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[0:00] Let's take our Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 24. Coming towards the end.

[0:11] Oh, ooh. How fun is that? And then I'm doing a message. It's not in your bulletin.

[0:22] I'm doing a message again on praying for revival, the end of this month. And then, I don't know, the Sunday of March, the first Sunday of March, we'll start in on the book of Acts.

[0:36] And I don't know how we're going to split it up yet. I'm kind of working on that, trying to read Acts twice. No, eight times by the end of this month. That's kind of my goal. So, it'll be great though.

[0:48] We'll see the Acts of the Apostles, Part 2 of Luke's Saga of Jesus. Luke, Chapter 24, if you're with us or visiting with us, the black Bible in the chair in front of you, go towards the back of that black Bible and go to page 69.

[1:05] Page 69, you'll find Luke 24. This morning, we're going to study verses 13 through 35. Let me read.

[1:17] And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place.

[1:31] It came about that while they were conversing 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're exchanging with one another as you're walking?

[1:49] And they stood still looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem?

[2:00] 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 word in the sight of God and all the people?

[2:17] And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to the sentence of death and crucified him? But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.

[2:29] Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

[2:47] 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.

[2:59] And he said to them, Oh foolish men! And slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?

[3:12] And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going.

[3:22] And he acted as though he would go farther. And they urged him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now nearly over. And he went in to stay with them. Thirty? And it came about that when he had reclined with them, taking the bread, he blessed it, and breaking it, he gave it to them.

[3:41] And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us?

[3:57] And they arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found gathered together the eleven, and those who were with them, saying, The Lord is really risen. He has appeared to Simon.

[4:07] And they began to relate their experiences on the road. And now he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. I don't fly much, but when I do, it gives you such a perspective of life, doesn't it?

[4:31] You get to see everything. We kind of get trapped in our own little world, right? Just doing our own little thing. And when you get in a plane, you look out the window. At least I like to look out the window.

[4:43] Maybe some of you don't like to look out the window. You'd rather not look out the window. You'd rather way over there, away from the window. I like to look out the window. So you're speeding along, right? Before takeoff, going, going, and then you go up.

[4:55] And then all of a sudden, you just see the city, like the city of Phoenix. You go, Oh my goodness, I can't believe how huge it is, right? Look at all those people. Right? So you see, and you see Phoenix, how huge, how big.

[5:06] You get a big perspective, a big view, so to speak, of life. And how very small you are. You get a big view of things as you fly.

[5:21] And that's exactly what Jesus does with these two going to Emmaus from Jerusalem. He takes them, and he launches off with them in a plane, and they see the Old Testament, and all that it was saying.

[5:36] They get a big picture of everything. He goes, Look! See it for what it is. Come follow Jesus, and you'll find forgiveness of your sins.

[5:48] And that what we'll see this morning in our passages, fully trust Him as the fulfiller of God's promises. You see the big picture of the Old Testament, and you see, Oh, Jesus, He fulfilled these.

[6:02] He fulfilled these promises. I can really trust Him. I can really trust Him. Come follow Jesus, and fully trust Him.

[6:15] He is the fulfiller of God's promises. This is one of the most vivid, stunning, beloved historical accounts in all of the Gospels.

[6:33] I'll tell you more about kind of what I think, in reference to these two people traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Statement for you.

[6:45] Jesus was, is the complete fulfillment of God's promised plan in the Old Testament. Fulfilling His purposes from long ago. We're called not to meagerly trust Him, but to fully trust Him as the fulfiller of Old Testament promises of salvation for rebels, for losers, outcasts.

[7:11] It's us. So again, a beloved account, stunning, grabs your attention. You don't find that in Matthew, Mark, or in John.

[7:27] And the story is almost comical. Because it's full of irony and contrast. Of course, the highlight, the most striking contrast, is you have these two people talking about Jesus to Jesus Himself.

[7:41] He's probably snickering the whole time. Who knows? Again, it's almost comical. So this is Jesus.

[7:52] And you say, why does Luke have this account here? He has this, it was to show Jesus was truly alive by His appearance, and to show the Old Testament spoke about all these things that had happened to God's Messiah, His servant.

[8:07] It was all predicted by the prophets. He's fulfilled all the Old Testament predictions about the Messiah. So Jesus just has them step back and look at the Old Testament for all that it is.

