Sermon For Sunday

When the Road Opens Up: Preaching Christ on the Lord's Day

There is something about Sunday. Not just the calendar square, not just the habit of gathering, but something deeper that has drawn the people of God together on the first day of the week since the tomb was found empty. Something happened on that day that changed everything, and the church has been gathering ever since to remember it, to proclaim it, and to be shaped by it all over again.

This morning we come to two passages that together give us a picture of what Sunday is for. The first is a charge. The second is a story. And between them, they answer a question every believer and every honest seeker carries into a room like this one: Does the Scripture still open anything in us? Does Christ still make himself known?

Let us read together.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 In The Christian Standard Bible:

"I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to have their ears tickled. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

And Luke 24:13-35:

This is the road to Emmaus. Two disciples, walking away from Jerusalem on the day of resurrection. They are grieving. They are confused. They had hoped Jesus was the one to redeem Israel, but the crucifixion had shattered that hope. Then a stranger joins them on the road. He asks what they are discussing. They stop, their faces downcast. They tell him everything. And then the stranger, who is Jesus himself, opens the Scriptures to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explaining what was written about him in all the Scriptures. Their hearts burn within them as he speaks. Later, when he breaks bread with them, their eyes are opened and they recognize him. And immediately they rise and return to Jerusalem to tell the others.

These two texts belong together this Sunday morning. One is a charge to preach. The other is a portrait of what faithful preaching does. Together they answer the question: What is supposed to happen when the people of God gather on the Lord's Day?

The Charge That Frames The Day

Paul writes to Timothy from prison, near the end of his life. He knows his time is short. And in that moment, with everything stripped away, what does he press into the hands of the young pastor? One thing. Preach the word.

Notice the weight Paul places on this charge. He frames it with the most serious language available to him: before God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, in view of his appearing and his kingdom. Paul is not giving Timothy a ministry tip. He is delivering a sacred trust. The preaching of the word is not a program element. It is not a warm-up for the worship set. It is the central act of the gathered church, commissioned by the coming King.

And Paul anticipates resistance. He tells Timothy that a time is coming when people will not tolerate sound doctrine. They will accumulate teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will drift from truth toward myth. This is not a prediction about some distant era. Every generation of the church has faced this pressure. Every preacher who stands in a pulpit on a Sunday morning faces it too. The pull to be liked rather than faithful. The temptation to smooth off the edges of the text. The cultural pressure to make the gospel more comfortable and less demanding.

Paul's answer is not harshness. It is not performance. It is steadiness. Preach the word. Be ready when it is welcome and when it is not. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, but do all of it with great patience and careful teaching. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

This is the frame around every Sunday gathering. The word of God, faithfully opened, patiently taught, applied to real lives. That is what this morning is.

The Story That Shows Us What Preaching Does

Now walk with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They are not villains. They are not unbelievers. They are followers of Jesus who are devastated. They had put their hope in him, and it seemed like that hope had been buried in a tomb. They are walking away from Jerusalem, which is to say they are walking away from the community of faith, away from the place where the risen Lord would appear that evening.

And Jesus meets them in that condition. He does not rebuke them for leaving. He walks with them. He asks questions. He listens. And then he opens the Scriptures.

Look at what Luke tells us in verse 27: "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures." This is the model of all Christian preaching. Jesus himself, on the day of resurrection, opened the Old Testament and showed two grieving disciples how the whole story had been pointing to him all along. The suffering, the death, the glory. It was not an accident. It was not a tragedy that God had to recover from. It was the plan written into the grain of Scripture from the beginning.

And something happened to those disciples while Jesus was speaking. They described it later: "Weren't our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and while he was opening the Scriptures to us?" That phrase deserves to sit with us for a moment. A burning heart. Not an emotional manipulation. Not a worked-up feeling. Something deeper. The recognition that the word being opened is alive, that it is true, that it is about something real and present and urgent.

This is what faithful preaching is meant to do. Not impress. Not entertain. Not produce a feeling on demand. But open the Scriptures in such a way that Christ is made visible, and the hearts of the hearers are moved toward him.

The Moment Of Recognition

The story reaches its climax at the table. The disciples urge the stranger to stay with them. He sits down, takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. And in that moment, their eyes are opened and they recognize him.

Some readers have wondered whether this is a reference to the Lord's Supper. Whether it is or not, what Luke is showing us is that the full recognition of Christ came through the combination of the opened word and the broken bread. The Scriptures prepared them. The table revealed him. And the moment they recognized him, he vanished from their sight.

Why does he vanish? Because they no longer need the visible presence in the same way. They have the Scriptures. They have the community. They have the testimony of the resurrection. They have everything they need to live and to witness.

And notice what they do next. They do not stay at the table. They do not sit in the warmth of the moment. They rise that same hour, even though it is evening and the road is long, and they return to Jerusalem. They go back to the community. They go back to tell the others. The recognition of Christ always produces movement. Worship that does not lead to witness has not yet finished its work.

What This Means For This Morning

So what does this mean for us, gathered here on this Sunday?

It means that what we are doing right now is not ordinary. Every Sunday gathering is an Emmaus road. We come in with our grief, our confusion, our half-formed hopes, our questions that do not have easy answers. Some of us are walking away from something. Some of us are barely holding on. And into that condition, the risen Christ comes. He meets us in the word. He opens the Scriptures. He makes himself known.

This is why the preaching of the word matters so much. Not because the preacher is impressive, but because the word is alive. Hebrews 4:12 tells us the word of God is living and effective. When the Scriptures are faithfully opened, something happens that no other communication can produce. The Spirit of God uses the word of God to do the work of God in the hearts of the people of God.

For those of you who are followers of Jesus this morning, let the word do its work. Do not come to Sunday as a consumer looking to be satisfied. Come as a disciple ready to be shaped. Let your heart burn. Let the recognition of Christ move you toward worship and then toward witness.

For those of you who are not yet sure what you believe, you are welcome here. The disciples on the road to Emmaus did not fully understand when Jesus began to walk with them. Understanding came through the journey, through the opened Scriptures, through the broken bread. You do not have to have everything resolved to be present. You only have to be willing to walk and to listen.

And for anyone who has been walking away from Jerusalem, away from the community, away from faith, hear this: Jesus has a habit of meeting people on the road they are already on. He does not wait for you to get yourself together before he shows up. He walks with you in your grief and your confusion and he opens the word to you there.

The Charge To Carry

Paul's charge to Timothy is also a charge to every congregation that gathers on the Lord's Day. We are not here to have our ears tickled. We are here to hear the truth, even when it corrects us, even when it costs us something, even when it asks more of us than we feel ready to give.

But the truth we hear is not a burden without a bearer. It is the word about Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, who rose from the dead, who is coming again. It is the word that opens the road, warms the heart, breaks the bread, and sends us back to Jerusalem with something worth telling.

Go and tell it. That is what Sunday is for.

Sources Consulted

The Holy Bible, Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2017. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 and Luke 24:13-35.

Bock, Darrell L. Luke 9:51 to 24:53. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Baker Academic, 1996.

Mounce, William D. Pastoral Epistles. Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 46. Thomas Nelson, 2000.

Marshall, I. Howard. The Gospel of Luke. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 1978.

Stott, John R. W. The Message of 2 Timothy. The Bible Speaks Today. InterVarsity Press, 1973.