3481. Visits from the Lord

A Sermon Published On Thursday, October 14, 1915.

Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved says to Peter, “It is the Lord.” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his fisherman’s coat on him (for he was naked), and jumped into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little boat; for they were not far from land (but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fishes. {Joh 21:7,8}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3146, “Power of Christ’s Presence, The” 3147}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3481, “Visits From the Lord” 3483}

   Exposition on Joh 21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3057, “Following Christ” 3058 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3146, “Power of Christ’s Presence, The” 3147 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3378, “God’s Prison, Warden, and Prisoner” 3380 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3524, “Do I Love the Lord or Not?” 3526 @@ "Exposition"}

1. Until our Lord should pour out the Spirit on his apostles, they had to wait. It was expedient for them that he should go away and ascend into his glory. Then when he had received gifts for men, and had distributed those gifts, they would be able to go out in the power of the Spirit, preaching the gospel. Until then they must wait, and they must not be idle. Therefore, they returned to their ordinary trades, and once again the little barque ploughed the familiar waves of the sea of Tiberias. There they had many old associations brought up before them; and there, moreover, on the memorable night of which we are now to speak, they learned a lesson which would be instructive for them throughout the whole course of their fishing for men. Their condition and position were very much like our own.

2. We, as a Christian Church, are engaged in the great soul fishery, seeking by any means to bring some to Christ. Out on the dark waters of the Dead Sea of Sin we seek to bring the souls of men, not to destroy them, but that Christ may save them. This is to be the Church’s perpetual work. She must never cease from it. For this purpose she is kept in the world; and if she does not serve this purpose, she is faulty before her Lord. Just now we are much in the condition of these apostles. Some of our spirits are dissatisfied with the success that we have had recently—in fact, dissatisfied with all the success that either we or the Christian Church generally have had for years past. We cannot quite say, with the apostles, that we have caught nothing. Glory be to God, there are thousands of souls that have been won to Christ in this house, and in many other places where Christ is preached; but compared with the great mass of mankind—compared with the world that “lies in the wicked one”—we might almost say, “We have caught nothing.” Relatively, it comes to very, very, very little; and the gospel fishery does not prosper today as it did at the time of Pentecost, or as it has done at other times, when God has granted revival and refreshing from his presence. We are, therefore, like the disciples: we are engaged in the fishing, but we are not satisfied with the results.

3. Now we know what they, perhaps, at the time forgot—that there is only one thing that can change the aspect of affairs, and that is, for Jesus to appear in our midst, and speak to us, giving us the word of direction, and also himself acting as the attracting power to the souls of men, so that they may come to the gospel net. I may go around to all our agencies, if Jesus is absent, and ask them, “What is your success?” The Sunday School will have to say, “We have taken nothing.” The evangelists at the street corners will have to say, “We have taken nothing.” The young men sent out from the college to preach will have to return the same sorrowful answer. And alas! for us who stand here and preach to this congregation, we, too, shall have to say, if the Master is not with us, “We have toiled all night, but we have taken nothing.” Oh! what a sorrowful account to have to render to God and our fellow men! Yet such it must be. But if Jesus will come, how everything will change! Then the preacher shall become wise: he shall know where and how to cast the net; he shall select those topics that shall stir the soul—that shall fire the heart. And then, Jesus being present, men shall be as willing to receive the gospel as the preacher is to preach it. It shall be as much the will of the fish to get into the net, as it is of the fishermen to cast the net. Oh! may the Master come to us! I believe he has come. I think I see him. Some of my brethren tell me they already perceive it. He has never been entirely absent from us, but we want him to speak a mighty word, a majestic word—a word that shall compel, by sweet constraints of grace, tens of thousands of souls to come to him and live.

4. Now tonight my one subject is to the Church here, and to God’s people elsewhere, who are in the same state of hope and anxiety. I want to speak about Jesus Christ’s coming. The all-importance of it you all feel. You all, I trust, as workers for Christ, desire it.

