The Power of Bread and Wine

Luke 24:13-35

Immanuel – 10/4/26

There is something strange about our passage in Luke. Two of Jesus’ disciples are walking down the road and suddenly Jesus himself begins walking beside them. These two men know Jesus, they have followed him, they know what he looks like, they know the sound of his voice. They are looking directly at him, and yet they cannot see him.

And what is even more striking is how Jesus opens their eyes. There is no spectacular miracle. Fire does not come down from heaven. There’s no glory cloud. No angel feathers. Instead, Jesus does something so ordinary. He opens the Scriptures and then he breaks bread. It is through these ordinary means that blind eyes are opened to see the risen Christ.

This morning we come to the final sermon in our 5 week sermon series on the Lord’s Supper: The Gospel of Bread and Wine.

These past weeks we have seen how much Jesus have given his church in this simple meal. The bread and wine proclaim the gospel to us. At the Table we commune with Christ, and in Christ we commune with one another. We have traced this meal from Garden to glory and have seen that God delights in feeding his people. And last week we saw that something so gracious and holy must be received with faith and reverence.

But there is one more element I want us to understand: Why does this meal matter so much? What does God actually do through something as ordinary as eating a little bread and drinking from a little cup?

We find a profound answer in Luke 24.

Main Point

God uses ordinary means to reveal Christ and strengthen our faith in him. His Word and his Table: the ordinary means through which we encounter our extraordinary Savior.

Read vs 13-15

On that very day – it was the day of Jesus’ resurrection. The context of the passage makes it very clear that these two men, walking the road to Emmaus, were Jesus’ disciples. Jesus had many disciples beyond the 12, and these two belonged to that wider circle of followers. They knew Jesus, they heard his teaching, and they saw what happened in Jerusalem.

And as they were talking about the wild events of the past week, and the man who was at the center of them, a stranger catches up to them. Of course, he is no stranger. The man they were talking about is now the man walking beside them. Remember, these were two of Jesus’ disciples. They knew him! And yet, to them, the man walking beside them was a stranger.

Read vs 16

From other places in the Gospels, we know Jesus’ resurrection body has continuity with his pre-resurrection body. This really is Jesus – bodily raised from the dead. So why don’t they recognize him?

Luke tells us, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. There is something happening here more than eyesight. Their physical eyes were working just fine. They see the man walking beside them, but they cannot see who he is.

Look how Luke makes that language like bookends. Here in verse 16, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Then in verse 31, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. This story is about so much more than recognizing Jesus’ face. This story is about what it takes for spiritually blind people to see Jesus.

Read vs 17-21

There’s a tragedy in these words. The two disciples had hoped Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel. How they wanted him to be! But now Jesus was dead – and his death was the dashing of their hopes. They could not see that the Hope of Israel would win his victory though the very things that seemed to prove his defeat: suffering and death.

They had heard the rumor of resurrection, but they did not yet believe it – though they were speaking with a man who returned from the dead.

Read vs 22-24

The irony is so thick in these verses. They’re skeptically sharing rumors of resurrection with the Resurrected One. It’s clear they do not believe it happened, but the empty tomb and purported angelic visions do seem to perplex them.

Turn to Matthew 16

There is this moment, about half-way through the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is. Let’s read that account.

Read Matthew 16:13-17

Jesus affirms what Peter has just confessed: he is the Son of God! And Peter didn’t understand this himself, it was God the Father who revealed it to him. Then, in the very next moment, Jesus tells the disciples that he must die.

Read Matthew 16:21-23

In this whole scene Peter sees Jesus’ identity truly. But he cannot see that God’s anointed King – the Christ – will win glory and victory through suffering and death. Peter sees clearly who Jesus is, but he is blind to what Jesus came to do. And we cannot know Jesus fully if we separate who Jesus is from what Jesus came to do. We must believe in the One who was crucified for sinners and raised to life again!

We see that same blindness on the road to Emmaus. They know much about Jesus; they had hoped he was the Messiah. But the cross shattered their categories. A disgraced and crucified Messiah made no sense to them. A resurrected Messiah? That just seems…unbelievable.

Read vs 25-27

The two men cannot see Jesus because of a spiritual problem. Jesus names the problem: slow of heart to believe. Already, they had everything they needed, the Risen Christ was standing right next to them, but they were slow of heart to believe.

We too, can know a great deal about Jesus, and still not see him. We can admire him, be moved by him, shook by him; we can hope that he is the answer – and still be slow of heart to believe what God has said about his Son.

Their problem is not in their eyes; it is in their hearts. Even with all they have seen and heard, they are still slow to believe what God has spoken.

