When Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He explained to them how all of the Old Testament Scripture pointed to Him. In all our reading of the Old Testament, let’s make sure we don’t miss Jesus!
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Burning Hearts!
Luke 24:13-32
Jesus was the Master at everything He did. He was the Master at loving others. He was the Master at serving others. He was the Master when it came to training His disciples. He was the Master at healing others. But there is another sense in which He was the Master. He was the Master Teacher of Scripture. He was the Master Bible Expositor. And that is the role we see Him in here in Luke 24.
I want you to notice the emphasis in this section on the Scriptures. In verse 25 Jesus says, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” All that the prophets have spoken refers to Old Testament Scripture. Then in verse 27, it says “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Then again in 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?” All that the prophets have spoken – the Scriptures – the Scriptures. And notice the peculiar emphasis is on explaining the Scriptures. Jesus as the Master Teacher, opens up and expounds the Word of God to two of His disciples.
This section of Luke is most interesting. First of all, only Luke describes this story in any detail. Mark summarizes it in two verses, but Luke takes 23 verses to tell the story! This is the longest resurrection story in any of the four gospels. And, interestingly, the two disciples that Jesus appeared to were not any of the 11! One was named Cleopas, and we don’t know the name of the other disciple. Some have speculated it was Cleopas’ wife. But there is no evidence of that. We really don’t know anything else about these two disciples. In fact, we don’t know anything about the town they were traveling to, Emmaus, except that it was seven miles from Jerusalem.
Now, in this resurrection narrative, I see three extremely important lessons related to the Scriptures:
- The Need to Believe All The Scriptures
- The Key that Unlocks All The Scriptures
- The Result of Being Taught All The Scriptures
1. The Need To Believe All The Scriptures
Luke 24:13-16, “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. And 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.”
Notice something very interesting in verse 16, “their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” The verb “were prevented” is passive, meaning that someone else was preventing their eyes from recognizing Jesus. Later, in verse 31, it says, “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.” In both places the verbs are passive. Someone else is preventing them from recognizing Jesus, and then opening their eyes to recognize Jesus. I believe God, for reasons known only to Himself, was preventing the disciples from recognizing Jesus. God didn’t want them to know it was Jesus yet. It wasn’t the right time. Later, when it is the right time, God will open their eyes so that they do recognize Jesus. And folks, we see this all the time in Scripture. God
In John 12:39-40, Jesus speaks about the Jews who would not believe in spite of all the miraculous signs that He had performed, “For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, ‘He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.”
Again, in Luke 10:21-22 we read, “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” God hides from some, and reveals to others. Why? Because it is well-pleasing in His sight. Because the Son wills to reveal the Father to them.
You will recall Paul down at the riverside in Philippi speaking the gospel to Lydia and her household, and Acts 16:14 says, “And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.”
What do we learn from all of this? God sometimes hardens someone’s heart, and sometimes opens someone’s heart. God sometimes blinds someone’s eyes, and sometimes opens someone’s eyes. God sometimes hides the things concerning salvation from some, and reveals them to others. In all of this we see the inscrutable wisdom of God. We see the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation. Just as we read in Jonah 2:9, “salvation is of the Lord.” Or, to put it another way, “God saves sinners.” Paul puts it this way in Romans 9:16, “So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
My friend, if you are a Christian, you owe all of it, 100%, to the gracious influence of God in opening your eyes, opening your heart, and revealing the glory of Christ in the gospel to you! It wasn’t that you were a little smarter than your friend who doesn’t believe. It wasn’t that your heart was a little softer than his. It wasn’t that you were a little better. No, it was because God had mercy on your soul, and revealed Christ to you. He shone His light into your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
24:17-18 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”
Now, why did Jesus ask them what they were talking about? Did He not know? Of course He knew! That’s why He asked the question. Jesus wanted to draw them out so He could talk with them about what had just happened in Jerusalem.
The text says, “they stood still, looking sad.” When Jesus asked them what they were talking about, they literally stopped dead in their tracks, with a look of deep sadness all over their faces. They could not believe that this person, whoever he was, could be ignorant of what had been going on in Jerusalem over the last week. Cleopas says, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” The whole town is buzzing with this news. Everybody is talking about it. Are you the only one who is ignorant of it?
24:19-24, “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, 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. 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, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive.
“And 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.”
The two disciples then recount everything that had happened. They call Jesus a prophet. They aren’t convinced any more that He was the Messiah, but He was definitely a prophet of God, mighty in word and deed. Notice the reason for their dejection – “but we were hoping that it twas He who was going to redeem Israel.” What are they talking about? They are saying they were hoping that He would be the Messiah, who would set Israel free from the Roman yoke, and establish her as the elite nation of the world. They were hoping Jesus would be the political savior they were looking for. They were hoping He might conquer all Israel’s enemies, and then reign as King over the earth. They had pinned all their hopes on Jesus as their expected Messiah, and now all their hopes were dashed.
