The Resurrection of Jesus | Dr. David Jeremiah | Luke 24:1-12

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. We see these women on their way to the tomb engaged in this ministry of love. But we forget it was also a ministry of sorrow and hopelessness.

These women who came to the tomb on that first Easter would have been some of the last ones at the cross with their savior. Luke tells us that all of his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching the crucifixion. It's neither the dark Fridays or the bright Sundays that require the greatest amount of grace.

We've all learned even in our own lives that the greatest grace is needed during eternally long Saturdays. When we're waiting for what happened to be resolved, when we're waiting for the promise to be kept. When we're waiting for the diagnosis to be confirmed. It's those long Saturdays that are so hard.

There's a very famous sermon on Easter by a friend of mine and the title of the sermon, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming. Say that with me. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. That's surely how it was for the friends of Jesus is the hours of Saturday overtook them with emptiness.

But something was about to happen that would change these men and women forever. No longer would they be cowards hiding in the backdrop of the crucifixion, but something would happen that would change them into flaming evangelists who fill the whole world with the gospel. And according to the record even of secular historians, these particular people turned their world upside down.

It is the experience of the resurrection of the savior that explains all of this. And of course, this particular truth about his life is found in all of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I've chosen today to tell the story from the 24th chapter of the book of Luke and the first 12 verses.

Here we are told of the experience of the empty tomb and are met with some visiting women in verse one. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

We see these women on their way to the tomb engaged in this ministry of love. But we forget it was also a ministry of sorrow and hopelessness. These women who came to the tomb on that first Easter would have been some of the last ones at the cross with their savior.

Luke tells us that all of his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching the crucifixion. It is moving to see them now on this day early in the morning coming to the grave of their loved one bringing their spices. They brought the spices as a show of their love for their dead master.

They thought of him as dead and yet they still loved him with a great love. The things they had hoped for seemed destroyed, but their love for the Lord was not destroyed. I mean, Jesus had been beaten and put to death, but the love of these women did not die with Jesus.

They had been told by Christ before his death about his resurrection, but either they did not believe him or it just went over the top of their heads. They were coming to embomb the Lord's body because they thought this was the end of him. Their faith had failed them, but their love was still strong.

And they brought their spices that day which would have been sorted into the foldings of the cloth around his body sort of as an external imbalming process. They came with love to visit his grave. But as they drew near to the grave, something happened. Verse two says, "They found the stone rolled away from the tomb."

That's not just an incidental detail. Let me fill in the blanks. This was something that was quite amazing to them. In fact, one of the other gospel writers tells us that this was the subject of their conversation on their way to the tomb that day. They had said among themselves Mark 16:3, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"

Now, Matthew records in his writings that a large stone was rolled against the front of the tomb. Mark says the stone was extremely large and some of the manuscripts described the stone as a stone which 20 men could not roll away. Scholars have discussed what it would take for a stone to be big enough to cover the tomb where Jesus was buried and they have said it would have weighed somewhere between one and a half and two tons.

On that first Sunday morning, when the women came to the tomb, one of the first things that shocked them and made them realize something was going on was this stone was not where it was supposed to be. It was not in front of the tomb. It was not even rolled back up the slot.

It was in a place by itself where it could not possibly have gotten uh if humans were involved in the process. Now, they approached the supplr where Jesus was buried. And the scripture says in verse three of Luke 24 that they went in and they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Immediately they noticed that no one was in the tomb. And I want to say to you that the gospel rests entirely on the fact that the tomb was empty. This has been our claim and no one has ever been able to deny it. Let's face it, the Jews of Jesus day could not deny it.

Even though there was nothing they wanted more than to discredit the witnesses of the resurrection. And the Romans could not deny it in spite of the fact this was the most embarrassing event in the 10-year reign of Pontius Pilate. I like to say it this way. His death was the sacrifice and his resurrection was a stamp on the document paid in full.

So I got saved one day long long time ago. My dad led me to Christ. I've been saved ever since because once you get saved, you stay saved. And I know that my sins are forgiven. I've done some things I'm not proud of as all of you have.

But I've confessed them to the Lord. And the Bible says if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's what he does. I stand before you today free and forgiven. I'm a forgiven boy. And I know a lot of you are forgiven, too.

Amen. But not only are we forgiven, the Bible says we have fellowship. You remember what happened? Jesus came out of the grave. He He came out of the grave and 40 days later he went back to heaven. So what's he doing up there? The Bible says he's seated at the right hand of the father making intercession for us.

