(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good evening and welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Let's go ahead and find our seats this evening Find the seats and find a hymnal close to you and turn to page number 31 Song number 31, we will open the service when he lives I serve a risen Savior, his in the world today Song number 31, sing it out on the first I serve a risen Savior, his in the world today I know that he is living, whatever man may say I see his hand of mercy, I hear his poison cheer In just a time I need him, he's always near He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today He walks with me and talks with me, a long last year away He lives, he lives, salvation to and from You ask me how I know he lives He lives within my heart Song number 31, on the second In all the world around me, I see his loving prayer And though my heart grows weary, I never will despair I know that he is leading throughout the soul he blasts His appearing will come at last He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today He walks with me and talks with me, a long last year away He lives, he lives, salvation to and from You ask me how I know he lives He lives within my heart Sing it out on the last Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing Eternal Hallelujah to Jesus Christ the King The hope of all who seek him come true The lover is so loving, so good and kind Sing it out, he lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today He walks with me and talks with me, a long last year away He lives, he lives, salvation to and from You ask me how I know he lives He lives within my heart Amen, great team, welcome to Verity Baptist Church here on our Sunday evening service We are glad to see everyone here this evening Let's open the service with a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father and Lord, we thank you for the day, thank you for everything that you've done for us Lord, thank you for sending your son, Lord, to die for our sins We pray that you bless the service, we pray that you bless the singing, the preaching, and the fellowship to come We love you in Jesus' name, I pray, Amen Alright, it's now time for our favorites, where if you're selected, we will sing a stanza from the song that you pick Go ahead Madison Song number 55 We'll start with song number 55 When the roll is cold up yonder, I'll be there Song number 55 Sing it out, on the first When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more When the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair When the saved, the versed shall gather open on the other shore When the roll is cold up yonder, I'll be there When the roll is cold up yonder When the roll is cold up yonder When the roll is cold up yonder When the roll is cold up yonder, I'll be there Sisi 24 on the last And can it be that I should gain Song number 24 Sing it out On the last Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's night Thine eye did use a big, big break I woke up the dungeon flamed with light My chains fell off, my heart lost me A world closed and full of hope and part of me Amazing love, how can it be That now my God should stand for me Song number 449 On the first Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is calling Then I know the sins of worth be set on every hand Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling None of these shall leave me from you there I'm living on the mountain, the cloudless sky I'm drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry Yes, I'm missing all the manna from the bountiful supply For I am dwelling from Bula Man Amazing grace, how sweet the sound Let's sing it out on the first Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me How once was lost, but now am found Was blind, but now I see 40 on the last There's no disappointment in heaven Song number 40 Sing it out, song number 40 on the last There'll never be creep on the corner No funeral train in the sky No graves on the hillsides of Gobi For there will never more die The old will be on their forever Transforming a moment of time Immortal will stand in his likeness The stars in the sun to a chime I'm bound for that beautiful city The Lord has prepared for his own Where all the meeting of all ages Jingle me around the white throne Sometimes I grow homesick for heaven And the moments that there shall be hope What a joy that will be when my Savior I see In that beautiful city of God 448, song number 448 This will be the last song for Favorite Brethren, we have met to worship This will be the last song, so let's sing it out On the first Brethren, we have met to worship And adore the Lord our God Will you pray with all your power While we try to reach the Word All is vain unless the Spirit Of the Holy One comes out Brethren, may the holy manna Will be showered all around Amen We want to welcome you to the evening service here at Ready Baptist Church We're so glad you're with us Let's go ahead and take our bulletins and we'll look at some announcements real quickly If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand And one of our ushers can get one for you If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you The verse this week, 1 Peter 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again Unto a lightly hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead And that's a good verse there We like that, if you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service times Sunday morning service, 10.30 a.m. And we had a wonderful service this morning We're glad you're back out tonight for the evening service And we do invite you to be with us on Wednesday night For the midweek Bible study at 7 p.m. And we call it the most encouraging service of the week It's nice to get out once you've been back in the world for a couple of days To separate and be back with God's people on a Wednesday night We encourage you to be here of course for that If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. And soul winning is when we go out in the community, we knock doors, we invite people to church And we preach the gospel to anyone who's interested We have additional soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 2 p.m. And we'd love for you to join us for any one of those soul winning times If you are a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church We're glad you're with us We have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building tonight If you go out our main foyer or if you go out our secondary foyer You'll see a little table set up and on that table you'll see these little gift bags Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have The one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made It's called Being Baptist It's very well made, very interesting, we think you'll enjoy it And we want to give this to you as a gift So please make sure you don't leave here without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment and fill out the little survey questionnaire in your bulletin If you need a pen, just raise your hand And one of our ushers can bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen You're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well We're not going to do anything odd with your info We would just like to have a record of your attendance We actually would like to send you a little gift But we need your information to do that So please take a moment to fill the card out When we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate Or you can hand it to me after the service I'll be standing at the main door greeting people on the way out If you look at the announcements there, we of course are a family integrated church Children and infants are always welcome in the service We do not separate children from their parents for any reason However, we do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience If you're not sure where those rooms are at, you can look at the back of the bulletin And you'll see a layout of our church building It'll show you where the restrooms are, where the mother-baby rooms are, where the daddy room is All of the rooms have comfortable seating They've got monitors set up so you can watch the service and listen to it So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service Or if you need some privacy, we would encourage you to use those rooms as needed If you look at the announcements, of course if you need to be baptized, please let us know We'd love to baptize you And if you let us know on your survey card there We'll follow up with you and we can talk to you about baptism We have a baptism lined up tonight, so we'll have a baptism after the service And if you've already spoken to somebody, you know you need to be baptized And all you need to do is at the end of the service, after the preaching While we're singing the last song, if you go out that door One of our staff guys will meet you there and we'll get you situated for baptism If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course today is Easter And we want to wish everybody a happy Easter as we're celebrating the resurrection