1. "Every little bit of fact you get about somebody gives you a little bit more information about who they are. Well, it's true with Jesus too. If I tell you he's a king, then you might think one thing. But if I tell you he's a newborn king, then you think, Why are we talking about his birth in particular?"
2. "What does the birth of Jesus have to do with your birth tonight? That's the question that I want to pursue."
3. "We just saw above that Jesus came bringing a gift. So what was the gift? Light. Who is the gift for? Everyone."
4. "John here tells us clearly that this eternal, divine Word was a creator himself, that he was entering his creation, but that the world ignored him. This rejection was not an innocent lack of information, as if it were simply some kind of mistake. No, it's a statement of a culpable lack of a relationship—a revolt."
5. "The point really here is that this Christmas gift does not come to everyone."
6. "This is personal testimony to the most amazing fact in history. God took on flesh. You could translate that, 'camped out among us.' This is what we see in the birth of Jesus."
7. "And consider the power of this testimony of personal experience. John's not just reasoning abstractly here; he's giving a personal testimony. We see the power of personal testimonies all the time."
8. "Again and again, I've had people commend this to me—friends. This is 800 pages long, and it's a work of fiction; I don't do that. But I might, because these friends are recommending it. I trust these friends."
9. "Don't be confused by this language: 'he gave the right to become the children of God.' He was giving them a right in the sense of a privilege, like a king might allow you to hunt in his forest. Becoming children of God was not fundamentally dependent on human decision, as was our physical birth; it is 'of God.' When God adopts us, he gives us a completely new life and places his own Spirit within us."
10. "Because I assure you that, to put it bluntly, your finances and your health will end up ultimately not mattering to you—not compared to your relationship with God. Your top resolution for 2024 should be getting to know God better. And you can only do that through God's own revelation of himself to us, through Jesus Christ."
11. "Jesus was born so that you and I could be born again."

Observation Questions

1. John 1:9 — What does John call Jesus in this verse, and to whom does this “true light” give light?
2. John 1:10 — Even though the world was made through the Word, how did the world respond to Him, and what irony does the verse highlight?
3. John 1:11 — Who are “his own,” and what does John say about their response to Jesus?
4. John 1:12 — According to this verse, what happens to “all who did receive him,” and what does “believed in his name” seem to be linked with?
5. John 1:13 — How does John describe the birth of those who become God’s children, and what three sources does he explicitly rule out?
6. John 1:14 — What two key realities does John testify to about the Word, and what qualities does he say they saw in Him?

Interpretation Questions

1. In John’s Gospel, what does the “true light” (1:9) reveal about people and about God, and how does this theme explain the world’s failure to “know” Jesus (1:10)?
2. How is the failure to receive Jesus (1:11) more than a mere mistake, and what makes this rejection culpable in John’s framing?
3. What does it mean practically to “receive” Jesus by “believing in his name” (1:12)? How does this go beyond mere intellectual agreement?
4. How does being “born… of God, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man” (1:13) clarify the role of divine grace and human response in salvation?
5. How does the incarnation—“the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14)—shape our understanding of how we can truly know God’s glory, “full of grace and truth”?

Application Questions

1. This week, what is one concrete step you will take to “know God through Jesus” (e.g., start reading John’s Gospel 10–15 minutes daily, schedule a set prayer time, or join a small group)? Specify the time and place.
2. Identify one area of life where you have been functionally “not receiving” Jesus’ authority (e.g., finances, relationships, media habits). What is one immediate action you will take to submit that area to Him?
3. Write a two-minute testimony of a recent way you have “seen his glory” (John 1:14)—a moment of grace or truth—and share it with a friend or family member before the week ends. With whom will you share, and when?
4. Choose one person who seems to be “in darkness” (1:9-10). What is one gentle, specific invitation you can offer (e.g., read John 1 together, attend a service, or discuss a question over coffee)? Set a date to ask.
5. To live as a child of God (1:12), pick one practice to combat guilt or anxiety this week (e.g., memorize John 1:12-13 and recite it morning and night, journal daily gratitude to your Father, or pray “Our Father” slowly). Which practice will you choose, and how will you keep it?

Additional Bible Reading

• Matthew 2:1-12 — The visit of the Magi and the star of Bethlehem underscores God’s sign-bearing witness to the newborn King and the call to seek and honor Him.
• John 3:1-21 — Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus deepens the themes of new birth “from above” and the contrast between light and darkness.
• Isaiah 9:1-7 — The prophecy of a great light dawning and a child-king being given connects the incarnation with hope and divine rule.
• Ephesians 1:3-14 — A sweeping portrait of God’s saving initiative highlights adoption, grace, and our new identity “in Christ,” aligning with John’s promise of becoming God’s children.

