This Changes Everything: Luke 24:1-12

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And we don't typically say this from the podium in the middle of October, but Jesus Christ is risen.

Oh let's try one more.

Yeah, now you know where I'm going.

Jesus Christ is risen.

Amen.

It's like Christmas in July, like Easter in October, isn't it?

Because we get to study the account of the resurrection today.

And my goodness, I'm really excited about that.

Welcome to our friends who are joining us and watching online.

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Welcome.

We're glad you're here and pray that the Lord would bless you in this coming week.

Well, this morning we are in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, the first 12 verses.

And I know, I would guess almost all of us in here are familiar with the resurrection story because we preach through it every Easter Sunday and we talk about it all the time.

And so in that sense, it's familiar.

But I would say we need to hear this story over and over again, frequently, because we can forget, can't we?

We need to remind ourselves of the glorious truth of this story and what it means for us.

And I'm praying that for all of us today that we'll hear this familiar story with fresh ears.

In his intensely personal book, Confession, the amazing author Leo Tolstoy talks about a spiritual awakening that he had later in life.

It's an exploration of doubt and despair.

Despite his early great literary success, he was at a point in his life where he was realizing the vacuity of all things, and he even contemplated suicide as he asked the question that any of us might ask apart from the resurrection.

And he asked in this book, he said, Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?

Is there any meaning to our lives, if this is all there is?

Is there any meaning to our lives that escapes death?

And I have to say, I think apart from the resurrection, the answer is no.

We're here, we're gone.

End of story.

Next in line, please.

But because of the resurrection, brothers and sisters, that answer is yes, there is meaning in my life, in your life, meaning that does not get destroyed by our physical death.

There's meaning to our joys, our suffering, our work, our relationships.

There is meaning to our lives that lasts beyond this life because of the resurrection.

Come on.

And that's why I'm calling our message today.

This changes everything.

Pray with me, church, and then let's study this account and see what it holds for us this morning.

Heavenly Father, we all come in to this sanctuary this morning with a mixed bag that we're carrying on our back.

Joys and sorrows mixed together in this bag.

And we come today wanting to hear from you, needing to hear from you, wanting to be reminded of the truth of the story that is a true story, the most true story ever told.

That you love us, you came to rescue us, that you have conquered death, and so everything that is against us has been conquered by you.

Holy Spirit, we ask that you would illuminate your word and your truth and speak to each one of us right where we need to be spoken to.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Alrighty, so we are in Luke 24, and I'm going to start by reading the last two verses of Luke chapter 23 that Pastor Jim taught through last week, verse 55 and 56.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

The women who had come with him, Jesus, from Galilee, followed Joseph of Arimathea.

If you remember, Joseph was the one that got permission to take Jesus' body down off the cross and bury it in his tomb.

So the women who'd come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.

Then they returned and prepared spices and anointments, and on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

And can we just stop for a second and marvel at the obedience of these women?

They had followed Jesus for several years.

He was physically dead.

They witnessed his death on the cross.

They followed Joseph to the tomb, so they saw him buried.

All of their hopes and dreams, everything from the last three years, just clanged to shut when that stone was rolled over the opening to the tomb.

And how do they respond?

They go to their homes, they lovingly prepare spices and ointments for anointing the body, but then they rest on the Sabbath, faithfully observing the commandments.

That's just amazing.

In the midst of this heartache, they still trust and worship and obey God.

It's just amazing.

Just blows me away.

So let's move on to 24, verse 1.

But on the first day of the week, which for us would be Sunday, at early dawn.

All of the Gospels have this story, different versions of this account, but all of them have this account.

First day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

In Mark's gospel, there's even a little bit of a conversation with the women as they're going in the dark, early morning, to anoint the body.

There's a little bit of a conversation that they've been having about, gosh, who's going to roll the stone away?

Well, we read here that when they get to the tomb, the stone has been rolled away.

So they were expecting to find the stone still in front of the tomb.

They were expecting to find the body of a dead Jesus lying right where he had been left on Friday afternoon.

So much of this encounter is unexpected.

The open door, the rolled away stone, the empty tomb, the angels that we're gonna read about in the next verse, all of this is so unexpected.

And I actually believe that adds to the veracity of the account.

This is all, it's not pre-planned out.

It's not scripted out, it's all unexpected.

Well, verse 3.

When they went in and they did not find the body of the Lord, but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

Well, these two men were angels, and there are angels in each of the gospel accounts.

Verse 5, and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

Jesus Christ is alive, friends.

He is not here, verse 6, he is not here but has risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.

So the women had forgotten these words.

Jesus started telling his followers about this way back in chapter 9 of Luke.

He had a conversation with the disciples where he asked them, Who do the crowds say I am?

And then he said, Who do you say I am?

And Peter answers and says, You are the Christ of God.

