The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Last week we started looking at this passage about 2 of Jesus’ disciples and how they were walking home from Jerusalem after the death of Christ and did not believe that He had risen from the grave.
Jesus appears to them and explains the whole arch of His life and the reason for the things that happen the way they did in the old testament.
The two disciples’ confusion and unbelief clearly defined their need to understand the reality of what had happened.
They needed to know not only that Jesus rose from the dead, but also that His death and resurrection are essential features of His messiahship.
They needed to understand that what had taken place was God’s plan for the redemption of Israel and the world.
The risen Lord’s questions and their responses had put Him in position to provide them with the answers they needed.
Good expositions of Scripture are set up with questions.
The Source of Understanding (vv 25-27)
The Source of Understanding (vv 25-27)
Before instructing the men, Jesus first rebuked them for being foolish men and slow of heart (i.e., “dull,” or “stupid”) to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.
Their confusion stemmed from their failure to understand and believe all that the Old Testament taught regarding the Messiah.
They were right to expect Him to reign and rule; to establish His kingdom over Israel and the world.
But that was only part of the truth, as Jesus’ question, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” indicates.
They, like all the Jewish people, were looking for a Messiah who would vanquish their oppressors, not be killed by them, and missed the truth that He first had to suffer before establishing His kingdom.
There was no excuse for their lack of understanding, since the Old Testament was clear and understandable.
Jesus repeatedly challenged His opponents, “Have you not read?” Matt. 12:3
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
He also said that their errant theology stemmed from a failure to understand the Scripture (Matt. 22:29
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
There was no excuse for failing to recognize the necessity for Messiah to suffer death.
They knew that sin must be paid for by the death of a substitute.
After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God killed an animal to provide coverings for them, picturing the death of an innocent substitute to cover the sin of a guilty sinner Gen. 3:21
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
He accepted Abel’s sacrifice because it was a blood sacrifice, and rejected Cain’s because it was not (Gen. 4:3–5
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
After the flood, Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices (Gen. 8:20
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
The sacrificial system laid out in the Pentateuch, including the Day of Atonement and Passover, involved the deaths of countless thousands of innocent animals.
It was self-evident, however, that those sacrifices did not ultimately satisfy God’s justice, otherwise they would not have been constantly repeated, as the writer of Hebrews explains: Heb 10:1-2
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
Having rebuked them for failing to know the significance of the Old Testament’s teaching regarding Messiah’s suffering, Jesus—the one to whom that teaching pointed personally tutored them in a true understanding of it. John 5:39
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
