The Impact of an Empty Tomb
Matthew 28:1-15
Last Sunday I shared with you the power of the cross. We talked about the must of the cross, the message of the cross (it shows just how bad sin really is as well as how loving our God is), as well as the marks of the cross in a person's life. The crucifixion of our Lord occurred on Friday. But Sunday's comin'.
Thank God for Sunday, amen? I want to talk to you for a few moments about the impact of an empty tomb - especially for three groups of people. But before I do, I want to make sure that each and every one of you understands just how great and momentous an event the resurrection really was and is. There are many that believe that Jesus died, but there are some in the world that just don't believe that He arose from the dead. And still others just don't see any significance at all with the resurrection. Warren Wiersbe has it right when he said that because of the resurrection:1
It proves that Jesus is God's Son.
It verifies the truth of Scripture.
It assures our own future resurrection.
It is the proof of a future judgment.
It is the basis for Christ's heavenly priesthood.
It gives power for Christian living.
It assures our future inheritance.
Because we have a living hope, we can experience hopeful living. A dead hope grows weaker and weaker before it eventually dies. But because Sunday came, Jesus Christ is alive, we have a glorious future.2
Do you realize that "the unique fact of the gospel is the Resurrection? All other religions record the death of their leader. Only the Christian faith records the Resurrection of its Founder. All other religious leaders are dead. Only Jesus is alive."3 Though many may deny the resurrection, it cannot be disproved!4
I want to read from Matthew's account of the resurrection and address the impact of the empty tomb to three groups:
Matthew 28:1-15
28:1 Now after the Sabbath, as the first [day] of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
28:2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.
28:3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
28:4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead [men.]
28:5 But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
28:6 "He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
28:7 "And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you."
28:8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
28:9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!" So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.
28:10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go [and] tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me."
28:11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.
28:12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,
28:13 saying, "Tell them, 'His disciples came at night and stole Him [away] while we slept.'
28:14 "And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure."
28:15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
I want you to see the impact of the empty tomb to the,
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Desperate vv 5-9
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The two Mary's certainly experienced a great deal of desperation as the One that had made all the difference in their lives had died on Friday. And here are these ladies headed up to the tomb early Sunday morning with spices with which to anoint the body of Jesus, but when they arrive, something is terribly "wrong."
The first problem they had considered was how they were going to get into the tomb with a huge stone rolled over the entrance as well as dealing with the mean and cruel Roman soldiers guarding it. But Matthew records that an angel descended from heaven above, shook the earth, rolled back the stone, and his lightning like countenance caused these tough and unflinching soldiers to pass out!
I like to use my sanctified imagination a bit here. Can you imagine that angel descending from heaven, looking at those guards and telling them, "Be afraid"? But when these women come, "Don't be afraid!" Okay, let's think about this. Angel shows up and tells you not to be afraid. What are you going to be? AFRAID! But notice what the angel tells them. "I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay."
Can you imagine these shocked women listening with great amazement to this angel and then they are invited inside the tomb past the passed out soldiers! And what do they see? "The graveclothes lying on the stone shelf, still wrapped in the shape of the body (John 20:5-7). Jesus had passed through the graveclothes and left them behind as evidence that He was alive. They lay there like an empty cocoon. There was no sign of struggle, the graveclothes were not in disarray. Even the napkin (which had been wrapped around His face) was folded carefully in a place by itself."5
What an incredible picture that must have been! The angel's words have just been proven - graveclothes but no dead body because the One that was dead has just defeated death and the grave and He left behind their best attempt to keep Him there! And these ladies that were just told to come and see are now told to go and tell. "Tell the disciples that Jesus is going before them into Galilee!"
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For any person that has ever felt desperate as these ladies did now possess delight because of the empty tomb! Mary Magdalene - the one that had 7 demons cast out of her by Jesus who, no doubt, had a sense of desperation on Saturday now lives with great delight and a wonderful assurance that there is no way that those demons can ever control her again! She is controlled by the resurrected Christ - and nothing can hold Him! Matthew records that they left the tomb with fear (they just saw an angel) and great joy!
Dear friend, the message and line of the world is that it knows how to bring about happiness. In fact, I was at a restaurant several days ago and our waitress was asked if there were anything that we could pray for her as we asked the Lord to bless our food. She paused for a moment, and then with tears welling up in her eyes, said, "Happiness." It looked as if she had attempted to live according to the world's recipe for happiness only to find out that it brought no such end - only desperation.
But I am so glad to stand before you today to tell you that if you come in with a sense of desperation and fear wondering if there really is an answer to all the uncertainties of life, the answer is a resolute and eternal yes! And that delight that you're looking for is found only in the resurrected Christ.
