Resurrected Reading Part 1: Forgetfulness, Foolishness, and Faithlessness

Luke 24:1-53 April 8, 2018 Pastor Chris Oswald

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Thesis When believers neglect Scripture, they functionally become indistinguishable from unbelievers, but the resurrection calls us to a transformed relationship with God's Word marked by cherishing, meditating, and prioritizing it above all else.

Series

Resurrected Reading

Type

Expository

Tone

pastoralpropheticdidactic

Method

redemptive-historicalcanonicalapplicatory

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

20 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #13

"Summarizes the sermon in four numbered points with direct application. Emphasizes that neglecting Scripture makes believers indistinguishable from unbelievers and that this condition threatens assurance of salvation. Calls young people to take up Scripture for themselves as the path to settled faith."

Doctrinal loci· 11 surfaced

Bibliology · 18 Sanctification · 7 Hamartiology · 5 Christology · 4 Ecclesiology · 4 Soteriology · 3 Anthropology · 1 Doxology / Worship · 1 Pastoral Theology · 1 Pneumatology · 1 Providence / Sovereignty · 1

Bible citations· 22

Theological claims· 5

The human heart apart from Christ is naturally and comprehensively blind—incapable of perceiving spiritual truth or the light of Scripture. unit #1
The Bible is clear and full of light; the problem is not Scripture's obscurity but the complete spiritual blindness (NLP) of the human heart. unit #2
A believer who neglects Scripture becomes functionally indistinguishable from an unbeliever—playing the part of a spiritually blind person so convincingly that even discerning observers cannot tell the difference. unit #3
A healthy relationship with Scripture is the exact opposite of forgetfulness, foolishness, and faithlessness: it involves cherishing and memorizing God's Word, holding it as the ultimate opinion-maker and meditating on it, and prioritizing it to maintain a supernatural perspective. unit #10
The sin of neglecting and undervaluing God's Word was laid on Christ at the cross, and He now offers both pardon for that sin and His own perfect righteousness, which includes His perfect love for Scripture. unit #17

Quotations· 1

"I have no response to your argument. Your argument has left me speechless because your argument is entirely incomprehensible." — Winston Churchill (unit #4)

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Full transcript

40,907 characters 20 units ~45 min reading time

0 · Introduces the sermon series on how the resurrection transforms the believer's relationship with Scripture

Well, good morning. I can hear my microphone. I'm glad I got it on this time. If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 24, Luke 24. Last week we talked about the difference that the resurrection makes in our lives, and we listed 3 areas. We talked about how the resurrection changes the way we serve God. We talked about how the resurrection changes the way we Sabbath, the way we rest. And we also hinted that the resurrection has a dramatic effect on the way we view the Scriptures. We're going to do a 2-part series on resurrected reading, our new relationship with the Scriptures after the resurrection. And the reason why that's valuable and worth 2 parts is because it is a prominent theme in the final chapter of Luke, in Luke 24.

1 · Establishes the baseline doctrine of human spiritual blindness apart from Christ

Now I want to just review kind of the doctrine of the Scriptures and our relationship with the Scriptures. And I want to start by just reminding ourselves that our hearts apart from Christ are totally naturally blind. Proverbs 4:19 declares, the way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. Psalm 82:5 says, they do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness. Ephesians 4:18 speaks to the Gentiles. It says, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance of that is in them. So that's just the baseline kind of let's start here. We are, apart from Christ, naturally blind. We are, apart from Christ, stuck in an ignorance that is actually indwelling. 2 Corinthians 3 is kind of your go-to chapter if you want to understand the relationship between the human heart and the Scriptures. Verse 14 of 2 Corinthians, 3 says that the hearts, the eyes, the hearts in the eye hearts, the heart eyes of the Jews were blinded because of their unbelief. Romans 1, the classic text about indwelling sin and about the relationship with sin and creation, it says that although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. So let's just start there. Baseline: the human heart is a dark place. If you follow your heart, it's like following a blind person into traffic. You know, that's the lack of wisdom involved in following your heart. It's like following a blind person into traffic. You are going to get kissed by a bus if you follow your heart for long enough.

2 · Reframes the problem of Bible comprehension by arguing that the failure to perceive Scripture is not due to Scripture's complexity but to the severity of human blindness

Number 2, this will show you the darkness of the human heart. I think this is a very interesting paradigm shift in how we view the Scriptures. Over the years, I've known a few people here and there who were blind. And of course, as you get to know them, this isn't a question you want to ask on the front end. You know, 'How blind are you?' But you learn eventually in friendships with blind people that there are degrees of blindness. It's all blindness, but there are different kinds of blindness. There's a legally blind. There's just something they designate as low vision. It's just, for whatever reason, the inability to maybe see the whole field of vision. Maybe to only see a few things. Maybe to only see those things in a particular color. So on and so forth. There are all these different stages. There are all these different kinds of things. And we group them all together as blindness. But the one designation, the one that is the most severe, is called NLP. NLP. No light perception. No light perception. And this means, this is the most severe kind of blindness. This means you could stare into the sun and not see the light, right? Like there's this full, complete blindness. Now, we tend to think that because an unbeliever has trouble seeing the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are kind of somewhat complicated. And so because of their spiritual state, they look at the Scriptures and they can't see them clearly. But I don't think that's what the Bible teaches. I think the Bible actually teaches this: Behold how blind a lost person is. They look at the Bible, which is an incredible source of light, the incredible source of light, and they cannot perceive. So I think we tend to give people a pass and say, 'Well, the Bible, you know, it's complicated and so on.' No, I actually don't think that's the way that this is presented at all. I think the Bible is this unique treasure that God has deposited upon the human race, full of light, full of glory, full of truth. The perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture is there. And the fact that people have trouble understanding it isn't because the Bible itself is difficult to understand. It's because we are that low visioned. It's because the human heart is NLP, no light perception.