5. I. Now, beloved, let us notice, first, when Jesus comes:—WHO WAS THE FIRST TO SEE HIM. The first to see Jesus was John. He said, “It is the Lord.” The other disciples eventually perceived him. We know they did, for it is written, “Knowing that he was the Lord”; but the first to see him was John. What do we gather from this?

6. Why, first, that the brightest eyes in the Church are the eyes of those who love most. They find Christ first who have the most affection for him. If he is gone, these are the first to sigh. If he returns, these are the first to rejoice with unspeakable joy. Knowledge is said to open the eyes, but as for me the dust of many learned tomes has often beclouded them. It is thought that men of education will be the first to perceive the Saviour, but it was not so in the Saviour’s day, for these things were hidden from the wise and prudent, but they were revealed to babes. Let love be your education. Grow in love. To love is better than to know; for a man may know, and only eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and perish by it; but he who loves obeys, and he shall eat from the tree of life and dwell in the midst of the paradise of God. Blessed John! Your head had been in the Saviour’s bosom, and, therefore, your eye was like the eagle’s. No angel, one would think, could see so well as Milton’s angel, Uriel, who dwelt in the midst of the sun. He was familiar with the light. He dwelt in the full blaze of the orb of day—in the very midst of it. And “he who dwells in love dwells in God,” and “God is light”; so that whoever dwells in light sees all things. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The heart that is purified with the celestial flame of divine love is the heart that can see God.

7. But notice that in the text John does not describe himself as loving Christ. He puts it much more humbly and instructively. “That disciple who loved Jesus said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’” No; that is my misreading of it. It is, “That disciple whom Jesus loved.” Oh! yes, and that is the way that grace in the heart always teaches us to read it. It is not so much that we love him, as that he loved, and still loves, us. Superabundant love in the heart of the Man Christ Jesus towards that choice and chosen spirit had made John a loving disciple. He had not loved so much, if Christ had not loved more. He would have told you if you had questioned him about his love, as Peter did—“The Lord who knows all things knows that I love him.” But if you had spoken about Christ’s love for him, ah! then his face would have brightened, and his eyes would have flashed with delight, and he would have said, “He loves me; ah! and I have had many a sweet word from him; and my head has often been healed of all its careful aches when I have laid it down on his breast.” He would have ascribed it all to Christ’s love, and had little to say of his own. So, brethren, if the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts, you will be quick to see the same. It will not be so much your love as his love that makes you keen of the eye. Then your eyes will become like the eyes of the spouse in the song, “As the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set.” Now the dove, no doubt, can see its home a very, very long way off. Let the pigeon loose, and it flies to its dovecot at once. Ah! those whose eyes Christ has “washed with milk and fitly set” can see their Lord afar off, and they fly to him with swift and clipping wing; nor are they satisfied until they roost once more at his feet or in his bosom. So, then, those who are quick to see the Saviour are those who love him better still, those whom he loves much.

8. Now note that even John appears to have perceived the presence of Christ very much through his work. As soon as the fishes were taken in the net, then John said, “It is the Lord.” And, brethren, if we want to be assured of the Master’s presence in the Church, it must be by the results. I am ashamed of some Christians who are afraid of anything like a holy excitement, or a gracious revival. If there are two or three added to the church in a year, they say, “This is the finger of God,” but if there are many, then immediately they begin to question. Now I think this is not reasonable, for surely when there are great fishes, a hundred and fifty-three, then we may say, “It is the Lord.” We may be pretty sure when there are so many brought that God is at work there, and we may perceive the presence of Christ. I was noticing the other day some statistics that have been given of certain revivals in different districts of the United States. It has been said that those gathered in during a period of revival are usually an injury to the church, and more frequently backslide than any other; but taking a range of some eight years in certain churches, it was found that of those people added during seasons of refreshing from God, the percentage who afterwards backslid was much less than—scarcely, indeed, one half—the percentage of backsliders in those churches which had not experienced revival, but had only grown at the slow plodding rate which some of our “sound” brethren so greatly admire. It was found that, instead of being worse material, they were better material, and that these stood the fire even better than any other. This I know—that I should like to run the risk; I should like to run the blessed risk of seeing thousands coming forward to profess their faith in Christ. It is true, we should have some, no doubt, who would turn out to be hypocrites; but I would not refuse some chaff if I could get ten times as much wheat. Who will give up a gold mine because there is quartz in it? Who is it that will close a coal pit because there happens to be some slate amid the coal? No, blessed Master; come, and let us have the net full to bursting if you will, and then we shall say, “It is the Lord.” His great works reveal him even to the eyes of love.

