Luke 24:1-12 - Why Do you seek the living among the Dead?

Join us this Easter season at Recast Church of Mattawan as we have a special two-sermon series entitled Why Easter?

It is it's great to hear everybody talking interacting. Even hear a little laughter here and there. We're gonna go ahead and bring things back together here and.

And.

Jump into our text this morning. So I'll give you a chance to find your seats. I'm not as good as drawing you back together as Dave is with the guitar. So I kind of just stand here and talk. I should be doing stand-up or something.

I don't know. Here we go. Actually that quieted everybody. You don't want to hear me do stand-up. So that's good. I kind of already I Really look at uh, thank you for that. I already basically we looked at communion as our as our Introduction so I want you to go ahead and start by opening your Bibles to Luke chapter 24.

That's verses 1 to 12 and that's page 756 and the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you. So everybody should have a Bible there and that's page 756 there and one more time I say this every week, but that Bible is a free gift from us to you.

So happy Easter if if you don't own a Bible take that one with you. We want you to have that Bible. Follow along with me as I read where we saw. Where we saw last week the death of Christ we saw him crucified.

We saw the last phrase. Or one of the last phrases that he said from the cross. He said this phrase it is finished you see at the at the crucifixion he had finished what he came to do and So in that sense, you know, if you think about why did Jesus come to earth?

He came to pay the penalty. He came to be the sacrifice for us and He had accomplished that on the cross so that what was left for Jesus to do. He committed his spirit into the hands of the father and died.

That was what was remaining for him to do now. We're going to see this week that the resurrection is the act of the father vindicating the son. So that's what we're going to pick up and we're going to look at the resurrection account from Luke 24.

But on the first day of the week at early dawn. They this is a group of women and I'll set some context here in a minute. They went to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

But when they went in they did not find the body of Jesus of the Lord Jesus while they were perplexed about this behold two men stood by them in dazzling apparel and As they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground the men said to them Why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered to the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise and they remembered his words and returning from the tomb they Told all these things to the eleven and to the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and all the other women with them who told these things to The Apostles but these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb stooping and looking in he saw the linen cloth by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. Let's pray Father as we come to this text we see the first eyewitnesses to the central event of history the resurrection of your son Jesus Christ the ultimate vindication that you raised him up as The victor over sin and death.

Father I ask that you would impress on our hearts each person who is here to consider the implications of that empty tomb this morning Father that you would work in our hearts and in our minds to rejoice Over what this implies for us as people.

Father I ask that this would not just be another Eastern message. But that you would be present here to speak to our hearts with great joy and great conviction over the truth of these events.

In Jesus name Amen.

Last week our text left us with Jesus's lifeless body hanging on the cross and that's where we that's where we left it. But I need to set some stage here and give you a little bit of context because I'm skipping a couple verses in here I didn't really cover the burial of Jesus Christ.

Here.

There's verses 50 through 56 of Luke 23 that I'm just going to summarize for you there was this dude, his name was Joseph of Arimathea and He was part of the Sanhedrin part of the ruling class of the Jews.

He was a Jew among Jews part of the group that literally decided to have Jesus crucified. But it says in the text that he was opposed to that decision and he goes to Pontius Pilate now. Pontius Pilate was the one Who finally made the judgment that Jesus was to be crucified.

He said take him do what you want with him and they crucified him. Joseph is gutsy. Joseph goes to Pontius Pilate the one who Asked Jesus and he goes to him and he says can can I take his body? Can I have his body and bury it?

Now he by by by by going and asking Pontius Pilate. He was actually associating with Jesus. He's one of the ruling class. He's one of these people he has a lot to lose. But instead he goes and he asks and Pontius Pilate for whatever by the way.

In culture it was common for the Romans to leave the bodies on the cross as an example. So you would walk down Roman roads and you would see Roads lined with crosses with bodies on them as a reminder.

Don't mess with Rome. So this is a little bit unprecedented that they willing to give the body of Jesus over he takes it down from the cross. He lays him in a freshly cut tomb the text tells us. Now it's important since the the tomb is a primary location for us to understand in the text.

