The Empty Promises of Easter
Luke 24:1-12
We are in the midst of another political season. A season filled with all kinds of promises to all kinds of groups. Promises to reform this, fix that, build a wall , give you free college and healthcare, and support this value system or that value system. You name the topic and some politician somewhere has made a promise about it. Raise your hand if you really believe our politicians will keep all those promises they made on the campaign trail. Hmm, not many hands up. We’ve seen enough to know most of those promises are empty promises.
When it comes to Easter, God gave us some empty promises too. Only these empty promises are a little different than those of politicians. As we think of Easter we see the promise of an empty cross, an empty tomb, and some empty burial clothes. Those are good empty promises. This morning let’s look at what those empty promises mean to us.
PRAYER
I. The Empty Cross
A. The Bible setting
1. It’s been a tumultuous weekend. Thursday night Jesus was taken away by the Temple guard, a trial ensued, lies told, threats made and finally on Friday Jesus was crucified on a cross. This is Sunday. The women are walking towards the tomb where Jesus was buried hoping to convince the Roman guards to let them in to put new spices over his body. It gives them one final chance to say goodbye. Maybe that road to the tomb led them past Golgotha, the hill where Jesus and two thieves were crucified. Maybe they simply thought about that hill on the way to the tomb. The hill that still held 3 empty crosses.
2. That middle cross is the one they are concerned with though. The one that had held a man they loved dearly, but now he is dead and they are heading to his tomb.
3. Oh he is dead alright. A soldier had run a spear into his side to make sure.
4. They watched Joseph and Nicodemus claim his body and take to the tomb.
5. Their hearts are aching. Broken. Jesus is dead.
B. The promise of the empty cross
1. Sin – It’s a word we don’t like to use. It sounds so… bad.
2. Maybe it’s because it is!
3. We don’t like to think of ourselves as bad. Misguided, fallen, maybe even mistaken, but sinful? Bad? Surely not me Lord.
4. The cross is about our sin and our inability to do anything about it.
5. The cross is about the consequences of our failures.
6. Yet, that cross is a promise as well as a consequence.
7. The cross is about the Love of God for each and every one of us.
8. The promise of the cross is that God has forgiven us.
9. Rom 5:8 tells us, “"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
10. I always have mixed emotions whenever I see a crucifix. I understand it’s to remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus.
11. But the more powerful symbol should be the empty cross because Jesus didn’t stay there!
12. God promised us an empty cross, and he kept his promise
II. The Empty Tomb
A. Bible setting
1. Let’s look again at the story of that first Easter.
2. Vs 1 says it was very early in the morning that they headed out for the tomb.
3. Why? Were they hoping no one would see them?
4. Maybe, but more than likely that was the first chance they would have had to go to the tomb after the Sabbath.
5. The Jewish day was from Sunrise to Sunset, so they wouldn’t be allowed to “work” until sunrise of the day after the Sabbath.
6. The very first thing these devout women wanted to do was tend to the body of their Lord. They were in for a surprise.
7. They weren’t expecting an empty tomb. The resurrection story in Mark indicates they were discussing how they were going to get the stone moved so they could tend to Jesus.
8. They get to the tomb and something is strange. The Roman guards that were supposed to be there weren’t. On top of that the stone was already rolled away. You know when they entered the tomb they had to be thinking something was up.
9. They were right, on one side stand 2 men in white clothes that gleamed like lightening. I think the safe bet we say they were angels.
10. I love the irony in verses 5 and 6. “why are you seeking the living among the dead?
a) What are you supposed to find in a tomb? Dead people, right?
b) Why would you look for a living person where there are only dead people?
c) Because they had missed the point!
d) Jesus wasn’t dead. They were supposed to know that.
B. The Promises of an empty tomb
1. A tomb is for dead people.
2. A tomb that is empty after someone dead has been put in it can only be empty for 2 reasons. Someone removed the body or that person came back to life.
3. Scripture tells us the body wasn’t removed, they tried an elaborate lie to say it was, but it didn’t work.
4. So the only other conclusion is that Jesus came to life again.
5. Going back to the Bible, 1 Cor 15:6 tells us he showed himself to 500 or more people.
a) Now if it had just been his Apostles, you might have said that they were just wishing too hard.
b) But 500 witnesses all seeing the same person cannot be a mass delusion!
6. An empty tomb means a risen savior.
7. A risen savior means God beat death.
8. If God beat death, that means his promise of salvation is true!
9. A story is told of a father and son driving down the road when a bee came in through the window. The boy was very allergic to bees and began to panic as the bee flew all around him. The father reached out and grabbed the bee in his hand and after a couple of seconds released the bee again. Of course the boy started to panic all over again. The father looked at his son and said, “relax” he showed the boy his and there was the stinger. “I took the sting so the bee can’t hurt you.”
10. The empty tomb is the reminder that our heavenly father took the sting of death so it can’t hurt us anymore.
11. God promised an empty tomb and he kept his promise.
III. The Empty Burial Clothes
A. Bible story
1. When the women saw the empty tomb and heard the words of the angels, they ran back to tell the 11.
2. To digress here a little. The women remembered what Jesus told them and believed. The 11 who spent 3 and a half years with Jesus didn’t remember and didn’t believe!
3. Maybe women listen a little better than us men!
4. Peter runs to the tomb and there on one side are the burial clothes all folded nice and neat at the head of the burial slab.
5. Luke tells us he went away wondering what this meant.
6. He obviously didn’t listen to the women too well. They told his what it meant.
7. The Savior is risen!
B. The Promise of the empty burial clothes
1. Jesus is alive and well.
a) He isn’t some nebulous force of nature.
b) He isn’t just a concept to make us feel good.
c) He is alive! He is real! He is here!
2. The cross couldn’t hold him.
3. The tomb couldn’t hold him.
4. The burial clothes couldn’t hold him.
5. God promised empty burial clothes and he kept his promise.
C. Those empty promises are now filled promises.
1. General Douglass MacArthur famously declared when he had to leave the Philippines just before they fell to the Japanese, “I shall return” He said that on March 11, 1942. On Oct 20, 1944 He returned to the Philippines with the American Army behind him and announced. “I have returned.” He kept his promise.
2. The empty cross, the empty tomb, and the empty burial clothes are all part of Jesus promise to return.
3. He will keep his promise.
4. Are you ready for him to return?
5. Just before we started the lesson we sang standing on the promises.
6. I asked Dave to lead that song again as an invitation.
7. Let’s sing this song with the understanding of the promises we are standing on that have been kept by God.
