jesus being the prophet that he was, even though the Jews were a little confused about it.

These two men specifically. Jesus was crucified. We've reviewed that truth. We've seen the confusion of the Jews, these particular Jews. They were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah. All right?

And then the fifth truth is that Jesus is a risen Savior And then this last truth is that Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament over and over and over and over again and his grace to us to reveal himself to us with all these references in the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament and make it even more clear to us. All that being said, wonderful truths of Christ here. Now, the question is, how are we to apply these things?

How are we to take these things and think these things through and grasp these truths to ourselves? Now, to do that, we're going to read some more of the passage. Let's go on here. We kind of got our application section to the text here in verses 28 to 35. Now, think about applying this. What kind of conclusions can we draw from this?

And they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he was going further. So what's going on here is they showed up to Emmaus. Jesus seemed like he was going to go on a little bit more. 29, but they urged him, saying, stay with us, for it is getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over. Now the way the Jews reckoned days, it was getting to be sundown, because they reckoned days from 6 in the evening are sundown, basically.

And so it's getting late, going to get dark. It says there in 29, so he went in to stay with them. Again, thinking about application, we're getting to more of that. when he had reclined a table that's verse 30 with them he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it he began giving it to them so they're having a meal together look at 31 then their eyes were opened and they recognized him see what's happening there these men were most likely converted here because you go back to 16 their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

You get to 31, their eyes were opened. The eyes of their understanding were opened. They were awakened to who is this Jesus? And then he vanished. Again, this is a post-resurrection, pre-ascension appearance. So Jesus showed up, walked with him a little while, talked to him, and then left.

Vanished. But their eyes were opened. Are your eyes open this morning to Christ? Are you spiritually awake? I can't answer that question. Only you and the Lord know that.

But this may be a day for you to go, wow, verse 16, I don't understand this. And boy, you get to 31 and you go, my eyes are opened. 32 says, and they said to one another, listen to what they said. Here's the application. Not only that their eyes were opened, but the Lord's opening their eyes for them. It says, were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us?

Note what he's saying and what's going on to them. Jesus was speaking the scriptures to them. That's 27. Moses and the prophets and all the scriptures. Jesus is teaching them the word and what's happening to their hearts. our hearts were burning within us while he was speaking the scriptures to them what's going on in your heart when you hear the word taught and preached when you read your bible when you listen to a sermon on the internet is your heart stirred that's the application ask yourself am I falling more in love with the Lord here as I hear the word of God taught as I read my Bible myself at my kitchen table or wherever you do that kind of thing is the Lord stirring your heart again I think this could be an illusion these men were converted John Wesley said referring to his conversion that his heart was strangely warmed is how he put it Interesting.

Great illustration from this. But is your heart burning? That's the application. That's what's going on in these men's lives. Think of the grace of God to us to give us our Bibles. It's the same Bible that Jesus talked to these men about, Moses and the prophets.

It's the same Bible you've got in your hands. It's the same scriptures. What a blessing from the Lord to apply those things and heed those things. Look at 33. Look at the response of these men. I'm thinking about application.

And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem in the dark. Okay, probably. It was getting dark. They had supper with Jesus. They realized what? He's gone.

They realized their eyes were open spiritually. Their hearts had been burning in them. And what did they do? It motivated them to get up and they hiked seven miles back to Jerusalem. Okay. And look what they did.

And found gathered together the eleven. That's the apostles. Okay. And those who were with them. Some of the ladies. And we're not sure who else is with them.

Okay. saying, the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. And they, let's see, 35, they began to relate their experience on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. In other words, they weren't quiet about it. They hustled back and said folks this is all really true now their eyes are open spiritually and they reporting to other people what God has done in their lives and the grace they seen in the Lord So, you know, the question to all of us this morning is, are we giving some expression to what God's doing in our lives?

It ought to be real to those of us that are Christians. if we know and love the Savior, it's going to make a difference. The book of Acts tells us that we will do deeds in keeping with our repentance. It's going to change our lives. It's going to change our attitudes. It's going to change our behaviors. It's going to change what we think about.

It's going to change our priorities. So it changed these guys' priorities. I doubt they were planning to go back to Jerusalem that night. They were on their way. I don't know, maybe Emmaus was a stopping point and they were going on somewhere else. We have no idea.

There's no other record of these two people in the scriptures. But what a wonderful thing for them that they had encountered Christ. Good thing for them that Jesus showed up on the road to Emmaus. And this is an account of the Savior and his work in two people's lives as they're going along. So as you apply these things to your life, ask yourself, what's God want to do in my life?

Maybe you're a non-Christian this morning. You might be saying, you know, I just don't know this. You know, I need to talk to somebody. Well, come talk to me later after the service this morning if you want to know more about Christ. Or maybe you're a Christian and, you know, earlier in the worship service we were talking about confessing sins. Maybe you've got a sin you need to confess and repent of.

Maybe there's, you know, some stirring of the Lord. You might be going, well, I need to get a grip on my Bible a little bit better. Okay, jumpstart your devotional life this morning. I don know what God called you to but I know he called us all to love him and to honor him and to glorify him and to make him first and foremost in our hearts and minds and set him as the number one priority of our lives So we've got a great little application section because we see how these men responded to Jesus.

And the question is, how will you respond to Jesus this morning? Let's pray together. Father, we know that Christ Jesus the Lord is risen. We thank you, Father, that we have a risen Savior who has atoned for our sins. We thank you, Father, that the gift of salvation to us is your gift to us. It's not of our own merit, not of our own desires, designs, but it's you regenerating us.

And we know too, Father, that the sanctifying work of your Spirit for those of us that are Christians is your work in our lives. Pray, Father, that you would teach us to humbly submit to you and to honor you and to love you and to walk with you. And for each one of us, I know, Father, that may be a different thing. Help us, Father God, to listen to what your Spirit stirs us about.

Thank you too, Father, for your goodness to give us your word, that we could look back in the Scriptures, learn about Christ, just as he taught these men. Thank you, Father, that your Holy Spirit guides us and teaches us about these things. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.