Burning Hearts
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We live in a world that is profoundly affected by the fall. We know that theologically; the Bible tells us so. Romans 8:19–20 “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.” We know it theoretically. We have seen the news; we have heard the stories; we know our history of wars, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes, of hunger and poverty. But there are times in life when we know it experientially. It’s those times when all the effects of the fall seem to hit us at once. We experience loss in all its pain and sadness leaving us hopeless and helpless. It’s the medical news that we didn’t want to hear. It’s the loss of someone whom we loved so dear. It’s the taking away of the thing that once was near. Our lives are left broken—shattered even—and there we are trying to pick up the pieces of our lives with hardly the energy to bend over even. Each piece we try and pick up is somehow tethered to a memory, a moment in time, a reminder that life will never be the same.
What do we do in those moments? It doesn’t seem like there is much that we can do, does it? It is what it is. We try to move on as best we can and hope that one day the haze and the darkness will lift. And in some way, that’s true. But I would like to challenge you to make three commitments as you go down this path. I get these commitments from the text we are reading this morning as we find two distraught disciples—Cleopas and Mary (probably Cleopas’s wife)—encountering the resurrected Jesus.
The first commitment that I challenge you to make is to Trust the Word. The second commitment is to Trust the Journey. The last commitment (and this may sound strange) is to Trust the Bread.
Trust the Word
Trust the Journey
Trust the Bread
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.
Trust the Word
Trust the Word
I want to challenge you first to trust the Word because that is the first thing that Jesus challenged Cleopas and Mary with. Over the last few weeks, we have been dealing with the betrayal and the suffering of Jesus. No doubt, these two had been recounting those scenes in the minds over the past few days, and then were discussing it as they journeyed to Emmaus. Their lives had been shattered; they didn’t know what to do, where to go, who to trust. Judas had betrayed Jesus, Peter had denied him, the others had abandoned him. And now, these ladies come and tell them that Jesus was raised from the dead but no one has seen him. All they know is that the tomb is empty.
Their hopes and dreams were crushed. Their lives were shattered. Their plans ruined. So they began this journey to Emmaus. We can imagine that they are discussing these matters with all the raw emotions in play. This was not some theoretical suffering that we have as we read about this event 2,000 years later. This is experiential pain and confusion, emptiness and loss. If you’ve ever experienced this, you know that you can go from laughing at a memory to crying that you’ll never have them again to yelling at one another over the most trivial of matters all in the span of ten seconds. It’s a whirlwind of emotions that breaks forth. It’s never a pretty sight.
It very well may have been in one of those moments of laughter or tears or bursts of anger that Jesus approached.
While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
I find it interesting that there’s no mention of Jesus asking to join them; he just did. He invaded their lives as he often does into ours. He gets nosy. What are you two talking about? Jesus never minds his own business. Or maybe he does as the truth of the matter is that our business is his business. So Cleopas tells him everything. And notice Jesus’s response:
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.
“O foolish ones.” I’d like to say that this translation is a little too harsh, that he wasn’t saying these two disciples were dumb. I’d like to say that the meaning of this word is akin to being ignorant. Or even this was the 1st century Jewish way of saying, “Bless your hearts.” But the reality is that Jesus used the word anoetos which literally means “thoughtless.” It literally means you’re not using the brain God gave you. Paul used this word with the Galatians in Galatians 3:1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”
In essence, Jesus said to them, “You thoughtless ones, and slow of heart to believe what the prophets have spoken!” I would not recommend people to counsel the grieving like this. But I would certainly encourage you to do what Jesus did next.
He made a bold proclamation of truth, and then backed it up with the Word. Technically it was a question, but it was a statement as well. The way the question was asked lent itself to a positive response. I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll explain it again. The Greek language had a way of asking a question so that the hearer understood the answer to be yes or no. It’s similar to when we lead with a questions. The Christ was supposed to suffer, wasn’t he? We know that the answer is yes. If we wanted a no response, we’d frame it more like, “The Christ wasn’t supposed to suffer, was he?” The way the question is framed indicates the expected response. In fact, the way Jesus asked the question, he was emphatic about the response. It would be like us saying, “The Christ was supposed to suffer, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he?!”
