Cleopas and His Companion

INTRODUCTION

I wonder out loud this morning how many in this room feel like they are discouraged this morning.

Not even because the world is bad. It’s always bad out there.

It’s in the mirror.

You are tired of feeling far from God. Tired of feeling cold in your prayers. Tired of the niggling little doubts that won’t go away.

You are worn down by sin that pops up everyday and you keep saying you will fight it tomorrow, but tomorrow becomes today.

You wonder sometimes if living like your unbelieving friends might yield more joy.

Maybe you are even disappointed with Jesus.

I think a lot of people feel like this a lot of the time but they don’t want to say it because it feels like something you aren’t supposed to say.

“How you doing today, Tom?”

“I’m drowning in discouragement and doubting God. I am wondering if Jesus is who I thought He was, but hey—maybe the Panthers will win today!”

That just feels like a direction most people do not like taking conversations

If I were asked to hazard an opinion as to what is the most prevailing disease in the Church today I would suggest that it is discouragement.

The Christian Warfare, 302

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The Christian’s chief occupational hazards are depression and discouragement.

John Stott

If Satan’s arsenal of weapons were restricted to a single one, it would be discouragement.

C. S. Lewis

Clearly men of God throughout the last century, from preachers to philosophers, understood that discouragement is a relentless, never-going away, Philistine-like enemy to the Christian

Well, this morning, we have two disciples who are just like the discouraged among us in Luke 24.

Two disciples on the brink of despair—disappointed with who Jesus turned out to be

And by the end of the passage, they are joyful witnesses

How can we get there?

How can we go from doubting and discouraged, to being joyful witnesses for Christ?

Let’s look at the text and see

Luke 24:13–35 ESV

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. 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. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there 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 to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 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 even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and 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. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 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. 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!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

THE DISCIPLES ON THE ROAD (v. 13-16)

We have two of Jesus’ followers walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

This is a day’s hike. It was about a 7 mile journey, as Luke tells us and it would about 2-4 hours depending on your pace.

Verse 18 tells us that one of the disciples is named Cleopas.

Some believe this is the same person mentioned in John 19:25

John 19:25 ESV

but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

We have no way of knowing and we don’t need to make much of it.

But some, like commentator Kent Hughes, argues the two disciples on the Emmaus Road are actually Cleopas and Mary, Jesus’ aunt and uncle.

Again—no need to make much of it either way, but I won’t refer to these two disciples as men in this sermon just in case one of them wasn’t. It might be Aunt Mary.

I don’t want to call Jesus’ aunt a man.

As they are on this journey, they are talking about what has taken place in Jerusalem that week.

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry on Monday, as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey with the people shouting, “Hosanna!”

Jesus flipping the temple on its head on Tuesday and then teaching the people there on Wednesday and Thursday

His arrest and His trial

Barabbas’ release and Jesus’ condemnation

The horror of the crucifixion on Good Friday

The confusion over where His body is on that Easter morning

During this conversation, they are joined by a stranger.

At this point, Luke’s writing is filled with this great irony because you as the reader are in on the secret

The stranger is Jesus

Luke knows. We know.

But the two disciples do not know.

So all of the rest of the conversation that we see between Jesus and these two disciples carries this ironic tension because they are telling Him all about HIM. But they have no idea.

You see in verse 16 that they do not recognize Him because they are prevented from it.

God is keeping these two from being able to see that they are entertaining Jesus

Why? Maybe God wanted these two to believe the words of Christ before they knew the identity of Christ.

He wanted them to put their faith in God’s promises before they realized they were seeing the Amen to those promises right before their very eyes.

CONFUSED AND DOUBTING (v. 17-24)

In verse 17, He asks them what they are talking about as they are walking on the road and Cleopas is almost dumbfounded.

How could this man not know what they are talking about?

They are talking about the same thing the rest of Jerusalem in talking about—what happened to Jesus.

He even incredulously asks, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

Jesus plays along and says, “What things?” (v. 19)

And they begin to tell Him about … Him.

About how Jesus was recognized by many in Israel as a prophet (v. 19)

And they recognized Him as such because His teaching and His miracles

That is what they are referring to when they say He was a “prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people”

But the chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to death and crucified Him (v. 20)

And this has broken the hearts of these two disciples because they believed that He might be the one to redeem Israel...

