Easter Sermon for 4/17/22 "Skeptics"

Luke 24:1-12

This morning I'll be reading Luke chapter 24 verses 1 through 12. And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Luke 24:1-12 Similar to the reading for last Sunday,,, for Palm Sunday,,, this is scripture that is familiar to us all. Our glorious Easter message that makes everything so much better for us today! Luke 24:1–12 (HCSB) 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 They went in but did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes. 5 So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men. 6 “He is not here, but He has been resurrected! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’?” 8 And they remembered His words. 9 Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. 10 Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them were telling the apostles these things. 11 But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. When he stooped to look in, he saw only the linen cloths. So he went home, amazed at what had happened. God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning. Let us pray: Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen. ----------------------------------------------------------- Last Sunday we looked at Luke 19:28-40 and found that we want to be sure that we do our part to spread the “good news” of Jesus Christ so that God doesn’t have to use stones to tell others about Jesus.

This morning we will look at another typical Easter scripture in Luke and see how these verses help us in our walk with God this week.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 1 says: 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared.

I believe that we can all agree on the first day of the week as being Sunday during that time.

Today we usually think of Monday as the first day of the week,,, or at least,,, the day after our sabbath.

But then,,, Sunday was the first day of the week with Saturday being the sabbath,,, and we use Sunday as our sabbath since we honor Jesus’ resurrection that way.

But what isn’t clear today,,, is who went to the tomb early in the morning.

In a very brief reading of each account in Matthew,,, Mark,,, Luke,,, and John,,, a contradiction seems to emerge.

Matthew mentions two women by name.

Mark mentions three by name.

Luke mentions at least three by name but describes more.

John only identifies Mary Magdalene.

You can see why some skeptics point to these passages in an effort to discredit the narratives.

How many women were actually involved at the tomb of Jesus,,, and why are there variations in these accounts?

You will have to at least stay awake long enough to tune back in,,, because I’ll try to give a clearer picture later in the sermon.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 2 says: 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

I believe every one knows the reason why the stone was rolled away,,, but just in case you were wondering,,, it was rolled away so that “we” could see that Jesus wasn’t there.

We know from John 20:19-23 that Jesus just appears in the locked room with the disciples,,, so He is able to get into locked rooms without opening doors,,, so He could get out of the tomb just fine,,, but “we” can’t see in the tomb,,, unless the stone is rolled away!

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 3 and 4 say: 3 They went in but did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes.

They were looking for Jesus’ body,,, but they don’t find it,,, and they were perplexed about this.

How many times are we in this same situation when it comes to figuring out things that relate to Jesus,,, and they appear different than what we think they should be.

Remember the words of Jesus to the disciples about why He taught in parables in Luke 8:10,,, and Mark 4:11-12,,, and understand that we truly want to know the truth,,, and not just what we think,,, we want to see or know.

And also the account of the two men,,, where it says,,, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes.

Another differing account of the appearances in the tomb.

Again,,, you will have to wait,,, I’ll get to my explanation.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 5 through 7 say: 5 So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men. 6 “He is not here, but He has been resurrected! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’?”

How many times do we have to be notified by scripture that seeing angels,,, are terrifying to us,,, and they know this because we are usually told to not be afraid.

Angels are not things that we are familiar with.

So it’s no wonder that they were afraid,,, especially considering they were probably already worried about the Roman authorities anyway.

But the angels remind them of the words that Jesus told them earlier.

And we see there response to these words in the next verse.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 8 says: 8 And they remembered His words.

Five words,,, that make a short sentence,,, but they have so much meaning!

Finally they remember the words that Jesus has told them before He was crucified,,, words that none of them have remembered,,, until this time.

And we see what they do in the next few verses.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verses 9 through 11 say: 9 Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. 10 Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them were telling the apostles these things. 11 But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.

They return to report to the disciples and all the rest,,, what they have seen and heard.

But the disciples don’t believe them,,, since these words seemed like nonsense to them.

The women have been reminded of the words that Jesus told them,,, but the disciples and the rest,,, haven’t remembered them yet.

And actually,,, they don’t remember at all until they physically see Jesus themselves.

We have the same problem because so many times we get in such bad shape ourselves,,, either physically,,, emotionally,,, or financially,,, etc… because we don’t remember the words of Jesus.

And we don’t remember or pay any attention to them until we have no where to turn unless we turn to God,,, then we will remember the ways that Jesus said that He would be with us,,, we were just so focused on the world around us,,, and the problems that we face,,, that we couldn’t remember Him,,, or,,, remember His words of comfort.

----------------------------------------------------------- Verse 12 says: 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. When he stooped to look in, he saw only the linen cloths. So he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Peter might not have believed the women,,, but he’s curious enough to go to the tomb and see for himself.

