An Empty Tomb with an Angelic Explanation

This is the clear purpose of His incarnation. This is the reason for His coming that He came to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Imagine the sadness Christ's followers must have felt after the crucifixion. The grief of losing their friend and teacher, but the sorrow they felt, the anguish in their hearts as they approached the grave of Christ that next Sunday morning.

Well, all of that would change when they discovered the tomb was empty. Today on Grace to You, John MacArthur shows you how the followers of Christ reacted to the resurrection. And what that should mean for your worship this Resurrection Sunday.

It's part of John's series titled The Empty Tomb. And here's John now with today's lesson. They bring to bear upon the account of this most significant of all events in human history, their own perspectives.

They all cover some of the same things and yet each of them has its own special emphasis and details common to each writer that are not in the other accounts. What this means is we have to weave all of this together to get the full picture. The hope will be that you will be able to follow this multi-faceted event as I endeavor to weave the accounts together around the main focus of Luke. As we come to Luke's final chapter, the resurrection will dominate this whole chapter. This is the clear purpose of His incarnation. This is the reason for His coming that He might conquer death for us. And the only way He could conquer death for us is to conquer sin for us cause the wages of sin is death. And if the wages are paid, then there is no more death to fear. He pays the wages in full for us and therefore death has no sting.

Death is simply the door that opens up and we are ushered into eternal glory. It does not give us all the details. It doesn't repeat some of the things that are in Matthew, Mark and John. But He also has some facts that the others don't have and we're going to look at all of these things. Luke knew more than he wrote, okay? I'm convinced that he knew the full story.

But each of the gospel writers inspired by the Holy Spirit is so inspired to write in a unique way consistent with their own theme and intention. We know that he knew more days and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God. He knew about many infallible proofs. He knew about many appearances of Christ. He knew about 40 days of instruction that Christ gave as He appeared to His own.

But He only gives us a few insights. We also know that He was a companion to the Apostle Paul and He must have therefore known what Paul knew. And Paul knew a few things that Luke doesn't include. For example, that Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15, 5 appeared to Peter, that He appeared, verse 7, to James.

So Luke knew more than he wrote, but he wrote what the Spirit of God inspired him to write consistent with his theme and it blends in magnificently with the other writers. There's no contradictions here. There's no disagreement here. But there's also no manipulation of the information. There's no sort of fake effort to try to make everything perfectly coalesce.

There's no contrived sort of fumbling effort to match up with everybody else. There's no evidence they were, as some critics say, copying a common source. There's no lie, any kind of concerted effort to blend everything together.

If that's what they were trying to do, they failed. But they weave together so beautifully in their natural sense. Another important fact, they all tell us, they all tell us that angels explained what had happened. And they all tell us that the first eyewitnesses to the risen Christ were the women. While varying details occur in each writer, these are the core truths. He's really dead.

The tomb is empty on Sunday. The angels explained what happened. The women are the first eyewitnesses and the men did not believe. The list I just gave you will become the outline that we'll look at. By the way, Luke omits one thing and they all do. All four gospels omit one thing.

What is it? The actual resurrection. So if you're looking for it, it's not there.

There are no verses in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John that explain the resurrection. There is no description. No description of it. No one was there. No one saw it. That it happened is obvious.

How it happened is inexplicable and known only to God. With that as sort of an overview, let's begin by looking at Luke and we'll blend in the other three. But let's break the text up into those important parts that I mentioned. Now we already covered the fact that Jesus was dead, right?

We know that. That's why the soldiers didn't break His legs. They rammed a spear in His side and out came blood and water, meaning His heart had opened up and poured its blood out mixed with the lymphatic fluid contained in the pericardium, plenty of indication that He was in fact dead. They handled His body. They put it in the tomb.

They wrapped it. They knew they were dealing with someone who was dead. He was really dead. But when it comes to the resurrection, there are four key truths that all four writers deal with. Number one, the empty tomb. Let's look at verse 1. This clearly, the testimony of Luke is the tomb is empty.

The stone is rolled away. And a group of women go in and see that. They are eyewitnesses to the reality of the empty tomb. By the way, it is the first day of the week. That is Sunday which fits perfectly the prophecy that Jesus gave that He would be in the ground three days. They got Him in on Friday.

He's there on Saturday. He's there a great portion of Sunday because Sunday begins at six o'clock the night before. And so He fulfills that prophecy, a prophecy we talked about last time from Matthew 12 and verse 40, the first day of the week. By the way, they had no names for days. They didn't have a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. All they had was numbers and everything was numbered in connection with the Sabbath. So the first day of the week is the first day after the Sabbath, that is Sunday and it's the third day that Jesus has been in the ground.

And by the way, it's dawn or just before dawn on the morning of Sunday but Sunday began at sundown the night before so you're probably twelve hours into Sunday. At early dawn, they came to the tomb. Now why did they come?