3 · Introduces the disturbing category of believers who functionally resemble unbelievers through Scripture neglect

So we've kind of laid the groundwork. We're saying, let's remember that apart from Christ we live in darkness. And that darkness is so severe that we cannot even perceive the light of Scripture. Now, this third point is the most difficult for me to quantify, and that is simply this. Sometimes Christ followers play the part of a blind man. There are these moments where a backslidden Christian and a non-Christian look to me to be indecipherable. I don't possess the perception necessary to discern. There are sometimes when you are saved, but you're acting so lost that you couldn't expect the most discerning person on the planet to be able to tell the difference. Now, one of the best ways for a saved person to act lost is to neglect the Scriptures. That's this moment where you look at two people, one's a believer, one's not a believer, and they both don't read the Bible, they both don't think about the Bible, they're both not guided by the Bible. How am I supposed to tell the difference? I'm not sure I can. So think about it this way. If you were an actor and you were supposed to play the part of a blind person, you would probably wear glasses during your scenes that kept you from being able to see, right? You would choose to blind yourself and thus look like a more believable blind person. A number of years ago, Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for his role as Ray Charles. And he, if you've seen the movie, he's convincing as the blind man. He really nails, he's convincing as Ray Charles. But he does that by choosing not to see. And from the outside looking in, if I were just to meet that guy in mid-performance, I would have no ability to discern whether indeed he was or was not blind. I guess I could, but see, if I threw something at him, he's actually choosing not to see, so it would still hit him. So that wouldn't work.

4 · Applies the preceding theological claims directly to the disciples in Luke 24

Now, this all brings us back to the text. This weird— you ever seen someone do something so dumb that you cannot find words? You are literally left speechless to respond to what that person did or to what that person said. I think Winston Churchill one time said, 'I have no response to your argument.' 'Your argument has left me speechless because your argument is entirely incomprehensible.' Like, I don't have anything to say because the level of stupid is just so high. When you look at the disciples and their relationship with the Scriptures, they put themselves, through their neglect of the Scriptures, Through their ignorance toward the Scriptures, they put themselves in a category that is, for me, indescribable. They are playing the part, not because they're choosing to, but they are playing the part of a spiritually dead person. Their ability, their interaction with the Scriptures is NLP, no light perception. They really are walking in total ignorance. This idea of Bible neglect, which is exactly, and I'll show you why this is the case in a moment. This idea of Bible neglect, which we see with the women at the empty tomb, we see the men on the road to Emmaus, we see with the disciples in general. This Bible neglect is in fact this moment of, I think the case, of believers playing the part of unbelievers. And maybe if there's only one thing you remember as you leave this place today, it would be that. Just so we're clear, when you neglect, choose to neglect the Bible, whether it's this week or the week following or so on and so forth, you are playing the part of a blind person. You are playing the part of an unbeliever. If you were to try to convince a person that you are an unbeliever, where you would start? Is to regularly and habitually neglect reading God's Word. So that when we look at these disciples, we're left scratching our heads. They're just in this category that doesn't make any sense. We said a few weeks ago that Joseph of Arimathea was in a category like that. He was a secret disciple of Jesus. What does that mean? Like, how does that work? And I think we answered that by saying it doesn't work forever. He was in a transitory, temporary state. He must mature out of that state of secret disciple, or he was never a disciple to begin with. Likewise, chronic neglect of God's Word fits in that same category. You're putting yourself in a state that is indecipherable from the outside, as believer or unbeliever.

5 · Reads and traces the pattern across Luke 24 of three distinct resurrection appearances where the risen Christ opens the Scriptures to His followers

Look at verse 4 of Luke 24. The women have approached the empty tomb, and in verse 4 it says, while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has 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 must be crucified and on the third day rise? Now this is the key point, and they remembered His words. Look at verse 25 of Luke chapter 24, this is taking place in the middle of the road to Emmaus story. Jesus is joining a group of disciples departing from Jerusalem headed to the town of Emmaus. They're talking about how they're disappointed. They were hoping that Jesus, this Jesus would be the Messiah, the one to bring in the kingdom. Jesus is walking alongside them, but His presence, His appearance is hidden from them. They don't know who He is. They're saying how disappointed they are, and Jesus says, O foolish ones, verse 25, O foolish ones and slow to believe! All the prophets have spoken. 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 the things concerning Himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if He was going further, but they urged Him strongly, saying, 'Stay with us, for it is toward the evening and the day is now far spent.' So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. 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?' Look again at verse 44. This is a third appearance of Jesus to the disciples. Notice again the role the Scriptures play. Verse 44, 'Then He said to them, These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then 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 for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. So on 3 separate occasions, all taking place on Resurrection Sunday, the risen Christ makes the scriptures come to life. On 3 separate occasions you see the disciples of Jesus have a new relationship with the Scriptures, somehow, somehow as a result of the resurrection.

