The Empty Tomb: Belief Beyond Sight

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Okay, well, here's

Chris and I'm Jeff. No, that's not how that's supposed to go.

I was pointing at you saying here's Chris, and then I was gonna say,

and I'm Jeff. Okay, well there's Jeff. Yes, and and

there's Chris. The Bible guys. That's right. That one not that complicated.

It it's just two names that we've had our whole lives. Yeah,

yeah, that's right. We should know who last I knew? Bad.

Well, no worries. So today we have a very exciting segment. Yes

we do. Yes, this is one of your it's in your sweet spot.

So what does that mean. Oh, it's gotta be movies some song

lyric. Yes, it's movies. So this is a movie quote race.

I'm gonna read off movie quotes and we're gonna see how fast Chris can guess

what movie it's from. And I'm racing against racing against the listeners. Okay,

all right, so I'm gonna close my eyes because I get distracted when

I look at you. But if I just hear the movie quote just here,

I'm just going to process the information. That's right, he's praying right

now. This is how Chris jumping jacks here ready, ready, Yes,

you need to stretch. No, no, I'm okay. Okay, here

we go, we go. You sit on a throne of lies. That

was so easy that it's the best quote ever. Sit on a thrown a

fly. That's so great. Okay, And what was the other one?

You smell like beef and cheese. Smell like beef and cheese. You have

the real Sanna. Okay, what song did I sing for you on your

birthday? Okay, your birthday? For of course, we're going to reach

back a little bit. Okay, looks like I picked the wrong week.

Just quit sniffing glue. Oh, airplane, airplane. There you go.

That's so great. That's so great. And throughout the whole movie he gets

done saying things like that, looks like I picked the wrong week. Quit

drinking. Yeah, that's it, And he kept going saying things bend and

snap. Uh, legally, blonde you go? She said, bend and

snap. There you go. Did you did you see that movie? No?

Oh, my goodness, it's it's a It's like one of the most

famous parts of the movie. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, she was

teaching. She was teaching somebody how to flirt and and then uh, and

then this girl tries it and when she snaps back up, she smacks somebody

in the face. It's really funny. Yeah, Okay, did I stutter?

That could be anything? Did I stutter? That's a tough one.

Did I Did I stutter? That could be anything? Man, I don't

want to waste the listener's time here. What is it? It's the breakfast

Club. I'm ninety nine percent positive that it's actually do I stutter? All

right, we'll have to look it up. Yeah, I'm nine percent positive.

This is the scene where so you would have gotten it if I'd said,

do I stutter? I think so because because because this is the scene

where he shows him the cigar burn on his forearm and he goes, see

this, this is this about the size of a cigar. This is what

you get when you spill pain in the old man's garage, and he goes,

do I stutter? We'll have to look it up. Yeah, I'm

because it's past tense versus present tense. That's the that's what threw you off.

The stutter part, Well do my stutter is a famous quote. You

hear it, It triggers the whole speech in your mind. If you're a

fank, Wow, okay, it just so, you're just a finely tuned

machine. So it's okay. Anyways, I'm a loner, Dotty, a

rebel. I'm a loner Dotty. As soon as I read that when I

knew that one. Really, I don't know this one. Yeah, really,

it's gotta be an older movie. Dotty is an old name. Pee

Wee's Big Adventure. Oh goodness, I hated that movie. There you go.

I hated that movie. I saw it one time, and I remember

see the whole movie. I was like, why am I still watching this?

Just so you know, almost every movie I've ever seen, I've seen

one time. So that's I think the difference between the two of us,

right, how many times? How many times have you seen The Breakfast Club?

Never? I've never seen The Breakfast Bro. Bro, you just told

me everything I need to know about you, not everything, dude, you're

my age. Why in the world have you not watched the greatest movie of

our generation? Because I didn't have a TV and wasn't allowed to go to

movies. Right, but then something Remember Captain America even had the list.

Remember he came out the movie. Yeah, he said, I'll add it

to the list. Okay, yeah, sorry, here we go one last

one. Dude, you're gonna have to watch Breakfast Club. I'm in a

glass case of emotions Anchorman. Of course, that's one of the beastlines in

the movie. He's in the phone booth. I'm in a glass case of

emotions. There you go. That's so great. Okay, Chris, Well

you got four out of six. No, I didn't. I got four

out of six. You gave me six. I gave you six. That's

correct. So and you got four of them right, So of the six

I gave I would argue and say that one was faulty. Hang on,

are you looking up? Do I stutter? Is that what you're doing?

Okay? Look at the first thing that came up. Yeah, the Breakfast

Club? Read it? Do I stutter? Do I stutter? It's not

did you stutter? Okay? Did I stutter? It's do I stutter?

