[0:00] Let us, everyone, a joyful noise, make to the rock of our salvation.! Let us, before his presence, come with praise and thankful voice.! Let us sing psalms to him with grace and make a joyful noise.
[0:14] We'll sing to verse 6 and Psalm 95 will come. Let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord.
[0:28] Let us sing to the Lord. The joyful noise is good and the rock of our salvation.
[0:52] O come, let us sing to the Lord. This person, come with praise and thankful voice.
[1:11] Let us sing to the Lord. This person, come with praise and make a joyful noise.
[1:31] For God and great, God and great King, how powerful God he is.
[1:49] Let us sing to the Lord. Let us sing to the Lord. To whom the Savior still belongs.
[2:18] O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord.
[2:28] O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord.
[2:42] O come, let us sing to the Lord. O come, let us sing to the Lord.
[3:03] And honor thee before the Lord, and make her glad as all.
[3:24] Genuine our hearts in prayer. Gracious Father, we thank you for this, the Lord's Day. This is a day the Lord has made, and we shall rejoice and be glad in it.
[3:38] We thank you for the truth of the Scriptures, that your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And as we gather today, celebrating the resurrection, that the Lord Jesus Christ rose again in the third day.
[3:54] And the day of rest for the Christian church has been this day ever since. We pray that this morning that the noise that we make would be joyful, and that we would look to you, the great rock.
[4:07] Father, we thank you for that great image of the rock. The immovable and changeable God. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
[4:19] We ask that this morning, that we would rest on that rock. That we would stand on that rock. And that we would be bold knowing that that rock is our refuge.
[4:32] Father, we thank you that the rock is an image of shelter as well. And we pray that as we hide in the storms of life, that we would hide in the very cleft of the rock.
[4:44] That as the storms come, that we would know that underneath are indeed the everlasting arms. Father, we thank you that we've been singing of our salvation.
[4:55] The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners. And for the fact that there is an open door for those to run to the Saviour.
[5:07] We pray that this morning that we would run to him. For where else can we go? He has the words of eternal life. And we bless you again for the great truth.
[5:18] That before we ever ran to him. That he has ran to us. That he sought us before we ever sought him. Lord, we ask that this morning that we would have a sense of the greatness of God.
[5:33] The wonder of God. And that we would capture some of the awe of God. And that we would bow down saying in our hearts, my Lord and my God.
[5:43] We thank you, gracious Lord, for your power. We've been singing that it's to you that the spacious sea belongs. And yet we know that we are only a speck on that sea.
[5:56] Lord, we thank you that you see the greatness of this world. It sighs its immensity. And yet we read in the word that your eye is on the sparrow.
[6:09] That there is not a single hair of our head goes unnoticed by you. Lord, we bow before you and we thank you. We pray that this morning that we would have a spirit of worship.
[6:21] A spirit of adoration. And that we would see no man except Jesus only. That this morning would be dominated by the Lord Jesus Christ. That we would experience him.
[6:32] That we would know his presence even here in this very simple meeting room. Father in heaven, we thank you for everybody here. You know our needs even more than we know them ourselves.
[6:47] We bring to you our pain. We bring to you our doubts. Our failures. Our sins. Our victories. We bring all these things before you. And ask that you would help us in our time of need.
[7:02] But also help us in our time of victory. Because we know that it's so often during the times of victories. That we are susceptible to pride and leaning on our own strength.
[7:15] And not leaning on you. Dear Lord, we ask that you would be with those who are unwell. That they would know healing. Pray for those who mourn.
[7:26] Whose hearts are tender today. That you would minister to them. And we thank you that we believe in the God and the Lord Jesus Christ of the resurrection.
[7:36] We pray for our nation as well. And the world at this time. Where there are wars and rumours of wars. Where there is unrest. That we would know as a people.
[7:49] The power and the presence of the Prince of Peace. And so dear Lord, we ask that this morning. That you would come amongst us. And bless us. And may we experience the power of God unto salvation.
[8:04] Amen. Well boys and girls, it's nice to see you. I feel very far away here in this big pulpit.
[8:15] I may seem very, very, very old to you. Sometimes I feel very, very old. But there's one thing that's the same for wee boys and wee girls and big boys like me.
