The Road to Emmaus

Introduction

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I have threatened for a long, long time to do something different in a gospel meeting, to just start with Brother Harkrider over here and work my way through the audience and tell about people that I’ve known about, that I’ve appreciated, respected, loved, and profited from, who have been an influence on my life. And it would make a really fine sermon. I could do a really good sermon tonight, because there are people here who are very special to me. You’ve already heard from Brother Payne, one of the best men I’ve known in my life. And Brother Hudson is here tonight. He’s one of my favorite preachers. And uh, brother and sister Kurt Paquette, all the way from Tingsborough, Massachusetts, are in the audience tonight.

I said, What are you doing here? He said, I came to hear you preach. I don’t believe that, but uh after he told me that he’d been living in Kissimmee for a little while, I do believe it. But that would make a uh an interesting sermon to do that. Uh and I shall reserve it for another time, but I’d like to say all I feel about uh Brother Vernon Hindley, for instance, and other people in this auditorium tonight. Thank you for coming. Sometimes when I go in a meeting, I preach a little mini-sermon before I get to the sermon. Could I preach my little mini-sermon before I start? How long has it been since you watched a cloud sail lazily across a blue morning sky? How long has it been since you wandered around in a field and watched a fuzzy woolly worm crawl laboriously down the steep salt, the steep stalk of the flower?

How long has it been since you listened to a mocking bird as it trailed its song to little or no audience at all? How long has it been since you stopped what you were doing long enough to hear the beat of your own heart? How long has it been since you just sat and watched the young squirrels frolic playfully in the cool of the evening? How long has it been since you sat and watched a little baby, yours or someone else’s, blink its little eyes for a few minutes and then fall fast asleep? How long has it been since you just stopped the world and got off for a minute or two? We sometimes neglect the important stuff in life just because it’s little. Thank you for coming tonight.

I’m going to read a rather lengthy passage tonight, and I want you to do me a favor. It’s not necessary that you get your Bible, but I want you to do something for me tonight. I want you to listen like you perhaps have never listened before in your life. I want you to listen as if this were the word of God, because that’s precisely what I’m going to read. And I would like to have your undivided, total, unimpeded attention for the reading. Luke chapter 24. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came into the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments, and as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified in the third day, rise again. And they remembered his words and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which heard these things, and said them unto the apostles, and their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

Then arose Peter and ran unto the sepulchre, and stooping down he beheld the linen clothes laid by himselves and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all the things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were holdened that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name was Cleopathus answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre, and when they found not his body, they came, saying that they had seen a vision of angels, which said he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre and found it even as so as the women had said, but him they saw not.

And he said unto them, Oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken? Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them, and it came to pass, as he sat at meet with them, he took bread and blessed it and break, and gave to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew him.

He vanished out of their sight. And they said to one another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures. And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking bread.

This is one of the most pensive and yet passionate passages of Scripture in the New Testament. I read it for years without seeing it for what it really is. It is a marvelous attestation to the fact that Jesus sees the little people. It shows that he looks at the likes of me and you. Those who may never be famous, those who may never have any accolades of glory, but he notices the little people.

And by faith Moses did what he did. He finally comes down to the end of that chapter, and he tells us in knowing certain times that God did not leave out the little people. He said, Time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, of Samson and Jephthy, and of David also and Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of the fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Which women? Do you know their names? You don’t know who they are. And others, which others were tortured, not having accepted acceptance, deliverance, and that they might obtain a better resurrection.

And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, which they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destroyed destitute, rather, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. Look at what he says about these simple, unnamed people. He says the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth. And these all, each one of them, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promised God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Don’t you rejoice in the knowledge that God knows the simple people?

Jesus spent his time with the simple people. It would have been my privilege to do a lot of things different than what Jesus did had I been him. Would you have gone to the simple people like that? I would have gone to the rulers. We don’t do that today. If we want some kind of endorsement of something, we go to the big people. We want to go to the reputable. We want to go to the popular. Jesus did not do that. He loved the little people. He loved people like Zacchaeus and Mary Magdalene. He loved people like Lazarus that nobody ever heard of. He always had time for the simple people. I’m so interested in these two little men who made this little trek to Emmaus following the death of Christ.

They really impress me. There are things about them that I didn’t see for many years that I have found to be so very pertinent to my own life that I just feel compelled to share them with you so that you get the same feeling of warmth that I get when I talk about these two men on the road to Emmaus. May I describe them for you? I think one of them was a little short fella, kind of bald. I think the other one was probably rather tall and had a big Adam’s apple. And I think that they were sad. They were walking along, ladies and gentlemen, and they were dejected. They were perplexed. They were exasperated. Everything that they had really thought of with Jesus had been totally destroyed by his crucifixion.