These desperate women would also be the same ones that with great joy became the first heralds and witnesses for Jesus declaring that He is alive. Do you think they would act as such if the resurrection were a made up story? But there's another group that would be affected by the empty tomb; the,
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Downcast vv 9-10
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Downcast only begins to describe the feelings of the disciples after Friday and before Sunday. Especially imagine Peter. Here is Peter who stands before Jesus and the other disciples and clearly says before all of them that He will never deny Jesus, but yet it's only hours until he has not only denied Him once, but three times. This is the one that had made great statements, like confessing Jesus as the Christ, but now is the one on the night of Jesus' betrayal that ran away bitterly crying after a servant girl called his bluff and said that he was a disciple of Jesus. I'm not so sure anyone has ever felt as downcast as he did on that night, or as he did on Saturday. But then came Sunday! Imagine John at a distance looking on as he saw the Jewish leaders make fools of themselves because of the One that he loved - the Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine John standing at the cross as he saw with his own eyes a battered and anguished Jesus that was bearing the sin of the world as He was on that cross. How do you think that he felt? Downcast only begins to describe it.
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What is the true message of the cross? It's two-fold:
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It states just how ugly sin is. Call sin whatever you want. Cover over your pet sin all you want. Compare yourself to whomever you want. But one thing that does not change is the cost of that sin - the cross. Adultery is sin against God and it cost God His Son on the cross. An "affair" is sin against God and it cost God His Son on the cross. An internet "relationship" ("but it was never physical") is sin against God and it cost God His Son on the cross.
I was talking with Jon Reed this week and we hit upon something that we both agree. The devil's new line that he has people using these days is, "That's your interpretation." You see two people living together and call it sin, yet some will say, "That's your interpretation." You see others living one way in here and another way out there and tell them it's hypocrisy, yet some will say, "That's your interpretation." You tell someone that their pet sin is sin, and they will say, "That's your interpretation." You tell all that there is only one way to be saved from sin and that is through the cross of Christ alone, and others will say, "That's your interpretation." That is a lie straight out of the pit of hell!
I want you to understand that whatever the sin, the consequence of our sin was that it put Christ on the cross. Sin cost the Son of God His life! But I want you to understand another message from the cross,
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As they heard news from the women that the tomb was empty, these two downcast men ran as quickly as they could to the tomb and found it just as the women had described. John's gospel states that as John went in and saw the evidence for himself that he believed. Believed what? He believed that Jesus had come back to life! This downcast brother now became a determined man. That's why he penned his gospel - so that people would believe one simple, yet most important fact - that Jesus and Jesus alone is the Savior of the world.
But Peter would not be left alone. Paul tells us that Jesus appeared to Simon Peter. What was said? We don't know. But I can tell you that the downcast Peter on Saturday was now a determined Peter on Sunday! Why? Because of the resurrection! John had a message that deeply resonated within him and that would cause him to be a passionate leader of the first church. Peter was now determined more than ever, even with a blemished past, to be a herald of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Downcast no more!
But there's another one that was downcast - and would be for another week! That was Thomas. Here was a man, though labeled for being a doubter, that was perhaps more honest and truthful than any of the others. And it was Thomas who was not in the room with the rest of the disciples when Jesus appeared and who said, "I'll not believe unless I can touch His nail prints and put my hand into His side." Can you imagine how Thomas must have felt those 8 days that the rest of the disciples celebrated and he moped? He was downcast! He just knew that what he needed was some physical evidence with his own eyes. Eight days later, Jesus appeared and He said to Thomas, "Here I am, see for yourself." The Scripture does not say that Thomas touched, but rather, he confessed to Jesus, "My Lord and my God." That was determination.
Friend, you're here today and though you may look good on the outside because the makeup is doing its job, your soul is downcast within you. You are even one that has heard the news year after year as you have come on Easter Sunday, but the truth of the matter is that you are still downcast. There is no determination within you to live each day with purpose and conviction. Can I tell you why? Though you have heard the good news, you've never accepted it. It's just another fact to you. Jesus resurrecting from the grave is put up beside the fact that two plus two equals four. But I want to tell you something: when that fact becomes a living truth within you, there will be a change.
