On the Road to Emmaus - Luke 24:13-35 (01.04.2026)

All right. Well, happy new year. I hope that everyone had a good week,

hopefully a restful past couple of weeks of the holidays and have enjoyed the

holidays and ringing in the new year with friends and family.

And I don't know about you, but I'm honestly kind of ready to start getting

into some normal rhythms again.

I know Lo cautions us not to rush through Christmas or rush through the holidays,

but with my type of personality, I like rhythm.

I like to know what's going on day in and day out. And I feel like these past

couple of weeks being out of different work with them.

It's just been a little weird for me. I feel like my brain's still trying to,

adjust with what's going on.

And a matter of fact, on Friday, which normally were, or the pastors are off

on Friday, but I had stuff to get done.

I was going to Kevin's house to print some stuff.

And Kevin's house is somewhere I had been plenty of times before.

We've had community groups there. I've gone there plenty of times before.

And on the way there, as I'm like going around this roundabout about to pull

into their neighborhood, I completely forgot where I was going,

not just like where Kevin's house was, but like, where am I actually going right now?

And I mean, this was like a 10 second thing. So like no need to like get a brain scan or anything.

But as I pulled in there, I was like, where am I at? And I'm like,

this is the same, you know, it's the same road I always go on.

It's the same path every time.

But for whatever reason, on the way there, I wasn't focused,

I wasn't paying attention.

And I pull into his neighborhood and luckily found my way to his house.

But as I got to thinking about it, how easy it is to become unfocused,

to lose train of thought and forget sinful directions.

As I was preparing for the sermon, I got to thinking how easy it is for us to forget the gospel.

And when I say forget the gospel, I'm not talking about like we forget the facts of the gospel.

I'm sure there are plenty of us in this room who at any moment of any time could

articulate the gospel that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was raised on the third day.

But what I'm referring to when I say forget the gospel, I'm referring to when

we forget the gospel's meaning,

when we forget its power and those everyday moments when we can lose sight of

God, when sin creeps in, sometimes intentionally, also through times of disappointment

or frustration or unmet expectations.

I think if we really think about it before we know it or not,

we can slowly drift away from the gospel, from its truth and from its hope.

And what we're going to look at in Luke today, in Luke chapter 24,

Luke 24:13–35

verses 13 through 35, it's called the road to Emmaus.

And we're going to look at two disciples who find themselves in a very similar situation.

We'll see them when they start out on their journey, they're walking down the

road, they're talking theology, they're talking about what just happened with

Jesus just the past couple days, he was crucified on the cross,

and they're walking down the road, yet their hearts are heavy.

Their hearts are full of sadness, rehearsing the events of what just happened

and Jesus being crucified.

But we're also going to look at in this passage today is how Jesus graciously,

intervenes in their life, meets them on the road.

He draws near to his gospel for getting disciples.

We'll see him open the scriptures. We'll see them rekindle their hearts and

we'll see him restore their hope.

And my prayer is that Christ would do the same for us today.

As we open up the scriptures, as we look at this, that he would realign our

hearts, that he would remind us of the gospel and that he would restore our

hope in him. So if you'll pray with me.

Lord Jesus, we love you so much We thank you for allowing us to gather here

In your name, we thank you for the gift of scripture.

That you reveal yourself to us through this word in our hands.

Lord, help us to not take that for granted.

Lord, we confess that it's easy to lose focus. It's easy to become distracted,

to lose sight of the meaning and the power of the gospel.

And Lord, I ask that you would help us to remove distractions from our hearts.

Lord, help us to look to you, help us to see you clearly this morning.

And Lord, help me to preach your word faithfully and obediently.

And we ask this in your name. Amen.

So I want to give a little bit of context. Not a lot, but a little bit. So we're in Luke 24.

But if you look back at Luke 23, we see the story of Jesus's crucifixion.

So leading up to his crucifixion, him and his disciples are in Jerusalem.

They're there for the Passover.

Long story short, Judas betrays him. He's delivered over to the rulers of the

day, the Jewish rulers, and then they deliver him over to the Romans to Pilate.

And on Friday, as we know it, he was crucified on the cross.

That's what we see happen in chapter 23. We see the death of Jesus.