of Christ This morning we had our choir sing Of course we had the Cadbury eggs and all of that in the morning We appreciate you being back tonight We of course still have the free gift for all of the guests And I'll still be preaching an Easter themed sermon tonight from a different passage A different passage and a different sermon But we appreciate you being here If you look at the announcements there, of course we have the baby shower for Miss Karen Jimenez This Saturday, April 15th at 3pm And we invite all the ladies to be a part of that And we have Mother's Day coming up We want to invite all of the ladies to an afternoon tea in honor of Mother's Day On Saturday, May 13th at 3pm That'll be in our fellowship hall You can sign up through your survey questionnaire on the back There's a place for you to sign up for different events And of course this is always a fun time for the ladies They'll be having a tea in honor of Mother's Day But all ladies are invited There is a gift basket that'll be valued at over $50 That'll be given away And you can sign up through your communication card And of course the next day is Mother's Day on Sunday, May 14th We'd love for you to make plans to be here for that We're going to have the children's choir singing on Mother's Day In honor of Mother's Day of course And then we'll be giving out the BBC t-shirts to all the ladies We have ladies t-shirts For ladies, girls, any ladies or girls that are in attendance on that service Not just mothers We'll receive a t-shirt as a gift from our church So we encourage you to be here for that And then of course men's preaching and beat tonight for the men On Friday, April 21st at 7pm This is an activity for men And if you're a man of our church, we'd love for you to be a part of this We'll have several guys from our church preach They'll preach about 10 minute sermons And then we'll have pizza afterwards You don't have to preach if you come We won't make you do that But we'd love for you to be a part of it And you can fellowship with the men of the church Children's choir begins next Sunday, April 16th They'll start practicing at 5.15pm in the playroom So the room right on the other side of the main foyer It's for ages 4 to 12 years old And they're going to be practicing for Mother's Day Homeschool group, they've got PE class this Thursday, April 13th There's other things there for you to look at Please don't forget to turn your cellphones off Or place them on silent during the service They're not a distraction to anybody You should have one of these cards in your bulletin And we want you to be aware of a brand new sermon series That will be starting next Sunday This is in the morning, the morning service We're going to start a series called Helping people reach their full potential We're going to be learning about how for you biblically To reach your full potential Personally, in your marriage, with your children In every area of life And we want to encourage you to be here for that Maybe you can invite a friend to come with you as well If you look at the back of the bulletin Birthdays and anniversaries for this week This week we have Miss Emily Gessler And Miss Julia Gessler have a birthday on April 12th Daniel Santos has a birthday on April 12th Miss Christine Ortiz has a birthday on April 15th And Jeffrey Love has a birthday on April 15th Praise reports, salvation, money matters All those things are there for you to look at Obviously Easter is a busy time for us And let me just give you some numbers real quickly I like to call our church the working church And that's because we've got a workforce around here And in preparation for Easter this week Over the last four weeks Our church gave out 10,000 invitations door to door Through our soul winning Our mailing ministry mailed out 5,700 mailers And of course we had 72 soul winners out on Thursday night 70 soul winners on Friday night 126 soul winners on Saturday morning And this morning of course we had a great turnout The choir did a great job The orchestra did a great job We had 270 in church this morning for Easter And considering the fact that we started this church 12 years ago With just a few people in a living room The Lord has blessed and we are thankful for that I think there's 175 here tonight or something like that So praise the Lord for that I think that's it for all of the announcements So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week Which is the insert in your bulletin And we're going to sing Beyond the Cross As we prepare to receive the offering this evening Beyond the Cross, sing it out on the first Leading strain for my journey I know at the cross Where Jesus once died for me And I ask this is the place Where hope abides And this is said to be Beyond the cross Is a tomb that is empty You won't find me there anymore And beyond the tomb Is life everlasting And hope forevermore Good, sing it out on the second When I saw the assurance When I went to the tomb To the place where his body once lay And I won't help you see Is there hope here for me And this I heard him say Beyond the cross Is a tomb that is empty You won't find me there anymore And beyond the tomb Is life everlasting And hope forevermore Amen, good singing, we'll have the guys come up And help us with the offering at this time And if you're a Verity Baptist Church member We'd love for you to take a moment If you haven't done it already And fill out the survey and questionnaire as well Just to get everybody's updated information You can drop it into the offering plate Or you can drop it off into a box in the main foyer Let's go ahead and bow our heads And have a word of prayer Heavenly Father, we do thank you We thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight We pray that you bless the gift and the giver We pray that you bless the preaching of your word In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned Jesus himself drew near and went with them But their eyes were holding that they should not know him And he said unto them What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another As ye walk and are sad? And the one of them whose name was Cleopas answering said unto him Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem And hast not known the things which are come to pass therein these days? And he said unto them What things? And they said unto him Concerning Jesus of Nazareth Which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people And of 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 besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished And were early at the sepulcher When they found out his body they came saying That they had also seen a vision of angels Which said that he was alive And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher And found out even so as the women had said But him they saw not Then he said unto them O fools and slow of heart to believe all 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 expanded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself And they drew nigh into 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 meat with them He took bread and blessed it and break and gave to them And their eyes were opened and they knew him And he vanished out of their sight And they said one to another Did not our heart burn within us While he talked with us by the way While he opened to 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 appeared to Simon And they told what things were done in the way And now he was known of them in breaking of bread Let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for this evening God I thank you for your word And for our church Lord for everyone that's here As he please meet with us tonight Give us all tender hearts at the message As he please be with our pastors to strengthen him And from the inner spirit We love you And in Jesus' name we pray Amen Amen Alright we're there in Luke chapter number 24 And of course we have been making our way Through the Gospel of Luke We've been on a journey with Jesus Is what we've called it And we've been spending We've spent really over a year Studying the Gospel of Luke together Verse by verse Chapter by chapter And we have planned it So that we would be here in Luke chapter 24 On this day of course The day that we celebrate the resurrection Of the Lord Jesus Christ This morning of course I preached on the subject of the resurrection And if you remember this morning We dealt with Luke 24 verses 1 through 12 And also verses 36 through 46 Which had to do with his resurrection And his appearing before the disciples On Wednesday night We're going to finish the Gospel of Luke And we'll be dealing with verses 47 through 53 And I'll be preaching on the subject Of the ascension of Christ Which is probably the least talked about event Of the Lord Jesus Christ But we'll be learning about the ascension And I think you'll be interested to know about that Tonight we're going to deal with these verses 13 through 35 And this morning as we were going through our passage I told you that we were skipping these verses 13 through 35 Because I'll be preaching a sermon about that