1. They Were Interested in Jesus

They had put their total trust in him, their total confidence. And you must have a picture of them as they make their way to Emmaus, a village that we don’t know anything about, which more than likely is west of Jerusalem, but they go along kicking stones. And maybe one of them goes along for a little while and then wipes a tear from his eye. Because they loved Jesus. They had seen him react to the crowds. They had seen him take verbal abuse from the Pharisees. They had seen him crucified. They had seen him hanged on a cross. They had seen him go through all of these miseries, and they loved him. I want to say some things about these men. First of all, I want you to see that they were interested in Jesus.

I’m greatly concerned about how we are today. I’m afraid that we have almost left Jesus even out of our preaching in this day and age in some ways. We must get back to the focal point of all that we are. We are called Christians because of Christ. We are the disciples of Jesus Christ. We are his disciples because he is our master and we are his learners. We must be interested in Jesus. These men were walking along totally dismayed. They were filled with consternation. Jesus came upon them. They did not see who he was. And he said to them, Why are you going along with sad of countenance? It was obvious. They didn’t try to hide their grief. They were saddened by what had happened. They were interested in Jesus Christ.

I want us to see that we must be interested in Jesus. It is Jesus who said, I am the true and living way. I used to preach that, and I would say there’s three things said there. I am the way, the truth, and the life. That’s a Hebrew idiomatic expression which says, I am the true and living way. It is the way that he was talking about, and I know that’s the case, for in the very next phrase he says, For no man cometh to the Father but by me. And so he is the true way and the living way. He is the only way, ladies and gentlemen, to heaven. He is our route of access to the Father. Without the incarnate Lord, without the monogamy Steos, without the only begotten God, we would have absolutely hope, no hope.

We would be devoid of any real true worth. We would have nothing to recommend us for time or eternity if we did not have Jesus Christ. He’s what it’s all about. He’s what we’re all about. This is the church of Jesus Christ. And we don’t call it that in order that we might differentiate between ourselves and some denomination somewhere. This is the saved people of God. This is the church of Jesus Christ. It is his prized possession. It is his sanctified people. You’re not in the church to be saved. You’re in the church because you are saved. The church is the saved, but it is the saved of Jesus Christ. And there would be no salvation separate and apart from him. We must be interested in him.

I love that story of the Ethiopian as he’s riding along. Here is a fellow who is rather well to do. Here is a fellow who has been off to Jerusalem to worship, and all of a sudden, as he rides along in his chariot, a young man comes alongside of him and hears him reading from Isaiah the 53rd chapter as we know it. And he stops him and says, Sir, do you understand what you’re reading? He said, How can I except some man should guide me? And he bade him come up into the chariot. And he asks him, Of whom speaketh this passage? Of himself or some other man. And he began and preached unto him Jesus. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, that Jesus is what salvation is about.

We cannot talk to people about faith, repentance, confession, and baptism, without first introducing them to the Savior who made it all possible. It is Jesus Christ that faith is all about. It is Jesus Christ that repentance is possible because of. It is Jesus Christ that we confess. It is into Jesus Christ that we are baptized. He is what we’re all about. And if we’re not all about him, we are nothing. We are not about some doctrine. We’re not about some creed. We’re about Jesus Christ. And I tell you, we must make people interested in him. This fellow was interested in Jesus Christ as they rode along. The Apostle Paul said, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. That’s good news. I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which you received, wherein you stand, and by which you’re saved, if ye keep in memory the things that I have commanded you unless you have believed in vain.

What did he tell them? Listen to him carefully, ladies and gentlemen, for I delivered unto you that which I first of all received. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and resurrected again the third day according to the scriptures, that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, and then of above five hundred brethren at once. And finally he was seen of me as of one born out of due season. The gospel is about Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, directing a discourse to the Corinthians, said, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech nor of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. He said, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of men the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. But we speak these things, he said. As the Spirit has given them utterance, they speak them. The same apostle in Ephesians chapter 3 said, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, listen to him. I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in a few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

2. Humility to Express Their Lack of Understanding and Discouragement

He’s saying, I spoke to you about Jesus Christ. He even says, if people want to preach Christ out of envy and jealousy, then so be it. Let it happen. I just want Jesus to be known. We are to preach Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. These little men were interested in Jesus Christ. They showed their interest in Him. They went along exasperated, perplexed at what had happened. And you can see them as they maybe shed a tear or two as they walk along talking to Jesus. And they get to a certain point and Jesus asks them things about it, and they just answer openly. I want you to see that they were not only interested in Jesus, but they had enough humility to express openly their lack of understanding.

They just said, we don’t understand. I would to God that I could find people with that kind of deportment, with that kind of attitude, don’t you? That’s what we’re looking for. That’s a heart that can be filled. Listen to me. If you don’t have enough humility to say I don’t understand, nobody can teach you. When I first started to preach, I thought I had to know everything. If somebody asked me about the flight pattern of a left-winged angel, I’d say, well, you know, there’s angels that fly over the left. It’s just dumb. D-U-M, that kind of stuff. Dumb. We need to understand that it’s not bad to say, I don’t know. I don’t understand. Teach me. Look at that Ethiopian again. You understand what you’re reading?