Sermon Summary

The Significance of Jesus’ Birth as a Newborn King

Focusing on Jesus as a newborn king shifts attention to why His birth matters. His arrival is not an abstract claim to royalty; it is God’s purposeful entrance into the world to begin a work that results in new birth for those who receive Him. The identity of this newborn king frames the entire message: His birth is tied to the possibility that people might be born of God.

This connection comes to life in the prologue of John. The birth of Jesus is not an isolated event, but the beginning of a gracious offer whereby those who trust His name are brought into God’s family. The newborn king comes so that others might truly be made new.

The Gift of Light and the World’s Rejection (John 1:9-11)

John presents Jesus as the true light who shines for everyone, addressing the darkness of a world estranged from its Maker. The light is a gift with universal reach, yet the narrative reveals a deep sadness: the very world that was made through Him did not recognize Him. This is not a mere oversight; it exposes a moral and relational rebellion.

The tragedy intensifies as His own people, who had every reason to welcome Him, still refused Him. The Creator stepped into His creation and was turned away by those who should have known Him best. The gift is real, broad, and bright, yet many choose the shadows rather than receive the light.

John’s Personal Testimony to the Word Becoming Flesh (John 1:14)

The testimony that the Word became flesh and lived among us anchors the message in history. This is not theory but witness: God has entered our world with a human face. The wonder of the incarnation caused stumbling in both Greek and Jewish worlds—one balking at divinity taking on flesh, the other wary of worship being directed toward a man—yet this is precisely what God has done.

God also gave confirming signs at Jesus’ birth, remembered in the story of the Star of Bethlehem. Such a sign pointed seekers to hope and salvation in Christ. The incarnation stands as God’s gracious nearness, inviting trust through testimony and sign.

Receiving Jesus and the New Birth (John 1:12-13)

To receive Jesus is to believe in His name, resting on who He is and what He came to do. Those who do so are given the privilege of becoming God’s children. This is not a human project or an inherited status. Spiritual birth does not come by lineage, effort, or another person’s decision; it comes from God.

This new birth is God’s work of making people alive to Him, granting a new identity and family. Adoption into God’s household changes who we are and how we live. The call is simple and searching: trust Him, receive Him, and live as a child of God by His grace.

The Call to Know God Through Jesus in the Coming Year

With a new year approaching, the wisest resolution is to know God better through Jesus. Health and finances matter in their place, but they cannot match the worth of a living relationship with the Father. Jesus alone makes God known, and only in Him do we become God’s children and learn to know Him as Father.

This call is both timely and urgent. Resolve to receive Jesus and grow in Him—to know God not only in thought but in relationship. Jesus was born so that we might be born of God. Let the coming year be marked by this pursuit: to know God through His Son and live as His own.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Significance of Jesus’ Birth as a Newborn King

II. The Gift of Light and the World’s Rejection (John 1:9-11)

III. John’s Personal Testimony to the Word Becoming Flesh (John 1:14)

IV. Receiving Jesus and the New Birth (John 1:12-13)

V. The Call to Know God Through Jesus in the Coming Year

---

Detailed Sermon Outline

I. The Significance of Jesus’ Birth as a Newborn King

• A. The Unique Focus on Jesus’ Birth

• 1. The importance of understanding Jesus’ identity as a newborn king.

• 2. The connection between Jesus’ birth and the spiritual rebirth of believers.

---

II. The Gift of Light and the World’s Rejection (John 1:9-11)

• A. The Gift of Light

• 1. Jesus came as the “true light” to illuminate darkness (John 1:9).

  • a. The universal scope of the gift: “to everyone.”

• B. The World’s Rejection

• 1. The Creator rejected by His creation (John 1:10).

  • a. The irony of the world’s ignorance despite being made through Him.

• 2. Israel’s rejection of their Messiah (John 1:11).

  • a. A culpable rejection, not a mere mistake.

  • b. The tragedy of God’s own people refusing Him.

---

III. John’s Personal Testimony to the Word Becoming Flesh (John 1:14)

• A. The Incarnation as a Historical Reality

• 1. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

  • a. The scandal of God taking on human form.

  • i. Greek philosophical objections to divinity in flesh.

  • ii. Jewish concerns about worshiping a created being.

• B. The Star of Bethlehem as Divine Testimony

• 1. The supernatural sign of Jesus’ birth.

  • a. A reminder of hope and salvation through Christ.