So what does Jesus do about it? How does he address their spiritual blindness? There is no flashy miracle. There are no signs and wonders. Actually, the greatest sign imaginable is walking right beside them – a man who was dead is alive! But they cannot see it. So what does Jesus do?

He takes them to the Scriptures.

How common it is to be so eager for the spectacular that Christians miss the ordinary means God has appointed. We want God to shake the room; but Jesus opens a Bible. We want something unmistakably supernatural; but Jesus takes bread and breaks it. God loves to hide glory in the dust, and work the miraculous into ordinary things. People hunger for extraordinary experiences, but these are not the ordinary means of grace God has given.

The Scriptures Jesus takes these disciples to are the same Scriptures we have today. We have the writings of Moses and the prophets – all found in the Old Testament of our Bibles. Here is one example of how the prophets show that the Christ must suffer before entering into glory. From the great prophet, Isaiah.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted…But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

                                                                             -Isaiah 52:13, 53:5

I only showed you Isaiah. Jesus showed these two disciples all the Scriptures (verse 27). Jesus is not pointing them to a few isolated predictions. He is teaching them to read the whole story rightly. Moses, the Prophets, all the Scriptures: the whole story has been moving towards him. He is the One. It’s about him!  And throughout it’s pages God reveals that his plan was always for the Messiah to suffer before entering into glory. The cross is not the collapse of God’s plan – it is his plan!

From eternity past, the cross has always been God’s plan!

So Jesus gave these two men the lens of Scripture, to see clearly God’s plan. The Word is a means of grace. For through his Word, God opens blind eyes, and gives his people grace to see Jesus Christ – crucified and risen!

Read vs 28-31

Did you hear the bookend? Verse 16: their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Now in verse 31: their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. When? What was the exact moment they recognized Jesus?

When he broke the bread.

We cannot miss the connection between the Lord’s Supper and the meal in Emmaus. Luke describes what Jesus does with unmistakably familiar language: he takes the bread, blessed it, breaks it, and gives it to them. These are the exact same four actions Jesus performed when he instituted the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples.

                                                                             -Matthew 26:26

Luke does not explicitly call this meal in Emmaus the Lord’s Supper, but he surely wants us to hear the echo. First, the risen Christ opens the Scriptures to them; then he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it. Word and meal, proclamation and participation: and through these remarkably ordinary means, Jesus makes himself known.

And the effect is astonishing! Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. Immediately they turn to one another and say, Did not our hearts burn within us while he was talked to us…while he opened the Scripture to us?

Do you see what has happened? Their hearts were slow to believe; Jesus opened the Scriptures and their hearts began to burn. They could not recognize the One walking beside them; then Jesus breaks the bread and their eyes are opened. Hearts aflame through Word proclaimed: opened eyes through bread broken.

What a beautiful picture of how God gives grace to us, his people!

Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk next to Jesus along the road. We do not know what his face looks like. We don’t know the physical sound of his voice. And knowing this, Peter describes our situation perfectly.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

                                                                             -1 Peter 1:8

How is it that even though we have not seen Jesus, we believe in him and love him? Because Jesus has given us means by which he ministers his grace to us. He has given us his Word. He’s given us prayer. He’s given us baptism. He’s given us a meal of bread and wine.

These are what Christians have historically called means of grace: ordinary means God has appointed to strengthen the faith of his people. There is no power in the bread itself, nor the cup. But Jesus has given us this meal, and by his Spirit he uses it to nourish the faith of his people.

Harrison Perkins writes, “As we encounter God in worship on the Lord’s Day, nothing brings home that experience more forcefully than God’s Word reinforced by the Lord’s Supper.”¹

I love that word: reinforced. The Supper does not proclaim something the Gospel cannot. The bread and wine cannot improve upon Scripture. No, they reinforce the Word!

In the Word we hear that Christ’s body was given for you. And in this meal, Jesus places bread into your hands. In the Word we hear that his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Then Jesus gives us the cup to drink. His Word calls us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. At the Table Jesus says, “Take, eat, drink.” He saves us, body and soul. He feeds us, body and soul.

Remember what we saw four weeks ago in 1 Corinthians 10:16.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

This is why, throughout this series and in this church, we refuse to treat Communion as merely a memorial. We remember – of course we remember! Do this in remembrance of me. But this is so much more than a memory exercise!

At this Table there is koinonia – communion with the Living Christ. It is not physical: the bread remains bread, the wine remains wine. But really, truly, by the Holy Spirit and through faith, Jesus ministers himself and the benefits of his death to his people. Again, the elements have no power because of some mysterious quality within them. The power of the Supper is the presence of Christ! Jesus is risen, and he is here with us by his Spirit, and he freely gives grace at his Table!

The host of the Table lives!

Perhaps now, at the end of five weeks, you can understand more fully why your Elders have desired this meal to become part of our worship every Lord’s Day. It’s not because weekly Communion makes us more worthy, or because frequency itself makes us more spiritual. It’s because we need Jesus. We need him every week.

Just as we need to come to the Word every week, just as we need to come before him in prayer every week, just as we need to gather with our brothers and sisters every week; we need to come to his Table every week. Our souls are hungry for Christ, and Christ has graciously given us this meal to feed our faith.

My hope is that, years from now, weekly Communion will not have become ordinary to us in the sense of being cheap or thoughtless. I hope it becomes ordinary in another sense: ordinary like opening your Bible, or getting on your knees, or gathering with the saints. These things are ordinary because this is how Jesus has shown us to gather before him – our Risen King!

Read vs 32-35

At the beginning of the story two men are walking away from Jerusalem with shattered hopes. Jesus was dead. They hoped we was the One, not they don’t know what to believe.

But now their hearts are burning. Now their eyes are opened. Now they know: the One who was dead, lives! They cannot sit still. They can’t stay where they are. Verse 33 says they rose that same hour. Though the sun had surely set by now, seven miles is nothing. They race back to Jerusalem. They have to tell the others the glorious news: Jesus Christ has risen!

And when they finally get there, notice what they said in verse 35. They recount what happened along the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. Surely they spoke of how the Scriptures were opened to them, and then the bread was broken, and these two beleaguered disciples became joyful witnesses. The hope that was shattered now overflowed.

So every Sunday, when the Scriptures are opened and the gospel proclaimed, and when the bread and cup make their rounds, know that something extraordinary is happening through such ordinary means. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, host of this Table, is strengthening the faith of his family.

Brothers and sisters, may we never despise the ordinary simply because it’s ordinary. God loves to hide glory in the dust. And one day, all the dustiness of this life will be blown away when the Bridegroom comes for his Bride, and our faith become sight, and the marriage supper flood us with everlasting joy. Yes, let us take and eat, for every time we do, we declare to ourselves and to this world, that the King is coming!

1Perkins, H. (2026). Take and Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Pg 73. Brentwood, TN: B&H AcademicThe Power of Bread and Wine

Luke 24:13-35

Immanuel – 10/4/26

There is something strange about our passage in Luke. Two of Jesus’ disciples are walking down the road and suddenly Jesus himself begins walking beside them. These two men know Jesus, they have followed him, they know what he looks like, they know the sound of his voice. They are looking directly at him, and yet they cannot see him.

And what is even more striking is how Jesus opens their eyes. There is no spectacular miracle. Fire does not come down from heaven. There’s no glory cloud. No angel feathers. Instead, Jesus does something so ordinary. He opens the Scriptures and then he breaks bread. It is through these ordinary means that blind eyes are opened to see the risen Christ.

This morning we come to the final sermon in our 5 week sermon series on the Lord’s Supper: The Gospel of Bread and Wine.

These past weeks we have seen how much Jesus have given his church in this simple meal. The bread and wine proclaim the gospel to us. At the Table we commune with Christ, and in Christ we commune with one another. We have traced this meal from Garden to glory and have seen that God delights in feeding his people. And last week we saw that something so gracious and holy must be received with faith and reverence.

But there is one more element I want us to understand: Why does this meal matter so much? What does God actually do through something as ordinary as eating a little bread and drinking from a little cup?

We find a profound answer in Luke 24.

Main Point

God uses ordinary means to reveal Christ and strengthen our faith in him. His Word and his Table: the ordinary means through which we encounter our extraordinary Savior.

Read vs 13-15

On that very day – it was the day of Jesus’ resurrection. The context of the passage makes it very clear that these two men, walking the road to Emmaus, were Jesus’ disciples. Jesus had many disciples beyond the 12, and these two belonged to that wider circle of followers. They knew Jesus, they heard his teaching, and they saw what happened in Jerusalem.

And as they were talking about the wild events of the past week, and the man who was at the center of them, a stranger catches up to them. Of course, he is no stranger. The man they were talking about is now the man walking beside them. Remember, these were two of Jesus’ disciples. They knew him! And yet, to them, the man walking beside them was a stranger.

Read vs 16

From other places in the Gospels, we know Jesus’ resurrection body has continuity with his pre-resurrection body. This really is Jesus – bodily raised from the dead. So why don’t they recognize him?

Luke tells us, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. There is something happening here more than eyesight. Their physical eyes were working just fine. They see the man walking beside them, but they cannot see who he is.

Look how Luke makes that language like bookends. Here in verse 16, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Then in verse 31, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. This story is about so much more than recognizing Jesus’ face. This story is about what it takes for spiritually blind people to see Jesus.

Read vs 17-21

There’s a tragedy in these words. The two disciples had hoped Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel. How they wanted him to be! But now Jesus was dead – and his death was the dashing of their hopes. They could not see that the Hope of Israel would win his victory though the very things that seemed to prove his defeat: suffering and death.

They had heard the rumor of resurrection, but they did not yet believe it – though they were speaking with a man who returned from the dead.

Read vs 22-24

The irony is so thick in these verses. They’re skeptically sharing rumors of resurrection with the Resurrected One. It’s clear they do not believe it happened, but the empty tomb and purported angelic visions do seem to perplex them.

Turn to Matthew 16

There is this moment, about half-way through the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is. Let’s read that account.

Read Matthew 16:13-17

Jesus affirms what Peter has just confessed: he is the Son of God! And Peter didn’t understand this himself, it was God the Father who revealed it to him. Then, in the very next moment, Jesus tells the disciples that he must die.

Read Matthew 16:21-23

In this whole scene Peter sees Jesus’ identity truly. But he cannot see that God’s anointed King – the Christ – will win glory and victory through suffering and death. Peter sees clearly who Jesus is, but he is blind to what Jesus came to do. And we cannot know Jesus fully if we separate who Jesus is from what Jesus came to do. We must believe in the One who was crucified for sinners and raised to life again!

We see that same blindness on the road to Emmaus. They know much about Jesus; they had hoped he was the Messiah. But the cross shattered their categories. A disgraced and crucified Messiah made no sense to them. A resurrected Messiah? That just seems…unbelievable.

Read vs 25-27

The two men cannot see Jesus because of a spiritual problem. Jesus names the problem: slow of heart to believe. Already, they had everything they needed, the Risen Christ was standing right next to them, but they were slow of heart to believe.

We too, can know a great deal about Jesus, and still not see him. We can admire him, be moved by him, shook by him; we can hope that he is the answer – and still be slow of heart to believe what God has said about his Son.

Their problem is not in their eyes; it is in their hearts. Even with all they have seen and heard, they are still slow to believe what God has spoken.

So what does Jesus do about it? How does he address their spiritual blindness? There is no flashy miracle. There are no signs and wonders. Actually, the greatest sign imaginable is walking right beside them – a man who was dead is alive! But they cannot see it. So what does Jesus do?

He takes them to the Scriptures.

How common it is to be so eager for the spectacular that Christians miss the ordinary means God has appointed. We want God to shake the room; but Jesus opens a Bible. We want something unmistakably supernatural; but Jesus takes bread and breaks it. God loves to hide glory in the dust, and work the miraculous into ordinary things. People hunger for extraordinary experiences, but these are not the ordinary means of grace God has given.

The Scriptures Jesus takes these disciples to are the same Scriptures we have today. We have the writings of Moses and the prophets – all found in the Old Testament of our Bibles. Here is one example of how the prophets show that the Christ must suffer before entering into glory. From the great prophet, Isaiah.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted…But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

                                                                             -Isaiah 52:13, 53:5

I only showed you Isaiah. Jesus showed these two disciples all the Scriptures (verse 27). Jesus is not pointing them to a few isolated predictions. He is teaching them to read the whole story rightly. Moses, the Prophets, all the Scriptures: the whole story has been moving towards him. He is the One. It’s about him!  And throughout it’s pages God reveals that his plan was always for the Messiah to suffer before entering into glory. The cross is not the collapse of God’s plan – it is his plan!

From eternity past, the cross has always been God’s plan!

So Jesus gave these two men the lens of Scripture, to see clearly God’s plan. The Word is a means of grace. For through his Word, God opens blind eyes, and gives his people grace to see Jesus Christ – crucified and risen!

Read vs 28-31

Did you hear the bookend? Verse 16: their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Now in verse 31: their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. When? What was the exact moment they recognized Jesus?

When he broke the bread.

We cannot miss the connection between the Lord’s Supper and the meal in Emmaus. Luke describes what Jesus does with unmistakably familiar language: he takes the bread, blessed it, breaks it, and gives it to them. These are the exact same four actions Jesus performed when he instituted the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples.

                                                                             -Matthew 26:26

Luke does not explicitly call this meal in Emmaus the Lord’s Supper, but he surely wants us to hear the echo. First, the risen Christ opens the Scriptures to them; then he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it. Word and meal, proclamation and participation: and through these remarkably ordinary means, Jesus makes himself known.

And the effect is astonishing! Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. Immediately they turn to one another and say, Did not our hearts burn within us while he was talked to us…while he opened the Scripture to us?

Do you see what has happened? Their hearts were slow to believe; Jesus opened the Scriptures and their hearts began to burn. They could not recognize the One walking beside them; then Jesus breaks the bread and their eyes are opened. Hearts aflame through Word proclaimed: opened eyes through bread broken.

What a beautiful picture of how God gives grace to us, his people!

Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk next to Jesus along the road. We do not know what his face looks like. We don’t know the physical sound of his voice. And knowing this, Peter describes our situation perfectly.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

                                                                             -1 Peter 1:8

How is it that even though we have not seen Jesus, we believe in him and love him? Because Jesus has given us means by which he ministers his grace to us. He has given us his Word. He’s given us prayer. He’s given us baptism. He’s given us a meal of bread and wine.

These are what Christians have historically called means of grace: ordinary means God has appointed to strengthen the faith of his people. There is no power in the bread itself, nor the cup. But Jesus has given us this meal, and by his Spirit he uses it to nourish the faith of his people.

Harrison Perkins writes, “As we encounter God in worship on the Lord’s Day, nothing brings home that experience more forcefully than God’s Word reinforced by the Lord’s Supper.”¹

I love that word: reinforced. The Supper does not proclaim something the Gospel cannot. The bread and wine cannot improve upon Scripture. No, they reinforce the Word!

In the Word we hear that Christ’s body was given for you. And in this meal, Jesus places bread into your hands. In the Word we hear that his blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Then Jesus gives us the cup to drink. His Word calls us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. At the Table Jesus says, “Take, eat, drink.” He saves us, body and soul. He feeds us, body and soul.

Remember what we saw four weeks ago in 1 Corinthians 10:16.

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

This is why, throughout this series and in this church, we refuse to treat Communion as merely a memorial. We remember – of course we remember! Do this in remembrance of me. But this is so much more than a memory exercise!

At this Table there is koinonia – communion with the Living Christ. It is not physical: the bread remains bread, the wine remains wine. But really, truly, by the Holy Spirit and through faith, Jesus ministers himself and the benefits of his death to his people. Again, the elements have no power because of some mysterious quality within them. The power of the Supper is the presence of Christ! Jesus is risen, and he is here with us by his Spirit, and he freely gives grace at his Table!

The host of the Table lives!

Perhaps now, at the end of five weeks, you can understand more fully why your Elders have desired this meal to become part of our worship every Lord’s Day. It’s not because weekly Communion makes us more worthy, or because frequency itself makes us more spiritual. It’s because we need Jesus. We need him every week.

Just as we need to come to the Word every week, just as we need to come before him in prayer every week, just as we need to gather with our brothers and sisters every week; we need to come to his Table every week. Our souls are hungry for Christ, and Christ has graciously given us this meal to feed our faith.

My hope is that, years from now, weekly Communion will not have become ordinary to us in the sense of being cheap or thoughtless. I hope it becomes ordinary in another sense: ordinary like opening your Bible, or getting on your knees, or gathering with the saints. These things are ordinary because this is how Jesus has shown us to gather before him – our Risen King!

Read vs 32-35

At the beginning of the story two men are walking away from Jerusalem with shattered hopes. Jesus was dead. They hoped we was the One, not they don’t know what to believe.

But now their hearts are burning. Now their eyes are opened. Now they know: the One who was dead, lives! They cannot sit still. They can’t stay where they are. Verse 33 says they rose that same hour. Though the sun had surely set by now, seven miles is nothing. They race back to Jerusalem. They have to tell the others the glorious news: Jesus Christ has risen!

And when they finally get there, notice what they said in verse 35. They recount what happened along the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. Surely they spoke of how the Scriptures were opened to them, and then the bread was broken, and these two beleaguered disciples became joyful witnesses. The hope that was shattered now overflowed.

So every Sunday, when the Scriptures are opened and the gospel proclaimed, and when the bread and cup make their rounds, know that something extraordinary is happening through such ordinary means. Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, host of this Table, is strengthening the faith of his family.

Brothers and sisters, may we never despise the ordinary simply because it’s ordinary. God loves to hide glory in the dust. And one day, all the dustiness of this life will be blown away when the Bridegroom comes for his Bride, and our faith become sight, and the marriage supper flood us with everlasting joy. Yes, let us take and eat, for every time we do, we declare to ourselves and to this world, that the King is coming!

1Perkins, H. (2026). Take and Eat: Recovering the Regular Celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Pg 73. Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic