Title: “Do not be afraid…He is not here!” Scripture: Mt. 28:5-6
Type: Easter/Evangelistic Where: GNBC 3-31-24
Intro: My father-in-law was a man who knew a lot about a lot and a little about everything. He knew things the average person didn’t know or sometimes even care to know. In 1973 while the family were in London, PD began to imitate the tour guides. As the family were near the Thames River, holding up his umbrella like a guide, he pointed at an area near the famous river and said: “And this is where London Bridge used to be before they moved it to Arizona.” The family all thought he was joking and kept telling him they didn’t believe him. Finding a Bobby, PD asked the man where London Bridge was: “Why governor, they done moved it to Arizona!” On another occasion the family wanted to go East for their annual vacation. One of the points of interest was Niagara Falls, NY. PD: “That won’t do any good.” “Why not?” “They turned off the Falls this year for maintenance.” Uproarious laughter and disagreement. “Ok, I will prove it to you.” Family drove the 763 miles to Niagara to see…the Falls dry. They had in fact been damned up for maintenance! Needless to say, its always shocking when you go to see something you expect to see, want to see, or long to see, only to find out…it isn’t there! Now as shocking as the absence of London Bridge and water at Niagara Falls was, it didn’t even come close to comparison to the absence of Jesus’ body in the Garden Tomb that first Easter morning. In our passage today see women going to the tomb early Easter Sunday morning and they are met with an open tomb, and a surprise no one expected.
Prop: The angel’s words to the women that first Easter morning had/has 3 important implications.
BG: 1. The “person” making the pronouncement to the beleaguered women at the grave that first Easter Sunday morning was no “person” at all, but rather, an angel! Appropriate. Angels foretold Christ’s birth, heralded His birth, and now an angel was announcing the greatest message of all: “He is Risen!”
2.
Prop: The angel’s words to the women at Christ’s Empty Tomb had 3 Important Implications.
I. 1st Implication: The Assurance of Easter
A. The Res. of Jesus Causes His Followers to not Be Afraid.
1. What was the Fear the Women Faced that 1st Easter Morning?
a. When the women arrive at the Garden Tomb early that morning, they find an unusual sight. An earthquake has taken place. The massive stone that would have sealed the tomb has been rolled away. A group of women followed Jesus from His ministry in Galilee to the last day of His life. They faithfully supported Jesus from their own means (Luke 8:2-3). They witnessed the worst moment in history— Jesus’ gruesome death— and observed the desertion of His fearful disciples. If you harmonize all 4 Gospel accounts you find the following women were at the tomb that day: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and “other women” who were not identified.
b. The proclamation of the messenger: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.” The body of Jesus is missing, and a terrifying angel greets these grief-stricken and now terrified women. Has Jesus’ body been taken? Have robbers come? Have the Jewish leaders stolen the body to further desecrate it? And, who is this being who is announcing this bizarre news!
2. The Missing Body of Jesus is cause for Assurance
-Why were Mary Magdelene and the other Mary at the tomb Resurrection Morning? They had hurriedly prepared the body for burial before the Sabbath, and now they were coming back to properly anoint the body for burial. I don’t think they knew that Nicodemus and Joseph had already done this. They saw Jesus die. They knew He had been buried. They saw the wounds. They witnessed the water and blood separate. They saw the Romans soldiers. They saw the dead body taken down. They were coming because they knew in their minds that He must still be dead. Dead people don’t come back to life…Or do they??!!
B. How Does the Resurrection of Jesus Cause us to Overcome our Fears Today?
1. The Resurrection of Christ was an Unexpected Intrusion.
a. Illust: As many of you know Carol and Daniel and I went to Ireland earlier this month. One of my best friends is a man by the name of Harry Nesbitt. Harry and my birthdays are a week apart and over the years we have each surprised the other with unexpected visits. When we determined our travel dates I texted Harry’s wife, Carole (It’s confusing!) to let her know we were coming and NOT to let Harry know! We toured in the South and then went up to the North and stayed in an ABNB a few days in Belfast. Sunday morning, Harry’s wife told him that were some people needed to pick up for church. His wife came to our door and I went out in the pouring rain. Tall hedges near street. He was looking at phone when I tapped on the car window and sat down in the passenger’s seat. “Hello Harry!” Utterly speechless! Is it really you?” “What are you doing here?!” You might say my appearance was an unexpected intrusion in my old friend’s life!
b. I suppose the intrusiveness of death always brings an element of fear for those who survive a loved one’s passing. What will I do? Can I go on? What should I do? Will I ever see this person again? There is always such a hole in our hearts when a loved one passes and one of our normal emotions in response is fear. The older I get the more I realize that Gospel writers don’t relay the Resurrection of our Lord as an apologetical argument written to win debates. Rather, it is written exactly as it was experienced, an unapologetic and unexpected intrusion into the lives of everyone! No one, especially these women, and certainly not His disciples, were expecting Christ to actually rise from the dead!