---

IV. Receiving Jesus and the New Birth (John 1:12-13)

• A. The Privilege of Becoming Children of God

• 1. Receiving Jesus through belief in His name (John 1:12).

  • a. Belief as active trust in Christ’s identity and mission.

• B. The Supernatural Nature of Spiritual Birth

• 1. Birth “not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).

  • a. Contrast with physical birth: divine initiative over human effort.

  • b. The role of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.

---

V. The Call to Know God Through Jesus in the Coming Year

• A. Prioritizing Relationship with God

• 1. The futility of worldly resolutions compared to knowing God.

  • a. Health and wealth versus eternal significance.

• B. Embracing Revelation Through Christ

• 1. Jesus as the exclusive path to knowing God.

  • a. Intellectual and relational knowledge of God.

• 2. A challenge to “be born again” through faith in Christ.

  • a. The urgency of receiving Jesus before another year passes.

In case you regulars are wondering what we're doing here in one half of our space, we're trying to give you a sense of what it was like here in about 1999, in the year 2000. This is what things looked like then. So welcome back to Time Parable Visitors. Hello, it's good to have you. In 1819 and 1820, Thomas Jefferson very carefully bought two copies of the Gospels in Greek, Latin, in French and in English.

And he cut them up, he took the bits that he liked and he pasted them on fresh pages and then had them bound together. And he called his book the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. The book ends with Matthew, chapter 27, verse 60. There they laid Jesus and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed.

Jephson had certainly captured what Jesus own disciples had thought. For at least a couple of days, some of the women had followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb in which Jesus body was laid. But then the events of Sunday morning happened and that we began to think about last week as we were in the early part of chapter 24 of Luke's gospel. The characters we found last week, the women, the disciples had thought that the end of the matter was where Thomas Jefferson had left it at the end of his book with a stone sealed sepulcher and Jesus dead body laid inside. But to these surprised women and the skeptical apostles, we now add a couple of confused disciples.

Surely you've talked to people who don't believe, but who think they could believe if their circumstances were just a little different. I remember when I was in college in my freshman year talking to a senior about my newfound Christian faith. And as I described it to him, he was very interested and he said, well, you know, that's good for you, but I think I would need to have been there. I would need to have seen Jesus raised from the dead and then I think I could believe.

Well, that's interesting that he says that. He's not the only person I've heard say that. I've heard other people say that over the years. There's no doubt that my friend meant what he said. But is it true?

If he had seen himself, would he really have believed? Well, that brings us right into our passage this morning from the last chapter of Luke's Gospel, chapter 24. You'll find it on page 885 in the red Bibles provided there. If you don't have a Bible, you can easily read yourself. Take this as a gift from our church to you so that you can take it home and continue to read it.

Last week we considered the burial of Jesus crucified body in the empty tomb and the women and Peter found empty on a Sunday morning. We consider the fact that an angel exhorted the women to remember what Christ had taught them about his own suffering and rising again. And then they said that Jesus had done just that. These women then went and shared this with the 11 remaining disciples who were largely at least skeptical. And that brings us to our passage for this morning, where we see what happened when a couple of early disciples got what my friend back in college had wished for.

To see Jesus after he had risen from the dead. And what happened? Well let's turn back to Luke, chapter 24, verse 13. And for those of you who are committed note takers, I'll go ahead and give you my points so there won't be any anticipation there or anxiety. We'll look through the passage in order.

As we see Jesus draw near to two slow believers there in verses 13 to 24, as we see Jesus open the Scriptures in verses 25 to 50, Jesus opened the disciples eyes in verses 31 and 32. And then Jesus appeared at Peter, Cleopas and others, verses 33 to 35. Pray that as we study this passage today, you may believe in Jesus and come to trust him even more than you do right now. Luke chapter 24, verse 13. First we see Jesus drew near to two slow believing disciples.

Luke makes it clear that we are still talking about events that happened on the day that Jesus had risen from the dead. 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. 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're holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. 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 he said to them, what things?

And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was 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. We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early this morning.

And when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even 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 women had said.

But him they did not see. Friends, this is the most dramatic and the longest of several accounts of resurrection appearances that we have in the Gospels.

It's somewhere in the middle of Sunday, like we see in verse 13. There are these two of them, that is these disciples, Cleopas. And we don't know who the other one is named. His name is not given to us. And it's worth 0 of our time to try to speculate on who it was.

They're walking and they're talking with each other. And a couple of things just to notice here at the beginning. We don't know anything else about these two. I think that they are likely folks who've been following Jesus for some time because of how sad they say they are. If they had just started in this last week with a triumphal entry and Jesus was all popular, I don't know they'd be that sad, but they're so sad.

