from recognizing him, and he said to them, what are these words which you are exchanging with one another as you are walking? And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? He said to them, what things? And they said to him, the things about Jesus of the Nazarene, the things about Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word in the sight of God and all the people. and how the chief priests and our own rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find the body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said, but him they did not see. And He said to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken to you! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he were going farther. But they urged him, saying, Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over. So he went in to stay with them. When he had reclined at the table with them, he took bread and blessed it and break it. He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 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? And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, the Lord has really risen. and has appeared to Simon. And they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Beginning in verse 36, my Bible has a non-inspired but possibly helpful title, Other Appearances. Verse 36, while they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why did doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet. that it is I Myself. Touch Me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.' And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet, while they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement. He said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, And He took it and ate it before them. Now He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And He said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you. but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. We'll leave off with our reading there. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, we come to you this morning and give you thanks for the scripture, the scriptures which testify of our Lord Jesus Christ and the great redemption that we have through him. We praise you for raising him from the dead. And by so doing, giving us hope, hope for forgiveness of sin, hope for imputed righteousness, which we so desperately needed to have fellowship, to have standing before you. and hope because of his resurrection, hope for our own resurrection and eternal life thereafter. God, we pray that you would hide the preacher behind the cross, that your word would be proclaimed. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Today's message, I feel like I say this a lot, but I feel like today's message is a bit different. We will consider some things from the texts that we have read, some things that we may have touched on briefly in the past, and some other things that we're just picking up today. You may think of this, I have thought of this as doing some cleanup. going back and picking up some things that either I forgot to say or ran out of time or we didn't address. So I want to address those things. I would tell you and remind some of you, many Puritans preachers, Puritan preachers, preached passages of scripture, and really tried to exhaust the passage by preaching every item that could be directly taken from the passage, and then preaching all the things that could be tangentially connected to the passage. They tried to preach everything that could come. And that's not a bad exercise, to really try to mine everything in a passage, I would say this. Number one, those men were smarter than me. And number two, those congregations listens to a lot longer sermons than you guys do. We're not accustomed to listening to sermons of that length. And it's funny, I get comments from friends and family who do not attend here at the length of my preaching. And so I appreciate your patience and we've never thought that a 40 or 50 or 60 or 65 minute sermon was unbearable. So I appreciate your patience in that. So today we're doing some housekeeping items, some cleanup. But as we do this, I don't want you to think that these things are unimportant. that they're the small, insignificant, unimportant things that we're just gonna go back and pick up. That is not the case at all. I believe these items that we'll talk about today are too important to skip over. We could move on without addressing these things, without talking about these things, and if we didn't know it, we might not even miss them, but I believe that as we see these things, it's important for us to think these thoughts. So we still will not exhaust this text, but we will benefit by going back and gleaning some extra things as we dig in. I have tried to order these observations so that we build as we go. for that reason we it may feel like we jump around just a little bit and a couple of times we may even address some things from the Gospel of John so we're not going to turn to a lot of places but I would ask you keep your Bible open to the Gospel of Luke here in chapter 24 and as we read you'll be able to see what is here for us let me give you five points five items that we will address so that you'll see where we're going and all but don't tune out I mean you get the five points you write them don't don't tune out number one everyone should study and no systematic theology number two God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are not at odds Number three, God's election is a comfort. Number four, Jesus gave many proofs of his resurrection. And number five, Jesus gave real meaning to the most common Jewish salutation. Even as I read through those five things, I am concerned that we will not not get to everything, so let's get started. Firstly, everyone should know and study systematic theology. I would remind some of you who have been at Waco Family for a while, for several years, that we had a discussion a few years back, and the question that was raised was this, is theology for pastors and seminarians, or is theology for every Christian? I think if we're going to talk about