He Is Risen: The Empty Tomb and the Promise Kept

And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened,

they went home in deep sorrow.

But Jesus' friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee,

stood at a distance, watching.

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph. He was a member of the

Jewish High Council, but he had not agreed with the decision and actions of

the other religious leaders.

He was from the town of Arimathea in Judea, and he was waiting for the kingdom of God to come.

He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.

Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of

linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock.

This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation as the Sabbath was about to begin.

As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb

where his body was placed.

Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body.

But by the time they were finished, the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as the law required.

But very early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared.

They found the stone had been rolled away from the entrance,

so they went in, but they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus.

As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them clothed in dazzling robes.

The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground.

Then the men asked, Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn't here.

He has risen from the dead. Remember what he told you back in Galilee?

That the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified,

and that he would rise again on the third day?

Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed from the tomb to

tell his eleven disciples and everyone else what had happened.

It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary's mother, James, and several other women

who told the apostles what had happened.

But the story sounded like nonsense to men, so they didn't believe it.

However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping,

he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings.

Then he went home again, wondering what had happened.

Amen. May God bless the reading of his word.

I'm going to come down with you guys today. Are y'all okay with that?

All right. I don't want to scare anybody.

I do this on Sunday night. I don't always on Sunday morning,

very rarely, because I may throw this over.

Now, those of you on the first few rows might just watch out for my excitement.

I don't want to shower you with excitement. Okay.

Thank you for the reading of the text this morning.

Just want to say the title today is Remember How He Told You.

And we saw that in the text this morning, and that's our key verse today.

But the events surrounding Jesus's crucifixion may be familiar to us, right?

But you can easily imagine that the confusion that they left in the minds of

those who had gathered to witness this sight, it says in verse 48.

And it's not clear exactly what they were expecting, a gory execution,

a miracle that touched off a revolution, but they certainly were not expecting what took place.

The three hours of darkness certainly would have left a lasting impression on

the people as they actually went away mourning.

But now the show was over.

Only Jesus's followers, including the women who had come with him from Galilee,

it says earlier in Luke, stayed behind to watch what would happen next.

And I'll tell you what, discipleship sometimes becomes dark.

And this is a passage that talks about this discipleship when it's dark.

The burial of Jesus was not an afterthought, but it was an integral part here

as we look in the text of the larger story.

The body that rose from the grave was the same one that was placed in the tomb,

albeit a transformed version, right?

You know, if Theophilus is to have certainty about the things he's been taught,

as it says all the way back in Luke 1 verse 4 that we started out with on this study.

Luke 1:4

It's essential for Luke to demonstrate in his gospel that the body of Jesus

was in fact placed in the tomb.

And we got to see that. We've got to realize he died bodily for us.

The bodies of executed criminals were not normally treated with much respect,

by the way, especially by the Roman guards.

But Pilate was willing to release, as we see in the text, the body of Jesus

at the request of a man from the Judean town of Arimathea named who?

Joseph. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, but he was a good and upright

man, it says here, who had not consented to their decision or actions.

Verses 50 and 51. But Luke describes him as someone who had been waiting,

waiting for the kingdom of God.

And so Joseph serves really, I think today to us as something of a bookend, if you will,

to the narrative along with the righteous Simeon, who had been waiting,

if you remember, for the consolation of Israel that we learned about all the

way back in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Joseph actually took the body and placed it in an unused tomb,

it says in verse 53 of Luke 23.

Joseph actually occupies a position of privilege in Luke's narrative,

and he serves church as an example for us of what courageous discipleship actually looks like,

because think about it for a moment up to this point joseph had kept his loyalty

to jesus a secret for fear of his colleagues,

we learned that in john 19 verse 38,

John 19:38

but he chose the most important moment,

to identify himself publicly with jesus.

Do you see that? In fact, Luke 9, 26 talks about that some, while some others

watched from a distance.

He actually moved toward Jesus in an act of devotion and care.

God actually used Joseph's bravery in ways that he could never have imagined.

And that donated tomb, church, became the scene of the greatest moment in human

history. Think about it for a moment.

Jesus didn't stay dead, did he?

He's a living Savior, amen? He bodily rose from the grave.