[8:18] He says, look, this is Messiah, this is who I am. They get the big picture. The bird's eye view, so to speak. And this is why we believe, the Bible to be God's inerrant word, the way by which God has spoken.

[8:36] God spoke. Things were written down. Predictions were made in those writings. Jesus arose. He appeared to people. He told them. He fulfilled these predictions.

[8:47] And these people wrote it down. They were eyewitnesses. They attest to this being true. None of us were there. Or maybe ward.

[8:59] But the majority of us, we weren't there when all these things happened. Was that out loud? I'm sorry. So we rely upon the eyewitnesses of those long ago who wrote these things down.

[9:11] They saw. They saw. These things are also called manuscripts. And with the evidence that we have at hand, we have 99% of what the original said.

[9:22] It's here. 99.9% of what the original said, of what these original words were when they wrote it down. So we either embrace this or we reject it.

[9:37] But I'll tell you, this tells us that the scriptures are sufficient. God's word is sufficient for us today. God works in and on us through his sufficient word as we submit and obey it.

[9:53] Jesus has fulfilled it. We have the completed word. Unfortunately, these two, on the road, and other disciples, they didn't get it, did they?

[10:08] They had a shallow, meager, and inadequate understanding, inadequate trust in Jesus and who he really was.

[10:21] They didn't get it. And you see such a major contrast with their meager understanding and their meager trust in Jesus versus Jesus and his challenge to them, no, this is about Christ.

[10:35] This is who he was. And they're talking about, oh, he was just a prophet. And you see, no, this is the Messiah. This is who he's supposed to be. A major contrast that Jesus paints for us here with what they thought who he was versus who Jesus truly was, is.

[10:52] He challenged them to fully trust him, the one who fulfilled all of God's promises. Well, two specific points, simple points for you, pretty easy first.

[11:05] You see, a meager trust in Jesus. Verses 13 through 24. It begins on that day, the first day of the week, that afternoon-ish time.

[11:18] The two of them, starting in verse 13, behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. That Sunday afternoon, these two, they're traveling.

[11:31] We find out later, one was named Cleopas. We don't know who the other person was. I think, I think it was Luke. That's what I think.

[11:43] There's another guy I was reading. He said that maybe it was Luke. Because of the details of the conversation, I mean, there's so many details in this conversation. It's like, this dude had to be an eyewitness.

[11:53] It had to be somebody who was right there. So I think it was actually Luke. I could be wrong. But if you really want to know my humble, most accurate opinion, I think it was probably Luke. Was that out loud?

[12:04] That keeps happening. They're walking to Emmaus. That's hard to determine. Where is this place? I opt for Josephus' mention of this place called Amelus.

[12:15] Amelus was 30 stadia from Jerusalem. Which means Luke gives us like a round trip travel. He says it's 60 stadia, seven miles. But as they're walking, the stage is being set.

[12:29] So they're walking those, verse 14. They're conversing with each other about all these things which have taken place. Now, the words here, they mean to have an intense discussion with each other. They're rehashing all that had happened, trying to figure things out.

[12:44] And as they're getting into the discussion, it keeps getting more and more heated and more and more intense to the point of almost debate and emotional dialogue. And while they're getting more and more intense, Jesus approached them with a resurrected body that they didn't recognize.

[13:02] Notice, verse 15. It came about while they were conversing, discussing, grappling emotions. Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them. Just another worshiper coming back from Jerusalem just started walking with them as they're debating here about everything that's happened.

[13:18] They didn't notice him. 16. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. Their eyes were prevented.

[13:29] They were kept from recognizing who he was. It seems like God, for some reason, concealed their eyes from seeing Jesus. Why? Why? Maybe to show the reality of Jesus' resurrected body.

[13:44] I think also, to give Jesus the opportunity to show how the Old Testament pointed to him. By the way, you see the capital O, capital T?

[13:55] That means Old Testament. That's what that means when I put that up there. So maybe that's why this was concealed. We don't know. To get the flavor.

[14:08] So they're walking, they're talking about it, and all of a sudden Jesus starts walking with them. And notice verse 17. What are these words you're exchanging with one another as you're walking? Hey, what are you guys talking about?

[14:20] Caught his attention. Notice their reaction to his question. They stood still, looking sad, a gloom look over their faces.

[14:34] Stunned, disappointed, hurt, despair, sadness. Look at the meager, inadequate, insufficient trust that they had in the promises of God.

