Well, good morning, brothers.
That is a good way to begin: with worship and just telling the Lord that we love Him, because He first loved us.
As we look again in this precious Book and seek, again, the revelation of our Lord, I remind you of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable: total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit.
God has given us this precious Book, God-breathed, and He desires to breathe on it again. He wants to show Himself. He wants to show us the Lord Jesus.
At the end of the day, we must come as little babies and just say, “Lord, we have been through the academics. We have done the word studies. We have looked at all that man’s nature can bring us. But now we need Your illumination. Open our hearts, open our eyes, open the Word, unveil the Lord Jesus.” That is what we need. Only He can do that.
Before we go to prayer, I want to share a little verse that has touched my heart. You know, at the end of Ezekiel, from chapter 40 through almost the end, he has that great vision of the temple—Ezekiel’s temple, it is called. Some refer to it as the millennial temple. Some are not sure whether it is literal or whether it is spiritual and figurative.
But whether it is or not, there is a detail that is given that is very instructive, I think. As it describes this temple, all filled with the glory of the Lord and its spiritual dimensions, it describes the worshipers as they come into this temple to worship the Lord.
Ezekiel 46:9 says:
When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts,
he who enters by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate;
and he who enters by the way of the south shall go out by the way of the north gate.
No one shall return by the way of the gate by which he entered;
he shall go straight out.
Now, I know part of that is that God is a God of order, and that is very orderly. I think that is part of it. But I think there is also a spiritual principle: nobody who comes to worship the Lord in reality leaves by the same door that they entered. We do not go out the same way that we came in.
When the wise men truly saw Jesus, the Bible says they went back by another way. So let us just trust the Lord: show us Himself, and then take us out by a different door. Let us pray.
Our Father, once again we thank You. Thank You for gathering Your children this weekend in this place.
We just pray, as we touch Christ in each other, fellowship together, look in Your Word, and lift our ear toward heaven and desire to hear a word from You, that You would indeed unveil the Lord Jesus to our hearts in a living way.
Take us individually and corporately a forward step in the heart knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We trust You for this, and we thank You in advance that You are doing it, that You are going to continue to do it.
We look to You now in these moments of meditation. Pray that You protect our brothers from all that is flesh and blood, all that is from man, and that You would be pleased to reveal Yourself.
We ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, I think, as you know—or you will know now—this weekend, our theme, I have just called it the exchanged life. God has been burning that reality in my heart for some months now.
Another way to say it is union with a risen and ascended Savior who has come to indwell us, who lives in our hearts: union with Christ. Life from heaven for life on earth—the exchanged life.
Now, to get this before our hearts, we are looking at a block of time that we are calling forty days, plus one or two or three, depending how you look at it. I am speaking of those forty days between the resurrection of our Lord Jesus and His ascension into heaven.
During those forty days, eleven times He appeared and disappeared to some of His disciples. Theologians call that the post-resurrection appearances of our Lord Jesus.
Obviously, in an abbreviated weekend like we have, we cannot look at all eleven appearances. I do not have light on all eleven anyway, and many of them are not even revealed.
Now, I said forty plus one or two or three. Let me read that Scripture again, where we get that plus one. It is 1 Corinthians 15. I will begin reading at verse 3:
I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried,
and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.
Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
That expression, “one untimely born,” which I will touch on in another connection, is the word abortion: “as to one aborted, He appeared to me also.”
I am calling attention to this because it was about seven years later. He appeared after His resurrection eleven times, and then seven years later He appeared to the apostle Paul on the Damascus Road. Paul puts himself in the list.
He appeared to Mary. He appeared to Thomas. He appeared to Peter. He appeared to James. He appeared to five hundred. And He appeared to me. He said, “Last of all.” We know literally he was not last. He appeared other times. He appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos, and so on.
How could Paul put himself in the list? He was not there. And why did he say, “Last of all,” when he was not last? I am suggesting that this is the final preparation—last of all in terms of final.
Last night, I will just mention this and then we will move on. We looked at three possible reasons for His post-resurrection appearances.
