Nobody Here, But Us Angels And ...

Good morning. Well the Christmas season and New Years Day have come and gone, and we return back to our study from the Book of John. Today we look at the empty tomb, I know some would say, "wait, isn't that an Easter sermon?" The thing is like the celebration of Christ Jesus' birth should be an any and all time celebration so should the resurrection be.

Some time in late January each year, millions of people are glued to their television sets to watch the Superbowl. It is the most heavily watched program of the year and the most expensive for commercial advertising. All the hoopla leading up to it usually covers at least a week with special programming, heavy gambling of both the legal and illegal kind, and the selling of a vast array of Superbowl items like T-shirts and team hats. In the past twenty years the day that the Superbowl is played has become known as Superbowl Sunday.

Long before football was invented there was a “Super Sunday” played out. But unlike the Superbowl there was nothing really spectacular about that “Super Sunday.” There were no clashing cymbals or blaring trumpets. No multi-million dollar commercials, no pre-”Super Sunday” hype. Nope this “Super Sunday” came quietly, it came just like any other day or did it? What made this “Super Sunday” then? On a quiet and ordinary day some two thousand years ago something quite extraordinary happened, Christ Jesus who had been crucified and put into a tomb was not there! The Son of God is resurrected and He will never die again!

John 20:1-18
20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
 

But Bro. Orden how can we be sure of the resurrection? Let's look at the evidence.

1. The Discovery

Many have doubted the empty tomb over these many years. A man can't rise from the dead they say, and they are right; a man can't rise from the dead. But Christ Jesus is not a man, He is the Son of Man who freely gave His life and takes it up again (John 10:17). 

Some have doubted the resurrection simply because Paul does not mention it, or does he - (1 Cor 15:3-4) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 

Also the disciples could not have credibly proclaimed the resurrection in Jerusalem if Christ Jesus' body was still in the tomb. Although the ancient laws of evidence differed from today, those of the disciples day would not have staked their lives on a report of an empty tomb without first checking out the tomb. Some modern critical scholars have suggested that the original disciples meant only that they had a spiritual experience but did not claim that Christ Jesus rose bodily. These scholars are reading to much of our culture into the Scriptures. In the time that the New Testament was written resurrection meant bodily resurrection and nothing else. Do you think that the disciples; who spent the day of the crucifixion and the days up to and even for awhile after the resurrection hiding out would have been willing to die for a mere spiritual experience? What about those who believed after the resurrection, do you think they would have been willing to experience all kinds of persecution, even death for someone else spiritual experience? Would you? 

One more thought would the disciples and future believers even be persecuted for a mere spiritual experience? Well then the disciples saw a ghost or an apparition of some kind. The belief in ghost and apparitions was wide spread in first century Israel and would not have gotten anyone into trouble with the religious leaders or the Romans. 

Is Christ Jesus in your life just some spiritual experience you have had? Is He an apparition that only shows up in your life once and awhile? Or is Christ Jesus the risen Saviour of your life?

2. An Empty Tomb (vs. 1-9)

John is scant on the details of that resurrection morning. Basically he tells us that it was early and still dark when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. His introduction to the empty tomb is based on Mary's eyewitness account and then on his. To fill in the rest of what happened that early Sunday Morning you must look at the other gospels. For example we know from accounts recorded in Matthew 28:1 there was another Mary; most likely Christ Jesus' mother. In Luke 24:1 you see; But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 

By all three accounts it was Mary Magdalene and at least one other who first came to the tomb. She had sinned much and Christ Jesus had done for her what no one else could do. He had forgiven and cleansed her. So she came in the darkness sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m., only to discover that something has happened. Imagine the strange feeling that might come over you if you walk into your home after being gone for some weeks. Someone had been there. One of the chairs was not in its regular place. Then you noticed a pane of glass in the back door is broken, and that the small kitchen radio was missing. That was only the beginning. Thieves have broken in! When Mary got to the grave, she knew with dismay someone had been there. The stone had been removed.

When Mary saw the open tomb she saw the body was gone and assumed it was stolen. She had to get this news to the disciples. So she ran to share this disturbing news with Peter, still the leader in spite of his failings, and “the other disciple, whom Jesus loved” (v. 2). It is now in John's gospel that we become aware that others have been with Mary at the tomb when she reports, “We do not know where they have laid Him.” They were concerned about the location of a lifeless body, and had no thought of any other kind of possibility. 

When the two disciples hear this news they both take off running for the tomb to find out what might have happened. All this running is interesting since in first-century Palestinian culture grown men did not run. In fact, the only other literal New Testament use apart from these verses appears in Matthew 28:8, describing the same event. The disciples had walked hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles with the Christ Jesus for three and a half years. Now an empty tomb accelerated their pace.

 “the other disciple outran Peter,” maybe because he was younger and faster. For what ever reason he reached the tomb first, but he pulled up short. John did not “go in,” but stoops down at the entrance and “peeps in” seeing nothing but the linen cloths. I don't know about you, but I can understand his hesitation and uncertainty, and yes a little fear. Who knew what lay beyond in the darkness? Who knew what horror they might find in the shadows of the burial cave? And even if nothing was there did John, the only disciple at the crucifixion; really want to look at Christ Jesus broken body again? 

There was no body there. It was Peter, impulsive and courageous as ever, who went in all the way and saw the grave clothes lying there neatly, all in place. “Still in the folds” is the Greek phrase. Even the head cloths are separated from the rest of the garments. It is as if the dead one had simply stepped out into life. Peter saw all this, but apparently makes no response. 

Now John “went in also; and he saw and believed” (v. 8). But what did he believe? Did he at that moment remember and believe in the resurrected Christ? Or did he simply believe that the body of Christ Jesus was missing? When you read verse 9 it seems to me that he believed that the body was not there and did not know why. Or that if he did believe Christ Jesus was alive, but he could not figure out how or why or what came next. 

The empty tomb and the folded grave clothes should have been evidence for Peter and John that Christ Jesus had risen just as He said He would. But it would seem it was not. Later the living Christ would appear to the disciples and those gathered with them in a locked room to testify to His own Resurrection. Now you and I have the Holy Spirit to testify to Christ Jesus and all that He taught. The Holy Spirit will show you the resurrected Christ if you will let Him. Why not do so this morning?

Conclusion: Approximately A.D. 30, the Son of God (God/Man) rose from the grave never to die again. He broke the bonds of death and sin on that “Super Sunday”, thereby changing everything. He did all this for you and anyone who will hear His voice, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28).