Good Morning, Bethany. It’s a joy to be with you. We will be in Luke chapter 24, this morning. My name is Daniel Shaeffer. I’m the Children and Family Minister here and I’ve had the joy to have been a part of Bethany for the last eight months. I’m very thankful to have the privilege to open up the Scriptures with you. I pray that the Lord would bless our time together in it. Luke 24:13-35. This is the Word of the Lord.

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.

Famous preacher and pastor, Dwight L. Moody, who preached at and pastored a church just a few hours north in Chicago back in the 19^th and 20^th Century, recalls that when he was a young man, he was called upon to preach suddenly at a funeral. A good many Chicago businessmen, famous, and important people were going to be there, so he thought, “Now, it will be a good chance for me to preach the Gospel to those men. So to do that, I’m going to go and find a passage on a funeral sermon that Jesus preached.” Well, he recounts his journey as he is flipping through the pages of Scripture, and he sees that he couldn’t find any. This is what he says:

“I found that Jesus broke up every funeral that He ever attended! He never preached a funeral sermon in the world,” or at least what is recorded in Scripture. “Death could not exist where He was. When the dead heard His voice they sprang to life and I realized anew Jesus saying ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.’–John 11:25-26”

So for you and for me today, as we look at this passage of these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, that we would see that Jesus has risen. Death could not hold Him. Jesus did not have a funeral sermon. He did not have one of His own because He did not stay dead. He rose from the grave! So we look at this passage. If you’re taking notes, I’ve entitled this sermon The Journey From Despair To Delight. There are five different aspects that I want to bring out about how we should look at the disciples in this passage. There are five aspects about the disciples’ journey from despair to delight. Then at the very end, I want to give you four quick reasons of why we know the Bible is true. I want to give you reasons for why we know that Jesus really did rise from the dead.

Just last week, I believe it was last week, I preached the Good Friday service and then Pastor Josh preached on Revelation, about Jesus is the living one and He holds the keys to Death and to Hades. I’m thankful that I get the opportunity for us to see a passage today, or at least for me to be able to preach a passage of where Jesus is not dying. The riches and the glory of Good Friday shouldn’t be lost, but it is such a joy to see that we’re continuing the story. Let’s look first at

The Disciples’ Despair (13-21)

That’s a great translation! Their eyes were kept. It signifies not that they didn’t recognize Jesus because of maybe He had a hood on. Or maybe they just didn’t recognize Him because He was walking beside them and they decided to not take a closer look. No, the Scripture says that their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. This is divine because there is a very particular point where Jesus wants to make Himself known. We’ll see that in a second. We see this happen in Luke a few other times already. If you remember in Luke 9, this is what Jesus says about His impending death.

Luke 9:45 The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so they might not perceive it.

Or listen to Luke 18.

Luke 18:31-34 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

All of this shows that the Lord chooses to who, when, and how He reveals Himself. We believe and we trust in Jesus. Those of us who have put our faith and trust in Him can believe in Him and trust in Him because He has given us the grace to do so. We take joy in that! Well, let’s look at what the disciples’ response is in verse 17. Look with me in verse 17.

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.

Jesus’ question made them stop in their tracks because of the shock of not knowing what had happened in Jerusalem. I love what Jesus does here! Instead of Jesus automatically starting to berate them, starting to ridicule them, starting to say, “How could you not know?” At the very beginning, He draws them out. We would do well as we’re walking with people in sin and suffering and sorrow and in just normal day to day conversation, to ask questions, to draw people out. Don’t assume. Ask. So Jesus asked, “What is the conversation you’re having?” and they’re 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?”

And Jesus asks another question.

19 And he said to them, “What things?”

He’s drawing them out.

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,

So they viewed Jesus as a man. They viewed Him as a prophet. They viewed Him as one that was going to redeem Israel. They viewed His teachings and His miracles as authoritative. They actually believed these things because they saw, they heard. So their problem wasn’t the fact that their view of Jesus was necessarily incorrect. They were actually hoping that He was the Messiah. But if you only believe that Jesus is a man, a prophet, even if you believe His teachings are authoritative and His miracles are real, the end of who Jesus truly is falls short. Jesus is going to teach them that it was necessary that He suffer, that it was necessary that He go to the cross, that it was necessary that He die, and necessary that He be raised. The Book of Hebrews is a beautiful exposition of why Jesus died.