Number one is in Acts 1:3: by many infallible proofs, He might show Himself alive. He appeared to prove He was not dead. That is the first reason He appeared. He is not dead. He is alive.
Then the second reason is that He kept disappearing. They were used to seeing Him with these eyes, but now it was going to be different. They were going to have to relate to an invisible God, and He was getting them used to that. He is there. He is not there, but He is still there. He is in the room, but you cannot see Him, and then He shows up and He is there.
They were thinking, “He is not dead, but He is gone.” He was about to teach them that He is neither dead nor gone, but He is alive and alive in me. He is alive and alive in you.
They were to learn that new truth at Pentecost, when He came in the Person of the Holy Spirit to baptize His church, to baptize His people, and to come and live in them in a new way—a living way. His life for their life.
I am suggesting that He appeared during these forty-one days to show that He was not dead, to show that He was not gone, and—to prepare them.
Those appearances are preparation. They needed to be prepared for union with an indwelling Christ, something they knew nothing about and had never experienced. The One who used to stand in front of them was now going to live inside them. His life was going to replace their life. They knew nothing about that.
God used these appearances to prepare them for that wonderful union they were about to have. We have selected several of these appearances so that we can hold that preparation: How does this prepare me for that union? How does this experience prepare me?
I am very anxious to get to, “Last of all, He appeared to me”—last because final. The final preparation. After we have learned what Mary has to teach us, what Peter has to teach us, what Thomas has to teach us, what the Emmaus Road has to teach us, and what the upper room has to teach us—when we have learned those principles, Paul says, “You need to know one more thing.”
Without this, you will never enter into that vital union: “I am neither dead nor gone, but alive and alive in you.” You need this final preparation. Every Christian needs the road to Damascus. We need that. It is final preparation.
If you miss that, you will struggle all your life trying to understand the exchanged life. We need that final preparation. And so, last of all, as to one who is undeserving, one who looks at his past life as nothing but an abortion, last of all, by His mercy, He appeared to me.
God tells his story so that we might have the final preparation.
Last night we looked at the first story: Mary Magdalene. The principle, I think, is in John 20:17, when our Lord Jesus said, “Stop clinging to Me.”
She had been clinging to Him in the flesh, and she needed to be cured from that because, in the new relationship, in the new union, there would be no clinging in the flesh.
Our Lord Jesus, by His great mercy, did not touch her. He did not hold her hand. He did not give her chills or goosebumps, then put His hand on her shoulder, and He did not knock her over. He just said, “Mary.”
She said, “I see it. Teacher, You taught me. I have seen something wonderful. It is a spiritual revelation.” She ran back to the disciples, and the last recorded words of Mary Magdalene in the Bible are, “I have seen the Lord.”
With that, she walks off the pages of Scripture: “I have seen the Lord.”
Preparation number one: if I am going to understand this union, I cannot be like Mary. She was finally delivered. She did not know His life to her; He was dead, and it was her life. She was pouring out her ministry and her life.
By the revelation of His life, she was set free from her life. It was an exchange. It was no longer her life serving Him. It was no longer her life explaining circumstances. It was no longer her life as the source of energy and strength. Now she had seen His life.
That is not all there is. That is just the first step in preparation toward this great truth that I am calling the exchanged life.
All right, so much for review. That brings us this morning, then, to the second story I want us to look at: the appearance of our Lord Jesus to Thomas.
How does His appearance to Thomas prepare our hearts and take us forward in that preparation so that we can have a living union with One who is neither dead nor gone, but alive and alive in us?
Before I look at the spiritual principle, let me give you the background. I am sure most of you know all of this, but if I state it, then we will all be together.
If you want a record of Thomas, you will not go to Matthew. You will not go to the Gospel of Mark. You will not go to the Gospel of Luke. They mention him, but that is all they do. They just say his name. He is one of the twelve.
If you want a record of Thomas, you have to go to the Gospel of John. Like there are three stories of Mary Magdalene, there are three stories of Thomas.
