SERMON MANUSCRIPT 

I want us to look together at Luke’s account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s found in Luke 24. If you have a Bible you can join me there. If you don’t have a Bible and you’d like one, there are some on the two tables by the rear doors. Please consider it a gift from us to you. Luke 24.

Simply stated, here’s what we’re going to find in this passage: one incredible event and three different responses to that event. Please follow along as I read from God’s word. [24:1–12]

ONE INCREDIBLE EVENT

The focus of this section of the Bible is, in many ways, the focus of the entire Bible: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That Jesus came back to life after dying on a cross is the one incredible event around which turns not only history but eternity.

Luke here describes a group of women going to visit Jesus’s grave but when they arrive, instead of finding his body, they find an opened tomb. This was surprising for a number of reasons. First, the stone that had been placed over the door was extremely large (Mark 16:4), which means moving it would have taken intentional effort. 

Second, opening the tomb would have meant breaking the Sabbath, the weekly day of mandatory Jewish rest that had ended right before the women arrived “at early dawn” “on the first day of the week.”  

And third, taking Jesus’s body would mean a willingness to become defiled by touching a corpse according to the Law of Moses.

And so, for all of these reason—as well as their sadness and helplessness—the women are “perplexed.” They’re at a loss. “What’s happening? Who did this? Where is he? What do we do now?”

“Two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing” (24:4). Like out of thin air, two figures appear clothed in robes made of lightening. Verses 22 and 23 confirm that they’re angels. Glorious messengers sent from the heavenly throne room to declare the reality of this one incredible event. How appropriate!

These angels ask this terrified group, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” What a question! Celebratory and convicting, hopeful and humorous. Without giving the women much time to think about it, they follow-up with a thrilling declaration: “He is not here, but he has risen” (24:6). “He was here but not now. He was dead but no longer. He is alive again!”

If the group wasn’t perplexed before, they are now. And, knowing this, the two glorious messengers try to help them: “Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (23:6–7). 

“That’s kind of what happened, isn’t it? Jesus told you all of this was going to take place, remember? Not to mention all the predictions of resurrection scattered through the Old Testament, I mean, we know it’s one incredible event, but it’s not like it came ‘out of the blue.’”

These women were dealing with a lot. Before most people had had their morning coffee, they’re having to process Mission Impossible level grave robbing, angelic riddles, and the announcement that their friend who they saw die, came back to life and is now out for a walk. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one incredible event.

So incredible that it’s the reason Christians gather two thousand years later. In fact, it’s the reason Christians exist at all. Church attendance doesn’t make a Christian. Neither does charity work, political affiliation, or good behaviour. What makes a Christian is faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, work that essentially includes his death and his resurrection. 

If there’s no life, there’s no biology. If there’s no job, there’s no money. And if there’s no resurrection, there’s no Christianity. As Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). 

It may be the single objectively falsifiable religion on earth—find the bones of Jesus and we’re done. But his body wasn’t found in the first century and it won’t be found in the twenty-first. Why? Because “He is not [there] … he has risen.” The empty tomb is the centrepiece, the focal point, the linchpin, the hub, and the nucleus of the Christian faith. It is one incredible event.

THREE DIFFERENT RESPONSES

Now, as I mentioned earlier, this passage also highlights three different responses to that one incredible event, three responses I’m certain are represented in this room today.

Devotion

The first is devotion, and we see it in the women. To see this quality  more clearly, let’s back up into chapter 23.

[23:50–51] This is a faithful Jewish man of influence but, unlike many of his colleagues, he didn’t agree Jesus’s execution. In fact, it seems he believed that Jesus was who he said he was and, at the very least, deserved a honourable burial. 

[23:52–54] Under the Mosaic Law, the Sabbath was a day set apart for God. No work was permitted for those 24-hours and so, the day before was used to get ready—make food, do chores, finish work, all so that the Sabbath could be observed properly. 

[23:55] In case someone wonders when the women just went to the wrong tomb the next morning, Luke makes it clear that they’d already been there. They saw Jesus’s body placed behind the stone. 

[23:56] They used the of preparation to get a bunch of fragrances ready to take to the tomb to combat the smell of decomposition.

These are devoted women. They love the Lord Jesus. And as soon as they could, as soon as the Sabbath was over, “at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.” [Sunrise] Then, after finding the body missing and receiving the reminder from the angels, [24:8–10].

