Witnessing Women and Doubting Disciples

This is a wonderful testimony to the love of the women, to the courage of the women, and to the dignity of women. But more than that, folks, this is the same little group of a half dozen or so that saw Jesus die, that saw Jesus buried, and that saw Jesus risen and therefore they are the only ones who can be credible eyewitness testimony. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Today, John is going to help you see some details of the Easter story that you may never have understood or maybe you missed them all together. It's a series that can help you prepare for profound and joyful worship this Sunday.

It's called The Empty Tomb. But before the lesson, John, and with Easter close at hand, talk about how you decide what to preach on Resurrection Sunday. As you prepare your sermon, do you consider all the visitors, even a lot of unbelievers, who will be in your church on the day? I always kind of think back, well, what have I covered?

What have I not covered? And the Bible has so many boundless and endless ways to approach these glorious events that I work on coming up maybe with a fresh approach to Easter, since everything else has a way of sort of getting put on tape or downloadable MP3 files, and I want to be fresh. And yes, I do think about the audience. I think about the fact that there will be nonbelievers there. There will be people who kind of come out of duty or obligation or a sense of wanting to feel righteous about themselves or religious about themselves. So there will always be, in the message that I preach on Resurrection Sunday, a strong emphasis on the gospel and an emphasis on how to appropriate salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I look at it as a time to encourage believers in the truths that are bound up in the Resurrection, but I also see it as an evangelistic outreach Sunday, sort of like Christmas Sunday as well, in which I need to make the gospel very clear, and hopefully the Lord can use that to bring some to the knowledge of Christ. Thank you, Jon. And in today's lesson, Jon's going to dig into those gospel truths that he was just talking about. So stay here as he helps you focus on the resurrected one and the salvation Christ brought to ungodly sinners like you and me.

Here's Jon continuing his series called The Empty Tomb. Let's open the Bible now to the 24th chapter of Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 24. We have begun to look at the opening twelve verses which is Luke's treatment of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I want to read these verses for you so that you have them in mind as we look at them.

Luke 24, beginning in verse 1. "'But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel. And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified.

And the third day, rise again.' And they remembered His words and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James. Also the other women with them were telling these things to the Apostles. And these words appeared to them...the Apostles...as nonsense and they would not believe them.

But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only and he went away to his home marveling at that which had happened. This is Luke's account of the resurrection. There is one in Matthew, there is one in Mark, there is one in John because the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is not just a feature of Christianity, it is its essential truth. In fact, without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no Christianity. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is not the epilogue to the story.

It is not the epilogue to the life of Christ, it is the goal of His life, it is the objective of His life, it is the purpose of His life. The church has always understood that. In fact, the church understood it right from the day of the resurrection on. For since that time, the church has chosen to meet on Sunday, the first day of the week, the day that Jesus rose from the dead to commemorate the most important event in His life and the most important event in human history, His resurrection from the dead.

The church did not choose to meet on Friday. The church chose to meet on Sunday because Sunday is the interpretation of Friday. Easter is the interpretation of Good Friday. Resurrection is the divine interpretation of the death of Christ. Resurrection is the divine vindication of the work that He did on the cross. Without the resurrection, the cross means nothing for it has no validation, it has no vindication, it has no affirmation. But when God raised Jesus from the dead, He was affirming and validating and vindicating the fact that He had indeed borne our sins in His own body on the cross and had satisfied the justice of God with His sin-bearing. Without the resurrection the cross is meaningless, just another death.

The resurrection is everything. The resurrection vindicates the great reason for the gospel and for all redemption. The purpose of the gospel is not just that we might experience the forgiveness of sin.

The purpose of the gospel is that we, having been forgiven of our sin, could enter into eternal life and live in the bliss of heaven forever in perfect holiness and perfect joy in glorified, physical, resurrected bodies. Bodily resurrection is peculiar to Christianity and bodily resurrection is essential to Christianity. The Christian gospel is not designed to deliver you from your troubles here, not at all, not even close. The Christian gospel is not so that your spirit can float on into eternity in some nebulous way. The Christian gospel does not promise that you will live on in influence in some way. Nor is the gospel saying that Christ lives on in His influence, or Christ lives on in spiritual form. The Christian message is that Jesus Christ rose from the grave in a glorified, physical body, in some way like the body that you have now, only stripped of all that is sinful and fatal. And that we one day will receive a body like unto His glorified body and we will live in bodily resurrected form through all the eons of eternity. That is the Christian message. Little wonder then that all four gospels deal with the resurrection.