[14:53] 18. One of them, named Cleopas. By the way, he's not the same one from John chapter 19, Clopas. Cleopas is nowhere else named than the New Testament.

[15:05] Obviously one of Jesus' disciples' followers. He said to him, Are you kidding me? Wait, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem?

[15:18] Well, that's kind of exaggeration, right? And I don't know one of the things that happened here in these days. You got your hand stuck in the sand, fella? Your head stuck in the sand, I should say.

[15:30] Are you just blind? He's shocked at his ignorance. And notice, again, the exaggeration, Are you the only one?

[15:41] But obviously this was a hot topic. So a lot of people were talking about everything that's happened with Jesus. That tells us something. It tells us this was going on. People were conversing about this, trying to figure out all this stuff that's happened.

[15:53] So that's why he says, Are you the only one in Jerusalem? Interesting. Now, Jesus' ministry was publicly displayed.

[16:06] And everyone knew what had happened to him over the past three days. Contrast that with their lack of understanding. Their lack of trust in what his ministry really meant.

[16:17] They had no idea. Isn't that interesting? They just didn't get it. What things?

[16:30] I don't know. Verse 19, he said, What things? Like what? I noticed, the things about Jesus the Nazarene. A prophet mighty indeed in word and the sight of God and all the people.

[16:46] In other words, he was a prophet like Moses. Notice the true but inadequate, insufficient understanding of who Jesus was. You notice that? A prophet like Moses in the sight of God, in the sight of people.

[16:59] Gradually, they revealed Jesus' identity. It was a sensitive topic amongst the Jewish populace. Yes. Yet, notice, their understanding was so deficient.

[17:11] The most, this is the most someone would believe about Jesus without a resurrection. He was just a prophet. Muslims believe Jesus was just a prophet. That's good.

[17:24] That's nice. That's inadequate. It's meager. It's insufficient. Despite his great ministry, notice verse 20, and how the chief priests and the rulers delivered him up to the sentence of death and crucified him.

[17:41] Despite his great ministry, our chief priests, our rulers killed him. Notice, they blamed Jesus' death on their leadership. They handed Jesus over to judgments.

[17:55] Crucifixion by the Romans. They knew that. They realized that. And now, this is interesting.

[18:07] Verse 21. But we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel. That's huge. This really shows their inadequacy and their lack of understanding of Jesus and his ministry.

[18:23] Who he is and what he came to do. They were totally bummed because they thought Jesus was going to redeem Israel. That is, work for the nation, bringing in a new era of freedom, which in their minds consisted mainly of political freedom from Rome.

[18:43] Get this. They did not acknowledge that the death of Jesus would bring their redemption. That it was totally separated from them. Do you get that?

[18:55] For us, we believe when Jesus died, he redeemed us, right? He redeems us from his death. He ransoms us from his death. To them, they had no idea there was any connection with that.

[19:08] They did not connect the death of Jesus with redemption. That is a really bad understanding. A really meager trust in who Jesus really was.

[19:21] It was just a political, social thing. He's a political, social Messiah. Hey, people believe in Jesus today, don't they?

[19:36] What's the question now? Which Jesus do they believe in? That's the question. You believe in Jesus? Great! I was up in Jerome a couple weeks ago. These two guys were saying, Hey, Jim, how's it going?

[19:49] Hey, me and Thomas, we're talking about how does anybody not believe in God? That's not the question. The question is, what God do you believe in?

[20:01] What Jesus do you believe in? Their Jesus was not the right Jesus. To them, it was antithetical to Israel's redemption that Jesus would die.

[20:12] And we go, what? How can the death of someone bring about redemption? To us, we're saying, how can it not?

[20:25] Shallow. Meager. Now, they believe Jesus to be someone great, kind of. They're blind to who he really was.

[20:38] Notice the next part, verse 21. Indeed, besides all this, is the third day since these things happened. So notice the three days now, the third day emphasis by Luke, he really emphasizes it's the third day.

[20:50] So resurrection, third day, hello? But then listen to this. 22. But also some women among us, they amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning, 23, and did not find his body, they came saying they'd seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

[21:11] Yeah, so get this, these crazy ladies, they're with us, they amazed us with these news. They went to the tomb and they didn't find Jesus' body. As a matter of fact, they came back saying they saw a vision of angels.

[21:26] Remember last week? It just said two men in shining apparel. It didn't say they were angels. Now we know they were saying it was angels. And these angels said Jesus was alive.

