What's The Point of it All?- Luke 24: 13-35

of this morning, and that theme is the Scriptures.

I love this story, and while honestly this is

one of my favorite parts of the Easter story,

we're not actually going to focus on the Easter

part of this story. That yes, this happened on

that Resurrection Sunday. But I want everyone

to look at your Bibles right here. Because let's

be really honest, okay? This is a real big book,

right? Pop quiz, how many books? Very good. 66

books in this Bible, many of them written by

different people in amassing many, many, many

different years. So many different stories and

passages, parables, teachings, Proverbs, Psalms,

all of these things included in this book. And

we as this church believe something very special

about this book. We don't believe that this is

just a good book. We don't believe that it's

just a book of good writings that give us moral

teachings. It is that, but it is much more than

that. We believe that this book, most of your

Bibles will probably have a word before the word

Bible, and what word is that? Holy. See, the

word Bible on its own or on its own isn't special.

You can have a Bible of a bunch of different

things, but that word there before is very important

because this God's Word written for us. As the

human authors wrote it, the Bible says they were

guided by the Holy Spirit so that every single

word on these pages is what God wants us to know.

And that's an incredible miracle, amen? But if

there's this many pages, this many books, what

is really the point of all of it? Because it

seems like some of it could be pretty disconnected.

When you go all the way to the Old Testament

and then think of some of the stories in the

New Testament, we might wonder, how do we really

connect all these things together? And the point

of it all, of course, as we will discuss in detail

today, is Jesus himself. And this is a question,

or it moves us to another question, that even

the people in biblical times us today and even

Jesus's 12 apostles had to tackle themselves.

It leads us to a question, who is Jesus to you?

And I want to challenge you that if your answer

comes from anywhere other than God's word, it's

not going to be a correct answer. See, Even the

apostles were asked this question by Jesus in

Matthew chapter 16 before we dive into the road

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

to Emmaus passage I want us to look at this as

we introduce the passage here Jesus is talking

to them after they've come off of a boat and

a really harrowing experience on the sea and

he says now when Jesus came into the district

of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples who

do people say that the son of man is? and they

give this answer and they said some say it's

John the Baptist others say Elijah and others

Jeremiah or one of the prophets and they continue

but Jesus said to them and this is the question

every single human needs to answer but who do

you say that I am I don't care what other people

say who do you say that I am and good old Peter

gives he blurts it out as Peter normally does,

but he gives a really good answer, doesn't he?

Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the

son of the living God. I wish the story ended

right there, right? Because let's be honest,

did Peter give the correct answer? Yes, he did.

Great job, Peter, okay? Now, your foot is not

currently in your mouth, let's leave it that

way, right? But he didn't. Because it sure sounds

like Peter understands who Jesus is, but we find

out just a few verses later that he's missing

something crucial. Look at verse 21. From that

time Jesus began to show his disciples that he

must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from

the elders and chief priests and scribes and

be killed and on the third day be raised. He

starts telling his apostles and his followers

that this is what he's going to go through. And

I honestly believe that Peter didn't even hear

the part where Jesus said he was going to be

raised because he was so caught up in the first

part. Go to the next verse, because look what

Peter does. And Peter took Jesus aside and began

to rebuke him. He's rebuking Jesus, which Foot

and mouth. It's already happened saying far be

it from you Lord. This shall never happen to

you Jesus's reply, but he turned and said to

Peter get behind me Satan You are a hindrance

to me for you are not setting your mind on the

things of God but on the things of man So how

did Peter? Go from saying something so right

To saying something so wrong that Jesus looks

at him and says get behind me Satan For this

is a hindrance to me. How does he go that far

because? Peter completely misunderstood what

the Old Testament scriptures actually said about

the Messiah Just like the other people who had

wrong ideas of who Jesus was, Peter had a wrong

interpretation of the Bible which led him to

a wrong understanding of Jesus. At this point,

I truly believe that Peter had come to the conclusion

that Jesus was the Messiah. But he still didn't

get it. He still thought like so many people

then did that the Messiah was going to come in

as this conquering King with no issues and overthrow

Rome and take over and bring God's kingdom physically

on earth right then and when he heard that Jesus

said I need to be good I need to go and be captured

and suffered and crucified and killed Peter said

whoa that doesn't match up with what I think

supposed to happen here He had a wrong understanding.

