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Our sermon will be on Luke 24:1-7

We have a website: https://tahlequahworshipcenter.com/

We will have Communion after service, followed by an Easter Egg Hunt

Prayer requests:

Sue

Georgey

Billy and his Dad

Barbara Rhodes

Songs

Christ Arose

Because He Lives

Resurrection Power

He Is Risen

Introduction

Cristy and I were having a discussion about news sources.

How do we tell if a source is good?

I lined out a few sources that I would trust.

I told her that all of these sources are tainted by their own political influences.

Most people don’t trust most news sources, but instead they only trust “their” sources.

I found an article in Science Advances that was written about a year ago.

It said the following:

78% of Americans believe that it is not ok for a journalist to favor one party over another.

Less than 20% of people trust the media to report the news without bias

64% of Americans believe the media favors the Democratic Party

22% believe they favor the Republican party

Although most journalists are Independents, over 90% of the ones that gave to political causes, gave to Democratic or liberal causes.

And about 82% of everyone listening believe I made all this up

However, just because someone leans one way or another, doesn’t mean they don’t report the truth.

I believe it does reflect what they report and how they report it.

As Cristy and I continued our conversation, we started talking about the Bible and how we trust it.

When I was younger, there was a phrase that I heard:

That’s the Gospel Truth

It meant that what you said was completely true.

Where did that saying come from?

Today, I want to talk to you about the why we can be sure that:

He Is Risen

Luke 24:1–12 NKJV

1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” 8 And they remembered His words. 9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.

Explain

Before we go any further, we need to explain what’s going on.

We know from the Gospels and what we talked about last week, that Jesus had been in Jerusalem for the past week.

He had preached in the temple and made a lot of people mad.

He has had the last supper with the disciples

He has been betrayed my Judas.

He has been tried by the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and Herod.

He was beaten, and forced to carry his cross.

He was crucified and died.

That catches us up to today’s scripture in Luke.

From the account that we just read, we see that “the women who had come with him from Galilee” were coming to to tomb to put preservatives on Jesus’ body.

From the other accounts, we can’t get a full account, but we do know the following were there:

Mary Magdalene

Joanna

Mary (the mother of Jesus)

Mary the mother of James and Joses

Mary wife of Clopas

Salome (mother of James and John)

It’s possible that some of these were the same.

I want you to notice a couple of things about this account.

Look at how much these women loved Jesus. It seems clear to me that they loved Jesus more than the disciples.

They came and saw the stone rolled away.

They saw the empty tomb.

Initially, they were confused about this.

They hadn’t put 2 and 2 together to figure out what Jesus had said.

But the angels are about to tell them

Luke 24:5–8 NKJV

5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” 8 And they remembered His words.

Verse 8 shows their faith “they remembered his words”

No doubts, they believe.

Explain

Also, notice something else, without them, we would not have known about the risen Christ.

They come to the disciples and the disciples have a different reaction. They don’t believe them.

Only Peter and John go investigate what they say.

Then Mary Magdalene is the first one to see the risen Lord.

So given what we just read in this account and looking at the other accounts, what can we determine.

It seems pretty clear that something wondrous happened here.

We believe this, but what does history tell us.

Let’s Examine the facts.

Examine

There are certain things the scripture tells us that we can be certain of no matter if we are a Christian or not.

If we just look at what most people will agree with, including atheists, we can still get a good picture of what happened.

Dr Gary Habermas assembled the following 6 facts that even skeptics accept.

These are often called the minimal facts argument:

Jesus died by crucifixion

His followers believed they had seen the risen Jesus

Their Lives were transformed (many died)

These things were taught very early

James, Jesus’ brother, became a Christian later

Saul the persecutor, became Paul the persecuted

When we Examine these facts and I mean facts, what kind of conclusion can we come to?

Something happened to these men.

Just a few days before these events, they were denying Jesus and running away.

Only the women and John stayed during the crucifixion.

Even when they heard the women’s testimony, they didn’t believe.

Something happened to them.

Thomas said “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails … I will not believe”

Then something happened to them.

Something happened to me.

Just the weekend before I became a Christian, I denied God.

I told a friend that I had left God on the side of the road a long time ago

But something happened to me.

I didn’t see Jesus, but I experienced his love.

That’s what happened to these men, they saw the risen Jesus. It’s the only explanation for what happened.

They went from Eschewing Jesus to Exclaiming Jesus

Exclaim

They went from men of doubt to martyrs of the faith

They exclaimed the gospel until their deaths. Many of them died with the name of Jesus on their lips.

That’s what we need to do as well.

We have the good news

When I started we were talking about the reliability of the news.

So what about the reliability of news of the empty tomb?

We can believe it so we should be Exclaiming it.

Because we know the tomb is Empty, We Know we can live for Eternity.

I can KNOW the tomb was empty, because I KNOW the Lord

They saw Jesus in person, and we can trust their word because of how they lived their life.

Christianity grew from that initial group of about 500 that saw Jesus to what is now billions of people.

I believe in Christianity because I know it’s true.

Do you believe that

HE IS RISEN!

Communion

Prayer

Matthew 26:26–29 NKJV

26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

If you do not feel worthy to partake of communion, then don’t.

Take this bread, it represents the body of Jesus.

Take this fruit of the vine and drink, represents the blood of Jesus shed for the remission of sins.

Prayer