[21:37] Crazy stuff, isn't it? I mean, come on. But that's not all that happened, verse 24. And some of those were with us. They went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women had also said, but him, they didn't see.

[21:57] Some of those with us, notice, didn't name names. Be cautious. We don't know who this guy is, you know. They went and found the tomb just like the women said, but they didn't see him. So he doubted the women.

[22:09] Notice, they're saying, look, there's no empirical evidence of Jesus being alive. They were skeptical. Come on. And this is why it gets so comical.

[22:23] This is amusing from our viewpoint as the readers. We're reading this and we're almost going, the guy, that you're talking to, he's the one you're actually talking about.

[22:34] It's kind of funny. It's kind of comical. It's funny. They're just like, oh, we don't know what's going on, what's happening. Jesus is like, hmm, oh yeah, I understand. I wanted to relate to you.

[22:50] Their reflection of these historical real events ended with a sad note to them. Yet we as readers, we see there's no need for these emotions of sadness.

[23:05] Jesus was. He is alive. He's standing right in front of you. So there's our meager trust.

[23:16] You see, a meager, insufficient, shallow trust of Jesus. What Jesus do you trust in today? Is it this type of Jesus? Jesus? Jesus? Jesus? Jesus? Hopefully it will be the next one.

[23:32] A full trust in Jesus and who He is. Verses 25-35. Jesus did not mince words. You foolish men.

[23:50] In His response, He rebuked them. O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.

[24:02] He expresses such great disappointment. They didn't understand the point of the Old Testament. They were foolish, slow to hear, dull.

[24:13] Hello? McFly? Hello? Hello? They did not believe the prophets and what they wrote.

[24:24] They should have known the reality of the death and resurrection of the Messiah. They should have known that. Ah, yes.

[24:36] And then verse 26. Notice, friends, it's our favorite word. Was it not necessary? What's the word? Day. Delta Epsilon Iota.

[24:46] D-E-I. Which in the Greek means it must happen. It is necessary. Luke loves to use this word to show it must happen.

[24:59] It was necessary for the Messiah to die. For Messiah to suffer these things and be glorified. It is necessary for this to happen. First century Judaism, though, did not anticipate Messiah to suffer.

[25:14] Because they did not know their Old Testament. that's the reason why you need the right glasses on.

[25:25] You need the right glasses to see the Old Testament. It's interesting when you have your glasses and when they're dirty, like, oh my goodness, I can't even see all these things. You clean those and you go, oh, now I can see.

[25:39] You need the right glasses on. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?

[25:50] And by the way, enter into His glory had a fuller, deeper meaning. It focused on His position and His authority. See, it's not so much about Jesus' resurrection.

[26:01] No, it is. His resurrection, yes. But it goes farther than that. It's about His position. His authority. He would be at God's side.

[26:14] So Jesus is not only alive, He reigns. Just like He said at His trial. Remember in His trial? He said, You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

[26:27] He has authority. He rules. He reigns. It's not just He's resurrected. He's now the ruler. The position of authority.

[26:39] Do you know who I am? He's saying to them. And that's why we ask people who say, I believe in Jesus. Do you know who He really is? And it's to what the temple sacrifices.

[26:57] The Passover. The seriousness of the holiness of the temple. It's all disappointing. The absolute and total necessity of the cross.

[27:10] He had to die. He had to bring redemption. And the way He would bring redemption was through the cross. And then He would be resurrected. He'd have rulership and authority.

[27:23] He would be, someone would die on behalf of sinners. Suffering and death, He says, suffering and death, a necessary prelude to Messiah's entry into His authority of rule.

[27:41] It was part of God's plan for His eternal Son to live, die, and be raised on behalf of sinners. He would take upon Himself God's full wrath.

[27:51] I heard this phrase this past week, He drank our hell. He drank it for you. What God do you believe in?

[28:08] I hope it's the God who's totally just and righteous. The God who must punish sinners. Who's pure and holy. God must punish sinners because they have rebelled against Him by disobeying His perfect holy law.

[28:30] Yet Jesus drank hell on our behalf so that sinners, rebels, losers can be heirs. Outcasts can be now sons and daughters.

[28:48] Instead of facing His wrath, instead of facing His punishment, that punishment was poured out upon His Son who drank hell on our behalf in the place of sinners as a substitute for sinners.

[29:03] He does that for those that repent and put their trust in Jesus. those who repent and trust in Jesus alone.