And church, I don't know about you, but I don't

want to have a wrong understanding of Jesus.

Do you? I want to be sure that I know the true

Jesus, not a wrong version of him that I have

made up in my own mind. So how do we do that?

Well, that leads us to the main point of today's

message. To know Jesus correctly, we must know

Scripture correctly. This might seem like it's

just another Easter story, but it's so much more

than that. The entire point of this story in

this passage on that Easter Sunday is to teach

us the importance of Scripture, because to know

Jesus correctly, we must know Scripture correctly.

Our two disciples on the road to Emmaus had this

same problem. I want you to think about the state

that they're in mentally and emotionally. These

aren't two of the 12 apostles. They're two disciples

of Jesus. And we only even get a name of one

of them. We don't even know the gender of the

other one. It could have been a husband and wife.

We don't know, but we have Cleopas, or however

Christian pronounced it, his is probably right.

We need Alex. He would know how to pronounce

it. But we get him and this other disciple. And

while they're not part of the apostles, we know

that they were with them. They were with the

apostles when the women came back and gave the

report of the empty tomb So we can surmise that

these men were extremely close to Jesus They

had seen him teach they had believed in him just

like Peter but then they saw him die and clearly

they didn't believe that he had risen from the

dead as these women had come back and told them

and now they're making this journey on the road

to Emmaus heartbroken Confused and I can guarantee

you they were scared because now They're the

fugitives They're the bad guys in the eyes of

Jerusalem and the Israelites because they're

the ones that were following Jesus and they're

feeling defeated They're thinking everything

that we had believed everything that the Bible

had led us to believe seems to have been shattered

before our eyes until Jesus comes and corrects

it as he always does Let's look at verses 19

through 21. Again, I don't know if those will

be on the screen here, but I'm gonna read them

for you. Just verses 19 through 21. When Jesus

appeared to them, he said to them, and I love

this by the way, I love that when they're asking,

they don't know it's Jesus, and they're like,

are you the only person who doesn't know what

happened in Jerusalem? Talking to the man who

was crucified and killed, and Jesus says, what

things? I love Jesus's humor. I really hope you

guys notice Jesus's humor. He's my kind of person,

right? I can just imagine. He went through all

of that and now he's going, hmm, what things?

Do tell, please. Enlighten me. What happened

in Jerusalem? And look at their response. they

said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth a man

who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before

God and all the people and how our chief priests

and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to

death and crucified him but we had hoped that

he was the one to redeem Israel yes and besides

all this it is now the third day since these

things had happened they make the same mistake

that these people before, just like Peter or

the Apostle said other people had made, and calling

Jesus just a prophet. But we really find the

source of their error, I believe, in verse 21.

Did you catch it? But we had hoped that he was

the one to redeem Israel. That word hope See,

as I said before, these disciples were clearly

close to Jesus. They had heard him preach and

prophesy, perform miracles, and claim to be the

Son of God, and yet they used this word. We had

hoped that he was the Messiah. Instead of using

a different word, that we had trusted that he

was the Messiah. I want to show you a difference

this morning in this idea that they had in hoping

in Jesus and trusting in him. The dictionary

defines these two words in these ways. Hope means

to want something to happen or be true, but to

trust means assured reliance on the character,

ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

And you can really feel the frustration in Jesus

when he responds to them. Did you catch Jesus'

response to them? He says, Oh, foolish ones and

slow of heart to believe all that the prophets

have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ

should suffer these things and enter into his

glory? Jesus reminds them the Old Testament prophets

spoke of the Messiah being a suffering servant.

If they truly knew what the scriptures taught,

they would have expected this. Yet the religious

leaders of their time had morphed the prophecies

of the Messiah away from that and into the military

leader who would overthrow Rome. Because that

was much easier to sell to a crowd than a suffering

servant. And yet all it takes is a study of Isaiah

53 to see what the Messiah would have to go through.

