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[0:00] Take your Bibles and open your Bibles to our passage for this morning and it's found in Luke chapter 24.

[0:23] ! If you've been here a while, then you should have already known that. We've been in Luke for some time. Our passage this morning is verses 13 through 35.

[0:35] And I might just go ahead and tell you that we have just really a couple more sermons in this great book. A series of sermons, by the way, that started November 2012.

[0:49] I can't believe it's been that long. Amazing. We're about to finish it. Eighteen more verses left after this morning. Of course. And so I would say probably a couple of sermons, I hope.

[1:01] Anyway. Follow along in your Bibles. Okay. And whether you have a paper copy of it or an electronic copy. I guess I have to acquiesce to the modern technology.

[1:14] Listen as I read our text, verses 13 through 35. Now behold, two of them, maybe his disciples, were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.

[1:35] And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And so it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus himself drew near and went with them, traveled with them.

[1:51] But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. And he said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?

[2:05] Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happened there in these days?

[2:18] Kind of rebuking this fellow walking with them. The incognito Jesus. And he said to them, what things?

[2:30] So they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.

[2:48] We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

[2:59] Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find his body. They came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

[3:15] And certain 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, slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.

[3:35] Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

[3:49] Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.

[4:01] And he went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as he sat at the table with them, that he took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them.

[4:13] And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road, and while he opened the scriptures to us?

[4:33] So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven. And those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

[4:46] And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. All right, we'll stop right there this morning.

[4:58] The story goes on, obviously. In fact, and we'll look at this next week, just as they were saying these things, Jesus appeared right there in the room.

[5:09] But I want us to focus on this story this morning about these two disciples leaving Jerusalem on their way home to Emmaus.

[5:21] The little boy was asked by his mother if he knew the name of God's son. And he said, Of course I do, Mommy. I know his name. I learned that at church.

[5:34] And so she said, What is his name? And he said, His name is Andy. And she, of course, just in shock.

[5:48] I mean, you know, how did he learn that at church? You know, and how did he come up with that name? And so she asked him, and he said, Well, I learned it in the song. The song says so.

[5:59] And she said, What song? You know, Mommy, Andy talks with me. Andy walks with me. Cute story.

[6:11] Of course, it's not Andy, is it? It's Jesus. Jesus walks with us. Right? I can get a witness here.

[6:23] Jesus walks with us. And there should be no question about that. You know, at all that he walks with us. But I guess the only question is, do we always recognize him?

[6:35] It's kind of the question from this passage here. Do we always see him? Do we always believe that he is there?

[6:46] Actually, we might even go a step further and say, Do we always really believe that he is alive? Now, sometimes we don't, quite frankly.

[7:03] You know, stuff happens. Happens in life. And we're not prepared for those things sometimes. And we fail to believe. We fail to see Jesus.

[7:13] And fail to know that he is there with us and walking with us. Isn't that right? I think I could get a witness for that as well. We were honest. And we are honest, aren't we?

[7:24] Honest people. Sometimes we just don't see him. And so how does that happen? And perhaps the more significant, more important question is, what's the remedy for that?

[7:40] What's the fix for that, the answer for that? Well, I think it's in this passage. So I want us to look very closely at these two disciples of Jesus who are on their way back to Emmaus, back to their home, presumably.

[7:54] It's one of my personal favorites, actually. This story in Luke, really, in the New Testament. I just love this story for a number of reasons I think you'll discover as we walk our way through it.

[8:08] Luke, by the way, is the only gospel writer who includes this story in his account of Christ. And so here's the first thing that I want you to notice about these two disciples of Jesus Christ.

[8:21] Number one, the distance. Now get this down. The distance that restricted their fellowship with Jesus.

[8:31] That's really the first thing we ought to notice here. And really it's hard to notice sometimes. We'll go through the story and not really see this. But this is here, right at the very beginning.

[8:42] The distance that restricted their fellowship with Jesus. Now what day is it? It's Sunday. Sunday. I'm not talking about today.

[8:52] It is Sunday today. But in our story, it's Sunday. It's the Lord's Day. Well, the first day of the week. It has not yet become the Lord's Day. Not in the worship and practice of God's people.

