The Empty Promises Of Easter  

The Empty Promises of Easter  

Watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9q5otpNw-c

A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was customary in that affluent neighborhood for parents to give the graduate an automobile. For months, they both looked at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect one. 

But on the eve of his graduation, his father handed him a gift-wrapped Bible. The young man was so angry that he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news of his father’s death that brought him home. 

As he sat one night going through his father’s possessions, he came across the Bible his father had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it to find a cashier’s check dated the day of his graduation, for the exact amount of the car they had chosen together. 

As I thought about this story, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people have done the same to God. How many have literally tossed aside a wonderful promise because they didn’t understand it or didn’t believe it was possible?

In our world, we’re taught, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” So many have been taken in by the empty promises of this world that they’re leery of anything or anyone who says we can have something for nothing.

The world is full of empty promises. We watch TV, and the advertisements tell us that we can be happy, rich, or famous if we only buy a certain product. So, it doesn’t take long before we realize that the world’s promises are empty. 

But God’s promises are different. Instead of promises that are full of emptiness, His promises always come true. The Apostle Paul said all the promises in Christ Jesus are yes and amen, or true (2 Corinthians 1:20).

But as I look ahead to this upcoming Easter and Resurrection Sunday, I see that on Easter, God gave us emptiness that is full of promise. 

Today, I’d like to look at three promises of Easter, each marked by something empty. Each one assures us that God’s promises are real and that we can be sure of them for our lives.

1. The Empty Cross

Because the cross was empty, that is, because Jesus is no longer on the cross, we have the promise that our sins can be forgiven.

Let’s go back to that first Easter morning. The sun had not risen fully, and several women are on their way to the tomb where Jesus was buried. They’ve been walking for about a half-hour. There’s little, if any, conversation, because the task set before them is a sad one. They’re going to anoint Jesus’s body. As they reach the rise in the path, they stop. Motionless and quiet, they stare into the distance.

Off to the right, just outside the city, stands a gruesome reminder of the events a few days ago. By the glow of the pink sky, atop the Hill called Golgotha, or “The Skull,” three crosses stood!

The day before was the Sabbath, so nobody had removed them. There they stood, an empty reminder of Friday's horror. The one in the middle is the one Jesus hung on.

Take a close look at it. Look up at the top. Those bloodstains are from the crown of thorns that was crushed into Jesus’ skull. The stains on the ends of the crossbar came from the nails driven into Jesus’ hands. Toward the bottom was another red stain where Jesus’s feet were nailed. The main beam was soaked in Jesus’s blood from the Roman soldiers’ beating Him with a cat-of-nine-tails. And to seal the deal, that is, to confirm His death, a Roman soldier ran a spear through His side where out flowed blood and water, so at the bottom of the cross you see the splatter of blood.

So we could say that it was a blood-soaked cross that they were staring at.

Someone wrote Dr. Vernon McGee, a famous radio preacher from the late 1900s, the following letter: “Dear Dr. McGee. I know you say Jesus was dead and he rose from the dead, but my pastor says Jesus just fainted and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think?”

Dr. McGee responded: “Dear Sister, beat your preacher with a leather whip for thirty-nine stokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airless tomb for three days. Then see what happens.”

Don’t believe anyone who tells you Jesus was just faking it. There was no question that Jesus was dead. The Roman soldiers knew it because they were experts and highly efficient at putting people to death. The Jews also knew it. Together, they made up a lie that the disciples stole the body. Can you imagine eleven fishermen overpowering a company of Roman soldiers and Temple guards, stealing the body of Jesus just so they could claim He came back to life, and then willingly dying to protect that lie?