Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus: Part III

We live in a technological age. At just the click of a button we can receive any kind of information we would like. We can learn how to take apart a car engine if we like, get cheats and maps for video games and we can even speak face to face with people across the ocean. We can even at the click of a button listen to any preacher we like. We can hear seasoned veterans in exposition clearly explain the Scripture. The thing is all to often those who do so feel they are getting what they need from listening to those sermons but the problem is they are missing out on something that is so important to the Christian life. That is the fellowship with other believers. I understand life is busy but we need to make time for God’s Word and God’s people.

As we continue to look at Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus this morning we are going to see the importance of the gathering of believers and the motive behind true fellowship.

We have been traveling down the road to Emmaus for the passed two weeks. It is the day Jesus has risen from the grave, it is later in the afternoon on the same day the women went to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial and have found the tomb empty, were greeted by two angels who told them He is risen. The same day the women came and announced this wonderful news to the eleven and the other disciples, although there was amazement at Jesus’ body not being found in the tomb this didn’t mean the eleven or the rest of the disciples except I would have to say the women would be excluded from this, truly believed Jesus had risen from the dead. Faith in God’s plan was very weak as we looked at the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It wasn’t until the stranger to them and as we know Jesus revealed Himself to them through the Scripture.

The two disciples on the road were so distraught at their hope being gone that they didn’t even realize the fulfilment of the Scripture in Jesus’ suffering and now in His resurrection. They were working hard at rationalizing everything that they were missing out on what God was actually doing. God had prevented these men from seeing Jesus physically before them. They saw a man, but were not able to see this man was no ordinary man, He is the Christ who has demonstrated perfect obedience to the Father and fulfilled the Scripture God has provided which point to Him.

These men had a very serious problem they were looking with physical eyes at what God was doing and when it comes to faith it deals more with seeing first spiritually what God is doing before our physical eyes catch up. The faith of those who followed Jesus was strong when Jesus walked with them and they could see Him physically but the real test comes when we need to rely on the spiritual not on the physical. These men were tested by Jesus to see were their faith was. As we saw last week they really tried hard to rationalize all of the events that took place in the last few days. Then Jesus points out to them how they have not believed with everything they have. It was only a head knowledge not a heart knowledge and if it doesn’t go from the head to the heart it is empty knowledge and you try to make sense of it instead of trusting in it.

Jesus made it very clear to them what they have just experienced in the passed few days is what God has been pointing to since the dawn of time. Jesus did this not by physically revealing Himself, that would have been easy, but He did it in the same way He reveals Himself to us today, through His Word, the Holy Scripture. So we saw last week that we need to Seek Jesus with our Mind and Heart and we need to seek a clear explanation of Scripture. We does this with the understanding that the Scripture is the only true revelation of Jesus Christ. It is only through His revealing Himself through His word that we will truly see Him.

This morning we are going to continue to seek out Jesus through His revealed word. We can only see Him if we believe His word is true and as we seek the Scripture to Reveal Jesus and we believe He is revealed through Scripture we will see Him then we need to respond to this clear explanation of Jesus. We will see the responses this morning as we continue our study of Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus.

Scripture Correctly Reveals Jesus

This morning we are going to focus on the correct responses to the revealing of God’s Word.

Correctly Responding to Scriptures Unveiling

We will see this in Luke 24:27-35,

Luke 24:27–35 NASB95

Then 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, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

As we look at Luke’s setting up this next section we see in verses 28-29 the first response to the Scriptures Unveiling. And the first response is a desire for fellowship.

Desire for His Presence

Verse 28-29 read, “And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them.” The journey was over for two of these men, the ones who were originally on the journey. Jesus, however, was not on the journey to Emmaus He was on a journey of revelation, reveling Himself to these men. From the moment Jesus appeared on the scene and the asking of the questions Jesus was testing their faith in the events which have taken place. When Jesus asked His questions in verse 17, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” and verse 19 when He turns to ask for elaboration as to “What things” have taken place in Jerusalem, all of which is a test of the faith of these two disciples.

The men recounted the proofs of Jesus’ resurrection but they still had not believed the word of God and Jesus’ word. Now the test continues, now that Jesus has explained the Scriptures to them now, being the master teacher that He is provides another test, He makes it look as though He is continuing on His journey. The men don’t want Jesus to go on. Look in verse 29 Luke tells us, “but they urged Him.” The word in the Greek that we get the word urged from is only used one other time in Scripture and it is by this particular writer. It is used in Acts 16:15

Acts 16:15 NASB95

And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

These men were forcing Jesus to stay, you kind of get the idea here Jesus was really pushing to move on. Look though at what they said, “stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” Look it is getting dark and well you don’t want to keep on going, you could get robbed or worse be mould by a wild animal. Stay with us. You need to understand something here, although they would have probably asked a stranger not to continue on and might even have invited a stranger to stay with them until morning but what is important here is not the inviting a stranger to stay it is the force in with they are asking. Luke has made it a point to express the force behind their plea and we can’t miss that. Why would their be such force behind the plea. Simply put it was the teaching.