Well you remember how the chapter ended, chapter 23? They had come with Him, these women out of Galilee and they followed...you remember Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who showed up...they followed them to the tomb. They were still stunned, they were still in shock, they had just lived through the most bizarre horrific experience. The one they had put their trust in, the Lord Jesus had been arrested, He had been beaten, He had been crucified, He's dead. And here are these men now putting a few spices on His body, well not really a few, a hundred-pound weight that Nicodemus brought and they're anointing His body and putting it in the grave and the women are still stunned, they're not helping, they're just looking and watching.

But they determined that they wanted to have a part in it. And so it says in verse 56 that after watching His body being laid in Joseph's tomb, they returned and prepared spices and perfume. So they went back on Friday night before the Sabbath began. They couldn't do that, they honored the Sabbath. It says that on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. So they honored that final Sabbath. But they had before Sabbath began prepared some spices and now they come back with the spices. Verse 1, they came to the tomb on Sunday morning bringing the spices which they had prepared. Now at early dawn would be, I guess, in our vernacular, the crack of dawn.

Now this is where we begin to put the pieces together. Mark says the sun was risen. Matthew says it began to dawn. John says it was still dark. Now I guess it's a matter of perspective, you could say that. Well at the very crack of dawn, you might say the sun has risen, but on the other hand, you might say it's still dark because the sun has not fully risen. But I think the interesting note is that you put all these together and clearly they all understand that it is dawn. And here is where you see the first reason that I explained to you. There's nothing contrived about this. There's nothing manipulated about this.

This isn't some kind of a thing where they all had a common source and they want to make sure they work really hard to match up every detail. It's perspective. The sun may have risen over the eastern desert.

So that you could see the outline of the sun as we see it in Southern California when it's on the backside of the mountains before we see the sun. But until the sun came over the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem, everything behind the Mount of Olives, west of the Mount of Olives would have been in the shadows. From one perspective it would have been dark, from another perspective you could say the sun has risen, it began to dawn and yet from another perspective you could say that it was still dark. The sun comes across the top of the Mount of Olives, the light dawns in Jerusalem.

But there's something even more going on here than that. In fact, there's some specificity in what John says that I think is fascinating. Now remember, John said it was still dark.

Everybody else has got the sun up beginning to dawn, crack of dawn. John says it is still dark. In this way, in John chapter 20, you can look at it for a moment, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb and so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, Where they have laid him?

Peter therefore went forth and the other disciple, John, and they were going to the tomb. Now why am I reading that? Because I want you to notice this is one lady.

This is a very singular experience. Mary Magdalene came early while it was still dark. She saw the stone, she didn't go in, she saw the stone, she drew a conclusion that somebody had taken the body without ever going in to see it. She ran, came to Peter by herself. This is Mary all alone. She's not with a group. She's not with anyone else.

And she gives the report that body snatchers have stolen the body and they don't know where it is. Peter then and John after processing this head for the tomb which is a couple of miles away, they're probably in Bethany. So the point is this, Matthew says Mary Magdalene didn't start out alone. Mary Magdalene was accompanied, the Scripture says, with another Mary, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, Mary also called the wife of Clopas, another Mary. So these two women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, also known as the wife of Clopas, they start out together in the early dawn. Most likely Mary Magdalene is the youngest of all. There are other women, right? Verse 1 of Luke 24, they came to the tomb.

Who are they? Back to verse 55, the women who had come with Him out of Galilee, and that's a larger group of women. So Luke doesn't mention Mary Magdalene in his opening section, although we'll get to the mention of Mary Magdalene down in verse 10 in a minute.

Here's what probably happened. The women all go to anoint the body of Jesus. Mary Magdalene starts out with Mary the mother of James. They're moving faster than the rest who may have been older.

They're stringing out in the darkness as they begin. The two Marys head for the tomb together. Matthew 28 says those two Marys headed for the tomb, kind of the first of the women. But John says Mary Magdalene came to the tomb which means that she outpaced the other one. She gets there by herself, according to John's account. It's still dark.

At this point. And it's light enough maybe that she can discern when she gets close to the tomb that the stone is gone. She spins on her sandals and heads the other direction. She arrives in the dusky dark side of the dawn.

But clear enough to see the stone is removed. She's the first one there. Her companion Mary is somewhere back progressing in that direction.

Perhaps near her, coming in the dark at a different pace. John says that Mary Magdalene saw the open entrance and immediately left, didn't go in, bolted, probably didn't go back maybe the same way the other women did so that there's no indication she ran into them. She heads directly to Peter and John and the Apostle. And she gives this report that the body of Jesus has been stolen.

That's an assumption she didn't check. And when John says it was still dark, it was the darkest part of any experience that these women had because she was the first one there. And as the others came progressively, it became light. And that's why the other writers, when the whole group comes, say what Luke says, at early dawn, or the sun had risen. So the timing is so wonderful, the explicitness of Scripture. The earliest one there is Mary. The rest come, verse 1. To the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. They found the same thing Mary had already found. She's there and gone, headed for Peter and John. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. This is a shocking sight.

This is a stunning sight. Because, frankly, they had been having a discussion on the way, according to Mark 16. Listen to what Mark says. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another on the way, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? Remember now, they were there on Friday night when Jesus was laid in the tomb and Joseph and Nicodemus rolled the stone over the entrance. They knew it was there and they asked the question, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away.

