Did Not Our Hearts Burn Within Us?

Introduction

Thank you, Daniel. I asked him to lead that song, so I do appreciate that. And I welcome everyone this morning. Glad you’re here and glad to be with you. Just glad to be able to worship with you this morning. I would invite you to take your Bibles and open to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. If you’ll be turning there, we’ll be studying from there for just a few minutes briefly this morning. Invite you to study along. Here in Luke 24. We find one of, if not the most important events in all of the Bible. The story of the resurrection. Verses 1 through 12. But right after that, Luke records here something that I find to be a beautiful story as well. In verses 13 through 35.

Jesus, after he is risen, joins two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus. And as he’s walking with them, he has a very frank discussion with them. I’d like you to read with me, beginning in verse 13. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopus, answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here in these days?

And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed in 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 happened. 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 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 as the woman had said.

But him they did not see.

Them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. What a beautiful story. And what I want us to focus on this morning is this phrase there towards the end of this story in verse 32, when they said, Did not our hurts, our hearts burn within us while he taught to us on the road, and while he opened to us the scriptures. Jesus comes up to them and he talks to them, and they explain to him what’s been going on in Jerusalem. And Jesus turns and explains to them the scriptures. The whole time, these two disciples don’t even recognize that it is Jesus Himself that they are talking to.

After reaching their destination, beginning to share a meal with Jesus, their eyes are open and they recognize him, and he vanishes from their sight.

And after he’s gone, they realize.

And I realized this morning, my heart burns within me to be with my daughter. I don’t want to be apart from her. I don’t want to go to work. I just want to sit there. I want to sit on the couch or sit on the rocking chair and just hold her and stare at her all day long. And I don’t want to do anything besides that. And when I, in between Bible class and worship, my wife got up to feed her during Bible class, and then she came back, and I went to sit down, and she was there. My wife was there, but my baby wasn’t. I was like, where’s my baby? And I look down in the row, and of course, my sister-in-law has her.

1. A Burning Desire to Talk to Jesus

All the way at the other end of the road, I’m like, that’s too far away. And then like that. My heart burns within me to be with my daughter. Because I love her. And God burns for us to be with him. But in this story, Jesus shows us, and Luke accounts for us, how that feeling should be reciprocated. How we should have a burning desire within our hearts to be with God. To be with Christ, to spend time with him, to have a relationship with him. And I want to focus this morning on four different areas in which we need to have a burning desire within our hearts to have a relationship with Jesus in several different ways. And the first of those ways is we need to have a burning desire in our hearts to talk to Jesus.

Look with me in Luke chapter 24 and verse 15. Verse 15, while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with him. In verse 17, he said to them, What is this conversation that you’re holding with each other as you walk? And then in verse 32 again, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road. They were having this discussion. And then Jesus comes and he joins with them in this discussion. This is a story of a wonderful conversation, probably one of the most enlightening conversations that any person has ever had in the history of the planet. Jesus, God himself explaining prophecy. And I think oftentimes we say that, you know, I just would love to have that opportunity to walk down the road with Jesus and talk with him and have him explain to me the scriptures because things are sometimes hard to understand.

And the scriptures admonish us to have such a relationship with Christ that it is as if we walk and talk with him each day. And what’s amazing to me about the story is that these two disciples, who presumably should have recognized Jesus, they didn’t recognize him. In verse 16, it says that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. In what way that happened, I don’t know. Why it was, I don’t know. Although it seems that something was probably done on God’s part so that Jesus could have time to them to explain to them the scriptures without them running off and explaining that, exclaiming that he was alive. But I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in Mark chapter 4 and verse 12, as he quotes from Isaiah 6.

And he says, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. And I’m not saying that is what’s going on with these disciples here. This was something that was more directed towards the Pharisees and their inability to see their own shortcomings. But I think sometimes we can apply that to ourselves, can we not? Sometimes it’s easy for us to say all the right things and do all the right things, as we were kind of talked about in Bible class this morning, and yet maybe our hearts aren’t in the right place. Maybe because we don’t have enough conversations with God. How often do we have the words of God right in front of us?

And then act as if we don’t know them. Or we forget them. We need to be a people who have a burning desire to talk to him because that is what allows us to know God and to know his word. We studied again this morning about how we need to have the word implanted in us. And that allows us to put away all filthiness and be doers of the word and not hearers only. We need to be talking to God in order to make that happen. Prayer is our avenue of conversation with God. People complain, I think you hear this from people maybe out in the world, and sometimes even from Christians, they say, Well, you know, it would just be so much easier to do the right thing.

If Jesus would just be there with me, if he could just come up to me and guide me along the way.

Wouldn’t make that much of a difference, would it? The rich man, Lazarus, the rich man says, But send my brothers back. I mean, you know, send somebody to my brothers so that they would. And he says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear him. But we have the words of God before us. We can walk and talk with Jesus. We can come boldly before the throne with confidence. Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16 tells us that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. So therefore, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us, then, with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The Hebrew writer tells us that we can draw near to God. We can come boldly to his throne through the avenue of prayer, to Jesus Himself, who is our mediator and our intercessor, who takes our prayers to the Father because He knows what we go through. He knows what it’s like to be one of us. How foolish we would be to not regularly use this avenue of conversation with God and how foolish we would be to act as if he does not answer. We just need to open our eyes and see that.