6 · Introduces the sermon's organizing structure by identifying three overlapping diagnoses of Bible neglect in Luke 24: forgetfulness, foolishness, and faithlessness

Jesus talks to these people and addresses this very issue in the text. Luke, in fact, addresses this very issue in the text. So we're going to just come up with 3 kind of handles, 3 ways to talk about this. We're not saying that these are 3 different things. We're just talking about what's at the heart of this neglect? What's at the heart of this voluntary blindness? And we see as we look through the text, 3 kind of conditions that are all kind of the same thing. Verse 8, 'They remembered His words.' So there's this forgetfulness at work in Bible neglect. Verse 25, 'O foolish ones.' So there's a kind of foolishness at work in this Bible neglect. There's a forgetfulness in verse 8, there's a foolishness in verse 25, and then Jesus also says, 'And slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.' And we'll just call that faithlessness. This slow to believe. So this Bible neglect looks like a cluster of things we will call foolishness, forgetfulness, and faithlessness. And now let's sort of unpack what these words mean as we try to get a handle on what is even happening when we neglect our Bibles. What is even happening when we neglect Scripture?

7 · Unpacks the first diagnosis—forgetfulness—through etymological study and vivid illustration

Let's talk about forgetfulness first. It took that moment after the resurrection for these ladies to remember His words, which means what? They forgot His words. We said last week that on multiple occasions, Jesus was 100% clear that He would be delivered over to sinful men and on the third day rise again. Those words did not soak in. I don't know what the right word is there. So much to the point that they forgot them, so that when they get to the empty tomb, they have to remember, 'Oh yeah, Jesus said on multiple occasions that He would die and rise again,' which seems to be something you'd have trouble forgetting. But that's the whole part of forgetting God's word that doesn't make any sense to me. And it shouldn't make any sense. So what's this word 'forget' mean? Get, grasp. In the Old Saxon terminology, we're talking about words like gassen and getten. It's these old German words, just means to take hold of, to grasp. And fore just has this idea of letting go, letting go of what you were holding, right? It's the idea of losing a grip. It's the idea that you were holding something and then you just let go of it. And it also implies this sense of losing care for. So I thought of how would we illustrate this? I thought, man, we've got all these young energetic little, you know, 5-year-old boys running around, these little toddler boys running around. Let's just imagine that we take one of them, pick your favorite Providence little rambunctious tot, and we— I don't want to single anyone's kid out as being exceptionally rambunctious. Let's just You can do that on your own. We take this rambunctious tot to Chick-fil-A to the play place, right? And we, before we dispatch him to go have fun and play, we hand him your paycheck. And we say, now you've got to keep this in your hand the whole time you're playing. Okay? Now this is very important to Daddy. One time I cleaned out my parents' car as a kid, trying to be nice, and I threw away my dad's paycheck. So this kind of rings true in a bit. So now this is very important to Daddy. Don't let go of this paycheck. Now how long you think you got? Until he forgets. His experience in the ball pit becomes more important than the thing you've given him. The thing you've told him to grasp onto. That's the idea of forgetfulness as it relates to the Scriptures. It's something that's been handed to you, you know it's important, but over a period of time, and that could be a day, like Monday, or it could be a week or months or years, over a period of time, you ungrasp because you undervalue, you lose care for the Word of God. There's a kind of undervaluing, a kind of looseness, a casualness, a presumptuousness toward the Bible. That's what happens when we forget God's Word. It means that we at one point thought it was valuable enough to hold on to, but over time we lose that sense and our grip begins to loosen. The paycheck winds up buried deep with all the used Band-Aids in the ball pit.

8 · Unpacks the second diagnosis—foolishness—through etymological study and pastoral definition

So now let's talk about foolishness. What does it mean when Jesus says, 'O foolish ones'? Well, we've talked about foolishness recently. Not that many weeks ago, we talked about the basic problem of foolishness is that you're right in your own eyes, and you become totally insensible to all of the input from the outside world that might steer you in the right direction. This overconfidence in one's own opinion and also this sense of being easily offended and easily provoked. You know, there are people that don't read the Bible because it offends them. They're being foolish. They're assuming that their sensibilities are above all else to be honored. So when Jesus is saying they are foolish, there's this sense of being right in their own eyes, but there may be more going on there. The word that's used in that text is 'anoetos.' When we say someone's an atheist, we take the word 'theist'—God, right? Believer of God—and we say, 'He's not a believer in God.' Atheist. No belief in God. Well, anoeto is the same kind of thing. Anoetos. Same kind of thing for the word 'noeo,' which is the word to mean consider, perceive, think, meditate. So when you are 'anoeto,' you are not thinking. You are not perceiving. You are not meditating. You're not trying to understand. So as it pertains to relationship with the Scriptures, it seems like what Jesus is saying when He calls them foolish ones is that they've got their brain in neutral. They've lost care. They're not thinking about God's Word. They're not meditating on God's Word. They're not holding God's Word in honor over all the other opinions in the world. I mean, they've talked to Jesus. They've been with Jesus. But they've elevated their opinions and their disappointments and their sensibilities above the things they've been given by the Christ. And so that's what it means to be foolish as it pertains to a relationship with God's Word, is that we've elevated our own opinions over the Word of God. We've elevated our own sensibilities over God's Word. And we're putting our brain in neutral and we're just kind of floating through life without wrestling with, without meditating on God's Word.