And as soon as Peter says that, Jesus charges them not to reveal that to anyone, and then he says, This is what's going to happen.

I'm going to be delivered up, I'm going to be killed, and on the third day I will be raised.

He tells them that same thing again, right as they come down from the Mount of Transfiguration.

The women have forgotten this.

Jesus was very plain about this until the angels remind them.

And that, my friends, is why we continue to tell each other and remind each other of these great truths because we're prone to forget as life presses in on us.

So, verse 9, returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.

And I love it.

I love how Luke dignifies these women by mentioning some of them by name.

And he referred to them way back in chapter 8.

Joanna is the wife of a man named Chusa, who was the head of Herod's household, basically his chief of staff.

So the women told the apostles of all that had happened.

In verse 11, we read, these words seemed to them like an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

I don't want to go too easy on the disciples here.

Let's put ourselves into the context of the culture.

If you remember, women were regarded as a lower class citizen, the men, they were not even allowed to testify in a court of law about legal proceedings.

And yet, these are the very first people that witness the empty tomb and the risen Jesus.

And that's something else that speaks to the veracity of this story.

If you were scripting out this story, you would surely get the most reputable person that anybody knew of to see the empty tomb and the risen Jesus.

Instead, it's these women that people will discount.

And that adds to the veracity of the story, in my opinion.

But here's something else that I just love that it was the women that witnessed this because the women had followed Jesus all these years.

Except for John, the disciple, the women were the only ones at the cross that saw Jesus die.

And except for Joseph of Arimathea, they were the ones that witnessed the body, the dead body, being buried in the tomb.

So you actually have women who were eyewitnesses to the whole episode: the death of Jesus, the burial of the very dead Jesus, then the rolling back of the stone, and the encounter with the angels, and the absent body, but the present risen Jesus.

The women witnessed all of this.

And in order to have a resurrection, you have to have a dead body.

And they were the ones that witnessed it.

And by the way, the fact that the stone was rolled away, I think is for our benefit to see the empty tomb that Jesus is alive, because we read later in one of the gospels, even though Jesus was risen in bodily form, he could walk through walls.

So he didn't need to open the door of the tomb to get out.

He could have just passed through the stone wall.

But instead, he rolls the stone away so for the benefit of all of us to see that there is an empty tomb, that Jesus is not there.

Well, let's keep going.

This last verse of our passage, verse 12.

But Peter, it starts with, and I love this.

The disciples don't believe what the women are telling them.

But something about it grabs Peter.

So what do we read?

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb.

Stooping, and I love the detail that Luke gives us, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen claws by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Man, Peter, he is a man that is desperate because he'd give anything to take the last few days of his life back.

And he has to see if there's any truth to this story.

And we read in John's Gospel that John ran along with Peter, and Peter just went headlong into the tomb.

And at first John wouldn't, but when he heard the tomb was empty, he went in.

And there's a little detail here that fascinates me.

The detail about the cloths.

The claws that were wrapped around Jesus' body were set aside, piled up, and then in John's Gospel, we also read there was a cloth that was wrapped around the head of Jesus.

It was neatly folded up in another spot.

And this makes me think of two different things.

You know, some people accused the disciples of either stealing the body or perhaps there were grave robbers that had stolen the body.

And this was a thing people would sometimes rob graves of valuables that people left with their dearly departed.

But if you've ever experienced a robbery, you know that thieves are not prone to neatly fold things up before they leave.

They would just come in, make a mess of things, and leave.

And then the other thought that occurred to me was that the clause being so neatly placed seems intentional to me.

Kind of like when you get up in the morning and you make your bed.

This doesn't speak to me of somebody who woke up because he had just swooned on the cross, didn't know where he was, and is feverishly grabbing at all of the claws on his body to remove them and somehow get out of a closed tomb.

No, this speaks to me of Jesus who woke up, knew who he was, knew where he was, did this and opened the door, the stone, rolled it away, neatly folded the grave claws that he doesn't need anymore because he's living, he's not dead, and then he goes on his way.

And I wonder what Jesus was feeling at that moment when he wakes up and he realizes the job is done, the work is finished, I am at one with my father again.

What an amazing moment that must have been.

Well, I think there's three defining moments of Luke's gospel story.

There's the incarnation, what we could call the great descent, where God comes and takes on the form of a man.

And then there's the crucifixion, which we call the great exchange, where Jesus willingly exchanged his righteousness for our sins so that we could become the righteousness of God, like we hear in 2 Corinthians 5.

And then in the resurrection, this is what we can call the great reversal because death has been defeated, and Jesus has just changed everything.

Everything that happened because of the fall.

It's foundational to the Christian faith.

Because if Christ hasn't risen, then our faith is in vain.

Because our faith is in Jesus, it's not faith in faith.

