Transcript

Dr. Benjamin Gilbert-West and Lord Littleton were from Cambridge. They were so fed up with Christianity they wanted to destroy it.

So they took a leave of absence to study and write a book to refute both the resurrection and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. As a result of their study, they too became ardent believers and wrote: “Reject not, until you have examined the evidence.”

Dr. Simon Greenleaf was a skeptic from Harvard law school. He’d written 3 volumes on the law. In his classes he mocked any Christian that was there. But he was challenged by Christian students to apply his own book to the resurrection of Jesus.

So, he took up the challenge, and found the evidence so convincing, he became a believer.

He later wrote, “The resurrection of Jesus is one of the best established facts of history.”

Josh McDowell entered college as a young man looking for a good time and searching for happiness and meaning in life. While in college he noticed a group of students in a Bible study. He became intrigued by the radiance of one of the young ladies.

He asked her a reason for it. She smiled and said, “Jesus Christ.” He came back at her, “Don’t give me that garbage about religion.” She replied, “I didn’t say religion, I said Jesus Christ.” The students in the Bible study invited him to examine the claims of Christ and the evidence supporting Christianity for himself.

He accepted their challenge. After much study and research, he finally admitted that he couldn’t refute the body of proof supporting Christianity, and it softened his heart, and he trusted Christ as his personal Savior.

One of the major factors in his conversion was his inability to ignore the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ. A student at the University of Uraguay once asked him, “Professor McDowell, why can’t you intellectually refute Christianity?”

McDowell replied, “For a very simple reason, I am not able to explain away an event in history—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

These men all sought to find a dead Jesus. Instead they found a living Savior.

In John 11:25, the Lord said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

Our hope of our own resurrection and eternal life is based on Christ’s resurrection.

Death and the grave is only a door through which we pass into eternal life and glory. And one day, our Savior will raise our bodies from the grave and join our soul and spirit to it to dwell eternally with Him in a glorified, resurrected body.

Luke 24:1-3: “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.”

Luke begins by stating that it was “the first day of the week.” The first day of the week is based upon the weekly Sabbath that God instituted for Israel under the law.

Matthew stated in his account of the resurrection, “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” (Matt. 28:1).

The Sabbath was the last day of the week on Saturday. And of course the first day of the week was Sunday.

As a result of Christ’s resurrection, the first day of the week has become the day of gathering and worship for the church. Our Apostle Paul spoke of believers in the Body of Christ assembling together “Upon the first day of the week” in 1 Corinthians 16:2.

We continue that to this day, as our weekly Sunday worship commemorates the Lord’s resurrection, who rose again on “the first day of the week” (v. 1).

And as we meet on Sundays at the beginning of each new week, we do so in worship of our living, risen Savior, and in thanksgiving for the newness of life and hope we have in Him.

It’s dawn on Sunday morning, “very early in the morning” verse 1 says. Matthew 28:1 describes the time as, “as it began to dawn.” Mark 16:2 says “at the rising of the sun.”

John 20:1 says, “when it was yet dark.” In our vernacular, we’d say “at the crack of dawn.”

Verse 1 says “they came unto the sepulcher.” Who are the “they”? We learn about them in the previous chapter.

Luke 23:55-56 reads, “And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”

The “they” in verse 1 of chapter 24 is “the women…which came with Him from Galilee.” It was a small group of Galilean women who came to the tomb on Resurrection morning.

They had followed Him in Galilee and from Galilee. They had come with Him and the apostles for the Passover in Jerusalem, and followed Him all the way to the Cross.

And at the Cross, Luke 24:49 tells us that “all His acquaintance, and the women that followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.”

These women had “stood afar off, beholding” Him on the Cross. And thus, they saw the darkness from noon till 3:00pm.

They heard Christ cry out “with with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.”

Then they saw His body being taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathaea. Then some of the women followed Joseph and saw the tomb where He was laid, and they observed how “His body was laid” Luke 23:55 says.

So they watched as Joseph and Nicodemus prepared His body for burial.

John 19:39,40 says this, “And there came also Nicodemus…and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”

The women observed the whole process of Joseph and Nicodemus preparing the Lord’s body for burial. The women saw it all. Except for John, the other disciples had scattered and were in hiding. But the women weren’t hiding.

They courageously followed Him, and they saw His death, and they saw His burial, and they saw His resurrection. And as E. S. Barret correctly observed: “Women—last at the Cross, and earliest at the grave.”

The women who saw Christ’s death, burial, and came to the tomb on Resurrection morning are identified in verse 10: “It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them…” Mark 16:1 names one more: Salome. So there were four named and others who were unnamed.

Out of their love for the Lord, they wanted to have a part and to finish preparing the Lord’s body for burial.

They probably wanted to do this because they observed the process being done in haste prior to the Sabbath. And they might’ve thought the men didn’t do a good enough job!

The Lord died on the cross a little after 3:00pm. The Sabbath began at 6:00pm. By the time Joseph of Arimathea took the body down and he and Nicodemus finished preparing the body and rolled the stone in front of the tomb, it was probably around 5:00pm.

In Luke 23:56, it says that these women then “returned and prepared spices and ointments.” They had maybe an hour left that evening before the Sabbath began at 6:00pm to finish preparing these spices for Sunday morning.

They couldn’t do this on the Sabbath, because they couldn’t do any work. But they got it done in time, and were ready to bring those spices back on Sunday. And the first chance they got, early in the morning after the Sabbath was over, they came to the tomb.

The women came that morning, still stunned, in shock, and grieving the Lord’s death. When they arrived “they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher” (v. 2).

The Greek word for “rolled away” here means to roll off or away. It speaks of “separation.”

The stone was rolled away a distance away from the entrance.

The stone wasn’t just moved a foot or two, or just a crack to allow someone to squeeze in.

The entrance was here and the stone was over there. And the entrance was wide open.

And when they got to the tomb, they didn’t hesitate at all, they just went right in. And when they did, they “found not the body of the Lord Jesus.”

They had worked on these spices and had them all prepared, but when they got there they find that there was no body to use them on! All they saw was graveclothes, but no body.

And this group of faithful women were the first eyewitnesses to the wonder and reality of the empty tomb.

The pyramids of Egypt are famous because they contained the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian kings. Westminster Abbey in London is renowned, because in it rests the bodies of English nobles and notables.

Mohammad’s tomb is noted for the stone coffin and the bones it contains. The Taj Majal was built as a memorial to a wife of one of India’s Shahs.

Arlington national cemetery in Washington, D.C., is revered, for it is the honored resting place of many outstanding Americans who served our country.

The tomb of Jesus Christ, however, is famous not because of what is inside, but because it is empty!

It has been said well that “The empty tomb is a silent testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that has never been refuted to this day.”

The tomb of Christ was only a fifteen minute walk from the center of Jerusalem to where Christ had been buried so the empty tomb could have easily been confirmed or disproved by people who went to inspect it and see for themselves if it was true.

The Jewish leaders were unable to disprove the fact that the tomb was empty and they would’ve tried the hardest to disprove it.

Instead, they bribed the soldiers to lie and say that Christ’s disciples stole the body. This explanation was an admission that the tomb was indeed empty.

And after Christ arose, the apostles did not go to far off Athens or Rome to preach that Christ had risen from the dead.

Instead, they stayed and preached in Jerusalem, the very city where if what they were teaching and preaching about the resurrection and the empty tomb was false, it could have easily been refuted.

But since it was true, that the tomb was empty, the people who heard the disciples, had to admit that they were right and couldn’t deny the empty tomb.

And when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem heard that the disciples were preaching that Christ was risen, instead of denying that the resurrection took place or that the tomb was empty, in their rejection of Christ, they threatened, beat, and imprisoned the apostles to try to shut them up.

The way Luke puts verse 3 here is interesting also. He says they “found not the body of the Lord Jesus.” In Luke 23:52 it says Joseph of Arimathea “begged the body of Jesus.” Luke could have said the women found not “the body of Jesus” like a few verses earlier.

But having risen again, victorious over sin and death, He is Lord. Lord of life, Lord over death, Lord over all.

The women found no body in a tomb in which the Lord’s body was stoned in by a two ton stone, sealed in by a Roman seal, and guarded by highly-trained Roman soldiers, all for the purpose so that the body would remain there, yet the body was gone.

There is no explanation for the empty tomb on a purely human level. The only explanation is the truth of Scripture. Christ, who promised to rise again, rose again.

By the power of God, He, the Resurrection and the Life, stood up, and in His resurrected body He walked out of the tomb through the stone wall.

The angel came later and flicked the stone away so all could see that the tomb was empty and Christ was risen. The women stood there in the empty tomb perplexed and in shock not expecting to come that morning and find the body gone, and then came another shock.

Luke 24:4-9: “And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:

And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.”

The first great evidence of the resurrection that confronted the women was the empty tomb. The second great evidence of the resurrection was divine revelation from 2 angels.

Standing there in the tomb in the early dawn, the women are “perplexed.” They have no idea what occurred. They weren’t looking for the living, they were looking for the dead, for the Lord’s body. The scene of the empty tomb troubled and confused them all.

While they were still trying to reason it out, they are jolted by “two men” suddenly appearing and standing beside them. They were arrayed in shining garments.

Later in the chapter these two men are called “angels.” The two on the road to Emmaus who, unknowingly to them, were talking to the Lord, told Him,“

“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” (Luke 24:22,23).

