From Blindness to Burning Hearts Luke 24:13–35
Notes
Transcript
Subject:
Revelation
Theme:
Christ Revealed
Thesis:
The risen Jesus reveals Himself to discouraged and confused disciples through the Scriptures, transforming their hearts and bringing them from spiritual blindness to true understanding and joyful witness.
Principle Statement:
When Christ is revealed through the Scriptures, discouraged hearts are transformed and redirected into joyful, faithful living.
Intro
Intro
There is a story often told about a young boy whose family took him on a trip out west to see the Grand Canyon.
The whole drive, he was excited.
He kept asking questions.
He could not wait to see it.
Finally, they arrive.
They get out of the car.
They walk up to the edge.
And the boy looks out… and says,
“Where is it?”
His parents are confused.
“What do you mean? You are looking at it.”
And he says,
“No… where is the cannon?”
All along, he thought they were going to see a giant cannon.
Not a canyon.
Now that is funny.
But it makes a point.
If your expectations are wrong…
even something incredible can leave you disappointed.
And that is exactly where we find these two disciples in Luke 24.
They had walked with Jesus.
They had listened to His teaching.
They had seen His miracles.
And they had built expectations about who He was and what He would do.
And then the cross happened.
And everything fell apart.
Luke tells us they are walking down the road saying:
“We had hoped…”
That is not just disappointment.
That is collapsed expectation.
That is:
“I thought God was going to do this…”
“I thought things would turn out differently…”
“I thought I understood…”
And if we are honest…
We have all been there.
We thought following Jesus would look one way
We thought life would turn out differently
We thought God would act on our timeline
And when it does not happen that way…
we can quietly drift into confusion, discouragement… even disappointment with God.
But here is the good news of this passage:
When our expectations are wrong, Jesus does not leave us there.
He comes near.
He walks with us.
And He reveals who He truly is—so that confused and discouraged hearts can finally see Him clearly.
That is what this passage is about.
Not just two men on a road…
But:
How the risen Christ reveals Himself to people who think they understand—but do not.
So here is the question as we begin:
What if the problem is not that Jesus has failed you…
but that you have misunderstood Him?
Let us look at the text together.
13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 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. 18 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?” 19 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, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 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. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 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. 24 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.” 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 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. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 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?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
I. Revelation Delayed (vv. 13–24)
I. Revelation Delayed (vv. 13–24)
We step back into our text this morning, still on Sunday.
Verse 13 begins that very day.
Two of Jesus followers were leaving Jerusalem and heading to Emmaus.
As they traveled, Luke tells us that they were discussing together the events that had taken place.
Unbeknownst to them, Jesus draws near and begins to walk with them.
Luke tells us that their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.
Most of us probably think, how could this happen, how could they not recognize Jesus?
This however is not just that they were distracted.
It is not that they were not paying attention
This is intentional.
God is preventing them from recognizing Jesus.
Which raises the question.
Why?
Why would Jesus walk with them… and not let them know it is Him?
There is a purpose in Jesus concealing His identity.
We will see that purpose as we continue.
As they walk, Jesus asks them a rather unexpected question.
“What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?”
We get the impression that Jesus was walking with them in silence for a time.
But with this question, they probably looked at Jesus like He was an alien with two heads.
Something like man, where have you been! is their response.
One of the men named Clopas answers.
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
Appearing to play dumb, Jesus says, what things?
I can imagine them turning and looking at Jesus as if He were a lunatic.
Have you been living under a rock?
Jesus feigned ignorance is serving a purpose for one to allow these men to pour out their grief and invites them to speak freely.
He wants to remove their preconceptions about what the Messiah was supposed to do.
He is deliberately addressing a deeply rooted problem.
The fact that, even though He had clearly taught it, the disciples could not harmonize Jesus’ live and teachings with His death on the cross.
Jesus is giving them space to articulate their confusion.
The answer Cleopas gave shows the irony of the situation.
He accused Jesus of being out of it, when in reality, Cleopas was the one who was out of it.
