Okay, The Tomb Is Empty… So What
Video – Because Of Him
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved…
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also… - 1 Corinthians 15:1-7
Prayer
It was dark when they headed out early that Sunday morning... They got up and put on their garments grabbed the spices and headed out on the dirt road that lead out of the city.
AND – as journeyed down the road and as the sun began to rise the path was lined with many dark shadows... but no shadow or darkness could compare with the darkness that seemed to be hovering over and consuming their soul – ripping their through their minds like violent hurricane force winds.
YOU SEE - They had been there when Jesus rode in on the colt before thousands shouting his praises, what an incredible moment that was. But unfortunately both their minds and the events of last week didn’t stop there.
YEAH - try as they might they couldn’t stopped those other thoughts, those terrible scenes from playing out again and again in their minds.
They saw Jesus tied to a post a Roman scourge filled with broken pieces of pottery, glass and bones ripping across His back.
They saw - the purple robe -- the beatings, the cruel mocking and the crown of thorns… AND – as these images ripped through their minds the tears began to flow again.
They had seen it all -- they had seen Jesus, their teacher, their friend, their Lord they had witnessed everything that Jesus went through...
And these 2 women, these two Mary’s (Mary of Magdeala and Mary the mother of James) were there at the cross...
They saw Jesus hanging there on that rough cross of wood... they saw His body struggle and wince with pain with every breathe that he took... those 6 hours.
They were there when Jesus cried out, "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI -- MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAS THOUGH FORSAKEN ME" -- and they saw his head fall as he cried, "IT IS FINISHED."
father into your hands…
They where there when Jesus died, and when he died they died to.. O’ they were still alive physically but their hopes and joy died on that cross with Jesus, Their Lord was dead... And their hope was gone.
SO WHY - are they doing up so early on this Sunday morning? WHY - aren’t they lying in bed wallowing in their misery...
WHAT - was it that drove them from their beds before dawn, and put them on this dark up hill climb.
UNDERSTAND - The thing that drove them, was their love for and devotion to Jesus -- someone had to prepare the body for burial and no one else had volunteered…
Peter didn’t, James didn’t, neither did John -- So it was up to these 2 faithful followers, 2 women who had never left the side of Jesus, -- it was up to them to do it, and they did..
The task they were going to preform was a somber task, a difficult task... They would be the ones, who would wipe the blood from the brow, from the legs, from the sides, They would be the ones, to clean the blood from the body of Jesus... they would be the ones, to remove the blood that had matted in his beard, They would be the last ones, to touch his face and close His eyes.
And as they were nearing the tomb -- suddenly a problem -- something they hadn’t thought of until now, entered their minds and they said to each other,
“Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.
When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, but the angel said, “Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.” - Mark 16:3-7
QUESTION - have you ever wondered why and for who the stone was rolled away? WAS - it rolled away for Jesus? No, he was already gone. AND - besides the risen Son of God doesn’t need anyone to do anything for Him.
SO THEN – why and for who, was the stoned rolled away for?
WELL…
THE WHO - would be (it was rolled away) for the women, and for us…
AND THE WHY – is so that we would know that the tomb was and still is empty…
TODAY – is Easter 2014… Welcome to The Grove!
AND - as you can see in your notes, the title for our conversation this morning... is ‘OKAY, The Tomb Is Empty…So What?’
What’s the big deal.
WHY - all the HYPE… WHY – for 2000 years has there been this crazy, unending fuss over an empty tomb?
AND LISTEN – there is no denying that there really has been a fuss, right? I MEAN – think about it, it’s 2000 years later and we are still talking about this empty tomb. Billions are celebrating it with us.
SURE – the world can try to cover it up with peeps, chocolate bunnies and looking for eggs… not sure when or how that stuff started, but I’m not against it… BUT – when the bunnies are eaten, the peeps consumed and the eggs are found – everyone still know that Easter is still about the empty tomb.
AND – if you think about it, even some of those bunnies are proclaiming the message… most of those bunnies are hollow.
Toss out a few…
Win them over with candy, right?
‘Okay, The Tomb Is Empty… So What?’
