(Audio version; Music included--"Here" by: Jobe/Leonard/Jordan--"From The Inside Out" by: Houston--WorshipMob and "Touch The Sky" by: Hillsong UNITED)
Introduction
I don’t
know about you but I tend to get worn down by the news. I try not to pay too
much attention except where events might affect my family and my brothers and
sisters in Christ around the world. It might just be my imagination but it
certainly seems like it is open season on Christians everywhere around the
world. Thankfully, the worst that Christians here in America have to endure is
the overt hatred from unbelievers expressed in words. Occasionally, militant
atheists are successful in having some reference to God removed from a public
structure or have a cross removed from some public property. Recently, the
homosexual community has managed to destroy some Christian business owners who
refused to endorse or participate in their same-sex marriage ceremonies.
However, for the time being, Christians here in America aren’t in any imminent
physical danger. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for Christians in countries
controlled by communists and it’s especially not the case in countries
controlled by Muslims. In those places, Christians are very much in danger of
prison and their very lives all for their belief in Jesus Christ. It seems,
however, in recent weeks that the hatred and abuse toward Christians has
reached a fevered pitch. I can see it in the hateful comments I receive on a
weekly basis and I read it in the almost daily accounts of Christians
kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Muslims around the world. I’ve spent a
number of hours this week praying for the persecuted Church around the world
and I was reminded of something I said in last week’s lesson about converting
to Christianity. Let me repeat it here because I think it explains why the
hatred toward Christians seems to have grown in recent months. I wrote: “Conversion
involves a change of lords. The one who until then has been under the lordship
of Satan comes under the lordship of God, and comes out of darkness into
light.”[1] That
explains much as far as I’m concerned in light of the Resurrection Day we just
finished celebrating—there are still so many who are under the lordship of
Satan. You see, there is no middle ground for humanity; no neutral existence.
Humanity is either under the lordship of Christ by conscious choice or under
the lordship of Satan by default.
For
Christians, Resurrection Day, or Easter, is a reminder of the steep price of
humanity’s sins. It is a reminder of God’s fierce love for us and how far God
is willing to go to make it possible for us to spend eternity with Him.
However, Resurrection Day is also a reminder to Satan that he has been defeated
and he is still ferociously angry about that. So much so that Peter says the
enemy, Satan, prowls the earth like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour (1 Pet 5:8). And Satan uses all those who are under his lordship to
carry out his evil schemes against Christians whether they are conscious of
Satan’s power in their lives or not. You can see Satan’s handiwork on display
at the cross. He used Judas and the religious leaders to try and destroy Jesus
and what might have been. When Jesus died on that cross, I’m guessing Satan and
his henchmen were celebrating. You can see the celebration in the mocking words
of the religious leaders, the Roman soldiers and even one of the two men
crucified along with Jesus. Satan’s victory celebration began in earnest when
Jesus’ dead body was taken down from the cross, placed in stone tomb, and sealed
by a large stone guarded by Roman soldiers. Satan, however, made one
miscalculation in his plan—death had no control over the Author of life. And
when Jesus walked out of that grave after three days. Satan’s celebration came
to an abrupt end and instead the empty tomb was the official notice to Satan
that he has been defeated. Nevertheless, Satan will not go quietly and the
Resurrection Day is a constant reminder to him that he lost. And I’m guessing
that nothing infuriates him more than hearing the three words that have set
Christians free, He Is Risen!
Subject Text
Luke 24:1-12
1On the first day of
the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had
prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away
from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of
the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two
men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In
their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men
said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is
not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you
in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of
sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” 8Then
they remembered his words. 9When they came back from the tomb, they
told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who
told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women,
because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however,
got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by
themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
The Gospels
of Matthew, Mark, and Luke share more in common in their respective biographies
of Jesus than does John’s Gospel. They were certainly all accurate, they just
each had a different theological prism through which they saw Jesus, His
mission, and His ministry. I chose Luke for two reasons. First, Luke wasn’t one of Jesus’ disciples. I know
that sounds strange but Luke had a specific purpose in writing his Gospel and
you can find it right at the beginning. He was writing as a kind of first
century investigative reporter when he wrote:
“1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things
that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed down to
us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore,
since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it
seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent
Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you
have been taught (Lk 1:1-4).”
Luke,
perhaps more than the other Gospel writers, was an objective observer. He saw
things for the way they were, not the way he wanted them to be. Unlike the
other Gospel writers, Luke hadn’t invested three and a half years of his life
following Jesus around from town to town. Luke was an outsider who was only
interested in the facts.
