“And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of 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. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: 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 which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O 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? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

“And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, 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 them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

“And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” Luke 24:13-36

We have here the account of what went on that Easter day many years ago, later in the day, in the afternoon. Part of what went on happened in the early morning. The women going to the tomb, Mary first, saw Jesus very early in the morning, at sunrise, as the day was breaking, I suppose. Then there were other appearances throughout the day. There was an appearance to two of the women. An appearance to Peter that we know but little about the details of it. There was this appearance later in the day.

Our present day ideas seem to be that the morning of Easter is the glorious time, and that is true, but not only was it glorious in the morning. Things were happening all day, and even on into the night when He met with the eleven. It was, possibly, the most wonderful day that the world has ever seen. It was a day of joy; it was one thing on top of the other. As we read in the book of Job how misfortunes came to that man—one after the other. The one messenger said, “This has happened to you, your lands, cattle, possessions are gone. While he was yet speaking another messenger came and said, “Your wife, children, are gone.” Many of us oft times say that troubles do not come singly but when we get over one thing it seems another breaks upon us. When we are about over one adversity and trial, it is not long before another comes. People say, “It never rains but it pours.” Thank God for this pouring. We read on this Easter day it was not a pouring of misfortunes as had come the day before when Peter denied the Lord; men crucified Him, the Lord of glory, one thing on top the other. But this day had dawned. All through the day, beginning with the testimony of Mary that she had seen the Lord, there were additional evidences of another coming, and the messages came thick and fast that Jesus was alive. Praise God!

We can surely appreciate something of this. We can appreciate one side of it anyhow. We all know something of death. We all have someone we have loved that has passed into eternity. We know that side. We do not know anything about people being raised from the dead, but the very possibility of the thing, the fact that we believe it to be possible that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can bring life out of death, brings joy. They who do not have this joy have fear. That is the great obstacle. Take fear out of men, take the death valley—the shadow out—and you have taken the hardest part of dying out of man. As I looked upon one today, who no doubt is dying, we need to have the Saviour when we are to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. It is not easy. At that time, we need the Lord Jesus as never before.

He had gone through the valley of death, He had passed through the sadness. He had been to glory and had come back. He had been in glory, putting the blood there for you and for me, and that blood is still warm on the mercy seat. He could have stayed there, but He did not. He wanted to confirm to the disciples, to prove to them something they would not forget. He did not want to leave them with a bitter taste of their own failures in their mouths. He did not want to wind it up with His success, but He wanted to encourage His disciples, though they had denied Him, could not watch with Him in the garden, turned away when the mob took Him. He could wipe it away now, and say, “Peace be unto you.” He knew they could not go through in that condition. Peter thought he could, but Jesus told him he would not last the night out, but He knew he would later on, and so He did not want them to be swallowed up. He confirms His word so that they could believe with joy; with a mighty fervor.

The dawn of that day found them heavy of heart, their steps we might be sure, were not eager to see Him. They went to do their duty to a corpse, but they came away with a message of a risen Lord. I think this account of Peter and John going to the sepulchre is one of the most real things I have read in my life, even in the word of God. It seems you can hear the beat of their feet against the bricks, and feel the same thing they felt. Here comes Peter, puffing and blowing, and he says, what he was told he would say. How real it was. How wonderful is this account. There is something about this Emmaus journey that seems particularly fitting for the latter part of the day. These two men had started to Emmaus. They were taking a journey down there for some reason. It was a walk of about seven miles, which was not considered a great journey then. They started off with heavy hearts, sadness was upon them, and they were reckoning back and forth walking along the road. They were talking the business over, and possibly there was not a single moment in that time that they were not talking. As they were in the way, another comes and joins them. Their eyes, the word of God tells us, were withholden. They did not realize who He was, but when He talked to them, there was something in their hearts that was quickening, and in spite of all the heaviness they were able to rise up and tell what had gone on and tell of the hope. They told of strange things that had been seen. He who had been limp and pale in death was gone from the grave. Then Jesus opened to them the scripture. They listened while He talked. Then they came to the end of their journey, and they asked Him to come in, and He went in. As He broke the bread, something about it, something in His manner, something that was just a little different possibly, gave them a little insight and behold their eyes were opened, and they saw it was the Lord of glory. He vanished out of their sight. What a wonderful experience these men had that day! What a glorious revelation of the Son of God! A revelation that was particularly theirs, and they returned to Jerusalem to tell what they had seen.

Mary had told, the other women had told, Peter, and here they came with their experience. Each one had something fresh, something new, different, but each one vital and powerful, praise God. Each one had a message of joy and a confirmation of their hopes.