We see him buried. We see him put in a tomb.

And then in chapter 24, at the beginning of chapter 24, Luke tells us that some

of the women, some of Jesus' disciples, early in the morning,

they got up and they went to the tomb.

And when they got to the tomb, they actually found it empty.

The tomb, the stone was rolled away in front of it.

And when they went in, Jesus wasn't there. His body was gone.

And two angels of the Lord came to them and said, he's risen,

just like he told you he would.

And in verse nine of chapter 24, it says that these women returning from the

tomb, they told all these things to the 11 and to all of the rest.

So these women, they went back to tell the other disciples that Jesus had risen.

But look at their response in verse 11.

Luke tells us, but these words seem to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

So these disciples, they didn't believe. They didn't believe what the women had told them.

They didn't believe that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead.

And we pick up in that story in verse 13.

In verse 13, Luke tells us that that very day, two of them, so two of these

disciples that would have been there when this happened, were going to a village

named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

And this first verse is important because this is, as we know it,

is Resurrection Sunday. This is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. The tomb is empty.

Hope should be exploding from their hearts, but instead they're leaving Jerusalem.

They're leaving Jerusalem, the place of promise, and they're leaving confused

and broken and defeated.

And look at verse 14 and it says, and as they were going along the road,

they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened.

See, these disciples, they knew the story. They were there when Jesus was crucified.

They were there when he was taken down on the cross and probably put in the tomb.

They were there this Sunday morning when the women came and reported that the

tomb was empty. They may have even went to go see it for themselves,

but it tells us that they didn't believe.

And then in verse 15, it says, while they were talking and discussing together,

Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And this brings us to our first point, which is Jesus draws near to gospel forgetting disciples.

So you have these two disciples. They're leaving Jerusalem. They're broken.

They're defeated. They don't believe that Jesus has risen from the grave.

And verse 15 tells us that Jesus himself drew near to them.

And when we look at the context of this, when it says that they were prevented

from, they didn't recognize him, Jesus did that.

He wasn't in a disguise. He wasn't invisible, but he hardened their eyes so

that they could not see who he was.

And we're asked like, why would Jesus do this? Why would he prevent them from recognizing him?

If the issue is unbelief, why didn't he just show them? Like,

here I am in the flesh, see me, believe in me.

Looking at it from the outside in, it seems like that would have been the simplest

thing to do, but Jesus doesn't do that.

Instead, in verse 17, we see him ask them a question.

And 17 says, And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding

with each other as you walk?

And Luke says they stood still looking sad. They literally stopped in their

tracks and they looked at him, almost dumbfounded, looking sad.

And Jesus asked this question, not because he needed information from them.

He knows their hearts. He's God himself.

But he asked this question because he's looking for an answer.

And in that answer, he's wanting to expose their heart, expose their unbelief.

He wants to get at the root of what their issue is.

So let's continue on. We'll see that. Verse 18.

Verse 18 says, Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, Are you the only

visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

And Jesus said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus

of Nazareth, a man who is a prophet mighty in deed 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. Let me catch this, verse 21.

But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.

We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. And ding,

ding, ding, that's the answer Jesus was looking for.

And the answer right there that we'd hoped he'd been the one to redeem Israel,

it reveals their deeper issue. They had some misplaced hope.

It wasn't that they didn't hope enough. They didn't, they had the hope. It was there.

But instead, they hoped at the wrong thing, at the wrong thing.

And we can assume based on the context here, and then also knowing what was

going on in first century Israel at the time, many Jews expected the Messiah

to be almost somewhat of a political rescuer.

I mean, the Israelites at the time, they're under the oppression of the Roman

rule and they expected their Messiah to come and deliver them from that.

They expected this triumphant leader who would come in and restore Israel to

its former glory above all nations.

But when we look at scripture and when we look at the gospel account,

especially here in the New Testament, that's not what we see.

Instead, we see a suffering savior. We see Jesus who suffered an atoning death

on the cross for their sins and was raised three days later.

And in this moment, as they're on this road to Emmaus, these disciples,

they don't understand this.

Look at verse 19 with me. So Jesus asked them what things?

And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man, who is a prophet mighty in deed and word.