I'm getting ahead of myself, but yeah, I mean, following Jesus may not require

of us such a dramatic and public display of courageous loyalty to Jesus, though it may.

But perhaps the most instructive thing for us is the love that Joseph showed,

for Jesus, even when it was not clear what good it could possibly accomplish.

God had a plan. I always tell people, God's got a better plan,

right? And by the way, I say this and I'll share it with you again.

There is no plan B with God.

It's always plan A because he's sovereign. And what he determines will happen, will happen.

There's no plan B, no plan B whatsoever. And we already know from scripture

that the death of Jesus itself was not a plan B. That was always the plan.

We can't know how the Lord might use the faithfulness that we show,

that you show, that I show, in something that might seem pointless sometimes.

Like what? Like sharing the gospel with a largely disinterested co-worker or friend or neighbor.

The good news is that the God of history is always weaving this marvelous tapestry,

out of these small acts of courageous love.

I'm telling you, even when we

cannot see the larger design, he's still at work. God is at work always.

Well, we see the first day here because normally there was an elaborate process

for preparing a body for burial, using the spices, the ointments, a linen shroud.

But Jesus's body had only received a preliminary wrapping, it says in verse 53.

Anybody know why at this point?

Yeah, because that kind of activity was forbidden on the Sabbath.

We see that in verses 54 and 56. So the faithful women who had been with Jesus,

could only note the location of the tomb and go home to prepare those spices, right?

And their plan was to wait until after the Sabbath was over and then take their

spices to the tomb, right?

Very early, by the way, in the next morning. We learn that verse one of chapter 24.

And when the first day of the week arrived, the women found three amazing things at the burial site.

Number one, the huge stone that sealed the entrance had been rolled away.

Woo, come on. It had been rolled away. We see it in verse two.

And second, there was no body in the tomb to be found. Number one.

And finally, there were two men, quote, verses four and five,

in shining clothing, standing there at the entrance of the tomb,

which we know there were angels in the appearance of men, right?

And clearly, like I said, these were men in appearance only,

for their clothes gleamed like lightning, it says in verse four.

You know, we can look back at how Cornelius actually describes his angelic visitor.

Actually, forward in Acts, I believe, Acts chapter 10. And the women bowed down

Acts 10 · chapter mention

before them in fear, we see here in the text.

By the way, that is a very common response to the appearance of an angel, right?

What is usually the first words out of an angel's mouth when some human sees them? Fear not.

We got to think, why is that? They're very fearful looking, right?

You'd be in awe, I would be in awe.

And so Luke's account of the actual resurrection, I'm just gonna share this.

It's remarkably spare, given its significance in the gospel message,

but he simply reports the words of the angels.

And to me, these are fantastic words. Many a song has been written on these

words in verse six of chapter 24.

He said, he is not here, he has risen, right?

I mean, that's it, right? Paul has told us, hey man, if Jesus did not rise from

the dead, our faith is in vain. In other words, you might as well go to the

beach today if Jesus is still in the grave.

It all hinges on his resurrection.

He's not here. He is risen. But it seems that Luke's goal here is not so much

to interpret the meaning of the resurrection for us, but rather to establish its reality and its.

Historical validity on the basis of solid eyewitness testimony.

Remember, Luke was a doctor, right? Y'all remember that?

And he was very meticulous. And boy, the eyewitnesses here, the testimony,

the validity of the resurrection is what it's all about in his gospel.

And really, that should be no surprise. If you're familiar with these events,

it may be difficult to appreciate the degree of surprise that the women felt,

when they discovered the empty tomb.

We can kind of imagine a little bit, but man, we can't really relate totally in any way.

These men didn't have a lifetime, or these women, I should say,

didn't have a lifetime of Easter church services.

Of doing Easter egg hunts with kids or whatever you want to say to talk about

the resurrection. They didn't have any of that.

They didn't have that space, that stuff creating in their brain about the resurrection

and all those things going on. So when they showed up at the tomb,

they were absolutely expecting to find Jesus still in it. You do see that, right?

That's why they brought the spices. Otherwise they'd have said,

man, we don't need those. He's going to be risen.

And yet, in truth, they shouldn't have been surprised, should they?

The angels greeted the women. They told them that they should have expected

Jesus not to be among the dead because when he was still with them in Galilee,

Jesus had explained that after he was betrayed

and crucified, he would be raised from the dead on the third day.

Now reminded by the angels.

They had their moment of realization that, and it says, and they remembered

what? In verse eight of chapter 24, they remembered his words.

All of the pieces, church, finally fell into place, kind of like the tumblers

in a combination lock, right? Now they understood.

You know, the truths of the Christian faith are not unreasonable,

but there are some spiritual realities that can be understood by logic.

They can't be understood by logic and rationality alone, can they?

Ever since creation, don't miss this today, Mankind has needed God to explain the world to them.

We have never been able to know God until he speaks to us.

In our case, it's through his word in the Bible.

In the same way, the people who actually encountered the evidence,

think about it, the evidence of the empty tomb still required a heavenly explanation.

The women who received God's explanation through the angels here were able to

understand the truth, he would, of the resurrection.

You know, as we read on in the passage, Peter seems to have had no such assistance, right?

And he was left to wonder to himself, it says, about the meaning of what had happened in verse 12.

So the substance of the angelic message was actually an encouragement to the

women to remember the words that Jesus had already spoken to them in advance

about all that had just happened.

And by the way, let me just go off script just a little bit here and say something

that I think it's always amazing that God chose women to be the ones to be the

first one to be revealed to.

Because back in that culture, the testimony of women was just not that important it at all.

Yet God himself chose women to deliver that.

I think it's amazing. It's totally amazing. In fact, if you had been trying

to make up all this, as some have suggested.

That are critics and all that, if you had been trying to come up with a bizarre

story, you'd have left women out in this time. You'd have never put them in.

And that right there even lends to it, it's credibility of the scriptures that

this is God's word, this is truth. Because if they were making this up,

that never would have been in there.

God's word, I want you all to know this today. God's word is always true.

And what he says will happen always comes to pass.

Always no exceptions if it didn't god is a liar and he said i am not a man that i should lie.

The women allowed the seemingly insurmountable circumstances in front of them,

to actually overwhelm their memory for a moment of what Jesus had told them was going to happen.

What they needed to do most in order to make sense of what had happened was what?

To remember what Jesus had already said. Remember how he told you?

You know, I think we're in that same boat sometimes. Don't we need to remember

his word? Remember what he told us?

We're obviously not in the same situation as those women.

We too, though, will most likely face times in our lives that do not make sense right then.

You ever been in a time in your life that just didn't make sense?

In those moments, church, we need to remember the things that Jesus has said

to us about what it means for us to live as disciples.

What does it mean for us to live as his disciples? Let me just share a few things.

We'll be rejected and insulted on account of our faith, but we're also blessed. Did you know that?

We are children of God, enjoying his generous rewards as we love our enemies

in the way that he did and does.

We're called to lose our lives for the sake of the gospel, and we'll save our

eternal lives in doing that. Isn't that amazing?

Greatness is found in being the least.

God gives us his Holy Spirit. Blessing is found in obedience to his word.

We have nothing to fear in death, for we are known and valued by the one who

has power over our eternal destiny. Amen.

And if we stand publicly for Jesus today, he will stand and affirm us as his,

subjects on the final day.

We have no need to be anxious.

For all the riches of God's kingdom have been given to us.

And by the way, Jesus is coming back and we won't miss it.

The son of man's return will bring justice for his people.

And whatever you give up to follow Christ and following Christ will mean giving much up.

You and I will receive far more in this life and infinitely more in the next.

Remember how he told you? You can be sure that Jesus has told you everything

that you need to know, that I need to know in order to live faithfully in our

situation, right where we are today in Babin and Alabama.

The women are now identified in the text as who?

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them.

We see that in verse 10 of chapter 24, right?

And since they were likely known to the early church, they could give testimony. This is important.

Testimony to the truthfulness of Luke's account.

It's easy to imagine how excited these women were to tell everybody of the good

news that would turn their sadness into celebration.

For truly understanding, church, the good news about Jesus will always compel

us what? To tell other people.

I think about that old song. I haven't even heard it. Tell somebody.

I got to tell somebody about what Jesus has done for me. Amen.

Tell somebody.

It's kind of a spiritual, but I don't know. James may get up here one day and sing it.

