Luke 24:1-12 Stop Looking for the Living Among the Dead

Welcome to Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service. You are listening to an Easter message by Lead Pastor Don Filsick. If you would like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com or you can find us on Facebook.

Here's Pastor Don.

You can go ahead and find your seats. I'm Don Filsick, I'm the Lead Pastor here, and I just want to start off by saying Happy Resurrection Day to all of you. Welcome to Recast Church. I'm glad that you're here and you've gathered together on this Lord's Day to remember together with us his resurrection.

Be sure to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in. You can turn those in in the black box over here. And if it's your first time filling out one of those connection cards and sharing your information with us, we just ask that you please take a free coffee mug over there, just our way of saying thanks for joining with us.

And I know that sometimes visiting a place for the first time can be a little bit, you know, like, what am I getting myself into? So we just wanted to welcome you and thank you for coming. And then any offerings you would choose to give also go in that black box over there.

And we don't pass an offering plate. We don't want anybody to feel the pressure of that plate going by, going, oh no, what do I have to give? Do I have to give something? What's this all about? So if you choose to give, you can use the envelope that was provided for you and give in that.

And then anything that's marked Expansion Fund is going to go towards our eventual hopes of building a building on the property that we purchased over on East McGillan. So if it's marked Expansion Fund, it goes that direction.

If you don't use that envelope, there's a place to recycle that over there. That just kind of helps us to be able to use those envelopes again next week if they're not going to be used this week. And that'd be great.

Of course, today is Easter. How many of you knew that? Everybody? Nobody surprised? Oh no, oh my goodness, it's Easter. It does have a tendency to sneak up on us. Does anybody recognize? Does that happen to you?

It's like all of a sudden, I'm like, this is Easter. And sometimes that happens. But I want to just tell you, as all of you know that it's Easter, there was also a big significant thing that happened yesterday as well.

And yesterday marked five years, five years since Recast Church held its first services in a basement in the Trestle Creek neighborhood. So I wanted to say happy Easter to you, but I also want to say happy birthday to you as well.

Happy fifth birthday, Recast Church. An amazing thing. Today we celebrate Easter, but I find it ironic that English is one of the only languages, English is one of the only languages that does not use a clearly Christian word for this celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The majority of languages around the world have overtly religious tones to the word that's used for this celebration, for this day. Most cultures in Eastern Europe, throughout Russia and throughout all of those former countries.

Call it Resurrection Day.

Some places refer to it according to the Passover, so more of a Jewish flavor to it. And English is the only language, one of the only languages that refers to it by the name of a Germanic goddess, Aoster.

English is somewhat of a silly language, I would say. But this morning we're going to take time to focus on the reason for celebrating this. By the way, that doesn't mean that you have to, you can no longer call it Easter or whatever.

I know that that's what our culture does. I do, however, like to say Happy Resurrection Day to all of you. But what is the reason for this day? We're going to look into the text and be reminded. I hope that this is encouraging to you.

Many of you know the story of Easter, you know the story of resurrection, you know the story of the empty tomb. And so you know that that's where we're going this morning. You know that this day has little to do with eggs, little to do with bunnies or baskets or candy.

Now I know that Cadbury cream eggs are a pretty big deal. At least they are in my household. Anybody else relate to that? Is that a pretty big deal, you get them once a year? Anybody notice that they're getting smaller every year?

Pretty soon it's just going to be like a little nugget, a little bit of cream in there. But what we're going to be talking about this morning is so much more, ought to be so much more important than chocolate and presents and Easter baskets and all of that, Easter egg hunts and all of that stuff.

Yes, I did say more important than chocolate. I know some of you, that's like I just pushed a button. The fact of resurrection should be stark to us. It should grab our attention. There's nothing that should be routine as we come to celebrate another resurrection day together.

It should not at all be routine. It should just kind of be like a bombshell in the middle of life. To consider the physical, bodily resurrection of the dead to many seems to be the stuff of myths, the stuff of fairy tales, the stuff of blind faith, the stuff of the ever popular in our culture zombie type stuff.