tonight And the reason that I think this passage This portion needs its own sermon Is because it's such a great passage And it's often known as the passage of the road to Emmaus And of course we know that the Lord Jesus Christ Has risen in verses 1 through 12 The women are now aware They went to the sepulcher expecting a body And they have been told that Jesus was resurrected And they have gone back and told the 11 What the angels told them But at this point no one has actually seen the risen Christ Now after this story verses 13 through 35 We see Jesus appear to the disciples And He has them handle them and all those things But this is actually the first time in the Gospel of Luke That Jesus is visibly seen after His resurrection Now if you study the Gospels you'll notice that after The resurrection there's documented for us Several events several times in which Jesus appeared To His disciples in His glorified body And some of the Gospel writers give us different stories And different things Luke chose to give us really this one story And he kind of goes into detail about it It's a very interesting story And what we see in this passage Luke 24, 13 through 35 is two disciples They're not necessarily 12 of the apostles They're just two regular followers of Jesus Christ And they are on the road to a town named Emmaus In verse 13 you'll notice there the Bible says And behold two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus Which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs And of course today we know that from Jerusalem to Emmaus Is about a seven mile trip So these two disciples are on their way walking down this road From Jerusalem to Emmaus And it's a seven mile walk, seven mile hike As they make it to this town Notice verse 14 And they talk together of all these things What things? Well we know that this day That they are taking this trip to Emmaus Is the first day of the week And we know that Jesus has resurrected And what they're talking about Is the events that have taken place over the last several days The fact that Jesus was arrested The fact that He was crucified The fact that He was buried And now three days later There is talk of the fact that His body is missing Verse 14 says And they talked together of all these things Which had happened and it came to pass That while they communed together and reasoned Why don't you notice here verse 15 Jesus Himself drew near We of course see here the resurrected Christ This is Jesus in His glorified body And the Bible tells us that He Himself drew near And went with them Now if you understand the ancient world You'll understand that traveling through these roads In these ways was a common thing Obviously in these days The primary mode of transportation was walking We see this all throughout the Bible When Jesus tells the famous story of the Good Samaritan He tells the story of a man who's on a road Between Jerusalem and Jericho And we know that on that road He was assaulted The story that Jesus tells us about the Jew That was helped by the Good Samaritan Was that he was on this road And he was attacked And he was robbed And he was beaten And he was left to die He was left half dead So as people in this ancient world And I want you to understand this Because you and I live in America in 2023 We live in California So this might seem a little odd to us Because especially now in our day and age Everybody so has their face in a screen That it's odd to ever have any sort of human communication Or contact with anybody And if anybody, you know, it'd be an odd thing If you looked at someone Or made eye contact with somebody Or, you know, waved at someone I mean you'd be, probably, might get arrested If you tried to do anything like that But in this day, in the ancient world It was not out of the ordinary For you to be walking down a road And for other people who were walking down the road To even strangers To begin to walk together And talk as they went Because of the fact It was a very dangerous time And there's strength in numbers So if you are walking down a road You've got a seven mile trip ahead of you And you happen to come across a stranger You would probably begin to walk together And talk together As you go down the road Because it would be a safe thing to do So Jesus, the Bible tells us Drew near and went with them Notice verse 16 But their eyes were holding That they should not know him So Jesus appears and begins to walk down This road towards Emmaus With these men I want you to understand the context You have two disciples going down the road to Emmaus As they're walking, they're talking Very lively about the events that have taken place And then this third man Goes down the road with them Begins to walk with them The Bible tells us this man was Jesus But they did not recognize him They did not see him And they did not realize That it was the Lord Jesus Christ Now let me just say a couple of things about this And I'll say this just by way of introduction Go to John if you would Keep your place there in Luke 24 That's our text for tonight But if you would turn over to John chapter 20 Just the next book over Let's talk about the book of John And let me say this It's very common For As we see the appearance of Jesus After his resurrection It was very common for him To not be recognized After his resurrection For him to appear to his disciples And his disciples to not realize That it was him Let me give you an example of that John chapter 20 and verse 11 Another example of this same thing John 20 and 11 The Bible says but Mary This is of course the famous Mary Magdalene Mary stood without At the sepulcher weeping This is again She has not yet seen the resurrected Christ She's standing outside of the sepulcher She's weeping, she's mourning The Bible says and as she wept She stooped down And looked into the sepulcher Verse 12 The one at the head And the other at the feet Where the body of Jesus had lain And they say unto her, woman, why weepest thou? She said unto them, because they have taken Away my Lord And I know not where they have laid him If you remember from this morning We talked about the fact that nobody expected Nobody Nobody was expecting that the body would not be there Here we have Mary Who's weeping at the sepulcher The angels ask her, what are you crying about? Why weepest thou? And she says, because they have taken away my Lord And I know not where they have laid him Verse 14 And when she had thus said She turned herself back Notice what the Bible says And saw Jesus standing But notice what it says And knew not that it was Jesus Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener Sayeth unto him, sir, if thou was born in hence Sayeth unto him, and I will take him away Verse 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary And she turned herself And saith unto him, Rabboni Which is to say, master So I want you to notice that It was a common thing for the disciples To not recognize Jesus After his resurrection Now there's a lot of questions about this And let me just give you some thoughts I mean, I'll tell you what the Bible actually tells us But I want you to understand some things When you look at the Bible It's a change to the body of Christ We believe that his glorified body Of course, looked like His body before And your glorified body If you're saved At the resurrection, at the rapture Will look, you will look The way you look today I know that's disappointing to some of you But it's the truth We know that because of other passages In scripture where They're identified by their looks Even the Lord Jesus Christ himself When he appears in his glorified body To John on the isle of Patmos In the book of Revelation The Bible says that his likeness was as the Son of Man So we know that he looked the way he did His figure might have changed a little bit Isaiah 52 Which is part of the prophetic The famous prophecy in Isaiah 53 One of the most famous prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ In the Old Testament Tells us that his face was marred So there might have actually been some sort of Disfigurement to his body That made him look a little different And that's up in the air And you could maybe consider that Here, for example, with the story with Mary The Bible tells us Supposing him to be the gardener Saved unto him Sir, if thou is born him Hence tell me where thou has laid him And I will take him But the Bible also tells us here in verse 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary And then the Bible says She turned herself and saith unto him Rabboni So obviously she was not facing him He walked up behind her And he said to her, woman, why weepest thou Whom seekest thou And she supposing him to be the gardener So we see that here But we see this in other passages as well Go back to Luke 24 I won't take the time to go through them But we see Jesus, he goes to the disciples When they're out fishing But they go back to their old life Peter said, I go fishing And Jesus appears to them on the shore And he begins to talk with them And they don't realize that it was Jesus And part of this had to do with maybe the fact That his face had