Meaning, they hoped He was the Messiah.

But now, He is dead, and it is late in the third day since His death and they simply have no reason to believe He was the Promised Christ after all.

This shows us how the Jewish people truly had no room in their theology for a crucified and buried Messiah.

They expected the Messiah to redeem Israel and that expectation was much more physical than spiritual.

They were concerned with a Messiah who would come and redeem Israel by liberating them from Roman oppression and forever establish the kingdom that was promised to David in the land that was promised to Abraham.

The Passover has just been celebrated.

They have just recalled the reality that in order for redemption to take place, there has to be a payment.

The Lamb had to die, if there was going to be deliverance from judgment.

But they were not connecting the dots.

They did not understand that the Messiah would have to die as a substitute. That He would be the payment.

And seeing Him crucified broke their hope that He was the Anointed One.

But in verses 22-24, the two disciples condemn themselves a bit.

There are witnesses saying that angels told them Jesus was resurrected.

But those women are not being believed.

Their news was amazing (v. 22), but it is ultimately being dismissed.

They are not believing in the earliest proclamations regarding Jesus’ resurrection

THE CORRECTING TEACHER (v. 25-27)

At this point, Jesus is going to correct them. It is gentle and loving, but it is correction.

They are failing to understand and believe in God’s Word.

They are failing to believe in the Gospel witness of the women who spoke to the angels at the tomb

Jesus is going to use His words to shepherd them to faith

They are discouraged and doubting.

Seeing Him crucified has shattered their Messianic hope, but it doesn’t need to be this way

He calls the “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”

In Hebrew culture, being a fool had nothing to do with your intelligence level

It had to do with your morality

And to doubt the words of God is an immoral, foolish thing to do

They need to be quicker in their hearts to cast away their doubts by recalling God’s Word and trusting in it

If they had just believed the prophets, they would have known that suffering should not cause you to disqualify someone as the Messiah.

If you understand the prophets, you would know that it was already written that the Messiah would suffer.

That He would be despised and rejected

That He would be a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with much grief

That He would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows

Pierced for our transgressions

Crushed for our iniquities

Oppressed and afflicted

Like a lamb led to the slaughter

By oppression and judgment He was to be taken away and His grave would be made with the wicked

It was all there in Isaiah 53 and in the rest of Isaiah and in the words of the other prophets

But the words must be believed

And then in verse 27, you see that Jesus interprets the Scriptures to them.

From Moses (meaning the first five books of the Bible) to the Prophets to the Wisdom books and the History books, Jesus shows them how all of the Scriptures were fulfilled in Him, the Final Revelation from God.

The Word made flesh.

SIDE NOTE: I was at a conference in 2018 when Ligon Duncan, the chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, preached a sermon where he basically told the whole story of the Bible in 45 minutes.

There were 11,000 preachers in the room and everyone of us stood up when he was done because it was the most masterful job any of us had ever heard of someone telling the whole story of the Bible in less than an hour and showing you how it is all about the glory of Christ.

That was an awesome sermon on an awesome night by an awesome servant of God.

And yet, that sermon wouldn’t hold a candle to the expository work that went down on the Emmaus Road.

These two disciples heard God in the flesh explain the whole Bible to them.

Surely Jesus would have taught them that He is the Child who will step on the head of the serpent in the first Gospel promise in Genesis 3:15...

Surely He expounded upon Genesis 6-9 and told them about how Jesus is the true ark and that the only place people can find safety from God’s judgment is in Him

You have to think He stopped off at Genesis 22 to show them how the near sacrifice of Isaac pointed toward God’s sacrifice of His own Son

As He arrived at the story of the Exodus, He must have taught them how:

He is the true Passover Lamb who dies in His people’s place so that death would pass over them

He is the true Manna from heaven—the Bread of Life

Maybe He would have mentioned the ceremonial aspects of the Law and how they pointed to His coming

Maybe He pointed out that He is the fulfillment of the Messianic Psalms like Psalm 22...

He must have walked through the great words of the prophets and told them that Isaiah 53 and Jeremiah 31 and Micah 5 and Zechariah 11 and Daniel 7 and Daniel 9, all point to Him.

