Hearts Aflame ― Newly found sermon

read in the scriptures in the Gospel According to St Luke in the 24th chapter beginning to read at verse 13 the 24th chapter of The Gospel According to St Luke beginning at verse 13 and behold two of them went that same day to a village called Em which was from Jerusalem about three star F and they t together of all these things which have happened and it came to pass that while they communed together and reason Jesus himself grew near and went with them but their eyes were Holden that they should not know him and

he said unto them what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as we walk and are s and one of them whose name was clear propess answering said unto him th only a stranger in Jerusalem and has not known the things which have come to pass there in these days and he said unto them what things and they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth which was a prophet Mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and have the chief priests and our elders delivered him to be condemned to

death and have crucified him but we trusted that it had been he which would have redeemed Israel and beside all this today is the third day since these things were done Y and certain women also of our company made us astonish which were early at the CA and when they found not his body they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive and certain of them which were with us went to the Seer and found it even so as the women had said but him they saw

not then he said unto them oh fool and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures for things concerning himself and they drew nigh unto the village with they went and he made as though he would have gone further but they constrained him saying abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent and he went in to carry with

them and it came to pass as he sat at meat with them he took bread and bless rested and break and gave to them and their eyes were open and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight and they said one to another did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he open to us the scriptures and they rose up the same hour and return to Jerusalem and found the 11 gather together and them that were with them saying the Lord is risen indeed and

appear to Simon and they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in the breaking of bread now you're familiar I take it with this great incident that is recorded here this is one of these great occurrences in connection with the resurrection of our blessed Lord and Savior I want to talk to you this morning not so much about the great fact of the Resurrection itself which of course is basic and Central and essential to our faith in the whole Christian position but rather to the state and the

condition of these two men on the road to a we must remember this great and momentous fact the literal physical Resurrection our Lord rose in the body from the grave and certain Witnesses had seen him you remember remember that the earlier part of the chapter tells us about this certain women for instance had been to the Grave uh and had found it empty and so on and they came back and they reported this to the disciples but we are told that their words the words of the women seem to them as Idle tales and they

believed them not in other words the picture we have is of these people these disciples chosen followers of Our Lord in a state of utter dejection of discouragement and of unhappiness and we are going to look in particular at these two men belonging to this company on their Journey Down from Jerusalem to in you see them going and you remember how we told our Lord joined with them but they didn't recognize him the conversation took place between them but thank God the story doesn't end on not of dejection but of one of rejoicing now I'm

calling attention to these two men because they do seem to me to present us with far too perfect a picture of the state and the condition of the Christian church in general at the present time and with many of us as individual Christians in spite of the great Eternal TRS which we have behind us our condition is so like that of these men now it's vital we should hold this in our Minds our Lord had risen he conquered The Last Enemy and yet in spite of this great and momentous that which he prophesied to them

and which now had actually taken place they are to be found in this miserable and sad and sorry condition and that I say is the picture with regard to the Christian Church speaking generally at the present time it may be for some who are listening to me at this moment now I direct attention to the because I'm more and more convinced that this is the ultimate explanation of why not only the churches are she is but also therefore why the world is as it is and that women are uninterested in these things and are outside

the church very largely because we so often present this picture now what I want to say can be summarized it seems to me in certain things that we are told here about the state of the condition of the heart of these people the first thing we are told about them is that they had sad Hearts our Lord joining says what manner of communications are these that he have one to another as he walk and are sad your hearts were set he also then says to them oh fools and slow of heart that was their condition

they had sad Hearts they had slow Hearts but at the end of the story we have an entirely different picture they turn one to the other and say did not our heart burn within us the burning and it is to this contest I want to direct attention well to many of us are in this condition of the sad heart the slow heart but as Christian people we never meant to be like that we are meant to have burning Hearts warm hearts and it is only as the church has this Burning Heart That is of any