So? Is that typed it in? Okay, Well, we're gonna put

that one on Desiree uh, sorry, desiree, but that is definitely not

my fault. There. So, so Chris got four and a half out

of six. No, no, no, no, no no no.

I got four out of five. You got four out of five. Okay,

so you're dismissing that one. Yeah, it wasn't a movie quote,

right, and it was not a quote. It was not a quote.

Okay, tense. Tense matters. Okay, well, quote matters. That's

why it's a quote. Would have thought that the keyword would have been stutter,

not do, but uh, well no, he's never it's the trigger

of the of the speech. Okay, by the way, because the point

is due versus dead. He said, he said this way. The whole

point of the speech was due. He said this way. He goes,

do I stutter? Yeah, I mean that's a pretty big quo, right,

Yeah. It just feels like the word stutter is a bigger deal to

me than do. Oh really, you can't handle the truth? The truth

is the main part of that, right. But what if he said you

can't, uh, you can't manage the truth? That would change the quote.

You're like, that's not Jack Nicholson. So I would have said,

oh, that's that's Jack Nicholson. I would have said that, but it's

the wrong quote. But hey, whatever, you know some people, Hey

you complete me? Is the operative word is complete? Hey you complete the

dog. That's not Jerry Maguire. No, but I would have known what

you were talking about. I would have. Anyways, here we go.

I just like getting under your skin. Yes you did not, So Michelle

g She says, resurrected from the dead. We need to move on.

Jesus has resurrected from the dead, and the ladies have come and they discovered

that the tomb is empty. The angels tell them, why are you looking

for the living among the dead. He's not here. He has risen.

Now go back and tell the disciples, and make sure you tell Peter.

And he's going ahead of you into Galilee. So then, but she's supposed

to go back and tell the disciples. So Peter and John run to the

tomb, and Luke Chapter twenty four, verse twelve says, 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. So that's Luke's version of it, John has exterior motivations as

to why he needs to expand on the story. He says, Peter and

the other disciple, I wonder who that was. Wonder Peter and the other

disciples started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other

disciple outran Peter and reached the whom first. He stooped and looked in and

saw the linen rappings lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon

Peter arrived to win inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there,

while the cloth that had covered jesus heads was folded up and lying apart from

the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went

in, and he saw and believed. For until then, they still hadn't

understood the scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went

home, hard to believe. Until that moment, they didn't under until it

was laid out for them, literally laid out with empty linens and a folded

head napkin. Yeah, they just didn't get it. Hard to believe,

So I think it's hysterical. Yes, Luke gives one verse that just says,

Peter jumps up and runs the tomb and looks in. Yes, that's

it. John goes, well, so it was Peter, and you know

the disciple who Jesus loves. Jesus really loves that disciples, the old guy

and the young guy. This is the oldest disciple and the youngest disciple.

We took off running, and you know, so I beat him. I

beat him the two of course. It's like it's like Jeff and Chris,

if he wrote the story, we'd be writing it that way, right,

And then I beat him to the tomb, not the brag. Yeah,

but I went in. But it's funny because you know, if Mark was

Peter's secretary, Yes, Peter didn't even admit to the race, right,

he didn't even admit that it happened. Well, Mark doesn't record it,

I know, That's what I'm saying. So if Mark's writing Peter's story,

Peter just kind of glossed over that part of it. You know, Hey,

Jesus wanted to make sure I met him in Galilee, right, so

he included that in Mark, but then doesn't admit that he lost a foot

race. It's hysterical. It's one of the things I love about humanity just

in general. Good friends. Right, is this? I love the competitiveness.

I know some people don't like competitiveness, but I love the competitiveness.

I love all the petty little things around being competitive, the trash talking,

the I love that stuff. Now, no, let's be fair too.

It could be that that wasn't John's motivation at all for writing. It could

be right, let's let's let's let's let's enter in a new mindset. It

could be that John was just trying to accurately record any detail, whether whether

too small, too great, and what he was saying was like, this

is exactly how it happened. Yeah, the guy who didn't include what hardly

anything that Matthew, Mark and Luky Listen, I'm saying. I'm saying,

go with me here. John basically wrote his own book. Right, He's

saying go with me here. He's trying to say, hey, here's the

exact details. I got there first, and I and I stood there in

awe, and I and I could not even go in because I was bewildered.

But Peter, you know, being you know, showing the dynamics and

the you know, the aggressiveness of who we know Peter to be right.

Of course, Peter is going to go right in and he's going to examine

the evidence for himself. And so it could be that John was just trying

to give exact pictures of, you know, of what happened in full detail,

and not trying to brag on who won the race. However, I'd

like to think that, uh yeah, because he used the word out ran.