[9:04] Not yet. But very shortly it will. But it's the first day of the week. It's Sunday. And it's probably late to early evening.

[9:14] Late afternoon, early evening. Sometime in that time frame because of what the disciples said there in verse 29. They said to Jesus, abide with us. It is toward evening.

[9:25] All right. We're getting on to the evening hour. And the day is far spent, they said. So this is Sunday, late in the evening perhaps. Now, we already know earlier that Sunday morning, a lot of things happened.

[9:39] Earlier on that Sunday morning, several credible eyewitnesses had reported that they had gone to the tomb and they had found that the tomb was empty. Stone had been rolled away.

[9:50] The tomb was empty. And eventually others even reported an angelic visitation. And Mary and some of the other women, eventually, they saw Jesus.

[10:03] And they reported that they had seen Jesus alive. Now, these disciples that are on their way to Emmaus, they had heard these reports or these rumors.

[10:15] And they were very troubled by them. But they don't really go into a lot of detail about it. And certainly they don't offer, you know, any conclusion about that, any conclusion of belief.

[10:26] And why is that? Because they're on their way home. They've decided to leave. They've decided to go home.

[10:39] They didn't seem to have a full and complete knowledge of all the things that had transpired that morning. They'd heard bits and pieces of different things. And why is that?

[10:49] Because the simple reason is because they chose not to stick around. Do you get this from the story? And why Luke mentioned that?

[11:00] Listen, it's Sunday. All right, we've already established that, right? It's Sunday. It's the first day of the week. It is the third day after Jesus' death. And even these disciples knew there was something significant about the third day.

[11:15] Because they said so. There in verse 21, they said to the incognito Jesus at this time, Indeed, besides all this, that is all the things that we've heard, all the things that have happened, today is the third day since these things happened.

[11:28] But, you know, it's astounding to me that they didn't stick around to discover the significance of that third day. They left town.

[11:43] They got out of Dodge. They picked up their marbles and went home. Dejected. Defeated. Discouraged. We learn that from the story, don't we?

[11:54] And even waited out for the day, that third day, even though they knew there was some significance to it. And I say to you that Luke wants us to take note of that. Here in the passage.

[12:06] Verse 13 begins, and not in every version of the Bible, but it should be there in every version of the Bible. It begins, now, behold! Again, not all versions translate that part of the text.

[12:18] ESV is one of them. I don't know why they didn't. Such a literal translation. But they don't translate those two little words that come at the beginning of the text. Kai-edu, which was a very, very favorite of Luke's to use.

[12:33] You'll find this in many places in the Gospel of Luke. Kai-edu, or now behold! Behold. Now, grammatically, it is a demonstrative, and it's used to introduce something unexpected.

[12:49] And again, Luke uses this quite often throughout his Gospel. He means for it to be unexpected. He means for it to be surprising. That's what Luke means for his readers to get from this, to be surprised by this.

[13:03] And I imagine we would be if this was the first time we read this passage. But we've read it many, many times, and we kind of pass over some of these, you know, kind of grammatical techniques that are intended to really get to the reader, to engage the reader.

[13:17] And so he means for us to be surprised by this. And when you think about it, it really does work that way. Because Luke has just been recounting the various events, the flurry of events that have been taking place early that Sunday morning, the activity at the tomb, people coming and going and coming and going and then coming again, all the activity there at the empty tomb, the discovery that the tomb is empty, the angelic visits, the angelic revelation that he is not here, he is alive, and the excitement, kind of general excitement, among all of the disciples, at least among the women.

[13:57] And so he's been recounting all of that here in the first part of chapter 24. And so the narration is intended to bring its readers to kind of a fevered pitch emotionally.

[14:08] And then Luke takes us to these two disciples going home. See, it doesn't fit.

[14:22] I mean, kind of the buildup of things as Luke is unfolding his narration of the events that are taking place on Sunday morning. And then he takes us to these two guys, or whoever they were, four guys, a gal, two gals, well, at least one guy.

[14:42] And they're going home. They're sad. They have these pitiful, long faces. And then they've given up on Jesus. Isn't that the idea here?

