April 19, 2026

“The Road to Emmaus” 

Message by Rev. Alan Perkins

Good morning! We are currently in the Easter season; the seven weeks between the Resurrection of Christ and the day of Pentecost. And during the first forty days of this period, prior to his ascension into heaven, Jesus Christ made several appearances. The apostle Paul summarizes those appearances in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8,

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

What I would like you to notice in this passage is that everything Paul includes here is essential. Verse three states that these are all matters of “first importance”. There is no extraneous material here. And out of the six verses in which Paul is laying out the core elements of the gospel, four of them, verses 5-8, have to do with the post-resurrection appearances of Christ. Which indicates that these appearances were not incidental to the main story; they were not something tacked on at the end, as a kind of postscript or afterthought. Paul is not saying “Oh, by the way, this also happened”. No, the visits which Christ made to his people after he rose from the dead are a crucial part of the gospel.
Not only because they prove, without a doubt, that he rose, bodily, from the dead. But also because they tell us something important about how God works in the world, and how the gospel spreads and is communicated. Let me explain.

From the beginning, Christian people have debated how the church should do its work; how we can most effectively carry out the commission given to us by Christ in Matthew 28:19, that we are to make disciples of all nations. And one of the fundamental questions is the extent to which the church should act like other types of organizations. On the one side, you have those who see methods, and structures, and operating principles as essentially neutral. They would say that the church should take whatever works in other kinds of organizations and apply it to the task of saving souls and building people up in the faith. This is a sort of pragmatic approach, “plundering the Egyptians”: taking things from the secular world and using them to bless the church. 

On the other side, you have those who say that the methods, and structures, and principles that we follow are not actually neutral, but that they come with some underlying assumptions about who and what has value, and that those assumptions will inevitably influence our purpose and our goals. And so, when we adopt those secular principles and practices in the church, we are also adopting, perhaps unknowingly, the assumptions which they are based on, assumptions which may or may not agree with the Scriptures. The folks on this side of the argument say that bringing secular practices into the church is a kind of Trojan Horse; that they can seem like a valuable gift, one that promises growth and success, but that they contain within themselves some hidden, and potentially destructive, elements that can undermine the work of the gospel ministry.

Which brings us to the post-resurrection appearances of Christ, and specifically, Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Because I believe this encounter can tell us a great deal about how the church is to operate in the world. Let’s read from Luke’s account, chapter 24, verses 13-28. 

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. 

17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

We’ll begin by observing that Jesus’ overall approach to getting the news out about his resurrection was, by business standards, fairly inefficient. In the first passage we read, Paul mentioned only one appearance to a large group, of about 500 people. But otherwise, Jesus appeared to individuals or to small groups of people. Here, he appears to just two people walking down the road. Remember that prior to his crucifixion, Jesus was routinely preaching to huge crowds of thousands of people. And if had chosen to do so, he could have easily gathered similar large crowds again; in fact, the number of people who would come to see and hear someone who had risen from the dead would likely be far greater. 

But Jesus doesn’t do that. So what does this seemingly inefficient means of communication tell us about how God operates? Several things. First, it tells us that God operates on a human scale, and that the gospel is typically transmitted person to person. In other words, the way in which the gospel spreads throughout the world, and the way in which the church grows, is similar to how an organism grows and develops: like a living thing, and not like a machine. Earlier in his ministry, when Jesus was describing the growth of the kingdom of God in the world, he compared it to a tiny mustard seed developing into a huge tree, or a bit of live yeast working its way through a large quantity of flour. And so the gospel spreads organically, and the church grows organically. And over time, the effect is huge. 

Marketers today talk about posts on social media “going viral”; meaning that it spreads person to person, like a virus. One person sees it and thinks it’s funny; they forward it to three friends, and so on. And that’s how millions of people all over the world came to watch a video of a little British boy, Charlie biting his brother’s finger. “Charlie! That really hurt!” And that’s the primary way that God intends for the gospel to spread as well. Virally. Person to person. 

