Summary
This sermon from Luke 24:13–35 explores what makes a believer confident in their faith and ready to share it with others. While facts and logic are important—he provides the eyewitness evidence of the resurrection—Luke commends biblical teaching —understanding the Scriptures— and divine intervention, when God opens blind eyes to see Christ. The sermon ends with the story of David Livingstone, reminding us that prayer and the work of the Spirit are at the heart of mission.
The question I want us to consider this morning is this: what is it that makes a confident Christian.
Like last week, the theme is OUT.
How can we be confident enough about our faith to be able to share it with others?
The context of this famous passage—the road to Emmaus—is that after Luke gives us the first evidence of the resurrection of Jesus—the tomb is empty—he takes a pause and brings us to two disciples, not part of the eleven core disciples, who are walking away from Jerusalem: sad, disappointed, fearful, unbelieving.
And the risen Jesus comes walking alongside them and listens to their hopeless conversation.
His verdict:
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (v.25)
I don’t know what happens here, but when I was in school, at the end of term, teachers would write short comments on the report form about how the student had done in their subject. And because I was a teacher’s son, I never got really bad reports, even when I deserved them. They would write passive-aggressive comments like “Can do better,” or “Pull up your socks.” But I know fellow students who got comments like “Stupid,” “Foolish,” “Waste of time.”
It sounds the same kind of thing Jesus is saying to these two men.
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe…”
The question then is this: what transforms these ignorant, defeated men into the two who charge back into Jerusalem, search high and low for the eleven apostles, and announce that Jesus himself is risen? Where does this kind of confident and courageous faith—that is prepared to speak openly about Jesus—come from?
Luke, I think, puts this section here in his Gospel to show us the origin of this kind of confident conviction.
And I want us to look at two things that are often overlooked—in addition to the facts and our logic. Two things that Luke considers imperative for us to grasp:
- Divine instruction – the facts alone are not enough.
- Divine intervention – our minds alone are not adequate.
Divine Instruction
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (vv.25–26)
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (v.27)
And that is then summarised for us in verse 32 as Cleopas and his friend say to one another,
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So then, on one level, the making of a confident disciple has to do with the explanation of the Scriptures.
Luke makes that point by showing that these two disciples already had all the facts at their fingertips—but they couldn’t make sense of the facts until Jesus himself drew alongside them and opened up their minds to understand the Scriptures.
The striking thing in this incident, I think, is that we’re not actually given more concrete evidence for the resurrection. If I’d been writing it—which would’ve been disastrous—but if I had, I would have gone straight from verse 12 and the empty tomb to verse 34. Actually, Luke doesn’t even include the appearance to Peter that we find in John’s Gospel at all.
Instead, he gives us these two disciples walking away from Jerusalem. And before Jesus actually reveals himself to them, Luke tells us that Jesus gave them a Bible study.
Even though they already had all the essential facts at their fingertips—as we see from verses 18–24, where we’re told that everyone already knew these things—
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn’t know these things?”
The news of the resurrection of Jesus was already trending, you might say!
They had all the facts at their fingertips, but they just didn’t seem to be able to make sense of them—until Jesus walked with them along the road and explained the Scriptures, and everything clicked into place.
What was needed?
Divine instruction was needed.
The Scriptures were needed.
That is what convinced these men. And Luke, rather than immediately giving us more evidence, deliberately places this encounter here to show us that confident belief comes, at least in part, from a clear understanding of the Scriptures as we are instructed.
I wonder if you actually believe that.
You see, I think most of us imagine: If only we could get some brilliant scientist in, and he could run through the evidence and answer every single one of our questions, then our friends would believe.
And I think some of us think, Oh, well, if only my friend could have a kind of moving, magical encounter through some sort of musical event or something like that, then they would have confident belief.
But do you see how Luke has organised the material? Solid evidence, yes—and then a clear explanation of the Scriptures.
So then, here is a man or woman who feels insecure in their faith. “I wish I had your faith,” they say. If I had 20 euros for the number of times somebody has said that to me, I’d be retiring and living on an island in the Seychelles!
You see, Luke is telling us: if only you will come to the Scriptures and have them explained to you—that’s where confident conviction comes from.
Here is a man or a woman who has a friend just beginning to express interest in the Christian faith—just a flicker of interest. Where is real, confident faith going to come from for that person?
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures…”
What is needed is clear, careful, considered instruction from the Scriptures.
I have, over the years, become more and more convinced that the most underrated evangelistic and discipleship tool is simply helping people to read through the Bible.
