Luke 24:1-12 Sermon
24:1–12 Luke recounts the discovery of the empty tomb and the announcement of Jesus’ resurrection. Parallel passages appear in the other three Gospels (Matt 28:1–8; Mark 16:1–8; John 20:1–13).
24:2 the stone had been rolled away All four Gospels include this detail (Matt 28:2; Mark 16:3–4; John 20:1).
24:11 they refused to believe them In the Graeco-Roman world of the first century, the testimony of women was considered unreliable and could not be used to settle legal disputes. For this reason, the mention of women being the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb suggests that Luke is faithfully reporting the early church’s recollection of this event. It also shows the vital role of women in Jesus’ ministry.
24:6 Remember how he told you. Cf. 9:22, 44; 18:32–33.
24:11. The apostles knew the women well and had traveled long miles and hours with them. Still, the men did not believe the women. This may show the chauvinistic, patriarchal bent of their society and times. It may show how totally separated the disciples were at this time from Jesus. They played a very minor role at the cross. (Luke has not mentioned them specifically since Jesus’ arrest.) The disciples, like the women, had ignored Jesus’ passion predictions. They had no expectations of resurrection. The disciples had not seen or heard the “men” in the tomb. Resurrection and renewed fellowship with Jesus were something they did not even think about. They gathered for comfort in grief, not to find Jesus again. This apostolic skepticism is a major evidence for the truth of the resurrection. The apostles would not have invented the resurrection story. They had lost hope and sunk into despair at the arrest and death of Jesus.
Why do you seek the living one among the dead? (v. 5): The angels’ saying is proverbial and may be compared to a rabbinic saying: “Is it the way of the dead to be sought for among the living, or are the living among the dead?” (Exod. Rab. 5.14 [on Exod. 5:2]; cf. Lev. Rab. 6.6 [on Lev. 5:1]). See also Luke 9:60 “Allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
Then came the surprising message in verses 5–7. The question—“Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” (v. 5)—serves as both a correction and an announcement. You’re looking in the wrong place. No one goes to find a living person in a graveyard. “He is not here, but he has risen!” (v. 6).
This was not what the women were expecting. The reason they weren’t expecting it was because they had not remembered the Lord’s teaching. He had told them in Galilee and several times throughout his earthly life that he must suffer, die, and rise again three days later. They should have been waiting those three days in anticipation instead of mourning. But they forgot the gospel, and their forgetting took them to the tomb.
It’s not until they remember the Lord’s teaching about the empty tomb that their lives change. Nothing could be more important in the Christian life than remembering the gospel. One of our great challenges as Christians is keeping the truth of our Lord uppermost in our minds. We leak. We forget. We wander and stray. But if we keep our feet in the path of his teaching, then we’ll never be overcome in times of trouble and sorrow. We will be the only people rejoicing even in the face of death if we keep our minds fixed on his gospel!
These male followers of Jesus reacted just as the world would have reacted, and they nearly missed the greatest news story ever told: the resurrection.
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James were chief among the women. You may remember their names from Luke 8:2. These are some of the women who financially supported Jesus’s ministry. They traveled with the Lord and were dedicated to him. They were known and respected.
But they were not believed (v. 11). The apostles and the disciples acted like male chauvinists toward these women. And that’s not me being hard on these men; that’s the testimony of history. In that day a woman’s word would not be accepted in a court of law, for example. Women were regarded, as they sometimes are by prejudiced men in our day, as emotional, given to hysteria, and intellectually untrustworthy. This, by the way, is a proof that these things happened. In that day if you wanted your report to be credible, you would not have had a woman be the main witness to the story. If you were making it up, you would have used a male to first report the incident because of prejudice against women.