How many times have we hoped for a thing to come to pass, but years pass, we have bad news, and we are afraid we will never get it. We are afraid it will not turn out. Maybe we are looking for a position, hoping to get it, but we hear rumors. Somebody brings a dark story and we say, “Well I am afraid I will not get it.” That is often true, but here were rumors, all the same, but yet, all true. This walk that had begun with a sorrowful attitude, with heavy hearts, and leaden feet, ended with a manifestation of the Son of God.

So it is when the Lord Jesus Christ takes charge. So it is when He has His way. So it is when God is working and people will listen. He said, “How slow you are of heart.” How slow we are to believe! It is hard to believe that which we cannot understand. It is not easy and it was hard for these men to believe that Christ after going into the ground would rise again. We can believe it, but they did not understand. As He opened the scriptures, it was a different proposition, and as He revealed Himself to them that was a different story. They believed for the truth was shown to them, and they went back with their testimony. So it is in life many times—as failures, trials, trouble come; after we have made a misstep or done something we are ashamed of, we walk in the way and find somehow that Jesus will get in step with us. I do not believe that Jesus came up to them and said, “Hello Boys, where are you going?” I believe He got in step with them without their realizing it. I believe He was getting into their hearts and had them burning before they were aware that anything was going on. So it is with us in times of adversity. The Lord Jesus comes imperceptibly. We do not realize it, but little by little He makes Himself known, and after it is over, we can recall it was He all the time, but we did not realize it. We do not recognize it at the first. Many times our eyes are withholden. We do not see the Lord. We are not aware that He is working because He does not come with a blaring of trumpets, with a herald before Him crying, “Now here is the Lord to deliver you.” No He comes so gently, so quietly at times that we can hardly recall when He first influenced us for victory. But, after a while we see something and say, “Why it is Lord.” As Peter said years later how he saw Him on the shore when they were out fishing. They had been fishing and they did not recognize Him standing on the shore, but when they came closer to the shore, they recognized Him and overboard Peter went.

So it was with Mary. She thought this man was a gardener. She did not recognize Him. Many times in life we take Him for the “gardener”. We take Him for something common-place; for some circumstance of life; for some drab thing, but when those things done right, we will find Jesus in them. We can say with Mary, “Master”. We can take the breaking of bread and see our Lord in it. Jesus appears oft times in the humble thing. He is still lowly in heart, humble, but there is very little of this lowliness of heart left at Easter time, and if the devil has his way, there will be none there. But praise God, after nearly 2,000 years have passed, there is that humility and freshness about these accounts that defies everything man can do. This man who came to these on the road comes to people still. Our lives, that have been broken; have been sad, sorrowful,

“As we look far down the mountain,
Where we wondered weary years,
Often hindered in life’s journey
By the ghosts of doubts and fear.
Broken vows and disappointments
Thickly sprinkled on our way,
until that day Jesus joined Himself to us in the way.”

Gently He inclined our hearts to the right way. We did not know it then, but since we came to know Him as life eternal, in the power of His resurrection, for the forgiveness of sins in the new birth, we can look over times when Jesus was in those things. He has turned us aside from doing something that might have caused disgrace. He has turned us aside from something that would have caused great trouble. He has saved us from times we might have been killed or hurt. We can see Jesus in it as we look back. Sometimes we remember burning hearts, real dealings that we may have said, “There is something else.” Call them excitement, force of circumstances, or whatever you like, but in those days we are able to say, “Our hearts burned within us at that time, because it was the Son of God dealing.” Many a life that began as a sorrowful journey will wind up joyful because they have met Jesus in the way; in a glorious manifestation of the Son of God, and one day we will not just see Him breaking bread but in glory. We will not see Him in a village in Jerusalem, but in glory where we will be and in that day, our eyes that are still withholden in a measure, will be released, opened, and we will see Him as He is.

Then in life, oft times, we have heaviness of heart, as this appears in the eve time of Easter. Sometime the most precious revelation of the Son of God comes to us in the eve tide of life. There are only two great ways to live; two ways to grow old; two ways to approach eternity. The one to approach it and keep a stiff front before people, but underneath miserable and sorrowful of heart. Another is to find that Jesus, even though it be late in the day, reveals Himself to us, takes to heart our condition, and is willing now to give us victory, peace and power. Let us go even late in the day to declare what great things He has done for us.

