The Road to Emmaus

Now the Spirit of God pierced their souls and their hearts, and they said one to the other, I know that my heart was burning inside, and I can't believe that yours wasn't too. Did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us from His Word? Can you remember when you were converted?

R.C. Sproul could, and in this sermon that you just heard a preview of, he would go on to describe how he had a similar experience to those two men. God set his heart on fire. This is the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind as we hear sermons preached by R.C. Sproul as he worked his way through the Gospel of Luke. It must have been incredible for these two men on their way to Emmaus to have had Jesus begin with Moses and all the prophets interpret to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. What might that conversation have looked like?

Well, here's Dr. Sproul to consider that very question. This morning we're going to look again at the Gospel according to St. Luke. I'll be reading from chapter 24, verses 13 through 35, and I would ask the congregation please to stand for the reading of the Word of God. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. And He said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?

And they stood still, looking sad. And then one of them named Cleopas answered Him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? And He said to them, What things? And they said to Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned and crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel, and yet besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened.

And moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find His body, they came back saying that they had 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 that just as the women had said, but Him they did not see. And He said to them, O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And so they drew near to the village to which they were going, and He acted as if He were going further, but they urged Him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And so He went in to stay with them, and when He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight. And they said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven, and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

And then they told Him what had happened on the road and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. This is one of the most glorious passages that we read anywhere in the New Testament. Superintendent and inspired by God the Holy Spirit is the veritable truth of God Himself, and I ask that this day you receive it as such.

Please be seated. Let us pray. Again our Father and our God, we ask that You would help us because we are fragile in our understanding and feeble in our faith. So we ask that You would condescend and give to us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, that He may illumine for us the meaning of the text that we have just heard. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Luke recounts the story of two men. We're walking presumably home to Emmaus from Jerusalem, a distance of about seven miles, a short enough trip, but one that would take about an hour and a half at a normal pace. And as they were walking together on their journey, they were having a discussion with each other when a stranger appeared behind them and was listening in, as it were, on their conversation. And Luke tells us that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. And He asked them a question, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk?

And this stopped them in their tracks. What is this conversation that we're having? Are you the only person in Jerusalem who doesn't know what's been going on over the past few days? And it was as if they would say to Him, where in the world have you been? Well, Jesus didn't answer the question precisely and directly to the one that was specific or the one that was implied. But had He answered that question, I think the answer would have been something like this. The first question, are you the only one in Jerusalem that doesn't know what happened? He could have said to them, I'm the one person on this planet who understands comprehensively every single thing that has happened in the last few days. Or the implied question, where in the world have you been?

He could have answered that one by saying, well, let me start Thursday night. I was with some of my friends, and we celebrated the Passover together. And after that I went into the darkness to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, and I prayed so intensely that I was sweating drops of blood, begging my Father concerning the mission He had set before me. And when that prayer was finished, I went across the brook Kidron, and there in the darkness of the night I was met by a company of soldiers carrying torches and swords and led by a former friend who came up and gave to me the kiss of death. And they arrested me. And then they took me into the city and they shuttled me back and forth between the Jewish authorities and the Roman authorities, until finally I was put on trial before the Roman procurator.

And after my interrogation, he said to those who were standing by, I find no fault in Him. He was about to release me, but the screaming crowd began to cry for my blood, and they said, crucify Him! And being a politician driven by expediency, Pontius Pilate surrendered to the voices of the crowd, had me scourged and beaten and crowned with the crown of thorns, and then led off out of the city of Jerusalem, outside the camp, outside of Zion, to a barren hillside called Golgotha, where I was executed by crucifixion. I was not simply executed as a criminal to satisfy bloodthirsty men, but I was subjected to the unmitigated wrath of God, where before His face I was forsaken, and He placed upon me His holy curse and counted me as sin as He placed upon me the sins of my people, something that no human being had ever been asked to endure in the history of this world. And finally it ended.