Two spiritual messengers from heaven appeared as men in shining garments inside the tomb. The fact that there were 2 of them is a reminder of Deuteronomy 19:15, which says, “…at the mouth of two witnesses…shall the matter be established.”

Two witnesses were needed under the law to establish a truth and validate things. Here two angels appeared to give divine testimony to the truth of Christ’s resurrection.

The two angels is also a reminder of the Ark of the Covenant in the temple with two angels on top of the ark, one cherubim of gold on both ends of the mercy seat.

God promised to meet with His people between the cherubim. Exodus 25:22 says, “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee…from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony.”

Here between these two angels in the empty tomb God met with His people. Their words were divine revelation and personal testimony from the Father through His angels as to the reality of the Son’s resurrection.

The angels had shining garments. The word “shining” is used also in Luke 17:24 to speak of a flash of lightning. So the clothes were brilliant, bright white, like a flash of lightning.

They lit up that dark tomb in the early morning hours. Their shining garments were a reflection of the glory of God in heaven from where they had come.

Their appearance is a reminder of the Lord’s birth and the angelic appearance to the shepherds. Luke 2:9 says, “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”

The reaction is the same by the women as the shepherds at the appearance of these divine messengers from heaven.

The women too were “afraid,” and out of their fear in recognition of being in the presence of persons who were holy, heavenly and powerful, they bowed their faces to the ground.

The angels then spoke. And as angels announced Christ’s birth, angels made the first announcement that He is risen.

They told the women, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:5-7).

Their question is a mild rebuke of their poor memories and lack of faith. It puts forward why they should not be perplexed by the empty tomb.

Why do you seek the living among the dead, they ask. Why do you seek the One who is life, among the dead, the One who death could never hold? He is not here. He is alive.

There is no other explanation for the empty tomb than His resurrection. The Jewish leaders didn’t steal His body. The Romans didn’t steal His body. The disciples didn’t steal His body. No one stole the body!

The angels give the only explanation, the true reason the tomb is empty: He is not here because He is risen. This is the testimony of God Himself through His messengers. This is the testimony of God through His Word.

It is therefore incapable of being wrong, authoritative, and it is the truth. Christ is risen. Christ is God. He is the Savior. Our faith is truth. We have hope. We find life in Him.

The angels said, “remember.” Two older ladies were enjoying the sunshine on a park bench. They had been meeting in that park for over 12 years, chatting and enjoying each other’s friendship. One day, the younger of the two ladies, turned to the other and said, “Please don’t be angry with me, but I am so embarrassed.

“For the past while when we get together, I simply can’t remember your name. I am trying to remember, but I just can’t.”

The older friend stared at her, looking very distressed, said nothing for 2 full minutes, and finally with tearful eyes, she said…“How soon do you have to know?”

This group of women had trouble remembering things too. The fact that they prepared and brought spices for the Lord’s dead body was proof that they had forgotten.

The angel calls on them to remember what the Lord had said, to remember what they had already been told. “Why did you come here and expect something other than what He had told you?” they ask. Because everything Christ said is truth and will happen.

“Remember” was a word to the women, but it’s a word to us too. We are very like these women in our forgetfulness. We too forget; we often do not remember the depth and the power of His promises, and that He is faithful and what He has said He will do.

We need to “remember” that Christ is risen and the tomb is empty. We need to “remember” that death has been conquered, and that we have sure and everlasting hope in Him. We need to remember who He is and whose we are.

We need to remember that our faith is real, and that because He lives we will live also.

We need to remember that in light of His resurrection, as our apostle wrote, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

The angels remind these Galilean women that while He was still in Galilee, the Lord said that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day He would rise again.

The angels tell them, He told you this in Galilee, don’t you remember?

In Luke 18:31-33, in Galilee, the Lord said: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.

“For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again.”

Christ said He would rise again, but they didn’t understand it, didn’t believe it, and didn’t remember it. But here after being reminded, it says in verse 8 that “they remembered His words.” He did say that didn’t He, they thought and might’ve vocalized to each other.

They hear this message from God, and they remember the connection with what Christ promised. And now it’s not only dawn on the outside, it is dawn on the inside, both in that tomb and in their hearts.

The light is coming on. They connecting the dots. They remembered His words. And having remembered what Christ said with what they were looking at, an empty tomb, the realization struck them like a thunderbolt that Christ really was alive.

And that realization sent them flying out of the tomb to find the 11 disciples to tell them the good news, the greatest news of all: Christ is risen from the dead!

And as the song says, “Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus, my Savior, He tore the bars away, Jesus, my Lord. Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes. He arose a victor o’er the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose, He arose, Hallelujah Christ arose.”