The other
reason I chose Luke is because he was a physician so I believe his account of
Jesus’ torture, death, and resurrection must be considered very carefully. In a
largely agrarian culture, Luke’s specialty was medicine so he necessarily
perceived the events of the resurrection through the eyes of a doctor. Let me
try to explain what I mean. If you are a dentist, what do you notice when you
talk to someone? Probably their teeth—especially if they are especially bad or especially
beautiful. If you are an automobile mechanic, what do you notice when you see a
car or listen to its engine running? Probably whether or not it is mechanically
sound. If you are a carpenter, what do you see when you look at a “fine” piece
of furniture? Probably whether or not it is the product of an experienced
craftsman or the product of mass production. If you are an artist, what do you
see when you look at a piece of artwork? You can probably see immediately
whether it is an inspired work that should hang on the walls of The Louvre or a
paint-by-the-numbers work that should hang on the front of someone’s
refrigerator with refrigerator magnets. In this way, Luke sees the events of
our Subject Text through the eyes of
a physician. He has investigated all the events of Jesus’ life and ministry and
all the events that led up to his crucifixion, all from the perspective of a
physician. Luke’s Gospel is the most comprehensive of the four biographies of
Jesus. The diction and vocabulary clearly show the work of an educated man.
Furthermore, Luke’s frequent inclusion of illnesses and diagnoses betray his
experience and perspective as a physician.
Consequently, Luke understood,
perhaps better than most, what happened to the human body when it experienced the
physical trauma experienced by Jesus—it would die. Which is exactly what
happened to Jesus. To this point, everything that happened to Jesus is probably
not a surprise to Luke—a man nearly beaten to death, then nailed to a cross
would naturally die. It would also be no surprise to Luke that Jesus would be
taken down from the cross and be laid in a tomb. However, there is no way Luke
would be prepared for what happened three days later. When people said Jesus
rose from the dead, any respectable doctor would have approached that claim
with understandable skepticism. So after a thorough investigation of all the
evidence, including the eyewitness testimony (remember that the Book of Acts
that records all the eyewitness testimony was also written by Luke), what was
Luke’s conclusion with respect to Jesus’ death? He Is Risen!
Text Analysis
1On the first day of the week,
very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went
to the tomb.
Jesus was
taken down and placed in the tomb on Friday night before the Sabbath. Everyone
who participated in removing Jesus from the cross and laying His body in the
tomb, went home and kept the Sabbath as required by the Law. Jesus died on
Friday—that was the first day. Jesus was still in the tomb on Saturday, the
Sabbath—that was the second day. On
Sunday morning—that was the third day, according to v. 1, the women who witnessed Jesus’ death, brought spices to the
tomb to honor and prepare Jesus’ body. It might seem like an odd practice but
the women were showing their love for Jesus. It is much like our practice of
bringing flowers to a funeral. “At the burial of Jesus, Nicodemus brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing a hundred pounds. The large amount was
probably an expression of honour…The practice was followed of laying the spices
between the clothes in which the body was wrapped.”[2]
All of the Gospels make it a point
that it was women who are the first to go to Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning. In
a largely patriarchal culture, this reality is particularly important for a
number of reasons. First it lends to the credibility of the Gospel record. If
the writers had ulterior motives, they probably would have had men finding the
empty tomb because the witness of a woman in first century Jerusalem was
largely disregarded as unreliable and untrustworthy. However, “Jesus’ gift and
call to divine sonship were intended for the poor and the lost and in a special
way for women upon whom he conferred a new dignity…We do not find women
disciples in the circle of the Twelve. But this may well be due to the Twelve
being chosen as the counterpart to the twelve sons of Jacob as heads to the
twelve tribes [of Israel]. However, women were to be found among the followers
of Jesus; they were more prominent than the men in their love, care and courage
after the crucifixion.”[3]
2They found the stone rolled away
from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of
the Lord Jesus.
You can
almost imagine the grief-stricken women slowly making their way to the tomb
early in the morning. The weight of the death of the One they loved must have
felt like they were being crushed as the walked. No doubt the trek to the tomb
was not filled with joy. Instead, each step brought them one step closer to
realizing that Jesus’ death wasn’t just some bad dream from which they would
awaken to find Jesus still alive and well. What do you suppose began to race
through their minds when the tomb came into view in vv. 2-3 and they could see that the stone that sealed the tomb had
been rolled away? I wonder if they stopped for a moment to make sure they were
going to the right tomb. Why would the stone have been rolled away? Who would
do such a thing? The Jews couldn’t have done it because they were all bound by
the laws governing the Sabbath day of rest like the women had been. Why would
the Romans move the stone? Where are the soldiers who were guarding the tomb?