That he would suffer. that He would be pierced

for our transgressions, that that's what the

Messiah is, and if these people had rightly understood

the Scriptures, then they would have rightly

understood Jesus. You see, church, I want you

to know this, that the truth of Scripture leads

us from hoping in Jesus to trusting in Jesus.

The truth of Scripture leads us from hoping in

Jesus to trusting in Jesus. And I can tell some

of you are wondering there's you're feeling the

tension of like well We use this word hope as

a positive thing all the time in church, right?

Faith hope and love and the greatest of these

is love, right? And I'm not writing off the word

hope I want to make sure we understand that hope

is a beautiful thing and scripture tells us we

find our hope in Christ But you will only find

your true hope in Jesus when you trust that Jesus

is who he said he is Because if we have a false

version of Jesus in our minds, we cannot place

our hope in Him. We have to trust beyond the

shadow of a doubt that Jesus truly is the Son

of God, the Savior of the world who came for

us. And the only place where we will find the

information to show us that and prove that to

us so that we can trust Him is right here in

God's Word. But then next let's look at how Jesus

used the scriptures to teach these disciples

about himself So if we need the Bible to make

sure we can trust that Jesus is who he says he

is so we can place Our hope in him. How did Jesus

do it? Look at what he did. It says this is how

Jesus did a Bible study Okay, I love this it

says and beginning with Moses and all the prophets

Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures

the things concerning himself. You see, these

disciples, like many people of their time and

ours, had missed the point of who the Bible said

the Messiah would be. So Jesus showed them, bless

you, the proper way to study the Bible. Now,

if you were to go on the street and ask random

people what part of the Bible talks about Jesus,

where would they probably say? The New Testament.

And do we blame them? No, where do we find the

specific stories of Jesus's birth, ministry,

death, and resurrection? Where do we find them?

In the New Testament. We find those in the Gospels.

Where do we find where his followers told people

about him and taught the theology of who Jesus

is in the New Testament? That's what people go

to. But listen, Jesus interpreted the Bible with

them and used not just the New Testament. You

know how I know that? Because the New Testament

didn't exist yet. And what was Jesus's goal?

Don't miss this. Was he just giving them a random

Bible study? To say, hey guys, here's some really

cool stories you probably didn't learn in Jewish

Sunday school, okay? That makes no sense because

they didn't meet on Sunday. Saturday school,

okay? Something you didn't meet on Sabbath school.

That's what we'll call it, right? No, they didn't

have the New Testament yet, but his only goal

was to teach them what all the scriptures said

concerning who? Himself. Let me teach you how

the Old Testament points to Jesus. Let me show

you how all of the Bible points to Jesus, because

that's the point of the entire Bible. It's all

about Jesus. See, there's been a disturbing trend

in Christianity in the last decade or so to lessen

the importance of the Old Testament. It's called

archaic or outdated. Some say it portrays a different

God than the New Testament does We even have

mega church pastors like Andy Stanley saying

like things that we should unhitch His words

from the Old Testament I mean, why do we need

that old thing when we have the New Testament?

I mean all the things we need for Jesus are right

there in the New Testament, right? So that's

all we need now I told Jessica It's May the 4th

as a Star Wars fan, I had to mention something

with Star Wars. It made me think of this way,

okay? I loved Star Wars growing up and Disney

bought Star Wars and made it awful. And one of

the worst things Disney ever did was before Disney

ever bought, I promise there's a point to this,

before Disney ever bought Star Wars, there were

tons and tons of books for all the nerds like

me. to go and read. So you had the movies and

there were only a few movies, but there were

tons of books with incredible stories from the

Star Wars universe for fans to dive into and

love. And Disney came in and they said, Hey,

we don't want any of that. And they said all

of those old stories, none of them matter anymore.

We're not getting rid of them. That'd be too

evil. We're not getting rid of them, right? We're

just going to say none of them are true anymore.