And then he went back, Genesis-Chronicles (the first and last book of the Jewish Old Testament; the prophets came in between), and explained through them all how they all pointed to him. These were not proof-texts. These were not snippets just here and there, but a retelling and right telling of the meta-narrative of the Scriptures, that pointed to who the Christ was and how he was to suffer.
And since they had missed it, he pointed it out to them as clearly as he could. Without suffering, there is no glory. Glory is on the other side of suffering. It’s kind of like that “Going on a Bear Hunt Song.” You get to the tall grass. You can’t go over it. You can’t go under it. You’ve got to go through it. It’s like the river. You can’t go over it, can’t go under it. You’ve got to swim through it. It’s like the mud. You can’t go over it. You can’t go under it. You’ve got to go through it.
Brothers and sisters, we spend so much time and energy trying to go over the suffering, trying to go under the suffering. We even try to go around the suffering. Yet God is constantly calling us to go through the suffering. There’s no other path to glory. Do you know what tells us that? The Word.
Beloved, we need to trust the Word. As Paul told Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Our problem is that we tend to trust the Word theologically and even theoretically, but when it comes to trusting it experientially, we demur. And I do think that part of our problem is that we are so focused on reading the Word that we don’t focus on experiencing the Word. We are so focused on getting through the text, that we are not focused on getting into the text. We are so focused on getting through the Bible in a year and not so much focused on getting the Bible into our hearts.
Cleopas and Mary did not know the Word; they did not understand the Word. Therefore, they did not trust the Word. Jesus in grace taught them to understand the Word and how it pointed to him. It pointed to his coming, his ministry, his suffering, and his glory. And he will do the same with you. If you are his disciple, you have a rare gift: the gift of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says in John 15 that he will bear us witness about him.
But one last thing before we go to the next commitment. As you’re committing to trusting the Word, read carefully, for in it, you will find that what was true with Christ’s suffering is true with our own.
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Trust the Journey
Trust the Journey
But we not only need to trust the Word; we need to trust the journey as well. You know, we aren’t told exactly why Cleopas and Mary were headed to Emmaus. Perhaps they lived there or perhaps they were visiting someone, picking up some supplies for something. We have no idea; all we know is that they were heading from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the same day Jesus rose from the dead. And then we know that Jesus came to them as they journeyed. And for whatever reason, his appearance—the reality of who he was—was kept from them.
Though he was with them on the journey, they did not realize he was with him on the journey. We’ve probably have all experienced that at some point in our lives. We’ve been on a difficult journey in life and though we are followers of Christ, we can’t seem to recognize his presence with us. We feel that we are alone. Here are Cleopas and Mary telling the resurrected Christ about the Christ that supposed resurrected, but no one has actually seen him. Talk about irony! Theologically and theoretically, Christ may have risen. Experientially, they had not had a run in in with him, and even as they finally were, they had nothing to base this moment off of because he was in his glorified body.
Church family, it is not uncommon to miss Jesus walking through the journey with us. Again, he does so through the work of his Holy Spirit, but he is still there.
During this time walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, Jesus was teaching them—growing them, healing them, counseling them, giving hope back to them. But they did not know it was him.
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.
But in this journey, even though they did not know who it was that walked along with them, they knew one thing: they wanted this guy to stay. His revealing of God’s Word to them impacted them in such a way that they did not want him to leave them. This seven mile journey—whatever the reason—had become worth it, for what they had learned along the way and how they had grown along the path.
Beloved, I challenge you to commit yourselves to trusting the journey. Don’t give up. Don’t think it’s pointless. The Holy Spirit has you on this journey in this moment to teach you and to grow you. Don’t let Romans 8:28-30 just be some trite saying that we don’t trust. Trust the Word.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God, by way of his Holy Spirit, is taking you on a journey from being a marred, sinful human being, to being conformed to the image of his Son—from being called to being glorified. But few of us experience that in a moment. Only those in deathbed conversions ever do. The rest of us have a hard road before us, but we must trust the journey that God has set before us.
I want us to notice two quick points in this text about Cleopas and Mary. When they got to Emmaus, they thought their journey was over. They said that it was near evening and the day was far-spent. But then we read,
And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
That’s the second part: they actually ended at the same place they were at the beginning, but they were not the same people they were at the beginning. They had been on a journey with Jesus even if they did not know it. And on that journey, their hearts burned within them as they listened to what he was teaching them from the Word. And they could not let what they learned and became on that journey to remain a secret; they had to give testimony!