that, we should define theology. I have my simple definitions. The simplest way we could define theology would be the study of God. You may prefer to say that theology is the study of the divine. but that is the study of God, or the study of the nature of God. Any of these things would be acceptable, but we would really want to add a few words to make sure that we are studying good theology, that we're studying right. My definition that I wrote down is this. Theology is the study of the nature of God as He has revealed Himself Now, I put in the Holy Scripture, we could include in a small way in creation, the book of nature, we would call it, but specifically and particularly as Christians, how God has revealed Himself in Scripture, and then we study from there. We could also shortcut this by saying theology is, in general terms, the doctrines of the Christian faith. That would be a general shortcut thing. So this is theology, the study of the divine, the study of the nature of God as He's revealed Himself, the study of the doctrines of the Christian faith. Is this body of study, is this field of study something that is for pastors? I hope you will answer yes. Is this field of study something for seminarians? And we would say most certainly, yes, it is. But some people believe that theology is not to be handled by everyone. Theology is only for the professionals. The amateurs should stay away. That was the discussion we had a while back. I believe that Dr. Gerstner stated it well when he wrote, every man must be a theologian. And then his student, Dr. Sproul, later wrote a book, Everyone's a Theologian. Everyone is a theologian. Excellent book. Those are both excellent things for you to read. You can look up Every Man Must Be a Theologian and read that online for free. And then Everyone's a Theologian by Dr. R.C. Sproul. Excellent book that I would recommend. The point is made well by these two men. and we're trying to make it today, every person has some sort of thoughts and ideas about God, some sort of belief about God. Every person has something. And you may think, oh no, well I know some atheists. Well what do those atheists say about God? They say something about God. Every person has some sort of belief about God. So the question is not, Are you a theologian? Let me inform you today, the question is, are you a good theologian or are you a poor theologian? That's the question that we have to ask. The discussion is sometimes divided opinions even further when we introduce particular kinds of theology. Now, I'm not going to exhaust this by any means, but there's biblical theology. There's systematic theology. On Wednesday nights, we're talking about Baptist covenant theology. There's theology proper, which would be particularly narrowed to the attributes or the character of God, the nature of God himself. So some would say these various fields under the large heading theology divide opinions even further. Systematic theology particularly is what I want to address. That was what we said. Every person should know and study systematic theology. Some believe that systematic theology is a bad thing. Systematic theology is bad. You should stay away from it. One writer wrote this. God's revelation to us is not systematic. It's messy. No one would deny that there are lives portrayed in the scripture which could accurately be described as messy. Man is messy, but God's redemptive work unfolded throughout history is absolutely systematic. God is a God of order. And the revelation of God in the scripture can certainly be and should certainly be studied to see its system. That's not the only thing we would look for, but it certainly should be studied to see its system, the system of the Bible, the system that God has put down there. Let's consider from our text Jesus here speaking to the eleven in Luke 24 verse 44 and following. Now he said these things to them, These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the scripture. And said to them, thus it is written that the Christ who would suffer and rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sin would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. Here Jesus speaks to them to say, this is what the Bible says about me. In addition, let's look at up to verse 27. Up to verse 27. This is when Jesus is walking on the road with the two. We read this in verse 27. Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Now this is the very definition of doing systematic theology. I just wrote a paraphrase of these things. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus began with Genesis and worked through all the Old Testament, showing them the systematic theology that pointed to Him. And then later when he was with the 11, again he worked through the Old Testament and taught them systematic theology. Now we don't see the word systematic theology in the scripture, but this is what systematic theology is. Systematic theology can be recognized in this way. When you say something like, what does the Bible teach about blank? When you're asked that question, what does the Bible teach about blank? Someone is asking you for a systematic. A systematic theology answer. And that's exactly what Jesus did in these examples. Jesus taught the two on the road to Emmaus and then the eleven, the apostles, he taught them what the whole Bible teaches about him. Now at that time the whole Bible was the Old Testament, but he taught them at that time what the whole Bible teaches about him. So let's note that Jesus did systematic theology. But Jesus did systematic theology well. Now that should be no surprise. Jesus is God of very God, the author of scripture. And of course, he is uniquely suited to do systematic theology. But there are some who do systematic theology poorly. Here's what they do. They have a system. That's where it all went wrong right there. They have a system and they bring that system to bear on scripture. They have a system of thoughts, a system of doctrine, a system of beliefs, and they come to scripture with those preconceived notions, agreed upon in their own mind notions, and they impose a system on the