Luke 24:1-10 | Experience the Empty Tomb.

There are 1,000,000 and millions and millions of people around

the world today celebrating the Lord Jesus Christ that he came,

he died, he was buried, and he rose again on the third day just

like he said he would. What makes today so special is

that without the resurrection of Christ, our faith means nothing.

Without Jesus raising from the dead, this is just a Country

Club. Like there's no point in us

being here today without Christ being raised from the dead.

And what's wild is that if you look at all other faiths and all

other different belief systems men, there are people that

celebrate and mourn at the tombs of those who they believed came

and established their faith. You could go anywhere in the

world and you see buildings like with gold and fine fabrics and

you see people from all around the world gathered there to pray

and to mourn and to light candles and and to weep and to

and to remember what that person used to do.

But if you go to the tomb of Jesus, we're not going there to

mourn. We're going there to celebrate.

There is nothing elaborate about the tomb of Jesus except that

it's empty. And listen, if that don't excite

you, I don't know what does. And like I, I could barely sleep

last night thinking about today and this message and just

thinking about my week and thinking about like all the time

just talking and, and, and studying and praying through

this whole resurrection. He died on Friday.

He took our sin. They buried him to make sure.

And then he rose again. And as I was praying, I was

like, Lord, what, what do I say today?

Like what, what do I tell your people?

I just continually felt the Holy Spirit say, just tell the story.

Just tell the story. So what I want to look at is the

story of the resurrection in the book of Luke.

Now the resurrection story is in all the gospels, Matthew, Mark,

Luke and John. And what's interesting about

this is that the the the resurrection story and Luke is

actually the shortest as there's not very many details.

So what I want to do is as we go through the story of the

resurrection, I'm going to cross reference a lot.

So that way we get the whole picture of what happened on that

day. And then we're going to pray and

respond to what the word of the Lord has to say.

And then after that, all the kids are going to go outside and

get eggs and then they're, and then, then we're going to push

them to eat candy and then send them all home.

So it's going to be great. All right, Look at verse one,

verse one and two of the story of the resurrection, and we'll

talk about it. We're just going to walk through

this thing like we always do. Verse one says this.

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the

women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, verse 3.

But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord

Jesus. All right, so let's, let's set

this thing up here. So Jesus died on Friday.

He gave his life on the cross. And remember how the Sabbath

works. The Sabbath you can't work, you

can't really do anything. So when Jesus died, Joseph,

Aramanthea, and then also Nicodemus took his body.

And they asked Pilate and the Pharisees for the body, and they

took it and they put it in Joseph's tomb and his tomb.

They didn't have a lot of time to prepare the body.

They wrapped it and they put it in the tomb.

Why am I telling you this? Because this has a this is a key

detail on what we're about to walk through with the women

encountering Jesus. So let's begin the first day of

the week. We know based off the Jewish

calendar that the first day of the week is a Sunday.

The way that the Jewish calendar works, it starts at 6:00 PM and

it goes to 6:00 AM. So that means Saturday is the

Sabbath day. The first day of the week is a

Sunday. Why is that so important for all

of us? Because Sunday is the day of the

Lord. Why do we gather on church on

Sunday? Because he resurrected on

Sunday. That's why we come together as

believers and many people. And there's nothing wrong with

gathering in other days. But the main day, the day that

the Lord rose from the grave is a Sunday.

So that is the Lord's day. And listen, I need to talk to

our men and our fathers and our our guys real quick.

If you're leading your family, well, your kids better know that

Sunday is the day of the Lord. It's not a day to catch up with

life. It's not the day to do laundry.

It's not the day to go play sports.

Like even though those things are fine, it's going to happen,

it's OK, But it doesn't mean that's not what Sunday is.

Those things fall on the Lord's Day.

It's not the Lord's Day falls on those things.

So as we raise our families and as we grow our children and we

teach our kids, our kids need to know that Sunday is the day of

the Lord. So regardless of everything else

that you got going on, you better.

They better know that it's the Lord's Day and we happen to be

doing stuff on the Lord's Day. It's the first day of the week.

And then it says very early in the morning, early in the

morning, this text means it's just the the third watch.

So it was between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM.

You ever hear that saying you were up before Jesus and the

Mexicans? I could say that I'm sure.

All right, so you're like, I'm not coming back.

All right. So it it was between 3:00 and

6:00 AM that these women were up.

We know it was at Daybreak. It was very early in the

morning. These ladies probably didn't

sleep very much the night before, knowing what they saw

and experienced probably an expectation to go to make sure

that the body of Jesus was properly prepared.

Because what they probably experienced was watching Joseph

and Nicodemus do a rush job on it because they had to hurry up.

So that way they beat that Sabbath deadline, they were in

anticipation to make sure that their savior's body was properly

prepared. So they woke up early that day

and it says the woman took spices they had prepared and

went to the tomb. This is where Spice Girls, and

I'm joking, all right, So dad joke, all right, for some of

you, like Gen. Z are like, where are the Spice

Girls? So they took spices.

So what you would do is somebody that had a tomb was usually

somebody very wealthy in the family and they would carve the

tomb out of the side of a mountain or a cave, like out of

rock. And there's pretty much you, you

take a step inside the tomb and then there's compartments where

they would lay the dead bodies and the body of the person in

your family was deceased. They would wrap the body up.

And then they will use spices and ointments and oils to embalm

the body. And then years after the body

decays, they take what's left, which is the wrappings and the

bones. And they put it inside of a box

called the Osos you. Sorry, I can't even say this

word, Ossuary. And that box called the ossuary

is pretty much stays inside of that tomb to remember the dead

and then repeat process of whoever else would pass away.

So the women wanted to go to the tomb to prepare the body of

their Lord Jesus. They woke up extremely early and

as they were going to the tomb, in the Gospel of Mark, it says

that the women were having a discussion as they were walking

toward the tomb. And what they were wondering is

how in the world are we going to move this massive stone?

You see, in a lot of these tombs, the stone was used to

protect the dead body or the, the, the, the, the items inside

from animals or grave robbers. So the tomb had to be extremely

heavy. It had to be able to seal it.

So that stone was a circular object and then they would push

that stone. It would take many men to do

that and the stone would fall inside of this Crest in the

bottom. So once it latched in there

would be really, really difficult for it to move unless

you had many strong men. So in verse 2, it says that they

got there and the stone was rolled away from the tomb.

Did you guys catch that detail? Look at the wording.

It was it was they found the stone rolled away from where?

From the tomb. That means that the stone wasn't

just rolled away like men pushed it.

That means that somebody took that stone and they rolled it

away away from the tomb. It was like somebody just taking

it like light work and just dropping it there.

Now, here's the crazy thing about that detail.

The stone usually measured between like 1.5 and 2 tons.

It was not. It was nothing light.

Let me give you guys some examples.

Mid size sedan is about two tons.

A small Suva large adult rhinoceros.

A fully loaded trailer is about two tons.

Me after going to Texas de Brazil.

I'm not alone about two tons try moving me right.

This thing was heavy all, and for the women to see that detail

and said that the stone was not just rolled away, but it was

rolled away from the tomb. And then in the Gospel of John

says that there was an Angel sitting on top of it.

Like I just did this. So the women get there, they see

the stone rolled away from the tomb, which means it looks like

there's no way men could have done this.

But when they entered, they did not find the body of Jesus.

When they got to the tomb and other gospels and John, Mary

Magdalene got there first and she stood there baffled.

How in the world can this be where the Savior's not here, the

Savior's not here, but they got, she got there first and then the

other ladies came afterward. What I want you all to

understand here with this tomb being so heavy, this tomb had

nothing to do with Jesus coming out.

I say this every Sunday, every every resurrection Sunday has

nothing to do. Like Jesus wasn't waiting there.

Like, all right, let's go. No, like, because what we see in

John chapter 20, he was transcending walls.

John 20 · chapter mention

He showed up to the disciples. Listen, the stone being rolled

away has nothing to do with Jesus coming out as everything

inviting the women in. And it's the same thing to us.

When that stone is rolled away, it is giving you an invitation

to come inside and look. What do you see?

Nothing. Yes, Jesus is not there.

There's something though, his rags that were wrapped.

We'll talk about that here in a second.

The women went inside. They looked.

It was an invitation for them to come in.

And verse 4, it says that when they were wondering about this,

suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood

beside them to the angels. Now, in other gospels, it says

that one of them spoke for the pair.

Matthew focuses on the one that spoke.

But what we know is that angels were present at the resurrection

of Christ. Then verse 5, what?

How did the women respond? The same way all of us would

probably respond if we saw angels.

Terrified. You're not getting your phone

out saying this is going to be a great video.