[29:14] Are you here and you're not a follower of Jesus? Respond to Jesus today. You must admit that you're nothing. You must confess your lowliness.

[29:25] You must say, I am an outcast. I am nothing in your sight. I deserve judgment. It's not about those who got it all together.

[29:35] If you think you got it all together, God wants nothing to do with you. He wants those who say, I don't have it all together. I'm a loser. I'm a rebel. I deserve your punishment. You should pour it out upon me.

[29:46] It should be poured out upon me. And yet, have mercy on me. Please give me grace. I trust in Jesus. I repent. Do that.

[29:58] Put your trust in Jesus. What are you waiting for? Notice what Jesus does. In verse 27, And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself and all the Scriptures.

[30:18] He began with Moses and the prophets. Torah and the rest of it. In the Hebrew Scriptures, it's split up into three parts when they talk about the Hebrew Scriptures.

[30:29] They would say, the law, the prophets, and the writings. And sometimes, just to shorten it, the writings would be included in the prophets. So they would say, the law and the prophets. So, He's talking about the whole Old Testament.

[30:42] And notice it says, He explained to them, explains where we get the word hermeneutics. The word hermeneutics means the science of Bible interpretation.

[30:52] The principles that we use to interpret the Bible. So we get that word explained. So this means, this means, when He says Scriptures, Scriptures is equivalent to Moses and the prophets.

[31:09] He went through the entire Scriptures front to back. So all of the Scriptures, that is the Old Testament, pointed to Jesus, His death and resurrection.

[31:21] This is what He did. Jesus, who fulfilled some things now, and other things, He's going to fulfill later. A certain amount of passages that directly applied to Jesus and His first coming, and other passages referred to Him inaugurating or beginning this new era that will be consummated in the future when He returns.

[31:44] He says, He does this. He takes Him up in the airplane and He says, Look. Look. And the idea is, as you're flying, as you begin to fly, you get a bigger, a bigger sense of how big, let's take Phoenix, for example, wider, wider, greater, and greater.

[32:09] That's what Jesus is doing as He's working through the Old Testament. Interesting. In other words, the Gospel can be preached from just the Old Testament.

[32:21] You know that? Let's do it. Ready? It starts in Genesis 3. There will be enmity between your seed and the seed of the serpent.

[32:34] It will crush His head, right? Strike Him at the heel. Genesis 22. Abraham's offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice and yet, he was going to do that.

[32:50] The Lord said, No. Well, then there was ram caught in a thicket so the ram took his place. There's substitution. And for Abraham, he was thinking, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to kill my son and God's going to resurrect him because I know Messiah is going to be resurrected so God can resurrect him.

[33:06] That's what Abraham was thinking. That's what Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews tells us. Genesis 22. The Passover lamb, the manna, the bronze serpent. The Passover, instead of you getting slaughtered, the lamb does.

[33:22] The manna, the bread of life, Jesus called Himself. The bronze serpent. Look to the bronze serpent and you will be saved from the snake that bit you. Jesus says, As the serpent was lifted up, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

[33:33] The tabernacle and temple sacrifices. Right now I'm reading through the Bible in a year and right now I'm in Leviticus.

[33:47] It's amazing how much you had to do in Leviticus for the tabernacle, for the cleanliness, for doing this. You have to do this sacrifice, that sacrifice, this and this and that. That's all pointing to what Messiah was going to do.

[33:58] How He was going to fulfill that all in His sacrifice. It's all pointing to Christ. And then of course, you have Psalm 16, You will not allow your Holy One to undergo decay.

[34:12] Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Isaiah 53, All we like sheep have gone astray, yet the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. So Jesus explained more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more.

[34:32] They became elated and thrilled and overwhelmed and said, Wow! Look at how big this is! Look at how great Jesus is!

[34:43] Look at how wonderful Jesus! This is what they're doing! This is what He was doing to them! Friends, there's major implications to what we see here.

[34:54] Let me take a few moments to show this to you. First, Jesus is sufficient for our salvation and our sanctification.

[35:08] He is sufficient to save us and to transform us. The Gospel does not just save us, it is what enables and motivates us toward true change. That's what the Gospel does. Something else, all Scripture is important and we can have the confidence in God's Word being sufficient.

[35:28] It's been verified. It's confirmed. It's not about having some experience. People are looking for some different, great, mystical, whatever type experience.

[35:43] It's not about that. It's about the truth of Jesus. Who He is and what He's done. And salvation in His name. Two huge implications we have.