2. Trusting in Christ’s Victory Over Death the Believer has Victory over death.
a. The fear of death is man’s greatest fear. But listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote in response to the truth of the bodily resurrection of Christ: ““O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor. 15:55-57) Now what was Paul referring to the victory we have through Christ? It wasn’t His feeding the 5k. It wasn’t His 40 days of fasting. It wasn’t His walking on water. It wasn’t His casting out demons or healing the sick. It wasn’t even His raising of Lazarus that gives us the victory over death. No! It was His rising victoriously that was the first fruits of the believer’s resurrection!
b. Illust: If you were to go to the grave of Mohammed, you would find Mohammed’s remains. If you were able to find Buddha’s grave…guess who would be there? Buddha. The previous 13 Dalai Lama’s and when the present one dies, guess who you will find in their graves? Them! Joseph Smith and Charles Taze Russell and Ellen G White and Sung Young Moon and L. Ron Hubbard and Menachen Sneerson all made a bunch of noise in their days too. But they have two things in common: They are all dead and their remains are still in their tomb. When the women went to the Garden Tomb that first Easter Sunday morning they expected to find the remains of Jesus. But you know what the women found: NO BODY! Death had been defeated!
C. Applic: The historical fact of Jesus’ crucifixion is one of the most attested to events of antiquity. It took place in time. It was witnessed. It followed Roman procedure. It’s events were recorded by Jewish and Roman officials alike.
II. 2nd Implication: The Evidence of Easter
A. He isn’t here.
1. The angel appeals to the absence of Christ’s body as evidence of His Resurrection.
a. Illust: Both of my parents are buried in a pretty little cemetery in Reading, MI. I don’t get over there very often anymore. However, every so often when do, I can remember like yesterday when buried my mother in September of 1992 and my dad’s death in 2009. Those dates are etched in my mind. I was there when each of their earthly remains were lowered into the ground. Now, I know that their souls are with the Lord. But I also know that their bodily remains are in that field in Michigan. But praise God, because of Easter, I know that at the General Res. of the Dead (John 5:28-29) when the final trumpet is blown (I Cor. 15:52) when Jesus will descend with a shout (I Thes. 4:16) that the dead in Christ will rise first to meet Him in the air! True of everyone in Christ.
b. You see, that was the incredible announcement the angel proclaimed to the women who had come to the tomb! “Don’t be afraid, I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.” Literally, the eternal weight of the world, salvation’s hope for mankind clung to the next sentence the angelic servant would utter! Would man be alienated, separate, and lost forever in his sin? Would death be the victor?
2. The Angel announces Salvation’s Hope Eternal for the Ages with the next sentence.
a. What was it the angel said? “He is not here!” Hallelujah! Friend, let that though well up in your heart and mind. Do you hear it’s hope? He isn’t here! Christ defeated death.
b. Illust – When the great man was assassinated the grieving Union mourned President Lincoln like few others in history. His funeral cortege had 13 stops. His body lay in state multiple times. Over the subsequent years his coffin was moved 17 times and opened at least 5 times. Each time the effects of sin and death were evidenced in his appearance. Lincoln’s body was there. It is still in Springfield today.
B. He has risen from the dead.
1. What was some of the Supernatural Evidence of Christ’s Resurrection in the Biblical Account?
a. The Bible tells us in Mt. 27:51-53 that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom signaling the end of the separation of access to God, the earth shook, the rocks split open as they cried out for their Savior, other tombs were opened, dead saints were resurrected. IN response to all this evidence, the terrified centurion exclaimed: “Truly, this was the Son of God!”
b. The angel was the supernatural eyewitness to these incredible events of eternity and he publishes these, the most glad of all good tidings to the shocked and surprised women that Sunday morning at the Garden tomb. Think of the overwhelming hope of those few words: “He has risen from the dead!”
2. An Empty Tomb is Evidence of the Completion of God’s Plan of Salvation.
a. “The cross itself is entirely inseparable from God’s other redemptive acts through Jesus in history — His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost — all of these events form a unified front upon which the age of sin and death met its match. And never was the defeat of those two horrors more boldly proclaimed than on Easter morning. The resurrection stands as the single, most powerful declaration by God that this truly human Jesus “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” was also “the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness” (Acts 2:23; Rom. 1:4). Jesus and His mighty works were vindicated when God raised Him from the dead, exalting Him as “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), no longer lowly and limited, now Messiah of His people and Ruler of the entire world.” (Ligionier, Chris Donato, He is Not Here.)