9. Note, further, that the man who first discovered that Christ was present did not keep the secret for long, but, turning around to his companion in the boat, he whispered to him, “It is the Lord.” Ah! and this is a lesson for us. If any of you who are the King’s favourites, and have close fellowship with him, should perceive that he is in the church, oh! tell it to us, for we are of your mind. We consider the King’s company to be the grandest blessing outside of heaven. Whisper to some of us, for we shall be so glad to hear the blessed news. But John did not tell all of them. He told it to Peter, for Peter was very near him. I think John had been partly the means of Peter’s falling. I think so. You notice how John tells us—and no one else does—that he was a kinsman to one who kept the door, and he took Peter in; and I imagine that he used to kick himself about that, and say, “I ought not to have run the risk of taking Peter there. I ought not to have put him where he would have those questions asked.” And he seems always to stick hard and fast to Peter, and to be with him, because though he, of course, had none of Peter’s sin, he felt that somehow, accidentally or unwittingly, he had led Peter into the place where he did sin; and so he loved him very much, and he gave him the first intimation of the good news. He said to him, “Brother Peter, it is the Lord.”

10. Oh! if you perceive the Lord tonight—if you get a good word from his lip—have you not some beloved one whom you can tell it to—one, perhaps, who has been a backslider, and is now returning to the Lord with broken bones? Oh! tell him! Tell him! Tell him at once, “The Lord is here amidst us. Our Beloved stands and shows his wounds and his pierced hands. Look, my brother! Look to him, and rejoice with me.” Ah! but you may also tell it to whomever you wish, for this is a piece of good news that no one need ever keep secret. Tell it. Tell it wherever you have opportunity—that Jesus Christ is visiting his church. Invite poor sinners to come and look to him whom they have pierced, and live. When you have told it to some, tell it to many more, and invite them to spread the blessed news that Jesus, mighty to save, still waits to receive sinners, and to blot out their transgressions.

   Tell it unto sinners—tell—

   Jesus Christ can save from hell,

and is present, revealing himself to his church, and doing wonders in the congregation.

11. So much on those who first see him.

12. II. Now a few words on:—THOSE WHO FIRST GET TO JESUS CHRIST.

13. Peter, quick, hot, impulsive, no sooner hears that it is the Lord than he buckles on his seafaring coat, plunges into the sea, and swims to shore to reach his Master. They were not all Peters: it was a mercy they were not. But there was one Peter, and it was a mercy that there was. No one may blame Peter; no one may blame those who did not follow Peter. They were quite as right who stayed in the boat as Peter was, who swam to the shore. But I know that, wherever Jesus Christ is truly present, there will be some bold noble spirits that will make a dash to get to him. They love him: they will be among the first to reach him—to enjoy his presence. Yet if any of them feel moved tonight to do some deed of enthusiasm, let me take them by the hand for a moment. Peter would reach his Master, but he first girds on his fisherman’s coat. There is reverence in Peter, though there is haste and enthusiasm. He will not come before Christ all dishabilled—unclothed. He has too much respect for his Master. Oh soul, if you wish to serve the Lord, serve him with holy fear, for though he is very near to you, he is God, and you are man. Take off your shoes from your feet when you wish to serve him, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Do not be rash in your worship, nor in your vows, nor in your actions. Gird yourself, and then serve him.