Bible. And that is the wrong way to do systematic theology. Can I just say, we're not going to get political, but maybe just a skosh. Can I say that we see those types of things in other documents, like, let's say, the Constitution of the United States of America? People have ideas, and they come to the documents, and they read the documents through their system, rather than going to the document and saying, what is the system that went into the writing of this? Now, that would be a good way for us to do governing, for us to read our governmental documents. But even those documents were written by fallible men. But when we come to the Word of God, it is the Word of God. And we dare not try to impose some system of man on the Word of God. So we want to come to the Bible and see what is the system there. Now let me say this, the error of bringing your own system to the Bible is not a new phenomenon. It's not a new thing. This is the error that the Jewish religious leaders had. They brought their ideas to the scripture and they imposed those things and that's why they were so stuck in their thinking they couldn't get outside their system and their system did not come from the scripture. It was not the correct system. But Jesus did not impose a system on the Bible. Jesus showed the two on the road and the 11, what the system of the Bible is. What's there? He showed it to them. I got off my notes, so I've got to catch up. We must understand that we need to do what Jesus did. We need to find the system within the Scripture. We need to read the Scripture to observe what is there, to find the system that is contained there. And I would say if you'd like to get a better idea, if systematic theology, maybe this is the first time you've heard that term, if systematic theology is new to you, I could recommend a big mule choker book, Lewis Burkhoff. We have one man that's reading Lewis Burkhoff's Systematic Theology. another man today that said I'm gonna catch up so look out brother he's catching up so we're he's gonna catch up if you want to join in that talk to Jordan and Cruz and you can get on their on their reading program so I could recommend some of those big systematics but let me say this if it's new to you maybe a good place to start would be with our confession Our confession is a type of a systematic. If you go to the chapters, you see what does the Bible say about, and the chapter titles give you a subject, and it's a systematic. It'd be a good place to start. It's a systematic and brief. One more thing before we move past this. Note that the 11, The apostles were professionals. I mean, if we're gonna put that title, they were the professionals and Jesus taught these, can we say pastors and seminarians? They would be pastors planting churches and they had been for three years at the seminary of Jesus. They were pastors and seminarians and Jesus taught them to do systematic theology. But the two on the road to Emmaus, those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we use there the term disciple in a broad sense. They were regular old followers of Jesus, just regular old Christians. And those regular followers of Jesus, he taught them to be theologians, to be thinking and to do this systematic theology, to study systematic theology. So, our first point is that Jesus taught systematic theology, which was revealed in the word of God, and that we should be theologians who do the same. Wow, that's one out of five. Secondly, let's consider the two on the road to Emmaus. Look at verses 28 and 29. And they approached the village as they were going, they acted as though they were going further, but they urged him, stay with us, it's getting toward evening, the day is nearly over. So he went in and stayed with them. Some have taken these verses and others like them in the New Testament have said, you see here what a gentleman Jesus is. Jesus is such a gentleman, he never forces his way in. And then they take those statements and draw conclusions that man is the determining factor, man is the determinant one in his own salvation. Had these men not invited Jesus in, He would not have gone. And if you don't invite Jesus into your heart, He is such a gentleman who will stand by, hat in hand, waiting for you. They conclude that God has done all He can salvation. He's done all that he can do to save you and the rest is up to you. God's made his move, now it's your move. But they are creating in this a false dichotomy. Something that is not here and they're adding it, they're making it there. Now, first of all, let's say this, the terminology of invite Jesus in. These people certainly invited Jesus into their house. They certainly did, but the terminology of inviting Jesus in is nowhere found in the Bible related to the salvation of men. We read about faith or belief, and we read about repentance. The Apostle John uses the term to receive, but we conclude, if we do a good systematic study, We conclude that John is teaching faith and repentance. That's what he means when he speaks of salvation. So the question then that we must ask is, where is the determinant factor in man's salvation? Where is the determination of God saving man? Is it with God or is it with man? And yes, we do recognize and we must recognize the responsibility that the Bible teaches that every sinner has to repent of his sins and to believe or to exercise faith in Jesus for salvation. That is the responsibility of every man, woman, and child. But this responsibility of man does not eliminate or in any way lessen the sovereign work of God. We can point out in these verses that we have read that while they were walking, yes, they got to a point that they invited Jesus in. They had a responsibility at that point. They felt that responsibility and they followed through on that responsibility to invite him in. But remember, while they were walking, the two of them, Jesus overtook them. That was his work, that was not their work. And we can point out in the scripture, in both the scripture with the two on the road to Emmaus and then later with the 11, their eyes were opened. Not they opened their eyes, but their eyes