From Downcast Faces to Burning Hearts

You'll find the account of the resurrection of Jesus in Luke 24. And so please turn there with me. Luke 24. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.

Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away wondering to himself what had happened.

Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.

But they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem, and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?

What things, he asked. About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us.

They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not find.

He said to them, How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther.

But they urged him strongly, Stay with us, for it is nearly evening. The day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them.

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven, and those with them assembled together and saying, It is true, the Lord is risen, and has appeared to Simon.

Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. Doubting, dejected, disheartened, depressed, discouraged, and downcast.

These are some of the words that we use to describe a condition that true Christians sometimes find themselves in. And here in Luke 24, we learn that our Lord Jesus knows and is aware of our condition.

He sees and he understands it. And more than that, he comes to us and comes alongside us in our dumps and knows how to lift us up.

So let's watch as the risen Lord draws alongside of two of his disciples and lifts them from downcast faces to burning hearts.

The hectic week of Passover has ended. The two disciples of Christ were on a seven-mile walk to the town of Emmaus.

And as they left Jerusalem behind them, they took with them the memories of that fateful weekend. And it all unraveled so quickly.

It was the wee hours of Friday morning when their Lord had been suddenly arrested, betrayed by the treasurer of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, who then went out and hanged himself committing suicide.

Jesus was quickly tried and condemned by the Jewish high court and then hurried off to Pilate who finally gave in to the cries and demands of the people to have him crucified.

And so by nine o'clock Friday morning, Jesus was hanging on a cross left to die between two criminals. At twelve noon, the sun had stopped shining and darkness covered the whole land until three in the afternoon when Jesus cried in a loud voice, it is finished, and then dismissed his spirit to his father and breathed his last.

And at that, the earthquake, the rocks were torn, the tombs were opened, the curtain in the temple was torn in two, and then two men from the Sanhedrin, one Pharisee named Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Christ, took him down and put him in Joseph's new tomb in which no man had ever been laid.

And it was all over within 24 hours. The Saturday Sabbath followed and now it's Sunday, the first day of the week.

What a weekend. It was like a blur in their minds. And so, as these two friends are walking to Emmaus, they rewind the tape and they go back over the events of the weekend, discussing the matter together and the whole thing depressed them.

And their faces told the tale of their sad hearts. But we read in verse 17 that their faces were downcast, sullen, sad.

They could not hide their dejected hearts. And so it was that while they're walking along, sadly discussing these things, that the risen Lord himself draws up alongside of them, but they were kept from recognizing him.

And this sets up one of the most interesting scenes in the scriptures. You've got two disciples of Jesus talking to Jesus about Jesus, but they don't know it is Jesus.

Isn't that good? I've read this story many times, but I'm always on ears, on the edge of my seat to read it again. These guys are talking to Jesus about him and don't know it is him.

So Jesus asked, what are you discussing together as you walk along? Now his question stops them dead in their tracks.

And one of them, Cleopas, by name, asked him, are you the only visitor? I believe that's a better translation than just saying, are you only a visitor to Jerusalem? Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

I mean, this has been the talk of the town for three days running. Fox News has been running it nonstop. It's on every radio talk show. Everybody's talking about it.

How could have you missed what has happened in these days? They look at him as if he's an alien that has just been dropped down on the planet and has no clue about what has just happened in Jerusalem.

What things? He asked them. Don't you love the way he draws them along? He's drawing out their hearts. Well, about Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, and they set out to fill in their stranger about this man named Jesus.

And in the process, their hearts will be revealed. As we hear their thoughts about Jesus, we'll see the reason for their sadness. And then we'll hear Jesus' reasons for their gladness.

First, the reasons for their sadness. Jesus of Nazareth, who is he? Well, he was a prophet. Powerful in word and deed before God and all the people, verse 19.

Power attended his words. No one ever spoke like he did. The wind and the waves obeyed him, and so did the demons and sicknesses. And it wasn't just his words, it was his deeds.

He did what no man ever did. And he didn't just speak and do these powerful words and deeds in secret, but before God and all the people in public.

He was some prophet, I tell you. It reminds us of an earlier day when Jesus had asked the twelve, whom do people say that I am? And they said, well, some say you're John the Baptist, others say you're Isaiah or Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

prophets. And Jesus says, well, what about you? Who do you say that I am? And remember how Peter answers for the twelve and he says, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God.

You are the Christ. He's more than a prophet. He is the prophet, the prophet like Moses. the final prophet who would bring God's word to us personally.

He understood Hebrews one and verse one that in the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us through his son.