14. But once that is done, Peter commits himself boldly to the waves. Sink or swim, he will get to his Master, and he strikes out very gallantly for the shore. Nothing can stop him. He impetuously gets through the breakers and the surf, and is at his Master’s feet. Oh! how I wish there were some Peters in this congregation, true lovers of Christ, who, feeling that Christ is come among us, would say now, “For the love I bear his name I will be one of the first to serve him. Here I wrap myself in the garment of zeal. It shall be my cloak, and from this day on I will give up everything for Christ. I will serve him beyond all others if I can, and if any can exceed me, it shall be my lack of power that makes me second, and not my lack of will.” It would not do for me to say who Peter is, nor to suggest to a man who is not Peter that he should act as Peter would; but I have noticed that every here and there in the church there will rise up men and women who will say, “We will consecrate ourselves to the Lord.” Sometimes they do it by going out into the mission field. Perhaps I have a young Peter here who, like Carey of old, and Marshman, and that band of heroes, may feel in his soul the fire burning—“I must, and I will, preach Christ in the regions beyond.” Possibly, however, it may be at home that the same gifts and graces may be exercised, and I have one here, perhaps, who says—oh! I wish I had many hundreds who are saying, “God helping us, we will enter into something which, though it is apparently beyond our strength, and rather venturesome, yet shall be done. We will plunge into the sea to reach our Master. We will brave anything so that we may get to him.”

15. Ah! there are those who always will repress anything like divine enthusiasm; and yet, notice that, the brightest ages of the Church have been those in which men consecrated to God have risen above the dictates of common prudence, and have dared for Christ what others of a cooler temperament could not have dared. Oh! may the Master send the sacred fire into this congregation! I shall never rest content until I have, going out of this church, many who do not consider their lives dear to them to preach the gospel among the heathen. I wonder how it is this has not broken out among us before. Is it my ministry that is faulty in this respect? It may be so. Then I will cry to heaven to be taught better. But at Hermansberg, under Pastor Harms, the whole village seemed to be moved with a desire to carry Christ’s gospel to Africa, and they emigrated in shiploads, to become missionaries there. Of course, many said that Harms was infatuated. Blessed infatuation! May it fall on many of Christ’s ministers. The Moravian Church in years gone by had scarcely a member who was not a missionary. When they joined the church, they gave themselves up to the church and to Christ. Oh! when shall we come to this—if not all of us, yet, at any rate, the Peters who shall throw themselves into the sea so that they may get to their Master? Knowing that it is the Lord who is in their midst, they shall be able to do venturesome deeds, brave deeds, for the glory of his name.

16. But I will not dwell on that, but just mention next how the rest came to Christ. We have seen who first saw him: afterwards they all saw him. We have seen who first reached him: afterwards they all reached him; and I think the second did no worse than the first. For how did the rest of the disciples come? In a little boat—I suppose in the boat of their fishing vessel, dragging the net after them. I feel that to be my particular department, and suppose it is the lot of most of my dear brethren here. We are tied to this church, and we are holding the net; and though I gladly would often enter into fellowship with Christ by a bold dash, somehow or other I generally have to drag a net after me. I want to commune with Christ, but I have about a thousand souls that I have to preach to on the coming Sabbath. I want to rejoice in the Lord myself with unspeakable joy, and often get encumbered with much serving. There is this poor soul in trouble, and that poor heart that needs consolation. Well, well, if the Master tells us to drag the net, we will not leave it, but keep holding it; and if we come a little more slowly, nevertheless, if we are doing his bidding, our slow pace shall be as accepted as Peter’s swimming.