Think about it. How did the gospel spread in the first century? Not through clever marketing campaigns or mass media; there were no such things. But primarily by one person sharing the good news with another; one person telling their friends, and neighbors, and relatives about what Jesus had done in their life. And this was intentional: this was the world that God chose to send his Son, Jesus, into. He could have waited a couple of thousand years to send Jesus, and he would have had all the tools of mass communication available to him to get the word out. But God chose to send Jesus into first century Israel and Rome, a world that operated person-to-person, a world that communicated by means of the human voice, and by words that were physically written down, by a person, on parchment. Because our God is a personal God. And the gospel is a personal gospel. 

Remember what Jesus said about the shepherd who had 100 sheep. When one of them wandered off, he left the other 99 and went looking for that one who was lost. Why did he do that? Because he cared for each one of them, and not just the group. So let me say this:
it is not ever a less valuable use of your time to spend it with one person rather than with a group. Ministering to one person has the same value as ministering to a large number. Because each person has infinite value in God’s eyes. That’s God math. How does God math work? What is infinity times a hundred, or infinity times a thousand? Correct. It’s still infinity. So a hundred people, or a thousand people, have infinite worth and value, but so does one solitary person. And so investing your time, and love, and caring in one person has the same value as investing time, and love, and caring in a large group. 

The gospel is personal, and human, and individual. Our world today, unfortunately, is becoming less and less personal, less and less human. For example, when you go to McDonald’s, you don’t talk to a person at the counter to order; instead, they have kiosks where you choose what kind of hamburger you want. They have a new one now, called the “Big Arch”. Has anyone tried that? Here’s the description: 

“Meet the Big Arch. Stacked with two quarter-pound beef patties, three slices of melty white cheddar cheese, crispy and slivered onions, zesty pickles and the new tangy, creamy Big Arch Sauce on a new sesame & poppy seed bun. It's the most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet.” 

Sounds delicious. I hope that it comes with a side order of Ozempic. By contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ is human and personal, and therefore, what we do here on Sunday morning is also deeply human and personal. We are not following this cultural trend of eliminating human interaction in the name of cost savings and efficiency. I’m going to give you some examples, because when we do this week after week, it’s easy to take it all for granted. So:

• When you come in the door, someone greets you. They hand you a bulletin, and shake your hand and probably welcome you by name. Maybe chat with you a bit.

• Before the service starts, you will often hear the sound of a bell pealing. That sound is generated, not by a recording, but by a person, probably a young boy, pulling on a rope that is connected to our church’s bell overhead. 

• Our music—the hymns, the choir, the praise choruses—all of it involves people, singing or playing instruments. One of the things I love about the organ music, that is such a wonderful part of our worship, is that the music is produced, not by electronics, but by air being physically pushed through pipes, in response to keys and pedals being manipulated by a person: our organist.

• We have a fellowship time when we greet those around us and catch up on what’s going on in their lives. We have a sharing and prayer time. One a month, we have a fellowship time after church to celebrate birthdays and eat cookies. And we have potlucks on the fifth Sundays. All intended to support and foster relationships.

• When it comes time for the sermon, what you get is a message that comes from my own study and reflection. A person, your pastor, who read the Bible and various reference works, prayed over what he read, wrote down his thoughts, arranged them in a logical order, added illustrations, and then delivered it in person, orally, on Sunday morning. And none of it was generated by Artificial Intelligence. 

And lest you think I’m just making that up about using AI, there is actually a site on the internet that offers custom AI-generated sermons. Here’s a quote from their site: “Generate a full ai sermon manuscript for quick, easy customization”. Quick and easy. No humans involved. And in my mind, that is an abomination. Charles Spurgeon would roll over in his grave. Because preparing a sermon is not supposed to be quick, or easy. Sermon preparation should require mental and spiritual labor. Because only by wrestling with the Word of God, and in that process, having the Word act upon his own mind and heart, is a pastor truly prepared to bring the Word to his congregation. OK. End of rant. 