They call him first, Jesus of Nazareth, a man. And they're not wrong.

Jesus is a man. He was born of a woman.

He was there in the flesh with him. He was a man. And they call him a prophet.

And surely he was. He was sent by God the Father.

He brought teachings. He performed signs and miracles and wonders in front of

them. He brought warnings against sin. He was a prophet.

But what they're missing in their explanation and understanding of Jesus is

that he's also God Almighty.

He's God Almighty who came to redeem his people from their sin.

They weren't looking for a suffering servant. They weren't looking for Messiah

to save them from their sin.

Instead, they were looking for that triumphant leader who would come in and

deliver them from their earthly foes.

Look at verse 22. They say, moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body,

they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women

had said, but him they did not see.

Once again, I mean, they sit here and they tell Jesus everything that had just happened.

Their issue is not because they didn't know the facts. They were there.

They didn't lack any information.

They witnessed it with their own eyes, but what they lacked was understanding.

They didn't understand what the things that had happened, what it meant for

them. They had a heart issue.

And I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. They wanted the right thing.

They wanted redemption for Israel, but they didn't understand God's means of

doing that and what true redemption really looked like.

And friends, this is what sin does to us, even us today. Sin is the root of gospel forgetfulness.

And sin doesn't usually erase the facts from us. It doesn't make us forget what

happened, but it often distorts what we think.

Sin often clouds our judgment. It can make us miss how God is working right in front of us.

It can make us forget God's promises and his faithfulness in the scriptures and in our lives.

Sin shifts the lens through which we see our reality.

And too often, if we really think about it, each and every one of us,

we find ourselves in situations where we forget the gospel's power.

We can forget God's faithfulness.

I mean, how many times do we end up in despair because something went wrong?

Or God, we blame him. He didn't act in the way that we expected him to,

the way that we prayed to, the way that we wanted to.

Or how many times do we forget God's goodness and his sacrifice on the cross

when we willingly given to sin, when we're jealous,

when we covet, when we give into lust, or how about when we're scrolling on

Zillow, which I'm guilty of this as well, or Facebook Marketplace,

longing for more than what God has already provided.

Or in those times where we don't trust God with our finances,

or we don't trust God to reconcile broken relationships or broken situations.

If we really think about it, each and every one of us at some point,

and I would say probably multiple times a day, we find ourselves forgetting

the meaning of the gospel.

We forget its power, whether we realize it or not.

And the good news is, is that even in those moments, Jesus draws near to us.

He draws near to us like he did with these two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

He's always present with us. Scripture tells us that.

He's present even when he's unrecognized or when he feels distance or we don't have hope.

He's with us in our brokenness, in our darkest moments.

But the good news of the gospel is that he doesn't leave us there.

He actually brings us to something better, which is our second point that Jesus

reorients our hearts through the scriptures.

Let's keep going. Look at verse 25. So after they've explained everything to

them, Jesus says to them, Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all

the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into glory?

Look at what he says there. He says, oh foolish ones and slow of heart,

slow of heart to believe.

Jesus doesn't say slow of mind.

He says slow of heart. This wasn't an intellectual problem for these guys.

It was a heart issue. It was an affection issue.

And what does Jesus do to fix it? He doesn't change the circumstances.

He doesn't reveal himself in the flesh yet.

Instead, he opens up the scriptures. Verse 27, and beginning with Moses and

all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures,

the things concerning himself.

And one caveat here, anytime we see the word scriptures in the New Testament,

it's always referring to the Old Testament.

So when Jesus would open up the scriptures here, or when Luke wrote this,

or later, if you look at some of Paul's letters and he mentions the scriptures,

the New Testament didn't exist yet.

I mean, it was being formed when they were writing this. So when they say scriptures,

they're always referring to the Old Testament.

So what this means is that Jesus from, I mean, our Old Testament days from Genesis

to Malachi, he opened up the scriptures and he walked them through some of the

prophetic messages concerning himself.

And friends, this right here, verse 27, you can mark this.

This is like the turning point in this story, because I would imagine that Jesus

walked them through the whole story of redemption.

Granted, I mean, they're on a seven mile journey, so he doesn't have like all

day to walk them through every little detail of the Bible, but I'm sure he hits all the high points.