It's important for us to understand what these tombs look like now. How many of you can picture in your mind the the disc-shaped stone with a channel that's cut in it. That's that's actually very accurate.

There are tombs to this day that still exist in Israel that are identical to that. That's the type of tomb this was so you had this very large maybe six foot tall stone. That's maybe it's disc shaped.

And carved into a disc and maybe a foot thick. Into a channel that's sloped. So can you picture that there's a slope channel? You'd have to take a wedged rock a walk a rock to wedge that stone up so that it wouldn't roll over this opening.

That's here. The opening was only about three foot by two foot. I'll be a tight squeeze to get in there. It's not a huge not a huge door into this tomb. Just this little part that's cut in to the rock.

You would step into there and where you would be standing is in a six foot by six foot square. So are you picturing this in your mind? This is this clear enough six foot by six foot square and on each of the three sides of you the doors behind you on.

The three sides is a low two foot shelf. That's carved in solid rock. Two foot by six foot two foot by six foot two foot by six foot. That's the place where the body would be laid for preparation. So that Jesus's body would have been brought in there a linen cloth laid down on there his body laid on the linen cloth and Then the linen cloth flapped over his head so that the linen cloth is both over his the front of his body in the back Of his body.

Is that making sense? Can you picture that and then that's not his final resting place? That's where his body was laid and then they would take Spices and all kinds of ointments and all kinds of stuff and so that that so that that linen would stick to the body and would Preserve it so they would they would then coat that.

They're in that preparation spot and those tombs would hold up to nine bodies because on each side. Okay, you have the six-foot area. You have three niches that run back lengthwise off of this side and then three that run off this side.

Lengthwise so that the bodies would then be interred lengthwise in those places. That is everybody kind of picturing that in your mind. So you'd have nine places for burials in that one tomb now. The text tells us very clearly that this is a tomb that had never been used.

So there's no other bodies in there. Nobody's going in there to remember the death of a loved one or anything like that. It's the Jesus's body is the first one that's laid out there and the picture that we're meant to have in our mind.

Is that Jesus's body is not going to be fully prepared on? The night before the Sabbath so he's laid out in that preparation area. With the linen over him, but the spices are not applied to his body yet.

We'll see why here in just a second. So he took that he prepared the body but yeah, the spices were not prepared because this is the evening before the Sabbath so you have Saturday is coming. He's crucified on Friday.

They're preparing his body. They take it down into the tomb. They lay it out. We'll put the linen over it. But what happens on the Sabbath on Saturday for the Jews. No work, you're not allowed to work on the Sabbath.

That's from Sun down on Friday till the next day. So they were not allowed to work. So they're they're working feverishly just to get the body in the tomb put the linen over it. But what has to happen for the Jews?

There's a preparation time that was necessary for the Sabbath because if you're gonna eat on The Sabbath you had to prepare the food the night before. So there was a lot of work that needed to happen on Friday night in preparation for the Sabbath.

So they're they're hurrying in there scurrying around to get this done. So the women these women who had gone to the tomb had followed Joseph of Arimathea the text tells us they knew where the tomb Was they followed him they were planning on going back as soon as possible.

Which would have been early on Sunday morning after the Sabbath was over and they were planning on going back there. So that's exactly what we see where we pick up our text in verse 1 of chapter 24. But on the first day of the week early dawn.

They these women went to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared and they're gonna they're gonna prepare the body of Jesus Christ. And we know that there were at least five women. If you were to go over to go over to verse 10 real quick.

Now count with me here now there was Mary Magdalene, that's one and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women plural. So we have to have at least two other women that are not named there.

So we know that there were at least five women on the way to the tomb that early Sunday morning. Going to prepare the body of Christ, maybe seven maybe eight. We don't know how many. Can you imagine. What would the discussion have been like on the way to the tomb?

What kind of things would they have been talking about now? Remember they had had a full Sabbath days rest to contemplate to meditate to consider the events. Sometimes if you're going through hardship if you're in a dark time in life.

I'm the kind of person anyways who likes to be busy when things are tough. Are you are you kind of like that? It's it's worse when you've got downtime.