Notice also that little extra touch, “indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.” Now, why would they add that? I believe it was because Jesus had said over and over that He would rise on the third day. That’s why they launch into this explanation of how the women went to the tomb and found it empty, but did see a vision of angels that said he was alive. Then Peter and John went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said. Now, were these two disciples convinced Jesus had risen? Absolutely not! In verse 9 it says that the women returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. These two disciples were part of “all the rest.” Well, how did the eleven and all the rest respond to this report by the women? Verse 11 says, “But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.” In spite of the empty tomb, in spite of the angelic visitation announcing that Jesus was alive, in spite of the fact that it all happened three days after His crucifixion just as He said it would be, they would not believe.
24:25-26, “And He said to them, “O 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?”
Notice how Jesus refers to them – “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe”. The phrase “slow of heart” really means stupid. Jesus is calling them fools and stupid men. Why this rather harsh rebuke? Was it because they didn’t believe the Scriptures at all? No. Was it because they didn’t believe the Scriptures were inspired by God? No. It was because they were content with a partial understanding of the Scriptures. Notice the phrase “all that the prophets have spoken!” Yes, they believed some of the things the prophets have spoken, but not all of them.
Jesus goes on to explain Himself in verse 26. It was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory. Now, the disciples believed the Messiah would enter into glory. They just didn’t believe He would suffer. They had the glory stuff down pat. They just didn’t believe the suffering and dying stuff. And, it wasn’t just these two disciples who had this limited understanding of the Messiah. The whole nation, including all the religious leaders had the same understanding! They had no category in their thinking for a dying Messiah. Now, it wasn’t because the Bible never spoke about the sufferings and death of the Messiah. The Old Testament Scriptures spoke of those things in precise detail. It was because they didn’t want to believe it. You see, the disciples didn’t follow Jesus because they thought they would be persecuted. They followed Jesus because they wanted to sit at His right and left side in the kingdom. They were all caught up in this kingdom fever. They wanted to reign with Him.
You see, the more oppressed they were, the more difficult life was for them, the more they longed for their Messiah who would crush their oppressors. They didn’t want their Messiah to come and be killed by their oppressors. They wanted their Messiah to come and defeat their oppressors. And this great longing blinded them to some truths in Scripture they just didn’t want to believe.
Jesus doesn’t blame the Scriptures. He doesn’t say, “I know, I know, the Old Testament is so hard to understand. I feel your pain.” No, he blames them for not believing all the Scriptures.
Folks, we too, need to believe all the Scriptures! The Jews picked and chose the parts of Scripture they would believe. They believed the part about the triumph and glory of the Messiah, but ignored the parts about His sufferings and shame and death. And, we do the same thing today!
Some people believe in heaven, but don’t believe in hell. Some believe in Jesus as their Savior, but don’t believe in Him as their Lord and Master. Some love to talk about healing, and wealth, but don’t like the parts in the Bible that talk about trials, and suffering. Some love all the verses that speak about “whosoever believes has eternal life”, but blatantly ignore all the Scriptures that speak about God’s predestination and His election of some to eternal life. Some love the verses that speak about just believing in order to be saved, and ignore those that say we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
My friends, I hope you will be the kind of Christian that accepts all of the Word of God. In 1804, Thomas Jefferson decided to come up with a Bible that he could approve of. Since he did not believe in the miraculous or the deity of Christ, he literally cut them out of his bible with a razor, and then glued the remaining sections together to portray Jesus as a great moral teacher, nothing more. Now, we rightly condemn such a thing, but do we do the very same thing when we refuse to embrace what the Bible clearly teaches? Folks, that is why I am such a strong proponent of teaching straight through books of the Bible. By doing that, we can’t camp on our pet doctrines, and neglect others. As long as we are teaching straight through the Bible, we have to examine everything in the Bible, and are forced to deal with it. My friends, a partial embrace of the Scriptures is deadly. The cults have a partial understanding of Scripture. They don’t deny the Bible as the Word of God. They just don’t believe all of it. Oh, let’s not make that mistake!
2. The Key That Unlocks All The Scriptures
24:27, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
This is a powerful, powerful verse of Scripture, because it gives us the key that will unlock the meaning of the Bible. My friends, you can read the Bible from cover to cover and miss everything, if you don’t have this key. The key is Christ! The key to understanding the Bible is to see Jesus on every page! Jesus said that all the Scriptures were speaking about Him. Many devout Jews have memorized long passages of the Old Testament, but they have missed their intent, because the Scriptures are all about Jesus!
Oh, how I wish I could have been there to hear Jesus explain how all the Old Testament Scriptures were about Him! Wouldn’t you love to have an Mp3 of that teaching session? Ever wonder what He told them? Well, I don’t think we have to wonder too much, because we have the Scriptures, don’t we?
Jesus probably told them of Genesis 3:15 were the serpent would bruise the Messiah on the heel, but the Messiah would end up crushing his head. He no doubt spoke of God covering Adam and Eve’s nakedness with animal skins, showing the necessity of taking the life of an innocent substitute in order to cover sin. He must have spoke to them of the fact that God accepted Abel’s offering of a blood sacrifice, and rejected Cain’s offering of the fruit of his hands. Maybe he spoke to them of the ark that sheltered Noah and his family from God’s judgment and said that this was a picture of what the Messiah would do through His death and resurrection. No doubt He told them of Abraham offering up his beloved son, and Isaac’s willingness to be offered, as a picture of how God would offer His Son up to death.