Even in our own day, we have a ways to go in honoring women as full image bearers of God and servants to Christ. Even today there is real prejudice, antagonism, and chauvinism against women in the church—even though the church would have closed its doors in Jerusalem if it had been up to the men going to the tomb early in the morning to prepare the body. This ought not be so. Since God’s word sets free, there’s no contradiction between the full liberty of our sisters and full submission to the limits of Scripture. May the Lord give his church the grace to dignify and magnify the work of God in and through women while at the same time embracing the Scriptures to define our roles. Let us root out any injustice in our own hearts toward our sisters.
R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 418.
It was a sad labor of love that was transformed into gladness when they discovered that Jesus was alive.
“Who will roll the stone away?” was their main concern. The Roman soldiers would not break the Roman seal, especially for a group of mourning Jewish women. But God had solved the problem for them; the tomb was open and there was no body to prepare!
Obedient to their commission, the women ran to tell the disciples the good news, but the men did not believe them! (According to Mark 16:14, Jesus later rebuked them for their unbelief.)
However, when they first passed on the news to the disciples, Luke writes, ‘But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense’ (24:11). When
Reflect and Discuss
1. If the tomb had held Jesus’s body, what do you think that would have meant for Christianity? (See 1 Cor 15.)
2. How does Christ’s resurrection affect our lives today?
3. How would you say you’ve gotten to know Jesus better in the course of this study?
4. Take some time to give God thanks for showing you more of himself. Any knowledge we have of the Lord comes by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The church must constantly ask why it believes in resurrection and what difference that belief makes. The Gospel writers faced the same questions as they wrote. They did not give philosophical answers. They did not engage in polemical debate. They simply testified to what the church had seen and how the church was different.
APPLICATIONS
• Study the Scriptures to learn about Jesus.
• Find assurance in the dark moments of life from your faith in the resurrection of Jesus.
• Be aware of Jesus’ presence as you celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Your story can be added to the growing list. Certainly you have all the qualifications and much more opportunity than did Matthias. You can express your faith in the living, resurrected Christ. You can accept his forgiveness for your sins. You can witness to others, calling them to repentance and promising them forgiveness in the name of Jesus. You can watch as persons whom you lead to Christ witness for him and lead hundreds of others to him. You can join Christ’s church in worship, joy, praise, and witness. Jesus Christ suffered, died, and rose again, seeking and saving those who are lost, redeeming a sinful world. Join him in his mission today.
Other religions and people without religion may claim to believe in a life after death. Without Jesus, however, they have no evidence for their belief, no reason for their hope. The historical example of Jesus Christ proves that the God and Father of Jesus Christ has power over sin, death, and the grave. The historical promise of Jesus Christ means that each of his followers can expect to participate in the resurrection of the dead and the rewards of Christ. A person who does not believe in Christ, who does not take up his cross, deny himself, and follow Jesus, has not received Christ’s promises and cannot expect to join him in the rewards of eternal life after death.
1. Christ Is Risen as Promised (24:1–8)
a. The scene: women at tomb on first day of week (24:1)
b. Surprise setting: stone rolled away; tomb empty (24:2–3)
c. Heaven’s action: angelic appearance (24:4)
d. The women’s reaction: reverence and fear (24:5a)
e. The angelic response: why look for living among dead? (24:5b–7)
f. The women’s counter response: remembered his promise (24:8)
2. Telling the Resurrection Story (24:9–12)
a. The scene: women and the eleven (24:9)
b. Personnel: women identified (24:10)
c. The disciples’ reaction: disbelief (24:11)
d. Peter’s reaction: ran to tomb in wonder (24:12)
Both in Genesis and in Revelation we find the pattern of the working week, with the work completed on the sixth day and with a rest on the seventh, and the same pattern is clearly discernible here at the centre of history. On the sixth day, Friday, the work of redemption is accomplished (23:54; cf. Jn. 19:30). On the seventh day ‘they rested according to the commandment’ (23:56). But then ‘on the first day’ (24:1) a new week began. It was the first day of a new era, a new creation. A whole new world was coming into being on that first Christian Sunday. Thus Luke ends his Gospel with an account of that first day which was to begin the new age.
