"Making Sense of It All"

When you think about the resurrection of Jesus, what does it mean? The empty cross means forgiveness of sins; the empty tomb means eternal life; and the empty cloths are the evidence of the reality of all of this.

Making Sense of It All

(Luke 24:1-12)

Introduction:

A.   It really doesn’t make sense.  When you try to wrap your brain around it and think about it, you come away scratching your head in wonderment.  Right after the reading of our text, we get a narrative of Jesus walking along the road with two men.  To show you how it just didn’t make sense to them, let’s jump in to the conversation in Luke 24:19-24.  These are not bad people, but people who a part of the group in the upper room.  The week of Passover was done; now is the first day of a new week and time for them to go home.  Look at how they described Jesus: a powerful prophet whom they hoped would redeem Israel.  They wanted to believe he was Messiah, but they just couldn’t fully accept what happened.  Now these women had seen a vision and they think he is alive.  But Jesus began to teach them all that the Christ, the Messiah, had to suffer.

B.  A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was the custom in that affluent neighborhood for the parents to give the graduate an automobile. “Bill’ and his father had spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect car.  On the eve of his graduation, his father handed him a gift wrapped Bible. Bill was so angry that he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house.
He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news of his father’s death that brought Bill home again.  As he sat one night going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit, he come across the Bible his father had given him.  He brushed away the dust and opened it to find a cashier’s check, dated the day of his graduation – in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.

C.  As I thought about this story, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people in this world have done the same thing to God. Literally tossed aside a wonderful promise, because they didn’t understand it, or they didn’t believe that it was possible.  In our world, we are taught that; “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” So many of us have been taken in by “empty promises,” that we are leery of anything or anyone that tells us we can have something for nothing.

I.  Christ On A Cross

A.  Last week I ended the sermon by letting us see the need for the cross.  As Jesus explained to these men the Christ had to suffer.  The fact of the matter is that sin has always equaled death.  We think about death physically, but it really is even more terrifying when we think about it spiritually.  In the spiritual world, death is a separation from God.  Therefore, when Satan led angels in a war against God, they died spiritually in the sense that they were separated from God’s holiness.  When we sin, we also are separated from God’s holiness.  The greatest punishment is not the person that can kill the body, but the one that can destroy both body and soul in Hell.  God prepared Hell as an eternal place of separation or what is sometimes called the second death.

B.  The reason for the cross is not just to have someone perfect die on behalf of someone sinful, but it took God taking upon himself the sin of mankind, that which separated us from him, in order to pay the death price.  So when Jesus, as God and man, hung on that cross God’s emotions were seen.  The light that God spoke into existence stopped as the sun refused to shine for three hours.  Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Sin was placed upon him and death came.  When Jesus gave up his spirit, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook and rocks split.  The tombs broke open and bodies of holy people were raised to life.  A shift took place.  The price for the sin of mankind was paid and now a new relationship between man and God was getting started.  A new covenant was made.

II.  The Empty Tomb

A.  Jesus was dead.  The blood from the spear proved it.  The soldiers knew it, the Romans knew it and the Jews knew it.  There was no faking this death.  It was confirmed by all who hated Jesus and those who loved him.  His body was removed, wrapped for burial, spiced were placed with him and he was put into a tomb.  The Jews who hated Jesus wanted the Roman government to seal the tomb and to guard it.  They did.  The leaders knew he said he would come back to life, and they were afraid.  Afraid that Jesus was who he said he was and they simply could not believe.  It was too hard.  He just wasn’t the right person in their mind to be the Messiah.

B.  But Sunday came.  The first day of the week.  As the women went to the tomb they did not find like they had on Saturday or Friday.  On this day, the stone was rolled away, and they were met by angels that told them, “He is not here!  He is risen!”  They leave to go back to the disciples and tell them what they had seen, but Mary Magdalene has an encounter all her own.  One she thinks is with the gardener, until the man calls her name.  She sees the risen Lord.  With great joy she runs to join the other women and tell her story.

C.  The cross wipes away the death of our sins, but the empty tomb is about life.  No only has God removed my sins, but through the resurrection of Jesus he has brought me from death to life.  Now I can live with him for eternity.  No longer do I have to fear death, for victor over death has risen and in doing so, raise me up with him to walk in newness of life.  I not only shout “He is alive!”  I can shout “I am alive!”  Listen to 1 Cor. 15:55-57.

III.  The Folded Clothes

A.  Let me take you back to our reading.  Luke 24:11-12.  They tried to make sense of it all.  On the cross they saw Jesus die, but now the tomb is empty, women told of their experience, but the evidence before them incontrovertible, the folded clothes. Let me read to you John’s personal description:  John 20:3-9.  What did John believe?  He believed Jesus was alive but didn’t understand how.

B.  If someone had stolen the body, they sure would not have take the time to strip Jesus of his burial clothes, fold them up and place them on the slab of rock were laid.

C.  Think about, the cross couldn’t hold him, the tomb couldn’t contain him, and the clothes were unnecessary because he is alive.  As much as we celebrate the cross, let us never forget what makes Sunday “The Lord’s Day.”  It was the day death died and life was given to all who will come and lay down before him.

Conclusion:

A.  Do you know Jesus?  I don’t mean, do you know about him, but do you know him?  Are you in relationship with him?  Is he both Lord and Christ in your life?  If not, then this day is not just about remembering his resurrection, but it could also be the day to remember yours.  Will you come as we stand and sing?