Wow, wasn't that a treat? Praise God. Thank you, Lynn, and yes. Thank you to Lynn Loftus and to our singers and to our musicians. That was wonderful. If you would, please take your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, I'm gonna read from verse 50 of that chapter, and I'm gonna read through chapter 24, verse 12. Luke 23 beginning with verse 50, hear the word of the Lord. Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council and a good and righteous man who had not consented to their decision and action. He was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 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. 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 his words in returning from the tomb. They told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest." 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. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 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. Let's pray together, Father God, this is just a precious gift from you that we could gather on this Resurrection Sunday to remember, to celebrate that Jesus is alive. And Father, I pray that you would move in all of our hearts so that we might marvel at the resurrection. Father, would you please give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to feel, minds to comprehend. Father, we pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would enable us to believe. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Last week I was listening to a lecture on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I was reminded of one of the most famous sports broadcasting moments of all time. The year was 1980 and Al Michaels was calling the semi-final hockey match between the United States and the Soviet Union. And what made this pairing particularly interesting was the tension that was between, that was building between these two countries. Of course, no one was giving the Americans any chance of winning. The Soviet team was comprised of professionals and just elite athletes, as opposed to the American team, which was packed, just packed with amateur and college players. Yet the unexpected happened. And against all odds, the Americans had a four to three lead going into the closing moments of the match. And as the clock was ticking down with five seconds left in the game, broadcaster Al Michaels uttered the words that will go down in broadcasting history. Do you remember what they were? Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in miracles? And I share that story with you this morning because we celebrate perhaps the most important, not perhaps, the most important and significant miracle that has ever taken place in human history, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the question for all of us this morning is do you believe? Do you believe in the resurrection? And the question that has been offered to us this morning is one that many, many have had to answer and have had to address prior to us. So significant is the actual, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ that the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, that if Christ was not raised from the dead, that our preaching and our faith is futile. In other words, If the resurrection did not take place, this is a waste of time. Christianity is a sham. It's fraudulent. Whether you think that Christianity can teach nice moral lessons to children or help us live on the straight and narrow, all of that does not matter without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet as foundational as the resurrection is to the Christian faith, it's somewhat surprising, isn't it? That the scene surrounding the empty tomb of Jesus Christ starts off so chaotic. In fact, if the sentiments of Al Michaels would have been asked of those early followers on that first Easter morning, do you believe in the resurrection? Do you believe that Jesus is alive? Do you believe that He's been raised from the dead? The answer would have been no. No, we don't believe. And that's quite amazing for us because we would think that followers of Jesus, those men and women who were with Jesus prior to His death on the cross, prior to His resurrection, if anyone was to believe it would have been them. But they struggled with their faith. And that's one of the reasons why, quite honestly, that I think that Christianity is truth and the narrative that we have before us in Luke is an honest depiction of what took place on that first Easter morning. In other words, if I were to make up this story, I would have those first witnesses of the empty tomb present themselves with stellar, perfect faith. But we don't have that, do we? We have men and women scrambling around trying to figure out what's going on. Yet we see in this scene three movements. We see in this scene that This group starts off at one point in a state of confusion, yet they don't stay there. From there, they move to a state of clarity and ultimately belief. Confusion, clarity, and belief, which I might add is the framework by which many of us came to faith in Jesus Christ. If I were to talk to those of you who are Christians, and I don't assume everyone here is a Christian, but if I were to talk to the Christians in this room and I would ask you, how did you come to faith in Jesus Christ? Many of you would go back and you would say something very similar to that cycle, that there was a period of your time where where you were confused. Maybe there was personal confusion or spiritual confusion. You were trying to make sense of life, of purpose, of meaning, of destiny. What happens when I die? And then at that particular moment in time, God intervened and through his