[35:55] First, Jesus is sufficient. He's sufficient for our salvation and He's sufficient to sanctify us, to make us more like Himself. And second, the Scripture is important.

[36:10] We have confidence in God's Word. Are you confident in God's Word, Christian? You can be confident in the Scriptures. Confident in God's Word. This is the truth.

[36:24] Something else. So, the Scriptures are sufficient in evangelism. If Jesus can show who He is through the Old Testament Scriptures, how much, much, how much greater of a testimony, how much more of a testimony do we have in both the Old and the New Testaments?

[36:41] confidence. It is sufficient. Totally. People say, oh, you know, you got your truth, I got mine.

[36:52] How do you know yours is true? How do you know this and that? You just tell them. Because the Bible says it's true. That's where you, you have a starting point, you says it's not true. I have a starting point, it says it is true.

[37:03] We both have our starting points. You've just rejected it, I choose to embrace it. And I tell people, you know, you can believe this bench to be a car. You can believe it to be a light post all you want.

[37:16] But it's always going to be a chair. Whether you and I believe this or not, it doesn't matter. It will remain true. Because it just is. There's another implication.

[37:31] God always keeps His promises. God always keeps His promises. So He's faithful and true. As He was faithful to vindicate His eternal Son, so He will also vindicate those who follow Jesus.

[37:47] Working all things for good. He does all things to conform us into the image of His Son, Jesus. You have such confidence in God's Word. Confidence in evangelism.

[37:59] Confidence that God is going to be faithful to His promises. I mean, look at what He's done. Here's Jesus. He shows them the grand son, city, huge city of Phoenix. He shows them this huge thing. The Old Testament is all pointing to me.

[38:13] God is faithful to His promises. He will be faithful to you, Christian. He'll always be faithful to you. So they're elated.

[38:25] They're just on cloud nine. Get it? Cloud nine. Plane. Okay, no one. Verse 28. And they approached the village where they were going. And He acted as though He would go farther. I need to go farther.

[38:37] Travelers, they came to Emmaus. But they didn't wish for Him to go on. They urged Him, verse 29, stay with us. It's toward evening. The day is now nearly over. It was unsafe to travel in the evening, the night time.

[38:49] So come stay with us. Verse 30. So He stayed with them. And He came about to recline with them. Took the bread, blessed it. Breaking it, He gave it to them.

[39:03] Stop there. These actions, they reminisce things. What He did when He fed the crowds. What He did at the Last Supper.

[39:16] Took the bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to His travelers. Maybe that was the thing that opened their eyes. Why was He the one doing this? Why was He hosting the meal? We don't know.

[39:27] Maybe because He was older than them. I don't know. Maybe out of respect. Whatever the reason, He gave leadership. Maybe that was the means by which their eyes were open to who He was.

[39:39] Notice verse 31. And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. The veil was lifted. It's Jesus! They realized with whom they were really eating.

[39:54] Again, maybe it was how He served the meal. Maybe as He started to serve it, they saw His nail pierced wrist. We don't know. God simply opened their eyes.

[40:10] And just as quickly did they recognize Him? He vanished from them. He vanished from their sight. Revealing He was alive. His visible presence was no longer necessary.

[40:24] Jesus truly is alive and personally ministers to anyone after His death and resurrection. He will personally minister to anyone after His death and resurrection.

[40:36] Just humble yourself and ask. He will come and minister to you not in some weird way, not in some mystical way, not in some chanting way, incantation, not in that way, but through His Word.

[40:53] Through His people. His people have the Spirit to dwell inside of them. They will minister to you because they are called the body of Christ. See? The body of Jesus.

[41:06] Notice their response. What, what, what, what, what, what? We're not our hearts, they said to one another. Our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us. We were excited. We're listening to this guy speak to us.

[41:18] We're listening to this person before us, someone unusual. We had no idea who He was. Their hearts were burning within them as Jesus spoke.

[41:32] As He spoke to them, they felt great emotion, excitement. But not just a feeling. But a feeling as the truth was being revealed to them more and more and more. They were elated.

[41:46] So what did they do? 33. They arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem. They were chomping at the bit to pass on this news.

[42:02] They didn't wait a single moment. Maybe going back at a faster pace. Maybe they were jogging this time. Notice it says, they found, gathered together the eleven.