WELL – for the next few minutes I want to talk about the ‘So What?’ of Easter and the empty and what they meant 2000 years and what it still means to us who are in this room today.
THIS CONERSATION – is built around 3 simple statements that change absolutely everything!
The Empty Means…
I. Jesus Is Alive!
Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. – Mark 16:7
Jesus isn’t here, the tomb is empty – why, because He is alive!
Unthinkable
Impossible
Unfathomable
Unprecedented
Like all who proceeded Him, Jesus lived and He died.
But unlike all who proceeded Him, Jesus rose from the dead.
A Single act that changed and will always changing history!
AND LISTEN - He is alive because it was impossible for death to hold him. NOW THAT - is exactly what Peter said in Acts 2 when he preached the Gospel for the first time.
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. – Acts 2:23,24
UNDERSTAND - the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of Christianity
And since the resurrection is so essential it has been attacked from the very beginning by Christ’s enemies,
WE SEE THIS - in Matthew chapter 27, as the religious leaders start freaking out and getting nervous after Jesus death.
UNDERSTAND – the last thing these guys wanted was an empty tomb.
THAT IS WHY – they went to Pilate on Saturday and said, “Hey when Jesus this great deceiver was alive he said that he would rise from the dead in 3 days (apparently they had listened to a few of Jesus’ podcasts and were taking notes).
SO – we need to make sure that his disciples do not steal the body and steal our victory and continue their lie. Governor, we must make sure the tomb is secure…”
AND PILATE – did just that. HE – sent several of his best soldiers to guard and he put his seal on the tomb… a seal that if crossed or tampered with meant death...
AGAIN – Jesus’ enemies FEARED an empty tomb and they still do.
THAT IS WHY – when the terrified guards….
THE ONES – who had witnessed the violent earthquake that broke the seal and rolled back the tomb… THE ONES WHO – saw the angel of the Lord (whose appearance) was like lightening standing by it… EXPERIENCES – that made these seasoned soldiers… well, checkout what scripture says, I love it… The guards were so afraid of Him that they shook and became like dead men. – Mt 28:4 THAT IS WHY – when these guards told the religious leaders who had Jesus killed what had happened… THEY – quickly spun a lie an attempt to explain away what they feared most – an empty tomb.
“You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” 1So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. – Matthew 28:13-15
Pretty lame, right?
BUT UNDERSTAND - the attacks still continue to this day, but the burden of proof rests not on the believer but on the unbeliever to explain the empty tomb.
Many theories have been proposed over the years as to why the tomb is empty, all of which are weak and far fetched. And each one requires that the disciples be part of a cover up as they promoted and preached a lie – that Jesus rose from the dead and we saw Him….
Charles Colson, the former counsel of President Nixon, convicted conspirator in the Watergate scandal, writes that the Watergate cover up convinced him that Jesus rose from the dead. He said…
There were only 8 or 10 of us in the inner circle around the President who really knew what was going on. All we had to do was stonewall for a couple of months and the Watergate Scandal would be over. We had all the power and prestige of the Presidency at our fingertips. And if the truth broke there would embarrassment and perhaps a prison sentence.
There was no grave danger. Our lives were not threatened. But we could not hold the conspiracy together for more than 2 weeks. We could not contain the lie. Once prosecution was possible, the natural instincts of self-preservation was so overwhelming that the conspirators one by one deserted their leader. They caved in and they stood in line at the prosecutors office to escape jail.
COLSON CONCLUDES – “I know that the disciples could not perpetuate a lie like the resurrection. Because it was not just their reputations that were at stake, their lives were in danger. They had no clout. They had nothing to gain by the lie, and yet everyone of them stood fast in the conviction that Jesus is alive.
Take it from one who saw first hand how vulnerable a cover up is: Nothing less than a witness as awesome as the resurrection of Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers (as they each except John, died a matrys death) Jesus is alive and He is Lord!
MGCC
WHEN – people consider the evidence…
• The Christian church whose origins can be traced to the time of His death
• The eye witness testimonies of the resurrection 500+ people
• The inability of anyone in the first century to produce the body of Jesus, which would have quenched the fire of this movement
• That all time revolves around this man Jesus
• The testimony of non-Christian writers in the first century.