Yes, yeah, right, and he out ran him. I beat

you, right, So Peter, that old guy, he's just not as

fast as he used to be. And I beat him down to the tomb.

You know, I had to wait, as a matter of fact,

I got there and had to wait for him to get there. That's that's

the way he tooks gratulations are years old. It's great. I just I

love it. I love that that is there. Yeah, and it tells

it that way. And then this is so amazing the story itself in that

when Peter shows up again, in Peter's nature, him being so bold,

right, he's the guy who jumped out of the boat and wanted to walk

to Jesus. He's the one who pulled out the sword and cut off the

servants here, right, This is Peter, and he's kind of in fine

form. Again, John steps stays outside the tomb. Now remember as a

good Jews, the whole tomb idea and all this kind of stuff. They're

worried about being unclean. So John, following the rules, stays outside,

peeks in, and Peter just straight in, right, he just goes in

this boldness, this this aggressive stance that he lives his life in. And

then these linen wrappings are left as if Jesus' body just disappeared, right,

So it's still calls them the wrappings. It wasn't that they were unraveled.

It was just that there was a body in it and now there's not a

body in it. And then so that would have been like really really crazy.

Have you heard this theory? And I'm sure you have, but there

there's a word for it, and I don't know what in this moment,

but I've preached it on an Easter before as a as a working theory where

it was almost like a paper mache where have you heard this where king kings

were mummified in a way to where there was like a salv or something that

was going over the wrappings, and it would have been like a hardened shell,

and so if the are still there intact, it would have meant that

Jesus would have phased through it and it might have been like the cocoon,

like a cocoon shaped. Yeah, right now, of course there's no real

evidence of really knowing that. But because of tradition of how kings were wrapped,

and because he was brought you know, with so many kingly, you

know, all the spices would have been fit for a king, right,

that's that's that's the way that they buried him. Yeah, so they mixed

that what did we talk about aloes and myrh yes with oil, and yeah,

it would have made a thing, and it was for the purpose of

the smell, but it was also you know, that was part of the

thing. So they did not embalm Jesus. They did not uh uh,

you know like the Egyptians would where they were mummifying Jesus. They didn't do

that. But there would have been very quickly these wrappings that would have been

that would have wrapped Jesus up, and then that would have had all those

spices and those that that kind of a paste that would have made it.

So yeah, perhaps, but certainly what they saw was there's this empty it

was supposed to be. It was not unwrapped. A thief would have unwrapped

the body it was trying they If so, a thief would have just stole

the whole body and everything in it, right, you wouldn't taken time to

unwrap it. But if they did take the time to unwrap the body,

it would have been unraveled, right, is the point. But here it

was not unraveled. It was just all lying in place, and then the

head covering was folded up nice and neat right there, right, And so

it shows certain intention, not speed of Hey, we had to fight off

some Roman soldiers and steal a body and wrap it, throw it over in

the corner and go right. That's the that's the point. And I think

that why that's why that detail is there, is to show that it's all

just as it should have been, except the head piece was wrapped up.

It was folded up nice. But there was care to this, not some

kind of random right, And it's just one more small details. Yeah.

Yeah, that supports the fact that nobody ran in there in a rush trying

to you know, pull off the greatest hest in humanity. And here's a

question. The question is this, and this is this is a hypothetical.

Would Peter and John have believed as strongly had they not seen the resurrected Jesus

would an empty tomb and the promises of Jesus had been enough? So think

about everything that they had seen, right, Jesus, Jesus uh, calming

the storm and the waves, and then of course raising Lazarus would be the

pretty big thing, right, raising the girl from the dead, and so

so they definitely witnessed it. But had they had just seen the empty tomb

without actually seeing Jesus, would that have been enough? And and I think

the answer is yes. I think the answer is no. I think the

answers yes. Well, Thomas Thomas didn't see the empty tune, but Tomas

was told by eyewitnesses about the empty tune four eyewitnesses. Yes, anyway,

now don't believe it. I'm gonna have to see that's Thomas. That's not

Peter, I'm saying Peter and John. Well, it said that they only

believed after they saw that it was empty and they saw the grave clothes.

That's when they believed. Well, yeah, I mean you definitely would believe

more. Yeah, So it was the grave clothes. I think that got

them right, that's that's they see and they believe because they hadn't understood the

scriptures. So I think that it was the risen Lord. I certainly don't

know that. I think that all eleven of them are all or ten of

the eleven would have died for something that they thought maybe happened. M Yeah,

yeah, okay, yeah, maybe so I wouldn't, But I don't

think I would die for a thing I thought maybe would have happened. I

would say maybe it happened. Well, was choosing to believe it happened?