You are the son of the living God and Jesus affirmed their answer. You're right. And flesh and blood did not teach you that, but my father in heaven revealed that to you. Well, these two disciples on the road to Emmaus once held that same conclusion themselves.

He's the Messiah, the Christ, but now he's been downgraded to a prophet, oh, a powerful one, but a prophet still, no longer Messiah.

And we'll see why in a moment. But notice his use of the past tense as well. He was a prophet. He was a prophet because he is no more.

Because he died, as he goes on to explain to this stranger. Verse 20, the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him.

They crucified him and that changed everything because when he died, our hopes died with him. When he was buried, our hopes were buried with him.

Because we had hoped that he was the one who was to redeem Israel. Ever since the promise of the coming of the seed of the woman in the Garden of Eden, that a seed of the woman would come and crush the serpent's head.

Ever since Genesis 315, the people of God were looking for the coming of the Redeemer. This coming Redeemer who will come and crush Satan's head and redeem us.

And for centuries, the prophets kept pointing to this coming Redeemer. And so they're looking forward to the redemption of Israel. And we see this anticipation swelling at the birth of Jesus.

You remember many of these things. John the Baptist's father, Zechariah. It was revealed to him that their son John would be the forerunner of the Lord.

And so Zechariah speaks of this in terms of God redeeming Israel. Praise be to the Lord, he says, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.

Luke 1. Forty days after his birth, they take Jesus to the temple at Jerusalem to have done for him, to consecrate him as the firstborn.

And there at the temple was an old man named Simeon who was righteous and devout, and he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. What does that mean? Well, it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah, and he takes Jesus in his arms and he calls him God's salvation.

The Messiah is God's salvation. He is the consolation, the redemption of Israel. And also at the temple was a very old prophetess, Anna, who came up to them at that very moment and gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem, the redemption of Israel.

The faithful were always looking to the coming of God's Messiah to redeem them. They looked forward to his coming as much as we look backward to his coming.

And here on resurrection day are two disciples of Jesus telling Jesus we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

Well, why? Why? Why did they hope no more? Why are all those hopes in the past tense? Well, because they crucified him.

He died in weakness. He wasn't the one. And after all, we were so sure he was the one, but he can't be. He's dead. He's dead, you see.

And so they pour out their sad tale to this stranger who's listening, listening. And they're telling him that it's now been the third day since all this took place.

And they go on to share their bewilderment of the most recent developments of the days. In addition, as if this were not enough to handle, some of our women amazed us.

They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. And they came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

And then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him, him, they did not see. They don't relate to the stranger what they had thought about the woman's news.

Verse 11 tells us that they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. So far from expecting the resurrection of Jesus, any mention of it sounded like the babbling of fools to them.

So what is the reason for the disciples' sadness? Well, they say it's Jesus' death on the cross. And at this point, the stranger breaks into the monologue with a surprising rebuke.

But notice, Jesus does not fix everything by simply saying, hey, guys, it's me. I'm alive. I've risen. Now, he'll come to that eventually.

But first, there's an important lesson for his disciples to learn and for us to learn as well. And it involves the Holy Scriptures. The stranger has three things to say.

First, a charge, then a question, and then supporting evidence. First, the charge. Then your problem is not his death. It's your unbelief.

Here, the great physician of hearts reveals that their sadness is really due to the unbelief of their hearts at all that the Scriptures had said.

How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And risking the charge of sounding too simplistic, I want to say that the greater part of our sadness and our depressed and downcast conditions is probably due to our unbelief of all that the Scriptures have spoken.

And we've got a whole lot more Scriptures than they had. Much bigger Bible than they had. Now, I didn't say this is the only reason people are sad and depressed. But as I looked at my own record, I found at the bottom, very often, is this very same problem that Jesus puts his finger on.

Doesn't have anything to do with circumstances. It has everything to do with a heart of unbelief in what God has said in Scripture. You see, there's enough written in Scripture to keep the child of God rejoicing in the Lord always.

For everything written here, everything written in the past was written to teach us so that through the endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope, a hope that overflows with joy and peace that comes from believing.

Well, the charge then is followed by a question. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? Now it's that word have to that I'd like us to think about.

It's a little word day, but it's a word that speaks of a necessity. Was there not a necessity that meant Messiah must suffer before entering into his glory?

Was there not a needs be? How was it exactly that he will redeem Israel from their sins in hell? If not by suffering in their place must not the Lamb of God be sacrificed in order to take away sin?

Can there even be forgiveness without the shedding of blood? Must not the shepherd lay down his life for the sheep? Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?

The stranger's point is that the sufferings of Messiah were as much a part of the witness of scripture as were the glories of Messiah.