changed a little bit Part of it had to do with the actual Physicality Maybe they had their backs to him Maybe he was far away on the shore But the Bible tells us here in Luke 24 That one of the reasons why they could not Recognize Jesus And the main reason why they could not Recognize Jesus was because he did not Want them to Notice Luke 24 16 But their eyes were holding The word holding means They were held back That they should not know him This was miraculous God had performed a miracle here Jesus had performed a miracle Where their eyes had been held back Where they saw this individual But they were unable to recognize Him as Jesus Now you might be wondering why is it that Jesus would do this after the resurrection And on Wednesday night I'll be speaking on the subject of the Ascension and we're going to talk about the 40 days between the resurrection Of Christ and the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and how Jesus' Interaction with the disciples Changed and was not the same As it was before so we'll deal With that on another night But let me just say this, I believe that To some extent, one of the reasons Why he would make it so that they would Not recognize him, part of it Was just the fact that he wanted to surprise them He wanted to be able to speak With them and then surprise them That hey, you weren't Expecting me to be resurrected But here I am Another reason might be As we get into this passage, I think you will See it, that he's trying to get An honest report from Them and if they would have Known that they were talking to Jesus, they might not Have been as honest as they are So he was trying to Speak to them and not have them Change their thoughts or Attitudes based off who He was and we know that History tells us there are many Accounts of famous Kings who would go out Into the community and go out And speak to the people of their kingdom And they would dress themselves as Peasants and they would dress themselves As the common man so that they could Speak to people without people Thinking they were the king and therefore Changing the way that they Would speak to them. I feel like I can Understand this to an extent, being a pastor I've noticed sometimes when I Meet people, they'll speak to me And they'll maybe act Just normal and as soon as they find out Oh, what do you do for a living? I'm a pastor Of a church and then all of a sudden, you know, everything Is like, oh, well praise the Lord Hallelujah. And it's like, You know, two minutes ago It was like blankety blank blank You know, and so Oftentimes people will Change the way they speak Or the way they act or the way they Portray themselves based off The person they're speaking to. So I think That Jesus wanted to have a Conversation with these men but he wanted An honest conversation so Therefore their eyes were holding Back that they could not recognize Him. And I'd like to give you some thoughts Regarding this conversation that Jesus has with these men on the Road to Emmaus. I'd like to give you four thoughts And maybe you can write these down. I always encourage you To take notes and on the back of your course of the week There's a place for you to write down some things I'd like you to notice, first of all, we see in this Story the disappointment That they had in Christ The disappointment that they had in Christ And this might be the reason why Jesus held back their eyes Their eyes were holding Because he wanted to speak to them About their heartache And their heartache Was actually rooted in The disappointment that they had In Christ himself We read of course that these men Were on the road to Emmaus We read that Jesus appears to them And he begins to walk down the road And to speak to them. Verse 17 The Bible says, and he said unto them This is Jesus speaking To the disciples, but they do not know It is Jesus speaking to them He says to them, what manner Of communication are these That ye have one to Another as ye walk And are sad? I want you to notice their hopelessness They are sad, and Jesus is identifying He's pretty much walking He walks up to them and he says What's wrong? What manner Of communication are these? That ye have one to another? As ye walk He says, and are sad Notice verse 18 And one of them, whose name was Cleopas Answering said unto him Art thou only a stranger In Jerusalem? I want you to notice the way they respond They said You must be new around here You must not be around from These parts You must be a stranger You must be a foreigner Just traveling through What we're talking about Art thou only a stranger In Jerusalem? And has not known the things That are come to pass Here in these days? Jesus begins to walk with his disciples And he asks them the question What are you talking about? What is this communication? Why are you so sad? And they respond to him You must be new You must have just got here It's the front page It's the headline Everybody knows what's going on You must have just got here What do you mean what are we talking about? They said Art thou only a stranger In Jerusalem? And has not known the things That are come to pass There in these days? Notice the response of Jesus Verse 19 And he said unto them The sense of humor of Jesus I want you to grasp it fully Here because Jesus In my opinion is having a little fun With these guys He's Jesus He's the resurrected Christ He was crucified And buried He was beaten And he is now resurrected from the grave He's walking with his disciples Who he knows well And they know him well And they look at their eyes And he walks up and he says What are you so sad about? And they say What do you mean what are we so sad about? You must be new around here Everybody knows what we're sad about Don't you know what's going on? Don't you know of the things that have happened around here? And then Jesus says to them What things? What things? And they said unto him Concerning Jesus of Nazareth The mighty in deed and word Before God and all the people And how the chief priest and our rulers Delivered him to be condemned to death And have crucified him And I want you to notice verse 21 Verse 21 is probably why their eyes were holding back Verse 21 is probably why Jesus did not want to be recognized Because I don't know that they would have been this honest and truthful with Jesus If they would have known that he was listening I want you to notice the disappointment that they had in Christ In verse 21 they say this But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel They said we trusted We had confidence We believed that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel What does that mean? They thought he was the Messiah They thought that he was the Christ They thought that he was the anointed one They thought that he was the anointed one They thought that he was the chosen one Now I don't have time to get into these details But often what happens with these Old Testament Jews And what happened with these believers in the New Testament During the life of Christ Is that they had the wrong idea of the Messiah See the Bible prophesies the coming of the Messiah in two different ways You have the first coming and the second coming The first time that he comes to this earth And the second time he comes to the earth The first time he comes as a lamb The second time he comes as the lion of the tribe of Judah The first time he came in humility The next time he will come in glory The first time he came as a babe The next time he will come as a king And what they thought was they did not understand The prophecies of the first coming of Christ They thought that the Christ who would come Would be the one who would come with a rod of iron Who would be the redeemer of Israel Who would, they trusted that he had been He which should have redeemed Israel And then they say, verse 21 And beside all this Today is the third day Since these things were done And I said it this morning But I'll say it again because it's Easter And this is really just another Easter sermon And it is this That our religion is not a religion of the teachings of Christ It is not a religion of the parables of Christ It's not a religion of the miracles of Christ Our religion is Christ The religion of Christ The belief in Christ The idea of Christ The message of Christ We talked about it this morning But it hinged on what he claimed about himself And the problem with Jesus If I could say it that way Was that he said too much about himself He said, I am the Son of God He said, I am Seven different times in the book of John He says, I am the way I am the door I am the bread He equated himself to a deity Because he was deity He said, I am the way The truth and the light No man cometh unto the Father But by me He goes to a funeral where he resurrects a man And he says, I am the resurrection and the light The ministry of Christ And look, you need to understand this Because today, Christianity hinges on Is Jesus who he said he was? And for these disciples The problem was That the man that they had been following The man that they had been trusting The man that they had been trusting Had said too much about himself And like we said this morning