b. Illust: A Muslim once said to a Christian, "WE Muslims have one thing you Christians do not have. When we go to Medina (Saudi Arabia), we find a coffin and know that that Mohammed lived because his body is in it. But when, you Christians go to Jerusalem, you find nothing but an empty tomb." "Thank you!" exclaimed the Christian. "What you say is absolutely true, and that makes the eternal difference. The reason we find an empty tomb is because we serve a risen Christ." (The Speakers Quote Book, Nelson, page 64)
C. He has fulfilled His promise – “just as He has said”
1. Christ Kept His Word in what would have been the Most Difficult Promise to Keep.
Illust: The person who actually keeps his or her word is a rarity these days. Lies are the fodder of politicians. All too often loved ones break their vows and promises in order to pursue their own pleasures and desires. In business, complete honesty amongst salespeople is not an expectation. And in Mark 9:31 Jesus said: “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
2. Christ predicted His death and His resurrection.
a. Illust: Throughout history many individuals have famously predicted that they would rise victorious over death. One of the most famous examples of this was the great magician, illusionist, and escape artist, Harry Weiss, aka “Harry Houdini”. As death approached, Houdini gave his wife Bess a code, and told her that he would communicate with her from the grave. For the next 10 years, she tried to hear from her husband. Sadly, she found out the sad truth that death was a reality and not an illusion, that magic can’t overcome our separation from God and that NO ONE can escape death’s grip. No one, that is, but Christ!
b. “The might of the world, the most sophisticated religious system of its time allied with the most powerful political empire, arrays itself against a solitary figure, the only perfect man who has ever lived. Though He is mocked by the powers and abandoned by His friends, yet the Gospels give the strong, ironic sense that He Himself is overseeing the whole long process. He has resolutely set His face towards Jerusalem, know the fate that awaits Him. The cross has been His goal all along. Now, death draws near, He calls the shots.” (Yancey, The Jesus…p. 188) The resurrection attests to the utter Deity and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ! On multiple occasions He predicted both His death and His resurrection. At best His disciples believed Him in part. The angel in Christ’s empty tomb that first Easter morning pointed to the evidence of Christ’s unbroken promise “Just as He has said.” Jesus said it. You can believe it. That settles it!
D. Applic: The empty tomb, the evidences of His resurrection and the promises Jesus kept are all evidences of the truthfulness of Easter.
III. 3rd Implication: The Invitation of Easter!
A. The angel invited the women to examine the evidence the Empty Tomb.
1. Come and See The Evidence
a. “Come and see the place where He was lying.” At the beginning of His public ministry, when He called the first disciples, we read in John 1:38-39 “When Jesus turned and saw them following him, he asked, “What are you looking for?” They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” He answered, “Come and see.” So the two men went with Jesus and saw where he was staying and stayed there with him that day.” Now here, at the end of His earthly ministry, the angel bids these female followers the same. Come and see!
b. Dear one, may I ask you a question this morning? The life of Christ is an open book, but have you taken the time to examine it? Seriously, He bids you to “Come and see.” Look. Study. Examine it’s evidence! Nearly 100 yrs ago, GK Chesterton said: ““The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Easter offers you an invitation. TRY! EXAMINE! LOOK!
2. What was their response to the Proof?
a. What was the women’s response? V. 8 – The women get up and run in fear and great joy to tell the news! When you realize the grave is empty that Jesus has done exactly what He said He would do, you have to tell someone!
b. What is the purpose of the proof? What significance does the resurrection of Jesus have in God’s redemptive plan? In simplest terms, the resurrection overturned the curses of the Fall (sin, weeds, and death). Not just the resurrection itself, however, for included in that event is that which led up to it: both the obedience of Jesus to His Father’s will and His obedience unto death In the former, Jesus’ role as the second Adam is clearly displayed. This Messiah sent from God defeated the sin of Adam’s disobedience with His own perfect obedience to what Israel had collectively failed to do, namely, keep the covenant. the necessity of the Servant’s work remained if sin was to be conquered and the old Adamic man redeemed (see Isa. 53:11). Who has delivered us from this body of death? The answer? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25). Jesus came and perfectly fulfilled the will of God, even unto death.
B. The Resurrection Invites Each One of us to Examine the Evidence for Christ’s Claims.
1. Have You Examined the Evidence? Who is this Jesus? Throughout history, men and women, boys and girls have had to examine for selves Who this Jesus was and is. At the end of the day, as CS Lewis so famously said, you only have 3 possible options. 1. Liar. 2. Lunatic. 3. Lord.
2. Have You responded to the Claims of Christ by putting your faith/trust in His finished work? Illust: In John 18:37-38 we read an intriguing encounter between Jesus and Pilate as the governor is questioning his captive: “Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this purpose I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice. Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And after saying this, he came out again to the Jews…” Pilate had the Fountain of all truth standing before him and he never waited to hear Christ’s answer. Foolish. Don’t be so foolish.
Conclusion: When we think of the word “empty” it usually carries a negative connotation. No one like it when driving far from civilization their car’s gauge reads “Empty”. It’s devastating if a hacker “empties” your bank account. A child might be distraught and disappointed if her grandmother’s cookie jar is empty! Psychiatrists talk of people who are lonely or depressed as being “empty inside”. Even in our homes we cannot stand empty space. It makes us feel uncomfortable and a need to fill it with stuff. Yet, as the women at the tomb testified, there was one time in history when “Empty” was the greatest news ever declared! The grave was empty! If you have never trusted in Christ there is another empty…your life. God made you to have a relationship with Him. Each one of us has a God shaped hole in souls only Christ can fill. Because the tomb is empty your heart can be full!
