Sermon For Every Sunday

When He Opens The Word, He Opens Our Eyes

There is something that happens every Sunday that we can easily take for granted. People gather. A Bible is opened. Words are read aloud. And if we are not careful, we can sit through the entire experience and walk away unchanged, as though we simply attended a meeting rather than encountered the living Lord.

That is a real danger. Not because God is absent, but because we can be.

The question worth asking before any Sunday service begins is not merely what topic will be covered or how long the message will run. The deeper question is this: will we actually meet Christ here today? Will the opening of Scripture do what Scripture is meant to do, which is open our eyes to him?

Two passages anchor this message. The first is from the apostle Paul writing to a young pastor. The second is a story from the road to Emmaus. Together they give us a picture of what Sunday worship is truly for, and what God intends to happen every time his people gather around his Word.

The Charge That Defines Every Sunday

In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, Paul writes with the weight of a man who knows his time is nearly finished. He is in prison. He will not survive much longer. And in these final verses he gives Timothy the most urgent charge of his ministry.

"I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:1-2, CSB)

Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say entertain the congregation. He does not say manage the institution. He does not say make people comfortable. He says preach the word. That is the charge. And it is not a casual suggestion. Paul frames it with the most serious language he knows. He invokes the presence of God. He invokes the coming judgment of Christ. He invokes the appearing and the kingdom of the Lord himself. This is not a job description. This is a sacred trust.

Why does Paul press so hard on this point? Because he knows what is coming. He says in verses 3 and 4 that a time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will accumulate teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will turn away from truth and toward myths. That time is not only coming. In many places it has arrived.

And so Paul says to Timothy, and through Timothy to every preacher and every congregation that gathers on a Sunday morning: be sober-minded. Endure hardship. Do the work. Fulfill your ministry. Do not drift. Do not shrink. Do not substitute something easier for the Word of God.

The central claim of this sermon is this: every Sunday, Christ intends to open the Scriptures so that our eyes are opened to him, and when that happens, we cannot stay silent.

That claim comes not only from Paul's charge to Timothy but from a story Jesus himself walked through on the first day of the week.

The Road Where Everything Changed

Luke 24 opens on a Sunday. The resurrection has happened. The tomb is empty. And two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem toward a village called Emmaus, about seven miles out. They are not walking toward anything. They are walking away from disappointment.

They had hoped Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel. But he was crucified. And now there are reports of an empty tomb and visions of angels, but they do not know what to make of it. They are confused. They are grieving. They are walking in the wrong direction.

A stranger joins them on the road. They do not recognize him. And this is where the story becomes extraordinary, because the stranger is Jesus himself, and he does something remarkable. He does not immediately reveal himself. He asks them what they are talking about. He listens to their confusion. And then he opens the Scriptures to them.

"Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures." (Luke 24:27, CSB)

He walks them through the whole of Scripture and shows them that everything pointed to him. The law, the prophets, the writings, all of it was moving toward the cross and the resurrection. They did not understand it before. Now, on this road, the risen Christ himself is their teacher.

When they reach Emmaus, they urge him to stay. He sits at the table with them. He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. And at that moment their eyes are opened and they recognize him. And then he vanishes.

What do they do next? They do not sit still. They do not wait until morning. The text says they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, seven miles back, to tell the others what had happened on the road, how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

That is the pattern. The Word is opened. The eyes are opened. And the feet are moved.

What This Means For Us Today

These two passages together give us three things to hold onto every time we gather on a Sunday.

First, the Word of God is the place where Christ reveals himself.

The disciples on the road did not recognize Jesus by his appearance. They recognized him through the Scriptures and the breaking of bread. That is not an accident. It is a pattern. The risen Christ makes himself known through his Word. This is why Paul's charge to preach the Word is not about maintaining a religious tradition. It is about providing the very means by which Christ becomes visible to his people.

When the Bible is opened and faithfully explained, something more than information is transferred. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make the Son of God real to the people of God. That is what was happening on the Emmaus road. And that is what is meant to happen every Sunday when a congregation gathers and the Scriptures are opened.

If you have ever sat under faithful preaching and felt something stir in you that you could not fully explain, something that made you want to weep or repent or worship or go tell someone, that is not coincidence. That is the Lord making himself known through his Word.

Second, recognition leads to response.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus did not simply gain new information about Jesus. They encountered him. And that encounter produced an immediate, unstoppable response. They went back. They told the story. They could not keep it to themselves.

This is what Paul means when he says in verse 5 to do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry. The Word that opens our eyes does not leave us passive. It sends us somewhere. It gives us something to say.

There is a diagnostic question worth sitting with honestly this morning. When was the last time the opening of Scripture on a Sunday moved you to do something during the week? Not just to feel something in the moment, but to actually go somewhere, say something, serve someone, reconcile with someone, pray for someone with a new urgency?

The disciples on the road burned with something they could not contain. They said to each other, "Weren't our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and while he was opening the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32, CSB) That burning is not meant to cool down by Monday morning. It is meant to send us back into the week with a word to carry.

Third, the gospel is the center of everything.

Notice what Jesus does on the Emmaus road. He does not give the disciples a general lesson in religious history. He shows them how all of Scripture points to himself, specifically to his suffering and his glory. The cross and the resurrection are not footnotes to the biblical story. They are the point of it.

This is why Paul, writing to Timothy, grounds his charge to preach in the appearing and the kingdom of Christ. The Word we preach is not a collection of moral lessons or life principles. It is the announcement that the Son of God came, died for sinners, rose from the dead, and is coming again. That announcement is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.

If you are here this morning and you have never placed your trust in Jesus Christ, this is the word for you. Not a set of rules to follow. Not a community to join. But a Savior who has already done what you could not do, who bore the weight of sin on the cross, who rose on the third day, and who is alive right now. You can trust him. You can turn to him today. That is the invitation the gospel always carries.

And for those who already know him, the call is the same as it was for those two disciples. Do not walk away from the gathering unchanged. Let the Word do its work. Let your eyes be opened. And then go.

A Charge To Carry Out The Door

Every Sunday is an Emmaus road moment waiting to happen. The risen Christ is present where his Word is faithfully opened. He walks with his people through the text. He shows himself in the breaking of the bread. He makes hearts burn.

The danger Paul warns Timothy about is real. There will always be pressure to soften the message, to substitute something more palatable for the hard and beautiful truth of the gospel. The congregation that endures that pressure and keeps gathering around the Word, week after week, in season and out of season, is the congregation that keeps meeting the risen Christ.

So do not leave today the same way you arrived. Let the Scriptures do what they were given to do. Let Christ be made known to you in them. And when you walk back out into the week, carry the burning. Tell someone what happened on the road.

He is risen. He is here. He opens the Word. And he opens our eyes.

Father, we ask that you would do on this day what you did on that road. Open the Scriptures to us. Open our eyes to your Son. And when we recognize him, give us the courage and the joy to go and tell. In the name of Jesus Christ, who is alive and who is Lord, amen.

Sources Consulted

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

Mounce, William D. Pastoral Epistles. Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 46. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000.

Stott, John R. W. Guard the Gospel: The Message of 2 Timothy. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Trites, Allison A., and William J. Larkin. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Luke and Acts. Carol Stream: Tyndale House, 2006.

The Christian Standard Bible. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.