I think they seem like longtime disciples who were familiar with Jesus ministry for months or maybe years. Maybe they were even from Galilee. They were journeying to a village called Emmaus, we see in verse 13. But that may have just been their first stop on a longer journey home, as they went to their respective homes, perhaps even back up in Galilee, where Jesus and most of his disciples were from. Anyway, their discussions may have been at points more like a debate as they laid out their understandings of what had gone on the last few days with Jesus and his followers.

What Jesus had taught and what it meant by what he taught. And now, for the first time recounted in Luke's Gospel since his crucifixion, Jesus appears right there in verse 15. Look at verse 15. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near. This is the Jesus Luke had just verses earlier narrated being crucified and dying.

Now he says Jesus himself drew near. But notice what we read in verse 16. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Friends, God is sovereign even over our understanding of what we see and hear. That's a continuing theme in our chapter.

We'll come on it again next week down in verse 45. And for all of our differences from these first disciples, we, like them, can understand and see nothing spiritually. Until Jesus opens our eyes.

The two disciples here are described in verse 17 as standing still in looking sad. But praise God that sadness wouldn't put Jesus back in the tomb. However sad they were, their emotions don't determine reality. No, Jesus was in fact risen from the dead. These two tell Jesus what they were talking about.

Apparently the crucifixion of Jesus was well known. So you understand the two people crucified on either side of Jesus. I'm thinking nobody was talking about either of them. In Jerusalem, Jesus was different. There had been the triumphal entry.

They Exclaim in verse 18, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened here in these days? What an ironic question to put to Jesus.

But it's proof that something was preventing their eyes from recognizing the teacher whom they had known and followed. And verse 16 says their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And that passive implies kept by God.

The disciples then go on to show a kind of ignorance that we're all too familiar with, where events are recounted accurately, but people have no idea of their true significance. They see even while they don't see. So they summarize the events of recent days. They name Jesus and where he was from. They call him a mighty prophet.

That's right, so far as it goes. Remember, God had told those present at the Transfiguration back in Luke 9 to listen to his Son. He was a prophet speaking his word. In chapter 13, Jesus had even predicted his own approaching execution in Jerusalem as part of the proof that he is really a prophet of God. Because that's what happens to God's prophets.

They're killed in Jerusalem. So his being killed in Jerusalem is actually going to be part of the proof that he is a genuine prophet of God. And we know from Matthew that earlier that week when Jesus had cleansed the temple, the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. It's interesting that when they summarize Jesus ministry there in verse 19, they simply say that Jesus was a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word. They showed no expectation of a future resurrection.

It's like it's not in their thoughts. They were speaking of Jesus only in the past. And then in verse 20, we see that it was the leaders of their own nation who were responsible for Jesus death. And this confuses them because they had not thought that their Redeemer would be rejected by their leaders. Now the whole purpose of this Redeemer was to become their leader, was to lead the nation.

They see clearly in verse 21 they say what their hopes were, that Jesus would deliver or liberate from Roman rule. That's what they mean here in verse 21. It's what Zechariah had prophesied back in Luke chapter one about their being delivered from the hand of our enemies. Brothers and sisters, when we read that word REDEEM in verse 21, we think religiously immediately. It's a word we use in church, redeem.

And it's a good word. But they would have meant it to bring about a political freedom. That's what they were looking forward to. That's what it looked like was happening just a week early. His entry into Jerusalem a week earlier had been a long time in coming.

And it looked something like a ticker tape parade. Now, when I read this last night to some friends and I mentioned ticker tape parade, everybody my age understood exactly what I meant. Oh, that's a good image of the triumphantry. The younger people had never heard of a ticker tape parade. So, you know, ticker tape parade is a happy thing.

It's like stock ticker. It's thin old tape. It's pushed out of windows of skyscrapers, people going underneath in a parade. It's some kind of celebration. It's like confetti.

All right, so all I'm doing is using this image. And now I've shared it between generations, so we can now use this image again. But. But that's what the triumphal entry would have been like. Jesus was a hero.

He was coming with great anticipation, with great expectation. Just a week earlier, he had been received like that Jesus triumphal entry, remember in chapter 19, verse 37, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen. But then look what happened as the week wore on. And this is what so shocked and disappointed them about Jesus. They had hoped for this redemption, this liberation.

But now they knew they were wrong. Because Jesus had been rejected and even executed and therefore not only failed in his mission, but they knew from Deuteronomy 21:23 that a man hanged on a tree is cursed by God. They know that Jesus was divinely cursed. They had been wrong about Jesus. These disciples seemed to have no space in their expectations for the Redeemer to be rejected.