And.

That's what they had just endured. They had watched their Savior. They had watched their Lord their friend their master their teacher. They had watched him brutally die and Then a day of rest. How delightful.

And that's what they had endured. So now imagine they're going and they're they're gonna finish the job and get his body prepared for its final rest. And we know that at least one thing was the topic of discussion.

Because one of the other Gospels tells us that this was the topic of discussion. How in the world are we gonna move this stone? Now granted there were five at least of them, but this is a heavy stone.

Some of these were over a ton. So some pretty big stones. It had to be rolled up and then one of the women can't help roll it up because she's got to be Taking the stone to wedge that rock up. So they're they're they're discussing this but no problem because the text tells us that they arrive there.

They get to the grave and oh good. The stone is already rolled away. So problem solved right. Except that feeling of oh, okay. We don't have to roll the stone away must have given away to immediate fear.

Who rolled the stone away? Put yourself in their shoes. What would you have been thinking? Fear concern and then also consider this. Their mind now put yourself in their shoes in their historical context where they lived who they were.

They knew right away that whoever rolled that stone away was not a good Jew right. No good Jew was out there rolling stones away on the Sabbath, right? So what would their mind have immediately turned to at this moment the Romans?

The Romans have stolen his body. That would have been the first assumption. I think they stoop and they walk in and without question the body of Jesus is gone. They saw it laid there and it is no longer there.

And I want to make the briefest take the briefest of moments to consider what was missing. What wasn't there? Obvious so somebody say the body. The body was not there. It's interesting because I think we think in Christian circles and maybe from Sunday school or from fast or from from just the way that we think.

We think the resurrection is primarily about our spiritual destination. Resurrection is about getting to heaven or something like that. Resurrection is a it is primarily concerned with what happens to your body.

Resurrection is a physical thing. It's miraculous. It's supernatural, but it is about your body. Where is your body going to be for eternity on a new earth that is created for us where it will be? Physical tangible stuff.

Just like this earth, but without sin and actually I said that the other day and my wife corrected me and she's absolutely right. Not just like this earth. Incomparably better than this earth, but when I say just like it I mean in sense of similarity touching things.

Tasting things hearing things it will be a physical place a place that I delight in going someday not just a Floating on clouds ethereal. You know playing strumming your harp and all that kind of stuff granted.

It would be kind of cool to play the harp. I'd like to learn how to do that. But I mean you have plenty of time to learn all kinds of musical instruments, right? But it is about the body you see the way that we were created scripture teaches that humans were made with an immaterial part and a physical part a material part and I believe according to scripture.

I think scripture teaches us very very clearly that the two were made to be together. Your soul and your body together and only after sin enters the picture. Is there ever a breaking between soul and body?

Those two only are ever separated because sin has entered the world that our spirit. The spirit of those who pass on you might be asking then what happens to them their body lays in the grave. There's a bunch of graves right back here.

Their body lays in the grave, but their spirit goes to be with God until a final Resurrection where their bodies will be raised their spirits will be reunited with their body and they will then stand before God in regards to judgment and the primary question at judgment is whether or not your name is written in this book called the book of life and Those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Their name is written in the book of life. So that's the primary thing that we see regarding judgment regarding the end regarding this body. Death in that sense is not natural. It's not the way that things were meant to be.

But who is missing so we see the body is missing. But we see also that Luke wants to tell us who is missing and tell us something about who is missing. It's not just Jesus, but it is the Lord Jesus the text tells us.

The Lord Jesus he is the master. He is the king. He is the one worthy of worship. And his is the body that seems to be misplaced on that Sunday morning Jesus his body is missing. The women are perplexed the word that the text says confusion.

There was uncertainty. They're they're confused. They're trying to figure this thing out. How would you feel if you were them? I? Think I'd be pretty sure what had happened as soon as I stepped there.

How many of you are pretty good at flash judgments. You're pretty good at I see some people pointing at others. That's great. That's always encouraging. I'm I'm the master of and I think I'm pretty good at it.

