Resurrection Of Christ

To listen on YouTube, CLICK HERE.

TRIAL, CRUCIFIXION & RESURRECTION SERIES: RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

Pastor Mike here.

I want to talk to you about the Resurrection Of Christ today.

This is the fourth in a series on the Trial, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST TEXT IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

The Resurrection Of Christ is found in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verse 1 through 12, where it reads…

1 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.

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,

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.

THIS WAS ALL DONE FOR US

And so we have the Resurrection Of Christ in the Gospel of Luke.

And before we dive in to the text, let me just remind you of the main point of the entirety of this series on the Trial, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This was all done FOR US.

Jesus was put on trial, sentenced for execution, nailed to a cross of wood, suffered, bled and died there, was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day so that we could be saved of our sins and have eternal life.

This was all done FOR US.

VERSE 1

Which brings us to the text.

In v. 1 it starts out, “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn.”

And so this is Sunday morning right before sunrise.

This is the Sunday after the Friday on which Jesus was crucified, died and was buried.

And v. 1 goes on now that “they went to the tomb.”

That is, the women of Luke chapter 23, verse 55 and 56, “who had come with [Jesus] from Galilee,” and witnessed the crucifixion and then they followed Joseph of Arimathea who had asked for the body of Jesus from Pilate that he might take it and bury Him.

These women “followed [Joseph of Arimathea] and saw the tomb” that Christ was being buried in “and how his body was laid.”

Luke chapter 23, verse 56, then says, “Then [the women] returned [from Christ’s tomb] and prepared spices and ointments.”

It is these women who are now going to the tomb “on the first day of the week, at early dawn.”

And back now in Luke 24, verse 1, the last part of the verse, it reads that the women are “taking the spices they had prepared” previously.

VERSE 2

But when they get to the tomb they find something that they didn’t see when they watched Joseph of Arimathea bury the Lord.

Verse 2 says, “And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.”

Now this is unusual since a stone of such magnitude would have required quite the force to remove it.

And yet it has been rolled away.

VERSE 3

And now since the tomb is miraculously open, v. 3 goes on to say that the women go inside.

And what do they discover?

It is empty!

“[T]hey did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”

Which, by the way, the stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out.

The stone was rolled away to let us in to see He wasn’t there!

And though we did not witness it firsthand, we have the God breathed and Holy Spirit inspired eyewitness account in the Scriptures of the women who saw the empty tomb themselves.

And so through their experience as recorded in God’s Word we are let in the tomb, also, to see with our eyes of faith that it is empty.

Jesus wasn’t there.

VERSE 4

Which brings us now to v. 4 where it talks about how the women are perplexed.

To be perplexed means to be “completely baffled.” (Google)

I mean, how could this have happened?

On Friday, Jesus is in the tomb.

And now on Sunday, Jesus is not in the tomb.

And now while the women are in their state of perplexity, something else happens that can only ratchet up their complete bafflement.

The second part of v. 4 puts it, “behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.”

These are angels who go on to explain what the women have seen.

VERSE 5-9

And as v. 5 starts out with the women being frightened at the appearance of the angels and bowing their faces to the ground, the angels now speak in the second part of v. 5, and then in v. 6 and v. 7…

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

“And they remembered {Jesus’] words,” v. 8 says.

It clicked.

Jesus had spoken of this very thing before in the presence of these women.

He had said that He was to die on a cross and then rise again from the dead on the third day.

And so the ladies now, having heard the angels’ testimony and remembered Jesus’ words, they return from the tomb (v. 9) and they tell all these things to the eleven disciples and to all the rest.

VERSE 10-12

In v. 10 we are told who the women are who testify to the apostles.

It’s Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them.

Again, these women have been with Jesus and prior to His death.

They believed in the Lord.

They would have no reason to lie.

And yet in v. 11 the apostles do not receive what they have to say.

And even though the women saw it with their own eyes and then two angels confirmed what they had seen, v. 11 says, “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they (the apostles) did not believe them.”

In v. 12, despite their and his unbelief, Peter will rise and run to the tomb to see for himself.

And upon “stooping and looking in” what Peter sees are “the linen cloths” that were used to wrap the body of Jesus and these were lying “by themselves” and so Peter goes home “marveling at what had happened.”