They really did this. None of them count in the

Star Wars story anymore. So now all the new stuff

we write, that's all the actual new stuff. And

their new stuff is pretty awful if you're a Star

Wars fan because they got rid of the incredible

things of the past. Do you see what I'm doing

here? The Old Testament is not something for

us to leave behind in the past and Jesus certainly

didn't think so Jesus used it to point to him

and because all of scripture points to him and

church I don't want us to fall into that lie

that the Old Testament isn't necessary Because

I want us to understand what Paul wrote to second

Timothy Or to Timothy in 2nd Timothy. We'll get

that to a second. Sorry I flipped the page and

got out of order here. I do want you to understand

this. It's not just the New Testament. Every

single part of Scripture points to Jesus. Every

part of it points to Him. Listen to what was

read earlier this morning. What Paul wrote to

Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3 16 through 17 all scripture

is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching

for reproof for correction and for training in

righteousness. Why? That the man of God may be

competent and equipped for every good work. I've

taught the Old Testament to students in Christian

schools for many years now, and my favorite part

is watching them discover how Jesus is the center

of every single thing that happens in the Old

Testament. From the very beginning God was pointing

people to the coming Savior, and every book of

the Bible is useful for us. as believers. Paul

said we need all of it to be complete and competent

and able to teach and help other people trust

in God. We need to find the books of the Old

Testament that people don't like to open or talk

about and cherish those books as God's word.

I mean let's be honest, how many of us have cherished

the book of Leviticus lately? Right? How many

of you are doing the read through the Bible in

a year plan? Okay. Yeah. Okay. When you get to

those books of all the laws, is that a really

enjoyable devotion time? Be honest. No. Right.

And the temptation is we look in a book like

Leviticus and we go, okay, these are really old

archaic laws for the Jewish people. I'm a New

Testament Gentile, probably. Right. And here,

right. So it doesn't technically apply to me.

And so we're tempted to write them off. But if

we do that We completely miss the beauty of seeing

what it meant for the people of God to be completely

different than the world around them Because

that's the point of those laws for God's people

to be holy And while some of those laws might

not physically apply to us today, the point of

them sure does, that as Christians we should

be set apart, holy and different from the world

around us. Or what about everybody's favorite

book to get embarrassed by, Song of Solomon,

or Song of Songs, whatever we call it now, right?

That's a book that even as adults we get embarrassed

to read sometimes, right? If you haven't read

it yet, you don't know why. Go home, have fun,

read the Song of Solomon. I want you to now imagine

if it's embarrassing to talk about it as adults,

try being the teacher who has to teach it to

middle schoolers every year. All the prayers,

the headaches you mentioned Lorraine, that's

the hard one because even if I don't dive deep

into it, I mentioned it, the kids start reading

it, and then I get emails from parents and it's

a special time. But why do we need Song of Solomon?

It's just a romance book. Why? Because it paints

an incredible beautiful picture of a godly romance

between a husband and a wife that points us to

the type of love that we have and share with

Jesus as the bridegroom in his church as the

bride That's what it's about and all this to

say Don't skip through the Bible God gave us

all of it because he knows that we need every

bit of it because it all points Jesus. But now

lastly let's look at the disciples response to

what Jesus taught them. This is my favorite part

of the story is what happens to them. Look at

verse 32. Verse 32 says this, they said to each

other, did not our hearts burn within us while

he talked to us on the road and while he opened

to us the Scriptures? What I love about this

is when you follow the timeline of what they're

saying here because right before they said this

Jesus revealed who he was The whole time he was

giving them the Bible study. They had no idea

that he was Jesus He was just a random dude that

showed up and knew his Bible really well And

then he breaks bread with them and they realized

who he is and then Jesus and I love this He just

he teleports away. He's just gone right and I

love that Jesus does that it's just again Don't

miss the cool things Jesus does in the Bible.

They're awesome. But that's not what they're

talking about here. When they say their hearts

were burning within them, they're not talking

about when they suddenly realized it was Jesus.