These men have just heard powerful, incredible teaching from Jesus Himself and even though Jesus had not yet revealed Himself physically to these men they wanted to hear more. They saw this man as an authority in the Scripture and they wanted more time with Him. They wanted to be in His presence for some more time. Their desire was to have Jesus revealed to them some more.

Isn’t that true though, when you are in the word, doing a deep, rich study and you find yourself lost in what God is saying, and Jesus being revealed through His word, isn’t it the biggest bummer in the world when you have to pack it up. I don’t know maybe that’s just me. I can’t find anything more fulfilling more rewarding then just sitting at God’s Word and reading it and studying it. When God open’s my eyes to what He has done for the nation of Israel, how He has stayed faithful to a faithless nation. How He has made promises that He didn’t have to make but did any way because He is a gracious and merciful God. Studying through the crucifixion and knowing that the injustice that was brought on Jesus was so that I would escape judgment myself. It boggles the mind and when I am finished with my study I look forward to studying some more. It is not a chore for me to prepare for Sunday morning, yes it is a task that must be made but it is a thrill as I am reading these words and the are more then just Word’s they are the unveiling of a gracious and merciful heavenly God and Father and this is His heart being poured out to us so that, even though we will only scratch the surface of knowing Him, it is a revelation of Him and what He has done and what He will do.

These men have just recieved an unveiling of Jesus through His own word and through His own words. Now that they have recieved this unveiling of Him through a clear explanation of the Hebrew Scripture they don’t want this teacher to go away. They beg Him to stick around because through the clear explanation of the Scripture they have been brought into the presence of Jesus. And even though they don’t realize this is Jesus teaching them they know and sense very clearly this man has shown them Christ and they don’t want it to end.

This is further stressed with the next verse. Look at verse 30 with me. “When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.” We don’t know who’s house this is but it is safe to assume it was one of the disciples homes. If this was the home of one of the disciples then it is also safe to assume they were not Galilean because this village, Emmaus, is only about 7 miles from Jerusalem which is situated south of Galilee. Now here is the most interesting thing about this. This is not a picture of the Last Supper, the only ones who were privy to the events of the Last Supper were the Apostles and these two men are not apostles so they were not there. This is actually a typical start to a ancient Israelite meal. They would begin with the breaking of bread and a blessing.

What is unique about the breaking of the bread and the blessing is it was customarily done by the host not the guest and Jesus is their guest. The only reason why Jesus would be performing the right of a host is if He were viewed by the host as a very important individual. The way He explained the Scriptures placed Him on par with a very important individual. These men respected Jesus and what He had to teach. So Jesus is their teacher and becomes the host who provides the blessing over the meal. These men were desiring to be in the presence of Christ through the preaching of the Scripture. See to them Jesus had died and His body was now missing. To them this strangers words and teaching about Jesus through the Hebrew Scriptures was unveiling to them the Jesus they have followed. To them it was apparent they felt as though they were in His presence once again.

Little do they know they truly are in His presence and Jesus is about to reveal Himself physically.

Faith causes unveiling

Look with me at verses 31-32, “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 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?” Now I love how the commentators all try to figure out how and what it was about Jesus that caused them to recognize Him. Some say it was when He raised His hands to bless the bread or when He handed out the bread that the two saw His wrists and suddenly they realized it was Jesus. Very plausible. It could have been they finally recognized His voice in the prayer. Maybe it was the way He prayed, Jesus did prescribe for us the Disciples prayer so it is possible the prayer clued them in. All of these are plausible explanations but I want to provide one for you that without it renders all of these plausible explanations null and void.

Look Luke simply tells us “their eyes were opened,” which means it happened to them. First their spiritual eyes had to be opened and that is exactly what happened. It was faith, a belief in the Word that Jesus was teaching these men. It was a belief and a trust in what God had said in and through His Word. It was a belief in the fact that everything that had taken place in this passed week to Jesus culminating in His death and His resurrection has been foretold by God. It is a belief and a trust, a deep overwhelming trust that what had happened to Jesus was not an accident but it was a foreknown and foreordained plan of God. Their journey home just some hours before began with hopelessness. Now their journey home has ended with a resurgence of hope. This wasn’t a journey in a return to a physical location it was in actuality a journey in finding faith. Faith as we have been saying for the passed two weeks doesn’t come by seeing the physical happen, it is trusting that God has said what He has said, believing He will accomplish what His word says and following through with it.

Faith in Jesus and in who He is and what He has done and is doing and will do can only come from one place. Look let me tell you something about the Christian Life and faith in Jesus Christ. The source of our faith comes from God opening our eyes to Him. It is not us make a decision through a stick in the fire going up at an alter call. Our faith is not our doing but it is a gift from God. Let’s look at what Jesus teaches His disciples right after He explains to the disciples that He is the bread of life.

John 6:60–65 NASB95

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

See this people can’t even come to God without God calling them. God draws people to Himself. It is interesting because after Jesus says this do you know what happens, there wasn’t a huge alter call, no in fact the opposite happened people walked away. Paul expounds on this teaching about faith.