DR. PAUL KRETZMANN ON THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

In his commentary on the entire Bible including the Gospel of Luke, Dr. Paul Kretzmann adds this regarding the Resurrection Of Christ…

See Mat_28:1-10; Mar_16:1-8. On the first day of the week according to Christian reckoning, which Luke employs on account of his readers, very early in the morning, literally at deep dawn, when the dawn was just giving way to the brightness of the morning, at just about the time of sunrise, the women that were mentioned in the last chapter were on their way to the sepulcher. They brought the spices and ointments which they had prepared before and after the Jewish Sabbath, for their purpose was to anoint the body of Jesus. But in the meantime wonderful things had happened at the sepulcher. A great earthquake had shaken the garden and the surrounding country; an angel of the Lord had come down from heaven; he had rolled away the stone from the doorway tomb, where it fitted securely into a groove, and had sat down upon it. The women, therefore, who had been apprehensive about the stone, since they were unable to move it, could enter into the tomb. But as they did so, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. The empty grave had been a surprise, the absence of the Lord’s body was a greater surprise. At the time of His burial they had noted expressly in just what way He had been laid into the tomb, and now He was not there.

Dr. Kretzmann goes on…

But while they were standing there in doubt and hesitation, all dazed by the unexpected turn of events, suddenly two men in shining, lightning-white raiment, two angels, came upon them, appeared to them. Stricken with overpowering fear in the presence of these beings from the realms of glory, they, the poor sinful human beings, could not lift up their eyes to look upon that glory, but bowed their faces to the ground. But the angels had a reassuring, a cheering message for them, destined to take away all fear out of their hearts. A wonderful Easter-message it is: Why seek ye the Living One among the dead? Jesus is the Living One; He is the source and incarnation of all life, Joh_1:4. And therefore this Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified, had arisen from the dead. He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened on the third day by the Spirit; He had entered also according to His body into a new, spiritual, divine life. Then He had gone and preached to the spirits in prison, He had shown Himself to the devil and all his angels, and also to the souls of the damned as the Conqueror of death and hell, 1Pe_1:18-19. That was the beginning of His exaltation. Now we know with the certainty of faith grounded in the Word of eternal truth that Christ, our Champion, has destroyed the power of hell and has taken away the might of the devil. He was no longer in the tomb; He had risen. And the angels remind the women how, in what words, Jesus had spoken to the disciples, probably in the presence of these women, that it was necessary for the Son of Man, that the obligation rested upon Him, according to the purpose of His incarnation, to be delivered into the hands of sinful men and to be crucified, but that He had also given them the glorious promise that He would arise on the third day. All these express prophecies, which at the time had not entered into their consciousness and understanding, had been fulfilled before their eyes. All this was irrefutable evidence for the resurrection of the Master.

Dr. Kretzmann concludes…

As the angels delivered their message, the women recalled the saying of Jesus perfectly. And there was no longer doubt in their minds, nor any uncertainty, but joyful trust and belief in the resurrection of their Lord. Christ was risen from the dead; God had raised His Child Jesus. The Master of life had taken His life out of death. He had reared up the temple of His body, which the Jews had destroyed, in three days. And thus He has been declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead, Rom_1:4. And therefore He has also been proved to be the Savior of the world. He has torn asunder the fetters of death, He has destroyed the power of death. There is no need for the believers to fear death, for they may gladly say: Grave, where is thy victory? Death, where is thy sting? 1Co_15:55-57. Death has been conquered, and the sting of death, sin, has been taken away, 1Co_15:18-20. Christ was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification, Rom_4:25. All these gifts belonged to the believing women by faith on that first great Easter morning. But this same faith caused them to turn back from the grave, to return to the city, not all together, but in different groups, and to bring the message of all these wonderful things to the eleven apostles first of all, but also to the other disciples. There had been a considerable number of women at the grave, not only the three Marys, Mar_16:1, but also Joanna, Luk_8:3, and others. And they all, although at first almost stunned by the joyful news, proclaimed it to the followers of the Master. But on that morning the apostles were still too deep in the misery of their disappointment and in their grief at the death of Jesus. The words of the women seemed to them as idle tales, as nonsense and superstitious gossip, as foolish talk, which must not be taken seriously. Only Peter (and John, Joh_20:1-31) determined to see for himself just what the meaning of all this talk was. He arose and ran with all speed to the tomb. There he bent his body forward, without entering into the sepulcher, and saw the linen grave-clothes carefully laid away by themselves. The evidence was all against grave-robbery and the application of force. The situation was such as to set Peter thinking seriously and to wonder about what had really happened as he slowly returned to the city. The speech of the women and the evidence of the tomb spoke strongly in favor of the resurrection, but he was not quite ready yet to believe.

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN AND YET HAVE BELIEVED

And so we have the Resurrection Of Christ in the Gospel of Luke.

“‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” (John 20:29b)