They cover this monumental unparalleled event, this most important crucial preeminent event in His life. We give a lot of time to the cross and rightly we should, but it is the resurrection that vindicates the cross. And so, all four gospels record the resurrection. The book of Acts records the history of the preaching of the resurrection as the Apostles and the prophets and the other preachers and missionaries went out preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that He arose from the dead in physical form and so shall those who put their trust in Him. The epistles follow the book of Acts and the epistles give us the explication or the explanation and the implications of the resurrection, what it means and how one is to understand the resurrection and how one is to apply that great reality to one's own life.

The book of Revelation closes the New Testament with the culmination and it tells us where we're going to be in our risen form in the glories of the new heaven and the new earth that will be established by the risen Christ. But when you look at the New Testament, it features the resurrection. Prior to the resurrection, Jesus says it's going to happen.

Then it happens. Then it's preached. Then it's explained and applied and finally realized in the book of Revelation. Now as we look at the four accounts of the resurrection, the four historical accounts by the writers of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I want you to understand that there is in those accounts what I would call an implicit harmony...an implicit harmony, maybe rather than an explicit harmony. That is to tell us that this isn't contrived, that some committee didn't sit down and say, well we've got these four different records here, we need to tie these things together and make them precise so somebody's going to question their validity. There is a wonderful natural component to these gospels so that each writer writes out of his own experience with the Spirit of God and his own understanding of the event.

And it's natural and it's personal and at the same time there's an implicit harmony by which we weave it together in a perfect tapestry of understanding. Each of the writers have their own emphases and they feature elements of the resurrection that are unique to them, but they all agree on four truths. They all feature four things that are critical to the validity and the evidences and verification of the resurrection.

Those four are the emptiness of the tomb. They all talk about the empty tomb. That's critical as evidence that Christ is alive. They all talk about the angelic testimony. They all talk about the fact that angels brought a divine message explaining what had happened. They all refer to the witness and the testimony of the women who had seen the risen Christ with their own eyes and touched Him and talked with Him. And they all note the unbelief of the Apostles. The emptiness of the tomb, the testimony of the angels, the witness of the women and the unbelief of the Apostles, these are the four core evidences for a real resurrection. Let's go back to briefly review the first two that we did last time. Number one, the emptiness of the tomb.

Let's look at our text. On the first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb, they meaning the women. The women are identified in verse 10, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women.

Mark 16, one names one of them Salome, probably a half a dozen, maybe more women. The reason they came was, you will remember, they were there at the cross, remember, standing there watching Jesus while He was dying in silence, stunned silence. If you go back in to chapter 23, they are also there when Jesus is buried, verse 55.

The women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed after Joseph of Arimathea who was taking His body to bury it in His own tomb in which no body had ever been placed. And they were following, they saw the tomb and how His body was laid. They saw the death of Christ. They saw Him die. They were there.

When the soldiers didn't break His legs, they pierced His side and blood and water came out. They were there when He was buried. And they saw Nicodemus show up with his hundred pound weight of spices, of myrrh and aloes, to put on the body of Christ as a testimony to his own love for Christ. And they determined that they weren't going to be outdone by these men. Joseph and Nicodemus, up to now, secret disciples and so it says that they returned, verse 56 of chapter 23, and prepared spices and perfumes. So they came bringing the spices they had prepared.

It is now dawn on Sunday morning, early dawn. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Remember on their way they were discussing what they were going to do when they got there because the stone would be there and who would be able to remove it. To their shock when they arrived, the stone was rolled away from the tomb.

When they entered, they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. Well here it is, Sunday morning. Here it is the first day of the week. Here it is the third day since Jesus died.

And He did exactly what He said He would do. He would rise again on the third day. Now to put the story together just very briefly, remember this, the women are probably all connected to places in Bethany which is about two miles away and in the morning it appears as if Mary Magdalene and one other Mary, Mary the mother of Joseph and James and the wife of Clopas, they start out together, according to the other gospel records. They start out together, the other women are trailing along. Mary Magdalene is assumed to be the youngest of them. She gets there first, according to John 20. She arrives while it's still the dark side of dawn. And she's alone when she gets there because John says Mary Magdalene arrives there. She looks through the dusk of that dark side of dawn and she sees the stone is rolled away. She draws one immediate conclusion that somebody has stolen the body of Jesus. She doesn't go in the tomb.