The reality is, and as painful as it is, we've all buried someone that we love or we will bury somebody that we love. And the fact resides over every human life that sometime, our own bodies will one day be physically lowered into a grave or disposed of in some manner that our culture sees as fit.

And in our text we see that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ himself had been laid out in a tomb, lifeless and cold. But in our text this morning, we are going to see an incredible claim, an incredible claim that should boggle our minds, that should move us to wonder, should move us to amazement.

A claim that initially likely evokes skepticism in those who hear it. It does in our text. Those who first experience these things were moved to skepticism first. A claim that initially causes curiosity.

A claim that once substantiated causes great wonder and amazement. And this claim is the very heart and soul of the Christian faith to the degree that the apostle Paul said, we are fools, we are to be pitied above all humanity if Jesus Christ indeed was not raised.

What a pitiful thing that you're sitting here this morning.

You could have slept in.

If Jesus Christ is not raised, go out and make some money today. Go out and get ahead in this life. Get a little bit more for yourself, right? And what about this business of giving back to the Lord anything if he has not been raised?

So let's give up the pretending that this is not the center of everything. This is the centerpiece. This is what we're talking about here is the reason that we are in the faith or not. It has to do with this resurrection.

The claim is simply this. He is not in the tomb. But he has been raised just as he said he would. This claim, if true, changes everything. If death could not defeat Jesus, then that means that Jesus has won.

He is the victor.

If Jesus came forth from the grave as the victor over death, then those who place their trust in Jesus are turning to the one who has conquered our ultimate enemy.

What is our ultimate enemy?

But death itself. And that is exactly where my hope is placed. I believe in the historical. I believe in the literal. I believe in the physical. I believe in the amazing. I believe in the glorious, victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from death.

He was the son of God. Slaughtered for us.

Buried.

Truly dead. And now raised physically and is alive forevermore. Let's open our Bibles to Luke chapter 24. We'll read the first 12 verses in this text. You can check that out for yourself. If you're using one of the Bibles that's available back on the back table, it's page 756 if you have one of those paperbacks.

Otherwise, navigate on your own to Luke 24, 1 through 12, and we'll read this together. This accounting, this narrative of the center of our faith. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices 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 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 in 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 all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and 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 cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us this morning in joy. Father, what a glorious account. We are reading here in a historical account, Father, that which seems incredible to our scientific minds. That which presses hard against what we perceive to be the reality of the way we see things in real life.

Father, I pray that you would produce in us a wonder this morning, an amazement. That you would renew within us a faith that believes in the resurrection.

This is not metaphor.

This is not just, well, like the leaves come back every spring, and this is just a new life. This is Jesus Christ raised from real literal death and his body physically no longer in the tomb. And the implications for us are astonishing.

Father, I pray that you would convict us of the reality and the truth of this. Father, a variety of us have been kicking around churches for a long time, and some of us maybe have not really wrestled with the reality of this.

Some of us, our hope is placed firmly and squarely on this, and then others are here just checking out a church. Father, I pray that you would move in our hearts to all recognize the wonder and the amazement of this resurrection and put our faith and trust in the one who has conquered sin and death.

And it's his name that we want to lift up high this morning. It's his name that we want to delight and rejoice in as we sing these songs. Father, move in our hearts to genuinely be motivated by your great love for us that we would reflect that back to you in these songs.

I ask this in Jesus' name. To the band for leading us in worship this morning, I'm grateful for the time and energy they put in every week, and glad for that. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. Remember to keep your Bibles open in front of you to Luke chapter 24.

I know some of you have come in since we read that, and so Luke 24, 1 through 12, that is the text, that's the outline, that's where we're going. And then remember that if at any time you need to get more coffee or juice, use the restrooms that are out the hallway, out the door, in the hallway, clear to the end.