[14:55] They've left him back there at that tomb. That's where they thought he still was. And so they're putting, what are they doing? They're putting distance between themselves and all that they had been enjoying for the last three years.

[15:12] I think we can assume these were Jesus' disciples. They were following him, had followed him throughout his ministry. And they were solid in there with him. They believed he was the Messiah.

[15:22] So they have just kind of put behind them the three years that they had spent with Jesus, loving him, the closeness they had with him, the fellowship they had with Jesus, the distance that removed their fellowship.

[15:41] And that's what we do sometimes. We do that. Something happens. Something bad happens. And quite often, the first thing we do is walk away from Jesus.

[15:56] And don't look so pious as if you've never done that. We just kind of put distance between us and Jesus. We may not conceptualize it that way, but we're so down in the dumps about whatever has happened that we just kind of lose faith a little bit.

[16:18] And we, in a sense, walk away. But even though they had given up on Jesus and they had walked away from him, Jesus had not given up on them. And that's a lesson that we should learn.

[16:31] Verse 15 says, And so it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. You know, the Bible could be summed up with just four words.

[16:47] God entering our story. Story of mankind. Our story. My story. That really encapsulates, really sums up what the Bible's all about.

[17:01] It's God entering our story. Dorothy Sayer was a writer who lived during the first half of the 20th century. She was a contemporary, by the way, at C.S. Lewis.

[17:12] I don't know if you've ever heard of her. She wrote detective stories, detective books. And her books were about a fictional detective by the name of Lord Peter Whimsey.

[17:27] And she loved the character. In fact, those who knew her the best would say to you that she fell in love with this fictional character that she had created. She loved Lord Peter Whimsey.

[17:41] And so, at some point in the series of books, Dorothy Sayer added a new character to her stories, to her books, and her name was Harriet Vane. And eventually, in the course of the story, Peter Whimsey and Harriet Vane fall in love with one another, and they get married.

[18:02] Beautiful. But here's the point. The character of Harriet Vane so resembled the life of Dorothy Sayer, the author of the books, that it's obvious what she was doing.

[18:16] Sayer wrote herself into the story. I tell you, in a sense, that's what God has done. God, the author of our lives.

[18:32] And He loves us, so loved us, that He became one of us. And He came into our story, your story, my story.

[18:43] That's what the Bible is all about from the very beginning all the way through. God loves His people, the people He created, and He loves them so much that He wrote Himself into their story.

[18:59] And that's what is exemplified right here in the story of these two disciples. They put distance between themselves and Jesus.

[19:12] They left Him. And Jesus entered into their story. And I want you to notice a second thing. The discussion that revealed the foolishness, their foolishness about Jesus.

[19:29] They're having a discussion with one another. And it is that discussion that revealed their foolishness about Jesus. Here they are, they're walking home after all that has happened.

[19:40] And after the three years they've spent with Jesus, and they're just walking home. Verse 14 says, And they walked, they talked together, rather, of all these things which had happened.

[19:52] What things? Well, obviously, Jesus' death, His burial, and now added to that the disturbing, the unsettling reports that His body is missing and all that.

[20:07] They're discussing this. They're talking about these things. And they are so, I think we can imagine they're so engaged in this subject about Jesus, what has happened to Him, and now He's gone, He's dead, and so forth.

[20:20] So engaged, and grieving, and they're sad, and they're bewildered, and all of that. They're so focused on that that they just simply don't even notice that a third person has come up and is walking with them in their journey.

[20:35] They don't even notice him. And so verse 15 says, so it was, while they conversed and reasoned, while they're having this discussion, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.

[20:48] And then verse 16 says, but their eyes were restrained. They were restrained so that they did not, what? They didn't know Him. Now, I think this is a divine blindness.

[21:04] I think this is the act of God. It's a passive verb. It means it came from outside the source of this blindness. So this is a divine blindness, but it is intended to deal with their spiritual blindness, their foolishness.

[21:19] So they don't recognize Jesus. He's incognito to them. And so then Jesus speaks to them. Verse 17, and He said to them, what kind of conversation is this?

[21:32] What are you talking about? As you're walking along here and are sad. Jesus didn't need to be divine in order to know that.