value or of any good it is only as we are filled with this fire with this Zeal with this power of the Holy Ghost that we function truly as individual Christians and as a Christian Church as a whole so the most important thing it seems to me for all of us this morning is to examine ourselves and to be certain as to the state of our hearts what is your condition what is your spiritual condition what is the state of your heart are you f you slow or can you say truly that your heart is

burning within you and are you like these men at the end of the story rushing back as it were to bear this witness in this testimony to the fact that the Lord is risen indeed and that all power is in his hands well here I say the most important nothing let's examine ourselves therefore in the light of this story that we are told concerning these two men there they are look at them as they walk down that road or to M what a sorry spectacle they presentent they even look s you see when our Lord

joins them that's the question he puts what manner of communications of these that he have one to another as he walk and are s how did he know that they were s well you could tell by looking at their whole demeanor their whole stem their whole attit was one of sadness this of course is a well-known fact if you feel sad you will look sad if you feel depressed you will look depressed and anybody coming across you will see you you'll be able to tell at once that you are in that state and condition and

this of course is true of all us as individual Christians and is true of the Christian church and what I'm suggesting is if the masses of the people are not interested in these things and are outside the church because far too often the impression we give as they look at us is that we're a sad people that we're a slow people that we're an unhappy people you ask the men who's not a Christian and outside the church just to why is in that position and that's what you love me say to you you said you're

a miserable people you're a sad people you don't know what life is you're not happy you're not enjoying yourself we've got life they say but you people seem to be caring a bir but a heavy load hanging heavily upon we often give that impression but we're under some rmic legal system that we're unhappy and that we're doing this as a hard test doing it because we're afraid not to do it perhaps that is why I say the people are no longer interested in this I've often put it like this contess the typ typical sample of

non-Christian people on a Saturday afternoon goinging when my country do a football match or you do a baseball match or whatever it is that attracts me watch them rocking down the road look at the eagerness in their faces their answers to be there in time to see every move the game and listen to them during the game the excitement for shouting the thrill listen to them on the way home talking about it calling attention to this incidental EV how wonderful it was how amazing they've been enjoying themselves they've been doing something marvelous and they're filled

with life and with enus that was a typical sample of Christian people Sunday morning they're even doubtful perhaps whether they get up and go to chch the at last they get up as a matter of Duty do they go the same eagerness and the same thr what is their conduct during the service as they hear about these unable Riches of Christ listen to them on the way hope so they give the impression that they've been doing the most glorious and wonderful thing a human being can ever do are they filled with a thrill into Jo

and a burning empty well let every man examine him I say that far too often we give the impression that we are people are missing something simply denying ourselves doing this as a matter of Duty and it is because of it that we often not only fail to attract the outside of you we even rep tell and how wrong how terribly tragically wrong all that is and how different from what we read about these early christans well now then the question for us there why why were these men in this condition why is any Christian

ever in this condition and we've got the full answer to that question there let me first of all give my explanation because it's not difficult to understand this condition what is the matter with these men why were they like this isn't it clear the trouble with these men inoc was this they were so certain of our Lord's death that they couldn't grasp anything else they' looked so much at his death that they couldn't remember what he' said about the resurrection they were concentrating so much about his end and about his death that I say they

were oblivious of everything else it comes out in everything about them not only in their appearance but in what they say don't you hear this note that comes out in their reply to our Lord's question he says what's the matter with you why are you like this and they said art th only a stranger in Jerusalem and has not known the things which have come to pass there in these days and he said what things so concerning Jesus of Nazareth which was a prophet Mighty inde deed and word before God and all the people and

all the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him but we had trusted that it had been he which would have redeemed Israel you see what they're saying this verse it was marvelous we rarely thought that this was the Messiah and our hopes were lifted up to the heavens but they took him and in apparent weakness They Crucified him and he died and they took down his body and they buried it in a grave they go on to say that certain women of the company made us astonished which

were early at the Seer and when they found out his body they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive but they couldn't they couldn't rest in spite of these reports what they were certain of was the fact that he was dead and they were so certain of that that they become uncertain of the fact of the Resurrection concentrating on the death and the burial and the gra dominated so much by that that they failed to realize the truth about the resurrection I wonder whether you pardon