Men's upstairs, women's downstairs, if you need to use those, use those ones on that end down there. It would be valuable for us, I think, to start off by setting a little bit of the stage here. Obviously, we're jumping right in here on Easter with the resurrection, but to set the stage for Good Friday, I think, is beneficial, even though many of us could probably rehearse some of the events of Good Friday, and maybe on Good Friday you went to a Good Friday service somewhere, or you did some things with your family to remember the crucifixion of Christ.

But I don't want to just start off with Jesus in the tomb without any context, and so let's put a little context there. Scripture clearly communicates that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. He came to earth on purpose.

He lived a sinless life and willingly submitted to the Father by going to the cross. We know about the Garden of Gethsemane and in that point of travail and praying and saying, Lord, if there's any other way to redeem them, let me go that way.

And his answer was given, and in the end he said, but not my will, but yours be done. He was unfairly tried. He was found guilty of blasphemy, according to the Jews, meaning that he made himself out to be God, which he indeed was.

He was turned over to the Romans and was crucified as one falsely accused, according to their law, of sedition, of basically leading a rebellion against Rome, and that was their main cause for crucifying him, and also to try to put down the rebellion that they knew was going to ensue if he was let go.

One of the last things Jesus said before he died on the cross was the phrase, and most of us know it and it means a lot to us, and that is the phrase, it is finished. It is finished. He had completed on the cross what he came to do.

And so in one sense it could be said Good Friday summarizes a lot for us, doesn't it? Does the cross take care of a lot for us? Raise your hand if the cross means something to you personally. The cross has significant impact on our lives.

It's significant to each and every one of us here to some degree or another, but there is still something left to do. There was one more piece of the puzzle that needed to happen in the bringing about of salvation for his followers.

His work was indeed done when he said it is finished. He was laid in the tomb, but the father was not finished with the son. After the crucifixion we see, according to the Gospel of Luke, a dude named Joseph, Joseph of Arimathea, who had seen the life of Jesus.

He went to Pontius Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. Joseph and some friends took the body down off the cross and laid that body in a freshly cut tomb for interment, a tomb that had not yet been used.

Now the tomb is the primary location of the text, and you can see an example of a tomb like that one, and I think that that picture speaks more words than I can, but you see the round stone cut in a channel, a slope channel across the mouth there.

Another stone had to be put in place to hold that rock up, otherwise it would naturally roll back down to cover that grave entrance. When you step into that cave, there would be a small area, maybe six foot by six foot, with on all three sides, the doors behind you, on all three sides there would be a small shelf.

And then off of each shelf was a lengthwise cut niche in which a full-sized human body could fit. And so a good-sized tomb of a wealthy individual would be able to bury about six people in there, about three this way, and a couple this way, and a couple more this way, and you'd get about roughly six in there.

Now a body that was being prepared would be laid out on that shelf lengthwise, prepared, and then turned sideways and put back in the niche, and that's the way that the body was then interred. The tombs would be used more than once, which to us is kind of like, ooh, that's kind of gross, but after the body had decomposed and it was just bones, those bones would be taken and put in a box called an ossuary, and then that niche would be used again, and so it would be a family tomb where family members would be buried over the centuries, and that was the way that they would do this.

So again, you see a good example, and that's the primary location of our text this morning, right? That's the primary location, so it's good to have that in our mind. The reason I even go through any of those details is not just to give you, you know, some kind of a historical context or just that's cool facts, but when it comes down to it, that gives us an image of what was this place like.

A linen burial cloth had been used to cover the body of Jesus. According to Luke 23, 55, some of the women who were there during the crucifixion followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb to make note of his location, and so some people have said, well, maybe the women got the wrong tomb or maybe something happened.

We're going to see that here in just a moment, some things that really speak against those kinds of notions, but Luke 23, 55, if you're taking notes, that just says in and of itself that the women went with Joseph on the night that he put the body in the tomb and followed him.