Then we look at the religious leaders versus the disciples. Let’s look at that for a second. Look at verse 20.

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.

The disciples’ hoped. They had prayed that this was the Christ. Out of anybody, anyone during that time who would have believed in the Messiah, it should have been the Sadducees. It should have been the chief priests. It should have been the Pharisees. It should have been the scribes. But if they rejected the Messiah, maybe we’re wrong. Maybe the disciples were wrong. They had hoped that Jesus was the one to redeem. You look at Acts chapter 1. This is what the disciples, the Twelve, asked Jesus.

Acts 1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

This kind of gives us a little bit of an insight to what they were thinking previously. They thought that Jesus was going to come and redeem them from the oppression of Rome. They thought He was going to liberate them and that He was going to free them because the Old Testament prophesied as such. But there was a greater threat other than Rome. There was a greater threat, which was sin and death and Satan. Because what was really oppressing the Jewish people was not just Rome, but it was the principalities and powers and the works of darkness. Jesus came to defeat and to destroy the works of the devil. Well, their hope was gone. Their despair was fully setting in. I want you to see, secondly, not only just their despair, but I want you to see

The Disciples’ Unbelief (22-24)

I want you to see their unbelief and think about this for a minute. Look at verses 22-24. Look at all the evidences that they have that Jesus really did rise from the dead. This is what they say.

22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

You can be amazed and not believe, brothers and sisters.

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.”

Look at all the evidences that they have. On the third day. Jesus has already prophesied that He is going to die and be buried and on the third day, be raised. The Old Testament has illusion after illusion to the third day being a day of resurrection. The prophets point to that. Joseph’s going down into the pit, into slavery, and rising again shows that. You’ve got the sign of Jonah. Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights and then he has a resurrection, if you will. So the Old Testament is showing and training us to say this should not be ordinary. This is something that should be expected.

Keep looking down at verse 22. The women amazed them because they were at the tomb early and the women didn’t find His body. The women didn’t see His body, so they come back and they say, “Disciples, we saw a vision of angels. They said, the angels said He was alive. We didn’t say it. They said it.” Then some of the disciples, the men went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Jesus they didn’t see.

Now what should this have done? They have these evidences. They have these proofs. They have the beginning of the testament that Jesus has been raised, and they do not believe. So Jesus says in verses 25-27 His rebuke of them. Here we see their ignorance. First, we saw their despair. Second, their unbelief. And number three,

III. The Disciples’ Ignorance (25-27)

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.

When Jesus says in verse 27, beginning with Moses, He’s beginning at the beginning. He’s beginning in Genesis and He’s going Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And He keeps on going through the historical books and the prophets to show them that this was the plan and purpose of God from the very beginning.

And He rebukes them. He calls them foolish. He calls them slow of heart. I pray that I am never foolish or slow of heart to believe what the Scriptures say. I pray that I would look at the Scriptures with a willing heart, a submissive heart, a heart that says “if there is something that I disagree with in here, or if there is something that disrupts my own sensibilities or would make me uncomfortable, that I would say the problem is with me. The problem is me not understanding. There is something that I’m not understanding.” When we come to the Scriptures, we need to come to them not as if to say, “let me dissect and let me look and see what’s in here so that I can figure all this out and place myself above the Scriptures.” But it’s that you and I would come underneath, that we would be submissive, that we would be soft, that we would take joy in knowing that this is the Word of God. Well, He calls them foolish. He calls them slow of heart. He says

26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer

Was it not necessary? This was purposed. This was planned. This had to happen.

Luke 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

Just as the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed in a specific way, on a specific day, so too the Lamb of God died a specific way and on the specific day, the same day as they sacrificed the Passover lambs in Jerusalem.

Acts 1:16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled…”

It was necessary. Not only was it necessary, but you see all these prophecies in the Old Testament. You think of Genesis 3:15, about how the seed of the woman is going to come and crush the serpent’s head. You see Isaiah 53. If you go back and look at that passage and see the beauty and wonder in that, you can see that God’s Messiah would suffer. You go and read Zechariah 12 and 13 and it says that you strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered and that him who they have pierced, they will cry and mourn for. So we see that Jesus, God’s chosen one, God’s beloved Son, it was necessary that He suffer and be raised.