That according to scripture Messiah's agenda would be suffering first and then glory to follow. It's glory through suffering.

And this is where the charge of Jesus comes into clear focus. You're so slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Yes, they spoke of the glories of Messiah and you believe that well enough, but they also spoke of the sufferings of Messiah and on that you completely struck out. So it was the selective reading and the selective believing of the scriptures that got them into trouble.

That's the cause of their sadness. They could quote scriptures by the bushels speaking of Messiah's glorious reign.

That he would reign forever and ever over the whole earth. He would crush his enemies under his feet and so on. But they had no place in their theology for a suffering and a dying Messiah.

Reigning, yes, suffering, dying, no. we see it in earlier in the gospel accounts when they're coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration and as they're coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.

Had risen from the dead. And they kept the matter to themselves discussing what rising from the dead means.

He's obviously taking poetic license with the language. What does he mean by this? Rising from the dead. Everybody knows Messiah will not die but reign forever and ever.

And we see it again in Peter's violent reaction when the Lord Jesus drew the disciples aside and told them that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders.

He must suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed, killed and on the third day be raised to life.

You remember Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never Lord, he said, this will never happen to you.

Peter's just identified him as the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God. And everyone knows that Messiah tramples his enemies.

He is not killed by them. This will never happen to you. There's emotion. There's heat in those words. A suffering, dying Messiah was inconceivable.

It was completely outside of the box. it didn't fit. He couldn't even go there. He couldn't make sense of any such language, any such scriptures.

It never dawned on them that Messiah would conquer death by dying himself. It never dawned on them, it seems, that he would save his people and lead them to victory through the cross itself.

And yet every slaughtered sacrificial animal since Adam, revealed in the Old Testament scriptures, pointed to this. Messiah's sufferings had all been foretold in the scriptures, but because they could not reconcile the sufferings of Messiah with the glories of Messiah, what happened?

Well, they just tended to ignore those scriptures. They read over them. Some of you didn't always believe in the doctrine of election, and yet it's everywhere in scripture, isn't it?

What did you do with those passages? Well, you did what I did. You read over them somehow. You put some interpretation, but you didn't let them speak to you. And that's what the disciples did with the scriptures that spoke of the sufferings of Messiah.

They did not take them at face value. They did not believe them. It's the age-old problem of seeing what we want to see in the text. And since these texts did not fit their ideas of Messiah, they held on to half the truth.

And folks, half the truth thought of as the whole truth becomes an untruth. If you're just holding on to half the truth, as if that's the whole picture, you're holding on to a lie.

And we run the risk of coming up with our own lies when we're only taking into account part of what the scriptures say.

We need all that God has said. How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

And nothing will lead us into disillusionment and despair and depression faster than a selective believing of scripture, not believing all that is written.

So I've got to ask you, are you even reading all that scripture has said? Or do you just read your favorite books and favorite verses?

If so, your faith will be ill informed and weak. We must believe all that it says. That means you must at least read it all.

And then are you seeking to understand it all and to grow in your understanding of all that the scriptures have said? That you might believe it all. Many read the glorious things promised to Christians in the Bible and they cling to those passages and they highlight them in red or yellow in their Bibles and they sew them into pillows and into wall plaques.

And there they are, the wonderful things promised to Christians. But right beside those very verses are the other things promised to Christians like trials and suffering and persecutions.

But they don't seem to find their way onto wall plaques and onto pillows and under the highlighter. And so we somehow read over them and dismiss them.

And they're not remembered and they're not believed. so when troubles come in like a flood, we're unprepared, we're completely upended. It's selective believing of Scripture. I like this verse.

I've not embraced the reality of this passage. You see, if we really believed all that the Scripture said, then we would consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever we face trials of many kinds.

If we really believed all that the Scriptures said, then we would delight in weaknesses and in insults and in hardships and in persecutions and in difficulties.

If we believed all that the Scriptures have said, we would not be surprised at the painful trials that we are suffering as though something strange was happening to us, but would rejoice that we participate in the sufferings of Christ so that we may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

And when we don't believe all the Scriptures, we are the foolish ones. It's a foolish thing to punish yourself. It's a foolish thing to rob yourself. Who's ever heard of robbing yourself?

But when we don't believe all that the Scriptures say, we rob ourselves of the peace and the joy that comes from believing. Oh, foolish and slow of heart to believe.

That's the reason for your sadness, Cleopas and your friend. So the charge, the question is then followed by supporting evidence, thirdly.