When Jesus died Everything he claimed about himself Died with him So we see their disappointment The disappointment they had in Christ Look at it again, verse 21 But we trusted, past tense You're not trusting anymore? Well, we did trust But then he died But then he died We believed that he was life But then he died We believed that he was the resurrection But then he died We see the disappointment of the disciples But we trusted that it had been he Which should have redeemed Israel And beside all this, today is the third day Since these things were done Yea, and certain women also of our company Made us, notice again, made us astonished The word astonished means Filled with sudden And overpowering surprise Made us astonished Which were early at the sepulcher And when they found not his body They came saying that they had also seen Visions of angels which said he was alive And some of them Which were with us Went to the sepulcher And found it even so as the women had said Look at it, last part of verse 24 But him They saw not They said Are you new around here? It's all everyone's talking about Jesus of Nazareth He was a prophet mighty in deed And word before God and all the people And we trusted That it had been he Which should have redeemed Israel But then he died And everything he claimed About himself Died with him You understand why Jesus might want to have held their eyes Jesus might want to have held their eyes back He wanted to document this for us There was a disappointment That his disciples had And it's not just these two All of them, the disappointment they had in Christ But I want you to notice secondly tonight Not only do we see the disappointment They had in Christ, we also see The disbelief they had of Christ Look at verse 25 Then he Now up to this point they've done all the talking He's just asked questions What manner of communication are these that you have one to another As you walk and are sad And they're telling him all about Jesus And how they're disappointed and how they trusted And they thought he was, but now he's dead And now all of that's gone And then the Bible tells us in verse 25 Then he said unto them O fools Imagine a stranger saying that to you O fools And slow of heart To believe He said unto them O fools O 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 Notice verse 27 And beginning at Moses And at all the prophets He expounded unto them In all the scriptures The things concerning himself Why don't you notice that They had a disbelief And Jesus said You're slow of heart He says O fools O slow of heart to believe Isn't this what 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 Let's run a few verses real quickly Go to Acts chapter 3 After Luke you have John and then the book of Acts Acts chapter number 3 Luke, John, and then Acts Acts chapter number 3 See the Bible had all the answers for them already Let me just give you a quick application Everything that breaks your heart Cause isn't that what we see with these disciples? Broken hearts By the way Jesus is gentle with them He's not upset with them He understands the situation they find themselves in They had put all their eggs They had put all their Easter eggs Into that basket of Jesus And then he died They don't believe They're disappointed But please understand something The problem was not with the Bible The problem was with their lack of understanding of the Bible The problem was with their lack of understanding of the Bible The Bible had already answered these questions The Bible had already told them these things That's why he says Beginning at Moses and in all the prophets He began to explain to them what the Bible says They got it, praise God Acts chapter 3, look at verse 18 Notice the disciples after the ascension Acts 3, 18 But those things which God before This is the disciples speaking Which God before has showed By the mouth of All his prophets That Christ should suffer He had so fulfilled Acts 3, 18 Look at Acts 3, 21 Whom the heaven must receive Until the times of restitution Of all things We'll look at this verse again During the ascension Which God has spoken by the mouth Of all his holy prophets Since the world began Go to Acts chapter 10 Verse 43 Notice what the Bible says Acts 10, 43 To him give all The prophets witness The him there Is referring to Jesus To him give all the prophets witness That through his name whosoever believeth in him Shall receive remission of sin Do you know that the entire Bible is about Jesus Christ? You know that Jesus Is the red thread That goes through the entire Bible You say pastor why are we going to begin A brand new Bible study Next Sunday night in the book of Numbers We're going to go chapter by chapter Through the book of Numbers Why would we do that? Why are we going to start a Bible study Not this Wednesday night but next Wednesday night In the book of Galatians and go verse by verse Through the book of Galatians Why is it that for the last 12 years You have gone and taught us line upon line Chapter after chapter Book after book We've studied verse by verse The book of Genesis and Exodus And Leviticus and Joshua And Judges and 1 Samuel And 2 Samuel and Ezra And Nehemiah Excuse me not Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther We've studied Job We've studied Isaiah We've studied Ezekiel We've studied Amos We've studied Joel We've studied Matthew We're finishing up Luke We've studied Galatians and Jude And we're going to keep going till we've studied the whole Bible You say why? Because the whole thing is about Jesus Christ Amen Every chapter you can find Jesus in it Every book you can find Jesus in it The entire Old Testament led us up to Jesus The entire Gospels is all about Jesus The entire Epistles And everything after the Gospels just points us back to Jesus It's all about Jesus The Bible says to him Give all the prophets witness Amen Jesus And all the answers were there And I just want you to understand this Whatever problem you have Whatever heartache you have Whatever issue you're dealing with tonight Whatever makes you sad That you might not ever say out loud You might not ever say it to me Because I'm a pastor and you just wouldn't say those things To a pastor You might not say it out loud Because you're afraid that God would hear you Or Jesus would hear you There are some things you've had There are some things that have not gone the way you thought they should have There are some issues that have happened in your life And you're sad And your countenance has fallen And there's depression there and discouragement But let me tell you something The problem is not in the Bible The Bible has the answers You just need to learn the Bible and find the answers The Bible has the answers to every problem The Bible has the answers to every issue The Bible can help you with anything and everything The issue is not with the word of God But with the knowledge of the word of God This is why Hosea said My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge Jesus begins to deal with their disbelief Jesus begins, the Bible tells us Go back if you would to Luke 24 Verse 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets Why? Because look, you need it all All scriptures given by inspiration of God All of it You say, you're going to preach through the whole Bible? I'm going to preach through the whole Bible? You say, what are you going to do? Once you've done that, I'm going to retire No, I'm just kidding I mean, we've already preached through like 45% of the Bible in 12 years I think we can finish the rest of the thing in the next 10 years I'll probably be only I'm 37 years old right now I'll probably be 45, 46 By the time we're done, you say, what are we going to do? Once we finish, we're going to do it again We're going to dig into it again We're going to learn it again We're going to study it again Because the Bible is alive Because the Bible is fresh Because the Bible has the answers that you need Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, the Bible tells us We see the disappointment they had in Christ We see the belief they had in Christ But I'd like you to notice thirdly there in verse 27 We see the discourse they were given by Christ Notice this in verse 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets Notice this little phrase He expounded unto them He expounded unto them You say, what does that mean? He began to preach a sermon to them He began to teach a Bible study to them This was the greatest sermon never recorded Praise God for all the sermons that are recorded in the Bible Some amazing sermons recorded in the Bible The great Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 We've got the other sermons where Jesus rebuked in the Pharisees And other chapters of the Gospel We've got some of the sermons of the Apostle Paul and others Stephen and others who preach sermons Great sermons and the prophets We've got sermons translated into the Bible We've got some of the sermons of the Apostle Paul and others Stephen and others who preach sermons Great sermons and the prophets We've got sermons translated into the Bible We've got some of the sermons of the