[21:43] It was all over their faces. In fact, that's what the word sad means. It means, in the Greek, it means a gloomy countenance. And so you just take one look at them. And they are so sad and so grieving and they're having this conversation.

[21:56] And so verse 18, then the one whose name was Cleopas. By the way, we don't know the name of the second person. Luke doesn't give us that.

[22:10] Some have suggested that maybe it was Luke. Kind of an interesting possibility. Luke left his name out, very much like John did in his gospel. You know, every time he would mention John in his narration, and he would just say that other disciple, you know, or the one that Jesus loved and so forth.

[22:27] Maybe Luke is doing that here. Maybe the second disciple is Luke himself. Others have suggested that it was the wife of Cleopas. I think that's probably a more plausible suggestion.

[22:40] That Cleopas and his wife, disciples of Jesus, and they're just going home, walking home together. Now nobody really knows who this second person is. It really doesn't matter.

[22:50] Luke probably named Cleopas because his readers would have known him, known this person, or perhaps because Cleopas was Luke's source for the story since it was not there.

[23:02] I don't know. But anyway, verse 17 says, Then the one who was named Cleopas answered, said to him, to Jesus, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem?

[23:14] And have you not known the things that have happened here in these days? Are you stupid? Ignorant? Basically what he's saying.

[23:25] How could you not know? Where have you been? Of course, he didn't know who he was talking to, did he? Of course, Jesus was not ignorant of any of this.

[23:37] The disciples were the ignorant ones. And so, here's what we understand, what we should understand. To draw them out, Jesus asked the question, What thing?

[23:50] This was a favorite thing of Jesus to do. It's not that he didn't know. He knew all these things. I mean, he's the central character in all of these things that are transpiring. He certainly knew.

[24:01] And he asked the question just to draw them out, to expose them. And Jesus did that quite often throughout his ministry. So, what things? And they tell him. Verse 19, So they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was, now notice the past tense, who was a prophet mighty indeed in word before God and all the people and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.

[24:30] And then verse 21, they say, But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Now, first thing you ought to notice is they're not wrong about these things.

[24:46] They thought he was the prophet and indeed he was, is. They thought he was, more importantly, they thought he was the Messiah and he was. So they're not wrong in their assessment.

[24:58] They just simply don't go far enough. Jesus was a whole lot more than those things. But let's continue on with their discussion. Verse 21, Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

[25:14] Something important about the third day. Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find the body.

[25:26] They came saying that they had also seen a vision of the angels who said he was alive. And certain of those who were with us, that would be Peter and John, went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

[25:41] And then what does he say? Fools. Now by the way, only Jesus can get away with that. I wouldn't recommend you call anybody a fool.

[25:54] That is what he said, O foolish ones. O fools. See, the discussion that revealed their foolishness about Jesus. And when you really think about this, about what they said, really, about what they did not say, this is really shocking.

[26:15] I would say even dumbfounding. What did they know, these two disciples? What did they know, really? Well, they knew that the tomb was empty.

[26:27] Right? They knew that, didn't they? Because they had heard the report. Okay, let's just go with that for a moment here. They knew the tomb was empty. And so let's just imagine that we're questioning these disciples and so we ask them, okay, what does the empty tomb suggest to you?

[26:51] Hmm. Okay, imagine that you've gone to the tomb. Right? You're just saying this to these disciples.

[27:02] Imagine you've gone there and when you get there the stone has been rolled away and you look inside and the tomb is empty. It's empty.

[27:16] What does that tell you? Hmm. Okay, let me see if I can help you out.

[27:26] You remember when Jesus said destroy this temple. He's speaking of himself, remember? And in three, this is what he said, in three days I will raise it up again.

[27:38] They destroyed him on Friday and this is the third day and his tomb is empty. Hmm. Hmm.

[27:54] We're crying out loud. Don't you remember that Jesus said, this is what he said, you remember, he said, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders.

[28:05] I'm quoting here. Be rejected by the elders and chief and priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

[28:17] This is the third day. Hello? Anyone in there? This is the third day. The tomb is empty. The angels have appeared.

[28:29] And what? Don't you get it?

[28:42] No, they didn't get it. At no time did they come to that conclusion. Did they? No. They didn't. And we could go back a little ways.