9 · Unpacks the third diagnosis—faithlessness—through an extended financial analogy

So these are the 3 problems. These are the 3 issues. We are forgetful, we are foolish, and we are faithless. Now, one last thing about being faithless. When you think about— when you choose— and I've chosen this, and I know you've chosen this— when you choose to neglect God's Word, because you were too busy, because life is too full. You are literally choosing to spend out of your spending pile without having a— out of your savings, whatever, while cutting off your income. So, in financial counseling, usually with lower-income people, their first instinct is to say, 'Well, what else can I cut? I'm not making ends meet. What else can I cut?' And that's everybody's instinct, of course. But when you begin to look at their finances, you realize it's not really an expense problem. They're not overspending per se. They're just under-earning. They just have an income problem. They don't really have an expense problem. They have an income problem. Friends, most of us have an income problem when it comes to the Scriptures. We have very full lives. We have so many opportunities at this particular moment in history in this particular country. My goodness, we have so much to do, so much to be accountable for, so much to be responsible for, so many opportunities. Men, you may disagree with a few of these, but you know, the average American man is just responsible for an incredible amount of particulars. Women, same for you. You're responsible for an incredible amount of particulars. There used to be We used to have servants to do all this stuff if you were at this level of wealth and this level of responsibility. You'd have a bunch of people doing this stuff for you. You didn't have to be an expert in all these different fields. Now we assume this sort of multi-competency that we must be good at everything, that we've got to have our hand in a million pies. And to talk about that is another conversation. The point is this: very few individuals with all that going on are going to the Scriptures in the way they ought to, to receive the truth and the light and the power they need to manage and to live in all this abundance. So that we don't have an expense problem, we've got all sorts of good things to spend our money on. We're not taking the Scriptures in like we ought to.

10 · Pivots from diagnosis to prescription by flipping each negative diagnosis into a positive description of a healthy relationship with Scripture

So these three attitudes together, I think, discussed where we find ourselves when we neglect God's Word. We're being forgetful toward the Scriptures. We're just sort of not cherishing them, not valuing them. We're being foolish. We're seeing our own opinions as ultimate and primal. We're being faithless. We're seeing the natural world over anything else, over the supernatural world. Now, if you flip those three things, You've got a really healthy description. You've got a good description of what a healthy relationship with the scriptures looks like. Okay, so let's just take forgetfulness for instance. What if we did the exact opposite of that? Well, we would cherish God's Word. That would be the attitude, right? We would cherish God's Word. It would be valuable to us. And what would be the action to accompany that attitude? Probably memorizing Scripture, right? 'I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.' How do we overcome the tendency to let go of the Scriptures? We bury them in our heart. What about foolishness? What's the flip of foolishness? Well, I think we would seek out God's Word as the ultimate determiner, right, for our lives. I think that many of us build our lives, many of us that grew up in the church, many of us Many of us built our lives with a handful of biblical precepts that are spot on, and then we stopped holding up the rest of our lives to the Scriptures as we've grown and as we've become responsible for more and as our lives have filled. We have stopped searching the Scriptures with the same level of humility that we had years ago. So if we were to flip foolishness, we would see God's Word is better than our opinions. Now, what's the opposite of kind of this brain-in-neutral relationship with God's Word? Well, it would be to meditate on God's Word. So, the opposite of foolishness would be a meditation, a careful consideration, a mental engagement with God's Word. So, the opposite of forgetfulness is to cherish and to memorize God's Word. The opposite of foolishness would be to hold God's Word up as the ultimate opinion maker the ultimate decider, and to meditate on it, to turn our minds and wrestle with God's Word. Well, what about faithlessness? Well, the opposite of faithlessness would be this sense of prioritizing the Bible, prioritizing a relationship with God's Word, making it a key part of our lives so that we can continue to see things from the right perspective, so that we can continue to see that which begins, that which is ultimate and first, which is the supernatural.

11 · Grounds the prescriptive description of healthy Bible engagement in Psalm 119, Deuteronomy, and Psalm 1

So if we were to wrap all this up into a relationship with God's Word, some texts would come to mind. For instance, Psalm 119:16. All of Psalm 119 describes a healthy relationship with God's Word. But if you were to go on your own this week and say, I'm going to break Psalm 119 up into 3 days or so, and I'm going to just study it, I'm going to try to meditate on it, what you would see are these 3 things I've talked about: this sense of prioritizing God's Word, this sense of cherishing God's Word, I will memorize God's Word, I will meditate on God's Word. You'd see this robust relationship personified in Psalm 119. But just as an example, Psalm 119:16, 'I will delight in Your statutes. I will not forget Your Word.' I will delight in Your statutes. I will not forget your word. You see two attitudes that we've already described there. Delight is cherishing, valuing, treasuring. I will not forget. See how those two things are connected? If I treasure and delight and cherish, I won't forget. Let's just take the word forget for a minute. It appears most often in the Psalms. By the way, just as an aside, I did a study of the words forget this week, and I'll tell you one thing that we don't think about as worship very often is remembering. The act of remembering in the Psalms is absolutely an act of worship. More on that later, I'm sure. But let's take the word 'forget.' The word 'forget' appears mostly in Psalms, second most in the book of Deuteronomy. Why Deuteronomy? Well, that book, the whole concern of the book of Deuteronomy is over how easily people will be consumed with the new life that God is giving them, so much so that they'll eventually forget God's law and thereby forget God Himself. The whole book of Deuteronomy is anticipating what the human heart does with the blessings of God. They value the gifts over the giver. And Moses' repeated warning to the people before they inherit this marvelous blessing is that they must be careful not to forget They must be careful not to forget God. They must be careful not to forget God's Word. Just plucking one verse out of all of these forget verses in Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 10 in Deuteronomy, 'You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land He's given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God.' 'By not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes which I command to you today.' Friends, every good thing you've ever had in your life or ever will have in your life came from the Word of God one way or the other. And your ability to enjoy it and navigate it and to worship God with it will come from the Word of God as well. Psalm 1, 'But his delight is in the law of the Lord.' again, delight, treasure, value, cherish. And on His law he meditates day and night. Right? So here's the value, here's the meditation. What's the consequence? Listen to his income. Listen to how his income is affecting his outflow. He is like a tree planted by streams of water. So he is a tree planted by a ready ongoing source of water. That's the intake, right? A life spent in God's Word is a life spent next to the source of wisdom and life and hope. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers. A life in God's Word is essential input for the way that we want our lives to turn out.

12 · Signals that the sermon has reached its planned conclusion for Part 1 and that a second sermon will be required to address the deeper issue in Luke 24

Now, I'm about two-thirds through this particular message and I haven't even gotten close to the actual point that Luke is trying to make in Luke 24. We're dancing around the edges. We're gonna need another week to get into the heart of the matter. So for now, let's make sure we have all I've said so far deep within our hearts and that we walk out of this place Acting on what we've heard.

13 · Summarizes the sermon in four numbered points with direct application

Number 1, lots of people don't see God's Word clearly. Lost people don't see God's Word clearly. We'll talk more about this next week. When redeemed people, number 2, when redeemed people neglect God's Word, they are acting like unredeemed people. And they are playing the part so well that those around them may not be able to discern. Now, I've made that point multiple times because I want you to take it the next step and understand that if other people that love you can't tell whether you're a Christian or not, it will only be a matter of time until you can't tell. And I just really, I really was wracked with lack of assurance as a teenager, and I'm just very empathetic toward younger people as they're coming of age and trying to figure out, is this my faith or is this my parents' faith, and so on and so forth. Let me tell you that one of the central things that must take place is you must take up the baton of the Scriptures and make it your own. You must run with the Scriptures for yourself. You won't be able to answer that question until you are a student of the Scriptures. Number 3, neglect for God's Word is usually bound up in a lack of respect for it, a high view of one's own opinion, and giving inverse attention to the natural over the supernatural. And number 4, a healthy relationship with God's Word will feature an attitude of cherishing and an action of memorization. An attitude of interest and an action of meditation. An attitude of faith and an action of prioritization. That's what a healthy relationship with God's Word looks like. Flip forgetful, foolish, and faithless, and you've got this robust, real, dynamic, lasting-a-lifetime, healthy relationship with God's Word. And you will be like someone planted by streams of water.

14 · Returns to the Road to Emmaus narrative to make two additional applications

Now, let's say two more things about this text. Look at verse 13. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about 7 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 are 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 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 crucify 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 the body, 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.' And He, Jesus, said to them, 'O foolish ones, And slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 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 the things concerning Himself. Now, two more points to be made in this text. One, When they were broken, confounded, and disappointed, they did not go to the Scriptures. Where do you go when you are confused and disappointed and let down? These were Jesus's disciples, and when they were facing this huge huge gap between their expectations and what they thought God was doing, they did not go to God's Word to meditate on it, to wrestle with it, to study it. They had, in the chaos of those days leading up to the cross, I think, just let go. And now they found themselves in a howling, wounding, kind of aching moment And they're not going to the Bible. Friends, I think this could be taken overboard, but I'll tell you, I'm not sure they should have been walking to Emmaus. I think they should have been walking to the nearest coffee shop with a Bible and a concordance. They did not turn to God's Word in the way that they ought to have turned. They did not become students of the Bible in the midst of their suffering. That's probably the second thing I'd say, man, you just really need to remember this. When you are suffering, it is God's absolute provision call for you to become a student of the Bible. That's what that time is for. That's not the only thing that time is for, but when you go through hardship, you rest assured, one of the things God is doing is He's calling you to put on the big boy pants, Grab your reading glasses, a pencil, a Bible, and some paper, and study God's Word. When you suffer, you should become a student of the Scriptures.

