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. And 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 clothes by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. Well, according to our summer preaching schedule in the providence of the Lord Jesus, he has been in the tomb now for about five weeks. But as we return to Luke's accounts of his death and resurrection historically, Jesus has been in the tomb just three days. Three days ago, his lifeless dead body was placed inside a stone tomb. We had the very rich opportunity back in the month of May to spend several weeks together considering the details of Jesus' crucifixion and His death and the meaning of His death for us. That this innocent man, we saw that Luke emphasized that again and again in the account of Jesus's trial and his crucifixion that this man was innocent that he was not worthy of punishment not deserving of death but as a part of God's saving plan this innocent man was condemned and executed as a sacrifice taking upon himself the punishment deserved by sinful men and women so that we might be offered the free and full forgiveness of our sins, reconciliation with God. Well, this month we have the joyful opportunity to consider together the meaning and significance of the events surrounding Jesus's resurrection from the dead. The claim that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, it's one of the most central and essential claims of Christianity. If indeed Jesus did not rise from the dead, then as the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, those of us who have placed our hope in Jesus should be pitied. People should feel sorry for us. We should be pitied for our hopelessness. We should be pitied for our foolishness to hope in a savior who claims to save us from the dead and grant us eternal life if he himself did not conquer the grave. But if Jesus has risen from the dead, that changes everything. Tim Keller, the longtime Presbyterian pastor in New York City, in his book, The Reason for God, he writes, sometimes people approach me and say, I really struggle with this aspect of Christian teaching. I like this part of Christian belief, but I don't think I can accept that part. I usually respond, If Jesus rose from the dead, you have to accept all he said. If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything. So, the universal implications of the resurrection are dramatic. This is an all or nothing claim. If true, it means that Christianity, it's not a tribal religion. It's not a European religion. It's not an American religion. It's not even a Jewish religion, although Jesus himself was a Jew. Either the resurrection never happened And then in which case Christianity is false and therefore should be rejected by all people everywhere or Jesus did rise from the dead and everyone everywhere should trust and follow him. There's just no middle ground that you can stand on here. It is the uniform testimony of the New Testament Scriptures that Jesus did, in fact, rise physically, bodily from the dead. All four gospel accounts culminate with this claim. Luke's gospel has been leading up to this moment. And then the rest of the New Testament picks up from where they leave off. As a whole, the teaching of the New Testament, it depends entirely on the assumption that Jesus is the living, reigning Lord of the world. that people of every generation are to trust in him, to worship him, and to obey him, that he will return one day as the king and as the judge of all the world. Although I'm going to make some observations along the way, it's really not my purpose in these final sermons and Luke's gospel to try to give a complete defense of the historical reliability of this claim. That's a large discussion. There are many excellent resources available on that discussion. If that's in question for you this morning, Let me first just say that I'm so glad that you're here today to consider these things. And if you want to talk more about that, I know that I myself, the other pastors and any number of people here would be happy to speak with you more about that and to point you to some other things that you might look at and consider regarding the historical reliability of the resurrection of Jesus. I do want to make one point as we begin in terms of the gospel accounts and in terms of Luke's account in particular. And I think this is also something that helps us to connect chapter 24 to all of the previous chapters that we've spent so much time going through in Luke's gospel. And it is this, that when you consider the reality of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, you must consider it in connection with the entire account of His life. Because the issue at stake here is not simply whether a man rose from the dead. The issue is whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. And that's different. Let me explain it. In other words, one of the things that makes the claim of Jesus' resurrection from the dead so compelling is what you have seen of His life. This man lived out a righteousness and a purity and a humility unlike any other man you have seen. The teaching of this man, which is recorded for you in the Gospels, it emanates a truth and an authority unlike any other teaching you have ever heard. Jesus loved with a compassion and a sincerity and humility and a wisdom unlike any other person who has ever lived. So the uniqueness of Jesus himself helps you to make sense of the uniqueness of his resurrection then from the dead. If Greg Van Quart were to die and someone were to say to you, Greg has risen from the dead, you would say, I don't see any reason that that's compelling. And as much as I love you, I would say the same thing about each one of you. But it's different with Jesus. His life is compelling. Here's how J. Gresham Machen put it. He writes, a man who comes into contact with Jesus's tremendous personality will say to himself, It is impossible that Jesus could ever have been held of death. Thus, when the extraordinary testimony to the resurrection comes to us, we add to this our