[8:31] Is that we like toys. And I love toys. And I'm always buying toys. And so the man from Amazon will bring something.
[8:43] And my wife will say, what is it this time? And I've got some gadget. I'm going to tell you a story about a gadget I got last summer. I live in Edinburgh.
[8:55] But I also spend a lot of time on the island of Skye. I also live in Skye. So I was in my house in Skye. Right? And the Amazon man came.
[9:08] The Amazon delivery person came. And my wife said, what is it this time? And I opened a box. And in the box was a drone.
[9:21] You know what a drone is? Yeah? Yeah? There is something there. So it was a drone. I'd always wanted a drone. My wife's first question was, how much was that?
[9:33] And I said, I'm not telling you how much that was. So I got the drone. And you get a drone. It's like a helicopter. It goes up.
[9:43] It takes photographs. Amazing. And so you get your wee box just like this. And you control it. And the great thing about a drone is this.
[9:54] There's a wee button in the box. And it's called a return to home button. So if your drone is, wherever your drone is, you just push this. Button.
[10:05] And the drone will come back. And it will go down right in front of it. It's amazing. Amazing. Return to home button. So I was operating or playing with the drone.
[10:19] And I put it away. They're really quite difficult to fly. But I got the hang of it. The next day we were having friends coming over for dinner. And the friends had children, just like you.
[10:31] And I said, no, maybe the children would want to see the drone. She said, it's not the children who want to see the drone. But that's another story. I'll just take the drone out.
[10:43] So I took the drone out. And it was going really, really well. We live quite near cliffs. We live in a place called Kilmuir in the north of Skye.
[10:54] And the drone was really, really good. And I took it over the cliffs. Because I wanted to take photographs of the cliff.
[11:07] And then when I take all the photographs, I pushed the button. Come home. Come home. But the drone didn't come home. It just kept going and going and going towards Harris.
[11:26] I don't want it to go there. And it just went over and over until it ran out of battery. And it fell into the sea. And I lost my drone.
[11:39] Unless some lobster fisherman one day discovers the drone in the mitch. Boys and girls, that taught me a lesson that day.
[11:54] I pushed the button that said, return home. But it didn't. I lost the drone. How different the Lord Jesus Christ is.
[12:05] He said, I will never let you go. If you are someone who really believes in Jesus. If you're someone who trusts in Jesus.
[12:19] And I hope you will be. He will never let go of you. He will keep you to the end. And when he says, return home.
[12:31] You will come home. Boys and girls, it's lovely to be with you today. And I hope that you'll know the Lord Jesus. As the one who never let go.
[12:44] Let me just pray for you. Dear Lord, we thank you for the children in the church here. We thank you for their joy. We thank you for their sense of wonder.
[12:58] And we pray that they will know the Lord Jesus Christ in their life. Lord, we may lose our drones. We may lose our things. But we thank you that you have said, I will never leave you.
[13:11] Or forsake you. Amen. Let's give God praise. Let's sing again in Psalm 116.
[13:22] Psalm 116 from the beginning. I love the Lord because my voice and prayers he did hear.
[13:34] While I live, will call on him who bowed to me his ear. Psalm 116. And we will sing to verse 6. I love the Lord.
[13:44] I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord. Because my voice and prayers he did hear.
[14:02] I voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy voy The wind of heaven Behold on thee Thy deep untroutled land Upon the name of God And give all the grace
[15:09] To ever love my soul O Lord Thy journey come we pray God's mercy full of my sin Take us in my heart God's enemy I want God's hope He did me and afford Can we read the Bible please In the Gospel according to Luke chapter 24 Luke chapter 24
[16:12] And we shall read it verse 13 We'll read to verse 35 And behold two of them went that same day To a village called Emmaus Which was from Jerusalem About threescore furlongs And they talked together of all these things which had happened And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned Jesus himself drew near and went with them But their eyes were holding that they should not know him He said unto them What manner of communications are these that you have one to another As ye walk and are sad And the one of them
[17:12] Whose name was Cleopas Answering said unto him Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem And hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days And he said unto them What things?