They had hoped for immediate worldly success, not the kind of spiritual deliverance that only Christ's atonement could bring. And this news that they should recount of Jesus to Jesus in verse 23 of the Angels telling the women just that morning that Jesus was alive should have been what the 12 disciples had been teaching the other disciples like these two, because Jesus had repeatedly taught on this himself. He had taught that he would be crucified and that he would rise even just before the triumphal entry the previous week, if you look back in Luke 18, verse 31, he had taught this 18, verse 31. Taking the 12, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.

And after flogging him, they will kill him. And on the third day he will rise. But not understanding, the disciples didn't gossip about Jesus coming rejection. They didn't make it known, and they didn't teach about his coming resurrection. And so disciples like these two were left disappointed, with their hopes crushed, as Jesus calls them in verse 25.

Foolish, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Oh, friend, don't let that be you today. Don't be slow of heart to believe. Pay attention to what the prophets have spoken. Learn it better than these two disciples did.

The fuller picture will give you hope like you've never had before. So Jesus drew near to these two slow to believe disciples. It's the first thing we see Jesus doing. Second thing we see Jesus doing with these two disciples. He educates them.

He opened the Scriptures to them. That's what we see in verses 25 to 30. Look again, verse 25 to 30. And he said to them, o foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe. And then he doesn't just reject them for these negative attributes.

No, he says, foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And then he teaches, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures that the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther.

But they urged him strongly, saying, stay with us, for it's toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. In some ways. This is a little synopsis of his whole ministry the last three years.

What was he doing with his disciples? He was walking along with them on the road, teaching them and sitting and eating with them, teaching them. That's what he was doing for three years. That's what he did this one afternoon with these two disciples. Jesus reteaches these disciples about their own scriptures, about the Old Testament.

And he seems to understand that what he's teaching them right now is so central to understanding the Bible and its message that he can express it in verse 25 as all that the prophets have have spoken. Did you notice that all that the prophets have spoken? And not only that, but when Luke explains what Jesus then did, he says there in verse 27, beginning with Moses and all the prophets. So Moses, that's the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, and then the four that have Moses ministry up to the time of going to the promised land. And then it also includes all the prophets that would be Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and then the 12 minor or shorter prophets.

And beginning with them may imply that he also did a little bit of teaching, like he does later on down in verse 45. That included going through the Psalms as well. And what is Jesus teaching him throughout all the prophets, pointing out that the prophets have spoken. What's that phrase in verse 27, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Now, if you're not very familiar with Christianity, you may have thought that the New Testament is about Jesus and the Old Testament is about Moses and David.

Actually, the Old Testament is all about Jesus. That's what Jesus himself was teaching the disciples here throughout his ministry. Jesus was teaching the disciples to pick up the promises that they knew and to understand how that he was the fulfillment of them. So because this is such an unusually crucial verse for the way we put our whole Bible together here on Christmas Eve with half our congregation missing and tons of you, only here right now, I still am going to teach you biblical theology in a summarized way that I think Jesus probably did that day by mentioning six specific passages that I'm pretty sure he would have mentioned. You can take these down as a list.

I think Jesus probably at least taught them about these six passages. I'll just tell you where they are first and I'll comment on each one of them briefly. Deuteronomy 18, 2nd Samuel 7, Isaiah 61, Psalm 110, Daniel 7, and Isaiah 53. Let's do this right now. Just like we're there that afternoon.

First, Deuteronomy 18:18. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Jesus was Called a prophet and understood himself to be a prophet like Moses had said. And like the Lord had told Moses, he would raise up like him.

Peter himself would soon quote that verse in Acts 3 saying that it was fulfilled in Jesus. And I think Peter got that from understanding what Jesus himself taught. Jesus taught in John 5 that Moses explicitly wrote of him. But Jesus doesn't just announce his prophetic mission bringing God's word, he personally fulfilled that mission. He is the word of God.

Friends, if you come back tonight, I'm going to be preaching a 10 minute sermon, Lord willing, from John, chapter one, number two, 2 Samuel 7, 12, 13. There God promised David that he would raise up one of David's offspring to establish everlasting rule among his people. So when Jesus in the Gospels is hailed as son of David, like the blind man does, that he heals. Right before the triumphal entry in Luke 18, this is the scripture that's back there. It's his promise in 2nd Samuel 7 to David that he would have an everlasting throne.