That has something to say to you and me. We should not be surprised, as Peter says, that these fiery trials have come upon us, but that we should suffer. And if we suffer, we will be raised with Him. We should not be surprised if God uses the very same method that He used to make Christ the perfect sacrifice, that He would use that to sanctify us as well. Hebrews chapter 5 says that Jesus was heard out of his reverence with loud cries and supplication because he learned obedience through what he suffered and he became perfect. There has never been a time where the Son was not sinless. So don’t hear that. But Jesus had to learn obedience under His father in His earthly life so that He might be able to represent us as human and come between us and God. God set Him as the perfect sacrifice. So we look at this verse and we shouldn’t be surprised either.

26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Jesus interpreted the Scripture to them. I wish I was there. Don’t you? Oh, man! I wish I could be there. That would have been just an amazing, amazing sermon. It would have been a better sermon than I’ve ever heard in my life.

There’s a lot of joy and goodness in that, but I think sometimes the reason of why we see this conversation among the disciples as a mystery is because we don’t know our Old Testament very well. Many of us, including me, think I know it well. There are some things that I do know about the Old Testament and I should, and we all should. But the more we study the Old Testament and the more we study our Scriptures, the more we can actually look and see, “I think I know what He was talking about, here.” I think He was saying, “I’m the second Adam.” I’m pretty sure He was saying, “Do you remember Joseph? His life and his death? That is reminiscent and foreshadowing me. Moses was the great prophet who went into the wilderness and then redeemed his people. Guess what? That points to me. I’m the greater Moses. Deuteronomy, all of the law that Israel was supposed to keep, guess what? I kept it. Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Samuel.” You can keep going and going and going. All of the Scripture points to the person and work of Jesus.

As you read your Bible and as I read my Bible and we think about how we understand the Old Testament rightly, I just want to say a quick thing about this. When you read the Old Testament, you shouldn’t automatically say, “How does this point to Jesus?” We don’t want to try to read Jesus into every text, but also, if you read a passage of the Old Testament in Scripture and it doesn’t lead you to see who Jesus is and His beauty and His work, you’ve missed the point. The Old Testament points to the person and work of Jesus in every single chapter. In all the kings, we see a greater King. In all the priests, we see a greater Priest. In the prophets, we see a greater Prophet who spoke the Word of God. In all the battles and the victories that you see of God’s people and the losses, you see Christ’s victory over the seed of the serpent. In all the sacrifices that sometimes for us seem so boring to read about, which it should not be, we see the sacrifice of Christ. We see the sacrificial Lamb. It doesn’t come by our own intellect. It doesn’t come because we have a degree. It doesn’t come because I listen to this person or that person. It is God’s Holy Spirit that indwells us, that shows us the glory of Jesus in the Scripture. That is what the Spirit does. So for us to see Christ and to value and worship Him, that is the work of the Spirit within us. We’ll see these disciples begin to experience that as well.

The Disciples’ Understanding (28-31)

We looked at their despair, their unbelief, their ignorance, and let’s look at their understanding.

28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther,

Let me stop there. I love that! They’re going near to the village and Jesus is acting, “Okay, I’m going to head to the next town. I’ll see you later.” And they’re like, “No, no, no, no. Please, please, come stay with us. We need to hear more.”

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.

So they strongly urged Jesus to stay. They go in and they, by that invitation, in that time, if you were to invite someone to stay with you, it was just assumed that you were the host. Anytime there was a meal that was broken up, it was the host that was to take the bread or take whatever elements that they had and they were the ones that were supposed to give it out. But that’s not what happens. Here, Jesus assumes the role of the host even though they asked Jesus to stay with them. He assumes this role. This was part of hospitality, so they may have been wondering, “Wait a minute! What is going on, here? Why is He taking on the role? We asked Him to stay with us.”

Beloved, when we ask Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of our life, He is already Lord. We don’t make Him Lord. We submit to Him as Lord. But when we believe and we trust in Jesus, our home becomes His. He becomes the ruler. He becomes our Savior and Master. So we shouldn’t have any claim to say, “Well, actually Jesus, you don’t need to go into that room. I’m going to keep some of those things to myself. I’m going to hold onto some of these sins. We’ll just brush them off into the closet. Let’s make this room look really good.” Jesus says, “I am the Lord. No part of your heart and life is outside of my control.” So He assumes the role of the host here, and He breaks bread. He blesses it, He breaks it, He gives it to them, and then their eyes are opened and they recognize Him.