His birth. His life. His death. His ultimate rule and reign.

The whole story was always moving toward Christ.

And He was telling them, even though, they still have no idea that the One teaching them is the One that all those Scriptures were talking about.

THE REVELATORY MEAL (v. 28-32)

As they get near to the village they are going to, they don’t want to part from this amazing Teacher.

They ask Him to not continue on His journey, but to stay with them (v. 28-30) and He agrees.

They are showing hospitality and they prepare a meal, but Jesus is the One who takes the bread and blesses it.

This is strange because typically the host is the one who does this, not the traveling guest.

But maybe the two disciples are in such a frenzy about the drama of Holy Week and the teaching this man just laid on them, that they are forgetful about the pleasantries.

Regardless, Jesus takes the bread and blesses it and gives it to them.

Verse 31 says that their eyes were opened and they realized it is Jesus they have been with.

But before they can do much about it, He vanishes from their sight.

The Greek word means to disappear, so it seems like Jesus’ resurrected body is able to leave the scene much faster than one would expect

The two disciples say, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

Once they realize who He is, the intense passion they felt in their hearts while He was teaching them on the road makes a lot more sense.

JOY-FILLED WITNESSES (v. 33-36)

And then finally, in verses 33-36, you see these two disciples go from being discouraged and doubting God, to joyfully proclaiming that they have seen the resurrected Messiah.

It has been a very long day for them. A very long journey.

But this news cannot wait. They have to take it to Jerusalem. They have to tell the apostles.

In verse 34, they say that Jesus is risen and He appeared to Simon (Peter).

We don’t have any details about that meeting with Peter. It seems separate from the restoring conversation they have on the beach.

It is probably the meeting Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:5

1 Corinthians 15:5 ESV

and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

But whenever the meeting was, Peter was never the same after it.

Once he saw Jesus alive, he had an unshakable devotion to Him for the rest of His life and a conviction that Jesus was Messiah that he was willing to die for.

Like these two disciples, he became a witness to the resurrection.

THE EFFECTS OF JESUS’ REVELATION

As we look at this passage, Jesus’ revelation of Himself to the disciples on the road to Emmaus has three effects. And I want to use those effects to give us some teaching points to apply to our lives as we go.

The first effect we see is that they recognize who Jesus is

RECOGNIZING JESUS

It takes time, but eventually, the words of Christ lead the disciples to recognize Christ as the resurrected Messiah.

And I say the words of Christ because that is really what causes the light bulb to go off for them.

It is what He said on the road and how it made them feel, combined with His dinner blessing, that leads them to recognize Christ.

Again, maybe this is why God kept them from recognizing Jesus.

He wanted them to see Him and believe because of what God’s Word says, not just because He was in front of them.

Teaching Point #1: Only when we see the Christ of the Scriptures, will we recognize Him for who He is.

People are on a search for the truth.

In our culture, that search is mostly within because we have fully immersed ourselves in the Enlightenment ideas of exalting the self and finding happiness in being the “true you.”

That is why we hear things like, “You do you.”

Or “I am just trying to find my truth.”

But the reality is that there is truth in the world and there is error in the world.

There are things that are true and there are things that are not true.

You can say that things are “true for you,” but if they are not true, they are not true. Your feelings do not actually change reality.

You can say something is not true for you, but if it is true, then it is true. Your feelings don’t determine what is true and what is not.

If you don’t believe me, go 20 mph over the speed limit for the rest of January and when you get pulled say, “My truth doesn’t match up with the speed limit restrictions.”

See how that works out with the man or woman holding the badge

I guarantee that they will not care about your feelings

So we can say all we want to say about who we think Jesus is or what we think He is like or what we believe the Bible is saying about Him, but what we say about Jesus does not determine the truth about who He is or what He is like or what the Bible teaches about Him.

The Bible does not profess itself to be one perspective of the truth to be harmonized with the other truth claims of the world.

It has no care about whether or not the things it says makes other holy books out to be liars.

It simply tells us the truth. All the truth we need to know God and live for God.

Here is how the Bible speaks of itself

Psalm 119:160 ESV

The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

The Bible is the Word of truth.

And it is tried and proven.

Psalm 119:140 ESV

Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.