[42:16] And those were with them. It seems that Luke gave a general reference to the eleven apostles. Even though most likely Thomas was not there.

[42:27] According to John, John chapter 20, Thomas was not there for this first time. Or another possibility is that maybe Thomas left after. Maybe they were, yeah, Jesus appeared to Simon Peter.

[42:38] He's like, ah, get out of here. And he left and then Jesus comes. Maybe that's what happened. We don't know. But notice they were ready to tell the apostles. They were ready to tell the others what just experienced.

[42:49] But notice what happens though. Verse 34. Saying, the Lord has truly risen. He's appeared to Simon. They weren't the ones saying that. It was the eleven, the ones inside that they saw. They were the ones telling them.

[43:01] This is coming from them. Not from the two going to Emmaus. They said, the eleven, with the others, the Lord has risen. He appeared to Simon.

[43:13] Jesus is really among us. He really is alive. He provided evidence. Not only on those for the road to Emmaus. But also in Jerusalem. To Simon Peter himself.

[43:28] So the apostles and Jesus' followers were reassured that Jesus had truly risen having appeared to many of them. This was, is, an historical fact that he has risen and bears great authority.

[43:43] He is the Lord. And then notice verse 35. And then they, which is the travelers, they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

[43:56] Notice the emotions now. Before it was despair, sadness, cloudy, shallow.

[44:11] Now it's excitement, truth, joy, courage, amazement. So much irony and reversal in the account.

[44:24] Sad to joy. Despair to excitement. He was killed. We thought he would redeem Israel. And then he begins to explain the scriptures to them.

[44:38] The Old Testament, unfolding from the Old Testament how it was all speaking about Messiah, how he would suffer and the glories to follow. Their eyes were open, they ran back, only to find the Lord appeared to Simon Peter.

[44:53] I mean, this whole account is full of irony. I mean, you see, grief turned to joy, remorse was reversed in his resurrection. And this was God's design.

[45:04] It was not thwarted. He planned this whole thing. Amen. Because of Jesus' resurrection, humans can have a place with God.

[45:14] They can be in his very presence. Jesus is now at God's side. All one needs to do is believe what God has promised. That's all you've got to do.

[45:26] Trust. Repent and trust. See, Jesus is the key. It all points to him. He's the only way to God. You believe in Jesus? That's great. What Jesus do you believe in?

[45:39] This one? The one who reigns? The one who reigns? And see, this is what's great because it's this word of promise that it now is a proclamation of hope to the people of this hopeless world.

[45:57] To people of this promise broken world. people live in a hopeless world. People live in a world where there's broken promises all over the place. God has not broken his promise, has he?

[46:10] Never. Never. And all the things that are working out, even the very intricate part, details of your life, he's working it out to fulfill his perfect plan.

[46:20] Christian, Christian, you can be confident of that. Yes, yes, even the person who cut you off on the road, which is most likely warred.

[46:34] Jesus, the just, died for the unjust. He's been raised. He brings us to God. So as Christians, we cannot put our trust in some experience, or our wit, our charisma, our ability to argue well with others.

[46:51] No, we put our trust in the truth of the gospel and the scriptures that speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. Be confident in his word. You walk out of here and say, I have the Bible.

[47:03] It is God's word. And that's it. It's sufficient. We stand on this. And they will mock you. They'll say, you're an idiot.

[47:14] They'll say, you're a fool. Uh-uh. Oh, foolish men, slow to heart to believe. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things?

[47:25] And begin with Moses and the prophets to explain concerning himself and all the scriptures. The Old Testament is sufficient. God's word is sufficient for you and for me.

[47:36] So you, when you do evangelism, when you talk to me about Christ, you can be solid on the truth. Jesus is sufficient for our salvation and he is sufficient for our sanctification.

[47:50] He is sufficient to save us and he's sufficient to transform us. God always keeps his promises. He's faithful and true.

[48:02] Don't have a meager trust in him. Put your full trust in the risen Lord, Christian. If you're not a Christian here, you're not a follower of Jesus, put your trust in Jesus.

[48:15] Put your full trust in him. Give you a few moments where you can sit and ponder and think what we've seen in God's word. You can think through what Luke has written to us here in chapter 24.

[48:31] Maybe you want to take time and just pray silently. Whatever the case is, I'll give you a few moments of silence so you can grapple with the things that we've seen and then we'll have our time of giving and our last two songs.

[48:51] So sit, ponder, think about what we've seen in God's word. Amen.