word, things became more clarified. And then ultimately that led to your belief. So if this morning you find yourself a bit unsure, a bit confused about the resurrection or about Christianity, you're in good company. Because it was on that first Easter morning where, in verses 1 through 3, we see a group of women thrown into a state of confusion. Confusion. And not surprisingly, at the crux of their perplexity was the missing body of Jesus Christ. Luke records for us that after the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, a man by the name of Joseph, he was a good man, he was a righteous man, and Joseph asked and was granted permission to make arrangements for the body of Jesus Christ. So this good man, this righteous man, Joseph went to the cross and collected Jesus' body, and then he placed him in a tomb. Yet there's a detail that I don't want us to overlook. Luke pens for us in verse 55. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Notice that when Joseph took Jesus's body and placed him in the tomb, the women not only saw the tomb, they also saw how Jesus's body was laid. There are some memories that are forever etched in our minds. Isn't that true? Some events, some things that happen in your life, in my life, that we'll just never forget. Some of them are good memories. The day we graduated from high school or college. The day we moved out for the first time. The day we moved back in. Out, in. Out, in. For some of us, the day we got married. But there are also the challenging days, aren't there? The challenging days that are just etched in our minds. The day we got the phone call saying that our spouse has cancer. The day we lost a business. Work your entire life to build a business up and then just in a matter of hours, destroyed. And yes, the day we lost a loved one. The women that followed Joseph had the location of Jesus's tomb and the picture of his body etched in their minds. And I'm sure that that mental picture was replayed on the Friday when they returned from the tomb and as they prepared the spices. And I'm sure that that mental picture was replayed on that Sabbath Saturday as they rested And as they replayed the scene of the crucifixion and the placement of Jesus's battered body in the tomb, I can tell you one thing. They were not thinking, do you believe in miracles? Belief in miracles at that time was not running through their minds. They were thinking disappointment. They were thinking hardship. They were thinking sadness. They were thinking defeat. They loved Jesus. They loved him. They followed him. They were committed to him. They trusted him. And when Jesus died, their hopes died with him. So it was with a heavy and burdened heart that these women made their way to the tomb on that first day of the week. And with the crack of dawn on the horizon, these women went to the tomb with spices in hand to properly honor the body of the Lord Jesus. Yet when they arrived, they found the unexpected. They found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, which as you can imagine, left them in a state of confusion. And the question that I have, and maybe you've thought of this too, The question that I like to pose to all of us is why did Jesus choose to hide himself? Why? He didn't have to. He was alive. Why not just appear and alleviate their anxiety and confusion? And I believe the answer to that question is that sometimes God needs to utterly undo us and put things in our life that exposes all of our insecurities and all of our vulnerabilities and all of our misconceptions in order that we might be open, in order that our hearts might be open to the truth of the gospel. That's how many of you came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was during a time of confusion. Confusion caused by loneliness or confusion caused by shame or guilt. Or the perplexity that took place when you tried to wrestle through meaning and purpose in life. Or the challenges of trying to determine if God even exists. Especially as you looked around and you saw all the evil and brokenness in the world. confusing times, perplexing times, times of complication. And it was in that confusion that you had your misconceptions. Many of you had your misconceptions about Jesus clarified so that for the first time, you realized that Jesus was more than just a good moral teacher or more than just some wise philosopher that he was God, God incarnate, who came to save you from your sins. And some of you this morning might be experiencing a time of confusion in your own mind. And I want to let you know that that's not a bad place to be. Because it's during those times of confusion that God can work in our life. I remember back in the day, my mother used to play music in the house, especially on Sunday mornings as we would get ready for church. And she would pop in her eight-track tape, okay? Let me back up. There was a day when there was something called an eight-track tape, okay? And one of the songs that she would play often was a song called Something Beautiful. Remember that song? Something beautiful, something good, then what? All my confusion, he understood. All of it, all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, and he made something beautiful of my life. Do you believe in the miracle of the resurrection? You. Not your mother, not your father, not your brother, not your sister, you. Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Many of you do. But perhaps because of some difficulty or some perplexity that comes with living in a broken world, some of you don't. But the good news is that God has the power to take your confusion, and help you, help me make sense of it. That is what he did in the lives of these women, where in verses four through seven, we see them move from confusion to clarity, confusion to clarity. Let's pick it up in verse four of chapter 24. While they were perplexed, it's another way of saying confused. While they were perplexed about this, and this is the, the empty tomb. Behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, 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? 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. Notice what Jesus does in the midst of their perplexity and bewilderment. What does he do? You're on your own, ladies. I don't have time for you. I've told you repeatedly, God doesn't do that. He's kind and he's merciful and he ministers to these women by sending two angels to help bring clarification to the situation. And we know that these two, even though in the text it says men, we know that they were angels because of their apparel, their dazzling apparel, and because of the response of the women that they got down. And we also know because later on in Luke's gospel, he makes it very clear in chapter 24, verse 23, that these were angels. And how do these two messengers of God bring these women from confusion to clarity? How do they do it? Well, they begin with a simple question, a question that begins with why. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Said another way, what are you doing here? Said another way, what did you expect to find here? Said another way, what do you plan to do here with those spices and ointments? In other words, the angels were giving these women just a gentle rebuke. Not harsh, just a gentle nudge because they were operating on the false assumption that Jesus was still dead. It's amazing. Isn't it amazing how a simple yet profound question can begin to remove the cloud of confusion and replace it with clarity? Isn't that amazing or how a question enables us to deal with our own assumptions in order that we might grapple with what we believe and why? And we see this, we see God using simple questions in order for people to get a snapshot of what's going on in the heart. Adam, where are you? Where are you, Adam? Cain, where's your brother? Jonah, why are you angry? And to these women, why are you seeking the living among the dead? The question posed by the angels is a question every single one of us needs to answer. This is not a question for them 2,000 years ago. This is a question for us today, not only as it applies to the empty tomb, but also as it applies to the assumptions that you and I have about life, about meaning, about purpose. So often we long for satisfaction, but we're looking in the wrong place. And in the same way that the women were asked, why are you seeking the living among the dead? That same question needs to be asked of us. Why are we seeking life in things that are dead? So it begs to ask all of us, are you and I seeking to find life by trying to impress others? Are we seeking to find life in wealth? Are we seeking to find life in a boyfriend or girlfriend? Are we seeking to find life in the success of our children? Are we seeking to find life in fame? popularity, and there's nothing wrong in and of themselves of personal accomplishments or wealth or a special relationship or successful children or fame. There's nothing wrong with these things, but they're secondary. They're not primary. They're not ultimate. Jesus is ultimate. Yet so often, we try to find life, ultimate life, and things that are dead. So these angels seek to bring clarity to the women first by asking that question, why do you seek the living among the dead? And then they give clarity to the situation by giving the answer to that question. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful that an answer is given to the question? We are living in a time, an educational time, where there is no truth. Teachers put a question out in the middle of the class, let them argue about it. Oh, you think that's right? Good for you. You think that's right? Good for you. And everybody walks away angry at each other. God is so good, he answers the question. What does he say? He's not here, but he has risen. He's risen. What do we mean by that? What do we mean when we say that Jesus is risen? We don't mean that he has risen in a spiritual sense. In other words, some people, when they think of the resurrection or when they explain it, they think of it something like this, that Jesus was so influential on his followers that his message or his ethos, it just, it moves, it continues with the life, in the life of his early followers and it continues in our life. That's not what the Bible means when it talks about resurrection. It's not a spiritual resurrection, nor is it talking about a resuscitation. What's a resuscitation? A resuscitation is when someone who's dead gets revitalized, but ultimately they're gonna die again, like Lazarus. What happened with Lazarus? He was raised from the dead, and when he came out, he had those strips all around his body. They had to take them off. Jesus had a glorified body. He could just move right through those strips and neatly place them for people to see. It wasn't a spiritual resurrection. It wasn't resuscitation. When the Bible talks about the resurrection, we're talking about physical. We're talking about bodily. Jesus is alive in every real sense that you can imagine in a glorious body. But the question is, how could these women know? How could they know? that these words from the angels were true? How could they believe it? And more importantly, how can you and I believe it? This happened 2,000 years ago. How can you and I believe it today? Of course, some people answer that question by pointing to the physical evidence of the resurrection. For