It was finished. And I gave up the ghost and commended my soul and my spirit to the care of my Father, and I died. And they took me down from the cross, and instead of burying me in the traditional place of disposal in the burning garbage pile outside of Jerusalem called Gehenna, somebody interceded on my behalf that as God had promised His servant would not suffer corruption, I was entrusted into the hands of a secret disciple whose name was Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man who owned a marvelous sepulcher in which I was entombed. And they took my broken body and placed it on the ground and wrapped it in grayed clothes and anointed me with spices and posted a guard in front of the cave that was also guarded by a huge stone that was rolled in front of it. And there I was, a corpse in the ground. And early this morning, a cosmic burst of creative power supernaturally came upon me, returned my soul to my body. My brain waves began to operate anew. My heart began to beat and was pulsating with blood driving through my veins and arteries. And I opened my eyes alive, and by the power of God I was able to escape from the binding grave cloths that held me there. And angels came and rolled the stone away, and I walked out into the dawn alive.

And where have you been for the last few days? But you know, as far as Luke gives his record, he doesn't tell us any of that. He doesn't give Jesus answering the question that they raised, but instead he rebuked them. Listen to the rebuke. O foolish ones, and slow of hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning themselves. Listen carefully, dear ones, to the rebuke. O foolish ones, slow to believe all that the prophets have taught concerning the Messiah. He didn't call them stupid. He didn't say that they were unintelligent or uneducated. He called them foolish. And in Jewish categories, the term fool does not describe somebody of low intelligence. It's not an intellectual assessment.

It's a moral one. To be called a fool by God is to come under His judgment because it is the fool who says in his heart there is no God. You know, we have a national holiday to celebrate Atheist Day. It's only in a couple of days from now on, the first of April. You're foolish and slow of heart to believe. Why?

Because they had a poor teacher. No, God has revealed Himself clearly to every human being of His eternal power and deity. Everybody in this world knows and knows without a doubt of the existence of God, even His eternal power and deity, because God Himself has manifested it to Him. And the word there in the Greek is phoneyros in the Latin. It's manifestum. It's not some isolated, esoteric, obscure, shadowy knowledge. It's plague.

It's manifest. Open your eyes for a second. And you don't even need the testimony of the creation because God has planted the knowledge of Himself in your very soul and in your very conscience. You know who He is, but you're slow to acknowledge Him.

Why? Because the Scriptures tell us, dear ones, that we don't want to have God in our knowledge. The biggest obstacle, the biggest barrier to what we perceive to be our joy and happiness is the law of God, and we want to do away with it.

We want autonomy. We want the freedom to do whatever we want to do, not what He commands us to do. And so the Scriptures tell us we will not have Him in our thinking.

The deepest and most pernicious bias of all human inclination is that bias against our blessed Creator Himself. And so after Jesus rebuked them, then we are told that was it not necessary that Christ should suffer all of these things before He could enter into His glory. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted in them all the things concerning Himself in about an hour to an hour and a half.

This was a tour de force of pedagogy. No instructor, no professor had ever so eloquently and persuasively and convincingly and rationally laid out the whole of the text of sacred Scripture and a summary of all of redemptive history such as was heard in that hour on the road to Emmaus. Jesus Himself was the instructor.

Let me tell you what the Scriptures say about me. It started with Moses. Luke doesn't tell us where He started with Moses, but I can't imagine it wasn't very early when God pronounced the curse upon the serpent and saying that the seed of the woman would crush the head of that serpent while the seed of the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. Surely He mentioned the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham. How that Abraham in Genesis 15 believed God and it was counter to Him for righteousness.

Where did that righteousness come from? Not from Abraham, but from the one who would come and fulfill all righteousness. And how God had commanded His disciple Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, the one whom He loved, Isaac, and sent him on a journey a few days to go to Mount Moriah where he was to offer his son as a living sacrifice. And while they were walking, the boy looked at his father and he said, I see the firewood, see the ropes, but where's the lamb to sacrifice? And Abraham looked at his son, and I think he crossed his fingers for a moment, and he answered his son, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. And when they reached that mountaintop and the son was tied in the ropes and placed upon the altar and his father's blade was above his chest, and just as he was ready to plunge it into that boy, a voice came from heaven saying, Abraham, Abraham, lay not thy hand upon thy son for now I know that you trust me. And behold, there was a racket on the side, and Abraham turned and there was a lamb caught by his horns in the thicket, Jehovah Jireh. The substitute was given if the lamb was slain on Mount Moriah on the exact location that later on two thousand years later was named Golgotha, where God took his son, his only son, the son whom he loved, Jesus, and offered him on a wooden offering place.