She doesn't go look for the other women. She turns and heads back on the dark side of dawn. They didn't see her, maybe she went another way.

There would be lots of ways to go. But anyway, she heads back. John tells us she is making a beeline to get back to the Apostles, to Peter and John, to tell them that somebody has stolen the body of Jesus. And according to John, that's what she does. She goes back and John 20 verses 1 and 2 says she tells Peter and John they've stolen the body of Jesus.

She's drawn that conclusion. She had no expectation of a resurrection. Nobody did. None of the women did. She didn't. The Apostles did.

No one did. Peter and John then in response to her message decide they've got to go check it out. So they head toward the tomb. Well probably before Mary ever got to them, the other women arrived. And that's where we see the story here. The other women have arrived.

They are a little more patient to try to discern what's gone on here. And so, Luke says, they entered the tomb. They didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. What they did find was the grave clothes lying in perfect place, as we learn later, because that's the testimony of Peter and John. Mary Magdalene then arrives first, goes back the two miles or so to tell Peter and John. In the meantime, probably soon after she left, the rest of the women arrive. They have no idea what has happened.

Nobody does. Matthew tells us what has happened. In the dark of night, Matthew 28, 2 to 4 says, the Roman guard was placed there.

The Jews went to Pilate. They said, we want a guard. We're afraid somebody will steal the body and the end deception will be worse than the first deception. So we need to guard that tomb so they don't steal it and pretend there was a resurrection. So a guard was placed there for security. The guard was placed there in the dark of night and sometime in the darkness of night, Matthew 28, 2 to 4 says, an angel came down from heaven. Simultaneous to the angel coming down, there was a very severe earthquake that shook the ground. And the soldiers saw the angel, felt the earthquake, saw the dazzling blazing angel roll the stone away and sit on it. And then they fainted in a semi-coma out of sheer terror and shock. But they remembered what they had seen up to that moment. When they finally were aroused, the angel was no longer to be seen by them.

The stone was still rolled away. They must have looked in to check. They too saw the wrappings lying there and a napkin that would have been wrapped around the head was lying in a place by itself. And immediately, still in the dark of night, they headed for the Jewish leaders and when they got to the Jewish leaders, it says in Matthew 28, 11 to 15, they told them exactly what had happened. We were there, we had the place guarded, we had it secured, we had it sealed and all of a sudden there was this horrendous severe earthquake. It must have been a very localized earthquake because the Jews make no comment about the earthquake.

Nonetheless, in the midst of the earthquake down out of the sky comes a dazzling blazing angel who pushes the stone away and sits on it. And we check the tomb and there's no body there. Well the first line of evidence that all four gospel writers want us to understand is the tomb is empty and there is no explanation except a resurrection. Second line of strong evidence is the revelation from the angels, the testimony from the angels, verses 4 to 7. It happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel. The other writers tell us they were angels in the form of young men.

The women were terrified, bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them, why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here but He has risen.

Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee saying the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified in the third day, rise again. This is the most important evidence. This is divine revelation. Two angels come down from heaven from God with the truth and declare to them that He is risen, He is not here. So you have the emptiness of the tomb and you have the message of the angels to verify the resurrection.

You have the evidence from the facts and the evidence from divine revelation. Now that brings us to the third and the fourth lines of evidence the New Testament writers give us. Thirdly, the witness of the women, the witness of the women.

This is wonderful. Verse 8, in response to the angels reminding them that Jesus had said to them while He was still in Galilee, remember they were the women who followed Him from Galilee, they heard Him teach there and He was now in Judea for the last year of His ministry. But when He was way back in Galilee, He had told them He would be delivered to sinful men, crucified, third day rise again. Verse 8, they remembered His words. It was on at least three separate occasions that Jesus said this.

It's recorded multiple times in the four gospels, but at least three separate occasions in which He told them that He would be delivered over to sinful men, He would be crucified and He would rise again the third day. And now it's beginning to make sense. The angels bring them a revelation they can't deny, they know they're godly angels, that's why they fall on their faces, bow down in terror before these holy beings. They hear the message from God, they remember the connection with what Jesus promised and it's not only dawn on the outside, it's dawn on the inside.

They're starting to get it. They remembered His words. And then...I love this...they returned from the tomb. They turn and they take off. And where are they going?

Verse 9, to report to the eleven and to all the rest. They're all hiding, by the way. They're all hiding, they're afraid.