He probably told them the story of the Passover and said that God’s Messiah would be that Passover Lamb who would cause God to pass over those who applied the blood to their souls through faith and not bring wrath upon them. He may have told them of the rock that was smitten in the wilderness to bring forth water, teaching them that it spoke of the Messiah would be smitten unto death, so that the rivers of the water of salvation would flow freely to God’s chosen people. No doubt He spoke to them of the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole, so that all who were bitten by the deadly serpent bite would live, pointing to Christ as the one who was lifted up on a cross so that all who looked to Him in faith would be saved. He must have spoke to them of all the different kinds of offerings spoken of in Leviticus, which pointed to the one Perfect Sacrifice for sin for all time. He must have spoken to them of the Day of Atonement, and how the high priest brought the blood of a slain goat into the holy of holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, as a picture of what the Messiah would do by dying and then presenting Himself in heaven before the Father as our great High Priest.
Surely, he would have told them of Deuteronomy 18:15 in which the Scripture predicts that one will come forth to be a prophet like Moses, and all must listen to Him. He may have ran through every article of furniture in the Tabernacle, and showed how it all pictured Him.
Then Jesus spoke to them of what all the prophets had said. David wrote in Psalm 22 of how they would pierce Messiah’s hands and feet, and cast lots for his clothing. He certainly must have gone to Isaiah 53 and showed how the Lord would cause the iniquities of us all to fall on the Messiah. He would have told them that He would be pierced through for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. He would tell them that the Christ would be oppressed and afflicted, but would not open His mouth, that though His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he would be with a rich man in His death. Oh, I could go on and on to show you how full the Old Testament is of Jesus Christ!
In Genes He is our Creator
In Exodus He is our Redeemer
In Leviticus He is our Sacrifice
In Numbers He is the Bronze Serpent lifted Up
In Deuteronomy He is our New Lawgiver
And on and on we could go, showing Christ in all the Bible.
My friends, my encouragement to you as you read the Bible, is look for Jesus! He’s there! Either in direct prophecies of His coming, or types or shadows. He fills the bible. You can read the Bible every day for the rest of your life, but if you don’t see Christ there, all your reading is worthless! Jesus is the central theme of all the Bible. It all points to Him!
3. The Result Of Being Taught All The Scriptures
24:28-32, “And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He would go farther. And they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” And He went in to stay with them. And it came about that 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. 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?”
Again, we see how the Lord loves to be entreated. He wants us to desire His fellowship, and ask Him to come and stay with us. He wants our hearts to be drawn out in desire for Him.
When the three of them sat down to an ordinary meal, we find a very startling thing. The guest takes the role of the Host. Jesus, who is the guest, takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. My friends, when you invite Christ to come into your life as a guest, please know that He is going to take over! He will become the ruler of your life. It is inevitable!
Now, here we are told that they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. We don’t know exactly how that took place. Perhaps when He opened His hands to give them the bread, they saw the holes where the nails were driven. Perhaps they remembered when He fed the 5,000, by taking the bread, blessing it, and giving it to His disciples. We just don’t know. But in the end, it was a supernatural work of God. The Lord opened their eyes so that they understood who He was. All of that tells us that Jesus didn’t look exactly the same after He rose from the dead. Mary Magdalene mistook Him for the gardener. The seven disciples on the Sea of Galilee originally did not know it was Jesus. And again here the two disciples didn’t recognize Him at first.
Notice the climax in verse 32. They said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” Jesus as the Master Expositor, explained the Scriptures to them. The result? Burning hearts! Now, remember that their hearts were burning within them, even before they knew it was Jesus. Just having the Scriptures opened up to them, caused their hearts to burn.
Friends, that is what the Word of God will do to us as well! Have you ever had that experience? When someone explained the Scriptures, have you ever felt your heart burning within you? Burning with love for Christ. Burning with desire to please God. Burning with joy for your salvation. Burning with desire to reach the lost. Burning with passion to overcome sin. Burning with zeal to glorify God.
Notice, their hearts burned when the Scriptures were explained to them. Oh, there is a great need in the church for Bible Teaching. Preaching is wonderful, but it must never be divorced from Teaching. The most important thing anyone can ever do for someone else is explain to them the meaning of Scripture. As we here at The Bridge, commit to go through all the Scriptures, the result will be burning hearts!
Conclusion
Oh, Bridge folks, will you rededicate your life to the study of the Scriptures? Will you give yourself daily to feeding on God’s Word? Will you spend time reading, and meditating on the Bible? Will you do more than just read a daily devotional? Will you actually open your Bible, read, look for Jesus, and then worship Him in the Word! That is what God is calling us to do. May He produce burning hearts in every one of you as you pour over the Scriptures and meditate on them day and night! Amen.
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