were opened and we see God's work. We need to know that God's sovereign work enables man to respond in repentance and faith. There is no such thing as a man who wants to come to Jesus unless and until there is a work of sovereign calling done by God. There is no such thing as a man who wants to come to Jesus. Now, let me say this. When I say that, I mean the Jesus of Scripture. I don't mean the social Jesus or the Jesus made up. So the point here is that God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are not at odds. And when God elects and calls, man is sure to repent and believe. And I would say this. When we preach the gospel, we preach to men to repent and believe because it is their responsibility. And we know that God is sovereign in His word. This may be hodgepodge moving forward. I want to cover these things, but let's just say this. Look back at Verse 36. Remember the two on the road to Emmaus. They were hikers of the Hathaway caliber, because this was a 14-day hike, a 14-day. This was a 14-mile hike in one day. It would take me 14 days to do this hike. They did it in one day. That's quite a hike. That's quite a hike. Remember, they walked in a depressed state to Emmaus, and then when Jesus was revealed to them and disappeared from their sight, they came back the seven miles back to Jerusalem. It does not tell us how long it took them to get back. I bet you they walked at a quicker clip than they went. I'll bet you the return trip was a whole different feel. Remember the faithlessness and the depression and the despair that they were feeling. But now they have seen the risen Christ. I'll bet you it was a near run back to Jerusalem to report these things. And they get there, verse 36, while they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst. And John tells us that the doors and windows were closed and locked. the doors and windows are closed and locked and Jesus appears just like he had disappeared in Emmaus he appears here now let's just as quickly as we can verse 37 they were startled and frightened can anybody say duh they were startled and frightened of course they were startled and frightened They were, let's point this out while we're here. They were controlled for a time by their emotions. And this is not a good thing. They were startled and frightened and thought they saw a ghost. They were startled and frightened. And even though Jesus had told them, you destroy this temple and in three days, I'll raise it up again. Even though the women said, the angel said, he's alive. Even though he had appeared to Peter, even though these two came from Emmaus and said, we just walked with him seven miles. And then he appeared, he appeared from us and then disappeared, appeared to our eyes were open and then he disappeared. Even though all of those things, They were controlled by their emotions and went quickly to believe a ghost story instead of, this is Jesus risen again. They were controlled by their emotions. Look later in verse 40, he showed them his hands and his feet. He's there, he shows them his hands and his feet. Verse 41, while they could still could not believe. Maybe this could not believe is a little different in that they're rubbing their eyes and. Can this be? Maybe this cannot believe is a little different, but look what it says. They still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement. They are still led by emotion. They are still led by emotion. What we can learn here from how Jesus deals with these, we are emotional people. We should not deny emotions. We should not dismiss emotions, but we should not be led by or known by our emotions. You know those reformed Baptists? Yeah, that's an emotional bunch. We don't want that reputation. Jesus takes them to places. This is what the Bible says. That you can stand on. That is solid. That is rock. Stand there and feel emotions. But don't stand on emotions. Stand on truth. And then here's another place that he takes them, and I would have missed this if not for help. J.C. Ryle points out that he takes them to rely on their senses. Oh, and this served later. Remember what John said when he wrote the epistle, the first epistle? Jesus, and I'm paraphrasing, we have heard We have seen, we have beheld, which is a lot deeper look. We have touched. We have touched. Rely on your senses. J.C. Ryle makes a connection here that we should be people who stand on the word of God and People who trust our senses when it comes to things like this false doctrine of transubstantiation. In a little bit, when we eat this wafer, you may convince me that it is made of cardboard. You may convince me that it's some form of Styrofoam. But what do your senses say? Is it The body of Christ? Dare I say that is a damnable doctrine. To call something that is not God, God. Transubstantiation. Trust your senses. Ryle also makes this point. Trust your senses in the ordinance of baptism. Those who would tell you that children baptized in infancy are saved, are new creations in Christ. Watch their behavior. You will know them by their fruit. The Bible tells us that of false teachers, but isn't that true of all? You will know them by their fruit. And we see in our senses that our babies are born sinners and an infant baptism does nothing but get some wet. They need to be saved and then they need to be baptized. Jesus. in verse 36, stands in their midst, appears. Clearly, we understand as we look at Jesus' glorified, resurrected body, that there is a one-to-one ratio, a one-to-one correlation between the body that was buried and the body that was raised, right down to the fact that he had scars in his hands, and we'll talk about that probably next week. But his body clearly has a different relationship to time and space or time and Some something's different. He disappeared he appeared. There's something different Don't ask me what because I don't know because the Bible doesn't tell me anything beyond that would be speculation. We don't know and But Jesus appears to them in a way that, now when it says they were, verse 37, they were startled and frightened. These are strong words. They were terrified, as you