17. And many of you, dear friends, would be very wrong if you were to give up your common callings. You are like the fishermen with the net: you have to drag it. If you should say, “I will give myself up to Christ: I will row to shore: I shall renounce my business: I shall leave all my earthly callings”—I think, unless I was quite certain you were a Peter, I should say, “Brother, go back. Drag the net. It must be brought to shore. There are your children: oh! what a care they are, and how wrong you would be if you neglected them!” I remember a man who used frequently to go out preaching in the country villages, whose children were the most neglected. I know that once or twice he was spoken to about it, but he never mended matters. While he would be preaching, his children would be in the streets. He lived to see them grow up to be reprobates, and the sin was at his door. Stick to Christ; drag your net; and bring your family after you. Let this be your vehement desire—that your children shall be brought to him. Or you have servants, or a little district in some place in London. Do not run away from your work.

18. A brother wrote to me some time ago telling me how much distressed he was in his mind, and he said he thought he would never be happy until he left his business. I said, “Do not run away from Satan. Fight the devil where you are. Tell the devil you will grapple with him where you are, and you intend to beat him just there.” Oh! if God in his providence has made you a servant, very well; beat the devil as a servant. And if you are a tradesman, do not say, “I cannot keep this trade and honour God.” Do not let it be said that our God is the God of the hills, and not the God of the valleys, and that it is only certain people in certain places who can honour him. No! in every place you can honour your Master. Stay with your net. No! in every place you can honour your Master! Stay with your net. Drag it to Christ, however. Oh! what a drag it will be, sometimes, to bring it Christ’s way!—all the business and all the work you have to do—to do all for Christ. Yet this is true religion—to sanctify not only the vessels of the altar, but the pots, and the bells that are on the horses—to make everything holiness to the Lord. May God grant us grace to do this! May he send us here and there a Peter; and at the same time may he keep most of you, while steadfast in your callings and diligent in business, to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Oh! blessed church that shall unanimously be drifting towards Christ like this, and heartily be seeking after fellowship with the dear Redeemer, some impetuously, all industriously, and all successfully!

19. III. Now this leads me a little further on. Supposing we should reach the Saviour, as I trust we may, each man after his own order:—WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF COMING TO CHRIST?

20. There are three results. The first will be refreshment. He will say to us, “Come and dine.” Ah! how well fed are those whom Christ feeds. When we go up to the house of prayer, and look to the pulpit, we are disappointed; but if we go and look to the hills from where our help comes, we are never disappointed. What can the pastor do unless the superior Shepherd shall give us the daily food? I might well say to hungry souls, as the King of Israel said to the woman in Samaria, when she spoke of their having eaten her child in famine, and asked the king to help her—“Woman, if the Lord does not help you, how shall I help you?” And so might we all, with the most anxious desire to do good, yet reply, “If the Lord does not help you, how can we help you?” No, brethren; it is not in the power of ordinances, any more than of ministers, to feed souls. There is nothing in the bread and wine of the communion table that can nourish us spiritually. There you only have bread—no more—only wine—no more. It is only when, through these, you get to Jesus—when you pass through the doorway of the outward, and get into the inward, into the spiritual—it is only then that your souls are entertained; but once you get there, his banqueting table is better than that of Ahasuerus. There is no such feast as what Jesus gives, of fat things, of “fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well-refined.” By your enjoyments in the past, my brethren—by those ravishing moments when your souls have burned within you with intense delight—ask him to come to you again. Beseech him to favour you tonight with this refreshment. And, notice that, that prayer need not be a selfish one, for all the strength that is gained in communion with Christ will afterwards be spent in the service of Christ.

21. But again, when the disciples had all come to our Lord, and had dined, the next thing was examination. It was addressed to Peter especially—but it must have been a lesson for all the rest of them—“Do you love me?” The very first question that we should ask ourselves concerning our Christianity is this, “Do you love me?” The second is “Do you love me?” The third is “Do you love me?” Answer that, and everything is answered. The old orator said that the first essential of eloquence was delivery or action; the second was delivery; the third was delivery. So we will say that the first essential of a truly healthy Christianity is to love Christ, and the second is to love Christ, and the third is to love Christ. Our Lord would not talk about commonplace things at that time. He selected a vital topic, and this is always vital—“Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” Beloved brethren, I hope you will always be sound in the faith, but then that is comparatively little to what it is to be sound in loving Christ. I trust, brethren, you will always be holy in life; but that can only be as you love him in the heart. Out of the heart the life proceeds. This is the fountain: our actions are only the streams. Do, then, pass the question around among you, “Do you love me?” I desire to ask it of myself. Please ask it of yourselves. Pause for a moment. Do you love Christ? What do you say now? With a true love? With a love that is such as he demands, that is more than the love of mother or of child? “Do you love me? You are coming to my table; you are baptized; you are a member of the church; but do you love me?” Is it so? I trust you can reply, “Lord, you know all things: you know that I love you.”