They think Jesus is the only one who does not understand…
when in reality, He is the only one who truly does.
Yet look at Jesus response again in verse 19 - What things?
It is ironic because Jesus was the only one who truly did know about all “the things” that had happened in Jerusalem and the only one who held all the answers to their questions.
This irony wasn’t accidental—it exposed the gap between what the disciples thought they understood and what they actually needed to learn.
They told Jesus what they understood at that point.
They were deeply saddened and disappointed.
Verse 21 tells of what they had hoped for.
21 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.
This was a fundamental disconnect between their expectations and the reality of Jesus’ mission.
By redeem, they meant to liberate from an oppressive situation.
But they misinterpreted the situation that was truly oppressing them and how they would be redeemed.
The confusion abounded all the more with the news that Jesus body was gone and people were having visions of angels.
The purpose of this special blindness was so that Jesus could instruct these men better from the scriptures.
Jesus knew if they simply saw Him, they would have been so overwhelmed with questions that He would not have been able to teach them from scripture.
But they needed to know the truth from scripture because their faith needed to be based in scripture, not in an experience.
Jesus forced them to verbalize their crisis of faith before he could rebuild their understanding through scripture itself.
The critical problem was that the disciples did not understand Jesus’s predictions that he must suffer and be rejected, and this misunderstanding kindled false eschatological expectations.
They mistakenly expected the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God when Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem as messianic king.
Jesus’s rejection and death had destroyed their dawning hope that he was the Messiah, but they needed to learn that his rejection and death were not the end of his messianic claim, but rather the necessary means to its fulfillment
I think we can make some important connections here between Jesus first coming to earth and His return.
Some people are so certain today that they have it all figured out and know how Jesus is going to return at His second coming.
The truth is they may be just as deceived about His second coming as the disciples were about Jesus first.
Part of the reason for that, is just as the disciples missed the purpose of Jesus first coming, many today still miss the full purpose.
Jesus coming and dying on the cross for man’s sin is not so that we can have a sort of fire insurance from Hell.
It was so that we might have life, eternal yes, but also life now, living in the purpose that God has created for us.
To love and glorify God, and to love one another.
An overemphasis on the future that obscures what Jesus is doing in the present.
The disciples couldn’t reconcile their expectations with the actual events unfolding before them;
similarly, modern believers sometimes struggle to see God’s active reign in the present world because they’re waiting for a dramatic future intervention.
The truth is, we can grow up in church, hear the gospel, know the story, even believe certain truths, and still live like these disciples, discouraged, confused, uncertain, even walking in the wrong direction.
We must be careful to not create a version of Jesus that fits what we want.
A Jesus who fixes all our problems immediately, makes life easy, meets our expectations on our timeline.
If your expectations are wrong, you can even be disappointed by God.
The real Jesus is not defined by our expectations but is revealed in Scripture, which is where this passage goes next.
If the problem is not distance from Jesus, but misunderstanding of Him—then what is needed is not a new experience, but true revelation.
II. Revelation Explained (vv. 25–27)
II. Revelation Explained (vv. 25–27)
Look at verses 25-27 with me again.
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
This sounds rather harsh to us when we first ready it.
Foolish ones, slow of heart?
Jesus is not insulting these men.
In the sermon on the mount we see Jesus teaching
22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Those are different words in Greek.
In Matthew, that is the word that our English word moron comes from.
But here the word is different.
This word has more to do with being dull-witted.
The word means literally “not having a mind” or not thought of and as such describes a person without understanding.
The word is meant to show not a lack of intelligence as much as it is a mental laziness and carelessness.
Paul used this word to describe greedy people who think that a lot of money will enhance their lives and bring happiness and fulfillment -- that is foolish thinking!
Foolish is the same thing Paul said to the Galatians rebuking them for trying to live the supernatural life without dependence on the Supernatural Source
Or in his letter to Titus.
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Jesus also calls them slow of heart.
He does not say slow of mind.
The issue is not intelligence, it is the heart.
The disciples believed many things which the prophets had spoken.