One is in John 11, where Thomas, remembering Lazarus, said when Jesus decided to go to Jerusalem, “Let us go and die with Him.” There is that little story. Then there is a story in John 14, where Jesus said, “I am the way, and you know the way,” and Thomas said, “How do we know the way? We do not know the way.”
Then, here in John 20—I am going to pass over the first two stories, though they are instructive—and I would like to come to John 20.
Verse 19:
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Then, if you will go down to verse 24:
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
You know the record. It is Easter Day—Easter morning—and as far as we know, most commentators would agree that this was His fifth appearance. He only appeared eleven times in forty days, five times on day one.
We know He appeared to Mary Magdalene. We know by this time He had appeared to the women. We know He appeared to Peter. We know He appeared to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road. And we know that now He appears to the ten disciples, Judas, of course, being absent, and Thomas being absent.
You remember the response of Thomas. Look, please, at John 20:25:
So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
It is because of that statement that he has received the great appellation, “Doubting Thomas.” Most people know him as Doubting Thomas. Now, that is not really fair, but that is how it is.
I say that because he expressed his doubts. There is no doubt about it. But according to the record, they all doubted. Listen as I read these verses.
Matthew 28:17:
And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.
Mark 16:9–11:
Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.
And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.
So it is not only Doubting Thomas. Mark 16:12–13:
After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country.
They went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either.
Mark 16:14:
Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.
Luke 24:10–11:
Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles.
But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.
Luke 24:36–38:
While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst.
But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.
And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”
In another place, it says they believed not for joy. Isn’t that interesting? Too good to be true. Too good to be true. It is a terrible thing not to believe, but to believe not for joy—that is what happened. They were all unbelievers.
So Thomas was not the only doubter, and maybe he was not even the greatest doubter. We do not know. But he was selected by God to represent doubters.
We have his story because of his comment: “I am not going to believe unless I can put my finger in His glorious scars, unless I can reach my hand and put it into the wound in His side. I will not believe.”
It is important to remember that Thomas was a disciple. Thomas was a believer. In fact, Jesus said to him in verse 27, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” He said, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed?” So Thomas was a believer.
But there is such a thing as an unbelieving believer. There are unbelieving unbelievers, but there are also unbelieving believers, and Thomas is one of them.
Every time he is mentioned in the lists, he is always mentioned along with Matthew. You know he is called Didymus, and Didymus means twin. Many think Matthew was his twin. We do not know for sure, but he is always mentioned with Matthew. The point is that he is a believer, and as a believer, he is an unbelieving believer.
Once again, verse 29: “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
Thomas had a problem. As Jesus had to correct Mary’s problem in order to prepare her for this revelation and union with the indwelling Christ, now in step two God is going to correct Thomas’s problem and lay down in the Bible a great principle of preparation.
I need Mary’s revelation. It is not by the flesh. I do not cling in the flesh. I need His life. I need to see Him. I need to see the Lord. But Thomas also had a problem.
Thomas’s problem clearly had to do with sight. I think we can all agree on that. He had this idea: “If I only had sight, that would help my faith.” That was his idea. Sight helps. If I had sight, it would be easier to believe. So he said, “I want sight.”
I think we have all been there, huh? Thousands of Christians have that idea: “If only God would do something spectacular, if I could see Him working, if I could see Him moving, if I could see Him delivering, if I could see Him healing, if I could see Him providing, if I could see Him opening a door, if I could know that it is God—it would help. That would help my faith.”
I remember, as a young Christian, I went right through this sight thing. “If You are real, blink the lights.” You know, you just want some evidence, some empirical sign that God is real.
Here is one proof that sight cannot help faith. Thomas had this idea: “If I can see Him, if I could see His scars, if I could touch Him, if I could put my hand in His side, that will help me have faith.”
Jesus showed up in front of him, and He invited him: “Put your hands—put your finger there.” There is no record that he ever did it, but he was invited to do that.
Let me ask this: Did that help his faith? Think about it.
What Jesus said is, “You think sight is going to help your faith? Now you see Me. You do not need faith. Here I am. Touch Me. You have sight. Now you do not need faith.”