But I would imagine that through the Old Testament, Jesus walked them through

the laws and the covenants and the prophecies that pointed to him,

but not only pointed to him, but also pointed to his suffering and his death and the resurrection,

which are those are the things that they were having a misaligned expectation of.

In the Old Testament and the story of Israel and the story of God's people,

it's not just some irrelevant thing.

I think too often we can just skim over the Old Testament.

But when we really look at it, it's a carefully woven narrative.

There's all these puzzle pieces that fit together that were designed by God

that we see culminate in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And if we slow down and we really look at the Old Testament and we look at some

of the things, we can actually see Jesus there.

In fact, the first time we see the gospel in scripture is not in Matthew,

Mark, and Luke, or John. It's actually in Genesis 3, Genesis 3, 15.

And this is called the Proto-Evangelium. It's called the first gospel.

And in Genesis 3, we see the fall of man. So Genesis 1 and 2,

God created the heavens and the earth. Everything was good.

And in Genesis 3, Satan, in the form of a serpent, he deceives Adam and Eve.

He convinces them to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree and they enter into sin.

And in Genesis 3.15, we see God's response to that. And in Genesis 3.15,

God is talking to Satan. He's talking to the serpent.

And he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

And friends, this verse right here, like the first time we see the gospel,

it's talking about Jesus. Jesus is the offspring of the woman, born of the Virgin Mary.

He's the one who defeated the serpent, who crushed his head by going to the

cross for us and for our sin.

And we could actually go on and on and on throughout the Old Testament.

In 2 Samuel 7, we see prophecy of Jesus being a descendant of King David, which surely he was.

We see that evidence of that in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew and Luke.

In Isaiah 53 alone, in this one chapter of Isaiah, we see prophecy of Jesus

being pierced, of him being crushed for our sins, of him being crucified next

to other sinners. We see him being buried with a wrench.

In Isaiah 9, we see prophecy of God's kingdom and salvation going to the ends

of the earth, to all the nations.

Throughout all the Old Testament, there are all these little nuggets and prophecy of Jesus.

And what Jesus does is by walking them through these two disciples through the

scriptures, He begins to reorient their understanding.

He starts to change their expectation. Jesus shows them that himself,

the Messiah, that his suffering was not a detour from God's plan.

The cross was a mistake. The resurrection wasn't an afterthought,

maybe like these guys would have thought. It was always the plan.

God hadn't abandoned his people.

Rather, he accomplished salvation as he always attended, it,

as we always see foretold in the Old Testament.

As we continue on in this chapter of Luke here, we actually get a window into

these disciples' response when they realized this. So look at verse 28.

It says, So they drew near to the village to which they were going.

Jesus acted as if He were going farther. But they urged Him strongly,

saying, Stay with us, for it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them,

he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

Then they said to each other, did our hearts not burn within us while he talked

to us on the road, while he opened to us the scripture?

So they get into Emmaus. They invite Jesus in. It's already late in the evening.

He joins them for a meal. He actually takes the place of the host of the home.

He takes the bread, he blesses it, he broke it, he gave it to them.

And in that moment, it tells us their eyes were opened, verse 31,

and they recognized him.

But then Jesus vanished from their sight.

And I don't know if this is like a Houdini moment or if like Jesus just pooped

out of the air, but he's gone pretty quickly.

But in this moment, they finally recognize him. They see Jesus clearly for who

he is as the risen savior.

In this moment, I think, I believe their hearts were awakened.

All those missed expectations they had, I think they were finally corrected.

In this moment, they saw Jesus. They saw the resurrected Jesus.

And why did they finally see him? What changed in this story?

Look at verse 32 again. They said to each other, did our hearts not burn within

us while he talked us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?

The burning in their heart, this transformation in their heart,

it didn't start at the table.

It didn't start when Jesus broke the bread. It didn't start when Jesus finally

revealed himself in the flesh. It actually started on the road when Jesus opened

up the scriptures and started explaining them to them.

And in that moment when he did, it slowly but surely began to transform their

heart from this place of brokenness and despair into the reality of hope that they have.

