“What Does The Empty Tomb Mean?” Luke 24:1-31

“What Does The Empty Tomb Mean?”

Luke 24:1-31

Introduction

Years ago we bought a couple of movies for a road trip that the Boswell family was going to take.  One the movies was “Meet the Robinsons.” I had read the reviews of an it was a Disney movie so I put it in the dvd player and we got on the road.  There was a part that I could not see that both of the boys (Joshua and Caleb) really did not like – even border line scaring them.  It is where the boy is desiring to be adopted so he is trying to impress the potential parents by showing them his invention of a peanut butter and jelly gun. There is a malfunction and the peanut butter gun explodes sending it all over the man who has a bad reaction.  The woman grabs an epi pen and injects her husband just in time before he was going to pass out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZ-BFZmDTQ (play behind with no sound)

Joshua and Caleb are very allergic to peanut butter.  It causes them to swell up and we have to stay on top of things constantly.  At one stage Joshua tested 4 out of 5 for reaction to peanuts – with 5 being shock and death.  So, the boys have had a fear of peanuts their whole life.  There have been a few occasions over the years when they have gotten too close, and the effects were very scary.

As their father I am helpless to change this about them.  The best that I can do is to try and protect them from the potential dangers. So, from now on the boys will have to live with this severe allergy.  But what if I could somehow take this fear away, to make it to where the boys could sit down and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?  To even know what peanut butter tastes like!

But this to me is what Easter is all about – we all have a condition that we cannot change, we were born with it, and it is leading us to an eternal death.  But God as the all-powerful Father has made a way to be rid of sin and death forever.  We no longer have to live in fear of death. This Easter I would like to invite you to journey with me as we discover what the empty tomb means for your life. Let’s go look into the empty tomb.

Prayer – Lord, show us this morning what you would have us to know about you and the power of your resurrection. Show us areas in our lives where we need to change and become more like, and show us where we need to trust you more. You alone are good and gracious, and you alone have the power over sin and death. Thank you for enduring the cross for us, and giving us eternal life. To you belongs all the praise, and all the glory, forever and ever, Amen.

For the Women the Empty Tomb Meant Hope (vv. 1-12)  

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

 Luke 23:48-49 “And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle [Christ’s crucifixion], when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.” The woman had followed Jesus through his ministry, watched as he was crucified.

Luke 23:55-56 “The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.”

Old Testament law required that they rest on the Sabbath [Saturday], so they sat smelling the spices and the perfumes they had purchased and prepared.  Thinking of their teacher laying in the tomb bloody, his body broken, and they would have had an urgency to prepare Christ’s body before the stink of decomposition.

Two of those women who would have been among their number was Mary and Martha, as they smelled the pungent spices and sat and rested their minds would have rushed back to their own brother’s death. Martha would have remembered running up to Jesus.

John 11:21-26 “ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:40-44 “Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Then on Sunday morning, literally Sunday at “deep dawn” the women set out to carry the 80 plus pounds of spices and perfumes to cover the smell of decay.  But when they get there the only thing left in the tomb are the grave clothes, the sheet that Jesus’ body had been wrapped in.  There was no smell of death, there was no body, there was only an empty tomb.

Matthew 28:4 “And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.”  In order for the women to look into the tomb, they had to step over the soldiers as they lay scattered on the ground.

Where were the 11 disciples?  The disciples do not seem to be focused on getting Christ’s body from Pilate, preparing his body for burial, finding a place to even bury him, or performing some kind of a ceremony – the disciples are focused on how their plans were not working out.

Jesus had clearly told them what was going to happen.  Matthew 20:17-22 “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

But the disciples had their own plan – “20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”

“4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words,”  

The women were coming to cover the smell of death with perfumes and spices, then they remembered his words, not only that “on the third day be raised again,” but what about his other words, “I am the resurrection and the life,

John 6:35 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 10:9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”

“Then they remembered his words” – what does God have to do for us to get it?  Jesus himself told them on several occasions, so the angel says, “Remember how he told you”, the earth shook at his death, the Temple curtain was torn in two, the dead were raised and walked among the people, Jesus’ body was not in the tomb, and finally angels themselves say, “He is not here, he has risen!”

9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

In all the gospel accounts of the resurrection, once the women saw the angels, had seen that the tomb was empty, they quickly went back to tell the disciples.  The spices and perfumes that they were going to be used to cover Christ’s body were never mentioned again.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Because of Christ’s resurrection, we have victory over sin, the power that raised Christ from the dead now lives within the believer.  We have victory over death, Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

The sting that comes with death can be swallowed up in victory because we know that we have eternal life through Christ.  We can leave the concerns and the weight of death behind us in order to run forward and announce to others Jesus is risen!  We don’t have to pretend that we are ok, we don’t have to cover up the filth with pungent excuses – we can be changed, we can have real life, a new life.

When the women go back and tell the disciples – the disciples have two responses.  One is disbelief because it seemed like nonsense.  They had seen Jesus calm the storm, heal the sick, cast out demons, they heard him teach unlike anyone they had ever heard before, they even saw Jesus raise the dead – but they still didn’t get it.

If you just don’t get it, that’s ok, the men who spent three years face to face with Christ didn’t get at first either.  But let me encourage you do what Peter does.  He responds by running to the tomb.  Peter wanted to see for himself.  “he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”  He observed the evidence.

This morning if you are wondering about Jesus’ death and this whole idea of Jesus actually being raised from the dead – don’t dismiss it as non-sense. Instead,  go and challenge the evidence. It has held up to two thousand years of skeptics, it can hold up to any questions you may bring against it.

Because what if it’s true? 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

For the Disciples the Empty Tomb Meant Purpose (vv. 13-32)

They had a purpose in life (vv. 13-20)

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 

The disciples did not understand that one day they would be separated from Jesus and that He would go to be with His Father in heaven.  But even more astounding than this is that the disciples had a mission that they were to accomplish.

John 14:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” As believers pray, Jesus in heaven intercedes for us before the Father.  As we seek to follow God’s will he will give us the desires of our heart.

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This purpose required a substitution of their wants and plans (v. 21-24)

21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

For these disciples the redemption of Israel was in terms of political freedom from the Romans. Jesus had told them several times[1] what would happen they put it all in terms of how they would benefit.

Their concept of redemption was freedom from Rome, not freedom from sin – They were all looking for “the one” and since they had given three years of their lives – who knows what they were expecting “to get from Jesus” when he became a king.  But now his death had changed all that.

The resurrection teaches us that if we are to be true disciples of Christ we have to put away our plans and our wants and ask God “what’s your plan for my life.”   The disciples were in essence saying “we had hoped he would do this for us, and this for us,” they never stopped to think that Jesus’ plan for them was beyond anything they could ever even imagine.

For Jesus the Empty Tomb Meant Redemption (vv. 25-27, 30-31)

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. . . 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

Even bigger than the question of was Jesus raised from the dead? Is the question “Why was Jesus raised from the dead?” All of the Old Testament pointed to a promised messiah who would redeem mankind from the bondage of sin.

The Old Testament also explains that this Messiah that was to come had to suffer these things in order to make a way for mankind to have a relationship with God.

Jesus did not come to simply amaze people with miracles for no reason, he told the disciples time after time why he would suffer the cross. The resurrection means that the power that raised Jesus from the dead can take away all the wrongs that you have ever done, it can give you power to live a new life, it can give your life purpose and meaning.

The real question this morning is “what does the resurrection mean to you?

“Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and need your forgiveness.  I believe that You died for my sins.  I want to turn from my sins, I now invite You to come into my heart and life.  I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior.”  In Jesus’ Name

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[1] Luke 9:22; 13:32; 18:33