So we have to ask, at this moment, why at this moment is it important that the disciples recognize Jesus? Why did Jesus choose to reveal Himself here and now? When we take the Lord’s Supper, when we take Communion and we see the broken body and the shed blood of Christ, this is the place where we are reconciled to Christ. It is only through the shed blood, it is only through the broken body of Christ that we are reconciled to God. So if we are going to see and recognize that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is God, that we can know the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, it is here. No where else! It is through Jesus.

I want you to notice something with me. Jesus is at the table. He takes the bread and He gives it to them. Their eyes open. They recognize Him. This should remind you of Genesis chapter 3. Do you remember in Genesis chapter 3, the story of Adam and Eve? Eve sees the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She sees that it’s ripe. It’s good for eating. Then the Bible says she does what? She takes, she gives some to her husband and he eats, and then their eyes are opened. They recognize not the Savior. They recognize who they are and what they’ve done. When we look at this passage, we see Jesus reversing the very beginning of Genesis 3. We see here that He takes the bread. It’s not fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s bread that is meant to symbolize Himself. So Jesus says here, “Take and eat and your eyes will be opened and you will see me again.” They went from darkened eyes to seeing the Light of life. They went from faithless hearts to now, we’ll see in a second, their hearts starting to burn within them. Their minds, which were slow to believe and ignorant of the Scriptures, Jesus is now filling, and it’s at this moment.

The disciples hear and they understand that it’s at this moment that God chooses to reveal Himself. Listen to the words of Augustine, a 5^th and 6^th Century church father. I want you to hear what he says about this passage. He says, “Jesus was at the same time seen and concealed… But where did the Lord wish to be recognized? In the breaking of bread. It was for our sake that he didn’t want to be recognized anywhere but there. That’s how you recognize Christ.”

The Disciples’ Delight (32-35)

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.

Nobody’s heart burns inside them for a dead Savior. It burns for a living and risen one. We heard last week, Pastor Josh talk about Jesus is alive. He’s at the right hand of the Father. He holds the keys of Death and Hades. He’s alive forevermore. Our hearts burn! I pray yours would as well. I pray that you would have the passion and the desire not as an adrenaline rush, but as the continued daily understanding that Christ is risen. So, in the small moments of choosing to put off sin and to put on righteousness, choosing to not believe Satan’s lies, and choosing to fill yourself with the truth of God’s Word, our hearts burn.

Well, they were finally convinced. They were convinced that Jesus finally rose from the dead, after He had revealed Himself to them. We’re not sure, the text doesn’t necessarily tell us exactly why they believed and they recognized Him. Maybe it was the way that He broke the bread. Maybe it was the prayer that He prayed. Maybe it was the mannerisms that He made. Maybe it was the giving of the bread and they saw His nail prints in His hand. The text doesn’t tell us because the way that they saw wasn’t as important as they saw.

At the very beginning of Luke in chapter 1, Luke is writing to Theophilus and he says in

Luke 1:4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Theophilus didn’t see any of this. But Luke says he may have certainty. Neither did we. We didn’t see any of this, but we can have certainty. So we see the disciples’ delight.

I just want to mention this to you. Look at verse 33. A few hours before, they had told Jesus, “It’s getting late. Come stay with us.” Now they see Jesus has risen and it’s “We don’t care that it’s dark outside. We’re driving…” Driving? (Laughter!) “We’re walking back.” I bet they wish they could have drove. (Laughter!) “We’re going back seven miles. We don’t care how long it is. We don’t care that we maybe already have blisters. We have to go tell somebody that Jesus has risen!”

So the disciples journey from despair to delight. There is so much emotion in this passage. You can’t help reading it without feeling that emotion, without seeing it, without savoring it. Some of you are thinking, “I don’t want to feel that emotion.” No, feel it! Look at verse 34.

34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

They believed. And because they believed, because they saw, their entire life was changed. There are four reasons for you and for me that we can believe that Jesus really has been raised. I’ll give those to you in the next few minutes. There are four reasons why we can believe and why we can go from despair to delight.

The Eyewitnesses.

If you read in the rest of Scripture, and even if you look at this passage, you see that the women were eyewitnesses. The women saw Jesus raised. They saw the empty tomb. The apostles, all of them saw Jesus raised, multiple times. These two disciples as well as many others. 1 Corinthians 15 says that over 500 people saw Jesus. When Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 talks about that Jesus appeared to the women, He appeared to the disciples, He appeared to the 500, He appeared also to Paul, what they’re doing is they are suring up and they’re showing and proving Jesus really has been raised. That’s first, the eyewitnesses.