Ephesians 2:8–10 NASB95

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

See that it is by grace and through faith that we are saved and the grace God has bestowed and the power to believe are both a gift from God. This rules out any credit you may place on yourself to believe. This places all of salvation on God and non of it on us. We are His workmanship, a lump of clay in the Potters Hands that He shapes and molds to His glory and His Honor.

This has all been done in and through Jesus Christ and as the author of Hebrews tells us we should fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Jesus has not only done the work on the cross but He continues to do the work of perfecting our faith through out this life.

The eyes of these disciples were closed to this point and when their eyes were opened when they truly believed is when God allowed them to see Jesus. It was in the breaking of the bread which is probably more an allusion to Jesus being the bread of life which is what they recieved at that very moment. The faith was unveiled.

It is funny once their eyes are opened to Him He vanishes. Jesus comes on the scene out of nowhere and in the same way He just appears He now disappears. They no longer need to see the physical Jesus because now the believe in the physical Jesus. And I love how they react to this. Their reaction demonstrates the power of the Word on the life of a dead person. Look with me at verse 32, “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?” The idea here of their hearts burning is incredible because it brings about the idea of feeling. We are dead and our bodies are dead, we are truly lifeless before our eyes are opened to the truth of the gospel.

These men where dead and as the Scriptures are being opened to them they are being brought to life. This being brought to life is pictured here as their hearts burning within them. A natural reaction to regeneration. This is a natural reaction to our lives being purged of the sin that leads to death and renders all that we do worthless and the regeneration of the body to a trust in God. This regeneration can not come with the Holy Spirits work in the person who hears the Word. And make no mistake even though the Holy Spirit is made much more prominent in Acts 2 He is still working here in the hearts of these men.

Paul tells Titus about the work of regeneration in Titus 3

Titus 3:3–7 NASB95

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Notice here who does all the work it is God and the Holy Spirit who could only come through Jesus Christ. He saved us He renewed us He justified us and made us heirs. Wow we do knowing but feel the work He does within. All of this is do to the opening of the Scriptures. The clear explanation of Who Jesus is through the text, what He has done and continues to do. Look it takes a weight off your shoulders to know you can’t do anything to please God, He has already been pleased in the work of Jesus. It also takes a weight off my own shoulders to know that as He unveils Himself through His word by the work of the Holy Spirit and He is the one who causes me to come to life and have it abundantly.

The eyes of these disciples were opened and they were on “fire” because the opening of the Scriptures brought them to life. Now they do what should come naturally to anyone who has had their eyes opened to the Scriptures, they take off to share their experience with others.

Sharing the Experience

These guys couldn’t contain themselves they wanted to share with the others what had happened to them. Look at verse 33, “And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them.” I can just picture the scene Jesus disappears and those two in shock and awe jump up from the table all the food still there the plates in the same place the bread where ever Jesus left it. The sun probably just setting and these men could care less about getting caught in the dangers of the night. A wild beast devours us so be it, a robber beats us and steals our possessions who cares. We just had the Scriptures opened to us we have to tell the others. Hey we could even tell a robber as they beat us. We need to share this. This is a big deal.

As they get to Jerusalem and they enter the house we find they don’t even have time to tell them about their own experience because the eleven and the others are already in the middle of discussing a different experience. Verse 34, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” Hey these guys aren’t the only ones who have an experience to share, Peter does too. Look those men didn’t see fit to accept the women’s testimony but now Jesus has appeared to Simon now their eyes are opened to.

These two after hearing this didn’t just turn and think Oh man Peter stole our thunder. No, they have just experienced being in the presence of their risen Savior and they are not or should I say can’t keep it bottled up. Verse 35, “They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.They related the experience on the road, I can guarantee they told of their failure as well as Jesus’ explanation of the Scriptures. Then they told them how they told them about the unveiling of Jesus and how He vanished. This is true fellowship discussing our weaknesses and His strengths our faults and His successes. His opening our eyes to Him through His word should drive us to tell others about what He has revealed.

True fellowship is not in talking about the weather it is about the work of Jesus and what the Scripture reveals about Him. True fellowship involves, encouraging one another as this does, it involves clearly explaining Scripture so you can better understand how to respond in a current situation. It can even involve a correction, that is rooted in Scripture not your opinion. The greatest and most powerful response in fellowship is being able to gather together and give God the glory in and through the Worship and Adoration of Him and His work.

The more we have the Scripture opened to us the more our desire is to be in His presence, the more Scripture is clearly opened to us the more we burn for Him, and the more we want to share what He is doing in our lives.

We need to surround ourselves with His Word as much as possible, reading it, studying it, listening to it, and we need to express to others what it is doing in us and how it is moving and changing us. Everyone has something going on in their lives and a lot of times you may be going through something some esls is going through or has gone through or has had God speak to their heart about through their word. Talk to one another and share with one another about how God is working and how God has revealed Himself to you through His word.

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