How can I? Except some man should guide me. If I were riding in the chariot and this peon came along here, I would say to him, look, son, don’t you understand the seal that’s emblazoned on the side of this chariot? I am the servant of Candaceia. I’m the Queen’s treasurer. Don’t you say? No, he didn’t do that. He said, I want you to come up into the chariot and teach me. I want you to tell me. God help us, that we will have that same disposition, that same kind of mentality that says, I want to hear. I don’t know whether you’d ever thought about it or not. But in Luke the 8th chapter, the very first parable that Jesus began to teach in his own personal ministry was a parable that had to do with the business of hearing.

He finishes the parable of the soils, and he said, The word is sown into this heart and it produces this. It’s owed in this heart and it produces this. And when he gets through with that, in verse 18, he says, Take heed, therefore, how you hear. He says later on, this people’s heart is waxed gross. Their ears are dull of hearing. They would not hear. The fact of the matter is they just didn’t have enough humility to express their understanding, their lack of understanding. How do you feel about that? Intellectual humility, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, is the key to all learning. You cannot learn without it. And may God help us. I was talking with Brother Harkwriter today. I wrote this in the paper one time.

I said, Life is unfair. When I was 25 and knew everything, nobody ever asked me anything. Now that I’m past 65 and don’t know anything, everybody wants to know what I think about it. It is not fair. And that’s the way it is. You finally have to come to grips with your own lack of understanding. And when you do that, then you can begin to hear. You can begin to understand. You can begin to openly investigate things. There must be enough honesty that, like these people, and I’ll tell you another thing about these little guys that’s so impress me. They had enough humility, enough honesty to express their own discouragement. We can’t do that. We’re so caught up in the power of positive thinking that we cannot be down at times.

We just must come to the point that we can say, I am discouraged. Can you help me? Can you be my helper at this time? Can you give me something that will help me? Can you give me something that will make me better? Be ye not unwise, but understanding what is the will of the Lord, said Paul in Ephesians 5.17. You cannot have that unless you’re willing to say, I don’t understand and I’m discouraged. These guys were walking along there. I just love these little fellows. They were walking along there kicking rocks and looking at one another and saying to their exasperation, why did he have to die? You can see that. They’ve been, they’ve been overwhelmed, they’ve been inundated, they’ve been immersed in a maelstrom of sorrow and a maelstrom of hurt, and they’re just completely killed.

And they say, where have you been? Where have you been that you don’t understand about these things? We thought that it would be He that would deliver. And beside this, a reference to what Jesus has already said to them. Beside this, this is the third day, and some of our people were there, and they didn’t find him there. They’re totally discouraged. But they don’t say, well, you know, we just had a kind of a rough weekend. No, sir. They said we’re discouraged. And I want you to notice that they admit this discouragement to what they think at time as a stranger. He’s not anybody. They did it in a in a strange situation with a strange person. They were willing to say, I’m discouraged. Why can’t we do that?

Instead, we go around in our pomposity as if nothing can penetrate our armor. There is no person whose armor cannot be penetrated. There is nobody who does not need help at times. It is not bad to need help. What’s really bad is to refuse help when you need it. That’s sad to me. And so people need to understand that it’s not some kind of horrible thing to be discouraged. Why can’t we just admit it? And I’ll tell you what you’re going to find out is when you say I’m discouraged, what the next thing you’re going to hear is, well, how can I help? And things are going to get better right then. Because when you begin to express your discouragement to somebody else, they’re going to be sympathetic with you.

3. They Listened Attentively

They’ll even be empathetic at times, projecting themselves imaginatively into your situation, and you’ll get better just like these fellows here. They had enough honesty to not repress their feelings of discouragement. Thirdly, they listened attentively. They listened attentively. You know, it’s interesting to me that when Jesus talked with them, he really didn’t say anything new. He just explained to them what they should have understood anyway. They listened to him. And I know that they listened because one of the most pensive statements in all of the Bible is stated when they get through listening to him, and they say after he has disappeared from them, did not our hearts burn within us? When he opened unto us the scriptures, when he opened them, he says, and he says, our hearts burned within us.

That’s a marvelous expression that says there was a glowing reality of realization in their minds. He told them what they should have known already. Here, he says, is David’s king. Here is Emmanuel from Isaiah. Here is Jeremiah’s branch of righteousness and Ezekiel’s plant of renown. Here is Daniel’s stone cut out without hands. Joel’s hope of this people, Habakkuk’s anointed one going forth to glory, and Malachi’s son of righteousness. And he explained that he was all of those things. When he got through with that, they said, Did not our hearts burn within us when he showed us what it was all?