Brothers and sisters, when we are on the journey, we so often do not want to be in the Word. We avoid it. We find other things to do than read it and meditate on it. We talk with friends. We talk with family. But so often we do not talk with Jesus or allow Jesus to talk with us. We do not trust the journey and we do not trust the Word. Could we not commit ourselves to both this morning? The payoff will be worth the pain and the testimony will be worth the trouble.
Trust the Bread
Trust the Bread
But there is one more commitment I want to challenge you to make. Trust the Word, trust the journey, and now trust the bread. I know that sounds weird. It’s almost like, two of these things belong together, but one of these things does not. But let me tell you why I think its necessary.
It was the bread that opened their eyes and it was the bread that they spoke about last.
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 the last verse:
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
While we do not get the full story about how they recognized Jesus, we do get that it happened in the breaking of the bread. Perhaps these two disciples had heard about how Jesus had broken the bread during the last supper. Perhaps they had experienced Jesus’s breaking of bread at some other time. But it was at this moment, this moment of grace, that God opened their eyes to see.
There was another time when eyes were opened. In fact, Luke seems to be alluding to that moment. In fact, his words are nearly verbatim to the words Moses wrote in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve took the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. In one moment, eyes were open to the destruction of all things and in a single moment, eyes were opened to the one who makes all things new. And it happened in the breaking of the bread.
Church family, do we realize that we know Jesus in much the same way? We know him first through the exposition of God’s Word, but then secondly he is made known to us in the breaking of the bread. Again, I bring up the very idea of knowing theologically and theoretically. We get that knowledge often within the Word. When we put ourselves into that Word, we begin to experience it for ourselves and our hearts burn just as it did for these disciples. But when we take of the Lord’s Supper, something altogether different is going on. Jesus is made known to us in a different way. It’s the same Jesus that we read about and study and expound. It’s the same Jesus that walks along the journey with us. But it’s a different way to know him. In this way, we know him experientially. As one confession reads, “The supper presents to our physical senses what God declares to us in his Word.”
Philip Ryken said, “The sacrament does not offer us a grace that is any different from the grace we receive by believing what the Bible says about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What the sacrament does is to give us the same grace in a different way—a way that helps us to see Jesus. When we participate in this sacrament, we remember the only Savior whose body was broken and blood was shed for our sins.”
Now understand that when I say trust the Bread, I am not saying that we trust it for our salvation. What I mean is trust it as a means of God’s grace to us that we may see Jesus! He is the Bread of life. We have this symbol, given by grace, that blesses us with seeing and savoring Jesus, so take it. Take it and eat and see and trust! Do not deny yourself from seeing and savoring Jesus because the journey is hard. Say to him as Cleopas said to him: “Stay with me. Stay with us”
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish up this second to last sermon in Luke, I have challenged you to commit yourself to trusting as you walk this path that will often be fill with darkness and haze and confusion. Trust the Word. The Word has so much to teach us about Jesus and about ourselves. But we cannot trust God’s Word if we don’t even know what that Word says. Do not just read for reading’s sake. Meditate upon it and see Christ in it, for when you see Christ in it, you see you in it is well for you are in Christ. Trust the journey. You are being taught along this journey whether you see it or not, whether you realize it or not. Trust the journey that God has put you on. If you do, you will not return from it the same person you were when you began it. Trust the bread. If you want to know Jesus experientially then take of the broken bread and taste and see that the Lord is good. Savor the moment.
Some here today may be hearing this and find it weird. You’ve never heard anyone talking like this. That’s okay. But I will tell you that you can have a relationship with Jesus today. We are told through the Word of God that Jesus died for anyone who would turn from their way to follow him. Turn from the sins, the wrongs, the evils that they commit, and trust in him and follow after him. If that is something that intrigues you, I would love to talk with you; just about anyone in here would. You need only ask.
For the rest of us, will you make the commitments to trust today? I encourage you, don’t leave here without doing so.
Prayer
Father,
Give us the strength to live lives of trust—that we would trust your Word, not just theologically or theoretically, but in our daily pains, trials, and afflictions. Give us grace to walk this journey and trust what you are doing in it and through it. Open our eyes as we partake of the bread and cup this morning. We want to see Jesus; would you show him to us?
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