I’ll give you one more illustration. One of our members told me about a time recently when she visited a large megachurch on a communion Sunday. As they entered the auditorium, there were baskets containing little pre-packaged communion packets. Each package had a cup with grape juice on one side, and a wafer on the other, all sealed with plastic that you could remove when it was time for the Lord’s Supper. And apparently, many churches use these. [Here’s a picture.] I’ll read you the advertisement:  

“Elements Prefilled Communion Cups combine 100% Concord grape juice and a fresh baked wafer in a convenient single-serve format designed for easy distribution. Easy-open offset tabs help reduce fumbling and spills, making communion simpler to serve for congregations of all sizes.”

By the way, there’s also a gluten-free wafer available. I doubt that the bread at the Last Supper was gluten free, but sure, why not? That all sounds very efficient, doesn’t it? And I’m sure it’s a practical approach for serving communion to several hundred people. I see the appeal. But here’s the problem: it also removes, almost entirely, the human element from the Lord’s Supper. Because somewhere, there’s a “Lord’s Supper Factory” with machines that insert the wafers into these little packages, and fill the cups, and seal them all up, and then package them in boxes. No people involved. And on Sunday morning, no one has to distribute them; you pick one up as you enter, and when you’re done, it all gets discarded. No muss, no fuss. 

By contrast, here’s how we do it. Kathryn bakes the communion wafers, and cuts them into pieces, by hand. On Sunday morning, the deacons and their helpers place the wafers on silver plates, and they fill each of the cups with grape juice, by hand, and place them in the trays. When the time comes in the service for Communion, the deacons come forward and take the plates, and then the trays, and they hand them to the people at the end of each pew, who in turn hand them down the row and back. The deacons then collect them and bring them forward. And we partake together. It’s very inefficient, and that’s fine, because efficiency is not the goal. It’s a human process, and human processes are often inefficient. Because people are not machines. Does this mean we don’t use technology at all? No, we do. We have a sound system, and a projector, and the choir uses recorded background music. But we use it selectively, and only to augment and enhance the human aspect of the service; not to replace it. 

And by the way, this is an area in which a smaller church has a built-in advantage over a larger church. Large churches and small churches both have their advantages. But one advantage of a smaller church is that this personal touch is something that happens more naturally. And that’s a strength of this church, Richwood First Baptist. 

So that’s the first thing we can learn from Jesus’ choice to appear to these two men on the road to Emmaus, that the gospel is human and personal, because our God is a personal God who became a human being. And so, as we are thinking of how the church should operate, and how we should grow, and how best to share the gospel, we need to make sure that we are doing it in a way that is human and personal. And by the way, it also means that a smaller church, like this one, is not at all inferior to a big church with a big marketing budget. Because the primary means of spreading the gospel is person to person. 

The second thing I would like to point out is that the distance these men were journeying, from Jerusalem to Emmaus, is identified in the text as about seven miles. I recently an essay by a Japanese theologian, Kosuke Koyama, entitled, “The Three-Mile-An-Hour God”. And what he says is that the speed of God’s love is about three miles an hour. Because three miles an hour is a normal walking pace, the pace of someone who is moving along in a steady, unhurried fashion. 

There’s a reason why the Bible talks about people “walking” with God, as a metaphor for living in fellowship and obedience to God. Jesus chose to approach these two men on the road to Emmaus while they were walking, on a journey that would take about two or three hours. They weren’t hurrying, they weren’t making haste. They were simply walking at a normal human pace. And during that time, the passage we read tells us that Jesus opened the Old Testament Scriptures to them. Verse 27 reads, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Again, this was not random. Jesus chose these two men, on this particular three-hour journey, to appear to. And he spent that time patiently explaining to them how the entire Old Testament pointed ahead to the Christ; that is, to himself.  And the point I want us to draw from this is that personal ministry takes time. Fellowship with Christ takes time. Depth of understanding takes time. Spiritual growth takes time. It can’t be rushed; it can’t be hurried. And during the time that this change is taking place, which is our entire lives, Jesus is walking with us, patiently opening our minds to all that the gospel means for our lives. God is not in a hurry. And so we don’t need to be in a hurry. 