That promise would have been at the headwaters of the way he was called son of David. So in Psalm 118, verse 26, which the people shout out at the triumphal entry in Jerusalem, the idea is that the one who is coming in the name of the Lord is David's son, the anointed one. That's where we get the word Messiah. He is the Messiah king. So he would have taught them, I think Deuteronomy 18, prophet like Moses, 2nd Samuel 7, son of David king.

And then clearly a third one would be Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind to the to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And we know this was central because when Jesus preaches his first recorded sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, this is the text. And after it's read, do you know what Jesus says?

He says, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. He was saying openly that he was the one who'd been specially anointed, I.e. that he is the Messiah. And then number four. One of the ones most frequently cited by Jesus is Psalm 110, verse 1.

Psalm 110, verse 1. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The question Jesus posed to People from this verse, citing this psalm of David was like back in Luke 20 when he says, how can they say that the Christ, the Messiah, is David's son?

David thus calls him Lord. So how is he a son? Jesus doesn't answer that. He leaves that as a question to show them that to merely understand the Messiah as a human king will not do. There is more going on with this Messiah than just that.

Then if you add to that a fifth one. Daniel, chapter seven, verses 13 and 14. Daniel, chapter seven, verses thirteen and fourteen.

I saw in the night visions. And behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

I'm not saying you can find the Trinity in the Old Testament, but I think here we find the Trinity in the Old Testament. He's giving divine worship to this Son of man. Who is this one? Jesus had alluded to this in Luke 21 in his description of the Son of man coming in power and a cloud with great glory at the end of the age. Well, here again the Messiah is presented as someone more than merely a human king.

He is someone with power and glory so great that his rule will be indestructible and unending as David's successor was promised to be. Of whom could this be said other than God himself? God, Man. God with us. Emmanuel.

So we've had prophet and we've had king.

But I think what Jesus ministry especially brought forward that the disciples seemed to have a hard time grasping was the priestly component. The last One of these six passages I'll mention is Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53. And friends, if you want to read it later, it's that whole chapter even beginning at the end of 52. But I'm just going to read one verse from it. Isaiah 53, where the servant of the Lord is praised as one acting wisely.

And yet, friends, this is the key thing. We read that it was the will of the Lord to crush him. Why? It wasn't because of anything he had done wrong. No, it's because of things that we have done wrong.

Isaiah 53, 6. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Him is the suffering servant, the servant of the Lord, he is the one who has had our iniquities laid on him. He has become the sacrifice.

He is the priest, and he is the offering. Putting all this together, we see that the very fact that Jesus was killed by hanging him on a tree did mean, as these two disciples were assuming, that he was in fact cursed by God, just like Deuteronomy 21 taught. But unlike what these two disciples had concluded, that didn't mean that Jesus was disqualified from being the Messiah. In fact, it was just the opposite. This was an essential part of his work as the Messiah.

The Messiah had not come simply to bring physical liberation from physical oppressors and even death, though he would bring that too. But initially, and most fundamentally, the Messiah came to bring us spiritual liberation from our rebellion against God and God's right and good and just and and holy wrath against us because of our sins. For centuries, the Jews had concentrated on this hope of a Son of David to protect and to deliver them nationally. But at the heart of God's promises in the Old Testament was God's promise to show himself, as he said to Moses, as a God, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty.

How could he both be forgiving and yet not clear the guilty?

Only by means of a substitute. One who would voluntarily place himself in our place. The eternal Son of God, born as a man to take upon him our nature, yet without sin, to live a life of perfect trust in His Heavenly Father. He would fulfill all the structure of sacrifices that they were prescribed in the Old Testament, carried out in the temple in Jesus day. His own offering of himself was what all those sacrifices pointed to.

He would take my place. He would bear the wrath that I've deserved, and yours too, if you only repent of your sins and trust in Christ. Oh friend, do that today. What better Christmas gift could you get than forgiveness for your sins and a new relationship with God as your Heavenly Father. In that sense, the whole Old Testament is about how you can be forgiven for your sins and made right with God through the substitution of his sinless Son in your place.

And it was Jesus resurrection from the dead that was the capstone of the fulfillment of all the promises that Jesus himself had made during his earthly ministry. Again and again he'd said those very things that we read in Luke 18, you know, when he had promised them just days earlier. We are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished, for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him. And on the third day he will rise.

And now that very day was finally happening. And Jesus was there, educating these disciples as he would do later that day with his other disciples, teaching them what his coming had always been about. This is what it means when we sing Mild. He laid his glory by mild means humble humbly he laid his glory by mild in that the Son of God was humble In Bethlehem's stable He took on human flesh. He was born that man no more may die, not in the sense that physical death would immediately end at his birth, but that at his death and resurrection he would end death's tyranny over the human race trapped in sin and death.