The men are afraid. Now remember, they're going to turn and leave. Who's on the way? Peter and John. Peter and John are on the way because Mary's already gone back, told her story that somebody sold the body. Peter and John are on the way.

These women are now beginning their journey. They have a different story than Mary Magdalene. Mary never looked in the tomb. She never saw the grave clothes. And she never saw the angel. She's got misinformation.

These women have the right information. They start back. It's so interesting to me, verse 9, and they returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and all the rest.

But wait a minute, wait a minute. Something happened on the way. Look at Matthew 28. Something happened on the way. I don't know how Luke could leave this out except by divine work.

On the way. This is Matthew 28, 8. And they departed quickly from the tomb in response to what the angel told them. They departed quickly from the tomb, verse 8, with fear, same terror, being in the presence of holy angels, but now with the addition of great...what?...joy because it's all starting to come clear to them. Wow! And they are now running and they ran to report it to His disciples.

I love this. And behold, verse 9, Jesus met them and greeted them. Good morning, ladies. I just love the simplicity of that.

There's just no...there's no wow factor. It doesn't say again the earth shook and the sky rent and the stars fell and people blew trumpets. It was just, good morning, ladies. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. They saw Him. So now they've seen the empty tomb. They've heard the angelic divine revelation and they've seen the risen Christ. Then Jesus said to them, don't be afraid.

Now their joy has gone back to fear. Go, take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee. There they shall see Me. They're going to see Me. In fact, they're going to see Me in Galilee. Oh, they're going to see Me before that but I want them to be in Galilee and there'll be a big meeting in Galilee and that's exactly what happened later on.

So they're on the way. They're going to tell the eleven which is the official title for the Apostles now that there aren't twelve of them. Instead of being called the twelve, they're called the eleven. In actuality, there are only nine there because Peter and John are on the way to the tomb. So the women as they head back see the risen Christ and their desire to tell the Apostles is confirmed.

Go ahead and do that. What an experience. You say, well isn't it sort of odd that the women are the ones who are the original and initial witnesses of the appearance of the Lord Jesus? You say, is that for the sake of elevating women? Well it sure does that. I don't know what else you could do to elevate them any more than that.

But that's not the primary reason. How many Apostles were standing there watching Jesus being crucified? How many?

One. John, that's not enough because if anything is to be given as a testimony, it has to be confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Where were the Apostles? Oh they were the sheep that were scattered when the Shepherd was smitten, right? They were hiding.

This is a wonderful testimony to the love of the women, to the courage of the women and to the dignity of women. But more than that, folks, this is the same little group of a half dozen or so that saw Jesus die, that saw Jesus buried and that saw Jesus risen and therefore they are the only ones who can be credible eyewitness testimonies. We don't have any men who saw Jesus die except John. We don't have any men who saw Him buried, which was a confirmation of His death.

It has to be the women because they're the eyewitnesses of everything else and you can't have a resurrection unless you have a death and a burial and you have to give testimony to the real death, the real burial and the real resurrection. They've seen it all. They saw Him die. They knew He was dead because He didn't break His legs. They knew He was dead because the spear went into His side and out came the fluid in the water. They knew He was dead because they watched Him being buried.

And now they know He's alive because they've seen Him. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. John has been our featured speaker for over five decades. He's also Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in Southern California. His current series from the Gospel of Luke is titled The Empty Tomb. And friend, just a reminder that it's because of the generosity of people like you that we can get messages like today's into people's hands.

For some, it could be their first time hearing about what Christ came to earth to accomplish. To help us take gospel truth to spiritually hungry people all over the world, make a donation when you get in touch today. Mail your tax-deductible gift to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Or donate when you call 800-55-GRACE.

That's 800-55-GRACE. As you consider giving, keep in mind your local church is priority one, so support them first. But if you're led and you're able to give to our work, call 800-55-GRACE or go to GTY.org. And let me mention another key way you can support Grace to You. Call or email this radio station and let them know you appreciate their commitment to airing programs such as Grace to You. As sound Bible teaching becomes harder to find on the radio, stations like this one play a vital role in taking the gospel to communities across the United States. So as you're able, encourage the team at this station in their work and thanks for praying for John and the staff here at Grace to You. We are grateful for your going to God on our behalf. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson inviting you back when John looks at four biblical truths you should know about Christ's resurrection. John will continue his look at the significance of the empty tomb with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Tomorrow's Grace to You.