Sight does not help faith. That is why it is over against faith. We live by faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. It is the opposite. Sight cannot help faith, even a little bit.
Now, theologians make a difference between belief and faith—the idea that I need evidence to believe something up here. But when it comes to faith, sight is not going to help.
Thomas did not yet understand the invisible presence of the Lord. That is this whole idea. He said, “If He is alive, I have got to see Him with these eyes.” The Lord is going to correct that, because sight does not help faith.
Let me give an illustration from Thomas’s life. John 20:25 again:
The other disciples were saying, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.”
Remember when Thomas said those words: it was private. “Do not put that on the email. Do not tell anybody. Do not put it in a bulletin. That is private. That is between me and you. Here is how I feel about it.”
He was with his Christian brothers. They said, “We have seen the Lord,” and he said to them in private, “Yeah, I will believe it if I can touch Him, if I can see Him. Until then, I am not going to believe it.”
Well, John 20:26: eight days go by. This time they gather again, but Thomas is not absent.
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
I imagine all their jaws almost hit the floor when He showed up in the room. Then Jesus shocks Thomas. Verse 27:
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
Do not just read that, la la, la la. How would you feel if you were Thomas? I would be a little embarrassed, and I think I would be a little angry. I would look around at the brothers and say, “Who ratted on me? Who told Him? Matthew, did you tell Him? Andrew, was it you? Peter, you big-mouth Peter. I know it was Peter.”
Thomas, nobody told Him. He was there when you said it. He was invisible. He was listening. He was present, but you did not see Him.
You need to understand an invisible Lord, Thomas. Even if you had not said it—if you had only thought it—He was there, and He heard, and He knew.
You could not see Him at that moment. You could not hear Him. You could not touch Him. None of your senses would have done anything, but He was there. It is this life, Thomas, that you need to understand. It is this life that every Christian needs to understand if they are going to understand the exchanged life.
Now, in passing, let me just say this. I think it was tremendous that our Lord Jesus heard Thomas and dealt with him in this way.
Thomas thought sight would help and that he needed sight. Jesus is so kind. I think every time we have been together, I have shared this principle, so I will just keep sharing it. I do not know a truth that has meant more to me than this:
God always deals with us where we are, not where we ought to be.
He always meets His people where they are in order to take them where they ought to be. As we are, where we are—that is where God meets us.
Thomas needed to learn a great lesson: sight is not going to help faith; he can stand on the reliable testimony of reliable witnesses; and he does not need to see.
But it is so precious here. Jesus does not blast him. Jesus does not come up and say, “What is wrong with you? You are just an unbelieving believer. Grow up.” He does not say that at all.
Thomas has a great need, and Jesus meets him there. He does not come up and point His finger in his face, saying, “Shame, shame, shame on you. Sight! You are so subjective. Why do you not get out of that? You should have faith without sight. That is what I wanted. You did not have it. There is no hope for you.”
Brothers, Jesus will never call you dumb. Jesus will never call you stupid. Jesus will never call you slow. Jesus will never scream at you and say, “Grow up, you little baby. Stop being so subjective. Why do you not get rooted in objective truth and take a rugged stand?” He will never do that.
Whatever you are, wherever you are, whatever you need, He will show up and meet you right where you are—not because you are in the right place, but to lay down these great truths and to take you to the place where one day you can enjoy His life for your life: the exchanged life.
He deals so wonderfully with Thomas here.
Well, that is enough background. Let me try to give you the principle. I will not read the record again, but you know the record. Here is the question that I ask: What is Thomas’s contribution to the history of redemption? Or, to say it another way, why did God tell us his story?
Why did God put this in the Bible? What principle do we get here that we would not get in another story? What is the Holy Spirit focusing on? Why did God tell us this story? What is the distinctive message of the life of Thomas?
As I went through my commentaries, there were many suggestions. Some say, “God told us the Thomas story because he represents all doubters in the world.”
In other words, because of Thomas, those who are agnostic—the ones who say, “I do not know”—those who are skeptics, cynical, subjective, inclined to need sight and feelings and emotions, this story encourages them. That is why God gave us this story: to encourage doubters.