• The billions of changed lives over the years
• The empty tomb
THERE IS – no other conclusion that an individual in the pursuit of the truth can make, other than that Jesus Christ is Alive and rose from the dead!
I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof, which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.
– Sir Lionel Luckhoo (quoted in ‘The Case For Christ’)
II. Jesus Is Who He Said He Was!
NOW UNDERSTAND – throughout His ministry Jesus said that this (that what happened on that first Easter weekend – the betrayal/the arrest/the denials/the crucifixion/His death/ and His resurrection) were going to happen.
WHEN – Jesus came into Jerusalem to begin his ministry (after over turning tables – and driving the money changers out of the Temple) He said, “Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it up in three days…” (John 2:19).
HE SAID – (in Matthew 12:40, to some religious leaders who were challenging him after He had cast out a demon) as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
AND JESUS – said to His guys as He prepared to go to Jerusalem for the last time in (Matthew 16:21) that - he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life…
UNDERSTAND – from the beginning to the end of His ministry Jesus said that He would – suffer, die and rise again … AND HE ALSO SAID – that His resurrection would be irrefutable proof that he was exactly who he said he was… God in the flesh. The bread of life. The light of the world. The Great I Am. The Savior King. The Christ. The Messiah. The One all of the Old Testament was pointing to and waiting for from the very moment the first man and woman took the bite of that forbidden fruit.
CHECK OUT – these words from the pen of Paul to the church in Rome… He was declared to be God's Son with great power by rising from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
LOOK UP…
Jesus’ Resurrection is meant to remove any doubts whatsoever as to who Jesus is. UNDERSTAND - the Jesus that we; Love, Follow, Serve, Sing to and worship… THE JESUS – we gathered in this place to honor this morning (4/20/14) - is not just a prophet, a great teacher or a really nice guy – No, Jesus is who He said was…
Jesus is God!
Jesus - is the Alpha and the Omega… the beginning and the end.
He is Creator of all that we see
He is holy, mighty, all-powerful, all-knowing
HE always has been and He always will be
He is the Kings of King & Lord of Lords..
He is before all things, over all things and He holds all things together…
AND LISTEN - Jesus if holds all things together… that means HE can both hold and put our lives back together…
What does the empty tomb mean?
MGCC
If the tomb is empty - then Jesus is Alive! And if He is alive, then Jesus is who He said He was! and if HE is who He said He is, if Jesus is God then Jesus did what he said he did
Jesus Did What He Said He Did!!!
He Paid Our DEBT
UNDERSTAND – all of us, every man and woman who has ever lived has owed a debt that they could never pay. SCRIPURE – teaches that all of us fall short of living the way that God wants us to live. AND - the penalty for this is death (separation from God forever).
AND – to make matters worse there was nothing we can do to fix… (the debt was just too high) - that’s the bad news… THE – good news is that Christ hung on the cross to pay your debt and mine…
UNDERSTAND – there was a moment on that Friday…
A MOMENT when Christ pushed up on those nails… took a deep breathe and spoke words that all of mankind has needed to hear, “It is Finished!”
AND MGCC – that was not a cry of defeat but a cry of victory. YOU SEE – that phrase is actually one word in Greek and it means ‘paid in FULL!”
AND – when a debt is paid in full; that means there is no payment of any kind left to make…
The cross His sacrifice was enough!
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Col 2:13-15
MG –
III. Jesus did what he said he did…
He paid a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.
Guaranteed Our Awesome FOREVER
In John’s Gospel we read about the time that Jesus raised a guy named Lazarus from the dead. BUT BEFORE – he did a had a conversation was one of his sisters…
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
- John 11:25,26
MG - because Jesus conquered the grave, because He defeated death - we have this promise of eternal life. UNDERSTAND – for those who follow Christ death is not the end. It’s the beginning of something new.
In my studies for this message I came across a blog written by The Merimee family. Craig the husband and father of 3 girls was 34 years and had terminal cancer.