Where is everyone? What’s going on? I wonder if their pace didn’t pick up and
perhaps they even began to run to the tomb. They expected to find a sealed tomb
and the dead, cold body of Jesus—they found neither. Instead, the stone sealing
the tomb had been rolled away and Jesus’ body was gone. The tragic events of
the last few days must have felt like being in the middle of a raging storm.
Bruised and battered by the storm with emotions already raw, the women must now
endure one more brutal reality—Jesus’ body is gone! “Luke was careful to note
that the women ‘saw the tomb and how his body was laid,’ with the result that,
as they now return to the tomb, they can hardly expect anything other than an
undisturbed corpse. In this way, he preserves the element of astonishment when
the body is found missing. Indeed, this point of the account is heightened by
the double use of the verb ‘to find’: they found the stone rolled away from the
tomb, but did not find the corpse.
Who are these women? How was the stone removed? Luke’s account neglects such
detail, for he wants to move quickly to the pivotal discovery of an empty
tomb.”[4]
4While they were wondering about
this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside
them.
The text
calls them “men” but their description tells us they are angels. What’s the
first thing you think of when you hear or see these words in v. 4? I don’t know about you but I
often wonder why? Why did God do it this way? It seems almost unbelievable that
two angels would suddenly appear in the tomb with the women. Indeed it seems
strange to us, but we’ve all experienced Jesus differently than did those who
followed Him from town to town and ate with Him and sat at His feet while He
taught and then subsequently saw Him die on a cross and placed in a tomb.
Again, we know the events like a story that has a beginning, middle, and an end.
We know the script, the players, and the various scenes. The disciples,
including these women, were living the story. Yes they were players but there
was no script and the scenes were unknown to them yet unfolding with them in
the scenes. How would things have been different if one or two of the regular
towns-people walked into the tomb while they were there? Wouldn’t there
immediately be some suspicion that something nefarious had happened to Jesus.
However, when angels appear, there is suddenly no question about what they have
to say. That there are two angels is perhaps a Deuteronomical fulfillment that
required two witnesses for a valid testimony. Their message is automatically
given the benefit of being true. There was no time to waste trying to wade through
human communication and motives to determine if they were true and noble or
whether they were filled with lies and or maybe even with the intent of drawing
out those who were Jesus’ followers so that they too could be eliminated. The
appearance of angels cuts through all that and gets straight to the point—Where
was Jesus’ body?
5In their fright the women bowed
down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look
for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember
how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son
of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the
third day be raised again.’” 8Then they remembered his words.
Again,
don’t read your understanding of the events of this day into the lives of these
women. You know the story from vv. 5-8
but they don’t appear to. Or do they? According to the two angels, they do know
the story. In fact, they know the story because Jesus told them. He told them exactly
what would take place. You know what, I know exactly what this is like. During
the many storms of my life, I forget about the things Jesus said; I forget
Jesus’ promises that He is always present in my life—that He will never leave
me or forsake me even if I forget sometimes. Sometimes I need a reminder. I’d
say that God hasn’t sent me angels to remind me of His promises, but I have two
beautiful daughters and every time I think of them, I remember. God does
whatever it takes to get through to us; to reach us; to remind us of what He
has said and done and promised. For these women, God sent two angels to remind
them. “At this critical point in the gospel story angels intervene, bringing
divine revelation and encouraging and instructing Jesus’ followers. Similarly,
angels were integral to the events surrounding the Savior’s birth. We might
best understand the mediation of angels at both his birth and resurrection as
marking the unique meeting of heaven and earth in these events.”[5]
9When they came back from the
tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It
was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them
who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women,
because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
I imagine the
women who found the empty tomb did the same thing any of us would have
done—they ran back and told the other disciples, most of whom had been hiding
out since the night Jesus was arrested. According to vv. 9-11, the women experienced from the disciples what many of us
experience when we try to share Jesus with the people in our lives—they didn’t
believe them. I suppose, at least for the moment, that you can’t blame the
disciples. Remember, like the women who found the empty tomb the disciples
don’t have a script; they don’t know the scenes, the story is unfolding with
them right in the middle of it. We can’t just assume that the disciples would
know just because we know. I know they spent nearly every day for three and a
half years with Jesus which we did not have the benefit of doing. But the
disciples also witnessed (perhaps not as eyewitnesses) His death, which we were
spared from witnessing. We take the events that unfolded with respect to Jesus’
resurrection on faith but the disciples didn’t have the benefit of our
hindsight so they were naturally skeptical. Not because the witness of women
wasn’t accepted but because what the said didn’t make sense to them—it “seemed
to them like nonsense.” Some of you know exactly what this is like. There isn’t
a week that goes by when some unbeliever calls me an ignorant fool who believes
in fairytales. No matter how I try and explain the Gospel they reject it
because it “seemed to them like nonsense.” However, the disciples weren’t unbelievers,
they were “couldn’t-believers.”