I think that is part of it, and bless God for that, because I think we have all been there. I have had honest doubts. I have had many doubts, and God meets the doubter. So praise God for this story, because it does encourage doubters. But I think it is bigger than that.
Some say God tells us his story because he represents those who are a day late and a dollar short. You know what we mean by that. For those of you who are older, years ago there was a television program I enjoyed as I grew up. It was about a detective named Maxwell Smart. Do you remember that? Some of you smile; you remember that.
The name of the program was Get Smart. He was this blundering detective who always did things wrong and ended up doing things right. He had a saying. He would squint his eyes, point his finger, and say, “I missed it by that much.”
Thomas: “We have seen the Lord.” “You were not there.” “Ah, I missed it by that much.”
There is always that person who is a day late and a dollar short. It is frustrating. I have been there. The people in front of me are getting blessed by the Lord. The people in back of me are getting blessed by the Lord. The people on both sides of me are getting blessed by the Lord. And you are going, “Hello? How about me?”
It is not that you resent their blessing, or even that you hold their testimony in suspicion. But they are claiming all of this. They are testifying about a great deliverance, telling about a mailbox miracle, doors God has opened, opportunities He has provided, circumstances He has supernaturally engineered, and amazing things coming together.
You are going, “Praise God for you.” But in your heart you are saying, “How come, Lord? Everybody around me gets blessed, and I am never there.”
Some think that is Thomas: always seeing fruit, but it is in somebody else; they are always the one getting blessed. They come to you and say, “You should have been there. You should have seen it. What an experience.”
I think Thomas does offer a great contribution to spectators and to those who seem always to be missing it, left behind. Everybody is getting rained on, and they are just dry and empty, hoping, “Well, maybe next time I will be there.” Thomas does minister to them.
But I do not think that is his contribution. Praise God for the hope he gives to doubters. Praise God he gives hope to those who seem always to be left out. But that is not the chief contribution of his life.
Then there are those who say he is God’s warning to those who dare miss a meeting. John 20:19 tells us that he was not there when Jesus came. He missed the meeting. You know the idea: “See what happens when you do not show up? Whose fault is that? You could have been there.”
Well, give him a break. It was an evening meeting. I am kidding. I am not suggesting that we ought to miss the assembling together, but I do not think that is the Holy Spirit’s point here at all. It is true, he missed the meeting.
But it is not because he did not gather with the saints. Saul of Tarsus was not gathering with the saints when God appeared to him. In fact, what was he doing to the saints? It was the opposite of gathering with the saints.
So that is not why. It is not only to encourage doubters and those who seem always to be missing out, nor to warn those who neglect the assembling together. Do not get me wrong: they need warning. That is part of it.
But there is another contribution. Let me state it for you, and then we will try to look at the principle.
I believe God was giving Thomas one of the greatest privileges—more than the other ten. I think he missed it, but God was giving him a privilege to represent the church in all ages.
He let it slip away, but he was more honored than the rest.
You see, how do you know Jesus? How do I know Jesus? Let me suggest how you do not know Him.
I do not think He calls out your name in a garden, like He did for Mary. Maybe some of you have had that; I have not had that. I do not think, as you are walking down the street, He suddenly shows up and gives you a Bible study. That is not how you know Him.
I do not think He shows up in a room that is all closed, or when you are in your closet. I do not think He meets with you out in the open air. I do not think He walks with you in a grain field.
We do not see Him. We cannot touch Him. We cannot relate in that way. We do not hear His audible voice. Every one of the disciples knew Him that way.
God said, “After the Bible is done, they are not going to know Me that way anymore. Somebody has to illustrate that. Somebody has to know Me the way we know Him—not by sight, but by faith.”
“Blessed are those who have not seen.” That is how we have to do it. He selected Thomas to show that.
Everyone in the upper room had experienced the first part of verse 29: “Because you have seen, have you believed?” They all could say, “Yes, indeed. Because we have seen, we have believed.”