It's not faith in a great teacher, you know, oh gosh, he was really great and he was really brave, but I'm sorry he's dead.

No.

Our faith is in Jesus who kicked death in the teeth and walked out of the tomb, who did what he said he was going to do.

The resurrection is in that living Jesus.

That's what our faith is.

The resurrection is a historic event.

He really rose from the dead, not spiritually, not euphemistically, not metaphorically.

He rose in a bodily, physical body.

Only Jesus is our Savior because He did things in our death, in His death and resurrection that no one else has done.

There have been plenty of criminals who have died for their own sins.

There have been plenty of heroes who are willing to die selflessly for others, soldiers, firefighters, police who run into danger, even heroic citizens, parents, school teachers who put themselves in the way of danger to protect others.

There have been plenty of martyrs down through the centuries, people who have been willing to die for religious or political reasons.

Almost all of the disciples ended up being martyrs for the faith.

But there is only one Savior, and that is Jesus, because even though what he did was heroic, even though what he did, we can classify him as a martyr because he did die for what he believed in, but beyond all that, he is our Savior because he took all of our sins upon himself.

No one else is able to do that, although plenty have died for their own sins.

Nobody can take others' sins upon them.

He's the only person in history to do that.

And he is the only person in history who said, I had the authority to lay my life down and pick it back up again.

And he did that very thing.

Only a Savior, only God in human flesh could do those things.

So without the resurrection, there is no Christian faith.

Because he did what he said he was going to do, we are compelled to listen to him, to pay attention to what he has to say, to take him seriously.

Tim Keller talks about this in The Reason for God.

He says, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said.

If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?

The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he arose from the dead.

Because if Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything.

That moves Jesus from teacher, rabbi, miracle worker into an entirely new category.

Paul wrote about the importance of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, which it was written only 15 or 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

This letter was written before the Gospels were written.

So let's look at this and not just gloss over the weight of these words.

They're powerful.

And I want to read it a little slowly with some emphasis so we get how important this was to Paul.

He says, For I delivered to you, this is just 15 years after the resurrection, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.

That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some have fallen asleep.

Do we get a sense of the weight of these words?

And think of those 500 eyewitnesses that Jesus appeared to.

Most of them were still alive when Paul wrote this letter.

Eyewitness evidence of a resurrected, physical Jesus walking around and appearing to people.

And later on in the same chapter, Paul emphasizes how essential the resurrection is.

In verse 14, he says, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.

Without the resurrection, Paul says, this is all pointless.

Well, if there's no Christianity without the resurrection, then I think it's safe to say that the resurrection changes, redefines, and reshapes everything.

I read a quote from a pastor this week that said, Genesis ends with Joseph's death, Deuteronomy ends with Moses' death, Joshua ends with Joshua's death, the gospels end with the resurrection of Jesus.

That is just good news.

And boy, that changes everything because Jesus walked out of the tomb.

And that fact, the resurrection, it becomes the lens through which we view the world, and it's the lens through which everything in our lives can make sense.

Look at what the resurrection changes.

It changes our relationship to God.

Colossians chapter 1 reminds us of how God intends to reconcile back to Himself everything in correct creation in heaven and on earth, everything back to him by the blood of Christ shed on the cross.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

No longer is God somewhere out there in the universe, a faraway, impersonal God that drop-kicked the universe into existence and then, see you later.

No, God is personal, personal.

He's no longer inaccessible because of what Jesus did.

We now have access to God.

We have the ability to have a relationship with God, and the Holy Spirit of the living God lives inside us and communes with us.

Jesus is alive.

And we're taught in Hebrews that he now lives and reigns physically, bodily with the Father in heaven, seated right next to the throne of God, and he always lives to intercede for us.

And isn't that great news?

Because no matter what is going on in our lives, right now, at this very second, for every one of us who is a believer, right now, Jesus is interceding for you and for me.

At this very second, the second after that, the day after, the day after.

Not only has our relationship to God changed because of the resurrection, our relationship to each other has changed.

It doesn't just reconcile us to God, but it also reconciles us to each other.

Ephesians 2 reminds us that He Himself is our peace, and His purpose was to create in Himself a new humanity, that we're no longer strangers and aliens with each other, but we're called fellow citizens.

We all have access in the one Spirit to the Father.

The living Spirit of Christ enables us to reconcile with one another.

As Colossians 3.13 tells us, bear with each other, forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

We can do this because of the Holy Spirit.

We're called to forgive each other just the same way he's forgiven us.

And in this day and age, our culture needs good forgivers, don't we?

We accomplish that through the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 1:3 says we've been given new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

This resurrection, it gives us new purpose in life.

Even if our circumstances stay the same, jobs, health, relationships, all of these are viewed through a new lens, through a new purpose in life, to live our lives in the light of the resurrection.

And Ross Clover just shared that in that portraits of grace video, didn't he?