   Yea, I love thee and adore;

   Oh! for grace to love thee more!

22. Well, then, lastly, after coming to the Saviour, who had given them refreshment and made them to examine themselves, the next thing was that it ensured for them commissions of service. Before the Lord blesses a church, he prepares it for the blessing. A number of sailors wrecked on a desert island are thirsting for water; but suppose a shower comes at once, it will be a wasted blessing. They must be so thirsty that they are led to put up an apparatus for catching the water when it comes; otherwise the water comes too soon, and is lost. I love to see a church in such a state of agony for God’s grace that it has gotten, as it were, the reservoirs ready to hold the grace when it comes. “Those who pass through the valley of Baca make it a well.” They “make it a well.” The water does not rise in the well. “The rain also fills the pools.” Yet they dig the wells to hold the rain, and the rain comes. Remember that notable incident when Israel and Judah were engaged against the King of Edom. The prophet said, as he took his harp and began to play by inspiration, “Make this valley full of ditches”; and they wondered why; but they dug the trenches and made the troughs all along the valley. Eventually, the flood waters came and filled the valley, and the host was refreshed. We want to make this valley full of ditches. We want, as a church to be ready and waiting for the blessing. You see, Christ prepared Peter and all the apostles by saying to them, “Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Shepherdize my flock.”

23. And he says to you tonight, “Are you refreshed by my presence? Have you examined yourself, and seen that you love me? Now, then, gird up your loins, and prepare for the service of the church.” I want, brethren, to see among us men and women who are looking after Christ’s sheep and lambs. I hope it is not so everywhere, but I met the other day a good brother who has attended for a long time this Tabernacle, to whom no one has ever spoken yet, as he told me. I do not know where he sits; at least, I half think I do, but I shall not tell you, because then someone or other would find out who he was. But I will suppose he sits anywhere you like, all around you, and your own consciences shall judge. Now ought it to be so? Ought a person to come in here Sabbath after Sabbath, and no one ever give him a brotherly greeting, or say a word concerning his soul? Oh! that you were looking out in the neighbourhoods where you live, and in the part of this building where you sit, for opportunities for doing good! I know that there are people that are longing to be spoken to, and they wonder why you do not speak to them. They are Christ’s lambs, and they need carrying in some kindly bosom. Oh! look after them and help them. You do not know how half a word said in Christ’s name during your journeyings about your business may be life from the dead. As it is said by Herbert, “a verse may strike him whom a sermon flies.” So a little word from you may be effective where the most earnest public ministry might fail.

24. Oh! beloved, the Lord is not slack. We are slack. If we do not have a blessing, we are constrained somewhere, but it cannot be in him. We are constrained in our own hearts and sympathies. What is that memorable text of the prophet, “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house; and prove me now by this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not pour out a blessing for you so that there shall not be room enough to receive it.’” We are not to say that we are proving the Lord to give us a blessing because we pray. The test he puts us to is bringing the tithes into the storehouse—that is to say, what is God’s due. Am I giving less of my substance than I ought to give? Am I giving less of my time than I ought to give? Am I giving less of my talent than I ought to give? If I withhold anything that is really God’s tithe, I am not proving God; but when we are all giving and doing to our utmost, then we prove God, and we shall see whether he will not open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing such as we shall not have room enough to receive.