But only Thomas was given the privilege for the second part of that verse: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” Thomas stood where we stand today, seeing the Savior by faith.
Thomas insisted on sight, so he lost the great privilege he could have had: believing the testimony of reliable witnesses.
What witnesses did Thomas have? He had Mary. He had the group of women that met the Lord Jesus. He had the ten disciples. He had the two Emmaus disciples. They were not liars. He had those reliable witnesses.
What do you have? You have the testimony of Mary. You have the testimony of the women. You have the testimony of the apostles in the upper room. You have the testimony of the Emmaus disciples.
When Thomas had that testimony, they were his friends. When we have that testimony, it is Bible. His friends have become our Bible. His reliable witnesses are now inspired, reliable witnesses.
We have actually been taken forward in this whole idea. We have the same witnesses he had, only now it is inspired. We have the Bible.
Now, what is happening here as God lays out these principles? Mary says, “You must see the Lord.” Thomas takes us another step: “You must see the Lord by faith, based on the testimony of reliable witnesses, which is going to become your Bible.”
You have to see the Lord in this Book. God is taking us forward. He is preparing us. How am I going to relate to the One who is neither dead nor gone, but alive and alive in me? I need to see Him by faith, on the basis of reliable witnesses, which will become the Bible.
It is not spelled out perfectly in Thomas, but it is a step in that direction.
John 20:29: “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Thomas thought sight would help faith. He was wrong. Sight does not help faith. Then Jesus showed him, when He appeared, “You do not need faith now, because you have sight.”
Then Jesus did something else. This is so amazing. John 20:28:
Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Understand what is happening here. Thomas said, “I need to see with these eyes.” Jesus said, “Those eyes will not help you. I will prove it. Here I am. Now you see Me with these eyes, but it has not helped your faith. You do not need faith because you have sight.”
Then, all of a sudden, God opened these eyes, and he saw Him—not with these eyes. You cannot see “Lord” with these eyes, and you cannot see God with these eyes.
When he said, “My Lord and my God,” he had a revelation that these eyes can never give. God was saying, “Blessed are those who do not need sight.”
We know, according to 1 Corinthians 12:3, no one can call Jesus “Lord” in reality except by the Holy Spirit. Thomas had that great privilege.
The Lord is saying to Thomas, “It is not these eyes.” Mary said, “I must see the Lord. I have seen the Lord.” Thomas said, “I must see the Lord by the eyes of faith, through the testimony of reliable witnesses.” It is another step forward. He is preparing us.
You say, “Well, I am ready then. Now I can relate to the Christ within.” Not yet. He said, “I am going to prepare you. You need to see the Lord. You need to see the Lord by faith. You need to see the Lord by faith in this Book, based on inspired, reliable witnesses.”
Let me wrap all of this up and fill in another. I am not going to develop the story; you know the story. Luke 24, the Emmaus Road: those disciples are you, those disciples are me, those disciples are us. They represent us.
They were in that position. You remember, in verse 21, they were hopeless: “We had hoped it was He.” They were sad. They were grieving. You know the story.
Let me call attention to two wonderful truths, and we will wrap it up.
Luke 24:16:
Their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
Verse 27:
Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Verse 31:
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.
Verse 45:
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
You remember their testimony in verse 32:
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?”
Mary says, “You need to see the Lord.” Thomas says, “You need to see the Lord by faith, based on the reliable witnesses who have become your Bible.”
Now the road to Emmaus lays out another step. I need to see the Lord. I need to see the Lord by faith in this Book. But now I need God to open my eyes to the revelation that is in this Book. I need Him to open my understanding and show me Christ in all the Scriptures.
Again, I try to put myself in it. Try to picture this. Our Lord Jesus has just accomplished redemption. Our Lord Jesus had become sin for all mankind. He bore the curse of sin, hell, death, and judgment; finished the wrath of God; satisfied His holy Father; exhausted the anger of God; satisfied the law; and glorified justice for all time.
He has just conquered Satan, made it possible for us to have an exchanged life, and made it possible for us to be conformed again into the image of Christ. That is quite a victory.
