HEARTS ON FIRE Luke 24:13-35 INTRODUCTION

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April 14, 2013 Providence

HEARTS ON FIRE Luke 24:13-35 INTRODUCTION: How do people respond when they learn what you do for a living? Doctors get all kinds of requests for medical advice, lawyers for free legal advice, tech industry people get questions about the latest and greatest developments, bankers and investors field inquiries about investment opportunities. But what about pastors? You want to see a conversation changer? Tell someone you are a pastor! On many occasions I have been paired up with strangers on the golf course and played several holes before the “what do you do” question comes up. Talk about an about face in the direction of the conversation! But one of the most consistent responses we get is that momentary “rewind” of the conversation and comments from the first handshake! What have I said…how have I reacted…that if I had known you were a pastor I would have done differently! With that in mind, now think about the conversation Jesus had with the two men on the road to Emmaus. They did not recognize Him and therefore were not guarded in their comments. No effort was made to hide their frustration and disappointment, their loss of hope and their lack of faith. How foolish they must have felt after they realized who He was and looked back on what they said! Luke 24:18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” Cleopas must have beat himself up for asking such a question of Jesus, the only One in Jerusalem who was totally aware of ALL that had happened! THESIS: When our eyes and our hearts are opened to all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, our hearts ignite with love for Him and faith in Him!

I. WITHOUT THE RESURRECTION, HOPELESSNESS DOMINATES THE HEART. A. NEWS OF THE EMPTY TOMB FALLS ON DEAF EARS Luke 24:9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. --Even though the disciples had been together as followers of Jesus for most of His three years of public ministry, when reports of His resurrection came to them, they dismissed them without so much as a serious consideration of their credibility! --The news about the empty tomb was disturbing, not welcome news…because they did not expect it to happen in spite of what Jesus had told them all along! B. RESIGNATION TO THE DEATH OF HOPE DRAINS THE SOUL --When you have a dream of what you hope life will be, hope keeps you going even when things get tough. --But when that dream dies, the hope disappears and your soul, your heart feels dead, empty. --Jerusalem was filled with heart-broken people who had put so much of their future dreams into the hope that Jesus was going to be the One who made it all come true. --Two men representing them were just packing it in and walking away with no idea of what to do with their lives now.

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Luke 24:13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. --Before we see what happened as they walked the seven miles to the village of Emmaus, what do we know about them? 1. They and the others would not believe Luke 24:11 And these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. --Without considering the possibility that what the women told them was true, the eleven and the others “would not” believe…an intentional dismissal of the testimony of their friends and fellow followers of Jesus. 2. They were despondent Luke 24:17 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. --Stopped in their tracks by the sadness and the realization that they would now need to speak of the unspeakable…these two had been openly conversing with each other but the thought of now sharing their pain with a stranger hit them hard with sorrow. 3. They were confused --As they tried to explain their predicament and the state of affairs in Jerusalem, they recalled the events of the previous couple of days. Luke 24:19-24 gives a review of the events but not by way of explaining anything…they did not understand anything about what was going on and why it had happened and what they were supposed to believe! --But because of their pre-conditioned ideas of how to view these things, they could not make any sense of them and were now just stuck in a state of confusion. 4. They were incredulous Luke 24:18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” --Sometimes when we are immersed in our own struggles, we cannot imagine that there could be anyone who does not share the thoughts and feelings that are consuming us. 5. They were steeped in one-dimensional, Jewish understandings/expectations about the Messiah Luke 24:20-21 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and 21 crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. --What an interesting flow of logic in the way they were thinking… “Jesus was crucified…BUT we were hoping He was going to redeem us!” --The only way for Jesus to redeem them WAS to die for them…His crucifixion was necessary as we shall see when Jesus Himself starts unpacking His story for these two guys on the road to Emmaus. --It was at that point that Jesus took control of the conversation!

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Luke 24:25-26 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have 26 spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” II. BEFORE THE RISEN LORD, HEARTS BURN WITH PASSION. --If the story ended the way the two thought, then all really is lost and there is nothing about their hope in Jesus that remains. ILLUS. So many people live every day with that same hopelessness because for them there is no resurrection and Jesus holds no future. Redemption remains a remote concept with no real idea of how it might be accomplished. They continue despondent walks along roads of uncertain futures with no hope in sight. A. UNBELIEF LOSES ITS GRIP. Luke 24:25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe… --When it happened, the text does not say, but the unbelief that held these two men in its grip, their slowness of heart to believe was changed to a different pace…the quickness to believe was awakened now as they found themselves face to face with One who seemed to know with certainty things they had only imagined…and for that matter, imagined wrongly! --The fact that they were walking and talking with Jesus was still hidden from their awareness…they still had not recognized Him as the One who had been crucified but was now alive and right there with them! --But His words and His presence went to work loosening the bonds of unbelief and releasing them from the captivity of their desperate lack of understanding and faith. B. SCRIPTURE COMES ALIVE. Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. --All that they knew, and all that they thought that they understood, was now transformed forever as Jesus explained it all to them! --The Messiah was so much more than they had been led to believe by their traditions…a Sovereign King was expected but not a Suffering Servant! 1. The Lamb must be slain – The Suffering Servant --Beginning with Moses, Jesus took the men on a tour of the Old Testament explaining how much in the Scriptures pointed ahead to the coming of the Messiah. --Someone described how it is to be explained, they said that all the lines and themes of the Old lead straight to Jesus as the Christ. --The need for sacrifices to be made for sin is traced all the way through the Scriptures, and as Jesus explained how that appears, the heart and mind awaken to the obvious…that no animal sacrifice like a goat, sheep or bull could ever atone for sin in the human heart. --They must, with all the sacrifices, be pointing ahead to what was to come…a Savior to come for His people must be a Lamb slain, dying for their sins as a substitute. Luke 24:26 “ Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