These ladies went and prepared spices and ointments to prepare the body for burial, but it was the evening before the Sabbath, that is Saturday, and the Jews are not allowed to work on the Sabbath, and so they did not get the entire preparations of the body done for burial before the Sabbath fell.

So they decided to resume it all at the first opportunity, and that brings us right to our text here in Luke 24, verse 1. Early in the morning is probably around 6 o 'clock. Anybody relate to that? 6 o 'clock seems pretty early in the morning.

Some of you are like, I've already got an hour and a half of work in by then, or two hours or whatever. Then you've got to question what your job is at that point. Some of you moms are like, yeah, that's the way I roll.

What do you mean 4 o 'clock? I was up at 3. At least five ladies, early in the morning, five ladies, took off for the tomb with the spices to anoint the body of Jesus and finish the final preparations, the burial preparations for the body.

Now I say five, at least five, three of them are named, and then the plural and the other women are going to be mentioned here later in the text, so we know that there were at least five, maybe more, had taken off on the road to go back to the tomb to finish that business.

I cannot imagine what the conversation must have been like on that early morning walking to the tomb. If you put yourself in the shoes of those ladies, have you ever contemplated and considered how heavy each one of those footfalls was on the way to prepare their Lord for burial?

Have you ever considered what that must have felt like, what that must have been like for them at this point? Their hearts were heavy. They had a gruesome task ahead of them, right? Preparing a body for burial is one thing, but this body was emaciated.

This body had been torn apart by the Romans. So they had a task in front of them. I don't know if you ever thought about what their job was as they get there. I don't want to get too graphic, but it's not an easy job that lays ahead of them.

And not only that, it would be difficult to prepare the body of a stranger. Would you agree with me on that? Somebody you didn't know. This was somebody they loved.

This was their rabbi, their teacher.

They had observed this man heal people of things that couldn't be healed. Blind people who could see. Lame people who could walk. And they had even seen this one raise the dead. He was their teacher, but more than a teacher.

He healed people and spoke of an eternal kingdom. And now they're going to prepare his body. Certainly some of these women had hoped beyond hope that this Jesus was indeed the Messiah. He was the chosen usher in his kingdom.

And it would reign forever and ever. And he spoke in those kinds of terms. And now on this morning, all of that hope was gone. It was dashed. Do you ever feel the hopelessness of that early Sunday morning?

In the followers of Jesus. Can you imagine how heavy their hearts were? As the one that they were sure was the chosen one has failed them. That's their perspective.

That's what they think.

He's done.

Where do we turn now? Where do we go? Where can we find hope? If not in this one.

He healed.

He did all these things. Are you getting this in your mind? Are you grasping how they must have felt? Immediately upon arrival at the cave, however, something is amiss. Something is awry. They notice it right away.

The stone. This is how they find it. The stone already rolled away. Other gospel accounts tell us that the women, that we know at least part of the conversation on the way. They're with their heavy hearts.

Their minds and their hearts are set on the task ahead of them. And we know that part of the conversation from some of the other gospel writers say, How are we going to move this stone? There are at least five of them.

And they were obviously concerned and thought it was going to be difficult for even five of them to get this stone rolled back from the grave. And so they arrive and the stone is already rolled away. Part of the problem solved.

And so what would you do in that situation? You'd duck in and take a look. Can you imagine their surprise and shock to find that the body was not there? Anybody that would be surprised by that? You walk in.

They had just been there preparing. Just the night before last, they had stood there taking a mental note of where the body was. Getting as far as they could in the preparations before the Sabbath began.

Going back, getting more ointment, getting more spices. And then they had to cease their work for the Sabbath.

But they had been there. They had already been to this tomb.

But I want to point out, by the end of verse 3, we are left without any understanding of what has happened. At this point, these women, they duck in, they see the body is missing. Do they know that he's raised?

They are perplexed.

They are confused.

What has happened?

Maybe somebody has stolen the body, right? Would you think that? Maybe somebody stole the body. Maybe they came to the wrong tomb. They are looking around like, is this the right place? His body is not there.