And nobody hollered, stop. And on through Jacob, his sons, Joseph, the migration to Egypt, the enslavement of the people, the appearance of God in the burning bush to Moses saying, Moses, Moses, put off your shoes from off your feet for the ground that you're standing on, his holy ground. I've heard the cries of my people in Israel, and I want you to go to Pharaoh, and I want you to say to Pharaoh, let my people go. And he went, and Pharaoh resisted and fought against him through plague after plague after plague after plague until finally came the night of Passover when God dispatched the avenger, the angel of death, to destroy the firstborn of all of the Egyptians, but said to the Jewish people, take the blood of the lamb, sprinkle it on your doorpost, and when I see that blood, my angel will pass over. And Moses was instructed by God to set a memorial day that would be celebrated every year that the people would never, ever, ever forget the exodus from Egypt, the construction of the tabernacle, which was a symbolic description of the person and work of Jesus who later was the living tabernacle who became incarnate and dwelt and pitched His tent among us. And through the Old Testament, Jesus took them through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, the valley of the dry bones, Micah's small prophecy about a tiny village that would be the exact location where the Messiah would be born, the Son of Righteousness that would appear even to the last recorded prophecy in the book of Malachi.

From Genesis to Malachi, Jesus opened up these Scriptures intellectually to these men who were walking to Emmaus. And notice that He said that all of these things happened by necessity. It wasn't an accident that Judas betrayed Jesus that night. It wasn't an accident that the bloodthirsty rulers of the Jews conspired to destroy Him. These things were ordained from the foundation of the world.

They had to happen. And 2,000 years of prophetic preparation for the people of God were prepared for their information. But oh, how slow they were to believe all of those things that were written in the prophets and the law. Finally, they came to the end of their journey, and Jesus was going to move on, but they persuaded Him to stay for supper. And we read, when He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them, and suddenly their eyes were opened. They recognized Him, and then just as suddenly He vanished, disappeared from their midst. And Cleopas and his friend were left alone at the table, and one of them said to the other, did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road and when He opened the Scripture?

Don't miss this, please. Now it wasn't simply a matter of intellectual conviction. It wasn't just the setting forth of the notitia, which is the necessary data of the content of our saving faith. There was more here than simply the engagement of the mind.

Now it's visceral. Now the Spirit of God pierced their souls and their hearts, and they said one to the other, I know that my heart was burning inside, and I can't believe that yours wasn't too. Did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us from His Word? I know exactly what He's talking about, what these men were talking about. I know that the day I was converted to Christ, my heart was set on fire. And to this very day, I have fire in my bones that won't quit. I know that there are people in this room right now who are unconverted, where the Holy Spirit has never changed the disposition of their souls, where their hearts are frozen in a deadly coldness to the things of God.

I know that. But I pray that before you go to your bed this night when you put your head on the pillow, that you earnestly pray to God that He will light a match to your soul so that you will know the joy of Easter, that you will have that fire in your bones, that you can never again go to church in a casual or cavalier manner. Oh, that God would set fire to your soul. Every Lord's Day R.C. Sproul had that same passion.

You could always hear that fire in his bones. You're listening to the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and you just heard one of 113 sermons that Dr. Sproul preached from the Gospel of Luke. And those very sermons and all of his study formed the basis for what would become his expositional commentary on Luke. The ebook edition of that commentary can be yours for your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Study Luke's Gospel or read this commentary devotionally when you request your copy today only at renewingyourmind.org. Jesus walked with and taught these two men on the road to Emmaus. Next, he would appear to his disciples. And that's where Dr. Sproul will pick up next Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind.