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Robert Smith, Distinguished Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, preached from Luke 24, verses 30-36, in SWBTS Chapel on February 6, 2025.
What a privilege it is to represent the Lord Jesus Christ in this place. To Dr David Dockery, my father, my mentor, my friend. To the first lady of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sister, Lenise Dockery, to all of you my father’s children, I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ. My assignment is to talk about the heart of Christian education. I want to read a portion of the pericope, the teaching paragraph, Luke, chapter, 24 verses, 30 through 36 Luke, 24 verses, 30 through 36 hear these words from the word. When he had taken his place at the table with him, he took the bread blessed and broke it and gave it to them. At this point, their eyes were open, and they recognized him. Then he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, Didn’t our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us. So, they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, they found the 11 and those with them gathered together and saying, The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread. While they were saying these things, Jesus stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you. I take thee to be my wedded, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and the cherish till death do us part”
Section from the wedding vows that are taken by two people who are going to be married, to have and hold, to nail, the Latin Word and out of that comes the English word tenor Ray, which means to hold, to hold. A Christian educational belief is one in which the message of Christ like a thread runs through the fabric of the message in such a way that people are convicted by the message and empowered by the Spirit of God to live it out day by day, to have and to hold this kind of preaching is greatly exemplified in the preaching of John Wesley. One time, he was asked, why do so many people come to hear you preach? He remarked, if you set yourself on fire. People will come to see you burn, to have and to hold tannery, to hold the attention of people so that they cannot help but hear you, because that message has penetrated their heart.
Donald Cogen, who was the 100 and first Archbishop of Canterbury, has said that one of the longest and most difficult journeys in all the world is the journey from Head to Heart, 10 inches from Head to Heart, from the cradle to the cardiological, from taught truth to live truth, from exegesis to experience, from learned truth to felt truth and to hold those inextricably together so that we present the message that is convincing, that’s Christological, that’s spirit driven, and is God glorifying. Alistair McGrath has said to us that we not we do not need to just know more. We need to go deeper, deeper, deeper that we are too superficial in terms of having a lot of knowledge, but not deep enough when it comes to not just knowing truth but experiencing truth. About knowing about God, to knowing God. It is the state of the church today that I have to admit is very much like a emergency situation for the hospital. I think the church today needs to be admitted into God’s General Hospital where it can undergo a period of redemptive observation and have a blood transfusion, because an ill church cannot really minister to an anemic world and a world that is afflicted and is at best on life support system. God is speaking to us to present a message that is Christological and powerful and pneumatologically in terms of the Spirit, so that people are transformed and live it out day by day.
The Greco Roman world influenced the way people, give me some watercraft, the way people began to present the gospel. It is syllogistic, from thesis to antithesis to synthesis. It has to do with de-emphasizing feeling and emotion and making thoughts and logic number one comes up to the Enlightenment period and Rene Descartes dictum still reigns Among many of us. Cogito ergo song, I think, therefore I am, I distrust my feelings, my emotions, and I trust supremely, my head. And therefore, many became dissatisfied with that and wanted to end with a experience sincere, herbal salt, I feel, therefore I am giving rise to Pentecostalism, and we have this great divide between feeling and facts. I don’t think it ought to be either or. I think it must be both. I am my head, and my heart must be tied together. It’s presented a very difficult situation for those of us who teach, because some of our students come to the classroom and they are beheaded. They’re cardiological. All they want is feeling F, E, E, L, I, N, G. They’re not concerned about feeling F, I, L, L, I, N, G, in terms of information, I want you to inspire me.
I don’t want to necessarily learn anything. I want to have an experience. But then there are those students who are not beheaded. They are big headed. They don’t bring their heart to class. They want to know more here. They want to be informed here. They’re ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. I think there must be a remarriage. They’ve been divorced too long, and they need to be brought together, because Jesus says in Matthew 22:37 You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, your life, all your soul, all your mind and all of your strength. So, the head alone is not enough in Christian education, and the heart alone is not enough in Christian education. They both must be evenly brought together as we present our work to the Lord, we live in a time of great, insipid intellectualism that is pervading the atmosphere of the Church, which serves as an antithesis to the freedom of expression in preaching and incipient intellectualism. Nothing wrong with intellectualism but insipid intellectualism, that which is flavorless, that which is bland.
You know, you go to the hospital. You stay there for a while the food to keep you alive, but it needs some seasoning. For some of us, need some hot sauce, some whatever. Our teaching, our presenting, needs seasoning so that it presented to people in such a way that we have, and we hold them with the scripture of the Word of God that is so aromatic and so tasteful and so wonderful. It is what my mother would do. My mother was one of the Lord’s best cooks in the world, but everything she cooked was seasoned, because I always wanted the hot dogs and the French fries and all of that.
But what mother did was to give us food that I would say I would never eat again once I got out of her house, pinto beans, squash. But Mama kept giving it to us. Kept giving it to us, until I developed an appetite for it and now some of my favorite foods, pinto beans, squash, tear up greens. Do you not hear Paul say in Acts, chapter 20, verse one, I have kept back nothing that was profitable, profitable unto you, but I have taught you publicly and from house to house, profitable. Much of what we teach our students, we must keep in mind, may not be initially palatable, that tastes good, but always profitable. Paul tells us in Acts chapter 20, it comes to verse number 27 I have not shunned to share with you the whole counsel of God. And then Paul moves us to Second Timothy, chapter three, verse 16, all scriptures give respiration of God, and it’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, profitable in a long range. Hmm, it may not be palatable initially. It is always profitable.
But if you keep giving it to your students, keep giving it to your children, that which was not palatable will become palatable without losing its profitability. Stay with that which is profitable until it becomes palatable. I think we’ve come to this time in which we need to put back together head once again and hearts. There’s too much distance between and I want to look at Luke chapter 24 in a moment. There’s too much distance between the dasko that is teaching and doxa, that is doxology, worship. There must not be separation between the two, because everything we do is for the purpose of giving God glory. It’s the only thing that’s really going to last beyond time, not going to have trustees and deacons. Won’t be any preacher in him. No one will be lost, but there will always be worship. So whatever you do, whether or not you serve as a trustee, you serve as a teacher, whatever it is, do it all to the glory of God so that your teaching becomes joyous, and something that you can’t help but do. The first question of the Westminster Confession is, what is the chief duty of man, to glorify God and to enjoy, not endure, but to enjoy him forever.
And when our students see us teach, they ought to be able to see the epitome of joy there. Not that you feel your best, but joy has nothing to do with what’s happening. Joy has to do with what’s in you, the fruit of the Spirit being loved. Joy and you come out joyously, expressing what God has given unto you, it’s Sunday. Friday has already passed, and there are two disciples, one Cleopas, the other is anonymous. They’re at large disciples, and they are on their way to Jerusalem. They are, in my way of putting it, exegetical escorts. They will become that after the Lord reveals Himself to them. Because an exegetical escort is one who ushers people by the Word of God into the presence of Christ, the Son of God. You.
Through the power of the Spirit of God for one purpose, for the purpose of transformation, which makes our job relatively easy. I’m not responsible for transformation. I can’t transform anybody. My business is to go to the throne room and put the person I’m ministering to in the throne room, and there’s enough room for the Crown God and the candidate. The door is shut, and I wait outside. And as a midwife, I wait until the baby is born, and I catch the baby, and from that point, I disciple the baby, so I don’t get upset because no one comes down the aisle because I preach and preach my heart out no one came, and I don’t pat myself on the back because 30 people joined the church. Transformation is God’s work and not my work.
So, an exegetical escort escorts the unbeliever to Christ, who transforms the person by the Spirit of God. I’m also a DOS illogical escort. I escort while I dance. They’re both together. No way to the end. This is such a wonderful impri enterprise, as my brother got finished saying, Paul reaches a point after piling up religious prodigious doctrines of creation and sin and adoption and reconciliation and all of that and gets to verse 33 And all he can do is, oh the depths of oh the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His ways, how inscrutable his ways and his paths are untraceable get to the place where we escort, and we dance as we deliver the message to the people. Hear these two disciples, Cleopas and this unnamed disciple, its Easter Sunday morning, and they’re acting like it’s Good Friday. They’re downcast. They are sad, and Jesus comes alongside of them and abducts the conversation. Kidnaps the conversation by asking a question, because a good teacher asks questions. Why are you so sad? Why your confidence is so downcast? And they respond, you must be a visitor in these parts.
Don’t you know what happened on April the 4th, 1968. Don’t you know what happened on September the 11th, 2001? Are you not aware of what happened on November the 22nd 1963. Oh, are you not aware of what took place on the December the 7th 1941. Jesus is omniscient, and the one who knows everything ain’t talking what things he says again, and they said, last Friday, Jesus of Nazareth, who was the prophet that we had trusted, would be the one who would deliver Israel. They took and arrested him and took him through six illegal trials and crucified Him.
And it’s the third day, and he’s still dead. Some of the women came back and said that they saw the tomb, but it was empty. And Peter and John went out, and they went into the tomb, and they reported that the tomb was empty, but they didn’t see him. And Jesus took all he could and said to them, oh fools, slow to believe, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken unto you. What he’s saying is he calls them fools, slow of heart, but he moves them from slow hearts to verse number 31 and 32 to burning hearts, because that’s the job of people who would present the gospel, not To give up on people because they have slow hearts. Jesus understood that when he says in John 16 and 12, I have many things to tell you, but you’re not ready for them. Yet, slow hearts. Michael Jordan didn’t seem to have very, very much potential because he was cut from his sophomore basketball team in the varsity. Section, and look at him now slow. Robert Smith was told when he wanted to go to Bible college, you can’t go to our school. You need to go to one of those schools over there. You don’t have the academic wigginess to make it. And when you have a student that nobody else thinks will accomplish anything, like an Einstein who was told by one of his teachers, you’ll never amount to anything, God can take an individual who seems to be a failure, raise that individual up in the wilderness by the name of a John the Baptist, and used that individual to change the world slow hearts to burning hearts.
Jesus asked in verse number 26 Was it not necessary that Christ first die and suffer and then enter glory. It is theologia Cruces, theology of the cross, theologia Gloria, theology of glory. We want theology of glory. We don’t want theology of the cross. That’s why prosperity theology is so attractive to people, but you can’t have resurrection without crucifixion. We don’t need adversity prosperity theology. We need adversity theology. Anybody can do well during times of prosperity. But how do you handle life when adversity comes? Or, in the words of author John gossip, after his wife died, his first sermon to his church was when life tumbles in what then it is adversity. Theology where you learn to trust in Jesus and know that if you get to the bottom, the bottom is solid. And know that if it’s over your head, it’s really under his feet, he has control.
Was it not necessary for the Christ to first die and then enter the glory, yes, and then Jesus preaches the whole council of God. For the whole council of God is that broad and overarching concept that unites and ties together every passage of Scripture so that it relates to the overall plan and comprehensive purpose of God revealed by the Holy Spirit in order to magnify Jesus Christ. No scripture stands in isolation. It all fits in order to reveal God’s overall plan and comprehensive purpose. That’s true in our lives, we become just like Joseph, sure we can say, after we’ve come to a certain point, brothers, what you meant unto me for evil. God meant me for good to save much people alive. But he didn’t say that when his brother sold him into slavery.
He didn’t say that when Mrs. Polifar put a phony molestation charge on him. He didn’t say that. When the baker and the butler forgot about him, it took him years to arrive at the point God sent him to Egypt, so that, like certain kick of God, you understand life must be lived forward, but you only understand it backwards. And after you live such an amount of time you can look back and see that when you look at your biography, on every page, there are divine fingerprints that you dust for, and you see God’s hand on Every page in your life, showing us that his plans may be threatened, but they cannot be thwarted. They cannot be overturned. And so Jesus tells them about himself. He goes from Moses to the prophets in verse 44 to the writings, which are all three sections of the Hebrew Bible, and tells them things concerning Himself, because the Bible is a hymn book. It’s an H, I, M, book. It’s about him. And if we miss him, we miss the purpose of Scripture. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor lawgith from between his feet till Shiloh comes. Or unto us, a child is born, a son is given government.
Shall be upon his shoulder, you name it. Christologically, by suggestion, by metaphor, by type, Jesus is there in order? To show us that ultimately, the Bible is not about the plan of salvation ultimately. Ultimately, the Bible is about the man of salvation who reveals the plan for us to have salvation in one person only, and that is Jesus Christ. Well, he acts now, it’s getting late for them. It’s getting late for me, he acts like he’s getting ready to go and depart from them. They get near the village of Emmaus, and he’s created such an appetite, a craving for the word that they don’t want him to leave. They say to him, stay with us, abide with us. The day is far spent. The night is at a hand. Because if you keep working with people and giving them the word, they get a craving for it. They get a desire for it. They may reject it at first, but you’ve whetted their appetites, and therefore they don’t want you to leave.
And Jesus acted as if he was going to keep going, but he stayed with him and went to their house, and he, who was guest, became host. And after he blessed break the bread, they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. And when they recognized that he was not a stranger, but the Savior, He disappeared from their sight, which is what a good teacher ought to do make it yourself unnecessary. He could’ve saved them 14 miles by at the point of intercepting them right in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, seven miles from Emmaus, he could have said, Peace be unto you. It is I, and they wouldn’t have had to go to Emmaus. Well, now they have to go from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and now they’re going to go back from Emmaus to Jerusalem 14 miles. But the 14 miles, when necessary, because you don’t want to spoon feed people. They got to struggle for it so that it’s their truth. It’s not what you said, it’s what they have discovered themselves, and now they can say, I know for truth that this is the Christ. They compare notes, and they say, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us, by the way, and opened to us to Scripture.