It was sitting right there.

What's going on here?

He's not here.

Maybe aliens abducted the body. Maybe some of our modern, if you watch the X-Files or something, you'd be tempted to think that. The women were perplexed. And the word perplexed is one of uncertainty.

It seems by the use of this Greek word and the nuances of that word that these women had a direction in their minds. A direction had begun to unform, but that direction had yielded uncertainty. They have something that they're thinking has happened, but they don't know for sure.

I wonder if at this early stage they began to think and contemplate. Has he raised? But while they stood there considering the options, which I think any one of us would, right? You'd be sitting there going, what has happened here?

You'd be talking. I'm sure the five women were chattering. What's going on? What do you think? What do you think is going on? When suddenly, shazam! The word behold in the Greek language means shazam.

I'm taking some liberty with that, but it means check this out. It's a word of interruption. Behold, in the midst of what is normally mundane, normally going on. Behold, two men appeared next to the women.

Now, just to clarify, these men are directly identified verbally as angels of God in verse 23. So where often we see when an angel appears to a human, they appear as a man. They appear in human form, and then only eventually are they revealed.

Does it become clear that they indeed were angels? But one of the indicators is that they have got dazzling apparel. I don't know, were they wearing sequined shirts? I don't know what's going on here.

Who knows? A little bit creepy.

I think most of us would be pretty scared if some guys in sequined shirts were suddenly standing close to us in a cemetery. Early dawn, kind of dark. Some of us are just creeped out by cemeteries to begin with, and then all of a sudden, boom!

And there's these two guys, all discoed up. So, you guys are tracking with me.

Freaky.

These women were frightened, but there's something about the appearance of these angels that causes them respect.

They bow immediately.

They recognize something is unique about them, probably by the dazzling apparel. By the way, I'm taking some liberty with the sequined shirts. Something about their apparel was indeed dazzling to them.

Was this bright, shone with the glory of God? I don't know. But if these were angels that had just come from the presence of God, they probably shone with His glory. They have some understanding of the authority of these angels in bowing before them.

But now the angels give a sarcastic reveal. I think there's something intentionally sarcastic about the way that the angels speak here. The first thing they say, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

Silly humans.

You crazy people. You humans confuse us, angels. Why would you be looking for Jesus here?

Give me a break.

Do you not know who He is?

Do you not remember what He promised to you?

He said He was coming back.

He said He was going to raise from the dead. What are you doing here?

Do you see how they're incredulous?

What?

Why are you here?

Have you ever considered. What kind of question is that?

These poor ladies.

I mean, they had just started the preparations of a dead body a couple days ago. Now the dead body is no longer there. And the angels are like, duh. He's alive. This text makes me wonder a little bit about angels.

Just a little bit. I wonder if the angels are not a bit intrigued by the things that humans don't know. It seems like they're in the loop on quite a bit. They obviously already were aware that Jesus has risen.

And their expectation is that humans should make that connection. You should make that connection. He's not going to be in the grave. He said on the third day.

Isn't this the third day?

But in verse 5, we see the angels hinting at it. By questioning, by drawing out this question. But in verse 6, they make the comment explicit. They're a messenger sent from God with something to say. And they say it.

And the message punches a wallop. It's definitive.

He is not here. He is not here. But has risen. He's not here, but he has risen.

Notice the necessity of the words. The women are perplexed. The women are confused. The women cannot make sense of what they can take in with their five senses. They can hear, see, taste, touch, feel.

But it doesn't communicate to them what they need. And so God, in his grace and in his mercy, sends a messenger to them. To declare what they can't figure out on their own. He does not leave them perplexed.

But he openly declares to them. He is not here, but he has risen. This truth is not merely left on their shoulders. Often we need words to make sense of what we see, right? Is that truth? We need words to make sense.

We can observe things. But how many of you have ever gotten it wrong just by watching it?

A few of us.