Apostle Paul and others Stephen and others who preach sermons Great sermons and the prophets We've got sermons transcribed Sermons they preach Praise God for that Here we have a sermon that wasn't transcribed We're just told that he expounded unto them In all the Scriptures The things concerning himself You say, why would he do that? Here's why Because they had a disbelief And the answer to your lack of faith Is the Word of God Let me prove it to you If you're there in Luke Go past John, past Acts, into the book of Romans Romans chapter 10 Luke, John, Acts, Romans They had a problem They were discouraged They were disappointed because of their disbelief So he gave them the Word of God Romans 10 17 So then, Romans 10 17 So then, faith cometh by hearing And hearing by the Word of God You know what you and I need more than anything? The hearing of the Word of God This is why Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5 You don't have to turn there He said, despise not prophesy Prophesying there is a term The way that you and I would say it would be preaching Despise not preaching You know what I would do if I were you? I would be Under the preaching of God's Word Every chance I would make I would be Under the preaching of God's Word Every chance I got Every opportunity I got Every time the Word of God was open And a man of God By the power of God Expounding on the Word of God You say, why? Because faith cometh by hearing And hearing by the Word of God And it is our lack of faith that brings us problems It is the fact that we don't trust The problem is not that the Bible is not there But we're not trusting what the Bible says You say, why don't we do what the Bible says Because the truth is you would never say it out loud I would never say it out loud But the reason we don't do What the Bible tells us to do Is because we don't trust the Bible Otherwise you would have a marriage The way the Bible tells you to have a marriage Are you listening to me? The reason that a wife Fights submitting to her husband Though that's what the Bible says Is because honestly you never say this out loud You never say it to me You never say it to God You'd only say it to Jesus If your eyes were holding back And you didn't think you were talking to Jesus But the truth is you don't really trust the Bible That's the reason you husbands don't love your wives And provide for them You send them off to work Because you don't trust the Bible That's the reason you don't raise your children The way that God has told you to raise your children Because can we be honest? You don't trust the Bible You say, well how do I fix that? Get under the preaching of the word of God Faith cometh by hearing And hearing by the word of God The more you learn of the word of God The more the word of God Has an effect on your heart And faith will begin to grow In your heart The Bible says that he expounded Unto them And all the scriptures The things concerning himself I don't know what passages he went to The Bible doesn't document it for us I don't know what he showed them exactly The Bible doesn't document it for us If I had to guess, I would guess that he probably took them to Genesis 3.15 I mean the very first prophecy of Christ where the Bible says And I will put enmity between thee and the woman And between thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel I don't know that he went there But I would guess that he would start there If I had to guess, I would guess that he went to Genesis 22 And talked about that great picture of Abraham Sacrificing his son Isaac And how that pictured the father Sacrificing the only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ I don't know that he went there, but if I had to guess I think he would go there If I had to guess, I would think that he probably spent some time in the book of Leviticus And going through all the different Levitical sacrifices And showing how they all foreshadowed And were a picture of the coming Messiah I don't know where he went If I had to guess, I would say that he went to Psalm 22 If I had to guess, I would say that he went to Isaiah 53 If I had to guess, I don't know where he went When he went through the Bible, the Bible tells us That in all the Scriptures, that beginning at Moses He began to teach them Beginning at Moses and all the prophets expanded unto them And he began to reveal himself to them And I'm just here to tell you something The Bible will transform your life I'm not sure if you're there in Romans 10 But I'd like you to look at Romans 12 real quickly In verse 2 Romans 12 and verse 2 And be not conformed to this world But be transformed by the renewing of your mind You say, how do you perform discipleship? How do you get transformed to the image of Christ by the renewing of your mind? See, some of you are probably here tonight and you're like, oh no I think I've heard of places like this This is like some, you actually believe the Bible? Is this some sort of a cult? I assure you, we're not a cult Cults try to keep people in This type of preaching throws people out What I will tell you is that we believe the Bible, yes And we preach the Bible And it will transform your life if you allow it to renew your mind And if you want to accuse us of brainwashing I would just say that your brain probably needs to be washed You need a renewing of your mind Because we've been doing it wrong And God says the answers of life are in the Bible But be transformed by the renewing of your mind Go back to Luke 24 I said, number one, we see the disappointment they had in Christ Number two, we see the disbelief they had of Christ Number three, we saw the discourse they were given by Christ And then lastly, tonight I'd like you to notice The discovery they made in Christ There's three thoughts regarding this discovery Why don't you notice, first of all, the invitation Luke 24 and verse 28, the Bible says And they drew nigh unto the village whether they went And he, this is Jesus, made as though he would have gone further I want you to understand the wording there The wording when it says that he made as though he would have gone further The way that we see that wording, sometimes the way that When our King James Bible was translated to 1611 The way that they worded things was oftentimes Sometimes different than the way we word things So when you and I read that, we think that he's faking Like he's pretending that he's going to keep going further But he's not really going further That is not the idea here What's actually being said is that he began to go further His actions were, in their eyes, as though he was going to continue on without them They were on this road to Emmaus They had been walking for seven miles Jesus has been expounding unto them the word of God And, verse 28, when they drew nigh unto the village whether they went And he made as though he would have gone further He's just going to keep walking, verse 29 But they constrained him saying, abide with us I want you to notice the invitation They invite Jesus You say, what can we learn from this? Here's what we can learn from this You have to invite Jesus I like that song we sing, pass me not, O gentle Savior Hear my humble cry The truth is this, that Jesus will not force himself upon you Jesus is not a Calvinist, sorry to say it He will stop if you'll invite him 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 They said to him, they still don't know it's Jesus They said, it's late, it's dark now It's not safe out there to go and keep walking Why don't you stay with us? And they constrained him saying, abide with us I want you to notice they invited him They invited him in and as a result, verse 30 And it came to pass as he, Jesus, sat at meat with them He took bread and blessed it and break and gave to them And just for the record, this is not a reference to the Lord's Supper This wording is used throughout the Bible simply for them having a meal together They invited them and they fellowshiped Go to Revelation chapter 3 real quickly Revelation chapter 3 In your life and in my life is the same way And by the way, let me just say this Yes, this applies to salvation You've got to call upon Christ by faith to be saved But I would remind you that these disciples are already saved The actual application is this That if you're going to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you must invite him This is illustrated for us in Revelation chapter 3 When Jesus is speaking to the seven churches in Asia Here in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20 Speaking to the Laodicean church The Bible says, this is Jesus speaking If you have a red letter edition Bible You'll notice that these letters are in red He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock This is not a salvation verse This is a sanctification verse He is standing at the door of your heart He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him Isn't this what happened in Luke 24? I will come into him and will sup with him And he with me Here's what I want you to understand Jesus wants to have fellowship with you He wants to walk with you and talk with you He wants to