If I have a little victory—if I catch a little fish—take my picture: “Here is my fish. Look what I have caught.” We sort of trumpet that. We put our trophies on display.
Now, I do not mean to be irreverent, but Jesus did not toot His own horn. This is an amazing thing.
If that were me—I just conquered sin, death, hell, judgment, and the anger of God; I have made it possible for all to be saved; I raised myself from the dead—I would not have appeared this way.
I would have come down on a beam of light from heaven. I would have come down with a retinue of angels all around me. Catch the wonder of this, brothers.
Here is Christ in His resurrection body, walking and talking. He is alive. He raised Himself from the dead. Instead of saying to those Emmaus disciples, “Here are My hands. Touch Me. Here is My side. Put your hand in,” instead of showing up in a stretch limousine because of His great victory, instead of coming with twenty thousand angels, instead of blasting a trumpet—that is what I would have done.
He will do that when you rise, but not when He rose. He rose as quietly as the sun rising in the morning.
To make Himself known, He takes a Book.
I would have said, “Ta-da! Here I am.” He said, “No, you want to know Me?” And He takes a Book, and He begins to open it.
Beginning with Genesis and all the Scriptures, He showed them Himself in all the Scriptures. So much so that later they said, “Did not our hearts burn?” He could have done it another way, but He is laying out a principle.
“I am not dead. I am not gone. But I live again, and I live in your life to replace your life. If you are going to know Me, you need to be prepared for that.”
Mary says, “I have got to see the Lord.” That is preparation one. Thomas says, “I have got to see the Lord on the basis of reliable witnesses, by faith in this Book.” That is preparation two.
The Emmaus disciples say, “It is not enough. I now need God’s revelation on this Book in order to see the Lord.” He is laying down great truths on how to know Him.
There are two records of Emmaus. One is in the Gospel of John; one is in Luke 24. The Gospel of John adds something that Luke 24 does not.
In John 20, while He was in the room, He breathed upon them—remember?—and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
If I am reading it right, John’s “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” is exactly the time Luke says, “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
There is something wonderfully connected there. I have an idea what He was saying. There are only two times in the Bible where God breathes on people. You remember the first one? When? Adam.
When Adam was nothing more than an amorphous blob, when he was clay, he had eyes but he could not see. He had ears but he could not hear. He had a mouth but he could not talk. He was helpless. He was just a clay image.
Until God breathed His life into him, and he became alive.
What God is saying is—now watch, this is not the next step, but it is an introduction to the next step—I have got to see Jesus: Mary. I have got to see Jesus in the Book: Thomas. I have got to see Jesus in the Book by the unveiling of the Holy Spirit, by His light: the Emmaus disciples.
I have got to see Him in such a way that there is a new creation, that He makes me alive. Christians are every bit as dead as Adam was before God breathed into him until they learn that exchanged life.
Last of all, Paul says—the final. We are going to jump over a lot, but last of all, the final preparation. Lord willing, we will begin that tonight.
I am going to do it backwards. I should take the road to Emmaus and say, “Here is what happened. Here is what it means.” But I believe God has led me the other way around.
Tonight we are going to look at Emmaus: here is what it means, out of the mouth of Paul. Paul will explain the experience. We need to see: what is the exchanged life?
Having said that, Lord willing, tomorrow morning we will look at the final preparation: here is what happened. Let us look at it, because that is what will always happen. Now you are ready.
All right, that is where we are. I need to see Jesus.
I need to see Jesus in this Book.
I need to see Jesus in this Book by the Holy Spirit’s unveiling of Him.
I need to see Jesus in this Book by the Holy Spirit’s unveiling of Him in such a way that God breathes on me and His life becomes my life.
May God help us. Let us pray.
Father, thank You again for Your Word—not what we think it might mean, but all that You know it means. Please work these things in our hearts.
If there is any brother here, young or old, who is not fully prepared to have union with the indwelling Christ, will You prepare us, Lord, even this weekend?
In order that we might know how to relate to our Lord Jesus, who lives in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Thank You that You will work this for us, because You are so good. In Jesus’ name, amen.