The disciples believed in Jesus
until He no longer fit into their theological box and then they became
“couldn’t-believers.” They couldn’t believe that the Messiah was arrested. They
couldn’t believe that Jesus was nailed to a cross. They couldn’t believe the
Messiah died. They couldn’t believe the tomb was empty. And now they couldn’t
believe that two angels appeared to the women from their group and told them
that Jesus rose from the dead. The disciples believed who they thought Jesus
was but for the moment they couldn’t believe who He really was. For now, the
disciples were “couldn’t-believers.” “Apparently Jesus’ words about dying and
rising again had gone past all of them. Many skeptics have tried to write off
the Resurrection as a story made up by a group of overzealous disciples. But
here the opposite occurred. The disciples were not anxiously looking for any
reason to believe that Jesus had risen; in fact, they were not anticipating it.
When told of the Resurrection, they refused to believe without concrete
evidence. Even a missing body was not enough to convince them.”[6]
12Peter, however, got up and ran
to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and
he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Say what
you want about Peter, he was never one to follow the crowd. While the rest of
the disciples were “couldn’t-believers.” Peter was a “maybe-believer.” You know
this person don’t you? You’ve shared the message of Jesus with them and they
haven’t accepted or rejected what you’ve said. They’ve listened and they are
weighing the possibility that you could be right. They are “maybe-believers.”
Peter didn’t know anything about Jesus that the rest of them didn’t know. Sure,
not all the disciples were present when Jesus was transfigured, but James and
John were there and Luke doesn’t say that they went with Peter in v. 12. So why Peter? The text doesn’t
tell us but Peter had a particularly ignominious relationship Jesus. Peter was
the one who denied Jesus three times. It is true that all the disciples
deserted Jesus when He was arrested but Peter went one step farther and
actually denied knowing Jesus. So put yourself in Peter’s place. You vowed your
allegiance and devotion to Jesus; You made a confession right to His face in
the presence of the other disciples that you believed He was the Christ—the
Chosen One. And then when Jesus perhaps needed a friend to encourage Him or
maybe try to defend Him, you denied knowing Him. Now imagine He was convicted
by false testimony and then put to death all while you stood by and watched and
did absolutely nothing. How do you suppose you would be feeling? You didn’t
have a chance to apologize. You didn’t have a chance for a second chance before
Jesus was put to death. I wonder, what would you give for a do-over? What do
you suppose Peter would have given for a do-over? If I had to bet, I’d bet
Peter saw his chance at a do-over when he heard about the empty tomb so he went
running to see for himself. “Denying Peter was also impulsive, inquisitive
Peter. The women’s story pricked his conscience and challenged him to take a
look for himself. Here the open tomb is taken for granted in the narrative.
Peter easily entered the tomb. His response to such easy access was not
recorded. The two “men” did not appear to Peter. All the evidence he had to go
on were the cloths that had wrapped Jesus’ body. They set him wondering. No one
would remove the wrappings and then steal the body. Only a person needing to
walk away would remove the cloths. Could the women’s story be true?”[7]
Peter had become a “maybe-believer.”
Application
It can be
hard losing someone you love. There is a grief beyond explanation. I know this
grief very well when I suddenly lost my best friend, Dave, unexpectedly. I have
a picture of the two of us in my office when our families vacationed together.