tremendous impression of Jesus' person. gained from the reading of the Gospels and we accept this strange belief which comes to us and fills us with joy that the Redeemer really triumphed over death and the grave and sin. So, keep all of that in your mind that the reality of Jesus' life and His person and who He was as we consider these final accounts of Luke's gospel. So, let's look at these initial events, these characters at the beginning of Luke chapter 24. I want to consider them this morning under four headings with you. First, the emptiness of the tomb. Second, the exhortation of the angels. Third, the faithfulness of the women. And fourth, the unbelief of the apostles. So first, the emptiness of the tomb. I don't want to fail to highlight the significance of the sheer fact of the emptiness of Jesus' tomb. Backing up a few verses, you saw at the end of chapter 23 that Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish leader, he'd gone to Pilate and he had secured permission to have Jesus' body in order to bury it. And he does so. He takes Jesus' body down from the cross. He takes the body and he wraps it in linen. And he lays the body in what would have been a cave-like tomb, which would have been hollowed out, cut out from the stone. Now notice that all of these events are very public events. Jesus was a very public figure. He was well known throughout the land of Israel because of his teaching, because of his mighty works, his miracles, his crucifixion itself was a very public event. Multitudes of people had come from all over Israel to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover festival. In fact, you see in the next passage when you read about the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus comes up to them and He asks them what they're talking about. They say there in verse 18, Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened here in these days? Everybody knows about this. Everybody knows who Jesus was. Everyone knows how He died. Everybody's talking about it. And in addition to his burial and the place of his burial, it was also public knowledge of where he was buried. Luke, he explicitly mentions the women who followed Joseph to see the tomb, to see how Jesus was laid there. And John's gospel adds that Nicodemus, one of the Jewish leaders, he also accompanied Joseph in the burial of Jesus. Matthew's gospel tells you that in response to a request from the Jewish leaders who were opposed to Jesus, Pilate had actually set Roman guards, a guard of soldiers, at the tomb to keep his disciples from stealing his body away and then claiming that he had risen from the dead. So people knew where Jesus was buried. And yet, on the third day, following his crucifixion, the tomb was empty. This is a point that nobody disputes historically. The tomb was empty. It could have been so easily disproven by simply going and bringing out the body. Which, by the way, would have been very much in the interest of the Jewish leaders to do, to produce evidence that Jesus had not risen. But they couldn't, because His body was not there. Verse 55 of chapter 23. 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. These would have been to give further treatment for his body, to his body for burial. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. So Jesus, He was crucified on Friday Saturday is the Sabbath, which actually began according to the way that they counted time in that day. It began at sundown on Friday evening. So in order to obey the Sabbath command not to work, these women, they remained at home Friday evening through Saturday and Saturday nights. And then verse 1. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, so Sunday morning, the third day from when Jesus was crucified and buried, 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. So again, what you have is a cave-like stone cut out into the rock. Probably you have a large wheel-shaped stone, which had actually been carved out this way, which sat in some type of a channel so that it could be rolled down to completely cover the entrance to the tomb. Mark's gospel is helpful here. It actually recounts that on their way, the women, they expressed concern about finding someone who could help them to roll the stone back. And he goes on to add that the stone was very large, too large and heavy and difficult for the women themselves to move. But when they arrived at the tomb, this heavy stone is rolled away, and Jesus' body is gone. So who could have done that? The Jewish leaders had no reason to do this. As I said before, if they could have produced his body once this claim of resurrection had happened, they would have. Pilate had no reason to do so. And in fact, he had committed to keep it from happening with the guards. The disciples following Jesus's crucifixion, they were in fear. They were in disarray. They were in unbelief. They were covering and hiding. They were the most unlikely candidates to develop some brilliant scheme for overcoming the Roman guard and then stealing his body away and convincing people that Jesus had actually risen from the dead. So what could explain the emptiness of the tomb? The most reasonable explanation, the one supported by numerous eyewitnesses, the one affirmed by God's own word, and the one that's been accepted by millions of diverse people over generations of thousands of years, is that Jesus actually rose from the dead. That's what explains the emptiness of the tomb, just as Jesus had promised. So the first point, the first application to you is to just let this historical fact and this truth from God's own words settle into your hearts and into your minds this morning as an encouragement to the reasonableness of your faith and of the certainty and the confidence that you can have in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The tomb really was empty. Jesus really rose from the dead, which means that His saving promises to you are true, and they can be trusted. This leads you to our next point, which is the exhortation of the angels. Verse 4. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, and 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 is 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." So the body is gone, the women are confused, and these two men appear among them in dazzling apparel, shining garments of some kind, indicating their heavenly origin. The ladies fall to the ground, rightly recognizing that they are in the presence of heavenly beings, heavenly messengers of some kind. Luke confirms in verse 23 that these were angels. Matthew tells us that one of these angels was responsible for rolling the stone away from the tomb. And these angels announced to the women that Jesus has risen from the dead. And then they exhort them to remember, remember the words of Jesus that he had proclaimed to you beforehand. I don't think that exhortation is an insignificant point, because what you're going to see in the resurrection accounts is that this call to remember what Jesus said and remember what Jesus taught. It's a theme that just runs throughout these accounts. You see it again with these disciples on the road to Emmaus, when the risen Jesus, he breaks bread and he gives it to them. And what is he doing? He's pointing back to what he had proclaimed at the last supper, that he was actually dying for the sins of his people. You see it again later with the rest of the disciples when he says in verse 44, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And you see it also here with these women. Remember how he told you. Recognize his faithfulness to what he had promised you. Jesus does what he says he will do. I think that's why the angels initially address the women in what almost sounds like a hint of sarcasm, if you can hear that. Why do you seek the living among the dead? And they treat them as if their journey to the tomb to prepare Jesus' body for burial was a strange thing to do. And you might say, well, it seemed pretty reasonable. Jesus has just died, and now the Sabbath has ended, except for one single thing. Jesus said on the third day, I will rise again. And based on that simple fact, it was simply unreasonable for the women to go and to seek Him as dead based on the certainty of His word and His word alone. So, do you get the sense for the dependability of Jesus' words? If there's anything that could shed doubt on somebody's keeping their promise, it's their own death. that 50 bucks that your brother promised to pay you back. If he dies, don't hold out hope. He's probably not going to keep that promise. But think about this. If these women should have been this confident, according to the angels, of Jesus' promises, even while Jesus was dead. How much more should you be confident of His promises when He is now risen from the dead and He has been exalted to the right hand of God to live forever? How confident you should be in His promises. They are true. Just listen to some of these promises. In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies and not one of them is forgotten before God? Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to you. God is for you. No one can successfully be against you. for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Those are Jesus's promises and they are true. You just wonder then when Jesus returns and you see how history and how your personal life is resolved, how many things is Jesus gonna point to and he's gonna smile and he's gonna say, remember how I said. Didn't I tell you? Didn't I promise I would work out all things together for good? Yes, that thing and that thing for good. And that I would wipe away every tear. And I would create a new heaven and a new earth. That you would be like me. And just like these angels exhorted the women at the tomb, I think that we will be exhorted to remember the words of Jesus and to recognize His faithfulness. Brothers and sisters, the words of Jesus are worthy of your trust. No matter what the world may say, no matter what your circumstances may lead you to think, His words, His every promise, they will prove true. And His resurrection from the dead testifies to this with remarkable power. There is no firmer foundation for you to stand on. So remember His words. Call them to mind. Meditate on them often. And keep trusting Him for the fulfillment of every promise He has made to you. So you've seen the emptiness of the tomb, you've seen the exhortation of the angels. Thirdly here, you see the faithfulness of the women. I suppose you could say at this point I have highlighted in one sense their lack of faith in the words of Jesus, but you also see how they stand out in a remarkable way, in some ways in contrast to the apostles for their faithfulness and their godliness and their genuine faith. Luke mentions a few of these women by name in verse 10. There's Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus had delivered from demons. There's Joanna, who's also mentioned in Luke chapter 8, having been healed by Jesus. Mary, the mother of the lesser-known James of the Apostles. Luke says that there were other women as well who were with them. These women were devoted to Jesus and their love for Him is displayed beautifully by their sincere efforts here to provide Jesus with a proper Jewish burial. And yet, do you notice this? In spite of the urgency of that moment, they would not do so in any way beyond God's law. They faithfully rested on Saturday as the Mosaic law required for that time. But then again, at the first light of Sunday, they eagerly made their way to the tomb to provide care even for Jesus' dead body. What a model these women are. Zeal for Jesus, and at the same time, humble, faithful, obedient, and submissive to God and to His commands. You have no sense that there's any tension between these two things. When the angels do exhort them to remember Jesus' words from before, they remember, and they respond in faith, and they go and they proclaim these things to the disciples. It's not a small thing that in this culture that the women were the first ones to receive the word of the resurrection. You know, according to the statements from the first