And this stranger launches into a Bible survey demonstrating that Scripture all along has spoken both of Messiah's sufferings and Messiah's glories. And so beginning with Moses and the prophets, he explained to them what was said!

promise back in Genesis 315, oh yeah, a seed of the woman's going to crush the head of the serpent. There's more to the verse, man, that in the process of crushing the serpent's head, his own heel will be bruised, bruised, bruised.

God. And how was it that the Passover lamb caused the angel of death to pass over the Israelites?

It was as his blood was shed and applied to the door frames and his flesh was eaten. And yes, Isaiah spoke of the glory of the Messiah King filling the temple.

But he also spoke of him as the suffering servant of Jehovah as being despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with suffering, oppressed and afflicted, led like a lamb to the slaughter.

Remember that passage, man. Yes, the scriptures foretold Messiah redeeming, Israel from all their sins, but only because he would be pierced for their transgressions.

Crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds, his wounds, we are healed. And yes, Messiah, the scriptures speak of the Messiah King crushing his enemies, but also of him being crushed by the Lord, for it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

And yes, he will have a portion among the great and will divide the spoils with a strong, but it's only after the suffering of his soul. And the Psalms speak of that stone becoming the capstone that the Lord has done this.

It's glorious in our sight, but only after that capstone has first been rejected, the stone that the builders rejected. Psalm 118.

And yes, Psalm 72 says he'll rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth and all of his enemies will lick the dust before him. But Psalm 22 has Messiah crying, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me, a band of evil men have encircled me. They've pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. And then remember, men, the scripture in Psalm 41, he who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

In Psalm 69, they hated me without reason. In Exodus 12, that not one of his bones will be broken. In Zechariah 12, they'll look on the one they have pierced.

In Isaiah 53, he was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. And right on through the sacred scriptures, the stranger leads them on this study of what the scripture said about the sufferings and glories of Messiah.

Messiah. And while he was opening the scriptures to them, something was happening inside them. Their sad, cold hearts were beginning to thaw and to warm and were soon burning within them.

They later asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. Brother, I thought my heart was going to burst for joy when he opened up the passages in Isaiah and the Psalms.

You too? That's exactly how I felt. We should have known it was him. And this holy heartburn was nothing other than their hope being restored through the scriptures.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. And they saw that indeed the things that had happened to Jesus were the very things that were foretold about Messiah.

He is the Messiah. These things were written about him. It all happened as scripture said. Even his death was foretold. Even his resurrection was foretold for the scriptures told how it was written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.

And so with burning heart they now see it and embrace it. He's risen. The women were right after all, weren't they? He's the rock smitten from whom the living waters flowed.

He's the manna from heaven, which if a man eats, he will never die. He's the Lamb of God who really takes away the sin of the world. He is the Lord, our righteousness.

And so this cross of shame became an object of glory to them. they see it now as the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. And his blood is the blood that atones for every one of our sins and washes us whiter than snow.

But notice it's the scriptures that Jesus used to restore their hope. We had hoped that he was the one. He didn't just say, friends, I'm alive.

Your hope's alive. No, he saves that. Something more important for you must see it in the scriptures. Your hope must be rooted and grounded in the word of God.

When they stopped for the night and he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And then what?

He disappeared from their sight. The stranger was the savior. But he opened their spiritual eyes to the scriptures and revealed himself to them in the word before he opened their physical eyes to recognize him.

They saw him first in the Bible before they saw it was him before them. The first prepared them for the second. To see him in the scriptures as suffering, dying, rising, prepared them to believe when they look upon him that this really is him.

He would ground their hope in the very written word of God. And so with us, he opens our eyes to see Jesus in the scriptures before we ever see him face to face.

And we demean the scriptures when we want some other experience to confirm our faith other than the scriptures. It's to the scriptures that Jesus first took them to give them hope.

Because remember folks, he's preparing them for what? For a disappearance that will be more than just a few hours. He's preparing to leave them at the end of this book. We'll see him ascending into heaven and they will see him no more.

And they'll not be able to say, oh yes, there he is and touch his hands and put their finger in his side. No, that's gone. But they will be able to see him here and feast their eyes upon him and know he is indeed alive.

It is just as was written about him. It's just the reverse order for the other eleven disciples. These were not two of the twelve.

They're part of those disciples that were with them often and were found with them here during the post resurrection appearances and so on. But these other, the twelve, the eleven left, it was just opposite with them.

Jesus shows them himself and then reveals himself in the scriptures to them. These two were so pumped up with heart burn and overflowing joy and hope that they got up at once and returned to Jerusalem.

It had been a long, slow journey, you can bet. Coming seven miles. And they stopped for the night. But they're so pumped, they run back. Record speed, no doubt.