They had learning. He opened to us to Scripture. Not he opened the Bible. You’re not opening the scriptures just because you do this. A hermeneut is one who opens the Scripture by giving the interpretation, not quotation, but interpretation, so that people understand what the Scriptures are saying. Or as Philip asked Ethiopian eunuch and acts. Hey, do you understand what you’re reading? How can I accept someone should instruct me? Someone lead me, someone guide me. And Philip, from that same verse, preached Jesus. And so, they got learning, but they also got some burning. It wasn’t just a head thing; it was a heart thing.
Their hearts burned like Jeremiah’s heart. I said I would not speak anymore in his name, but His word was in my heart like fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in. Indeed, I could not learning and burning are not antithetical. There would be some burning there that mean that you need to get up and run all around the church. It may mean that you sit in your chair and you think about the goodness of Jesus and all he’s done for you, and tears well up in your eyes, and your soul is shouting and your body’s not moving burning. I don’t know how you burn, but well, I want to tell you something.
When the Lord is present and you think of His goodness and all he’s done for you, there ought to be some burning, Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the world thy hands have made. I’ve seen the stars. I heard the roaring thunder Thy power throughout the universe display something happens. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou there is a response to what God has done. And if you don’t respond here, you’ve got all eternity to respond. When we’ve been there, 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first figured learning, burning. But they also have some yearning. They said, we’ve got to go at once right now. Back to Jerusalem and tell the 11 you don’t need to be sad. The Lord has risen. He talked to us, and now we’re coming to tell you that he is alive and well and will meet us together in Jerusalem.
Oh, that yearning. No, we can’t sit on this. We know we’re tired. It’s dark. Seven more miles back to Jerusalem, but we got to get up right now and go back and tell it, because it’s something that we cannot contain. That’s what Christian education and so they go back, and they tell the 11 the Lord is alive and has appeared to us. And the scripture says in verse 35 you won’t see this in the English, but in verse 35 when they told the 11 that word there is exegunt, which is akin to the word dear man you said in verse 27 which means relate when their exegesis match Jesus’s exegesis, when they said what Jesus said. Verse 36 says Jesus showed up, and he Don’t ever show up until we say what he has said Isaac Jesus won’t get him there. But when you exegete that text, without being ostentatious, just saying what the text says, I declare he will show up. Well, brothers and sisters, I thank God for this. I thank God that he’s allowed me to be on that road where he has revealed himself and has showed himself to be the great God that he is.
Most of you would not know, but Roberto committee is my favorite baseball player. I was in Pittsburgh the other day, and my host took me to the Roberto Clemente Museum, number 21 the grade one Puerto Rico, member of the 3000 hit club, several globe Golden Gloves, most valuable player on December 31 1972 Roberto, who had been sending supplies over to Nicaragua, where 1000s of people had lost their lives during an earthquake, he discovered that the supplies he was sending by plane were not getting there. This frustrated him. He rented a DC plane. Later, we found out that it would not have passed inspection. It was overloaded with supplies, and the plane took off, and within a couple of minutes, it headed for the ocean, and he died, and his body was never recovered. Roberto lost his life because he decided that all the other ways of trying to get supplies to the people did not prove out to be effective. So, he said, I’m going myself.
There is someone that’s greater than Roberto who did the same thing. God who, in certain times and divers places, spoke to us by the prophets, but in these last days, he spoken to us by His dear Son, Jesus, came down 14 and 14 and 14 generations, 42 generations. He came, he lived, he died. But he did not lose his life. He gave his life. He died on that cross for you and for me, but on the third day, on the third day, he rose from the dead with all power in his hand, and one of these days, he’s coming back again to reclaim those that are his own. And therefore, we can say with joy, this God that we serve, who knew no sin became sin, that we, who are sinners, might be made the righteousness of God. The heart of Christian education is a Christ centered message presented by convicted presenters that is filled with the Spirit. And preach to the glory of God so that those who hear it and believe it live it out in their daily lives, day by day, let’s pray. Our Father, we thank you for your grace and for your goodness, for modeling for us what we ought to do, as relates to getting the message across that you have given to us, empower us. We pray, equip us. We pray, use us. We pray for Your glory, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