15 · Identifies a corporate pattern in Luke 24: the disciples encounter Scripture together in groups

Number 2, I can't help but notice how this is happening in groups, and I think it's worth pointing out. What we see consistently as these people are are brought back into a relationship with Scripture is that they navigate God's Word together as a group of individuals. We talked last week, this idea that sermons are kind of group hikes. Let's get together, we'll pull up in the parking lot, we'll go to the trailhead, and over the next 40 minutes or so, we will go on this hike together and we will do an expedition into God's Word. We will see all of these great views and we'll worship God together and we'll be challenged and we'll be strengthened and so on and so forth. Some of us will be more sweaty than others when it's over. This idea of exploring God's Word together, of encountering God's Word together seems to be key every time we see these aha moments take place after the resurrection. People are walking together and they experience together. And I just would say that the great thing about being a church member, the great thing about the membership covenant that we have here at Providence is how much this particular idea is baked into it. So just 4 of the promises that we make to one another. Number 1, I will devote myself to the study of Scripture and to prayer both privately and in group contexts. I will submit to the authority of the Scriptures as the final arbiter on all issues. I will devote myself to growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through seeking to become more Christlike as I apply the Scriptures to my life. I will live together with my brothers and sisters in love and will seek only their good by establishing relationships that promote holiness and discipleship. I will be vigilant to guard the welfare and joy of my brothers and sisters, admonishing anyone who whose practice of sin requires it, and I will humbly receive admonishment from my brothers and sisters when my sin requires it. So Paul in Romans 15:14 says, 'I myself,' he's speaking about this young church in Rome, 'I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.' The culture of our church ought to be revolving around helping one another not be forgetful toward the Scriptures, not be foolish toward the Scriptures, not be faithless toward the Scriptures. The culture of our church ought to revolve around this mutual care for one another where the Bible is constantly brought up as this source of light and wisdom, and then we ought to be talking about it together and encouraging one another with it consistently.

16 · Moves toward a gospel conclusion by introducing Isaiah 53 as the Old Testament text Jesus likely used on the road to Emmaus

Well, let's wrap this up. I'm assuming that as Jesus opened up God's Word, by the way, all orally probably, right? Just all verbally. I'm assuming that as He explained the case for His crucifixion and resurrection using the prophets, that He used Isaiah 53 as one of the places. I think that's extremely likely given how Isaiah 53 later appears in the book of Luke and so on and so forth. Well, Isaiah 53, just to remind you, says this, some of it, I won't read the whole thing. For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces as He was despised. And we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, and upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His wounds we are healed. Now, Again, I think it's really difficult to imagine how they missed that. They would have all known that text. It's hard to imagine how they'd miss that. But you know, in all my years of reading the Bible, things pop up every time. New stuff comes to play at least once a week. And I'd never noticed when I was reading Isaiah 53 before, the very first verse of Isaiah 53. 'Who has believed what he heard from us? And to whom has this message been revealed by the arm of the Lord?' As Isaiah goes to write this marvelous, detailed, precise prophecy about the coming Messiah, he knows first and foremost, the first thing is that people are going to be slow to believe. What he'd written. People aren't going to cherish this prophecy like they ought to. They're not going to turn it over in their minds like they ought to. Who's going to believe this, Isaiah says? Who's God going to actually reveal this to? We'll talk more about that next week. I also failed to see the connection through all this to Isaiah 53:6, all we like sheep have All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way. Well, isn't that what we're just talking about when we're talking about forgetfulness and foolishness and faithlessness? All we like sheep have gone astray; each one has turned to his own way. Isn't that exactly the reason why we don't hear God's Word? Isn't that exactly the reason why we don't see the light of God's Word, why we neglect a relationship with God's ways, God's Word is that we're sheep and we go our own way. We go the way we want to. We see things the way we want to see them. But verse 6 continues, 'But the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

17 · Completes the gospel turn by making explicit that our sin of Scripture neglect was laid on Christ at the cross

Today we had a mostly practical conversation about our relationship with God's Word, but the gospel is still central. Because in our haughtiness and in our undervaluing of this incredible thing, God's Word, we've sinned. In fact, we've demonstrated our sinfulness, which is the tendency to prioritize everything above God. And Isaiah 53 in the gospel says this very iniquity, this very sin, of seeing ourselves as supreme over God's Word, this very sin was laid on the perfect one. So that Jesus is the only human to have ever lived that had a perfect relationship with God's Word, that cherished it as he ought to have cherished it, that obeyed it as he ought to have obeyed it. And he bore on the cross your sin of neglect. Your sin of a low value of God's Word. Your sin of actually saying and believing that whatever else is happening in your day is more important than the Word of God. All of that was put on Jesus. And He bore God's wrath against that, but not only bore God's wrath against that, but delivered His righteousness to everyone who walks with Him. So that the gospel remains central and this table remains a central reminder. Verse 11 of Isaiah 53 says, 'Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied. By His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My Servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.' So this all once again lands on the work of Jesus, not only to pardon us for again yet another sin we find, but also to give us hope of growth and change, that we would actually begin to relate to the Scriptures the way that He related to the Scriptures.

18 · Introduces the Lord's Supper with the Pauline words of institution from 1 Corinthians 11

Paul says in 1 Corinthians, 'For I have received from the Lord a what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He'd given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same way also, He took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. Until He comes.