me if in order to make this point clear and to bring it home I mention an incident within my own experience I remember preaching at a place some 30 years ago or more by now 35 years probably ago in a certain place in the country and there was preaching afternoon and evening and of the afternoon service two ministers came to me and asked me if I see a certain men as a certain School master in the district it's a very sad case they say he's a very able man and a very good man but you

know they said he is depressed he's complaining of headaches and stomach pains and he's given up his son of school work he's given up everything he's just doing his work as a school Master for which he's paid and he's doing nothing else he says he can't do it he they said it's a Prejudice not simply because of his miserable state but because he's a man who could be so valuable no seems would you see this one I said yes all right I'll be glad to see him and I saw him and this was what what

this is what happened I said to the school Master well tell me your story you said this was about 1932 or something like that well he said I've been like this ever since the last war he meant the first world war when the war broke out he said I volunteered and I joined the Navy and eventually I was posted to a submarine our submarine he said was operating in the Mediterranean and we became implicated in the D NS campaign and there we were he said one afternoon in the Mediterranean in the neighborhood of the D

when suddenly there was a most terrible and our submarine literally trembled he said we realized we've been hit by a and in a few moments we sank to the bottom of the med R and you know he said it's ever since then I've had this tret I've never been Welling always got this heit and sense of Oppression all this difficulty with life that's that's that's really how we happened he said and that's the cause of my trouble well I said all right but go on and tell me the rest of the story he said there's

nothing more to be said he said that is my story no no I said it isn't go on I'd like to hear the remainder of the story but he persisted in saying that he got nothing more to say so I again repeated my question to him and made him tell me the story and he repeated it exactly the same way and each time he said there came this all we realized we've been stuck by a torpedo down we went to the bottom of the Mediterranean then I would say well go on tell me the rest

of the story he said there is nothing more to say that is my story I realized that once what I was dealing with so I kept on making him repeat this story and then when he done this five or six times and invariably stopped at the bottom of the medit then said to him well now go on tell me what happened afterwards he said there's no more to be said I said are you still at the bottom of the Mediterranean why don't you tell me I said that you somehow or another came to the surface

that you were picked up by a neighboring ship that they took you to a base hospital and that eventually they brought you back to this country where you were given certain treatment and so on and the man suddenly saw it you see the trouble with that man was was that in his mind in his thinking he had remained at the bottom of the Mediterranean though he had actually come up to the surface and though he was still alive in his think he'd remained there looking down and that was the cause of his TR and on

my succeeding in getting him to see this and then of course obtained complete relief and in two years time entered pertaining into the Christian Ministry and has been a JG in the Church of England in Wales ever since now there it seems to me is is the partial explanation of the condition of these people they were looking at the death at the barrier at the grave and so they say way had TR it ended there this wonderful dream this marvelous hope it ended in they were so certain of that that they could see nothing beyond

that whatsoever and the result was that they present us with this sorry spectacle and what a perfect picture it is of the state in the condition of the Christian church at the present time listen we are told that it came to pass that while they commune commune together and reason see that's how they were behaving here is this glorious Act of the Resurrection means nothing to this they are communing together and reason what that means is this they were talking together and they were talking together of course about the great events of the past three

years reminding one another of some of the sermons they' heard the Miracles they' witness and the more they T the S they became they were communing not only talking together but they were commiserating with one another sympathizing with one another the bright Prospect which suddenly ended and of course the more they looked back and talked about what had happened the S they became because it had all ended in nothing but death and burial and Grave and then we are told that they reason together we were trying to understand it trying to explain M summer what

a perfect picture of the Christian church look at the annual Assemblies of any one of the denominations you may like to choose this is what you get they meet together in conference and then they commune together and reason together about the situation ex them materialism communism all the things that are against the Christian church and they analyze them they experts on all this and they try to bring in their explanations and then they'll appoint a commission of the committee to investigate the problem try to understand stand it and search for some possible solution communing and