But there's another group that would be affected by the empty tomb, those that,
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Despise vv 11-15
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Only Matthew records this incident. Not everyone was excited about the resurrection. There were some guards that were in deep trouble for the tomb being empty. "But the soldiers were shrewd: They did not report to Pilate or to their superior officers; they reported to the Jewish chief priests. They knew that these men were as anxious to cover up the miracle as were the soldiers themselves! Between the chief priests, the elders, and the soldiers, they put together a story that would explain the empty tomb: The body was stolen."6
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Those that despise the resurrection deny the resurrection, just as the religious leaders did. But I want you to see that to deny the resurrection is really one of the silliest things a man can do. "By examining this story, we see that it actually proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus' body was stolen, then it was taken either by His friends or His enemies. His friends, the disciples didn't steal His body because their courage during this period was not sufficient to carry out such a plot. They were afraid and had scattered when Jesus was arrested. To execute this kind of plot was beyond their ability.7 Then what about the enemies? If the soldiers were asleep, how would they have known what had happened to the body of Jesus? And why would they admit to "sleeping on the job"? It would have cost a Roman soldier his life! Remember that belief in the resurrection was what they were trying to prevent. They would have defeated their own purposes if they had removed His body. In addition, anyone who stole the body would have taken the body in the graveclothes. Yet the empty graveclothes were left in the tomb in an orderly manner. This was hardly the scene of a grave robbery.8 And, if the enemies had taken it, why did they not produce it and silence the witness of the early church?9
It's amazing that some still hold to that theory of a stolen body rather than to the simple and very explainable and provable fact that He resurrected. But when some would rather believe that their long lost relatives are monkeys and that saving some weird species is more important than preserving the life of a human being, why should we be surprised? "The stone was not rolled away to permit Jesus to come out, for He had already left the tomb. It was rolled back so that the people could see for themselves that the tomb was empty."10
Friend, you may not ever say that you despise this Christianity stuff, but to be honest you would say that it seems a bit far fetched in some areas. A baby born of a virgin? Jesus bringing dead people back to life? Jesus coming back from the dead? It just doesn't seem reasonable. Can I introduce you to another man that challenged the claims of the Christian faith? His name was Saul of Tarsus. He had been so ingrained in his faith for years, and taught as well to look at everything from a critical eye - and he despised the Christian faith for what he thought was nothing more than a threat to his belief. And he was right - it was a threat to his belief. But truth is always a threat to a lie. One day while seeking to fulfill his mission of stomping out this sect, He came face to face with the One that resurrected out of the tomb. And immediately he was changed to one that sought to share the greatest news of all.
Friend, I want you to know that you don't have to have a Damascus road experience to still have faith in the resurrected Christ. Search the claims of Scripture and understand that there is no way all of this would be made up just to be some form of a cruel joke. Either Jesus is a lunatic, a liar, or you will have to determine that He is Lord. And I want to say to you that Sunday came - and He is Lord over all. That's the impact of an empty tomb!
It was 20 years ago today that the empty tomb and the One that resurrected out of that tomb impacted my life. It was March 23, 1988 that I waded through all of the religious experiences and the trying in my life before I made the most important decision of my life - truly trusted Christ to be Savior of my life. You see, even though I had been taught the truth of God's Word from childhood, my great struggle was that it all remained a mental "game" to me instead of a total surrender. I was banking on my knowledge and emotional experiences - both of which left me absolutely miserable when it came to truly being sure of what the Bible says that I can know - and that is, my salvation. But on March 23, it finally changed. "What happened, preacher? Did lights go off? Did you cry a bunch? Did you have a deep revelation from God?" No. I just got tired of banking my eternity on a hope-so rather than a know-so. I was tired of living with uncertainty about my eternity. I wanted to KNOW that I was going to heaven. "So what did you do?" I quit trying and started trusting. It was not emotional, though part of me wanted it to be. It was not earth shattering, though I sure would have liked to have heard a voice from heaven. But I can tell you that it was life-changing. I trusted. And within me there was a desire to be obedient to my Lord out of love for Him and trust in Him rather than because I was supposed to. I was, and have been, and am forever grateful that I am a changed man.
Friend, I want to say to you that whether you are bold in your denial or if you have covered it over with religion; there's coming a day when that denial will give way to dread as you stand before the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Why?
It's Sunday!
It's Sunday
The earth trembles again
The sky grows bright
The Romans fall as dead men at the empty tomb
Jesus is no longer a dead man in the tomb
Sunday has come.
It's Sunday.
Mary has heard Jesus say her name
Peter has been restored
John has believed
The disciples have seen their Lord
For you see, it's Sunday, the tomb is empty!
Jesus has resurrected.
The disciples are now sheep of the Great Shepherd
Mary is praising;
Peter is about to be preaching;
They know that Sunday has come!
It's Sunday.
The world has lost.
Sin has lost.
Satan has lost.
Death has lost.
Jesus has won!
Sunday has come!
It's Sunday.
The disciples celebrate.
The Pharisees deliberate.
The disciples accept the truth
The Pharisees declare a lie
What they feared has happened - Sunday has come.
It's Sunday.
Jesus is no longer forsaken by His Father,
But is resurrected to His right hand.
It is there He is now crowned Lord of All
Because Sunday has come!
It's Sunday
Heaven has robed Jesus with glorious splendor
He is now crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And all will one day bow before Him and confess just who He is.
Sunday has come.
It's Sunday
Hope has won
Salvation is sure
Heaven is real
Because Sunday has come.
It's Sunday! Hallelujah Sunday has come!