And this is what scripture does. Scripture, it reminds us of why Jesus came,

of who he is, and most importantly, where our hope lies today.

And this is what Jesus reminded them. Thank you.

And in verse 30, and this is actually, I know I said verse 27 was the turning

point, and it is, but verse 30 is probably my favorite verse in this passage.

Because Jesus comes into the house and he takes the bread and it says that he

blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it to them.

And this pattern that we see right here is actually the same thing that Jesus does at the Last Supper.

So just a couple of days earlier when he had the last meal with his disciples.

It's actually the same pattern we see when Jesus feeds the 5,000 as well.

But in this moment, as Jesus breaks the bread, I would imagine as they've heard

the scriptures, as they've heard Jesus explaining all this thing,

in the moment when he breaks the bread, they realize that it was his body that was broken for him.

When he gives them the bread, they realize that it was his life that was given

for their sins, for their salvation.

And right after that, after it all clicked, Jesus appears to them.

They see the risen Jesus. And in that moment, they realized that it was that

Jesus the whole time that was traveling with them on the road that met them

in their brokenness, that met them and explained to them the scriptures.

It's Jesus who changed their hearts.

He didn't do it by revealing himself in the flesh, at least not yet.

He did it by revealing himself through the word of God, through scripture.

And friends, this is why corporate gathering matters. Granted,

I know a lot of us don't come here on Sunday morning, but wherever you go on

Sunday morning, you gather to be reminded of the gospel. You gather to hear this word preached.

You gather so your heart can be set ablaze with hope so you can be sent back into the world.

And here we gather to break bread together. We'll do that right after this so

that we can remember that it was Jesus's body that was broken for us,

that it was his blood that was poured out for us.

Each time we gather in the name of Jesus as the body of Christ,

we gather to encounter Jesus.

We gather to be drawn near to him, to have our hearts reminded of the gospel and reoriented with it.

Because without that, without gathering together, without being reminded of

the truths in the scripture, we end up like these two disciples on the road

to Emmaus. we end up broken.

We end up confused. We end up walking away from hope.

And what this text shows us is that scripture is the means by which Jesus reveals himself to us.

When we sit with scripture, when we sit with the word of God,

it's not just information, it's Christ speaking to us.

It's him speaking to our hearts.

And Hebrews 4.12 says that for the word of God is living and active.

It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

It's piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow,

and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.

What this verse in Hebrews tells us is that scripture transforms our hearts.

It pierces down to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow.

It can reach into all those areas

of unbelief that we don't even know we have, and it can transform us.

This is why Jesus opens up the scripture with these disciples.

He knew it had the power to reveal himself.

Thomas Watson, which is a Puritan preacher from the 17th century.

I saw this quote the other day and I really liked it. He said,

read the word of God with affection.

Get your hearts quickened with the word. Go to it to fetch fire.

Labor that the word of God may not only be a lamp to direct, but a fire to warm.

Catch this. He says, read the scriptures not as a history, but as a love letter

sent to you from God that may affect your hearts.

This is from God. It affects our hearts.

And it also gives us the hope and empowers us to be sent back into the world,

which brings us to our third point, that Jesus sends renewed witnesses back with joy.

Let's look at the two disciples' response after they realize who Jesus is. Verse 33.

It says, and they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.

And they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together,

saying, the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in

the breaking of the bread.

So as soon as these disciples realize who Jesus is, that he has in fact risen

from the dead, they get up that very moment and they return to Jerusalem.

And this would have been late at night. I mean, they already got to Emmaus late.

This is why they invite Jesus in to dine with them and to stay with them.

So they are headed back to Jerusalem in the dark, but they didn't care.

They had seen the gospel clearly. They had seen Jesus and they knew they had to go share it.

And now they're traveling back on the same road they were earlier,

except this time they're not broken.

They're not in despair or confused or scared. This time they're traveling back

with haste because they have a newfound hope and a newfound joy.

And they realized it as Jesus opened up the scriptures to them and revealed himself.

See, the gospel, when we're reminded of it, it brings clarity to us.

It helps us see things through a new perspective. And it should,

like these disciples, it should put us on mission.

Mission should naturally flow from it. And what I mean by that is these disciples,

they knew they had to return to Jerusalem.