ON - Feb 29, 2012 Craig made his post on this blog ‘The End Of My Road…’
I just want to read to you a little of what he wrote knowing that death was right around the corner. He said,
“Just looking at myself in the mirror, I can tell my downward spiral has begun. I'm at my all time low of about 118 pounds. I have an awkward time shaving my face because it is pure bone and I feel like I'm having to shave to every bony contour my face has. My yellow eyes constantly remind me my jaundice is settling back in.
This pretty much means things are going to eventually start shutting down. There's nothing out there that makes sense for me to do to treat this that we haven't already looked at yet.”
And so he says,
“There’s…there’s really no hope left. There’s really nothing for us to try that we haven’t already tried. There’s nothing for us to do that we haven’t already done.”
And then he goes onto write,
The truth is my desired outcome from this situation is so very awesome. The encouragement I have that my eternal life will be in Heaven and that I will be cancer free soon puts a smile on my face…
I am very motivated about what the future has to offer me that Yes, there is a lot of reason to be excited…
AND HERE _ are his very last words…
Thanks for all your support and I very much hope to share my thoughts going forward. God is good!!!!!
AND LISTEN - I’m just telling you that a dying, 34-year-old father of three doesn’t say that without Easter. But death was not the end. It was a new beginning. It was a new life.
Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?”
The Message paraphrases it,
“Death, who's afraid of you now?”
I Love it – Paul is mocking death because death has been defeated. YOU SEE – ultimately it was not Jesus who died on that Friday but death, sin and the grave!
Making a way for us to have this new life in heaven.
At the end of Revelation, chapter 21, we come to this description where John says, “Here’s what it’s gonna be like one day.” And John says, “(On that day)
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”
“I am making everything new!”
The old is gone. It’s new! Gone with the hospital waiting rooms, gone with the tear-stained divorce papers, and gone with the motionless ultrasounds, and gone with the foreclosure notices, and gone with the wheelchairs, and gone with the loneliness, and gone with the abuse, and gone with the cancer. It’s gone! No more. He’s gonna put an end to it. Everything is gonna be new.
YEAH – one of the reasons why we celebrate Easter, is because it reminds of our Guaranteed Awesome Forever.
BUT - if we were honest, I think that many of us would say, “Well, okay. Good. That’s great news. I am excited that one day…that if I put my trust in Jesus that one day everything will be new. There will be this new life in heaven. That’s really good…one day.
BUT - what about right now? What about now? No tears one day? Great. Right now your heart is broken. No loneliness one day? That’s fantastic. BUT - right now you’d really like to be married; you’d really like to have a family. No heartache, no suffering, no pain one day? Really good. BUT - let’s just be honest, there’s a lot of pain right now. And it’s not that you’re not excited about one day; it’s just…it’s just that you could use some of that new right now.
IMAGINE - it this way. IMAGINE - you get a phone call this week from an attorney who says that you have a long lost relative that won the $640 million jackpot in the lottery. And this relative of yours has decided that he’s going to give every one of his living relatives one million dollars…just get it out of the way so that he’s not going to be hit up for money for long periods of time. So because you’re a relative you’re going to get a million dollars. And immediately you just… breathe a sigh of relief and you find this peace, and you think about all the bills that are gonna be paid and pressure is gonna be relieved.
BUT THEN - the attorney explains to you that the relative didn’t take the lump sum option; INSTEAD - your relative took the annuity option, which means after taxes he’ll be getting like twenty million dollars a year for the next twenty-six years. AND - as a result of that, every year he’s going to give one of the relatives a million dollars.
AND YOU - because you’re somewhat of a distant relative, will be assigned to year twenty-three.
AND SO…“I just want to let you know…you have been given this gift of a million dollars that you’re gonna get in twenty-three years. Congratulations!”
WELL - you’re thrilled still. I mean, it’s still great news, but it really changes how you receive it, right? BECAUSE - well, it’s nice right now to know that some things in the future are gonna be taken care of, to know that there’s not going to be this pressure down the road. BUT - you hang up the phone and you look over at the desk, AND - there are bills that have to be paid right now.