[17:30] And they said unto him Concerning Jesus of Nazareth Which was a prophet mighty indeed in word Before God and all the people And how the chief priests and their rulers Delivered him to be condemned to death And have crucified him But we trusted that it had been he Which should have redeemed Israel And beside all this today Is the third day since these things were done Yea and certain women also of our company Made us astonished Which were early at the sepulcher And when they found not his body They came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels Which said that he was alive And certain of them which were with us Went to the sepulcher And found it even so As the woman had said But him they saw not Then he said unto them O fools and slow of heart To believe all that the prophets have spoken
[18:32] Ought not Christ to have suffered these things And to enter into his glory And beginning in Moses and all the prophets He expounded unto them in all the scriptures The things concerning himself And they drew nigh unto the village Whither they went And he made as if though he would have gone further For they constrained him saying Abide with us For it is toward evening And the day is far spent And he went in to tarry with them And it came to pass as he satted meat with them He took bread and blessed it and break it And gave it to them And their eyes were opened And they knew him And he vanished out of their sight And they said one to another Did not our heart burn within us While he talked with us in the way And while he opened to us the scriptures
[19:33] And they rose up at the same hour And returned to Jerusalem And found the eleven gathered together And them that were with them Saying The Lord is risen indeed And hath appeared to Simon And they told what things were done In the way And how he was known of them In breaking of bread And grass Well there is a flower's faith But the word of God Lasts forever We sing now in Psalm 119 At verse 33 Psalm number 119 At verse 33 Teach me O Lord The perfect way Of thy precepts divine And to observe it to the end I shall my heart incline Psalm 119 From 33 to 40 Teach me O Lord The perfect way Teach me O Lord
[20:38] The perfect way Of thy voy voy Of thy voy!
[20:59] Of thy voy! Of thy voy! Of thy voy! Of thy voy! Of thy voy! Of thy voy! Of thy voy! voy! voy! voy My heart is mine. Good understanding unto thee.
[21:15] O Jesus, I shall I. Give me my heart, O heart, I shall.
[21:32] Hold the earth and carefully. And thy lost path make me to go.
[21:47] For I give a strength. My heart is mine.
[22:00] My death's morning. But my heart to be and by.
[22:11] Turn thou away, my sight and eyes. From you in vanity.
[22:27] At end thy good and holy name. Be pleased to quicken me.
[22:44] Confirm to me thy gracious word. Turn thou away, my sight and eyes.
[23:00] In turn thy servant, Lord, who is. He voted to my fear.
[23:17] Turn thou away, my fear it holds. From you in vain touchless pain.
[23:33] So warm thy peace as I have longed. In thy good way, your name.
[23:50] well can we turn again please in the passage we read Luke chapter 24 let me read it verse 32 did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures it's funny isn't it how our moods change and it's interesting to see the various things that change our moods and our moods can be changed by lots of different things the weather you see that when you have weeks and weeks and weeks of constant rain and wind it does make one incredibly sad not only us you see even amongst the animals the cattle, the sheep they get almost physically depressed if there is months and months of cold, wet weather something to eat that cheers us up also as I suppose the blood sugar is in our veins and various things alter our moods in this chapter here don't we see a change of mood look at verse 17
[25:05] Jesus said why are you sad and then we see in verse 32 their hearts were burning within them so I find it fascinating this morning how we see this change of mood amongst these people in Luke chapter 24 how these folk went from this mindset if you like of absolute sadness to one of heart burning positivity so just by way of introduction what's happening in this particular chapter in Luke chapter 24 well we're looking at two people Cleopas and his companion they were probably married to one another probably a married couple so we're really interested just by way of background here what is going on two things interest me right away when I ask what sort of people they were Cleopas and someone who was unnamed we don't know anything about them they're not big players in the Bible they're not people who feature anywhere else in the Bible they are not any of the in crowd and here the beautiful thing is that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself and gives probably the most insightful powerful sermon in the Old Testament ever he gives this revelation to two people who were absolute unknowns now
[26:38] I think that's an encouragement here right away because very often in the church in the circles in which we meet there are those who are and those who are not there's the in crowd you know the people who know all the language the people who know how to behave in church the people who know all the rules the people who are really in the upper echelon of the church authority structure there are the in people have you ever thought well I'm just not one of those in people I don't have the name my father wasn't an elder my great grandfather wasn't a minister I'm just an ordinary person nobody knows me and quite frankly sometimes I think that nobody even cares about me I am on the very fringes of the church I'm barely here and yet it is to those people that the Lord