That wasn't my question. My question was would they they completely convinced? Yeah,

that's what I'm saying. I don't know that I would yeah, yeah,

And it's just hypothetical. So it doesn't matter, right because Jesus appeared

and they believed. But it does crack me up, how you know,

from our side, it seems a little easy for us to go. I

can't believe they didn't believe. Jesus was really crystal clear, you know.

But at the same time, you know, again, the Chosen is something

that I went to see last night at the theaters, and the Chosen is

not based on biblical fact. It's it's it's actually based on the biblical efacts

are in the Bible, but then it expands hypotheticals all the time. So

there's a ton of hypothetical in there. And so that's what I'm meaning.

It's definitely based on the facts in the Bible, but it's hypothetical. But

one of the things that it did is it opened my mind to just perhaps

perceiving or receiving in a little bit of a different way, whereas its sometimes

we'd be tempted to read and you know, here it says they didn't believe

the scriptures. You know, well, actually it does say. It says

they went and they saw and believed. So it is it is so they

saw the empty tomb and believed. Yes, yes, yes, yes,

But it was the I think the other that they believed, because the other

one said they went home again wondering what had happened. Yea, yeah,

yeah, after seeing the empty tomb in the linen wrappings. Well, anyway,

and here's my point about the Chosen is that is that in the Chosen

Jesus is talking about his death, and you know, he says something about

the temple and things, and they're like, what did he mean by that?

You know, he often says things that you don't really know if he's

being literal or not right, and they're saying these things among themselves, and

it just opened my mind to go, you know what, that's correct,

Like Jesus often said things that were hard to understand, and there's a part

of me that goes, oh, I think I could relate to the fact

that, you know, maybe they left some room in their mind to say,

I don't think he was meaning literal when he said the Son of Man

must you know, die and rise again. They're like, what's that symbolic

for? You know, it just it just really it really opened my mind

to the fact that, you know, let's give the disciples a little bit

of grace here. Sure, oh yeah, sure, so they certainly believed

when they when they see these the cloths and the empty tomb, they believe

in that moment. Thomas didn't believe until he saw Jesus even he'd heard it.

So it's it's it's yeah, I think that's a great question to ask.

I'm not sure, but again it doesn't matter because because it didn't happen.

But hey, one thing is for sure for us. We didn't see

the empty tomb in the resurrected Jesus. Right, we only have the testimony.

We only have the testimony. However, we have to consider the fact

that Jesus makes himself real in our lives. So one of the things that

I always like to say is I always like to say, like, hey,

if you're a skeptic and you want to explain away the the you know,

the the inconsistencies in the Bible, right, you want to explain away

how the Bible isn't real, Lord, it's written by man, or maybe

you're trying to disprove the resurrection. There's not enough evidence for you personally.

And you could try to do that all day long. Right, you can

just try to explain away everything, But the one thing you can never explain

away are the billions of people who have experienced Jesus firsthand, the billions of

people who have who have whose lives have miraculously been changed by the same power

of God, with the same testimony being the same Jesus, who have stories

that defy comprehension and defy the odds, and and and so of every by

the way of every single culture, not just one culture, every culture,

every continent, every person from everywhere. And so it's like, how can

you explain that away from every generation? And the bottom line is you can't.

You can't deny that. And so even though that we don't necessarily we

didn't have the privilege of seeing, you know, the resurrected Jesus and you

know, touching his hands and his feet, as Thomas is going to do

in just a few moments in the next couple episodes. But still, you

know, we have the evidence of Jesus in our lives, which then,

you know, you know, lets us believe his promises. And then so

many of the other incidental evidences. For instance, if in that day,

if you and I were trying to make up a religion, what we with

a god, we would not admit that we didn't understand anything he said.

Up to the point that they come in and they're shocked. The body's gone

right, what do you mean? What right? All the first four followers

of Jesus are shocked, the body's gone yes. Whereas James and John,

if they were John and Peter, if they were trying to start a religion,

a fake religion, they would have been and we knew all along,

right, So just the little incidental thing of them being shocked is another indicator

that this is a legitimate record of what they were experiencing in the moment,

because you would never confess that you didn't know or didn't understand the leader,

right, and think about this too, God, God allowed it to happen

that way and be recorded this way for us to encourage us that, you

know, sometimes we doubt, and it's okay, it feels even Peter doubted.

That's right, even John didn't understand. So we can't be too hard

on ourselves because as much has changed over two thousand years, so much has

stayed the same, which is our human nature, our skepticism, our inability

to believe and walk by faith. And so when God says walk by faith,

he's asking us truly to, you know, put our faith and trust

in the unseen r So Hebrew says, you know, faith is the evidence

of things unseen, that's right, right, the things that the substance of

things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen right, which is great.

Well, I think that's a good place to end, so we will continue

on with the fantastic story next time. On the Bible guys