Monday Exposition Idea:The Meaning of the Resurrection(Luke 24:13-53)

By Franklin L. Kirksey, Pastor, First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort, Alabama, and author of Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice.

These expositions by Dr. Kirksey are offered to suggest sermon or Bible study ideas for pastors and other church leaders, both from the exposition and from the illustrative material, or simply for personal devotion.

Introduction

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) met General William Booth (1829-1912) while both were out walking. “General,” said Tennyson, “what is the news this morning?” “The news, sir, “replied Booth, “is that Christ died for our sins and rose for our justification!” “Ah,” replied the poet, “that is old news, and new news, and good news.”

After His crucifixion and resurrection Jesus walked most of the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus with two of His discouraged, disappointed and dismayed disciples. Dr. J. I. (James Innes) Packer shares the following about the identity of the two disciples. Dr. Packer writes,

One was Cleopas (v. 18). The other, not named by Luke, lived with Cleopas, and it is natural to guess (though not possible to prove) that it was Mary, wife of “Clopas” (John 19:25) and mother of James (Mark 15:14), who was at the cross when Jesus died. (In that case, Cleopas was Alphaeus, James’ father.) I shall assume that it was husband and wife trudging home that day.[1]

From our passage in Luke 24 we will focus on three elements.

I. Unleashing the Truth of Scripture (Luke 24:13-27, 32, 44)

Dr. Luke recounts,

¹³ Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And they talked together of all these things which had happened. ¹⁵ So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. ¹⁶But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
¹⁷ And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
¹⁸ Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”
¹⁹ And He said to them, “What things?”
So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰ and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. ²¹ But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. ²² Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. ²³ When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. ²⁴ And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
²⁵ Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” ²⁷ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:13-27).

According to Dr. Stephen F. Olford (1918-2004), “The primary mention of expository preaching in the New Testament is Luke 24.” He calls it “the perfect model of expository preaching.” Dr. Olford states, “Preaching is primary, and expository preaching is paramount; and without question, Jesus Christ is the Prince of all expositors.” In his book titled Anointed Expository Preaching, co-authored with Dr. David L. Olford, we read,

On that first resurrection day, Jesus ‘expounded to [the two disciples] in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself’ (Luke 24:27, emphasis ours). As the Prince of all expositors, He expounded the truth and illustrated His points. With consummate authority, He adopted the customary method of reading and exegeting the Scriptures (John 1:18). Whether in the synagogue, in the home, on the hillside, or from an anchored boat, Jesus consistently expounded the Word of God to hungry hearts (see Mark 1:22; 2:1-2; 4:34; Luke 4:16-22, etc.).[2]

Dr. Luke also writes, “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24:32) “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me’” (Luke 24:44).

According to Dr. Edmund P. Clowney (1917-2005), three of His texts were likely from Exodus 17, Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.[3]

Dr. F. B. Meyer (1834-1929) said, “Every chapter, verse and incident of the Bible may somehow be made a road to Jesus.”

II. Unveiling the Gift of Sight (Luke 24:16, 28-34)

As we read in Proverbs 20:12, “The hearing ear and the seeing eye, / The LORD has made them both.” Jesus has the power to give sight to blind eyes. John records one instance in chapter 9 of the Gospel that bears his name. If a newspaper of that day reported on the event, they might have written the following headline, “Man Born Blind Receives Sight.” Ironically, there were those present who thought they could see spiritually but were blind.

Isaiah the prophet recounts God’s call in Isaiah 6:9-10, where we read,

⁹ And He said, “Go, and tell this people:
Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
¹⁰ “Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”

After Jesus shares “the parable of the sower,” Matthew writes,

¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
¹⁵ For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; ¹⁷ for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it (Matthew 13:10-17).

The Scripture clearly teaches that God conceals and reveals Himself to people. He has the power to veil the eyes and unveil the eyes. Not all of those who have the gift of physical sight are able to see spiritual reality. Paul, a former self-righteous Pharisee, writes,

⁷ What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. ⁸Just as it is written:

“God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day.”
⁹ And David says:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them” (Romans 11:7-9).

Dr. Luke records in verse 16 of our passage in Luke 24, “But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” Then in verse 28 and following we read,

²⁸ Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. ²⁹ But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
³⁰ Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
³² And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” ³³ So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:28-34)

Someone states, “The Emmaus travelers passed through three stages: low of heart, slow of heart, and, finally, possessing a glow of heart.”

III. Understanding the Plan of Salvation (Luke 24:33-53)

Isaiah reports about those in his day who “do not know nor understand; / For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, / And their hearts, so that they cannot understand” (Isaiah 44:18).

Paul the apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16,

⁶ However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, ⁸ which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
⁹ But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
¹⁰ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. ¹⁶ For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Dr. Luke continues to share the account of the two on the road to Emmaus. He writes,

³³ So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
³⁶ Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” ³⁷ But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. ³⁸ And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹ Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
⁴⁰ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹ But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” ⁴² So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. ⁴³ And He took it and ate in their presence.
⁴⁴ Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” ⁴⁵And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ And you are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen (Luke 24:33-53).

Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation is incomplete. Paul the apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Conclusion

Dr. Vance Havner (1901-1986) asks,

Is Jesus real to me? Is He real to you? Is your heart warm? He told us the secret: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). How was He made real to these Emmaus disciples? When He overtook them, they had burdened hearts; then they had burning hearts, and when they recognized Him they had believing hearts. Well, they invited Him in as their guest, and He became their host. He was always doing that. At Cana He was first the guest, and, when the wine gave out, He became the host. Again He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him” — “I’ll be his guest — and he with me — He’ll be my guest.” The Emmaus disciples took Him in and then the guest became host and made Himself known and sent them out to witness to others.

Has He taken over in your heart? Perhaps He resides there, but does He preside? Or maybe you have never opened the door.”[4]

May each one of us truly comprehend and apprehend the meaning of the resurrection!

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