[27:38] Jesus Christ spoke the nameless ones the ones with no status the ones who were by no means in crowd so that's the first thing that we just noticed by way of introduction and I hope for encouragement that in God's economy there is no such thing as a crowd in or out people are valued as they are I think the second thing again by way of introduction is frankly their faith wasn't working I think they were people of faith I think they were believers they loved the Lord Jesus Christ they loved the Messiah they were worshippers of the Lord with all their heart with all their mind with all their strength but also verse 17 remember that they were sad the faith at that time frankly just wasn't working for them they were living in a dark place in their life they were living in a place where it really wasn't very positive their saviour had died and there was nowhere to go sometimes we are sad sometimes that is our experience sometimes the reality is that our faith does not seem to work just again two little things by introduction they were not the in crowd and their faith didn't seem to work
[29:11] I want to look really just at two big things two big ideas in this passage here in Luke chapter 24 I want to look first of all at the tragedy and then I want to look at the triumph because life is full of triumphs and tragedies isn't it so the first thing we look at here is the tragedy in verse 14 they walked together and they were talking about all these things that had happened you can understand their confusion can you their lord had allowed himself to be arrested he was beaten up and crucified the system finally got him didn't they the system beat him he was their great leader and all of a sudden he was removed from them he was dead and they had put all their hopes in them now we cannot imagine the stigma of the crucifixion not only had he been killed but he had been crucified which was proof to the Roman authorities that they had won crucifixion was not simply death as the bible itself says it was a death of a curse so it wasn't just a death it was a humiliating death and so it seemed to be that the
[30:37] Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities had finally extinguished the menace as they saw it and they bought into this narrative they thought yeah our leader is dead the three words describe how they feel verse 17 sad or downcast they were walking on the road to Emmaus about three score furlongs however long that was about seven miles and it was spring we Easter as I say we actually know as one of a few Christian festivals that we know the time Easter is I think the Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox we know exactly when Easter is spring would have been in the air the birds would have been singing new vegetation new growth all around spring's a great time isn't it it's the time of the lamb is the time of new birth but there was sadness in their hearts verse 15 interesting language there it says while they communed together and reasoned the greek word there for reason could also be translated argued this had caused conflict between them and so they were arguing it's maybe another reason to believe that they were a married couple they were arguing together about what had happened to the lord jesus christ there may even have been an element of depression they were downcast a sense that their faith had deserted them i don't know you you don't know me but sometimes do we feel yes frankly that's how i feel fear was a characteristic of the days of the church immediately after calvary there was a spirit of fear the disciples met together what does the scripture say in a lost room for fear of the new there was a fear of the future then is that where you are this sense of fear and the church is dominated by this sense of loss i'm hearing this all the time people are talking about the death of the church and people are morose and people are despondent and people feel that it's all coming to an end so it's what i'm hearing all the time that's the spirit isn't there of verse 17 there's this overwhelming sense of sadness sadness now the irony here and this is the supreme irony they thought that the lord jesus christ was as far away as he ever was but the truth was that he was nearer than he had ever been he was actually walking with them that tells us that our senses are sometimes liars our feelings are inaccurate if we listen to our feelings all the time it brings us into this place of sadness jesus was with them he'd never been as near he was walking with them but they didn't recognize him now why did they not recognize him the bible says they were kept from recognizing him was it because he looked different i mean we we believe that the resurrection body is the same but different so often after the resurrection jesus appeared to people who know him and they didn't recognize
