I want to study carefully what Colossians 4:6 says about how we should speak. But before I do that I want to do one more introductory thing. I want to think about the gracious speech of Jesus, since he is a great example for us in this, as in all other areas. We recall that after the first sermon of his career, spoken in the synagogue at Nazareth, the people were mostly enthralled at his gracious teaching. The text says, “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” (Luke 4:22). So it was throughout his three-year ministry.

I say as we end this week of Easter readings that I do not know how much of what I have presented this week is what the Lord preached that day on his walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. But it was a long trip. It would have taken several hours. And I suppose, therefore, that Jesus preached not only what I have tried to explain here, but also a great deal more besides. What I am certain of is this: The Lord preached the gospel from the Old Testament.

In the eighth chapter of Acts, we have another suggestive text. Here Philip has been sent to the Ethiopian eunuch. When Philip finds him, he is reading from a manuscript he acquired in Jerusalem. It turns out that it is Isaiah, and the portion from which he is reading is Isaiah 53: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth” (Acts 8:32, 33).