John writes that the other disciple outran Peter to the tomb in John 20:3-10 but he waited and didn’t enter until after Peter had went inside.

Then he entered,,, and saw and believed,,, but he nor Peter understood that Jesus must rise from the dead.

----------------------------------------------------------- It’s amazing to me that none of them actually fully believe that Jesus has arose at this point.

And,,, it’s amazing to many that the women were the first eye witnesses to the resurrection.

If you study that time period any at all,,, you know that women were not regarded as reliable witnesses during legal disputes,,, yet,,, all of the Gospel writers and John use women as the first ones to view the empty tomb.

Many scholars believe that the women visiting the tomb first,,, actually lends credibility to the truth of the resurrection,,, since they would not have been seen as reliable witnesses.

----------------------------------------------------------- To go back to the earlier question of the different authors accounts of the resurrection morning,,, one answer that I found was an article,,, or actually several articles by a man that was a cold case detective named J Warner Wallace.

He stated that the differing accounts didn’t bother him because the main facts were all there,,, even though they weren’t really explained very well by each writer.

When interviewing multiple eyewitnesses,,, he would listen carefully for common features in their testimony.

He says that in every witness observation,,, some details are more important than others; some aspects of the event stick out in the mind of the observers more than others.

In this case,,, every author is clear about one thing: - women (plural) were the first to find the empty tomb.

Even Johns account in John 20:1-3 of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb before dawn apparently had others with her because of her words to Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved says that “we” don’t know where they have put Him.

The women who attended to Jesus during his ministry loved Him enough to attend to his body after the crucifixion.

According to Mark,,, they went to the tomb for a purpose: to anoint Jesus with spices.

It’s not surprising the women disciples of Jesus would be thoughtful and caring enough to want to do this.

Every gospel author agrees; the women came to the tomb and were the first to discover it empty.

Many Christian Case Makers have noted the importance of this claim.

After all,,, as I stated earlier,,, since women weren’t considered reliable as witnesses,,, you might wonder why the authors didn’t insert Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathia in this role.

They would certainly have made the account more credible to the first hearers.

Instead,,, the authors describe women as the first eyewitnesses.

This agreement makes the account all the more credible.

Women weren’t described here to make the narrative more convincing (they actually hurt the account), but were instead described because they happen to be the true first witnesses.

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The differences in the angels are described in a similar way by this detective.

It involves answering the question of what each author was writing about,,, and he says that they were focused on different things.

He says that Matthew and Mark addressed one question while Luke and John addressed another.

Each was focused on a particular issue and this guided their decision about what they reported.

Matthew and Mark addressed the issue of the earthquake and the removal of the stone.

Matthew wrote, “And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.”

What caused the earthquake?

An angel came and rolled away the stone.

From this point on, Matthew was focused on this angel and what he told the women.

Mark’s focus was similar.

He reported the women “…were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’ Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.”

Once again the question under examination was: who rolled away the stone.

The answer? One angel, and this angel became the focus of Matthew and Mark’s account.

Luke and John were addressing different concerns,,, however.

While Luke,,, for example,,, also mentioned the rolling of the stone,,, he focused on the concerns the women had about the missing body.

Then they see two angels and the rest of the discussion was focused on the missing body of Jesus.

John’s focus was similar,,, but his interaction moves quickly from the grave scene to the report the women make to the disciples.

When describing who rolled away the stone,,, they all agree,,, some through silence,,, that it was only one angel.

Each author addressed different questions and didn’t see a need to unify their description to match the others.

This lack of effort to make the accounts match is yet another evidence, in his view,,, of their reliability,,, since during his criminal investigations the testimony of different witnesses never matched unless similar questions were asked.

The Gospel authors (and the early Church) certainly had the opportunity to change the descriptions to make sure they matched, but they refused to do so.

As a result,,, we can have even more confidence in the reliability of these accounts.

He says they display the level of variation that he would expect to see if they were true,,, reliable eyewitness descriptions.

There were two angels at the tomb of Jesus.

One rolled away the stone.

The Gospel accounts describe the angels in response to the specific questions and actions under consideration,,, so in his eyes,,, there is no contradiction.

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The main point that I want to make is the account of the resurrection is true.

There is too much evidence to prove that it happened to not believe it,,, even though many will always try to dispute that claim.

Like so many things in the Bible that we might question,,, we must believe what is written even when we don’t understand fully,,, because God would have made sure that it was changed before now if it wasn’t,,, we just may not have enough information for us to understand.

Believe in the Bible,,, believe in the resurrection,,, Jesus Christ is alive today,,, and we have our relationship with God,,, to testify to that effect.

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----------------------------------------------------------- Hymn: 337 - Oakdale Hymn: 337 - Seminary Benediction ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------