[34:37] him was there change yes he was the same but he was also different the resurrection world is the same as the world before but is also different to the world as it were the new creation when God will come and he will renew this earth the new creation will look like this creation but it will be different to this creation there will be similarities and there will be differences no I don't think that's the reason where how they didn't understand him here and we'll unpack that a little bit later but one thing that they did not understand is that after the resurrection that there was change that the coming of the kingdom brought a new way of thinking and that's something we've got to grasp this morning that when the kingdom comes when jesus died and brought in a new kingdom it changed things for example folk talk about the mathematics of the kingdom the way down is actually the way up and death leads to life that's why there is a fundamental difference in the way a christian looks at death as someone who's not a believer someone who has no hope there is a sadness there this is a new way of doing life and the values of the kingdom is when we feel that god is bruising us as they felt really bruised there god was actually beautifying them he was making them something new the tragedy was that they were sad they were downcast but the second tragedy was that they were disappointed the disappointment comes out of the questions you the prophet bible here is what we call a red letter bible and the actual words of jesus are printed in red and what strikes me here is that most of them are questions jesus asks lots and lots of questions as you walk and you know what manner of communication are these what are you talking about that makes you sad it's a question verse 19 what things there's a question there verse 26 there's another question about not the lord into glory verse 38 going past their passage there's another question verse 41 there's another question there's questions all over the place aren't there and so he's asking a question what's what's the story here what's happening and they say have you not heard you know these things that have happened the last few days in jerusalem verse 18 he says art thou only a stranger in jerusalem now i think if there is such a thing as embarrassment in the new creation in heaven cleopas will be very very embarrassed do you not know what is taking place here the irony is that the lord jesus christ is the only one in this conversation who knows exactly what is taking place and what we have here is a script of disappointment verse 19 they said concerning jesus which was a prophet mighty indeed verse 21 is so sad but we trusted it was very much past tense here we
[38:38] trusted verse 21 we had hope another translation our hopes were gone notice the title there it speaks here of jesus of nazareth verse 19 that phrase jesus of nazareth was used of the miracle working jesus the title that was given to jesus he was mighty in word and deed that's what it says here verse 19 the language there actually interestingly is very similar to the language used of moses and deuteronomy chapter 34 is a parallel here so really what they are saying is we had hoped that this jesus of nazareth was a second moses we'd hoped that he was going to liberate the people from the roman oppression we'd hoped that he was going to be our messiah and now jesus was the liberator who failed and they said well he was a prophet mighty indeed and then they told the story there the problem was and this is what we're saying they were disappointed what was the reason that they were disappointed the reason that they were disappointed is that they had their own hopes before their own reading of who jesus was dominated and not the scriptures they had their own ideas i often say to my wife i think i'm getting a bit deaf she says you're not deaf you just don't listen and that's what's happening here that it's not that they don't read what the prophets have said but they're not they're not listening they are interpreting what the prophets are saying according to what they want the prophets to say we read our own jesus into the bible we invent our own jesus remember being when i was a school chaplain in inverness the headmaster thought it'd be a really good idea to give me an assistant so he picked one of the mothers of one of the children to do the assembly with me and it was going fine until she said now boys and girls i want you all to draw a picture of god and i don't know if you know that old song there may be trouble ahead but that was what was going you know in my mind the second commandment was there for a reason so the boys and girls drew what they thought god was and it turned out to be exactly as i thought the second commandment says that we've not to draw an image of god why because it's impossible because what we would do is we would form an image of god in our own mind and that's exactly what cleopas and his wife did they'd form an image of jesus and that image of jesus disappointed them and so jesus to them was the liberator who failed and they'd forgotten them they had spoken there jesus was a prophet mighty indeed before god and all the people they had read the bible selectively had they not read isaiah 53 who have believed the report to whom is the arm of the lord revealed he shall grow up before them as a root out of the dry ground he has no former coming as we should desire him he was a man of sorrows and rejected of man and acquainted with grief they didn't read isaiah that said