So on that first Christmas day, Jesus was born to raise the sons of earth. His resurrection was simply the beginning of of the resurrection of that final day when all the dead are brought to and before God they stand. He was born to give them second birth, the new birth that Jesus had told Nicodemus about being spiritually born again by believing in Jesus Christ and his claims. This is why in our carols we call each other to listen to the angels singing Glory to the newborn King. Because this is what he had come to do.

That order of suffering and then glory there in verse 26 in our passage, was by Jesus resurrection that day suddenly revealed as the order of Jesus life. Crucifixion first and then resurrection. Suffering and then glory. Friend, part of what that means is however painful the holiday season may be for you, all the suffering that you undergo, if you're a Christian, is not the end of the story. The story isn't concluded there.

Suffering and then glory. That would be the pattern of the Messiah and his ministry. Paul argued it in the Thessalonian Synagogue on three Sabbath days in Acts 17, reasoned with them in the synagogue of the Jews from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. Suffering then glory would be the pattern for his people too, his followers that day and for us here today. Suffering then glory.

As Peter writes in 1st Peter 5, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. So, friends, Jesus is the sum and substance of all the Bible, Old Testament and New. And he is teaching them that they should listen to him and trust him as he leads them and us to a steady, resting repose of our faith and trust in Him. He is the one the whole Bible is about.

So this would be something of how Jesus had interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. This is the education that Jesus was providing for those disciples as they walked from Jerusalem to that village of Emmaus that Sunday afternoon. This is how Jesus opened the Scriptures to them. We should go on what happened after that education on the road and at the table, Jesus also opened their eyes. Look again at verse 31 and 32.

And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures? That vanishing happened so quickly. It's as if he's saying, you don't have to see me in order to understand me. He was giving a foretaste of the experience of the Christian today.

Of course, man's eyes had been spiritually opened before by Emile. The first meal in the Garden of Eden that we read of in the Bible in Genesis 3, when the two took not food offered by God, but food he had forbidden. And when they ate it, it says in Genesis 3:7, their eyes were opened. And they knew that they were naked. They were now not only physically without clothes, they were without any excuse before God against his charges of disobedience and sin.

And they had some sense of it. They. They fled from God. They attempted to hide from him that new sensation they had of shame evidenced the presence of a new spiritual reality, their guilt before God. And it is sympathy for us in that state of guilt that drew the Son of God to lay his glory by to be born in the manger, because he cared for us in our guilt.

And now here at this table in Emmaus, a new vision began of a new world given us by Christ's giving of Himself for us, for fellowship with God to be restored. The truths in the Bible are essential to opening our eyes to the truth, but they are not sufficient. Many an unbeliever has read the Bible and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But there is something more that happened. When we hear the story and understand we have to believe.

And this is what Luke means here, when he testifies that their eyes were opened. Again, that passive verb is suggesting. It's an indirect reference, meaning reverently, to imply that God is the one who supernaturally opened their eyes. He lights the mind, he lights the heart with the truth of God's word. I wonder how your spiritual eyes are this morning.

Would you say they're open or would you say they're closed? Are you able to see what God says spiritual reality is? Can you see your need? Can you see what God has done for you in Christ?

I pray that God will open your eyes even while you hear this message. If you're visiting and you're wondering what this is like, maybe over lunch you can ask the person you came with to explain to you their own experience of having their eyes spiritually opened. Praise Factory Kids, we don't normally have you in here. We're delighted to have you in here today. Ask your parents when you get home if God has ever opened their eyes.

Let them tell you what that means. Scholars are divided over verse 30 here, whether this breaking of bread is meant to bring to their minds the Last Supper. Several of you asked me that it could be. But then these two almost certainly wouldn't have been at the Last Supper. That was just with the 12.

The point here, I think, was not to encourage Luke's readers to take the Supper, but to open their Bibles. They say as much in verse 32, don't they? They don't say, did not our hearts burn within us while we sat at table? And he broke bread and gave thanks to it? No, he said, they say, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, While he opened to us?

The Scriptures, friends, the signs of the sacraments are mute apart from the message of the Word.

If you want your spiritual eyes to be opened, spend time with your Bible opened. I pray that listening to this message now will cause your heart to burn within you as the truth comes out of these old pages and set your heart on fire for him. That kindling of such a fire in the hearts of these believers would soon set a great company of flame at Pentecost which would spread the gospel around the world and down the ages to till it's reached us here this morning. That all began with the Lord opening their eyes.