There’s a wonderful line from the hymn, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”. It’s number 18 in our hymnals if you would like to look it up. In verse two, we read this: 

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;

“Unresting, unhasting”. In other words, God is always active; he never needs to rest. At the same time, he never needs to hurry or make haste, because everything is always proceeding according to his timeline. He never gets behind and needs to catch up. He never remembers something he forgot and needs to backtrack. He is always at his work, as Jesus told us in John 5:17, but he never needs to hurry. He is guiding everything to its conclusion at the proper time. This was true during all those thousands of years that Israel was waiting for their Messiah. It has been true all during the two thousand years (so far) in which the church has been anticipating Christ’s return. And it is true in the life of this church, and it is true in your life. God is at work, but he is patient. God doesn’t need to hurry. 

Now, we get impatient sometimes, and sometimes we do need to hurry. But God does not. And so, as we consider the growth that we desire to see in this church, in terms of spiritual growth, and growth in attendance, and growth in the number of souls saved, we need to keep in mind that Jesus doesn’t hurry. He moves at a walking pace. He is walking with us as we change. He is patient with us, and we need to be patient with him and trust in his timing. And by the same token, as we consider the growth that we desire to see in ourselves or in others—whether that means growth in understanding, or commitment, or holiness, or faith—we need to remember that Jesus is walking with us and gently, patiently, accompanying us every step of the way on our spiritual journey. Now, that doesn’t mean we can dawdle, or lollygag, or loiter. We do need to keep walking. We need to keep pressing ahead. We need to “keep in step with the Spirit”, as Paul tells us in Galatians 5:25. But we also need to be patient with ourselves and with others, as Christ changes us and changes them. Yes? There’s a reason it’s called “walking with God” instead of “trotting”, or “sprinting” with God.

Not only does spiritual growth take time, but it requires time with Christ. During his earthly ministry, Jesus spent hour after hour, day after day, walking and talking with his disciples. Teaching them the things they would need to know after he was gone. Demonstrating what it meant to live for God. And in the same way, if we are to grow in faith, and love, and hope, and joy, and peace, and obedience to God, we will need—each one of us—to be spending time with Christ in prayer, and in reading and studying his Word. There are no shortcuts. Spiritual growth and maturity requires time with Christ. It requires time in his presence, listening to his voice, as the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts. And the only way for that to happen is for us to get away—ideally every day—to get away from the hustle and bustle of our lives, and to spend time alone with Christ. 

Perhaps, like the two men on the road at the beginning of the narrative, you have felt discouraged or downcast at times, unsure of what God could be doing, in the church, or in your own life. Your expectations weren’t being met. The things you hoped for weren’t happening. It seemed that God’s promises wouldn’t be fulfilled. And if that’s the case, the remedy for us is the same as it was for these men: to spend time with Christ, and ask him to open our eyes and strengthen our faith, so that we can trust in his methods and his timing. 

Finally, there’s a third thing we can observe from this walk to Emmaus. One more aspect of this story that I’d like you to consider. When Jesus did, at the end, finally reveal himself to them, he immediately disappeared. Why? Because he had given them the good news. He had fully explained the good news. And now it was up to them to spread the good news. And that is what they did. Here is what Luke tells us happened, in verses 28-35:

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

And in the same way, Jesus has given us the gospel, the good news concerning himself.
He has opened our eyes. And now it is up to us to spread the word, person to person, with joy and gladness, as we walk with him in faith. And the more we are spending time with him, the more our hearts will be on fire, as theirs were, so that we will desire to share with others what we have experienced. So let’s do that. Amen?

The First Baptist Church of Richwood - April 19, 2026