[42:38] that the prophet was ultimately going to be a suffering servant that he was going to be crucified that he was going to be killed they didn't read the bad bits and they were totally thrown by this idea like so many people they stumbled at the cross and isn't that true of so many folk as christians they stumble at the cross christians is having a bit of a revival just now i use that revival with a small r and a lot of folk are talking about christianity it's what you know a survey was done recently that a lot of young men especially are are just walking into churches we are seeing that in the edinburgh area a lot of young men are just walking into churches especially young men aged between 17 and 25 they're just asking questions all the time people are talking about christianity the funeral of someone relatively famous yesterday people are talking about what does it mean the issue is that when it comes to the actual essence of the christian faith is jesus dying on the cross see many people want the fruit of the christian faith even richard dawkins the world's leading atheist says that he's a cultural christian he likes cathedrals he likes singing hymns and carols he likes he likes the trappings of it but what about the cross what does the cross mean the cross means freedom the cross means forgiveness of sins the cross means so many things but at this point they just didn't get it you see that's why they were disappointed because they read their own narrative into the events here there was a failure to see the power of the cross and the promise of the resurrection and that's why they were disappointed our failures come from an inability or unwillingness to stand back and see what God has done and so the tragedy we see here sadness we see disappointment but thirdly we see also delusion delusion notice verse 25 here they're downcast and they're disappointed but Jesus comes with a very intriguing counselling methodology there's lots of ways to counsel people but Jesus is pretty straight here verse 25 oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken so Jesus says to the people you fools now Jesus is soft and tender
[46:10] I would have loved to have heard the Lord Jesus Christ I think the Lord Jesus Christ was I know the Lord Jesus Christ was a very beautiful person a bruised reed he will not break a smoldering flax he will not extinguish Jesus was not a hard pulpit thumping angry person Jesus was the most beautiful person ever but sometimes he said tough words often he said oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken you are in this mess because you haven't believed all that the prophets have spoken there is in counselling there is a ministry of silence sometimes it's better to say nothing at all even a fool seems wise if he doesn't open his mouth so there is a ministry of silence there is a ministry of empathy
[47:15] I know how you feel always goes down well but there is also the ministry of confrontation you have got yourself into this situation because you are miserable because of unbelief you focused on the glory bits and you've not read the suffering bits what about us the bible is a great book do we believe all that the prophets have spoken the wonders of scripture the realism of scripture that's one thing there are many things I love about the bible and one of the things I love about the bible is that it's a book which is really interesting it tells us of our good points and our bad points the other day I was walking the street in Edinburgh and there was this guy walking towards me he was kind of
[48:16] Chinese Edinburgh Scottish born Scottish accent but Chinese ethnicity and he was wearing a t-shirt and the t-shirt said atheist inside and I said I think that is a really interesting t-shirt atheist inside tell me your story so his name was Kevin he's an artist and he told me his story how he became an atheist and I said Kevin that is such an interesting story let me tell you how I became a Christian and with this conversation what was Kevin's number one stumbling block Kevin's number one stumbling block was not Jesus it was the church so I said Kevin and as Kevin told me about what he thought of his image of God and what he thought of the church I said
[49:17] Kevin I agree with you we're on the same page but let me tell you about the root of the matter let me tell you about Jesus and I began to explain John chapter four which is one example of how Jesus met with someone now Kevin I'd love to say you know I prayed with Kevin in the street there and he became a believer and now he's a member of a church I'd love to say that but I had a great conversation with Kevin shook his hand we may never meet again but what's the point what made him think was not his experience of the church but for the first time in his life someone told him about Jesus and he was intrigued and drawn and fascinated by Jesus the Bible the balance of the Bible the story of the
[50:18] Bible all that the Bible says so that's here the first thing is the tragedy secondly and I'll briefly the triumph you see here the tragedy secondly the triumph now there's a massive before and after scene here isn't there verse 17 what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as you walk and are sad ending in 33 and 34 the exuberance they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem there's an activity there's a vibrancy there's a change in mindset here what made the difference I don't know if you've ever experienced even in church even in church that you come in downcast and you go out not literally skipping that's not what we do we're somewhat frowned upon but we are internally skipping we are internally enthused and energized because
[51:36] God has put a spring spring in our step in the words of the Bible here it doesn't talk about a spring in our step verse 33 it says did not our hearts burn within us what led to a burning heart two things number one there was an opening up of the scriptures Jesus took a very interesting approach in verse 27 beginning in Moses and all the prophets he expounded in the scriptures all the things concerning himself every book has a hero every story has a hero the hero of the Bible is Jesus the main subject of the Bible is not us we don't just the main purpose of the Bible is not to look at the Bible and find out about us the main purpose of looking at the Bible is to find out about
[52:40] Jesus Jesus is the subject J.C. Ryle former Anglican Bishop of Liverpool J.C.