I'm about to go viral. No, you're about to like, pass

out. When angels show up, it's

terrifying. And verse 5 says, in their

fright, the women bow down with their faces to the ground.

But the man said to them, and this is a question that all of

us should really think about. Why do you look for the living

amongst the dead? I think this is a logical

question that the angels had. What are you doing here looking

for Jesus? This is a place for dead things.

Jesus is not dead. What are we doing here?

And then the Angel begins to remind them of what Jesus said.

And I think that the Angel seemed almost surprised that the

women were surprised because Jesus has been telling them that

this was going to happen and the angels were ready to see this,

so they naturally wondered why the women were surprised.

And I thought it was a legit question, but it's also

something that we should learn from as well.

We should not expect spiritual things from those things that

aren't dead. Why are we looking for things

that are living amongst things that are dead?

Why are we looking for Jesus in religious traditionalism and

formalism, in man's rules and human efforts?

Guys, those things are dead without Christ.

Isaiah says man, like all your righteous acts are number a

bunch of filthy rags for me without Jesus.

All of this stuff and many of us look for Christ and many of us

are looking for life in things that are dead and in God's word

says what, what, what are you doing here?

Why are you looking for things that are living amongst the

dead? We find Jesus where resurrection

life is and we worship him in spirit and in truth, not in our

works that he would look at us and be satisfied.

So we keep going with the story says he is not here, he's risen.

And then the angels do something where the angels are like, but

you did you remember the e-mail we sent?

He's not here, he's risen. Remember how he told you while

he was still with you in Galilee, that the Son of Man

must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified,

and on the third day be raised up again.

Then they remember his words. So when they came back from the

tomb, they told all these things to the 11 and to all the others,

when they finally realized, like this is what Jesus was talking

about. Now in John it says that Jesus

appeared to Mary while she was waiting and weeping.

So Jesus is already making his appearance to everyone.

Now what's interesting about this is that if you were, if you

were to debunk Christianity, you would have to go after the

resurrection. You would have to go after the

resurrection. You could argue about everything

else, but if the resurrection is true, then everything else

follows suit. You got to argue the

resurrection. All right, so this is what I

want to do. I knew that kids were going to

be in here today, so I'm going to ask for my kids.

Kids, where you at? Raise your hand if you're a kid.

I I need you all's help. OK.

All right, Now, listen, when I'm at home and I say something that

makes no sense or something silly, you know what Elena tells

me, Bra. All right, So what I'm going to

do is I'm going to point to you, and I need you guys to give me

your best, like, bra. OK, You ready?

I need all the kids. You got to do better there.

Come on. All right, And the parents, you

could do. You could join in, too.

They probably told you the same thing, Right?

All right, so I'm going to give you an example, guys.

Did you know that when we went to go eat, Rachel said she don't

like C CS? I know.

Isn't that crazy? And then somebody was arguing

with me the other day saying the In-n-out Burger is better than

Whataburger. I know.

And then they're saying that Juanitos is not as good as mil

tacos. Come on.

All right, so every time I point, I need to hear that, OK,

Because listen, here is some debunking theories.

There's something called the wrong tomb theory.

I know. And what the wrong tomb theory

says is that they believe that all the followers of Christ and

the ladies, they, they went to look for Jesus, but they made it

to the wrong address. So when they got there, they

were like, he's not here, but at the same time Jesus was buried

in another place. I know, isn't that crazy?

But here's what's wild because in Matthew, it says that Mary

Magdalene and Mary the mother of James actually saw where Jesus

was being buried. I know.

And then there's another theory called the stolen body

conspiracy theory. That means that somebody came at

night, rolled A2 time stone away, and they took the body of

Jesus. I know, isn't that crazy?

Which makes no sense. But here's what's even Wilder,

because in Matthew 27, it says that there were some guards like

Seal Team 6 Roman guards in front of that tomb, and they put

a Roman seal on the tomb door. And that means if anybody were

to move that it's a crime against Pilot.

You think anybody's crazy enough to go do that?

I know it's nuts. And then there's a theory called

the hallucination theory. I know the hallucination argues

that the disciples experience a shared hallucination rather than

a physical resurrection. There's actually this German

theologian named Gerd Lubman who makes the assumption that

everyone who saw the risen Christ imagined it.

So check this out. That means all 11 disciples, the

women, those who are on the road to Emmaus and 500 plus

witnesses, they all imagined it. I know it makes no sense,

people. Crazy, right?