But the reaction of the disciples, though, for this moment here was like a bucket of cold water.

Being poured on these proceedings for a little bit. Look at verse 11 quickly in chapter 24.

Their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Peter went to investigate for himself in verse 12, but without the angelic interpreters,

he could only wonder to himself about the meaning of the strips of linen lying by themselves.

You and I, in a different position than the people in Luke's narrative,

we stand on the far side of the cross and the resurrection, right?

So it's much easier for us to step back and see how those events actually fit

in with the bigger picture of Jesus's life and teaching.

We can see how the ending of the story makes sense of all the parts that came before it, right?

And how God was faithful to keep his promises despite seemingly impossible obstacles.

And it's helpful, I think, to remember this truth, right? When you encounter

times, I encounter times and situations in your life where you experience some

small taste of what the women and the disciples were feeling here.

Think about it. The pain of watching the crucifixion calls them to forget and

ignore the promise of the resurrection.

And when we feel loss and pain, it can seem impossible sometimes to remember

and believe God's promises, can't it?

We're sometimes tempted to believe that God's plan for our lives has just gone awry somehow.

And in those seasons, any talk of hope just seems like nonsense to us,

right? Just like the disciples here.

And in those times, you and I would do well to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Woo, I'm telling you. Remember that.

Trials and problems, I should say, don't take God by surprise.

Somebody should say an amen on that one. Trials and problems do not take God

by surprise, right? They do not.

And as we see on the previous slide, and you can stay here, brother,

no worries. You're at the right place.

But the darkness of midnight does not mean that the dawn is never coming.

And I think I shared this last week because it was part of the message that

was going to be preached that we delayed to this week.

In fact, the longer the darkness, the closer the dawn.

Jesus keeps his words to his followers here. He suffered and then he rose.

This is so important, just like he said, just like he said he would.

And if he was able to keep that promise, you and I can be sure,

church, that he will keep all of his promises to us.

Look at this slide. The resurrection teaches us how to live in the dark,

move toward Jesus. Courageous faith acts before it sees the outcome.

Remember his word. God's promises interpret what circumstances as cannot and

trust the risen Lord, the resurrection guarantees that Jesus keeps his word. Amen.

Amen. Now, here's the invitation today.

Think about it. Where are you maybe in the dark right now?

What opportunities do you have to be a disciple like Joseph possibly?

What will you remember today?

Think about it. What darkness are you facing? What promise of Jesus do you and

I need to remember today?

Who needs to hear the good news from you or me today?

That's the invitation.

Are you going to respond? Are you going to go out and tell somebody what Jesus has done for you?

Are you going to tell them of

the good news that he is no longer in the grave, but he is alive and well?

He is risen. Amen?

Amen. That's the challenge today.

I'm going to invite you to stand for a moment as we contemplate this.

And we're going to pray in just a moment.

Let's bow our heads for a moment. Lord Jesus, we come before you today.

Help us to remember your words when pain clouds our vision, Lord.

Give us courage to move towards you, faith to trust you in every promise, Lord.

Enjoy to tell others, Lord, you're risen. Help us to have a heart that wants

to follow you and to seek and save the lost.

We give you praise today in Jesus' name. I want you to remember this morning,

he has risen, amen? He has risen indeed.

Right now, as Ms. Sharon plays, you have an opportunity to respond.

Maybe it's just you're in the darkness of a bad time in your life.

It might be a health struggle.

It might be a relationship struggle.

It might be a financial struggle. It might be a spiritual struggle.

But you have an opportunity now to trust God and go to His Word. Rely on His Word.

Remember how He told you.

Trust Him.

You know, Scripture says that we're to cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us.

That may be some of you today. Maybe you just need to lay a burden down before the Lord.

Maybe you need to stop carrying something that you were never meant to carry.

Maybe you need to trust Him and what He said in His Word.

Maybe you need to have that renewed passion like these ladies that they just

had to go out and tell all the eyewitnesses of what Jesus had done and accomplished.

They didn't remain silent. Maybe you're like Joseph. Maybe now's the time for

you to stand and make a difference.

Even though it may seem small, you can make a difference in your life,

in your church, in your community, in your workplace, wherever it is.

Let God use you and your courage for His glory.

You be obedient to what God has for you.