And so long as biblical teaching remains a take-it-or-leave-it affair—an optional thing to be squeezed in once everything else has been put in place,
—and so long as biblical teaching remains a kind of hobby;
so long will we be, “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe.”
And therefore, as Luke comes to the conclusion of his eyewitness account—his Gospel—he wants to make a clear point: divine instruction is indispensable.
If you are here as someone looking into the Christian faith and you’ve never read a Gospel from cover to cover, I challenge you to do that. And if possible, find a Christian and ask them to read through it with you. There’s a resource called The Word One to One (theword121.com). It takes you through John’s Gospel one verse at a time and provides helpful notes that explain the meaning and guide your conversation. It’s also available as an app, which is handy.
Some of my best days on the ship are when I have an opportunity to just read through Mark’s Gospel with seafarers—because clear conviction in faith comes, at least in part, not just from evidence, but from having the Scriptures explained.
Christmas gifts? Why not give a Bible!
And if you’ve been a Christian for a little while and your understanding is all rather scattered—a little bit from here and there—and you say, “Yes, I really want this kind of clear conviction,” then this passage shows us that what we need is both divine instruction and divine intervention.
Divine Intervention
“Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” (v.16)
“Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” (v.31)
“Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.” (v.35)
So then, alongside divine instruction, there must be divine intervention. And once again, we must be clear that this is not something divorced from the concrete, objective evidence.
Faith is never a leap in the dark—I keep saying that! No! We’ve already had concrete, objective evidence in verses 1–12, and we’ll have more evidence after this encounter as Jesus says, “Look at my hands and my feet. Touch me and see.” Clear, concrete, objective evidence of the resurrection.
But at the same time, he has to open our eyes—a special, spiritual work needs to take place.
The facts were all there. The facts were consistent. They were historically reliable. But God had to open their eyes. That’s why we have this emphasis here on the breaking of bread—on Jesus being made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
The lesson: Divine instruction. Divine intervention.
At home, we are very slowly and lazily reading through 2 Corinthians, which for me has what I consider the motto for New Testament gospel ministry:
“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:4–6, ESV)
We preach Christ (v.5), not ourselves—we are just servants. We preach Christ,
And, v.6, God opens blind eyes.
We preach Christ—God opens blind eyes!
Our eyes are unable to see him. We cannot see who Jesus is unless he switches the light on and supernaturally enables us.
Divine instruction. Divine intervention. We listen humbly to the Scriptures; we depend totally on the Holy Spirit.
And for mission, this means we must depend on the Holy Spirit. We must depend on prayer.
This is why prayer partnership is, I think, the most important of the various aspects of partnership. We might not help much with persecuted Christians, but we can pray for them.
Conclusion: A Story of Prayer and Mission
I wanted to finish with a story. There is a UK evangelist called Canon J. John, and he tells a story that has always stuck with me.
There was once a missionary from Scotland who was working in Africa. One time he returned to his sending church in Scotland to try to mobilize more people to join the mission.
On the evening he was speaking, it rained very heavily and the event was poorly attended. Those who came were mostly elderly women—wonderful and loving—but realistically, they were never going to go to Africa.
He felt persuaded, though, to just preach what he had planned to preach. So he preached his heart out and called out, “Who will go? Who will go? Who will go?”
In the dead of silence, a voice of a small boy who was helping the organist broke the silence: “I will go.”
He was advised to study hard and become a doctor—then he could go to Africa as a missionary doctor. Which is what he did. That boy was David Livingstone, one of the most famous early missionaries to Africa.
David Livingstone went to Africa and laboured and laboured and laboured.
One time, among one of the tribal groups he was working with, he received a message from the tribal chief that on a particular date he was coming to kill him and his fellow missionaries—a warning for them to leave.
Nothing happened that night, and life moved on.
A bit of time passed, and this chief became a Christian—and as often happened, many people in the community became Christians too.
So David asked the chief, “You once threatened to come and kill us. Why didn’t you come?”
The chief replied, “But we came. I came with a group of fighters. But when we arrived, we found tall giants all around the compound—thirty-nine of them. So we got scared and ran away.”
Some time later, David was back in his sending church in Scotland and shared the story. After the service, the church secretary came to him and asked, “David, do you remember the date that the chief was to come and kill you?” And David said, “Of course I remember.” So he told her the date, and then she went and looked at the attendance register for the church. It turned out that on that day, there had been a prayer meeting at church where they were praying for David—and lo and behold, there were thirty-nine people at church that evening praying.
Divine instruction. Divine intervention. We open the Scriptures, and God opens blind eyes. We proclaim Christ, and God shines His light into hearts. That’s where confident, courageous faith comes from.