It is upright.

Psalm 33:4 ESV

For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

It is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119:89 ESV

Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.

It is a lamp to the feet and a light for the path.

Psalm 119:105 ESV

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

It is good.

Proverbs 16:20 ESV

Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.

And this true, upright, proven, settled, eternal, light-giving, good Word of God makes Jesus, the glorious Son of Heaven, its content. Its point. Its crown jewel.

That is what Jesus showed the disciples on the Emmaus Road.

That the Word of truth, which defines truth and error for the entire Universe, all points to Jesus being the Redeemer of Israel and the Savior of the world.

The crucified and resurrected King who delivers His people and keeps His promises.

And Jesus wanted the two disciples to put their faith in Him based on that revealed Word.

He wanted their hearts to burn within them because they were believing that God’s Word reveals Jesus as the Messiah.

Their hopes were dashed by the Cross, but if they would just understand and trust the Word, they would see that the Cross IS their hope.

And so it is with us. With so many voices in the world, it is tempting to doubt God’s Word and look to other places for the truth.

But you won’t find it there. Not the whole of it.

The pure truth is only found in God’s Word and the pure truth reveals to us Christ as Messiah.

When the lies we hear start to sound good to us, we need to return to the Word.

When the ridiculous philosophies of the world start to convince us that sin is sweeter than Jesus, we need to return to the Word.

When we doubt the very things that define us as Christian people, it is the Word of truth that we must call home.

HEARTS THAT BURN

Now this brings us to our second point and you will see that these teaching points beget one another.

So Teaching Point #1: Only when we see the Christ of the Scriptures, will we recognize Him for who He is.

That begets Teaching Point #2: Only the living Word of God can truly cause our hearts to burn within us.

God has designed your heart to burn for His Word. When He made you, He made you to love His Word. He created your heart to be consumed with a passion for His Word.

And while we might find temporary happiness and fleeting moments of ecstasy in the things of this world, only God’s Word can make our hearts burn with that spiritual fire that His eternal truth brings.

When the disciples ask, “Did not our hearts burn within us,” in verse 32, the Greek word for burn appears 13 times in the New Testament. Most of them are in Revelation.

It is the same word used to describe the fire of the Holy Spirit before God’s throne and the fires of eternal Hell.

ILLUSTRATION: When I was a kid, we had a wood stove in our living room. It was incredibly efficient.

I remember my dad getting it going every night with newspaper and wood when he got home from work. I remember helping him stack wood as he chopped it.

I remember warm nights watching TV by the heat of it.

But that isn’t the fire we are talking about here. Not at all.

We are talking about a much more intense burning.

A burning that starts and is meant to never stop.

God doesn’t just want your heart to burn for His Word today—He wants it to burn for His Word forever.

But this sort of consuming passion for God’s truth only comes about when we understand His Son for who He is. That is what makes the Bible so special.

For a book written by at least forty different authors, over a span of 1500 years, on three different continents, to have one cohesive message is amazing.

And it does. From Genesis to Revelation, it is about Jesus.

That is why our hearts burn within us over the Word of God—because we were created by God to know and love His truth. And that truth is embodied in His Son Jesus.

So when we are understanding His Word and we are seeing Christ in the Word, that will cause our hearts to ignite because they were designed to.

That is why the Middle Ages were truly a period of darkness for the church in church history.

The church locked the Word up and only the clergy were allowed to handle it.

Even then, many of them would perform services and have no clue what they were even saying because the liturgy was in Latin and while they had learned to say the words, they didn’t know the meaning.

The theology of the average churchgoer in the 1200’s was semi-pagan folk Christianity because they had no avenue to engage with the actual truth.

The church failed to teach the truth, therefore the heart of the church was darkened.

A man named Robert Grosseteste came along as a bishop in 1235.

He preached in English to his English congregation because he thought they should understand what is being said.

He also argued the first duty of the clergy is not giving Mass, but preaching the Bible to God’s people.

When he clashed with Rome over his views, he called the pope the antichrist.

Most would be killed for talking like that, but he was such a respected scholar and scientist and linguist that the pope felt he couldn’t do anything about it.

We always talk about Luther nailing the paper to the door, but the tremors of the Reformation were already well under way.