But they did not believe all.
They believed the predictions of Messiah’s glory, but not of Messiah’s sufferings.
Their heart problem - In the Scriptures kardia is the seat of the personality, of the ego, and thus of the thinking, the feeling, and especially also the willing.
The avenue into the heart is, indeed, through the intelligence, but the intelligence will see or not see what the inner personality desires.
So both are here rebuked, but the full weight of the rebuke falls on these hearts that are so "slow to be believing,"
Their failure was that they did not believe all that the prophets had spoken concerning the Messiah.
The word all is important here.
They expected the redemption, but did not expect the suffering, the rejection, the cross.
Even though that was what the Prophets foretold.
So Jesus takes them back to scripture.
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
By this, Luke is telling us that Jesus began most likely in the book of Genesis, went through the prophets, interpreting to them in ALL the scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Jesus opened the Scriptures to open their eyes.
And not just a couple here or there, He showed them all of it.
Makes you wonder, how long were these guys walking to hear that?
Spurgeon says "We may well wish that we might have been there. What a privilege it was for those two disciples, — a walk and a talk combined! But what heavenly talk, all concerning himself!
By interpreting, Jesus explained, made things clear to these men.
This is actually the word we get our English word hermeneutics from.
Hermeneutics is how to study the Bible.
Jesus was teaching these men how ready and study the scriptures correctly.
He didn’t start with His scars, Jesus started with what scripture said.
Something we each desperately need to learn to do for ourselves.
Don’t just take my word for it, please.
That was what the reformation was largely about - getting scripture in the hands of everyone, not just the priests.
There is something to be said for how Jesus is working here and a caution about the dangers of experiential Christianity.
God does not usually flip a switch instantly, or overwhelm us with a sudden experience.
He works through the steady, faithful opening of His word.
If I were to ask you today, what is sustaining your faith?
Are you waiting for some experience to change you?
Are you frustrated because things do not “feel different”?
You don’t need something new, you need to see Christ more clearly in the Scriptures.
Because when Christ is revealed through the Word…everything begins to change.
Even if you do not realize it immediately.
When the Scriptures are opened, something begins to happen internally—even before full understanding comes.
And that leads us to what happens next.
Because as Jesus opens the Scriptures…
something begins to happen inside of them.
III. Revelation Experienced (vv. 28–32)
III. Revelation Experienced (vv. 28–32)
28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 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. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 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?”
As they drew near to the village they were traveling to, Jesus acts as if it is not his stop.
He did so for the same reason He had questioned them, to get a response that would demonstrate the effect of the Scriptures on their hearts.
And it did.
They wanted more instruction and did not want the thrilling teaching to end.
Jesus did not say He would not go further, but simply kept on as if it were not His intention to stop.
Jesus makes them think he is going to leave them behind so that they will invite him to stay.
This is the turning point.
30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
That sequence should sound familiar.
He took the bread
He blessed it
He broke it
He gave it
Luke has shown us this before.
This is what Jesus did: when He fed the five thousand, when He sat with His disciples at the Last Supper
This is not the Lord’s supper all over again.
But it carries some profound meaning.
What happens next.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
Look closely here, where does the change for these men occur.
Jesus had been teaching them, but they still were blind.
The change occurs when He went in to stay with them, took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and give it to them.
What has Jesus just given them - bread - and not just physical bread, the bread of life.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
He had been feeding them all along the path, but it wasn’t until He passed the physical bread was passed that their eyes ere opened.
Had they not asked Him to stay, Jesus likely would have kept on, but they invited Him in.
While Jesus is omnipresent today, He works in the same way.
Jesus does not force Himself on us.
If we desire Him, we must call on Him.
If we desire His fellowship daily, all through the day, we must ask Him to walk with us and stay with us.
Then we are abiding in the Vine and He in us.
We are communing with Him via His Spirit.
Jesus desires to abide.
The hindrance is us.
We are too often like the church at Laodicea which Jesus describes in the Revelation
Behold (idou), I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Here for these men, Jesus’ identity as the source of life becomes tangible through the breaking of bread after revealing Himself in the scriptures.