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--So instead of thinking Jesus a failure because He was crucified, He showed them that it was absolutely essential that the Messiah be put to death…a truth demonstrated in Moses and the prophets and all of Scripture. --But what no one seemed to expect, nor understand—the need for the Messiah to die for our sins—that was necessary for the debt to be paid, but also for the grave to be defeated by the resurrection! 2. The Lord must reign – The Sovereign King --The resurrected Lord had to first defeat death before He ascended to the throne from which He would reign forever. --Moses and the prophets had made it clear that He would be a reigning King. Dan. 7:13-14 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of 14 Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. 3. The Lost must believe – The Salvation Promise --When hopeless and lost people see that Jesus is the only One who can save them from their sin, and that He is the only One worthy of their devotion, they must believe in His name…put their complete trust in Him. Acts 10:43 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Acts 13:38-39 “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed 39 to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. C. HEARTS MELT BEFORE HIM. 32

Luke 24:31-32 And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “ Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” 1. The penetrating heat of truth --The Word of God had been in their hands all along, but when the Risen Savior opened up that Word for them, the fire ignited their hearts and their minds. --It became a personal truth made alive by a resurrected Christ and able to pierce like a laser into the depth of the heart. Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 2. The burning power of love --Obvious in this remarkable conversation on the road to Emmaus is the unchanging love Jesus had for these two men.

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--Even as He chastised them for their unbelief, He did so with a profound love for them that longed for them to “get it” and see the warming light of His Father’s love, laid out from the foundation of the world, demonstrated throughout His Word. John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. --The recognition of that kind of love has a power that burns its way into our hearts and melts our reluctance to trust such a Savior, melts our resistance to let go of our control of our own lives. CONCLUSION: When you first realized who Jesus is, how did that change the way you respond to Him? Do you look back now in disbelief at what you thought, what you said, how you responded to the fact that He is now alive forever and you will one day meet Him? How has this encounter with Jesus impacted you? Can you look at Him and see the resurrected Savior and not be moved by His love for you? Can you see His ageless truth drawing direct lines from all over the Scripture to point you to Him and not sense a keen burning in your heart? “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

u When Jesus lights the fire in our hearts, it means that… 1. The burning in your heart cannot be contained and rages uncontrolled until other hearts are ignited. ILLUS. When one of our sons was living outside San Diego several years, we flew out there to visit. Just a week or so before we went, wild fires had swept through the mountains around San Diego, burning thousands of acres of forests. Many homes were destroyed and people had to evacuate, not knowing if they would come home to ashes, or if the fires would burn out or move away in another direction from their homes. The uncontrollable fires sweeping away all that they encountered produced a sense of helplessness for all who lived in its path. When a heart is ignited for Christ, there should be an uncontainable burning, a flame that ignites everyone in its path. The very idea that someone could come to know Jesus as the resurrected Savior and Lord and remain cool and aloof is no where found in the Scriptures! Something of the fire He kindles in your transformed heart should heat things up in the lives of everyone in your path! The contagious nature of a fiery passion for Jesus Christ should characterize your daily walk and witness for Him. 2. No matter how wet the wood, the true fire of Christ sets any heart ablaze. ILLUS. When the prophet Elijah faced down the prophets of Baal at Carmel, he challenged them to a contest to see whose god is the Lord (1 Kings 18:24ff). Whichever god answered with fire would be the One True God. They set up altars and placed wood on them, then called on their gods to send down fire to light the wood. After hours of no response, Elijah took his turn…but in order to make it clear that there was no human trickery involved, he had the wood on the altar soaked with water, multiple times! That way, when fire fell from heaven, everyone would know that it was the Lord God and no other who caused the fire. u No matter how much your life has been soaked with the fire-retardant beliefs and behaviors of your former way of life, God can still ignite a fire in your heart!

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u No matter how soaked the lives of others appear to be with godless disinterest, the fire of God can still ignite a fire in their hearts…don’t give up on them! --Perhaps you have always been somewhat cold and indifferent toward the things of God, but when you recognize that Jesus is the risen Savior, once dead but now alive forever, a spark of hope is ignited…something begins to burn in your heart, a longing to know how you can know such a good and gracious, loving and merciful, powerful and glorious God! 3. Never be afraid of a fire that threatens to consume because that is the one that shines brightest for God’s glory. --You need not try to protect yourself from fanatical excesses of a white-hot faith in Christ. --Let the flames burn hottest and brightest so that they bring the greatest warmth and light to the coldest and darkest way in order that God be most wonderfully glorified. 2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, --To do that, consider Jesus, alive and standing before you, calling you to see Him as the long-awaited Messiah and forever-reigning King! --Nothing fans the flames like the breath of the Spirit and nothing fuels the fire like the truth of the Word—all bearing witness to the glory and splendor of Jesus!!

April 14, 2013 Providence Baptist Church © David Horner, 2013 Sermon outlines are copyrighted in the event of future publication. They may be used for preaching and teaching purposes but may not be published or sold.