AND - I’m just wondering if this is how we at times feel when we walk out of church or perhaps out of an Easter service. Well, this is good. This is great! New life one day in heaven. But by the time we get to our car and get home, we’re pretty overwhelmed with right now.
BUT UNDERSDTAND - the message of Easter is not just “New one day”? BECAUSE – one of the things that Jesus did, was He…
Unleashed The Newness of LIFE
“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” – Acts 5:20
So that the promise of Easter, the promise of the Gospel is not just, “New life one day” … But it is also “New begins now.”
And if we get this, it changes everything. If we live with this reality—that it’s already begun, that our eternal life has already started to happen—it just…it changes how we live. It changes our perspective. It changes our passion and our purpose.
So when Craig died, it wasn’t that his new life was just beginning, but rather his new life began on the day he became a Christian and it was simply continuing in a new world.
You see, when we become a Christian, it is a new life. But we still live in an old world. The new life has already begun, but we still live in an old world.
AND – this week I was thinking, ‘what is the one thing that the resurrection gives us that makes this newness of life possible.”
AND – the answer I came up with was – through the resurrection we get a new power.
NOW - if you talk to people and you just ask them honestly how they’re doing, and you get past the…you know…the answer of, “Fine. How are you?” You’ll find that most people would say (in not so many words) that they’re tired, that they’re exhausted, that they’re worn out. Those are the words most would choose to describe their lives.
AND – our economy reflects that. If you just look at how many hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on energy drinks… I mean, we have Starbucks, Red Bull, 5-Hour ENERGY, and we have the Monster and Rockstar Energy Drinks. The list is long. I don’t have anything against those. Frankly, I wish a few of you would’ve taken one before coming to church.
I don’t…I don’t mind them. I really don’t. But if we were honest, we would say that we’re just trying to get through. You know, we’ll do what we can to get a little extra energy, to get a power up for the day. But what I know and what you know is that there is no formula that they’ve come up with that gives you the power to forgive the person who’s cheated you out of your childhood or out of your marriage or out of your innocence or out of your dreams. They don’t have a drink for that.
NO - there’s no energy drink that gives you the power to stop—to stop drinking or to stop using, to stop lusting, to stop spending.
There’s no drink that gives you the power to just get through—to get through the divorce, or to get through unemployment, or to get through the cancer. This world doesn’t offer that kind of power, and we can’t find it from within.
But Paul says because of the resurrection there’s a new power. Here’s what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1.
He says, “I pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe in Him. It’s the same power that brought Christ back from the dead.”
IN OTHER WORDS - my prayer is that you would know the power of the resurrection in your life right now. Not one day but right now.
Paul says…my prayer for you is not that you would just get through it, not that you would just cope with it, not that you would just deal with life, but…
• that you would experience the power of the resurrection in your life right now.
• that your new life wouldn’t begin on the day that you die in the new world but your new life would begin in this old world.
• that your death is not a period at the end of a sentence but rather a comma as your new life continues into the new world of heaven.
• that it (new) would begin now.
I asked some of my Facebook friends to just help me understand, to get a little better picture of what this looks like. So I said to them, “Would you just finish this sentence for me? Through Christ God has given me a new…? How would you finish that?
Someone wrote in and said…
Outlook, perspective, family, hope, future, strength, attitude, identity, heart, joy, start…. A new perspective – a new way to live and a new way to look a things…
new life/beginning
That’s the resurrection. That because Jesus died and rose again, that the old can be left behind, that our sins can be forgiven and a new life can begin.
YOU KNOW - I was trying to think of some kind image or kind of a picture for you to take home with you in your minds to help you just meditate on this and think through it a little bit more, because we only have a few minutes together. THEN - I realized God has already come up with this picture. He’s already thought of this image. It’s baptism.
Baptism is this image of Jesus dying and being buried and then raising to a new life. So that in baptism a person is saying to Jesus, “Jesus, I am dying to my old life. I am burying my old self, and by Your power I am raising to walk in a whole new way of living.” That’s what Paul says in Romans 6. He says,
“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”
So every time someone is baptized, it is the celebration of Easter. It is the celebration of new.