2. A Burning Desire for His Word

Do we have a burning desire in our hearts to talk to him? Secondly, do we have a burning desire for his word itself? Back in verse 27 of Luke chapter 24, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And again, when they said their hearts burned within him. Why? Because it was while he was opening to them the scriptures. There was something special about that. These were seemingly good Jews. You know, they studied the scriptures. They knew the scriptures. They wanted to understand how that applied to their lives and how they were to follow that. And they understood that reading the scripture was important. Do we love to read God’s word? Paul admires Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 13 to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture.

Do we take time every day to sit down and read God’s word? Is that something that we stress in our homes, in our Bible classes, in our worship? And I’m saying we have to sit there and read for hours and hours on end every day, but it should be part of our daily routine. Not only do we love to read God’s word, but do we love to listen to God’s word? In Acts chapter 20 and verse 7, we read of how Paul, as he’s preaching, he continues his speech until midnight. And I’m sure we’re all glad I’m not going to do that tonight, and I doubt Daniel will either.

And we must also understand the importance of reading and hearing God’s word. Romans chapter 10, and beginning in verse 13. Romans chapter 10, verse 13, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? How are they to preach unless there is sin? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he heard from us. So faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

If we’re going to have the faith that God calls us to have, we need to hear his words. We need to have them implanted in our souls. Do we make it a priority to worship God? To hear his word explained and expounded upon by men who have taken the time and made it their life’s work to preach the gospel. Do we love to hear that gospel preached? Are we here every time the doors are open? Do we seek opportunities maybe to go and visit when there are gospel meetings being held in our area? Or do we complain when the preacher is a bit long-winded or a little dry? Jesus opened up the scriptures and taught to them. He explained to them all the prophets. And they were engrossed.

They were enamored by that. They had this burning desire to learn more, to know more. And I think sometimes it’s easy for us to grow stagnant. See, you know, I know, I’ve I’ve been studying all my life, and I know enough, and I just I really am better than the next guy over here. I know more than he does. And I was, you know, when I was five, I was answering all the Bible class questions, and you know, and I just so I’m good. We can never be stagnant. We can never be satisfied with our knowledge. We must have a thirst, a burning within us to know more, to study God’s word. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15, Paul again tells Timothy to study, to show yourself approved.

We may not have Jesus to walk down the street with us and personally explain to us every passage of scripture, but there is plenty that was explained for us very clearly in his word. Plenty that we have that we can study and take time to come to a deeper understanding of. And we have many other wonderful resources to help us study and understand and explain the scriptures. Do we take the time? I know we have busy lives. It’s hard. I’m speaking to myself here. I know I don’t study enough. I know I don’t pray enough. I know I don’t. Whatever it is, enough. We can never do enough. And especially when you work ten hours a day, whatever, 50 hours a week, 60 hours a week, whatever it is.

And whenever you have a newborn baby, and they’re crying all night and you can’t sleep. And whatever else it is. It’s hard to say, well, I’ve got this and I’ve got that. It’s easy to just make excuses.

3. A Burning Desire for His Presence

Do we love to study God’s word? That is what shows us approved. Are we taking the time to do that? Do we have not just not just out of drudgery and just out of I have to do this? I know God says I’m going to just block out my ever whatever it is, time period today, and I’m going to do it. These disciples had a burning desire to want to know and understand the scriptures. Do our hearts burn within us for that? Do they burn within us to walk with him and talk with him? Do they burn within us for his word? Thirdly, do they burn within us for his presence? Continuing Luke 24, there’s time, verses 28 and 29. So they drew near to the village which they were going, and he acted as if he were going farther.

But they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us for just toward evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. You know, I think we’ve all had those experiences when we have we have people, friends, whoever they are, we have a strong connection with them. And sometimes even it’s you just meet them and you just you have you click. And you want to spend time with those people, and they say, you know, well, we’ve got to go, and you say, no, come on, stay a little bit longer. We don’t know we can do this. Stay here, you know. You don’t need to go. Let’s stay up and let’s talk and let’s let’s get to know one another. We want to be with each other.

And as a church family, that’s how we ought to be. We ought to want to have each other be with each other all the time. We need to be with each other and have our presence. That’s how we are strong. That’s how we are growing, and that’s how we are built up as a house, a spiritual house for God.

And when we do that as a Christian family, as a congregation, then that helps us to have God’s presence among us. These disciples knew that there was something special about Jesus, much like we know there’s something special about someone that we come into contact with and meet. They understood, even though even though their eyes were still darkened to who he was, they understood there was something special about this man because, wow, you know, he was just opening up the scriptures to them. They knew there was something special. So they urged him strongly, it says there, to stay and to dine with them. It’s that desire I want to be close to them. Whoever it is. Why did they want that? Because they wanted him, I assume, to continue to converse and to explain the scriptures to them even further.

They wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. Brother, we need to recognize that Jesus is special. That Jesus is one of those kinds of people that we want to invite into our home and have him stay and dine with us and talk with us and have a cup of coffee and just keep on talking. Jesus needs to be that special person to us. We want to spend time with him. Do we burn for his presence in our lives? Are we on fire for the Lord? As we say earlier. And I thank Daniel again for leaving that song for us. I requested that because of this. Are we on fire for God? Are we on fire to serve him? Does it bother us to be separated from him?

Much like a parent and a child. You know, as we read the different gospel accounts and we see what happened after Jesus was crucified, and we see how the disciples were scattered and they ran and they didn’t know what to do, and they were heartbroken, and they thought everything that we’ve done for the last three years has been for nothing. And they were hiding and they were scared. They thought the Jews were coming for them next.

They thought they would never see their Lord again. They were heartbroken. They were in despair. They were depressed. Why were they so upset? Because they understood that their lives without Christ were nothing. They were nothing without him. Is that how we view our own lives? Do we understand that sin separates us from God? Does that upset us? When we transgress against his law. We need to have that burning passion to be with our Lord. And if we have that burning passion to be with him, to have his presence in our lives, that’s going to make it harder for us to do something that’s going to separate ourselves from him, is it not? It should. Do we want to spend time with him in worship, in prayer, in study with each other?

Do we burn to be in his presence in worship? Are we excited to go and worship with his people, to praise him? When we gather in his name, we need to understand he is among us. And he hears our prayers and he hears our worship. But most importantly, brethren, do we burn to be in his presence for all eternity in heaven? John’s revelation in chapter 7 paints a beautiful picture of what it’s going to be like in heaven. In Revelation 7. In verse 15, it says, Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. And they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

4. A Burning Desire for His Salvation

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This world is a sorrowful and painful place. Do we desire to be set free from that? To be in the presence of an Almighty God, our Savior and our redeemer. And to worship him for all eternity. What a beautiful picture of being in heaven in the presence of the Lamb. And finally, this morning, brethren, in order to obtain that, we need to have a burning within our hearts, not only for his presence, but for his salvation. Back in Luke 24 and verse 21, these disciples stated, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Yes, and besides this, it’s now the third day since these things happened. And then in verse 26, Jesus says to them a response. Verse 25, O foolish one, slow apart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? These disciples had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah. They were like, we thought this was the one. The one to redeem Israel. And our hopes are just dashed because they didn’t understand what that Messiah truly was. But Jesus says, they’re saying, you know, he was dead, he’s not coming back, and all we’ve done is for naught. And Jesus says, guess what? You were right. He was the Messiah. He was the Christ. But they had the wrong picture in their minds of what that Messiah would be.

And he explains to them that the Messiah was one who would not come as a conquering king over the Romans, but one who would suffer for our sakes, who had conquered death and sin once for all, and most importantly, on the third day rise. Conquering sin and death and Satan. A much more important enemy than any physical kingdom. And you know, it’s funny, in several different places in this chapter, that concept is explained. In verses 5 through 7, earlier in the book, in the chapter, the angel is speaking there. He says, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.

Jesus tried to explain this to them so many times and never got it. And here after he’s dead and risen, the angel has to try and explain it to them, and they still kind of don’t get it. And then further on, Jesus himself has to explain it to him later in the chapter, verse 44. These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. That everything written about me in the law and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. And that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Over and over again, Acts chapter 3 and verse 18, as Peter is preaching in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 10 and 11, the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 2 and verse 10 and 12 and verse 2, over and over again.

They had hoped that he was the Messiah. And they were right. He came and fulfilled those prophecies that exactly what he said he was to do. Do we hope in him as our Messiah? This is the one we long for. And if you’re not a Christian this morning, have you set your hope in him? If so, you will not at all be ashamed. Do you long for the day of his return to call you home? And finally, this morning, do we have a passion for telling others about that salvation? About the hope that we have of a home in heaven, to be in his presence for all eternity. After their minds were opened. It says in verse 34 and 35 of Luke 24. They went to the eleven and found them, and they said, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.

And then they told what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. And if you back up just a little bit, it says in verse 33, they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. Now, we know from earlier in this passage that it was already late. That’s why they pressed Jesus to stay with them. But this understanding that they came to, the Messiah, that Jesus was the Messiah was so important that they didn’t care what time it was. They got up, they went back to Jerusalem and they had to tell somebody about it. Is this message that important to us? Are we willing to make sacrifices to tell it to the world around us? And this is the message that we preach this morning.

Conclusion

If you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, Jesus is the Messiah. He is the only hope. He is the only salvation. Does that salvation light a fire in you? Is it something that you cannot help but share with others? Is it something that you cannot help but have in your life? That is the picture we have here in Luke 24 of two disciples who were so enamored with Christ and the words he was speaking to them, the scriptures he was explaining to them that they felt a burning within their hearts. Do you feel that burning within your heart today? If so, will you not sell it to the world around you? If you have not touched your hope in Jesus and been baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, won’t you do that now while we stand and sing?