[28:53] What if we had been there when the ladies first came to the tomb early that morning and they're carrying with them their what? Spices and such.

[29:04] They're not going to expect you to find Jesus alive, are they? They want to go and anoint the body more properly. And so they get to the tomb and the stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty and what did they think?

[29:25] Somebody stole the body. Oh, you got to be kidding me. But then, of course, a little later, some of the ladies and then after that, Mary also see Jesus alive.

[29:43] And what do they do? They go back and tell the disciples. And what do they think? You're crazy. Bunch of nutcases.

[29:54] That's what they thought. But now, Peter and John, kind of leaders of the band and so we're going to go check this out. Might as well.

[30:05] So they go to the tomb and they find the stone rolled away just like the ladies said and they come to the opening. John waits. Peter goes all the way in. He finds it empty and we might say to Peter, Peter, ha, tomb's empty.

[30:21] what? Huh? Did he believe? Did he get it right? No, he didn't.

[30:35] Not all. You find that strange? See, here's the bottom line. They had no place in their thinking because they had no place in their theology for the crucifixion of their Messiah.

[30:49] That didn't click. That wasn't even a possibility. So they didn't believe that he was alive. In fact, it didn't even occur to them that he would be alive.

[31:00] And here are these two disciples of Jesus. Long faces, you know. Adrian Rogers used to say, I've seen better looking faces on bottles of iodine than I've seen on your face.

[31:13] You know, it's sad going home. And really, you know, like these two disciples, we sometimes stop believing.

[31:29] I've got to get back to that. We stop believing. We stop seeing. We stop seeing with spiritual eyes and we sometimes lose our hope and our joy and we have long faces because of our circumstances.

[31:49] And we just give up. Things happen to us and we're not prepared for them. Just like these disciples, you know, they had spent three years with Jesus.

[32:02] They basked in the glory of his presence every day. Ate and slept and traveled with him. For three years, they had sat at his feet and listened to every word he had to say, every word he taught.

[32:19] And for three years, they witnessed his incredible power, the glory of his power over nature, over diseases, death, even demons.

[32:37] And I think it's safe to say that they had built their world around Jesus. Don't be too hard on these disciples. They built their world around him.

[32:51] Their lives revolved around Jesus. And when Jesus was crucified on the cross, their life just shattered. Their entire world shattered.

[33:01] Right? And don't be too hard on them. Because, you know, our children today know more about Jesus than these two disciples did.

[33:16] And you, hopefully, know more than your children do. Huh? Now we've got the whole thing here. Yeah, that's right.

[33:33] We've got it all. We know much, much more than these disciples knew as they're on the road to Emmaus before they met Jesus.

[33:43] And yet, could you honestly say, even with all that you know, that your life revolves around Jesus?

[34:01] That's kind of an indictment, isn't it? For all of us. Don't be too hard on these guys. But the distance that restricted their fellowship with Jesus.

[34:16] The discussion they were having that revealed their foolishness about Jesus. Third, the discipleship that reignited their fervor for Jesus.

[34:30] It was approximately seven miles from Jerusalem to the city of Emmaus. And we know that not because you can flip to the back of your Bible to the maps and find it on some Bible map.

[34:42] It's not there because we don't know where Emmaus is or was. We know it because that's what Luke said. Seven miles. They traveled seven miles.

[34:53] I don't know how long that would take to travel. Don't know how long, how fast they were walking and so forth. But during the seven mile little walk with Jesus, I think it's safe to say these disciples experienced the Bible study of their lives.

[35:14] And so, really here's the solution to any measure of unbelief we might be experiencing. Any measure of doubt.

[35:24] Here's the remedy to those times when we have lost faith or walked away. And it's the Scriptures. Pretty simple.

[35:39] It's the Word of God. Verse 25, Jesus said, O foolish ones, slow of heart, as you're dull. In fact, the word can also be translated idiot.

[35:53] I'll kid you not. Foolish ones, slow of heart, to do what? To believe. To believe what?

[36:05] The reports? Of the ladies and others? No. To believe all that the prophets have spoken.

[36:16] By the way, that's what we have recorded in the Bible. all that the prophets have spoken. You don't believe them. You don't believe the Scripture.