You know, that's first assumption is pretty good. Not really I Would just you know, you review assess the situation and it's obvious what's happened. Somebody's broken in and stolen the body just be like straightforward, right?

That's the logical conclusion And these women are confused. There's uncertainty. They're not quite sure what's going on. And then we see in our text here one of my favorite words in Greek because I like to translate it Shazam.

Behold look, that's the biblical word for check this out. Check it out.

Two.

Dudes show up two men and what are they wearing? They're wearing like sequined shirts and white shiny pants. I Quit, okay. I don't know. I mean, I'm maybe I'm taking some license with the text. It says dazzling apparel, but what could be more dazzling than sequined shirts and ruffles and all kinds of stuff.

I just they're dazzling.

Okay.

Now you got some kind of weird image in your mind. But we are we are certainly to meant meant to assume that these are not just men. When angels appear to people in the Old Testament, they appear as men, but it's almost always Consistent that they're there.

They're explained to have dazzling apparel like this bright white light emanating from them or something. But sometimes angels appear to people and they just look like humans. We're actually told in the book of Hebrews that some of you in this room. Some of us may have actually seen angels.

We're actually told that in the New Testament that there is the possibility of angels to come and look like humans and interact with us pretty pretty crazy, but real. So these two are angels and and we see that.

That the women actually bow to them in fear. They recognize that something's different about these guys. These are not just the gardeners. The angels ask one of them or ask of them the most awesome question in Scripture.

I consider to be one of the most awesome. The power of this question echoes down through the ages. It is the first hint of a final victory won over sin. A final victory won over death. And it's a little bit of a sarcastic question if you consider it at what's being asked.

It's actually what I chose to be the title of the sermon. Why do you seek the living? Among the dead. Why are you here in a graveyard? Seeking someone who is alive.

It's a powerful question.

Consider what that would have felt to these women. It's it's sarcastic in this sense that as if the angels would assume that these poor Distraught women should already know he's alive. Yeah, I'd already know it.

Implies. I wonder somehow sometimes how angels look into human interactions. They're seeing sometimes the back scenes of what's going on behind the scenes in reality. And they must think it sometimes silly for us to not see the big picture, and that's what's implied by this question.

Why are you here in a graveyard looking for Jesus? You know he's alive. But you see let's cut these women some slack. They had seen him die. They had watched his body be buried. They had prepared a concoction to preserve his body that morning the best that they could.

They came to that tomb fully Expecting to see a body a dead body. They woke up with their minds consumed with death and darkness. They awoke that morning with broken hearts. They did not come expecting a resurrection.

But the sarcasm on the angels part gives way. The rhetorical question gives way to a very direct proclamation.

He is.

Not here as they don't say they're not stating the obvious. They're not stating that the body isn't here. Well, they could recognize that he Jesus Christ body and soul. Man and God he's not here. He has risen the text says more literally the translation should be he has been raised.

Passive the father has raised the son. It's a divine passive and God has done it and he's been raised to new life. According to the angels then standing in the tomb. Jesus's trust that he expressed in the father.

What was his last cry from the cross? Father into your hands. I commit my spirit and that was not a misplaced trust. The father has vindicated the son and has raised him to new life. He followed through on his promise.

You ever consider the fact that Jesus had never died before. Jesus hadn't died before it wasn't like the father and the son and the spirit did a test run on this just to make sure It was gonna work out.

Okay. You know, he literally had to trust. I was following a Facebook Line and people were one guy was just saying how this was arbitrary death because he knew he was gonna be raised to life. So it's just arbitrary not arbitrary.

He suffered greatly and He had to put his faith and trust in his father to raise him. He was a human and he was God. So he had good trust in his father. Perfect trust in his father, but he still asked his father to let this cup pass from him.

He did not like going to the cross, but he did it willingly for us. Notice the command that the angels give to the women. The only command that they give is to remember. They say remember what he told you when you were up in Galilee.