These women loved Jesus, wanted to honour Jesus, and missed Jesus. They may have been confused by grief and limited in their understanding of that one incredible event, but they were sincere and eager. They just wanted to worship Christ.

And most of us here today are like that. We eagerly awaited this morning. We’re devoted to the Lord, our Saviour and our God, eager to honour him, excited to celebrate him. More than a few of you have reached out in the last number of weeks to tell me that this is your favourite day of the year, this is your favourite time of corporate worship.

Not surprisingly, most of those who reached out have also experienced significant pain in their lives. I mean, who hasn’t? By why is Resurrection Sunday so favoured? Because it’s is the promise from a God who can’t lie that everything is going to be okay. That because Christ rose, so too will those who fall asleep in him. This is the day we especially remember that our faith is not in vain, that God keeps his promises, that there is hope, that we serve a living Saviour, and that he’s coming again for us to make all things new. This is the day we celebrate the life-giving words of victory: “He has risen!”

Many of us here today are full of devotion, striving for devotion, growing in devotion. This is a day of celebration, assurance, hope, and worship. This is the response to the one incredible event that God is looking for.

Rejection

But it’s not the only one available. The second possible response to the resurrection of Jesus is rejection. For this we shift our attention from the women in Luke 24 to the eleven apostles. [24:9–11]

Armed with the wonderful news of Jesus’s resurrection, the women race to tell his other followers, chief among them are the eleven remaining apostles. 

These are the men who had been chosen by Jesus to follow him, travel with him, watch him, and learn from him.  These are the men who collected the leftovers after five thousand ate their fill from five loaves and two fish. These are the men who had seen Jesus calm storms, command demons, deal illness, and raise the dead.

But this, this is a bridge too far. What these women are claiming isn’t believable. They’d seen and heard a lot of wild things over the last three years, but Jesus actually coming back from the dead like he said he would, that “appeared to them as nonsense.” It was too good to be true (24:41).

Some of you here are in that camp. Prophecy? Angels? Resurrection? Common! That’s the stuff of fairy tales, you think, and because it’s just too good to be true, you’re responding with rejection.

And I am well-aware that there’s nothing I can say that would change your mind. I’m not smart enough, slick enough, powerful enough, or anything enough to make that happen. But what I can do is make sure you know what it is you’re rejecting. Many people say “no” to Jesus without really knowing Jesus. They reject a caricature, a distortion, or a truncated picture of Christ that Christians would also reject. I don’t believe in that Jesus either!

So, that you may know what you are rejecting, hear the good news of Jesus Christ. You may have lingering questions, and that’s fine, but at least now you know what you’re rejecting. You’re rejecting the man who died for you and who, because “he has risen,” can offer you total forgiveness, perfect peace, and eternal life.

Exploration

There is one more possible response highlighted in Luke 24, and it is exploration. [24:12]

Peter’s head is spinning. In addition to grief, Peter is also wrestling with shame, having openly rejected knowing Jesus before his death. He’s a mess. But hearing the report from the women and the rejection from the other apostles moves him. Something is stirring in his heart and he has to respond in some way.

So, he “got up and ran to the tomb.” He has to investigate. He gets closer, “stooping and looking in.” Closer. “He saw the linen wrappings only,” no body, just like the women said, just his empty burial clothes laying in an empty tomb.

Peter is confronted with the news of resurrection, he’s drawn to its incredible implications and, now seeing evidence for himself, he goes away “marvelling at what had happened.” He confounded. Perhaps this is wonder of belief or wonder of further skepticism. Luke, the author, doesn’t resolve that for us here. He just writes, that Peter has some thinking to do.

And that perfectly describes some of you here today. Perhaps you’ve heard all of this before—maybe many times—and you’ve seen devotion and rejection alike (maybe you think you’ve actually done both in your life), but you’re being drawn like Peter. You’ve got some thinking to do. Some wondering. Some thinking. 

The reality is, if this one incredible event is true, it changes no less than everything. And so, to the explorers, because “he has risen,” you can marvel. Allow that awe to sweep over you. Know that those questions in your heart are from God himself, drawing you to him.

So, you see, this one incredible event, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, puts all people to a choice and exposes the choices we’ve already made. We can respond with rejection or with exploration. But what God wants from us and for us is devotion. He wants us to walk in the knowledge of his love for us, a love that would send his Son to die for us, atone for us, reconcile us, forgive us, and rise again before us, keep us, and lead us.

  

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