And it all gets better. And then there's something

called the spiritual resurrection theory, which means

that the body decayed but the spirit resurrected where it says

that when they walked in. They saw absolutely nothing but

sheets of Lenin perfectly on the tomb.

And then the last one. I don't even think I should

mention this one. This is so outrageously

ridiculous. There's something called the

swoon theory, this idea that Jesus actually never died, that

he just passed out, that he was just hurting.

So then when they put him in the tomb, they wrapped him up and he

just got right up and he just pushed over a 2000 ton tomb and

a door. And then he fought off these

soldiers after he's been pretty much beat to death and after

he's been scourged. And then he walked seven miles

to Emmaus all hurt. Have you ever stepped on a Lego?

I step on the leg. I'm out for like 30 minutes.

I'm just like, I can't walk. It's so ridiculous.

Listen, you could do all the theories in the world that you

want, but the truth is, is that Jesus resurrected from the dead.

That's the only explanation. And there's all these messianic

prophecies that point to him doing that.

Jesus rose from the grave. He's not there anymore.

You can't argue that Jesus ain't real.

You can't argue it. Many people that try to disprove

the resurrection actually turn into believers of the

resurrection. God is alive.

So whenever somebody tells you Jesus ain't real, you know what

you tell them? Yeah, he is.

Verse 11. But they did not believe the

women. Oh, sorry, I skipped the verse

here. Verse 10.

Sorry. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanne,

Mary the mother of Jesus, and the others with them who told

this to the apostles. But they did not believe the

women because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

There's a lot of jokes in that one, but I'm not going to

actually bro. So here they are.

They go to the tomb of Christ. They see the angels, they see

the empty tomb, they see the linen lay perfectly on the

grave. Mary Magdalene has an has an

encounter with the living Jesus. They run and they go tell the 11

disciples and they are they're telling they're pouring their

hearts out to them and the 11 disciples are like y'all crazy.

When the ladies told the disciples, you know what the

disciples told the ladies, bro, But there were two disciples

that did it say that two disciples actually went So when

they heard the news the next verse.

Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb, bending over.

He saw the strips of Lenin lying by themselves and he went away

wondering to himself what had happened.

The Gospel of John gives a better description.

It says that when when they, when they heard the news from

the women, even though the other disciples, they didn't really

believe or they didn't really understand what was going on.

It says that Peter and John got up and took off running and into

the book of John. John tells himself that he beat

Peter to it. He showed up first, he had

better cardio. But he gets to the tomb, but he

doesn't go inside. He sees the stone rolled away

and he's just there. But Peter runs inside of the

tomb immediately and he looks around and he's like, man, what?

What happened? You know, Swat about the

resurrection is that not even the disciples believed that it

was happening. The women, nobody thought, which

even proves the resurrection even more because there was no

wishful thinking that it was actually going to go down.

Nobody was prepared for it. So what does this say about us?

What about us? I just want to end with three

things. What does the resurrection mean

to us? So as believers in Jesus Christ,

the resurrection should not just be a Sunday event.

This is something that all of us, this is something that all

of us should cling to. This is the foundation of our

faith and this is how we live, why we live our lives the way we

do. So number one, what does this

mean for us? It means that your life is an

open invitation to show the world what the Lord has done.

Your life is an open invite to show the world what Jesus has

done for you. The same way that the stone was

rolled away from the empty grave is the same way that our hearts

are put on display, that Jesus changed your life so that we,

the whole world, can see that the gospel is real.

The open tomb is an invitation for people to come in and look

around and discover that he's not there.

Your life, the way that you live your life, your heart of flesh.

Paul tells us First Corinthians that you are a new creation.

The old is gone and the new has come.

And for many people, you're going to be the only Jesus that

they get to see. Your life should be put on

display. It should be put out in the open

so people see your life and they're like, there's something

different about that guy. He used to not be that way.

What happened? The empty tomb, That's what

happened. I'm forgiven.

The world can see the risen Savior now.

I'm forever changed. My sins are forever forgiven.

Let the world see #2 what does the empty tomb mean?

Evidence that dead things are no longer attached to you.

Every time you see resurrection in the scriptures, there's

always a note in in the passage that whatever they wrap that

person in comes off. When Jesus died, they wrapped

him in linen and the way that that people would do that is

that linen cloth was wrapped and then in that the wrapped cloth,

sometimes Hebrew or Jewish families would put their name on

it and then they would put spices and ointments and oils

and it almost become like a mummified situation, like it

almost kind of crusted. It got hard to keep the body

from decaying too fast and doing it the right way.

When Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead.

After four days, Lazarus came out and the Bible says that the

heat, Jesus said take off those pieces of clothes from him, he's

no longer in the grave. When Jesus came out of the

grave, he left the very thing that they wrapped him in inside

the tomb. Because when you become alive,

you leave the very thing that signifies death in your life in

the tomb. So if I'm made alive in Christ,

that means like the sin that's so bonded with me, I'm leaving

that behind me. And if the Scripture is correct,

if the gospel is real and the gospel says that I'm a new

creation, that means that dead things no longer have a hold in

my life, then then the question is then why?

Why do I carry that around? It's not attached to you.

That means that you must be holding it.

You've bought into the lie that says that you have to hold these

things forever and that because of your situation and because of

your family and because of the cycle of sin in your family and

because your grandma did it and your auntie did it and your mom

did it, that means that it's stuck with you forever.

And that's not what I see in scripture.

No, it's not. You leave dead things where they

belong, in the grave. But because of the resurrection,

you come out of the grave and you cannot be resurrected unless

you die first. You must be dead to be

resurrected. That means that we have to die

to ourselves. We have to put some things to

death in our life. So that way when we are

resurrected with Christ, like Paul tells us in the gospel in

the New Testament, we are a new creation.

Everything is new. Everything else is left in the

grave where it belongs. Dead things no longer are

attached to you. And then the last thing, and

we'll end with this, the resurrection is not.

So that way you could be amazed, the resurrection, so you could

be saved. The Resurrection Sunday, Easter

Sunday is not a day. So that way we could all come

together and be like, wow, that was an awesome service.

No, it's so we could come together to point everything to

Jesus. So that way you could give your

life to him. You could surrender your life to

him and say, I want to follow Christ.

I'm going to surrender my life to him.

You know what's so crazy about like this?

This account in John when Peter and John run to the tomb in

Luke, it says that Peter got there, he entered, and then he

says he went away wondering to himself what had happened.

Another word that fits better is astonished.

Peter got to the tomb, he looked around and he was astonished.

In John's gospel it says that John.

This is John chapter 20, verse 8.

John 20:8

This is finally the other disciple who reads the tomb

first also went inside and John says that he saw and he

believed. There's going to be one of two

things here. You're either going to be

wondered, astonished in of the resurrection, or you're going to

believe the resurrection is not. So you could look at it and be

like, wow, that's so cool. The resurrection is that you

could look inside and say he did exactly what he said he was

going to do and that he rose from the grave.

That means that the check cleared with God, that the

payment that Christ gave on the cross worked.

That means that forever, forever, forever in my life, I

am now accepted by God through the blood of Jesus.

I am always forgiven and I'm always covered by His grace.

It's not about astonishment, y'all, It's about belief.

It's not about tradition, it's about faith.

Celebrating the resurrection doesn't make you a Christian,

like eating a cheeseburger in and out make you a mediocre

burger. You could celebrate all you want

to, but what we're driving people here, what Christ wants

you to understand is belief. He wants your faith.

You don't get atonement out of amazement.

You get atonement when you put your faith in Christ.

So really what I want to leave you with today is just that.

Do you believe in the resurrection?

Do you believe in the resurrected Savior?

Have you surrendered your life to him?

Have you have you asked for the forgiveness of your sins?

And listen, if you haven't, today is a great day to do that.

You've been invited in. Easter is not just about

tradition, guys. It's about belief.

So what we're going to do is as we worship, we're going to have

our prayer team at the quarters. Listen, if you want to make a

decision for Christ, go to our prayer team, let them know.

I'll be up here till you come talk to me.

I think some of us also need to respond in a way saying, you

know what, I've been a follower, but I have not been baptized yet

because I don't know what that looks like or I have all these

solicit. Baptism is not salvation, but it

shows people what is happening on the inside.

And Christ calls us to do that, be baptized, let the world know,

remember, you're inviting the world in to see what the Lord is

doing. And then lastly, I think some of

us need to take some time and worship and actually worship the

Lord. Put away your devices, put away

your agendas and, and you need to spend time just thanking

Jesus. And he rose from the dead, and

that he resurrected, and I'm forever saved.

And as the Father crushed the Son on the cross, we've been

crushed by His grace. I think some of us just need to

worship and thank the Lord for what He's done.

We'll pray for us and then we'll worship together as a church

family.