We need an experience. We hear some people get up and say they are going to give their experience. That is a good thing to do surely, but there are certain stereotyped experiences that people give, and if you hear one you hear them all. There are none here, thank God, but that is not what God wants. There was nothing stereotyped about this Easter message. The women had a message; Peter had a message; Mary had a message, and so did the eleven, but God wants us to have something to tell. Something that is my story, something that is your story. How did Jesus come to you? How did He come to Me? It is interesting. It is worth hearing and indeed it is the only thing that will endure. How many things that have gone on in life that are enduring? Not many. Many things will be ashes in a day, but our experience in God is as fresh tonight, as the first day we received it. Our hearts have burned within us as we walked in the way. The time is coming soon when the Lord Jesus will remove some of the dimness from our eyes that we might see Him plainly, then the little village will not hold us. We will not stay overnight where we had planned, but we will hurry to tell the news to others. Thus it is when the Lord Jesus appears.

He appeared to different ones, then as they came together, He appeared in the midst again. It seems it confirms them and He said, “Peace be unto you.” The only place we will find peace in this world is in the Prince of Peace.

It is a hard thing to walk the road of life alone. We imagine, and I have thought it in years back, that if the money business was fixed up, if I did not have to worry about that then the walk would be rosy, but I have lived long enough to find that that is not so. Indeed those who have the most seem to have the most trouble. To have much is to worry much. Possessions are things that will give us trouble. I know of a person who has a little of this world’s goods, but I heard them say, “I was better off when I had nothing. There was no worry then.” I do not mean to talk against this world’s goods if they are used right, but as my ideas were years ago, that if I was fixed right, have proven to be wrong. There was but one way to finish the course with joy and that was somewhere along the way to swing into step with the Lord Jesus and listen to His talk. Let Him open the scriptures and let Him tell us and we find ourselves ere long, if we will but yield, inviting Him in and crying, “Lord, don’t leave me.” He will make you ready for eternity. God alone knows whether the young will go first or the old, but this we do know, that unless we invited the Lord Jesus, on no unmistakable terms to come in; He who has dealt with us so long and been so gracious, will take His departure. That is the worst thing that could happen to you or to me. He is so gracious, we would imagine He could not do it, but He must, He cannot help it. Two cannot walk together long except they be agreed. He could not have come in unless these men had invited Him. He would have gone on and they would not have had a message. They might have gotten the message later but not from Jesus.

They say you can get home from a place faster than you go there. It seems that is true in the country anyway. I do not know for sure what that would figure out, by the minutes, but I am sure these fellows went back to Jerusalem faster than they came to Emmaus. The miles seemed as nothing. They went direct to the place they needed to go with their message. That is the difference between an aimless, fleshly life than one given over to God. A sinner’s life is one that goes with leaden feet, sorrowfulness and sadness, but a Christ-life is speeding to the mark somewhere with a message.

If you have not come to know this Lord Jesus, I do not know of a better time than this Easter night. This night when we recall with joy that He has arose. This night when we realize that one day we shall see Him again. What joy that gives us! Yet, if we do not know Him, what concern it should give us. It may be that because there are those still outside of Christ that Jesus is holding off His return. He might be waiting for the full number to be completed. I am not sure of that, but it could be true. His return gives no joy to those who are not right in heart. We might be all right as relatives, but these things will pass away. How do we feel about the Lord Jesus? Do we feel He has been talking to us? Maybe He has opened the scriptures to us. Many have felt this but have never come. They have been dealt with and not only in great ways but gently, sweetly, and I am sure many have not invited Him to come in. Tonight is your opportunity. As we bow our heads in prayer, I feel we should invite those who will come. Do not put it off. Life is uncertain—death is certain, eternity is certain. This is something every man and woman must answer for themselves. Put it aside and all is lost. Accept it and all is gain. Though you gain the whole world and lose your soul, you lose everything. Though you be rich with all the riches of the world, you will be a pauper without the Lord Jesus. Though you be a pauper and you die in Him, you will be like Lazarus who sat at the rich man’s gate, when he died he was carried into Abraham’s bosom. We will be carried to something like that or its equivalent for this dispensation. Now is the time. Now is your opportunity. Let us take our stand for the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Amen!

Thomas and Hannah Lowe in Colombia

Thomas Ernest Lowe delivered this message to assemblies in Maryland in the early 1930’s before leaving long-term for the mission field in Colombia in 1936.

Mr. Lowe, an able and zealous minister, seeing the great abundance of Gospel opportunity for North Americans and realizing the scarcity of that same opportunity for millions in South America, set out in the 1930’s for Colombia, to survey the spiritual landscape, and was joined there by his wife, Hannah. They worked together until Mr. Lowe, still a relatively young and most vigorous man, died in the capital city of Bogotá in 1941. Mrs. Lowe, vibrant in service to her Lord until her final days, died at Jerusalem in June 1983, having spent a year in the beloved City.