example, medical evidence that points to Jesus's actual death, or evidence of the empty tomb, or evidence of the many documented appearances of Jesus. And all of those have their place. I'm not trying to dismiss those or discount circumstantial evidence. I'm not, not in any way. But the angels did not try to build a case based on physical evidence. They didn't do it. Instead, the angel simply told the women, and by extension us today, remember. Remember what Jesus said. Remember his words. On three separate times, Jesus had foretold his death. Two of those times are recorded in Luke 9 and once in Luke 18. Now this is prior to his death. Jesus is foretelling this is gonna happen. Three times, this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen. Luke 18, 32, 33. This is Jesus speaking for he, and this is him speaking about himself, for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him. And on the third day, he will rise. You and I can know the resurrection took place because everything happened exactly the way Jesus said it would happen. Jesus was delivered into the hands of sinful men, check. He was crucified and died, check. And he was raised from the dead, check. And all in accordance with his own words. It was by remembering Jesus's words that everything began to make sense in the lives of these women. It was his words, his words. It's amazing how the same message can be told over and over and over again. And then one day it just clicks. Some of you attended church your whole life, ever since you were kids, and you heard the gospel. You heard the truth that you have sinned against the holy and righteous God. You heard that God loves you and that he sent Jesus to die on the cross for you. You heard that Jesus hung on the cross. You heard that he was taken down. You heard that he was placed in the tomb. You heard after three days that he was raised from the dead. You heard that he walked on the earth for 40 days and then you heard that he ascended to heaven. You heard and you heard and you heard and it fell on deaf ears. And then one day, for whatever reason, probably because of some confusion or some circumstances that were going on in your life, you heard and all of a sudden for the first time, it made sense and you believed. I'll never forget when I was sitting right over there. I was 29 years old, heard the gospel my whole life. And one of the leaders at this church at the time was a man by the name of Paul Ribbe. And he explained in such clarity, clarity, clarity, while I was in a stage of confusion, He preached the word with clarity and he talked about how when Jesus hung on that cross, somehow mysteriously and vicariously, my sins were placed upon the cross. And when Jesus was raised from the dead, somehow my life was interlocked with his and I was raised from the dead. And I had heard that or, Something like that, maybe not in his exact words. For years upon years upon years before the first time, it made sense to me. Parents, don't stop teaching the Bible to your kids. Teach them over and over and over again. In the midst of their perplexity, in their confusion, in the midst of a complicated world, teach them. over and over and over again. As they rebel, teach them over and over and over again. Get on your knees and pray for them. Because you never know when the spirit of God will take the word of God and bring clarity to your kid's life. And although we're not exactly sure when each of the women believed, eventually they all did. They all did so much so that they were compelled to tell their experience with the 11 other apostles and the others who were with them. God had brought this group of women from confusion to clarity to belief. He did it. It's right there before us. And when these Women went back to report the news that Jesus was alive to the apostles. They were met with skepticism and doubt. Why? Because that group was in a state of confusion. They were right where the women were at. But there was one who upon hearing the news rose and ran to the tomb, and that was Peter. And when Peter arrived, he also saw that the tomb was empty. and he went home marveling. You see, Peter went through the same process that the women went through. Confusion, clarity, and belief. Then after the disciples, for years, hundreds of years since, the same cycle has taken place in people's lives. Confusion, clarity, and belief. So as we bring our time to a close, I wanna ask you a question. Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? Do you believe that without the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross that you stand condemned before a holy God? Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? Sometimes we think to ourselves, if only I could have been there. Why did they get to be there? If only I could have been there. Do you realize what the women and what the apostles had is the same thing that you and I have? And that's the word of God. They have the same thing, the same tool, the same precious word. that we have. And so it is with the authority and by the authority of scripture that we can be confident that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. Do you believe? Let's pray. Father God, we bless your name. We praise you, we worship you. You are such a good God. that you would look upon us with such grace and mercy, that you would send your beloved son to pay a price that we could never pay for ourselves. And so God, I pray for anyone here this morning who does not believe, I pray that they would take seriously the words recorded for us in your holy word. And I pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit, that they would believe. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.