Witnessing Women and Doubting Disciples

You might feel in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead. You might say, well the facts look like He rose from the dead.

That's not going to save you. The only thing that will save you is faith in the resurrection. It isn't the feelings that deliver the certainty, it isn't even the facts that deliver the certainty, it's the faith that delivers the certainty. It's a component of saving faith. Today, Good Friday, is a day of sorrow for many people as they mourn the shame and unspeakable suffering Christ endured at the cross. And yet what followed His enormous sacrifice is so remarkable, so monumental, only the sinless Son of God could accomplish it.

And it's the reason that sorrow and mourning give way to joy. Take a close look at some amazing details from the Easter story from the perspective of the witnesses who saw the events unfold as John MacArthur continues his study here on Grace To You, titled The Empty Tomb. And now to show you what changed so many lives that first Resurrection Sunday and what can change your life as well.

Here is John MacArthur with today's lesson. Let's open the Bible now to the 24th chapter of Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 24. This is Luke's account of the resurrection.

There is one in Matthew, there is one in Mark, and there is one in John. 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, 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. 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. 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. So 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, they remembered His words. They hear the message from God, they remember the connection with what Jesus promised, 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. But wait a minute, wait a minute, something happened on the way. Look at Matthew 28, this is Matthew 28, 8, and they departed quickly from the tomb 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. 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. 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. 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. So in verse 9, they report all these things to the eleven and all the rest.

You've got the nine remaining from the eleven, although they're called the eleven cause that's their official title. And you've got all the other believers, the group of disciples who were there, who a couple of them appear on the road to Emmaus, one was named Clopas, so there are other disciples who were there along with the Apostles. Then in verse 10, this is so interesting, it says, 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.

That brings up a problem. What do you mean they were Mary Magdalene? How did she get in this group? Well last thing we heard about Mary Magdalene, she went there, saw nothing but an empty grave, came back with the wrong information. Up to now, as far as we know, she hasn't come to any conclusion except that somebody stole the body, she sold Peter and John her conclusion that somebody stole the body which sent them on their way back. How does she get into this group?

Well Luke is condensing the story. I'll tell you how she got into this group. Turn to John 20.

This is just so wonderful. How can she belong to the group of eyewitnesses when she didn't go in the empty tomb and she didn't hear the angels say anything, she left before the angels spoke, or appeared, and she had not seen the risen Christ. So how can she be one of the witnesses?

Answer? This lady went back to the tomb. This lady went back to the tomb. At some point she decides she has to go back. And so in John 20 verse 11, we find her standing outside the tomb weeping.

She's all alone. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb and she beheld two angels in white sitting. Now they're sitting on the inside. These are two different scenes at two different times.

This one is a private viewing for Mary. And they're sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? I mean, it just seems so...like you walk in an empty tomb and an angel talks to you. And he just says, hey, why are you crying, lady?

It's just such a natural conversation. She said, because they have taken away my Lord and I don't know where, they have laid Him. She's still sticking with her theory. And when she had said this, she turned around and beheld Jesus standing there and didn't know that it was Jesus.

Why? Maybe she couldn't see through her tears. But then nobody after the resurrection of Jesus could really know who He was until He revealed Himself, right?

That was true of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus asked the same question. Woman, why are you weeping? Why are you crying?

Whom are you seeking? Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You've laid Him and I'll take Him away. That's a really stupid thing. Why would the gardener steal a body out of a tomb? I love this. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. And then she grabbed Him, hung on to Him, probably on His feet and ankles.

Stop clinging to Me, He said to her. I'm not yet ascended to the Father, go to My brothers, say to them, I ascended My Father, your Father, My God and your God. Now, Mary, you go, you tell them, you saw Me, I'm alive for a while, you can't keep Me here, I'm going to ascend to heaven, I'm going back to the Father but I will meet you all in Galilee for a while.

In fact, He met them that night and the next Sunday night as well, and many other appearances in the 40 days before He ascended. So He says to Mary, you go. And this is wonderful, verse 18, Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and said that He had said these things to her.