Fourth thing Jesus did, He appeared to Peter, to Cleopas, to others. That's what the disciples recount here to each other as they gather and share their testimonies. Look at verse 33 and they that's Cleopas and the other guy rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. Hold on. Look back up in verse 13.

They had just walked seven miles from Jerusalem. It's in the evening now, and they've been going Downhill, because Jerusalem is up high. They are so excited about whatever's happened that now in the evening, after just walking seven miles downhill, they are about to in the night, when it's dangerous back then to travel by road, go seven miles uphill in their excitement to tell the other disciples what's just happened. So they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11.

And those who were with the 11 gathered together saying, this is what the 11 were saying. The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. Then they, Cleopas and his friend told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. The momentous fact that Jesus rose from the dead is part of why he could just refer here in verse 34, to the elevenness, to Jesus as the Lord, the Lord. The fact that he rose on a Sunday morning was the reason why the church could be said to be born on Sunday and why Sunday became and has continued to be the chief day of Christian worship.

Why we're gathered here together even this morning and not yesterday morning. Isn't it amazing that Luke was able to collect testimonies here of people who on the very first day of Jesus resurrection, saw him risen from the tomb? And these accounts were circulated and set down in writing during the lifetime of those who quoted them. Before there was ever a New Testament, these stories were circulating and were being told in gathering of Christians like this very one mentioned here in verses 33 and 34 and 35. We're dealing with eyewitness accounts here, given that Cleopas and his friend, and they allude to Simon Peter there in verse 34, having seen the risen Jesus friends, the tomb was empty.

The disciples were changed. The message of Jesus death and resurrection became central. Because Jesus rose from the dead on that Sunday morning, no other plausible explanation for the empty tomb has ever been given. Jesus died and rose from the dead. And like those first disciples, we now need to rearrange our lives around this reality and its implications.

Because Jesus is alive, we should conclude, and I'm probably just going to write in this pretty brief conclusion, right into joy to the world. So if you all even want to walk up here during this conclusion, you feel free to do that.

Jesus may have just laid there on Christmas, but he was busy on Easter Day, wasn't he? Rising from the dead, drawing near to these disciples, opening the scriptures to them, opening their eyes to understand them and him, and also appearing to others the same day. Jesus rising from the dead is the only explanation for why Christmas is so central to the traditions of so many parts of the world today. Jesus. Jesus.

Life showed that he wasn't merely a Jewish rabbi or even a king of Israel. He was the eternal Son of God and he was incarnated. He took on flesh to come to the aid of to save all of those in the age or place who would be his. Conclude with a final story about Charlotte. Charlotte was one such person.

She was born near Charlottesville, Virginia in 1840. She was only 4ft 3 inches tall, but she gave all that she had to follow the risen Christ. In 1873, at 32 years of age, she was sent by her church and the Foreign mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention to China. After staying around some other missionaries for a time, she decided to pack her things and move by herself out to the town of Pingtu. She herself was a faithful and fearless personal evangelist.

And as a woman, she could share freely with the village woman. She started a school to train Christian women to do Christian work in China. Charlotte intended to give herself entirely to serve the risen Christ. And so she did, spending herself decade after decade leading hundreds of people to know the Lord Jesus. She was in China for nearly 40 years.

She regularly shared her food and finances with those in need around her, even as she shared the gospel with them. At 72, she seemed tired and worn out. So her friends finally persuaded her to go take a rest back in the States. So she got on a boat. She weighed barely 50 pounds, but she headed home first over to Kobe, Japan.

And in the harbor there she died 111 years ago today, on Christmas Eve 1912, in the town of Pingtu, there's a monument erected in her memory with her Chinese name and underneath it, the simple inscription, how she loved us.

Since then, many churches in America have taken up Christmas season offerings for missions in her name. Lottie Moon. That offering that she first suggested to send more missionaries to China so they could be told about the risen Christ has been taken up by more and more and more churches since that day. In the last seven years alone, around $1.2 billion has been raised to send Christian workers to tell people who do not know the truth about Jesus about the risen Lord. Friends, if Thomas Jefferson were right and Jesus story ended with there they laid Jesus and rolled a great stone at the door of the sepulcher and departed.

I don't think you'd ever had Lottie Moon. You wouldn't have had the churches in Virginia that saw her converted. You wouldn't have had the churches in England that started those churches in Virginia, you wouldn't have had the church in Jerusalem in the first place. All the disciples would have been like these two on the road to Emmaus. They would have been sad and disappointed.

They would have wandered home and they would have just gone on with their lives. Disappointed, but ultimately moved on to other things. But that's not what happened. Because the Lord has risen. Indeed.

Joy to the world. Turn to page 15. Let's stand and sing.