His Physical Appearances

I don’t mean that other people who were physically alive saw Jesus. I mean that there were things that Jesus did and said that proved that He was physically raised from the dead. Let me tell you why this is important. It’s because when we believe, we are not going to just be raised as a soul. We are going to be raised in body. We are going to be raised with Him, like Him. 1 Corinthians 15 says that just as we have borne this flesh, we are going to bear the image of the man of heaven. This flesh is less real than the flesh of our resurrected bodies because that’s really the way that we were meant to be. So number two is the physical appearances.

I don’t know if you’ve seen this movie, but I’m sure many of you have; The Princess Bride. Yes? Okay. In the Princess Bride you have Westley and Buttercup, this love story. Then he dies, or at least seems like he dies. You’ve got Miracle Max and his wife and they’re trying to revive him. It looks like he’s dead and what do they say? “He’s not dead. He’s mostly dead.” I want to just mention this for the point of saying Jesus wasn’t mostly dead on the cross. Jesus did not revive in the cool of the tomb. Jesus really was raised. The disciples didn’t steal His body. They wouldn’t have died for a lie. Jesus truly has been raised.

Now every morning, I get up and probably once a week, I end up walking to my bathroom and end up stubbing my toe on the corner of the bed. It happens all the time. My wife, Lindsey, just looks at me and goes, “You did it again, didn’t you?” For a split second, it’s numb and then you feel this pain and it’s excruciating. I don’t know. Is this just me? Am I the only one that does this? (Laughter!) Yes? Okay, that’s fine. Jesus has just endured the weight of the cross; six hours, pain, suffering, pierced, thorns, flogging, whipped, you name it. Then a couple days later, He is walking to Emmaus. 7 miles? I don’t even want to walk 7 miles right now, (Laughter!) much less what happened to Him. Jesus really has been raised.

Jesus eats with His eleven disciples. If you look further in the chapter, later on, you see Him eating. A ghost doesn’t eat. Jesus shows Thomas His hands and His side and has him feel them. Jesus takes the bread with these two disciples and He breaks it and gives it to them. Jesus eats with Peter as He is restoring him. Jesus, after dying and raising, is eating fish, showing He has been raised. He wants us to make sure we know.

The Fulfilled Prophecy

Every single prophecy in the Old Testament, Jesus completed and Jesus fulfilled in its entirety. Every Old Testament prophecy; every one! When Jesus cries on the cross tetelestai, it is finished, He is saying, “I have completed everything that the Father gave me to do.”

Changed Lives

The disciples, every single one of them died a martyr’s death, as church tradition tells us, except for John. Every single one of them gave their lives for this knowledge. Every single one knew Jesus had been raised.

You can know this morning that Jesus has been raised. You can believe intellectually like, “Oh, yeah. That makes sense. I get that.” But if it doesn’t seep into your heart and move into your will towards obedience, it doesn’t matter. Jonathan Edwards said this: “But it is doubtless true, and evident from the Scriptures, that the essence of all true religion lies in holy love; and that in this divine affection consists the whole of religion.” In other words, if you don’t have an affection for Christ Jesus, if that is not continual and constant, you’re missing the point. When you see that Jesus truly has been raised, it means that you should live differently. You should live as Scripture has commanded. You don’t just intellectually say, “Okay, yes, I believe that.” You show your belief through your action. What does James say? Faith without works is dead.

What a day for these two disciples! What a day from despair to delight, seeing Christ, savoring Him, their hearts burning within them. It should lead us to look at their emotions, look at their despair, look at their doubt, look at their ignorance. It should lead us to look at their understanding and finally their delight and say, where am I on that journey? Where am I? Am I despairing? If you don’t know Christ as the risen Lord this morning, if you have not submitted yourself to Him and trusted in Him, you can believe this morning and have your sins forgiven. You can have the hope of eternal life with Him instead of the punishment that your sins deserve in hell. If you’re doubting, God says He will have mercy on you, but He’s not going to leave you there. If you’re ignorant to the Scriptures, I pray that this spurs you on to study more, that you may know your God and that you may understand Him and that you may live faithfully and powerfully joy-filled. The journey from despair to delight.

Listen to what 1 Peter says. I’ll close with this. Peter, who saw Jesus just a short time after this, this is what he says:

1 Peter 1:8-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and are filled with joy, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.