Can you get the picture? These women are there. They've arrived breathless from their encounter with Jesus on the way back and they're saying to these nine guys, look, we're telling you He's alive. He's alive, we saw Him, He said, good morning, ladies, and we had a conversation with Him and we saw angels and the angels told us He was alive and it was exactly what He said He would do and He did it and exactly did it when He said He was going to do it. And these nine guys are saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down one at a time. And the wonderful truth is they're all saying the same thing. They're all saying exactly the same thing.

They don't need to kind of put the stories together. But they must have been breathless. And in the midst of all of this discussion, in the place bolts Mary Magdalene. And she's been running so she is breathless. I've seen the Lord, I've seen the Lord. And she starts telling what He said to her. She has now had a private audience, seen the empty tomb and the grave clothes, heard an angelic revelation and had a personal experience of Christ. So therefore, she had the same experience all the other women had and can be included by Luke in chapter 24 as one of the three eyewitnesses to a risen Christ. Skeptics have said, oh they went to the wrong tomb.

Really? So did the angels. So did the Romans. What a ridiculous thought. So why not go to the right tomb and pull out the body and end the deception? Others have said, no, actually Jesus was never in a tomb, that's why He wasn't there. They threw Him in a criminal's pit.

Really? So they made up the story about Joseph of Arimathea. I think Joseph would have made an end to that story because his reputation was at stake and if they accused him of taking the body of Jesus and burying it, he would have lost his place in the Sanhedrin for sure. And if that was not true, he would have managed to debunk that very, very fast. Now all these women are giving testimony to the same thing. These are multiple eyewitnesses.

This is just the beginning. He appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Peter saw Him in a private appearing. That night He appeared to the eleven, minus Thomas.

A week later He appears to the eleven with Thomas. He appears to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. Then He appears...that's in Galilee.

Then five hundred brethren at one time in Galilee. Then He appears to James. Then He appears to the eleven in a mountain in Galilee where He gave them the Great Commission. Then He appears in Jerusalem at the time of His ascension. Then He appears to Saul on the Damascus road, appears to Saul again in the temple, appears to Stephen at his stoning.

Many, many eyewitnesses have arisen Christ. And that takes us to the final line of evidence, the unbelieving disciples. You say, well how in the world does that prove the resurrection? It proves the resurrection because it proves the fact that they would not fabricate a resurrection because they didn't expect one. Because the critics have said, well they stole a body and made it look like a resurrection. Or they said they had a mass hallucination, they wanted it so bad they hallucinated that it happened. They didn't want it so bad and they didn't expect it. They wouldn't have fabricated it because they didn't anticipate it.

They wouldn't have seen it as some kind of a hyper illusionary experience because they had no concept that it would happen. We find that, and this is so important, in Luke 24 in verse 11. These words appeared to them, meaning the Apostles, as nonsense. That's what they thought of a resurrection, folly, idle talk, leras is the Greek word, an empty tale, some kind of fable.

What is wrong with these women? And they're all saying the same thing. And no matter that all their story is identical, and they all had the same experience and it was fresh, it wasn't like there were all kinds of weeks in between where they were trying to put it together again, and they all say the same thing, it didn't matter. It didn't matter that their story had cohesion, that it had consistency, it didn't matter that they gave details that had no other explanation. They thought the whole thing was absolute nonsense and they would not believe them. They didn't fabricate a resurrection.

They didn't even think there would be one. And Luke adds the little note about Peter. Peter arose as earlier, this is a flashback, and he had gone to the tomb, stooped, looked in, saw the linen wrappings only, went away to his home marveling at what had happened. What do you think he was thinking? What do you mean marveling at what had happened?

Thaumazo, he was traumatized. I think he was beginning to think this is a resurrection...this is a resurrection. Now when Peter did go to the tomb, it was before Mary Magdalene came back, it was before the full testimony of the women. The chronology is clear in John, so let's turn to John chapter 20.