reasoning together on the human level try to understand the position and the more they talk the more detested and unhappy they become and the whole time they're forgetting the one thing that can transform everything the Lord and the Glorious truths concerning him what a perfect picture it is of the state and the condition of the Christian church he dependent upon its own reasoning for meaning and understanding and as blinding itself to the Glorious truth but let our Lord himself give his own analysis well at long last they they stopped speaking it took them some time

to stop you no they've got so much to say when they at last finished I'll read in verse 25 well he said unto them oh fool that's his first word oh F which means fully speak simple you're reasoning together but the trouble is you don't have a reason you're forgetting the most vital and important and essential T oh and I have a feeling that that is what our blessed Lord you're saying to the Christian church this morning in our cleverness with the supposed with her new knowledge with her science with men come of age and

so on all this which we are hearing so much of at the present time in our cleverness we are communing and reasoning and the position goes from bad to wor and I believe that this is what our Lord is saying to us you fool you simp stop for a moment you're talking too much stop for a moment and begin to think and to reason truly surely this is the message that we need we're allowing ourselves to consider the situation and our problems and so on in terms of our understanding and we losing hold of the

thing but can solve our problems and transform the entire situation I believe that the land is coming to us to be still for a moment to be silent to forget all the we know and just for listen to what he says and what he's done and to remind ourselves of Eternal Val that is his first CH it's an astonishing one it seems as and yet are perfectly true it is the greatest cause of problem the Christian always has been her Reliance upon her own cleverness her own understanding their own reasoning instead of adhering in Simplicity

and with a childlike Faith the great facts Vari truths on which alone how faith can stand but then he goes on to bring a second charge against them and there is that they are SL of heart and this is equally important the trouble with us is not only in our minds in our intellect it is also in the heart and the Heart here stands not only for the seat of affections but also as generally in the scripture for the whole center of a man's personality but I believe that the emphasis is here very Lely Upon

Our affections and our general attitude well we all have experienced this I'm quite sure this kind of slowness thought as our Lord puts it let me illustrate what I mean haven't you often had this sort of experience you've been in your home and you've been reading the newspaper or you may have been reading some book a biography or history or something like that and you not only enjoyed it but you found that your mind was keen and alert you could take it in then you feel that you should read a portion of scripture you haven't

done so perhaps that day so you lay aside these other things and you bring out the Bible and you begin to read it and immediately an extraordinary transformation takes place you find you can't concentrate you begin to feel TI and you're there and you remember that after all you've done A Hard Day's Work and somewh or another you you you you find you're in trouble in a way that you were not when you were reading of the second literature what is this well I think that's an illustration of what our Lord means by fless of

heart a kind of mental spiritual L it's the work of the devil of course who would keep us not only from reading the word but from concentrating when we do read and from understanding a kind of mist descends upon the mind and we can't take it in there's a dullness that afflicts us or you to PR still more in the matter of prayer you've been talking to people and you've been now little have no difficulty L you get on your knees alone to talk to God you find it very difficult to concentrate your imagination is

traveling all over the world in your mind and your thoughts and you find it difficult to pray and a continue wind prayer what you did well it's the same thing it is this slowness of heart this spiritual Ley and paralysis it is all this power of leing one that blinds us and DS our faculties and renders us more or less incapable of doing things in this spiritual realm that was a part of the condition of these people he say you're not only fools you're not only foolish you're not only failing to reason as you should

but you're allowing yourselves to be influenced in this depressed manner by the enemy of yourselves and by my your slow of heart that's the second thing he gives as an explanation of their condition but then he comes to a third one and it's here very largely by implication and that is of course that they were governed by their fices this was their problem they were Jews and as all Jews they knew the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah yes but the whole tragedy of the Jews at the time of our Lord was they rejected him because

he didn't fit in with their preconceived notions and ideas the Jews were expecting a m but they were expecting a military Mage a great king a great military person someone who would head up the Kingdom of Israel restore the glories of the time of David conquer their enemies read them of the Y Roman and Israel the greatest nation work their picture and when our Lord came and didn't do this kind of thing to preach the poor people work miracles and spent his time up in Galilee they stumbled at it even John the Baptist did you