Jesus is the true sustenance of life
Not just physical bread—but spiritual life
To receive Him is to believe in Him
Jesus gives them bread
But more importantly—He is giving Himself
When their eyes are opened it is not just, oh, this is Jesus!
They are recognizing:
This is the One who gives life.
This is the One we have been with.
This is the risen Lord.
Recognition comes suddenly—but preparation was happening all along
The Word was already working before the moment of clarity
When Christ is revealed through the Word, the heart cannot remain unchanged.
This is what real spiritual change looks like:
Not hype
Not pressure
But truth igniting the heart
It causes the question to need to be asked this morning.
Have you recognized Christ?
Do not just receive information about Jesus—receive Him.
Because:
He is not just the giver of bread.
He is the Bread of Life.
Has your heart ever burned with the truth of Christ?
Or has your faith grown cold and routine?
These men, were followers of Jesus, but were spiritually starving, confused, grieving, unable to understand how the Messiah could have died.
Today, many people are in the same boat, spiritually starving, confused, grieving.
The Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of men, waiting for that invitation.
And when, through God’s saving grace it is given, Jesus gives the bread of life, which is Himself.
When Christ is truly revealed, it does not stop with internal change—it moves outward.
IV. Revelation Proclaimed (vv. 33–35)
IV. Revelation Proclaimed (vv. 33–35)
33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
They didn’t wait.
The roads were dangerous at night, but they did not care.
They had good news!
The had just walked toward Emmaus, now they probably ran back.
Practically, their return demonstrates the immediate impulse to share the resurrection.
Despite the lateness of the hour and the distance from Jerusalem, their encounter with the resurrected Jesus overcame all obstacles, and they returned with hearts aflame.
They left their dinner on the table and went back out on the road immediately.2 This wasn’t a leisurely journey—it was urgent testimony.
When they had left Jerusalem earlier that day, they were sad and dejected as they mourned Jesus’s apparently tragic death, but they went back to Jerusalem rejoicing.
They had good news of such great joy it was impossible for them to keep it to themselves, and they had become evangelists for the risen Christ.
Their testimony converges with others’ experiences.
When you truly see Christ, you cannot help but speak of Him.
For us today the same thing is true.
If there is no desire to speak of Christ…no movement toward His people…no change in direction…it is worth asking:
Have I really seen Him clearly?
Just hours earlier, they were saying:
“We had hoped…”
Now?
They are running through the night saying:
“He is alive.”
What changed?
Not their circumstances.
Not their situation.
They saw Christ clearly.
And that is the question that sits in front of every one of us this morning.
Not:
Do you know the story?
Have you heard the facts?
Can you explain the details?
But:
Do you see Him?
If we are honest with ourselves, there may be some here this morning that are somewhere on the road to Emmaus like the disciples were.
Know some truth, heard the Word, followed Jesus in some form, but you feel discouraged, confused, or even disappointed.
Maybe you thought things would be different.
Jesus is not absent from you.
He is near.
Even if you do not recognize Him yet.
Even if your understanding is incomplete.
But here is what you must do this week.
Do not keep walking in confusion.
Do not settle for surface-level Christianity.
Do not just hear about Jesus and move on.
Go to the Scriptures to see Christ
Do not just read the Bible to check a box.
Open it and ask:
“Show me Christ.”
Sit in it.
Slow down.
Let Him open it to you.
Because:
When Christ is revealed through the Scriptures, everything begins to change.
Invite Him to stay
Those men said:
“Stay with us…”
Some of you need to pray that this week.
Not once—but daily.
“Lord, stay with me.”
“Walk with me.”
“Help me see You clearly.”
He does not force Himself—but He responds to those who seek Him.
Respond to what you see
If Christ has been made known to you—
Do not stay silent.
Do not stay stagnant.
Do not keep walking the same direction.
Turn, repent, speak, live differently.
Because: When you truly see Christ, you cannot stay where you are.