This is wonderful. Verse 3, Peter leaves after hearing from Mary Magdalene and the other disciple, that's how John refers to himself in his humble way. Peter goes to the tomb with John and they're running.

They're going to verify Mary Magdalene's story that somebody stole the body. And the other disciple is faster than Peter, which knowing Peter's personality was something to bother him. He always wanted to be the first. So John's faster, younger, came to the tomb first, stooping, looking in.

He's a little more retiring and shy. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, he didn't go in. He's trying to process this. Simon Peter therefore also came following him and entered the tomb. Of course, just blows right by John and goes in there. And he sees the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings like what all jumbled up and thrown in a corner, but lying exactly where it had been when it was put on his head. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb entered then also, he saw and what?

He believed. The empty tomb and the grave clothes was all it took. Now remember, they at this point have only heard the testimony of Mary Magdalene, right?

They haven't heard the other women. They left when Mary told them to leave. In the meantime, the women came to the tomb, saw Jesus, came back with the story. So all they have, all John has is an empty tomb and grave clothes and that's enough.

That's enough. He knew that stone couldn't be moved from the inside by a dead Jesus and he had seen Him dead. He was there. He knew. There was no other explanation but that He rose and He believed. For as yet, or up to that time, they didn't understand the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead. But He understands it now. So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

That's interesting, isn't it? I'm sure they didn't know what do we do next. So they went home. Go back to Luke and that's what Luke says Peter did in verse 12, after he saw the linen wrapping also, went away to his own home, marveling...marveling at what had happened. Hey, this is not a grave robber scene, folks.

Grave robbers, if you wanted the body, you just take the body intact, you don't fool around in there unwrapping it and then laying everything in perfect order, you take the body and you run. It was very convincing. John believed. Peter, still struggling when he goes home. Meanwhile, the women have these other nine guys on their hands and they're trying to convince them that this thing really happened and they're not buying it at all.

Why are they so stubborn? Go over to verse 19 of Luke 24. This is on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus shows up later that day.

These two disciples are walking to Emmaus. Jesus comes, they don't know who He is, and He starts a conversation with them. They're looking sad.

Why are you sad? Well, verse 19, and it's about Jesus the Nazarene who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people and the chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death and crucified Him in verse 21. We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.

Oh boy, oh boy. Besides all this, it's the third day since these things happened. Huh, it's the third day. They haven't seen Him.

The women told Him He was alive. They don't buy that. They don't believe that.

It's the third day, nothing's happened. We were hoping it would happen. And also, this is the throwaway, verse 22, some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, didn't find His body, they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. And some of those who were with us went to the tomb, namely Peter and John, and found it exactly as the women had also said. But Him they didn't see.

Peter and John didn't see Him. They sent word back, hey, we went to the tomb and it's maybe a lie, but we didn't see Him. They're still processing this on the side of believing it, but not fully convinced. And so this is the reflection of their stubborn unwillingness to believe until they see. You know, you fault Thomas because he didn't believe. Remember he said, if I don't see the nails in his hands and the spear...the spear went into his side, I won't believe.

Well they were just as bad as Thomas. They didn't want to believe the testimony of the women. And Peter and John came back and said, well it's a bizarre deal. The tomb is open and the tomb is empty and the grave clothes are lying there and you know, He may be alive, but they're not ready to fully commit. However, before the day is over, He appears to all of them. But the reason the Scripture lays out the unbelief of the disciples is to dispel any ridiculous theories that they invented a resurrection because they wanted one so badly.

That's just not the case. Well there's a lot more to say. Let me just close with some thoughts. When I was a kid, we used to sing a little song called He Lives.

Anybody remember that? He lives, He lives, He lives within my heart. And there's a line in that song that always bothered me. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart. Well that's true. But if you ask me how I know He lives, I've got to give you more than that because that's not verifiable. Somebody might say, well good for you, I'm so glad He lives within your heart. That is not universal, that is not verifiable, that is not going to get this thing beyond you. So feeling may be something that helps us emotionally.