fellowship with you But you've got to invite him He made as though he would have gone further Until they invited him And the question I have for you, Christian, is When was the last time you invited Jesus to have fellowship with you? I'm not talking about salvation When was the last time you opened a King James Bible And said, Jesus, I'd like to commune with you Let me feast on your word Let me spend time having you speak to me through your word And I'll speak to you through prayer When was the last time that an invitation was extended to Jesus Because he stands at the door and knocks Waiting for someone to let him in So we see this invitation I'd like you to notice also If you go back to Luke 24 We see an illumination They've been walking with this man They don't know who he is But he's preaching a real good sermon They're learning and they're like Wow, I didn't realize that Oh, I've heard that before I've heard that before They're learning and they're like Wow, I didn't realize that Oh, I've heard that before Oh, that's what that means As they walk down this road And then he would have gone on He made as though he would have gone further And they constrained him saying Abide with us We see the invitation But then there's an illumination Verse 31 And their eyes were opened And they knew him And he vanished out of their sight I want you to notice that When they began to spend time with Jesus How did they spend time with Jesus? Please understand this God is no respecter of persons They in the first century Literally, physically With the Lord Jesus Christ The resurrected Christ Spent time with Jesus In the same way that you and I Can spend time with him today Spending time in his word And when they invited him And they fellowshipped with him And they spent time Feasting with him And feasting from his words Their eyes were opened You know the sad thing is That most people don't know The Jesus of the Bible They don't know the real Jesus They've allowed the secular world And Hollywood They've allowed Hollywood To give him a depiction of Jesus I mean most people today Think that Jesus Is some skinny, effeminate Long-haired looking hippie And I'm just, I'm sorry to tell you something If that's what you think You obviously haven't spent time In the word of God Cause that's not the Jesus of the Bible But if you spend time In the word of God Your eyes may be opened And you might get to know him Here's how Paul said it In Philippians 3 10 He said that I may know him And the power of his resurrection And the fellowship of his sufferings Being made conformable unto his death I'm here to tell you something Most people have never met The Jesus of the Bible They've met the Jesus in the movies They've met the Jesus in the Renaissance art They've met the Jesus in the fun center Churches of today But they've never met the Jesus of the Bible So we see an invitation We see an illumination And then thirdly I'd like you to notice an invigoration You know what the sad thing is? I don't think most people have ever actually invited Jesus To fellowship with them And because of that Most people have never actually had an illumination Where their eyes were open And they got to know The Jesus and the God of the Bible And I think sadly most people have never experienced an invigoration Notice there in verse 32 And they said one to another Because remember In verse 31 their eyes were open And they knew him And then he vanishes out of their sight Of course this is Jesus' glorified body And we see him do these things Where he just disappears Later on we see him just appear in the room The doors were shut And he appears in the midst of them And they think it's a ghost He vanishes out of their sight But I want you to notice what they said Verse 32 And they said one to another Don't miss this Please don't miss this And they said one to another Did not our hearts burn within us? It's a spiritual heart burn It's not like the stuff you have It's good Did not our hearts burn within us While he talked with us by the way And while he opened to us the scriptures I'm going to do my best to explain this to you But unfortunately I don't know That I have the communication ability to do it And it's not because I'm a bad communicator I'm not saying I'm the greatest communicator But it's not because I'm a bad communicator Necessarily Although I may need to work on my communication Because I just don't know That this can really be put into words Unless you've experienced it Some Christians Experience revival in their hearts I don't know how else to say it I've had conversations with my wife about this I've had conversations with other pastors about this I don't know how to word it I'm praying that the Lord allows me to maybe put it into words Or frame it into words that would make sense But all I can say is that some Christians Just experience this spark They're alive inside Let's talk about salvation This fire that burns in them This is what these men are describing They said, did not our hearts burn within us While he talked to us by the way And while he opened to us the scripture There's just something about sometimes When you go to church You go to a preaching service And the word of God is opened And it is expounded And it is explained And it is applied And your heart begins to burn And the Holy Spirit begins to burn Inside of you And you begin to realize Yes that's right Yes I need to do that Yes I need to go there Yet there's just a spark I don't know how to explain it to you I just can tell you that It's not in most Christians The spark It says I love God I want to serve God I want to give him my life I'll go where he tells me to go I'll do what he tells me to do And the average Christian says I'll show up Sunday morning I'll show up Easter and Christmas I'll show up for special events Unfortunately most Christians Because they never offer an invitation They never really have an illumination They never experience this invigoration Did not our hearts burn within us While he talked with us by the way And while he opened to us the scriptures I don't know if you know what I'm talking about I remember as a young person hearing preachers Preach on soul winning And the fact that people were dying and going to hell And we had the gospel and we had the truth And we had to take it to them And there was just this burning inside of me There's just this fire inside of me that said yes I've got to go with the God I just I don't understand Honestly I'll be honest I'm not trying to pick on you I don't understand how you go to a church like this And you're not a soul winner I don't understand how you can come to a church like this Week after week and you don't read your Bible And I'm not picking on you I'm not mad at you I'm just saying I don't understand How you can sin under the preachers I'm not talking about the preacher I'm not talking about his skills I'm not talking about how eloquent he is Or how dynamic he is I don't understand how you can sin Under the preaching of the word of God And not say Did not our hearts burn within us As he opened unto us the scripture And 2 Peter I think Peter tries to word it for us as well I just want you to see it quickly We'll be done here soon 2 Peter 1 2 Peter 1.19 If you start at the end of the Bible and go backwards Revelation, Jude, 3-2-1, John, 2 Peter 2 Peter 1.19 2 Peter 1.19 I'm thankful for the young people in this church I honestly believe this I'm saying this from the bottom of my heart I believe we've got some of the finest young people in America Here at Verity Baptist Church So what I'm about to say I do not say as a criticism Because I think that they are great But you know what I pray for the young people of this church? They would get a spark They would get a burning inside of them I'm a second generation Christian I was born into an independent fundamental Baptist home So I can understand how this can become second It can just become so normal Church and the word of God And these big days and these big victories and these battles It can become so second hand I'm praying that God would do a work in the hearts of these young people And that they would experience that spark, that fire That they would one day say Didn't let our hearts burn within us While he opened unto us the scriptures 2 Peter 1.19, here's how Peter said it He said, we have also a more sure word of prophecy I just want you to notice the consistency of the Bible The Bible always points you back to the Bible People criticize you Everything you answer is from the Bible That's all I got And not only is it all I got It's all I need It's the word of God We have also a more sure word of prophecy Where unto ye do well to take heed What should I do? Realize this is the Bible and do what it tells you to do When it comes to salvation Just do what this tells you to do Not what religion tells you to do Not whatever church you grew up in tells you to do Do what this tells you to do So that you can be saved When you get married, do what this tells you to do with your marriage When you have children, do what this tells you to do to raise your children When it comes to your finances, do what this tells