You can tell by the laughter. You see it. You look at the outside. How many of you have ever gotten that wrong on the face of your spouse? You thought you knew what was going on inside by the look.

And you were off.

You needed some words to figure out what was going on in the heart. Guys, sometimes we need to use words. Sometimes we need to listen to words. Right, Linda? I ran into that this week. I needed to listen, not just assume.

We've been there.

But think about it in these terms.

There's another way.

Just like the call on us is to proclaim the gospel. To proclaim these words of life. To proclaim the crucified and risen Lord. And many, there's been a big movement to say just do it with actions. And use words if necessary.

And words are necessary to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Actions.

Your actions are not sufficient. I've said this many times. But if you act to your unsaved friends really cool and really good. And treat them well and great business dealings. Do you know what they think?

They think you're a really good person. That's what you've communicated to them. You're a good person. What's that got to do with the gospel again? If you're not careful they'll just be singing your praises.

And what's the goal of the gospel? To turn them to the praises of Jesus Christ. You have to have words to do that. This is a message of words. And even from the very beginning the message of the resurrection was brought to the ladies at words.

Was it an alien abduction?

Did we get the wrong tomb?

Was the body stolen? The words clarify everything. You're in the right place. But he's not here. You're in the right place. Aliens didn't take the body. Nobody stole it. But he has been raised. Without this meeting of the angels.

Without the angels showing up in this text. All that the women have to go back to the disciples and report is the body isn't there. That's all they would know. Let's take a moment to consider what is indeed missing in this scenario.

What's missing in the setting? His body is missing. It's not that Jesus came back in some ethereal spirit form to show that his life force goes on and on and is watching over his people. Is resurrection a metaphor?

It is a metaphor. I've seen marriages resurrected from the dead. Any of you ever observed that? So far gone that you thought that there was no hope and reconciliation happens?

Is that a resurrection of sorts?

Yeah.

How many of you have seen that in your own life where you felt hopeless and helpless and all of a sudden God gives you a fresh wind and a fresh desire and reignites you and it's a resurrection of sorts?

But is that what we mean when we look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ historically? No. It's so much more than metaphor. Is there a metaphor in it? Absolutely. But not just a metaphor. The body of Jesus Christ was no longer there.

We are talking about physical flesh and blood resurrection. His body missing from the tomb. And that is our hope if you are in Christ. Our hope is not just some ethereal floating in the clouds strumming.

How do you strum a harp if you're just a spirit anyways? I mean we mix our metaphors and stuff like that but there's this image that heaven is just this ethereal floating kind of thing. That sounds kind of boring.

Some of you have dealt with that. These bodies being raised again. It's a radical thing that we're talking about here. It's not merely just a metaphor. Our hope is not merely that our soul would be redeemed but that these physical bodies will be raised.

Raised to new life. Raised without pain. Raised without sin. Raised without defect. But indeed physically raised. The angels are incredulous in all different kinds of levels. They're incredulous at the forgetfulness of these women.

If these women could only remember what Jesus had told them, they would have been able to connect the dots themselves. The command from the angels is to remember. Remember what he told you? And the solution to that remembering is found in verse 8 which actually says the women did indeed remember.

Jesus had told them multiple times in pretty clear language. Once you kind of get past how he was such a cryptic speaker. In clear language he told them he's going to Jerusalem. He's going to be flogged.

He's going to be killed. And then he's going to raise again on the third day. And he said that to them multiple, multiple times. Very clear language. But I think we can cut the women some slack as much as Jesus used metaphor and parable and all different kinds of analogies in his teaching.

I'd cut them just a smidgen of slack because if we were sitting there listening to Jesus and he said I'm going down to Jerusalem. I'm going to be flogged. I'm going to be killed. And I'm going to be raised again on the third day.

I think we'd be pretty like raised what's going to happen here? You're going to go up to the heaven. You're going to go to the father. What does it mean raised? And then Peter even outright denies. No, that can't be.