1 - The Day After Series

40 Days with the Lord

Part 1 – The Day After

Rev. Bruce A. Shields 4/30/2006

First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan

www.tawasbaptist.org

WELCOME

SCRIPTURE READING

Luke 24:1 – 12 (The Resurrection)

“1 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. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ’The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ “8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT & UNDERSTANDING

Our new series is entitled “40 Days with the Lord”, we have all heard the story many times of Jesus’ ministry, His crucifixion and His resurrection.

What we do not talk about very often is the 40 days He spent with us in His resurrected body before His ascension back into heaven to be with the Father.

We’re going to begin our story where our story begins, with the resurrection.

Resurrection Day, Easter, just took place a couple weeks ago, so it is fitting we begin there.

Our scripture shares with us the most important fact of our faith and our belief is a simple yet powerful statement, Jesus Christ lives!

He has conquered death, to give us life, with the Holy Spirit in us!

The life of Jesus on earth did not end at Calvary… it continued on earth for 40 days and beyond in heaven.

We have at least 15 accounts of Jesus appearing before His ascension within these 40 days, to show us truth of His word, fulfillment of God’s Word, and to give us instruction on living His Word.

Sunday morning, the women came to the sepulcher.

In verse 55 of the previous chapter we see that these women were the women that came with Jesus from Galilee.

Why did they come to the tomb of Jesus that morning?

To bring the spices they had prepared for Jesus’ corpse.

This is what they were accustomed to doing for the dead.

They weren’t there to see the risen Lord.

In fact, they did not believe He was going to rise as He said.

None of them did.

Not the women, not the disciples, or anyone else for that matter.

We know this from the fact that they had prepared His body as they would any other person who died.

They buried it, and closed the tomb.

If they believed He was to rise from the dead, they surely would not have closed the tomb.

They were bringing spices this Sunday morning.

We have the same problem with a lot of people today.

They don’t realize that the Lord is alive.

They do not know that the Lord, though He was crucified for our sins, has risen!

And we sometimes approach Him with our spices or sacrifices, as these women did this Sunday morning, as if He were dead, and inaccessible.

We need to realize that HE IS ALIVE!

They arrived at the tomb, and the stone had been rolled away.

This wasn’t a little rock.

These sepulcher stone doors usually weighed hundreds of pounds.

This alone was no doubt very strange to them.

They entered the tomb not knowing what to expect.

This is so true for us as well!

We go seeking the Lord, not taking into account that He is Alive, and we go with certain expectations, just as these women did this Sunday morning.

They expected to find a closed tomb.

When I first looked for the Lord, I had expectations as well.

But what I expected wasn’t what I found. Thank God, He was more!

More loving;

More gracious;

More caring;

More forgiving;