It removes some emotional barriers to experience the living Christ, emotional barriers to believing, say, in the resurrection. But there's got to be something more than that. You say, well you can't have only feeling. How about fact? Fact is good and you've been given facts and all that I've given you are facts. While feelings deal with emotional barriers, facts deal with historical barriers. And what these facts do, what these lines of evidence do, this is what evidentialism always does, is it depletes, it dismisses, it dispels bad options, weak arguments, foolish theories. Feeling removes emotional barriers. Facts remove intellectual barriers.

But neither of those necessarily saves. You might feel in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead. You might say, well the facts look like He rose from the dead.

And you would be among the Jewish leaders who all agreed that that was what happened. That's not going to save you. Your feelings about the resurrection and even the facts of the resurrection won't save you, the only thing that will save you is faith in the resurrection. Confessing with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

That's where real certitude comes from. Don't trust your feelings and you've got to move the facts inside and that's what faith does. Faith embraces the truth concerning Jesus Christ. It isn't the feelings that deliver the certainty, it isn't even the facts that deliver the certainty, it's the faith that delivers the certainty. It's a component of saving faith. Ask God to give you that faith that makes the resurrection certain and you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, the one whom God raised from the dead. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Master's University and Seminary. His study today, John calls it the empty tomb. Now John, you made it clear today all Christians must believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we aren't sure of the empty tomb, we can't be sure of our salvation. And as we look toward Resurrection Sunday, you can help our listeners maximize their worship by answering a simple question, why does our eternal destiny depend on the resurrection? Why wasn't Jesus' death enough?

Well, because the Scripture says in the words of Jesus, because I live, you shall live also. If he had just died and never risen from the dead, that would have been evidence that his sacrifice was not acceptable. Because the New Testament is clear that God demonstrated that he accepted his sacrifice by raising him from the dead.

The debt was paid in full. If he's still dead, then that was not a sacrifice that was acceptable to God. He's like another dead animal. So God raised him from the dead as God's way of declaring to the world that his sacrifice was complete. When Jesus on the cross said, it is finished, he had fully satisfied the requirement of the wrath of God for all the people through all human history who would believe.

In addition, as well, he demonstrated that he conquered death. We might have some pretty serious doubt if Jesus said that he was providing salvation that would conquer death, but he was still dead or didn't rise from the dead. Not only saying it from God's vantage point, this is how God validates the sacrifice of Christ. But it would be hard to believe in Jesus providing resurrection for us if he hadn't himself been raised from the dead.

So the resurrection validates not only God's work of judgment in our Lord's life on our behalf, but it validates his claim to have conquered death for us. And Paul goes on to say, we not only died in Christ, we rise in Christ. We have risen to new life in him. We now live in him and we await the day when we will be fully glorified with him as he ascended. One day we also will ascend and then we will sit with him on his throne. So the full picture, we die in him, we rise in him, we ascend in him, we reign in him forever. So we are inextricably linked to all those glorious realities in the life of Christ himself.

Yes, we are. Thank you, John. That is a great reminder. And friend, let me encourage you to seize opportunities to talk about Christ's sacrifice with your family this weekend and from little ones to older adults.

And let us know how John's Bible teaching has helped prepare for your Easter celebration. You can write us when you have a moment. Send your letter to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Or if you prefer, email that address, letters at gty.org. Once more, that's letters at gty.org. And remember at our website, gty.org, you'll find thousands of free resources that can help you answer questions that you may have about God's Word.

Do you wonder if the creation story in Genesis really could have happened only a few thousand years ago? Are you struggling to help a loved one who is suffering? Do you know what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit? For all of those issues and countless others, you will find biblical answers in the Grace to You Sermon Archive. That's 3,500 full-length sermons, all available for free download right now in MP3 and transcript format.

Our web address, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson wishing you a blessed Resurrection Sunday celebration with your church and with your family. Then be here Monday when John begins a series on how you can stand strong in your faith, even when you are severely tempted to compromise. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.