25. I charge you, my beloved—you who have been the flock of my care these many years—remember the history that God has given us during these seventeen years. We were very few when we began, but there was a living seed among us, and there was mighty prayer, and a blessing came. “By terrible things in righteousness” God answered us; but the answer did come. What prayer meetings we had at Park Street! How often we sat down and wept under the divine influence! Thank God, the Holy Spirit overshadowed us! What ardour there was among you then, and how many souls were brought to Christ! Since then he has led us on from strength to strength. He has never failed us. Never is this place empty or deserted. Crowds still come to listen to the word. Oh! shall we not have a blessing as we had it previously? I trust we may; and we shall if you are all, to the full measure of your obligations, engaged in the service of your blessed Master, and seek strength from on high. By the hands that were nailed for you—by the feet that were pierced for you—by the head that was crowned with thorns for you—by the heart that poured out blood and water for you—by the Christ who died for you—I implore and beseech you to lay yourselves out on the altar of God, and say, “From now on, for us to live is Christ. Christ is all. We desire to say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified.’” Oh! that some here who know little enough about this might desire to know it! Poor soul, if you desire Christ, Christ desires you; and if you will have him tonight, you shall have him. If you believe that Jesus is Christ, and have put your trust in him as your Saviour, you are saved. Look to him now! May God help you to do it, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Lu 24:13-35}

13-15. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was about threescore furlongs from Jerusalem. And they talked together about all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

Where two talk about heavenly things they shall not be long without a third. Jesus loves holy company, and he will join himself to those who in their conversation join themselves to him.

16, 17. But their eyes were restrained so that they should not know him. And he said to them, “What kinds of communications are these that you have with each other, as you walk, and are sad?”

The first part of that question some professors might be ashamed to answer, “What kinds of communications are these that you have with each other as you walk?” It is not always that all Sabbath talk is Sabbath talk—not always that we converse as we should on the things of God. Many of us are blameworthy here.

18, 19. And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to him, “Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and in word before God and all the people:

Just as a school teacher, though he knows more than the children, yet asks them questions to see what they know. So did the Saviour, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in word and deed.” I ought to have said, “in deed and word.” You see my mistake. That is how we put it, “word and deed,” for our words go first, but, with Christ, the practical comes first, and then begins the doctrinal.

20-24. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel: and besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yes, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, who were early at the sepulchre; and when they did not find his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. And certain of them who were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but they did not see him.”

They made out a very clear case against their own unbelief here. They had the evidence of the women, and they had the evidence of the men of their own company; the women, they knew were honest. About their own company they could have no doubt, but yet they did not draw the inference which was clear enough, namely, that Jesus had risen, and that what he said he was, he had proved himself to be.

25, 26. Then he said to them. “Oh fools, 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?”

Is this not just what he said he would do?

27, 28. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew near to the village, where they went: and he made as though he would have gone farther.

Never had they had a shorter walk in their lives; his holy talk had made the journey seem as nothing, and they were sorry to see the village, and especially when they found that their companion had an idea of going farther.

29. But they constrained him saying, “Stay with us: for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent.” And he went in to stay with them.

Oh wise disciple, when you have your Master to hold onto him. “I held him,” says the spouse; “I held him, and I would not let him go.” So may it be with us.

30, 31. And it came to pass, as he sat eating with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

Sometimes when you do not remember a friend who has greatly changed, or from whom you have been long apart, some old familiar sign will bring it all back as with a rush of memory; you know him at once. Now if this was an ordinary meal, as perhaps it was, Jesus was so in the habit of giving thanks that they knew him by that. I wish we knew every Christian by the same sign. Or if this was, indeed, a celebration of his own sacred festival, then again they knew, for is this not the sign between Christ and his people, and is not this table the place where Jesus meets his beloved? “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” But they knew him to see him no more that night.

32-35. And they said to each other, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.” And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known by them in the breaking of bread.

Did they go to their beds? The day was far spent; late travelling was dangerous in Israel. Ah! dangerous or not, they are so overwhelmed with joy that they must go and share what they had seen.