I'm sure it got even better then. But they said,

our hearts burned within us while he opened the

scriptures to us. Church, when is the last time

you were truly amazed while just reading the

Bible? I'm sure that these disciples were godly

Jewish people who would have said that they loved

the scriptures, but clearly they didn't understand

them enough before this to recognize that Jesus

truly was the Messiah. But then here when they

got the best Bible study in history, when Jesus

himself interpreted it to them, it felt different.

Now we have, especially with Alex, he's an incredible

expositor of God's Word, amen? But can you imagine?

If next Sunday we said, Hey, we have a guest

speaker. Okay, I think you're going to love him.

It's Jesus. he came up here. I don't think anyone

would get distracted, sleepy, or like we might

still get hungry, we're still human and Baptist,

right? But we would all be riveted paying attention

to Jesus opening the Word to us, and we might

be tempted to think that, wow, I wish I was like

one of these two people, that I got to hear Jesus

explain the Bible to us. Well church, I guarantee

you these two disciples would be jealous of us

today. Yes, I want to hear and hear the Bible

preach from Jesus's feet in one day. Praise God.

I will But we have something incredible right

here This book that we hold is not just one Bible

study from Jesus. It is his entire word It's

everything Jesus wants to tell us and every time

you open this word. I want you to do this I want

you to expect God to do something amazing Here's

what I want you to know, that we should study

scripture expecting God to do something amazing.

When you go to do your Bible study, don't go

there and sit there and go, man, I hope there's

something interesting this time. When you walk

in on a Sunday morning, Don't walk in thinking,

man, I really hope Alex or Jordan are interesting

today. I really hope I get something out of it

today. No, walk in with a prayer, a prayerful

heart saying, God, I can't wait to find out what

you have for me today, because I'm going to read

from your holy word. I'm going to hear it preached

to me, and I can't wait to hear what you're going

to do in my life through your word. I had a really

great experience growing up in a church where

the youth group that I attended, it was a sizable

youth group, but almost every single kid in that

youth group grew up in church for their entire

life. Almost all of them, their families, were

in church every Sunday. I grew up with these

kids. Many of them went to the Christian school

that I did attached to that church. We had all

heard the Bible stories a million times, and

that's a good thing. That's a blessing. Possible

downside to that is, I noticed as I got older

in youth group, when the youth pastor would give

messages, he would say, all right, let's open,

let's read the story of Daniel and the lion's

den. What an incredible story, right? And you

could feel the eyes roll of these students that

go, well, I can tune this one out. I've heard

this story a million times because it's a cool

story, but I've heard it a million times and

they tune it out. Well fast forward to when I

was in college at North Greenville and I started

helping serve at a church in Greenville to help

run their youth ministry and this group was completely

different. There was about 30 students and Jessica

was there for a lot of this. She helped me with

it and there was a big difference in these kids

because I think maybe two of them had grown up

in church and maybe one of them, their family,

attended that church. See this these kids didn't

know the Bible at all and I remember Going and

standing on stage one Wednesday night going thinking

I was gonna have the same response and literally

saying the words alright I'm sure you guys have

heard this story before but tonight we're gonna

talk about Daniel and the lion's den and I've

watched is almost every single kid in that room

went What's that I was like wait you guys don't

know this story no Sweet I get to teach you about

this incredible story and it was every single

service. I noticed something about these kids

They were so stinking excited To get into that

Wednesday night service because they were gonna

hear from God's word for maybe the very first

time You could feel that excitement in them church

Do we have that kind of excitement? when we listen

to God's Word. Do we have that kind of expectancy?

I pray that I can get the kind of fervor and

excitement that those teenagers had, those rowdy,

crazy kids we had in that youth group, because

every Wednesday they walked in expecting to hear

something new. And that's my challenge to us

today, church. When we open this Bible, when

we hear it preached to us or read to us, come

ready for God to do something incredible. So

let me end the same way that I started this morning.

Who is Jesus to you? But before you answer, I

want to make sure the source of your answer is

Scripture. Let God's Word prove to you that Jesus

truly is God's Son who took our place on the

cross, rose from the dead to offer us eternal

life with Him. Cherish every single page in this

holy book as it all points to Him and read it

every day with your hearts on fire as you see

just how amazing our God truly is. Let's pray

together.