century Jewish historian Josephus, a woman's testimony in this day, it would not have even been admitted into a court of law. It wouldn't have been considered valid simply because it came from a woman. That's a part of how women were viewed in this culture. And yet here they are, the first ones entrusted as eyewitnesses with the news that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead. The scriptures and the ministry of Jesus affirmed in incredible ways the significance and the equality of women, equality made in the image of God, having equal and direct access to Jesus and to His salvation by faith alone in Him alone. equally able to bring honor and glory to God through their faith and their godliness and through their proclamation of the gospel. Ladies, be encouraged, be strengthened by the significance with which women are treated and regarded by the Lord Jesus Christ. Be spurred on by the example of these women to a zealous love and devotion to Jesus above all other commitments. Learn for yourself and call to mind the truths and the promises of Jesus' teachings and grow in a deepening trust in what He proclaimed. Be encouraged to boldly and competently proclaim the gospel, proclaim the truth of the resurrection and what that means for all the people whom God has placed in your life. May it be your children. It may be your neighbors, it may be your coworkers. Be encouraged by the example of these women. You too are a witness of the resurrection if you belong to Him. And I just want to pause here and say that I know that you have been. I want to say on behalf of the elders and more broadly the men here at Dayspring, the incredible blessing that the women of Dayspring have been to this congregation. This church would not be where it is were it not for the women of this church. You have spoken the truth in love. You've prayed with urgency and with faith. You've served with humility and with wisdom. You have spurred us on in the ministry of the gospel. You've helped us in countless ways. Ladies, we are grateful to God for you. And we pray that he will continue to uphold you in your zeal and in your faith and in your love for Jesus and for his people. Lastly and briefly, You see here the unbelief of the apostles. So picking up again near the end of verse 10, the women told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they didn't 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. So despite Jesus' own plain teaching, which is in accord with the women's testimony, the apostles initially regarded this report as nonsense. They regarded it as foolishness, just an idle tale. You have here another fairly significant theme in Luke's gospel. that the apostles, that the men whom Jesus had uniquely called and set aside to be his authoritative witnesses regarding his death and his resurrection, they were very imperfect men. They were slow to understand. They were slow to believe. They struggled with pride, with self-promotion, with the fear of man, and with unbelief. Why does Luke highlight these things? Why does he report them? I think in part because it's simply accurate to the picture of reality. But he could have left that out. He chose not to. I think it demonstrates that the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church into a worldwide witness, which Luke is going to pick up on in the book of Acts, that it could never be credited to the masterful plan of this ragtag group of weak and sinful men. There's just no way. They could pull this off. This had to be a supernatural work of God. And I would just say more specifically in our passage this morning, the fact that the resurrection of Jesus came to be proclaimed throughout the world through these men, it couldn't have happened because of some grand scheme that they had developed. Rather, what we see is that in the face of skeptical, somewhat obstinate and weak failure to believe, They were yet compelled to believe by the reality of the resurrection. They couldn't deny it. In the end, they couldn't dismiss it as an idle tale. They were eyewitnesses personally of it. They had to then proclaim it. When Peter runs to the tomb, It's empty. The linen cloths are there, which doesn't make any sense if Jesus's body was stolen. There's no reason to go through the process of unwrapping it. And so Peter, he marvels at what he finds, and hope just begins to dawn in Peter's heart that early Sunday morning, a hope that would then be confirmed personally by the risen Jesus himself in the coming hours and the coming weeks. hope that is confirmed for you through the inspired eyewitness testimony of the Apostles given to you in the scriptures and and if Jesus rose from the dead everything changes everything changes for you and for your life the promises are true salvation is real forgiveness is accomplished death is defeated And all of you who have hoped in Jesus, you are not of all people most to be pitied. Rather, you are those who have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Born again to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, reserved in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. So trust Him for that promise. Even if you are here today and you have never put your faith in the Lord Jesus, or you are listening online, trust the risen Lord for that promise. Turn from your sins. Look to Him by faith. Jesus has lived the perfect life you have failed to live, paid the full penalty for your sins. If you believe into him, you will be saved. Let us pray. Our sovereign Lord Jesus, We thank you for the certain hope we have in you, our living, our reigning Savior and Lord. We ask that you would help us in the face of a world that does not believe this testimony. Help us to be that salt and light of the world. As your grace daily opens our eyes and confirms the beauty and the truth of your resurrection from the dead, May you give us the boldness to proclaim the great hope that we have because you are alive today and have conquered sin and death. May we know the power of your resurrection in our lives. We pray in your holy name. Amen.