remember you remember how he sent his two disciples saying oh he should come or do we look for another they took him by to him by for him one occasion to make him a k they didn't understand what was this this is nothing but few prives and this is something that still tends to operate so powerfully upon us men and women have their ideas and their preconceived notions as to what the Messiah the deliverer the Savior should be some think of him still in more or less purely political terms they say look at the state

of the world why doesn't he St War why does he to he can't be the Savior and so they reject him he's never promised to do these things but they think he should and because of their blindness and their prejudices will fail to recognize him when he comes that was another source of these people's trouble but when he comes to the final thing he said says about them and this is so apposite and applicable to us at this present time listen then He said unto them oh fool and slow at heart to believe all that

the prophet have SP ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself now this it seems to me is just the very message that so many stand in need of at this present time you notice the emphasis who and flow of her to believe that the prophets of spoken now this is a subtle point in many ways you see what he's saying is best you good men as good Jews you have

believed some of the things that the prophets have spoke of course you believe the prophets when they tell you that God is going to send a great deliverer a great Messiah that you accept and you rejoice in this but why he says haven't you believe all of the prophets have spoken because the prophets have spoken also about the suffering of the Messiah or not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory the prophets he said have said that they've not only described his greatness and His glory they've not only described

his conquest and his victories the prophets have been equally careful to tell us that he's going to suffer that he's going to die and but then he's going to rise again you are probably say is this you have not been believing the message of the Prophet as it is you've been selecting things and rejecting others you've concentrated on what you like you've forgotten what you don't like hence you are trouble you are now detected you stumble at the fact of his death and Resurrection because you've never paid any attention to this you've only picked out

what you wanted and what suited your IDE and you're inou and so you see beginning of Moses and all the prophets he expounded in all the scriptures for things concerning himself he goes back for instance to Genesis 3:15 now we are told about the enity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent but how the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent head that's the sort of thing they like but what they did not like him therefore ignored and forgotten was that the seed of the that the serent would do

is evil but he is going to be involved in SE they' forgotten the preaching of the same 22nd P we forgotten the teaching about the 53rd chapter of Isaiah that he should be led as a lamb to the they had forgotten indeed all the great prophetic teachings that founded ceremonial of the Tabernacle of the temple the burn offerings of the sacrifices all that they missed it you see they were partial in their reading of the scriptures they were seleced well I mustn't take your time I'm simply giving you a perfect description and I not of

what has LS of he in the church during the last 100 years that's why the Christian Church feels today the so-called higher criticism what does that mean well it means this you see The View with your understanding and your knowledge you come to the scriptures instead of talking them as they are you pick out what you want and you ignore the rest certain things you say can't happen Miracles can't happen so they go out you are selective you don't believe all the copics of SC that is precisely the explanation of the present condition of the

Christian jur this belief of KN that he has such understanding that he can say what's right and what's wrong in this book of God that he selects and rejects and it invariably and always leads to the condition that we find here and therefore my dear friends when you come to ask me the question if that is the explanation of the sadness and the sness of these people what can be done about it and the answer than God is equally plain and clear look at these two men of the earth what a what a different picture

look at them they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 together saying the Lord Isen indeed and appear to Simon and they told what things were done in the way and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread what a conf what a different picture now there is two of Christianity no doubt s certainties no sadness no slowness happiness joy Triumph what is it that makes Beau I've already answer it's the condition of the heart no longer s FL they they did not our hearts burn within

us need the long story of the Christian church and this is what you'll always find every great reformation and Rev in the history of the church always produces this Burning Heart not a c logical DET theoretical academic view of the script of the Savior but heart that lean to the very depths of its being and it will send men to the state or send them across otions to preach the gospel but with Jo and them enthusiasm and Power well very well the question for us is how can we get this Burning Heart how does this