[52:51] Ryle wrote this he said Christ is the substance of every Old Testament sacrifice Christ is the true deliverer and the true king Christ is the true judge Christ is the coming prophet Christ is the true seed of the woman every year I try and read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation try to read it in lots of different versions of the Bible I just love reading the Bible the Bible is very very interesting and I read it chapter after chapter after chapter just like a book you can go through the Bible relatively quickly if you just read it chapter after chapter after chapter in February there I was reading through Exodus now if you ever meet someone and you say read the Bible the temptation for everybody is to start the Genesis and it's a tough read you get into
[53:55] Exodus you get into the tabernacle you get into the sacrifices you get into the description of the tabernacle with the curtains and the hoops and the pomegranates and all these things it really is a difficult book to understand but it's transformed when you realise that everything speaks of Jesus the perfection of the tabernacle the dimensions speak of the perfection of Jesus the sacrifices bulls sacrifice day after day after day after day after Jesus dies no more sacrifice at all points in the Old Testament you kind of read about something that's about to happen and it never happens and then Jesus comes so as this is revealed the core of our faith is exposed as he goes through the Bible their hearts are rewarmed and they are realising that this is talking about Jesus so they're meeting recently and a man said there's too much emphasis in your churches on the book too much emphasis on the
[55:04] Bible that's all you get Bible Bible Bible Bible that says just give me Jesus complete misunderstanding Jesus is in the Bible this is no ordinary book this is the very breath of God and as it's expounded and opened up our hearts are strangely warmed so there was an opening up of the scriptures but then verse 29 there was an opening up of their home abide with us for it's toward evening and the day is far spent and he went to tarry with them now I think verse 30 is one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible and it came to pass as he sat at meat with them he took bread and blessed and gave to them and their eyes were opened they asked him as they began to eat their eyes were opened I wonder
[56:06] I often wonder what is it that opened their mind and there's two dominant theories one was that as he broke the bread they saw it they saw the nail prints in his hand and they realised that this was the Messiah this was the Lord Jesus Christ not dead and defeated but alive and victorious they saw in his hands what does the old hymn say the old rugged cross the emblems of sin and despair they saw that the nail prints were signs of his love that he had died for them and that he had been raised again and that he was alive they saw his nail prints but
[57:19] I wonder was it as he took the bread and as he broke it and as he prayed was there something in that prayer an intimacy with his father as he prayed and his father there was a very special union and he thought that's him he's alive now they see once they were blind now they see in our church in our tradition we talk about the ordinary means of grace you know what we mean by the ordinary means of grace what we mean by the ordinary means of grace is preaching the sacrament the Lord's Supper these are very ordinary things this morning we're in a very ordinary building we're in a simple unadorned building on the very edge of
[58:32] Europe and yet there is nothing ordinary about this morning the thing about the ordinary means of grace is I don't think a worse name could ever be given to them because they're not ordinary they're extraordinary that's why someone with nothing to give can stand on top of a glorified wooden box and open up the Bible and miracles happen miracles can happen in college the miracles of new life men and women what is it the
[59:33] Bible talks about as being born again every time I drive through Calamation every time I think of our forefathers who worshipped at the foot of dead stones thousands of years ago our forefathers used these stones I don't know what they did with them navigate the sun or the moon or whatever and we their descendants worship the living son of God an ordinary building an ordinary preacher but yet Jesus is amongst us and that brings potential and does it not warm your heart just a little that he's with us this morning in the ordinary things
[60:45] Lord bless your word help us as we bow in your presence to experience your moments thank you Lord for that simple meal and for the fact that the two and the road to Emmaus their lives were changed by the opening up of the Bible and the breaking of bread we pray that more than our mood would be changed today that we would taste and see that God is good bless us we pray be with us in all that we see may we experience that heart warming touch of Jesus forgive all our sins Amen sing now in psalm 46 psalm 46 in verse 8 come and behold what wondrous works have by the
[61:55] Lord been wrought come see what desolations he on the earth have brought psalm 46 verse 8 to the end come and behold what wondrous works words have had the Lord been drawn come see what cares to the creation he on the air of God up to the edge of all the air worship to peace he turns the holy gracious fear he caught in fire the joy of hands they stood and
[63:18] Lord the dying of God among the he the light will be exalted like other will be exalted high our God who is the Lord of old is still upon the side the God of Jacob the record forever will abide now may the grace of the
[64:28] Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and always amen to