19 · Closes the service with pastoral prayer addressing God directly

Let me pray for us. Lord God, what an incredible gift You've given us with Your Word. Our lack of love for it has nothing to do with the way it was written, with the way it was composed, with the historical context, with our ability to study. Our lack of love for your word is everything to do with our hearts valuing darkness over light. Our lack of loving your word has everything to do with our own sin. And so we are so thankful for the cross of Christ upon which he received He took the punishment for our sin and gave to us His righteous love for God's Word. Jesus, I pray that this week in the hearts of those who've heard this message, this week, Lord, they would feel the righteous love of the Bible that comes from Christ bubbling up inside. They would see, Lord, even if it's just this this 'I should read the Bible,' 'I ought to spend some time.' Lord, even that, Lord, help them to see that is You coming to them and giving them a little bit of light, a little bit of a desire. Lord, help them by faith to seize on it. God, make us people of Your Word. When we suffer, let us become students of Your Word. When life is good, let us become students of your word. Bless this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Nov 12, 2017

Submission Part 2

True submission to God's hard commands is made possible by Jesus, who perfectly modeled submission to the Father and whose obedience unto death purchased our capacity to obey.

Luke 22:42

Nov 12, 2017

The Cross-Centered Marriage: Jesus' Submission

Jesus' perfect submission to the Father in Gethsemane is both the model and the power source for all Christian submission, demonstrating that obeying God's hard commands leads to eternal gladness rather than loss.

Luke 22:39-42

Dec 24, 2017

The Son of Man We've Longed For

Jesus is the Son of Man that humanity has collectively longed for throughout history — the only Son capable of accomplishing the work we cannot do: making peace with God, transforming our hearts, defeating our enemy, and ruling over creation.

Luke 22:69

April 8 · This sermon

Resurrected Reading Part 1: Forgetfulness, Foolishness, and Faithlessness

When believers neglect Scripture, they functionally become indistinguishable from unbelievers, but the resurrection calls us to a transformed relationship with God's Word marked by cherishing, meditating, and prioritizing it above all else.

Luke 24:1-53

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Luke 24, the risen Christ encounters His disciples multiple times on Resurrection Sunday. What do you notice about the disciples' conditi…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace the path from spiritual blindness to Scripture-cherishing: beginning with the heart's natural inability to perceive God's truth, moving through the danger of functional unbelief, and arriving at the resurrection call to prioritize God's Word above all else.

Prayer

A Prayer for Eyes to See Scripture

Father, we come before you in awe of your character—you are a God who speaks clearly, whose Word is full of light, and whose truth pierces t…

Family table

The Road to Emmaus: Do We See Jesus in Scripture?

This prompt invites your family to think about a specific moment in Luke 24 when two disciples walked with the risen Jesus but didn't recogn…

Couples

Scripture and the Resurrection: What We're Reading Together

What part of the sermon made you aware of ways you've drifted from cherishing Scripture—and what stirred your heart toward it again?…

Memorize

Luke 24:25

This verse crystallizes the sermon's central diagnosis: spiritual blindness rooted in neglect of Scripture manifests as foolishness and faithlessness toward God's Word. It anchors the entire argument that believers who abandon Scripture become indistinguishable from unbelievers in their fundamental posture toward the prophetic revelation of Christ.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Luke 24, the risen Christ encounters His disciples multiple times on Resurrection Sunday. What do you notice about the disciples' condition in each encounter—what are they unable to see or understand about Scripture, and what does Christ do to address it?

Luke 24:25-32

→ What does this pattern suggest about the source of the disciples' blindness? Is it a problem with Scripture itself, or something else?
The sermon identifies three root problems in Scripture neglect: forgetfulness, foolishness, and faithlessness. Which of these three resonates most deeply with your own experience, and what does that particular struggle look like in your life?
According to the sermon, a believer who neglects Scripture becomes 'functionally indistinguishable from an unbeliever.' What does that claim mean, and why is it such a serious warning rather than an exaggeration?

Ephesians 4:18

→ If someone you discerned to be a mature Christian were consistently neglecting Scripture, what specific signs might you eventually notice that would reveal their spiritual condition?
The sermon emphasizes that 'the Bible is clear and full of light; the problem is not Scripture's obscurity but the complete spiritual blindness of the human heart.' How does this claim change the way you approach your own wrestling with difficult passages or confusing doctrines?

Psalm 82:5
Examine the three antidotes the sermon offers: cherishing and memorizing Scripture, holding it as the ultimate opinion-maker, and prioritizing it by faith. Which of these three feels most foreign or demanding to you right now, and what would it look like to take one concrete step this week toward that particular antidote?

Psalm 1:2-3

→ What barriers—whether time, distraction, doubt, or something else—are keeping you from that step, and how might the gospel address that barrier?
The sermon closes with the gospel: Christ bore the punishment for our sinful neglect of God's Word and offers His own perfect love for Scripture to all who walk with Him. How does the fact that Jesus perfectly loved and treasured Scripture reshape what it means for you to pick up your Bible this week?