happen to us I wonder what the result would be if I sto preaching at this point and begin to catechize you and to ask you what was it that produced The Burning Heart in these two men I have a suspicion that the majority would answer by say what changed them and produced The Burning Heart was their recognition of this person who was talking to them as he was breaking the bread because you remember we told that came to passes he saided me with them he took bread and blessed it and break and gave to them

and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their side I know that many would say most would say oh that made the difference they suddenly recognized him looked into his face and it made their hearts burn but my dear friend if you say that you're wrong this is to me the most glorious thing of all it wasn't that that made their hearts burn after he vanished out of their sight I read this they said one to another did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by

the way and while he open to us the scripture their hearts were burning before they recognized him it was on the way as he was expending the scriptures that their heart began to burn thank God for this I've heard people who come to me and have said many many times you know I've got doubts I'm in trouble if only i' lived while he was here if only i' been able to look into the face of a blessed son of dark and into those eyes of love I know all would have been well I'd have loved

the whole my being but I've not seen him and they are seeking vision and they don't get them but that's their whole Trudy that is the fallacy of of their whole position there is no need of aable there is no need to see him literally in order to have a burning heart no no the answer is here did not our hearts burn within us as he open to us descrip as he talked to us by the way thank God for this you didn't wish that you were alive in the first century you needn't ask for

the heavens suddenly to break you need to seek some vision ex toy it's unnecessary go to the scripture SE him there oh but you say it was he himself who written the scriptures to yes my friend but still that's no argument don't you remember what he said just before he went from this world he said let not yours be troubled I'll not leave you orphans when you alone uninstructed I will send you another comfor I'll send you another teacher I'll Sone who stand by don't my he says as aity it is good it is expedient

to you that I go away but if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I go away I will send him unto you the spirit and he has sent his Spirit into the church and the spirit is in us every one of us who is a Christian and the spirit is here what will to glorify him so you take your word you go the scriptures all the scriptures you pray the spirit to lead you and to guide you and above all to reveal him to you and he will do

so he will take you through the scriptures even as our Lord person to IM through the scriptures and he will reveal him to me you'll find it in the Old Testament what a tragedy it is that people are writing solutes to the Old Testament you can find them in the Old Testament these men have gotten into Testament scripts they got nothing but the Old Testament but this up you'll find them in the Books of Moses you'll find them in the Psalms you'll find him in the prophets with spiritual eyes you'll find him everywhere it's the

book of God it's one book is there in the old still more as it were in the new but both with all the scriptures lay aside your prejudices forget your cleverness and your supposed knowledge and come with a child like simple heart dependent upon the leading the guidance the inspiration of the spirit and he Le with you and as you meet him your heart will begin to burn with you you'll find yourself a transformed person you'll see the glory the Majesty of his person you'll understand his work for his own once more in a way

you've never done before and you'll be filled with a sense of anticipation as you contemplate the glory that he is preparing for you that's the way to attain the Burning Heart there is no need for something PE it is simply a matter of going back to this book of God these holy scriptures going back and seeking him looking for him longing to meet with him ready to submit yourself to him and as you do so I say your heart like that of these men will begin to burn within you and you know that you've met

with him and your despondency and your unhappiness and your failure will be Ben your sadness and your slowness will disappear and those men and women filled with the Holy Spirit you will be living right witnesses to all who are around them about you and the whole condition of the Christian church will be transformed transfigured and may God give us all Grace therefore to learn the lesson from these two men on the road toing may we see ourselves that may we be as of what we see and may we give ourselves No Rest nor peace until

our hearts are glowing burning within us let our prayer be holy spirit truth Divine blow within this Heart of Mine word of God and inward light wait my spirit my let us pray oh Lord Our God th th all about us have mercy upon us we pray the that we are so much like those two men on the road to India forgive us for our Folly the Folly of our s confidence our pride in this our 20th century oh God have mercy upon us humble us we pray make us as little children take from us

all our prejudices our preconceived notions and ideas and grant us that simplicity de heart that shall ever be ready to respond to him oh fill us with thy spirit and lead us into all the truth concerning him in all the scriptures and then we shall gladly joyfully live to his glory and to his presence for his name sake amen