How his mom lived with that purpose, and how now, presently, God is calling Ross and enabling him to live with that purpose.

If you're a barista, no longer are you just a barista, but you're now a barista living in light of the resurrection with every shot of espresso you pull.

Right?

Make it a good one.

I'll have a double.

Christopher Watkin talks about this in his book, Biblical Critical Theory, and he says to take account of the resurrection of Christ is to wake up in a new reality strikingly different from the world inhabited by those for whom Christ rising from the dead is a myth or hoax.

It transforms our sense of who we are in the world, what we are to do, and why we are to do it.

We are transformed.

Who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

Everything now is different because we're walking in the light of Christ walking out of the tomb.

We can live boldly, we can live fearlessly, giving our fears and doubts to Jesus the living Christ.

And we have his Spirit residing within us, and this is why the disciples lived such transformed lives after they encountered the risen Christ.

This is how the gospel spread like wildfire in the first century.

John Stott talks about this.

He says, authentic Christianity, the Christianity of Christ and his apostles, is supernatural Christianity.

It's not a tame and harmless ethic consisting of a few moral platitudes spiced with a dash of religion.

It is rather a resurrection religion, a life lived by the power of God.

That is how we can live, friends.

Well, lastly, because of the resurrection, the worst thing is not the last thing.

D.A.

Carson said in a sermon, and this is not a slide, he said, Oh, you're not suffering from anything that a good resurrection can't fix.

So the worst thing for each of us, because of the resurrection, the worst thing is not the last thing.

The worst thing for each of us, and there's plenty of worst things to go around, maybe a seriously ill family member, a tragedy that's already happened, or you're fearful might happen, might be around the corner, fracturing of a relationship that you thought was lifelong, a loss of a job you didn't see coming.

Some of us in the congregation are living through our worst things this morning.

And I'm here to remind us that because of Jesus, because of the resurrection, those worst things are not the last things.

There is life in Christ beyond the worst things.

And another attribute of this resurrected living Christ Christian faith is the hope that comes from the resurrection.

We can live in the beautiful freedom of one who's been forgiven for the wrongs we have done to others, and we can live free from the wrongs that others have also committed against us.

We have the promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit living in our lives, forgiving us, healing us, equipping us, walking with us through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in presently, and then we have a hope for our ultimate future in Christ, where all of the sad things of today become untrue.

I heard this next slide in a Tim Keller sermon this week, and I really wanted you to hear this.

He says, the resurrection gives us a hope for the future.

That the future is there, that it's personal, that it's certain, and it's unimaginably wonderful.

Friends, our future is there.

The antithesis of what Leo Tolstoy talked about.

Our future is there.

It's not make-believe, it's not made up, it's a real future, and it is there.

It's personal.

When Jesus walked out of the tomb and he met people after that, post-resurrection, he had a relationship with them.

He knew them, they knew him.

Our future is personal because we have a relationship with the risen Christ.

Our future is certain.

Everything has changed and become new because Jesus walked out of the tomb.

And lastly, this future that lies ahead of us is unimaginably wonderful.

The worst thing is not the last thing, friends.

This resurrection proof of all that Jesus said he was going to do and did, all of who he said he was and is, it's the preview for what awaits us.

It's the bedrock of our Christian hope.

Lee Strobel talks about this in his book, The Case for Easter.

He says, the resurrection is the supreme vindication of Jesus' divine identity and his inspired teaching.

It's the proof of his triumph over sin and death.

It's the foreshadowing of the resurrection of his followers.

It's the basis of Christian hope.

It is the miracle of all miracles.

So, brothers and sisters, this is such good news.

I encourage you to tell yourselves and tell each other this great news every morning when you get up.

Remind yourself of the true story of God's love for you, the death of Jesus on the cross to take away your sin and his glorious resurrection.

Tell yourself that true story every day.

The worst thing is not the last thing.

The worst thing might be the next to last thing, but it's not the last thing.

And I'll close with this Biekner quote that says very similar to that.

He says, the worst isn't the last thing about the world, it's the next to the last thing.

The last thing is the best.

It's the power from on high that comes down into the world that wells up from the rock bottom, worst of the world like a hidden spring.

The last best thing is the laughing deep in the hearts of the saints.

Yes, you are terribly loved and forgiven.

Yes, you are healed.

All is well.

So, friends, you are loved.

You are forgiven.

You are healed because Jesus Christ has risen.

All is well.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Jesus, we are so grateful that you are a man of your word.

That your promises were not empty.

That your promises were not a lie.

That you promised to redeem us and you are able to do that very thing.

We are so grateful that the worst thing is not the last thing.

That the last thing is the best thing.

It is the future that we have ahead of us in you.

We love you.

We give our hearts to you, and we lift this up in the name of Jesus.

Amen.