He is seated right next to God the Father and when I pray he takes my prayers and he puts them in the perfect format and gives them to God and they get answered. And here's the goodest of all the good news. He's not only in heaven as my advocate and my intercessor, he also lives within my heart and I can talk with him anytime I want and I talk to him today.

Last of all, third, not only do I get forgiven and I get fellowship with God, but third, my future is sealed. It's fixed. I don't have to worry about what's going to happen to me when I die. Because the promise is this. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me, shall never die." The Bible teaches that there's two kinds of death. In fact, it calls it the first death and the second death. Death is a word that means separation.

That's what the word itself means. The first death it means that your soul and your spirit gets separated from your body. That's what happens when a person dies. We put their body in the grave, but the Bible says their soul and their spirit goes to be with God.

Absent from the body is present with the Lord. That's what the scripture says. That's the first death. And and all of us will will experience that if the Lord doesn't come back beforehand. But the second death is one that's not understood by many. It's the one you don't want to get close to.

The second death isn't the separation of your soul and your spirit from your body. The second death is the separation of your soul and spirit from God forever. Now listen again to what Jesus said. Jesus said unto her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die physically, he shall live.

When you die, you keep on living. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die the second death. Because when you believe in Jesus, you live forever in his presence. So what I know is this. I'm not afraid to die. I I'm not anxious to die. I'm like the little boy who was in class one day and his teacher said, "How many of you want to go to heaven when you die?"

All the little children raised their hands except this little boy in the back. And she said, "Son, don't you want to go to heaven when you're die?" Oh, he said, "Yes, when I die, but I thought you were getting up a load for today. You know, I don't want to go I don't want to die any sooner than I have to.

But I'm not afraid to die because I know what's what it is. I'll never die spiritually because I've made peace with God. I've faced death physically and I know that it's a scary thing, but I'm not afraid of it because I know what it is. One day Jesus is going to come back and if we haven't already died before then we're going to be caught up together be with him.

And the Bible says, "So shall we ever be with the Lord." Well, that's the resurrection. That's why I believe in it. Why I love to teach it. Why this is such a special day. I'm forgiven. I got somebody to talk to every day in heaven. and I'm going to spend eternity with my father.

Those are pretty good takeaways from the resurrection. Carol Wolf tells about a time some years ago when she was in a Christian theater group and she was traveling around doing a musical based on CS Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I don't know if you've read that, but it's a pretty good metaphor of the gospel.

And the lion Alen is a metaphor or a picture of Jesus Christ. I just need to tell you that so you understand the rest of the story. She said, "I helped prepare the costumes and the sets and the props, make the bookings." She said, "I booked a show at Easter in a children's hospital and when the kids arrived for the show in wheelchairs and even on a gurnie as well as by foot, we realized that we were going to be very crowded and we decided to remove some of the set pieces.

And even when we did that, the children were right next to the actors throughout the entire performance. At any rate, during this performance, there was a scene where the white witch, the devil, humiliates and kills the good lion, Christ, and the children were totally caught up in the action.

I mean, they didn't stir or speak, but more than a few were starting to cry. She said, 'I was off stage watching this, waiting to go on, and the activities director of the hospital came and furiously started to chew me out. She said, 'What are you doing? You didn't tell me this was going to happen.

Look at these children. You're breaking their hearts. I said, don't you get it? Alen is like Jesus. He'll come back. Just then, two actresses playing sisters were singing a beautiful song in the midst of this presentation. And the song was called Why Did This Have to Happen? They sang about Alen taking the punishment for their traitor brother, all while sitting in front of Alen's dead body on the set.

When they finished their song, they cried on each other's shoulders. And while in this posture of grief, Alen sat up behind them. And that's when the children came to life. They shouted with joy. They clapped and laughed as if they were full of excitement. And the ones closest to the two women were shouting and pulling on their clothes saying, "Look, look, he's alive.

He's alive." And that's what Easter is all about. We don't have a savior whose remains or languish in some far away unknown tomb. Jesus Christ is living today. And the same excitement that he brought to those children, he waits to bring to us if we will just come to him with our arms open to receive him.

If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today if you will allow us. Dr. Jeremiah would like to send you two resources that will help you. The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.

And the second is our monthly devotional magazine, Turning Points, to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year. These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning Point 
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 today. Next time on Turning Point. And when God gets involved in our lives, he takes the good and the bad, the mistakes, and all of the things we do right, and in his sovereign, he mixes it all together, and he puts it together in his plan, and according to to the scripture, he makes all things beautiful.

Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message, Knowing a Sovereign God, here on Turning Point. 
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