Two verses that you can jot this down in your notes and look back at it later. But I'll just read them Luke 9 22 back when they were up in Galilee the words of Jesus speaking to his followers he says the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Pretty straight teaching. This is before the cross. Weeks before the cross. Luke 18 31 through 33. He told them clearly Jesus and taking the 12 he said to them see we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written about the son of the the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished including what was written by Isaiah about him suffering for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and Shamefully treated and spit upon and after flogging him they will kill him and on the third day.

He will rise pretty clear teaching. I Would like to think personally. And this is arrogance. I'd like to think that if I was in here if I was in the crowd listening to him teach like that that maybe I would Be the one Among the eleven or among the crowds that would have said hmm.

Maybe he's gonna be killed in Jerusalem and come back from the dead. Did you feel that way sometimes like you look at the text and you're like they taught he taught them clearly what was going to Happen.

What was the confusion on their mind? Why aren't they expecting a resurrection right now? Do you see what I'm saying? Does that make sense? Why not expect it, but you see he didn't say I will rise from the dead.

He said I will rise. I'm gonna be beaten. I'm gonna be spit upon. I'm gonna be murdered and I'm gonna rise and they're like rise like to power rise up to heaven rise. What kind of rise is going to happen?

You've got to remember to cut these guys some slack because in light of Jesus's parables He was constantly teaching in parables. He was very cryptic in his language. On top of this the disciples had this intense misunderstanding of what the Messiah was going to be.

They thought he was going to conquer and oust the Romans and give freedom to the Jews. There was that misunderstanding and Then consider the overwhelming experience of the last 48 hours in these guys lives the women the men all seeing him crucified.

They saw the betrayal. They saw the trials. They saw the scourging his being beaten with whips Crucifixion and Somewhere in the middle of all of that. They forgot his statements about rising from the dead.

How dare they let all of those circumstances get in the way of their clear understanding of biblical prophecy? Cut him a little room here how many of you have a really clear thinking mind in the midst of adversity and difficulty and struggle and You know, you remember everything that your teachers taught you at that time.

Sometimes it takes a little while for that to sink in. But once the angels explained the women's memory is jogged and they recall what Jesus had said. So the women rushed back to the 11. Why does the text say 11 and not 12?

Judas is gone and they run back to the 11 and they explain what's happened, but the men are skeptical. Look at verse 11. Verse 11 says but these words seem to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.

Really? They're not just a little skeptical. The word that we interpret idle tale you see that in the text see the words idle tale there the words that we Translate idle tale is a Greek medical term. It's literally a diagnosis that is a delirium that is caused by a high fever.

Any of you been around somebody that's in a high fever that needs to go get medical attention because of a high fever and there's they're talking and they're not making any sense and It's scary. That's what they're saying.

Is this is just like gibberish this is like nonsense. This is an idle tale an old wives tale. It's like it's like you're delirious. I picture the disciples saying something like what have you women been smoking?

You know what is going on here now? How do you feel if you're one of these men? Be real be honest don't be super spiritual right now be honest. How do you feel these women come and tell you that they were going to prepare the body?

But it wasn't there, but don't worry an angel appeared and told us that he's been raised from the dead. Easy to believe. No, I don't think so. Not one of the disciples at this point in the text is at a place of faith.

Not a single one of them yet believes that Jesus has raised from the dead. They are skeptical about this and I want you to let the skepticism of the moment sink in. They are real people, and I love the way that scripture does not sugarcoat and candy-coat.

The Gospels the stories if you were to sit down and write a story and make up some heroic story about Your teacher would you paint yourself in a bad light? Would you paint yourself as a skeptic and these women are believing and you're not?

How would you paint yourself if you were writing a story about yourself that was going to endure down through the ages? See people want to tell us that the the gospel writer sat down and made up a myth people don't make up myths about themselves and paint themselves in a poor light and Not only that.

But when you consider the way that women were treated in this culture. You would not have made up a story where women were the first to find out about the resurrection. In that culture and in that time as horrible as it was a woman's testimony was not even permissible and legal matters.

So a horrible time and culture women's word was not trusted and so that's part. Probably why the disciples are questioning these women. You didn't even see them as trustworthy at this point. So what about skepticism today?