Although it was extremely large. So on the way, they're having the discussion. We're going to go there. We've got all these spices we prepared on Friday.

We're going to do our part to show our love to the Lord by putting spices, more spices on His body. But who is going to roll away the stone? You remember that they had rolled the stone across the front. Mark 15, 46 says that He rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb, did Joseph of Arimathea. They had no idea how they were going to get that stone out of there. Furthermore they had no idea of something else that had happened. The tomb is sealed with an official Roman seal, not to be broken and a Roman guard is placed in front of the tomb. They have no idea about that. They're going to go thinking it's just the tomb, but the only obstacle they're going to have is the stone. So they would not have known about the guard. Now when they get there, interestingly enough, there's no guard there. Doesn't say anything in any of the four gospels about the women ever meeting the Roman guard.

Never. You say, well where did they go? Well for that you have to go back to Matthew 28. And here in Matthew 28 verse 2, what happened on Saturday was they set a guard. What happened in the early dark hours of Sunday, verse 2? Behold, a severe earthquake had occurred. This would be the second earthquake.

There was one on Friday, equally severe that split the rocks, threw open tombs. It occurred for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning and his garment as white as snow and the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. In the morning, an angel comes down out of heaven.

There is a massive earthquake. The angel rolls the stone away and the guards are shocked into some kind of a coma. By the way, the angel did not roll the stone away to let Jesus out. He rolled the stone away to let the people in.

Jesus could walk through walls. He did that a little later, right? The door being shut, he appeared to the Apostles. Now what happened? Well I'll tell you basically, it's pretty obvious, by the time the women get there, there aren't any soldiers there. If there were any soldiers there, they would have commented about them. They would have had a conversation with them. They would have asked them, how did this happen?

What happened? It is reasonable to assume that in the deep dark night of that Sunday morning when the earthquake came and the soldiers were knocked into their coma, that eventually they came out of it and they realized what had happened. The stone was gone. They had these shaking visions of a blazing angel.

The reverberations of a massive earthquake. They realized that the body of Jesus is gone. They had therefore failed in their duty. They understood the implications of that. They know something powerful, if not supernatural has happened.

They head back into the city. As soon as they wake up, there's no reason to stay there anymore cause Jesus is gone. They must have gone inside in the pitch darkness. And found that He was not there. So they have to face reality. They have to go to the Jewish leaders to try to explain to them what happened. And by the time the women get there, they're gone.

They're gone. It's part of his current study on Grace to You, titled The Empty Tomb. Now obviously Easter is just a few days away, and that's one reason we're airing this study now.

But really, we could air this anytime. The resurrection story, the events that came right before. That is the heart of the gospel. And of course, John, the gospel is not seasonal. No, it isn't seasonal.

And I guess maybe that's one of the regrets I have. I always think about that when we come to the Christmas celebration. Why are we storing up all of this emphasis until December? And I feel very often the same way about our Easter celebration. We start to think seriously about the details of the death of our Lord and the glory of His resurrection, and it all gets shoved into March and April. You know, that's fine, I'm glad for the emphasis, but we don't want to compartmentalize these glorious truths. Certainly not the cross and the resurrection. This ought to be on our minds all the time. That is of course why the Lord gave us the two ordinances in the church.

You know there are only two. One is baptism, and that's a picture of His death and resurrection. And every believer is to be baptized, to make that depiction public. The other is the communion table, where we remember His death in the bread and the cup. The Lord said, you need to be focused on this all the time.

The early church did communion every day, and of course people were being added to the church every day, and baptisms were going on all the time. Focus on the cross should be constant with us. I think most Christians know only the superficial realities of the cross. I would love to put in your hands the book, The Murder of Jesus, that will give you all the details leading up to and including His death, and triumphantly end in His resurrection. 240 pages, worship-inducing, vivid, compelling, the most dramatic story in human history, and a great tool for kindling your love for the Lord and your gratitude for your salvation, and a wonderful tool to give to unbelievers to see the real meaning of His death.

Use it as an evangelistic tool. You can order copies of this book, The Murder of Jesus Through Grace to You. That's right, and this book not only explains how Jesus died, it will help you see what His death means in your daily life as you go to work, spend time with family, attend church each week. To order your copy of The Murder of Jesus for yourself, or order a few for your small group, get in touch with us today. The Murder of Jesus costs $15, and shipping is free. To get your copy, call our toll-free customer service line, 855-GRACE, or visit our website, gty.org.

The title again, The Murder of Jesus. Pick up a copy by calling 855-GRACE, or order online at gty.org. That's our website, gty.org, and while you're there, make sure to take advantage of the thousands of free resources available. You can read articles by John and the staff on issues that affect you and your church. At the Grace to You blog, you can read articles by John and the staff on issues affecting you and your church. We have videos of many of John's television and conference appearances also available, along with more than 3,500 sermons, which you can download free of charge in MP3 or transcript format. All of that and more is free at gty.org. And if you're looking for updates on the resources available from Grace to You, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day and be here tomorrow when John helps you grasp the true significance of the resurrection, maybe for the first time. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.