Isaiah 53:1-6

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

Monday Ephesians 4:18

Paul diagnoses the fundamental problem: our understanding is darkened and our hearts are alienated from God's life by default. This is not a matter of intelligence or effort—it is the condition of humanity in sin. Until Christ opens our eyes, we cannot see the light of Scripture no matter how clearly it shines.

Tuesday Psalm 82:5

The psalmist laments that the blind 'walk about in darkness'—and yet the foundations of the earth are firm and knowable. God's Word stands stable and luminous, but we who are spiritually blind stumble past it. The fault lies not in God's revelation but in our capacity to perceive it without divine illumination.

Wednesday Deuteronomy 8:10-11

Moses warns that once we are satisfied, we may forget the Lord and turn away from His commandments—becoming indistinguishable from those who never knew Him. Forgetfulness of God's Word is not a minor lapse; it is the gateway to acting as though we belong to the kingdom of darkness. When we neglect Scripture, we adopt the very posture of unbelief.

Thursday Psalm 1:2-3

The blessed person delights in God's law and meditates on it day and night—and like a tree planted by water, bears fruit in season and prospers in all he does. This is not mere discipline but delight, not reluctant obedience but glad meditation that becomes the organizing center of our thought and affection. Our flourishing depends on treasuring Scripture above every competing voice.

Friday Isaiah 53:5-6

Christ bore the punishment for our wandering—including our wandering from God's Word through forgetfulness and faithlessness—and by His stripes we are healed. In the gospel, we are forgiven for every time we have treasured ourselves and our opinions above Scripture, and we are clothed with His perfect devotion to the Father's Word. Grace calls us to respond with a transformed hunger for the Bible that mirrors His own.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

A Prayer for Eyes to See Scripture

Father, we come before you in awe of your character—you are a God who speaks clearly, whose Word is full of light, and whose truth pierces the darkness of our blindness (Luke 24:45). We confess that we often neglect the very Scripture that you have given us, trading meditation on your Word for the noise of our culture, forgetting what we once cherished, and trusting our own foolish opinions above your eternal counsel. We recognize that when we neglect Scripture, we become functionally indistinguishable from those who do not know you—playing the part of the spiritually blind so convincingly that even we ourselves begin to doubt our own salvation (Ephesians 4:18). And yet in the gospel we have hope: Christ has borne the penalty for our sinful neglect of your Word, and He now offers us His own perfect righteousness, which includes His perfect love for Scripture and His hungry devotion to every word that proceeds from your mouth (Isaiah 53:11).

We ask you, by your grace, to transform our relationship with your Word—to awaken in us a deep cherishing of Scripture, a humility to meditate on it rather than trust our own minds, and a supernatural faith that prioritizes your Word above all else (Psalm 119:16). Make us students of the Bible, especially in seasons of suffering when we are most tempted to doubt your goodness and neglect your counsel. Grant us the courage to memorize your Word, to hold it as the ultimate opinion-maker in our lives, and to build our corporate witness on the foundation of your truth. We commit ourselves, as a people, to a renewed love for Scripture—not as a burden, but as the glad response of those who have been rescued by Christ and remade by His Spirit. To you, O God, be the glory for the transforming power of your Word (Psalm 1:2-3).

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

The Road to Emmaus: Do We See Jesus in Scripture?

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to think about a specific moment in Luke 24 when two disciples walked with the risen Jesus but didn't recognize Him—because they had forgotten what Scripture promised about Him. The goal is to help children see that knowing God's Word is how we recognize Jesus and His faithfulness in our own lives.

On the road to Emmaus, two disciples were walking with Jesus Himself, but they didn't recognize Him because they had forgotten what the Bible said about Him. When Jesus opened the Scriptures to them, their eyes were opened. If you were one of those disciples, what's something in your life right now where you need Scripture to help you recognize that Jesus is still with you and faithful to you?

Works for ages 8+ — younger children can listen and respond with help from a parent; older kids and teens can engage with real examples from their own lives

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Scripture and the Resurrection: What We're Reading Together

What part of the sermon made you aware of ways you've drifted from cherishing Scripture—and what stirred your heart toward it again?
Where do we, as a couple, tend to trust our own opinions or the world's voice over God's Word, and how might we help one another prioritize Scripture together in that area?
How can we pray for each other this week to take up God's Word with fresh devotion—especially in any suffering or uncertainty you're facing?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

Luke 24:25

And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!"

Why this verse: This verse crystallizes the sermon's central diagnosis: spiritual blindness rooted in neglect of Scripture manifests as foolishness and faithlessness toward God's Word. It anchors the entire argument that believers who abandon Scripture become indistinguishable from unbelievers in their fundamental posture toward the prophetic revelation of Christ.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

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# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Submission Part 2 (Luke 22:42, 2017-11-12)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2017/11/submission-part-2)
- [The Cross-Centered Marriage: Jesus' Submission (Luke 22:39-42, 2017-11-12)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2017/11/the-cross-centered-marriage-jesus-submission)
- [The Son of Man We've Longed For (Luke 22:69, 2017-12-24)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2017/12/12242017sermon)
- [Resurrected Reading Part 1: Forgetfulness, Foolishness, and Faithlessness (Luke 24:1-53, 2018-04-08)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2018/04/resurrected-reading-part-1-forgetfulness)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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