you to do with your finances When it comes to activities, do what this tells you to do Hey, you would do well to take heed To the word of God We have also a more sure word of prophecy Where unto ye do well to take heed Notice it, I just want you to see it I think this is Peter's attempt to try to put this into verbiage Try to put this into words 2 Peter 1.19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy Where unto ye do well that ye take heed Notice what he says As unto a light that shineth in a dark place Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts He says when you understand that this is the word of God And you read it and you apply it And you take heed to it He says it's like the sun coming up in a dark place He says but it's in your heart It's not the sun s-u-n It's the sun s-o-n As it begins to arise in your heart He says as unto a light that shineth in a dark place Until the day dawn and the day star in your heart You say what is Peter describing? He's describing I believe what these two said on the road to Emmaus Did not our hearts burn within us? And here's a question I've got to ask you And I don't want you to answer it out loud But I do want you to answer it honestly You ever felt that? You ever felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit working in your heart What do you do with that? Because you know what the Bible says? God says quench not the Holy Spirit of God I think the unfortunate thing is that sometimes people do begin to feel that fire And they quench it They begin to feel that fire And they extinguish it They begin to feel that fire And they put it out And I'm praying that our young people And I'm praying that our not so young people That's a nice way of saying you old people Well get that fire burning in your heart Some of you never had it Some of you need to get it back You say how do you do it? It's the word of God The psalmist said Go back to Luke, we'll finish this up The psalmist said in Psalm 85, 6 Wilt thou not revive us again? That thy people may rejoice in me It's revival in your heart I like the song Revive us again Fill each heart with thy love May each soul be rekindled with fire from above Hallelujah, thine the glory Hallelujah, amen Hallelujah, thine the glory Revive us again There was an invitation There was an illumination There was an invigoration There was an invigoration They said did not our hearts burn within us While he talked with us by the way And while he opened to us the scripture Let's finish this up quickly Notice there in Luke 24 and verse 33 The Bible says And they rose up the same hour And returned to Jerusalem They went back Apparently all caution Thrown to the wind They were telling Jesus you can't keep walking They're excited They got something to say And they're going to go back The Bible says they rose up the same hour And returned to Jerusalem I want you to notice I just want you to get this I hope it's okay for me to just take a moment to develop this for you Because they get there And they're excited They just saw the resurrected Christ And I don't know what these people said I don't know what Jesus said to them On the seven miles there And I'm not sure what they talked about On the seven miles back But if they were anything like you and I I would imagine that they probably talked about How surprised the disciples are going to be When they tell them the story How Jesus appeared to them I mean I don't know They might have argued We know these disciples like to argue a lot They might have argued about How are we going to tell the story Okay you tell them this part This is a conversation We were walking down the road And this guy showed up And they were probably arguing Okay well you tell them that part I'll tell them this part I'll tell them how he asked us a question And I'll tell them how you answered And then you'll say this and you'll say that And then maybe we'll together say it was Jesus Maybe we'll, maybe I don't know I'm just saying if it were me This is a conversation I'd be having Then I'll say one, two, three It was Jesus And then found the eleven Gathered together and them that were with them And then the eleven Stole their thunder Look at it verse three four Saying, this is not them This is the eleven speaking to them The eleven are telling them They walked through the door saying Hey guys we got news for you And they said no we've got news for you Saying the Lord is risen indeed And has appeared to Simon And they're like We came all this way to tell you something Verse thirty five And they told what things were done in the way They said okay well let me tell you my story anyway We were walking to Emmaus and this guy shut up You already know but it was Jesus And they told what things were done in the way And how he was known of them In the breaking of bread You say what can we learn from this If we can learn this that the message of the resurrection Does not belong to any one person But it is for everyone It's not the message that the pope gives to the people It's not the message that the preacher gives to the people It's not the message that the eleven give to everyone else Here we have these two unknown disciples We don't even know who they are We know that one of them is named Cleophas But we know this That the message of the resurrection Is for all They went to tell the story And they said we've got a story for you Now let me tell you something Christians from the first century They went to tell the story And they said we've got a story for you Now let me tell you something Christians from the first century Have been telling the story I love to tell the story Of unseen things above Of Jesus and his glory Of Jesus and his love This is a message for you And it's a message for me It belongs to all of us And it's our responsibility To get it out Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Heavenly father Lord we love you Thank you for this amazing little story These two disciples We don't even know who they are really But they were on the road to Emmaus And we see them disappointed and discouraged At first And then we see them encouraged and revived Did not our hearts burn within us? Lord that's my prayer for every Christian here That's my prayer for myself That there would be a fire that would be set in our hearts That we might be revived again Revive us again oh Lord Is our prayer In the matchless name of Christ we pray Amen We're gonna have brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song And as he leads us in the song We'll prepare for baptism And we'll have a baptism tonight Amen let's grab our songbooks and turn to page 281 Song number 281 Pass me not oh gentle savior Song number 281 on the first Pass me not oh gentle savior Hear my humble cry Let my heart come to our calling Do not pass me by Savior Savior Hear my humble cry Hear my humble cry On others our calling Do not pass me by 281 on the second Let me at the throne of mercy Find a sweet belief Healing willingly from church shall Help my unbelief Savior Savior Hear my humble cry While on others our calling Do not pass me by On the third Trust me God In thy merit Lord I see thy face Heal my wounded looking spirit Save me by thy grace Savior Savior Have my humble cry Have my humble cry While on others our calling Do not pass me by See it out on the last Now the spring of all my comfort Will lie to me Who have I left beside me Who have I left beside me See it out Savior Savior Hear my humble cry While on others our calling Do not pass me by All right. Well, we have Marty Jack Kinnen coming for baptism and he of course is he's been coming with his dad Robert for several months now and we Appreciate them. They're a good family and All the way from San Francisco's praise the Lord for that and you accept the Lord Jesus Christ is your personal Savior All right by your profession of faith I baptize you my brother in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost buried in the likeness of his death raised to walk in newness All Right, well, thank you very much for being here tonight and I just want to of course wish you a happy Easter Thank you for coming. It was a great day today. I want to encourage you to be with us on Wednesday night we're gonna be finishing the Gospel of Luke and we've been in the Gospel of Luke for over a year now And I appreciate your patience with that We're gonna finish the last few Verses of the Gospel of Luke the ascension of Christ and of course the most encouraging service of the week on Wednesday night There's anything we do for you. Please let us know and I'm gonna ask whether RJ if you would not mind dismissing us with a word of prayer Let us close in player player prayer Do you have the fire Lord? We love you and thank you for a great day that we had Lord thank you for again for sending your son to die for sin and thank you for Thank you for our salvation Lord, thank you for our pastor and thank you for our church Thank you for the dear people that would that are here Lord and to praise you and encouraging to me and to everyone here Lord pray they bless everybody bring us back to church on Wednesday in Jesus and my pray. Amen You You