They knew they had to tell other people that Jesus was in fact alive,

that he had risen from the dead. They knew they had to do this.

And friends, we're on the same mission today.

Each time we gather in this room to hear the word preached, to break bread together,

we're to be renewed in the gospel.

Not because we forget the facts of the gospel, not because we don't know what

happened, but because then in our sin and in our flesh and in this broken world,

we're prone to forget its meaning.

We're prone to forget its power. So we need to be reminded so that we can be sent back.

To that fallen world. When we're prone to wonder and become discouraged by the

world around us, often we think the answer is to pull ourselves up and figure

it out on our own and make things happen. But that's not the truth.

Instead, the answer is that we need a renewed vision of Christ.

This gospel, this word, it reminds us of that.

It empowers us so that we can return to our communities and to our families

and to our workplaces and to our neighborhoods as witnesses of the gospel.

There are lost people out there.

And in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus commands his disciples to go

therefore and make disciples of all nations.

This is a commandment for all of us. This is still relevant today.

This just wasn't for these first century Christians.

It was for us. We're to go and make disciples.

We're to go and proclaim and to testify and to live out the gospel so we can

make disciples, so others can come to know Jesus Christ. That's our mission. It is.

But we can't do it without regularly being reminded and rejoicing the gospel.

Without it, we end up like these two disciples.

Friends, we know sin is great, but we also have a wonderful assurance of a Savior

that has overcome sin and has overcome death.

When we look at Scripture, when we look at the Old Testament,

we can see that it was God's plan from the beginning of time.

We see it from Genesis to Revelation. We see throughout the whole Bible,

we see the gospel unfold.

God is faithful and His promises are true.

And scripture tells us that he will one day return for us and we will spend

eternity with him forever for those who believe in him. That's our hope.

That fact right there, when we're reminded of that, that's what empowers us

to go back out into this world, to live with hope and joy and peace and purpose

in a world that is broken and fallen apart. That's what it is. That is our hope.

But also I have to acknowledge, perhaps there are some in this room who've never

known the love and the comfort of Jesus Christ.

Maybe you've been searching for answers for a really long time.

You've been searching high and low and each time the world just returns you

broken and despair and hopeless.

The world breaks us and it wears us down. If that's you, I have really good news.

The same Jesus who met these two disciples on the road to Emmaus when they were

broken and they were confused and they were lost, that same Jesus will meet you. He will.

You've heard the word preached today. I don't know how clearly, but you've heard it.

You've hopefully heard the gospel message. It's the gospel message that can

bring you hope and joy and purpose and everlasting life that can send you back

into this world with joy and peace that no one else will understand.

And I have to ask you, is your heart burning like it was with these disciples

when Jesus opened up the scripture?

If you don't know Jesus, will you perhaps for the first time today open up your eyes and see him.

Romans 5.8 tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We have done nothing to earn salvation. Christ died for you and me while we were still sinners.

It was his plan from the beginning of time, God's plan to send Christ the Son

to die on the cross for our sins and for our redemption.

Romans 10.9 tells us that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and

believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's that easy.

There's nothing you have to do, nothing you have to earn, nothing special you

have to do. You just have to believe.

You have to believe that this Jesus was the one who went to the cross,

who was resurrected, who overcame sin and death for us.

And that's what these two disciples in the story finally realized.

It's Jesus alone who forgives us, who gives us hope, who gives us assurance,

and who gives us purpose. Let's pray.

Jesus, we thank you for your word That it is your means to which you reveal

yourself to us We thank you for the holy spirit that allows us to open up this

word and to understand it God,

I ask that we would make that a priority this year That we would make it a priority

to gather together as the body of believers to hear your word preach to worship

you to praise you And that we would do it on our own as well Knowing that each

and every day god we need the gospel,

We need the gospel in all those mundane circumstances, in the day-to-day life. We need you.

So Lord, I ask that you would cause us to depend on you, help our souls to thirst for you.

And Lord, as we go back into this world this week, I ask that you would send

us back with joy and hope and boldness and courage to make your name known to the ends of the earth.

And Lord, we ask this in your holy name. Amen.

No, stand as we, there's a thing in your spots.