The EMPTY Promise!
Notes
Transcript
EMPTY… This word implies so much!
Maybe you are running on EMPTY as you struggle to keep up with life’s crazy schedule
Maybe EMPTY describes your gas tank or your bank account
Maybe EMPTY describes your future or what tomorrow holds
EMPTY… there leaves a void, it’s nothingness, it lacks SOMETHING or SOMEONE
Some of you came this morning feeling EMPTY inside:
You have attempted to fill it with pleasures
You have tried to bury the void with busyness, work, activity
You have sought things or people to meet the void
You have given great effort, worked hard to fill this emptiness… YET! The harder you work, the more you strive, the void grows, your awareness of being empty causes you to:
Some days physically ache
This feeling of void swallows you whole
We come on this Easter morning,
Hoping for answers, Seeking a fresh message (Risen Savior Again?!)
We come we open up the scriptures… and “it’s empty”… AGAIN!
it’s an empty promise, God’s Word given, but not like other empty promises we know and have dealt with…
THIS ONE brings hope, joy, and fulfillment! Luke 24:1-12
But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
Expectations
Expectations
I find it amazing how often we approach Jesus Christ with our wrong expectations… we get something in our heads, our hearts and then its like we just ignore anything God’s Word states so very clear!
Like the centurion soldier at the cross we still live like “He Was” the Son of God
We live life with no hope, fear, powerless… like “He Was”
The way we live declares to the world around us… He’s still dead!
Jesus “Was” Dead
Jesus “Was” Dead
The disciples, the women, followers all saw Him die!
His death brought about fear...
Peter denied Him
Others ran away
Some followed at a distance… WHY?
You don’t feel powerful as you watch the One you believed was the Messiah die on a cross! However, we do see some who had courage… Luke 23:52-56
He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock. This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation, as the Sabbath was about to begin. As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law.
What a powerful description of this follower of Christ… Joseph of Arimathea
Good and righteous
Waiting for the Kingdom
What a BOLD request…
Pilate made sure He was dead
Nicodemus helps!… John 3:16 (born again)
Came in the cover of dark now declares his allegiance
These men place his body in a tomb wrapped in burial cloths
The Women...
Faithfully following since Jesus’ ministry in Galilee Luke 8
Listening to His teaching
Contributing to His ministry
And now seeing where He was buried in order to care for His body...
Preparing spices and perfumes… WHY? Because Jesus was dead!
Luke went to great extent to assure his readers that Jesus truly was dead…
Have you ever heard but really didn't listen or pay attention...
Failure to Listen
Failure to Listen
Do you know what the disciples, women, and followers of Jesus Christ were doing Sunday morning??? Wondering about TOMORROW… failing to remember, wondering how to fill this void!
Had they remembered...
They would have been waiting at the tomb!
They would not be gathered together grieving
They would not have been making preparations for a body
Instead we read on Sunday morning they are acting like He was dead!…
They should have left the spices at home!!!
They were coming to care for a body not celebrate a resurrection...
Luke makes a point for his readers that there was no body… this is a bodily Resurrection!
A Stern Reminder
A Stern Reminder
Verses 5 & 6 give both a question with a rebuke as well…Luke 24:5-6
The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee,
He is the “Living One” not dead!!! Death could not hold Him!
How often do we still come to God as if Christ is dead, defeated, not a living powerful, fully engaged Savior!
You and I need to remember His Word too… His Promise that the tomb would be EMPTY!
RISEN= not raised as Jesus had done for others… who would die again. But a divine work of Christ to overcome death and rise on His own divine power!
REMEMBER… “what Jesus spoke” the Word of God!
“And they remembered His Words”
Do you remember what He taught…
The sign of Jonah...
Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days
More specific look at Luke 9:30-31… or Luke 18:31-33
Suddenly, two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.”
Jesus did not hide the fact He was going to suffer and die or even rise again. These women, disciples and the followers of Jesus were the first skeptics… BUT they remembered the Word of God...
The empty tomb amazed them and they marveled
The angels scared them and reminded them
But it was the power and fulfilment of the Word of God that convinced them of the RESURRECTION!
The Empty… Is Everything
The Empty… Is Everything
What they failed to remember from Jesus previous teachings they would proceed through each tomorrow remembering His resurrection…
Because it is the power of the Resurrection that changes lives! Jesus emptying Himself… fills our void… gives us Power, Purpose, and
Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion,” says Dr. John Stott. “The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.”
Paul expresses the gospel clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 and continues his argument for the Resurrection in verses 1 Corinthians 15:13-17 THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THESE WHO WERE BAPTIZED THIS MORNING BELIEVE!!!
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
The resurrection changed the lives of these men…
These men all faced torture, prison, and death for the sake of the gospel message, for the sake of the promise of an empty tomb… A Resurrection message…
Today...
We remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the ONLY One who is able to fill the void, that emptiness you have. Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
REMEMBER… Because He lives you and I can face tomorrow! HE HAS RISEN!!!