Back seven miles back to Jerusalem. They get there and the disciples are there and they tell what had happened and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

And while they're still talking to them, Jesus himself suddenly stood among them. You say, well, that's all they really needed was just to see him.

No, no, that really isn't all they needed. Because verse thirty seven tells us they had problems even believing when they saw him. They thought he was a ghost.

So see, seeing is not believing. They see him well enough. But even yet, their unbelieving hearts put a construction on this experience just like it did upon certain texts of scripture.

And they say, well, it's a ghost and they're scared of him. So he shows them his hand and feet and they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement.

And so what does he do? He turns them to the scriptures and he shows himself to them in the scriptures. It's show and now tell verse forty four.

He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. And then he opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures and he told them this is what is written.

The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. again, it is the written word of God that grounds their faith and hope in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Not enough just to see him. They must see him in scriptures with the eye of faith. Do we understand, brethren, what we have in our hands?

this book. The Bible is our road to Emmaus on which Jesus meets with us and reveals himself to us.

It's here that he opens our minds, opens our eyes to see who he is, what he's done. Oh, how we need this book.

We need to be people of the book. Because here we see our Savior in all of his suffering and glory. And in the light of this book, his sufferings promote his glory and contribute to it.

How many times has the Lord Jesus drawn alongside of you and your sadness? And he's come and he's opened up. Some passage of scripture with just enough light and heat to pull you out of the dumps.

And to give you hope in your present circumstances. Folks, the harder our circumstances are, the more difficult our circumstances are, the more quickly we need to run to the hope-building words of scripture.

scripture. Jesus says, he who has my commands and obeys them, he's the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

John 14, 21. That's what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. He showed himself to those disciples, first in the word of God, and then by opening up their physical eyes, he showed them in the flesh who he was.

Do you know that's still the heart of the Son of God toward his disciples? Do you know he understands every bad day of sadness that you have ever had? Every bit of gloom, every bit of despondency, why am I here, where's my life going, what is this all about, all the confusion, he understands it, and he knows how to come alongside of you and to show you himself.

That's what we need. We need to see him, see him in his death and resurrection for us, that he now lives for us at the Father's right hand, and it's in the scriptures that he comes and shows himself to us.

And so he lifts us from downcast faces up to burning hearts. You can bring your sadness to Jesus.

He understands all about it. He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. Well familiar with grief. He understands all about it, so you can bring your sadness to Jesus and bring it to him and ask him, Lord, for more light here.

I know there's more here than what I'm getting because I'm not yet counting it all joy. So more light, Lord, more heat. bring my heart to burn with hope and faith and love for you through the scriptures.

It's especially him that we need to see, and it's this book from Genesis to Revelation is showing us the Lord Jesus. Jesus. Do we think about the resurrection of Jesus enough?

They died and then rose again and now lives for us. When we're sad, do we think about those realities? Nothing is the same because he now lives.

His resurrection proves that the payment for my sins was enough. The Father accepts it. He is the one who redeemed his people from their sins.

The resurrection proves that he is who he claimed to be, the eternal son of God. The resurrection guarantees that I too will rise from the dead, that death will not be able to hold me in the grave.

The resurrection means that he is able to save completely all who come unto God through him because he always lives. He lives today. to save us from sin and self and the world.

And right now he's in heaven for me. He is there for me to appear before God, to show himself as the payment for my sin.

He's there before God to send grace and help for me in my time of need. Yes, my time of sadness. May the glorious truths of his death and resurrection set us singing today and forever and cause our hearts to burn with love, hope, joy in our Savior.

Number 198 will make it our response to Jesus' words to us. And if this Savior is not yours, come and trust in him today.

There is no other Savior. There is no other Savior from sin and death and hell. And he will have you if you will have him. Stand with me and sing. Jesus Christ is risen today.

198. Oh, Lord, it is your works that have made our hearts glad and has given us a song to sing, a song that will never end for all of eternity. Praise to you, our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Oh, glad we are for this story, this record of your two disciples and how often we're like them and we're being foolish and we're being unbelieving of all that the Scripture said.

How blessed we are to have the Bible, to have all 66 books, to have the record of what Christ, what happened to the Christ when he came, and then to have the New Testament that tells us exactly what happened to him and what he did when he did come.

We have the record of those who saw him in the flesh and touched him and ate with him. Oh, help us then to make this book our lifelong study and our joy because the precepts of the Lord are right and they give joy to the heart.

So thank you for this good news of Christ risen from the dead. Bring us to live upon it and to suck out all the joy that is meant for us in it.

And so send us with burning hearts, hearts full of hope in our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.