would be. It tickles me to hear people say, now when I see Jesus, I'm gonna say, when I see Jesus, I'm gonna ask, I always take them to Revelation and say, John saw Jesus and fell down like a dead man. And we should fully expect that that will be our reaction. Jesus appears to them and they are terrified. And one of those reasons that they're terrified is because he just appeared from nowhere and he was dead three days ago. But remember the things leading up to his crucifixion, Matthew writes these words. And again, I'm paraphrasing. Everyone left him. Matthew, one of the 12 who had followed Jesus for three and a half years. Matthew took a pen and wrote, everyone left him. Knowing that that means I left him. Now, we don't have details of every departure, every abandonment of Christ. We do know this, it was necessary. Peter particularly denied that he even knew him. To the world, but also with John standing right there. Those gathered in that room had cause to be ashamed. Those standing there had cause when they saw him, maybe to think this is the time to be terrified. What would you do? You're being accused falsely. You're being arrested. You're being treated so poorly. And every one of your friends and your family walks away from you. And then you see them again. I thought about what I would say. I think I would say something smart. I look like, hey, where you guys been? I know where I was. I know what I was doing. Where are y'all? It is payback time, folks. You walked out on me, you abandoned me. Isn't that how we might act? Look at verse 36. While they were telling them these things, he stood in their midst and he said to them, peace. Peace be with you. Touch the scars in my hands. See? Look at my feet. Look at my side. See the marks of God's love. Peace be with you. Now this was a common Jewish greeting, salutation, common thing. Shalom. You still hear it. For centuries, peace, and it was, to say this was to wish upon those who you spoke it to the greatest blessings of God. For some, perhaps it had become an empty phrase, just something we say. We know what that's like, right? You ever hear people ask, hey, how are you? And they didn't even realize that they asked you how you were. They have no concern with how you are. Just a greeting. Perhaps for some, peace be with you. Shalom. Perhaps it had become, for some, an empty greeting. For some, it would be hope. in a coming Messiah. Some today, many today have abandoned, many in the religion of Judaism today have abandoned the idea of a Messiah and have decided to settle for a messianic age, a peaceful age, I find that really sad because what level of peace could you really hope for? Jesus comes and says to them. Peace be with you. He does not bring an accusation which they would have deserved. He does not bring condemnation which they would have deserved. He does not bring judgment which they would have deserved. He brings peace. And this this statement of peace. Is to say. What I just did. worked. It was successful. Christ's life and death brings peace. True peace. Real peace. Because without that work, there is no peace. Do you know how much the Bible talks about the wrath of God? The wrath of God is demonstrated. The wrath of God is revealed. The wrath of God rests upon the sons of disobedience. And not only the wrath of God toward men, but men's wrath toward God. Man hates God. Unless we make up our own God that looks a lot like us. And then sometimes we still have problems. But the God of the Bible that says men and women have distinct roles in marriage? Men hate that and women hate that. The God of the Bible who says Sex is for inside marriage. It is a great blessing of married people. Married man and woman. And human beings hate that. We hate that and we hate the God who says it. Don't steal. Don't kill. Don't commit adultery. Hey, Sunday, it's not your day. And there are people proclaiming to be Christians who hate that. Men hate God. And God, the Bible tells us, hates the workers of iniquity. There is no peace between God and man until Jesus comes and here says, peace be with you because I just accomplished it. I just did what you could not do. Now, He is our peace. He is our peace. Sinner, this is what you're looking for. You're looking for that job or that relationship that financial position, that place to live, that car, that 401k, that house, whatever that is, you're looking for the thing that you can be at peace. How many people have I heard say, I drink because it just doesn't hurt anymore. And they're drunkards to try to stop the pain. I just do the drugs because I need to feel numb. What are they saying? There is no peace in my life. There is nothing of peace in me. And I can't find it anywhere else. You only have one place to look. There is only one place to go for peace. Jesus stood in their midst and he said, Peace be with you. and he is our peace. The message of scripture is that there is salvation in Jesus and in no other. There is peace in Christ Jesus and nowhere else And you can't work, earn, finagle, negotiate. It's by faith and repentance that we can know peace. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Jesus Christ. Who purchased our pardon? Who is our peace? God, I pray for those who are here. Who are Christians? Living in open sin. Those who hear me. Who are Christians living? Miserable lives in sin, I pray that they would see. how Christ was to these who had sinned when He comes to them with mercy and forgiveness and says, Peace. Sinner, come to Jesus for forgiveness. God, I pray for those who are saved, who are serving, I pray that our thoughts would not go to an expectation of condemnation, that our thoughts would not go to the place where You may act as we are, that we remember that You are not a man, and that we would rest fully and firmly in Jesus as our peace. God, I pray For the lost sinner who is listening today, who knows nothing of peace, who cannot see, I pray that You would open their eyes to see by faith. I pray that You would open their hearts to believe. I pray that You would save them. That Jesus Christ would be their peace. I pray this in his precious name. Amen.