[36:30] You don't know the Scripture. You don't believe the Scripture. You don't understand the Scriptures. In verse 26, Jesus is saying, according to what the prophets have written, He is saying, verse 26, ought not the Christ, or was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory.

[36:53] See, that's your problem. And it's the same problem we have. You don't know the Scriptures. You don't understand them.

[37:05] Therefore, you don't believe properly. And therefore, you're sad. you're sad.

[37:18] And therefore, you have no hope, no joy in your life. And then came the Bible study. And this is one of my favorite verses in this entire story.

[37:31] It's one of my personal favorites in the New Testament. Verse 27, beginning at Moses and all the prophets. All right, Moses, that would be the first five books of the Bible.

[37:41] Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the first five. The Pentateuch, we call it. Those books authored by Moses. He started there.

[37:52] We can assume he started with Genesis and then moved his way through. And then all the prophets, that would be the balance of the Old Testament.

[38:03] What did he do? He expounded. This is why it's my favorite verse because I'm an expositor. this is incredible. He exposed.

[38:13] He expounded. He brought to light to them in what? All the scriptures.

[38:25] This is an incredible verse. I don't know how long it takes to walk seven miles. He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

[38:46] He preached Jesus from every book of the Old Testament. It's incredible. Wouldn't you like to know what he said?

[39:02] Have a recording of it? Better yet, a video. What effect did this have upon these disciples?

[39:14] Later, after they finally know that it is Jesus, they recognize him, verse 32, and they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us?

[39:29] You're thinking back, Jesus is taking them from Genesis to Malachi, step by step, and he's revealing where he is in the story from the very beginning all the way through to the end of what they had available to them.

[39:44] We call it the Old Testament. And they said, didn't our hearts burn within us? Just burn within us while he talked to us on the way, on the road, and while he did what?

[39:56] He opened the scriptures to us. That's every preacher's desire that those who hear their hearts would burn within them.

[40:15] That should be the desire of every studier of scripture, student of scripture, that when we read the scripture, their hearts would burn within them. that's how they reacted.

[40:28] The disciples, the discipleship that reignited their fervor for Jesus. And one more very quickly. The discernment that restored their faith in Jesus.

[40:44] Verse 28 says, then they drew near to the village where they were going and he indicated that he would have gone farther. But they constrained him saying, abide with us.

[40:58] For it's toward evening and the day is far spent. And he went in to stay with them. And then now watch this, verse 30.

[41:09] Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took the bread.

[41:19] This is strange. He's a guest in their home. And yet he takes the part of host. And there's a reason for this.

[41:30] Because what did he do? He took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. Almost, by the way, almost verbatim.

[41:43] The same words that we find in Luke chapter 22 verse 19 when Jesus served the first Lord's supper. Same words. verse 19 we can assume they had the Lord's supper together there.

[42:00] Jesus served them. Then what happened next? Verse 31, then their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight.

[42:11] It's the same, by the way, same passive verb construction, grammatically, that we have in verse 16 where it says their eyes were restrained, and now their eyes were opened.

[42:27] This is the work of God. This is supernatural. And yet, I think it's safe to say that a few things happened there that God used to open their eyes.

[42:40] What things? Well, Jesus breaking the bread. They had seen that before. when he fed the 5,000, and perhaps many other times.

[42:58] They'd seen that before, looked familiar. And then when he prayed, the way he prayed for that bread, how he blessed it, perhaps using the same words they had heard him use, heard Jesus use.

[43:18] suddenly the fog is beginning to clear. I think it could be, I won't press this too hard, that as he broke the bread and handed it to them, did they see the scars in his hand?

[43:39] I don't know what method God used. Could just simply just open their eyes.

[43:51] Their eyes were opened and they saw Jesus and they believed his word and the first thing they did was go and tell the apostles, he is risen indeed.

[44:09] Then, even as they're saying it, Jesus appears before them right there in the room, just instantaneously, there he is. We'll get to that next week.

[44:24] The living, loving Jesus, this is what we ought to get. The living, loving Jesus, has entered your story, the story of your life.

[44:39]  At no time should you ever fail to see him.