For centuries, rebels like Grosseteste and Wycliffe and Hus were all ready and willing to defy Rome so that God’s church would burn over knowing His Son in His Word.

There are plenty of things we can know in the world, but only one book is giving us knowledge while also being living and active.

Only one Book can cause our hearts to burn within us.

And that will only happen when that Book is taught with the Son of God as the point of the whole story.

We must submit ourselves to it and pursue knowing God through His Bible.

When is the last time your heart burned within you over the Word?

When is the last time you left the teaching of the Word and you couldn’t stop thinking about it?

If it has been a while, it may be because you need to move past Bible study as an event and it needs to become a discipline.

Right now, you mostly just study the Bible when a preacher or Sunday School teacher has it open and you are attending a Bible study event of some sort.

Studying the Bible can’t just be an event—even if that event is twice a week.

This is not the Middle Ages. We have access to more biblical knowledge in our language than any generation of the church at any point in the history of the church.

We have no excuse not to get up everyday and meet God in His Word.

Your heart may not burn everyday because we are fallen creatures who are still be sanctified and sometimes I show up to my Bible disheveled.

But keep showing up. He will ignite your heart with His living and active Word.

FAITHFUL WITNESSES

So to review--Teaching Point #2: Only the living Word of God can truly cause our hearts to burn within us.

That begets our third point for today:

Teaching Point #3: Only when our hearts truly burn within us, will we be faithful witnesses.

The response that these disciples have to seeing the resurrected Christ is to stop what they are doing and run and tell the apostles in Jerusalem.

They understand who Christ is because He showed them in His Word.

Their hearts burn within them.

They realize they were breaking bread with Him.

They run and tell.

This is what happens when God’s people have a true understanding of God’s Word.

That true understanding leads to faith.

Faith that Christ is risen.

Faith that Christ will come again.

Faith that all who repent and trust in Christ for salvation will be saved.

And then we are witnesses to that faith.

This is the pattern that we see again and again in Scripture.

God’s Word will take the most discouraged and doubting believer—even two disciples with slumped shoulders who have decided Jesus was probably not the Messiah because He was crucified—and He will make a faithful witness out of them.

I think part of the reason we don’t have a more prophetic witness in our culture is because we do not spend enough time in His Word.

Our hearts are not burning, so our mouths are not telling.

We are not seeing Him for who He is in the Word, so we are not telling the World who He is.

We have this time of increasing hostility coming to the church in the West.

Will we keep our tax exempt status?

Will a basic, historically orthodox belief in biblical sexual ethics be universally seen as bigotry and hatred?

Will it even be legal to evangelize?

What will the church need then?

It won’t be the best branding.

The best music.

The best lights.

The best state of the art children’s department or students department.

What will carry the church during that time is the Word.

And the only meaningful witness we will have will be when we witness to the Word.

The world doesn’t need our relevant religion.

They don’t need our cuteness.

They don’t need us to try and copycat what they are doing.

They need the Christ whose Word causes worshipping hearts to burn within.

That is their only hope.

Will you give it to them? Will you tell them about the Christ of the living and active Word? Will you invite them to church? Will you pray for them?

I think for some of us, it feels like we are doing all we can to survive each day. When you hear the pastor say, “You need to be sharing your faith,” it feels like— “Dude—I can’t even fathom taking that on right now.”

Much like our Bible study, we have to stop thinking about evangelism like an event.

We treat it the same way we treat telling someone we are really mad at them.

Our witness should not be this contrived, confrontational presentation that is detached from our actual lives and relationships.

It should be the overflow of our burning hearts into the lives of the people who God has put in our orbit.

Matter of fact-ly talking about your relationship with Jesus will do far more than a sales pitch.

Let the suffering know you are praying for them.

When someone is rejoicing tell them that You will praise God along with them.

When someone is confused, don’t just offer them your advice—offer them verses from Proverbs.

Let the passion that is growing within you compel you to a natural, responsive witness.

And one day, all those seeds, in the providence of God, may lead to your friend or neighbor or loved ones to believe in the risen Savior just like you.

CONCLUSION

See Him in the Scriptures

Your heart will burn

You share that passion with the world.

That is how we represent the resurrected Lord of all. Let’s pray.