We can tend to think if only I were alive back then. Have any of you been guilty? I have been guilty of feeling that way. If only I could be alive back then then I would have faith. Well, no, then you'd have evidence then you would have proof but not faith.

We're actually in a very unique place in history where Jesus says blessed are those who do not see with their eyes and still believe. We have the opportunity for genuine faith in essence. We are being blessed with an opportunity to believe these things based on the evidence that we see from Scripture.

Peter rose and ran to the tomb. He had to see it for himself. He looks in there are the linen cloths. The body is gone. The linen cloths, by the way, something that a robber would definitely have have taken.

That's probably the only thing of actual value of of worth monetarily in the in the tomb. He could have sold that linen cloth for quite a bit of money in that time, but the cloth is There and we end our text with Peter puzzled.

Marveling the text tells us and what has happened. It's as though The the message Eugene Peterson's paraphrase says and Peter left.

Puzzled.

Shaking his head. Picture that he walks away kind of like I don't know what to do with this. No body in there. I don't know so that we see even here at the very end of our text nobody believes. What is the depth of skepticism in the human heart.

How deep does it run in us? I? Want to point out that skepticism is not a sin. But is something that we need to do is deal with seriously. We need if you see skepticism in your heart. You need to let that drive you to study drive you to a place of more Understanding of going and seeking out information.

Don't let skepticism ride you down into a pit of Unbelief let it be what drives you to seek out more information to ask questions to study to read books to study scripture. Come and see me if you're if you're there and you're going man these facts these things.

I just don't know how they line up. I don't know how it works. I Long for that. It's like God made me to want to answer questions. If you if you're struggling with these things I can turn you to some good resources.

I can give you some answers that I've studied myself. But maybe you're here this morning and you find yourself following Jesus, but plagued with doubts. You're in good company. Even the disciples struggled to believe.

But I want to point out that something significantly changed in them. Whereas here they are accusing the women of making this story up of being delirious of being crazy. They are skeptical in a very deep way.

We're gonna see all of these guys transformed all 11 of them transformed in amazing ways. Where the end of our text leaves them confused and concerned something significant happens in just a few verses and that's where I want to Read a little bit larger chunk of Scripture here as part of the application part of the end here.

Luke 24 36 through 49. Turn over maybe one page. I don't know if you have to turn in in the Bibles there. We're gonna see what changed for these guys. Jesus has appeared in verses 13 through 35 in between our text in this one that we're gonna read.

He's appeared to two guys on the road showed himself to him. They're like, he's alive. They run back to the disciples and they're telling them about that. They're telling the disciples about seeing Jesus on this road and As they were talking about these things verse 36 Jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit and he said to them. Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your heart? Says I know you're skeptical. But why see I'm here see my hands and my feet why would he show them his hands and his feet.

The holes.

See my hands and my feet that it is. I myself. Touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see it as you see that I have. And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet now hands feet.

You know, where did the nails go in, you know wrist to wrist to finger, you know. He holds his hands out so they could see where the nails went in is is unclear. We don't really have evidence of that from crucifixion and while they still disbelieved.

Look at the phrase. They still disbelieved for joy. They are joyful. They see him there. They recognize that he is Jesus and I don't know what they had in their mind. Maybe they thought this was going to be like one of those obi-wan Kenobi kind of things like okay.

He's a ghost and he's here, but we're gonna get to spend like the rest of our life. He's gonna appear to us at really cool times and give us information and you know. Just as you're about to fire the photon torpedo.

He'll his voice will be there and tell you to use the force or something and you know what I mean? Maybe that's what they're thinking in their mind is he's just an apparition. But this is cool. We're joyous because Jesus is here he's talking with us and They're not convinced that he's physical.

They think they're seeing a hallucination or some kind of a ghost. But they're disbelieving but they're joyous and they're marveling. They're puzzled and he said to them guys I picture him to be just like almost exasperated guys.

Do you have anything to eat here? Let me let me finish this once for all. Give me a piece of fish.

Then.

They gave him a piece of broiled fish. He took it and ate it in front of him. Why? Prove he's physical. Look I can eat fish guys. I'm really here. It's me. Touch me see it verify it feel it. I'm here.