When I started to sense that God was calling me to ministry, I asked Dave to
pray for me. He was the first person to tell me that he believed that I would
make a great pastor one day. I don’t know about being a great pastor but he
never even got the chance to see me become a pastor. It’s been thirteen years
since he died and it still hurts. I can still hear his wife wailing the news of
his death at me over the phone. I can still hear my wife scream when I called
her and gave her the news. I remember so many awful things surrounding the days
following his death that I wish I could forget. But as hard as it’s been, there
is something that I take comfort in—Dave and I believed in the same Jesus; we
believed in the resurrection; we knew that this life wasn’t the end. Because
Jesus walked out of the tomb, I know that I will one day see my friend, Dave,
again. The resurrection of Jesus was also about hope; hope that like Jesus, all
believers will one day be resurrected to a new life; an eternal life in the
presence of Jesus. Author and speaker, Patsy Clairmont tells the story of some of
her friends, the Porter family, that illustrates how the grief surrounding the
loss of a loved-one turns to hope; hope because Jesus has overcome death.
Here’s what she writes:
“We buried
my friend’s 26-year-old son last week. An accidental gunshot took Jeff’s life.
We have more questions than answers. We are offended at people who have all the
answers and no experience with devastating loss.
“I watched
the heart-wrenching scenes as the family tried to come to grips with their
tragedy. I can still hear the travailing of the mother’s anguished heart. I can
still see the wrenching of the father’s grief-worn hands. I can still feel the
distraught sobs that racked the sister’s body as I held her. I can still smell
the hospital and the funeral home. Memories march before my mind like soldiers,
causing me to relive the agony. If it is this difficult for me, Jeff’s
godmother, how much more magnified it must be for his birth mother! I can’t
imagine.
“As I
watched Jeff’s mom, Carol, the week after his death, I observed a miracle. I
saw her move from despair to hope. From franticness to peace. From uncertainty
to assurance. From needing comfort to extending it.
“I
witnessed a mom face her worst nightmare and refuse to run away. Instead, she
ran to Him. When grief knocked the breath out of Carol, she went to the Breath
Giver. I watched as the Lord placed His mantle of grace around her and then
supported her with His mercy. The grief process has just begun for Jeff’s loved
ones. The Lord will not remove His presence from the Porter family. But there
may be moments when He will remove their awareness of His presence. That will
allow them to feel the impact of the loss. For He knows it would be our
tendency to hide even behind His grace to protect our fragile hearts from the
harsh winds of reality. He offers us refuge, but He also promises us wholeness.
Wholeness means we are fully present with ourselves and with Him. Therefore, we
have to own our pain. If we do not, part of who we are we must either shut
down, avoid, or deny. That would leave us estranged from ourselves and divided
from our identity. Also, we would never heal in a way that would allow us to
minister to others.”[8]
“The death
of Jesus Christ left his followers devastated with grief similar to the Porter
Family’s. They had lost their friend, their leader, and their life’s goals,
hopes, and dreams. All meaning had disappeared from life. Meeting the
resurrected Christ gave them the assurance and power they needed to recover
from their grief realistically, regain their wholeness, and renew their
commitment to the goal Christ set before them. We have trouble feeling the same
grief and loss the disciples felt at Jesus’ death, but we can feel the glory of
his resurrection and the joy of being part of his goal for living and for
dying.”[9]
Satan must
have thought he finally figured out how he would be able to thwart God’s plan
to make it possible for humanity to be reconciled to God. Satan was probably
pretty smug when he saw Jesus nailed to the cross and he probably felt that he
had everything wrapped up when they laid Jesus in the tomb. But the tomb
wouldn’t be the end. In fact, there is no end when it comes to Jesus and life.
When Jesus walked out of that tomb three days later, Satan was defeated and
believers in every age since have an opportunity at a second chance; an
opportunity at a do-over to be in relationship with God through Jesus. If you
are a believer, you know what that feels like. Some of you remember the day
your life went from unbelief to belief; from despair to hope; from grief to
joy. You remember how things changed in your life when you went from being an
unbeliever, to being a couldn’t-believer, to being a maybe-believer, and
finally to becoming a believer. All because you finally believed those three
words, He Is Risen!
[1] Colin
Brown, gen. ed., New International
Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1986), p. 355.
[2] Colin
Brown, gen. ed., New International Dictionary
of the New Testament, Vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing
House, 1986), p. 295.
[3] Colin
Brown, gen. ed., New International
Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 3, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1986), p. 1059.
[4] Joel B.
Green, The Gospel of Luke—The New
International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), p. 837.
[5] Joel B.
Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshal, Dictionary
of Jesus and the Gospels, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), p.
10.
[6] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 359.
[7] Trent C.
Butler, Luke—Holman New Testament
Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2000), pp. 415-416.
[8] Patsy
Clairmont, Under His Wings, (Colorado
Springs, CO: Focus on the Family, 1994), p.139ff.
[9] Butler, Luke, pp. 413-414.
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