Because the Tomb is Empty - Easter

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now let's get to the Word of God. You know almost 2,000 years ago the very first Easter began with an angel saying these words, Matthew 28 verse 5. He said, Fear not, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here. He has risen just as He said He would. There was an interesting article in Newsweek magazine entitled, Rethinking the Resurrection. And here's what Newsweek had to say about it. And I quote, Newsweek said, By any measure the resurrection of Jesus is the most radical of Christian doctrines. Jesus' teaching, His compassion for others, even His martyr's death all find parallels in other religious tradition. But of no other historical figure has the claim been persistently made that God raised Him from the dead. End of quote.

Well, Newsweek is absolutely right. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most radical doctrine in all of Christianity and yet it forms the absolute bedrock of Biblical Christianity. So the question we want to talk about this Easter morning is did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? Did Jesus really rise from the dead the way He said He would?

And if so, well, what difference does that make to your life and to my life today? So that's our plan. Let's get going. Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? Well, remember what the angel said. The angel said that Jesus is risen just as He said He would do. The point I want you to see is that while Jesus was here on earth, He was constantly telling people that He was going to rise from the dead. Jesus told this, for example, to His enemies in Matthew chapter 12. Then Jesus said to the rabbis, for as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights, so I will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Jesus also told this to His disciples and His friends. Matthew chapter 16, the Bible says from that time on, Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life again. After He died on the cross, the Jewish leaders went to Pontius Pilate, Matthew chapter 27, and they said, we remember that while He was alive, this deceiver said, after three days, I will rise again.

I mean, friends, to live in Israel 2,000 years ago and say what resurrection of Jesus would be like having lived in the 60s and saying what Vietnam War or living in the 70s and saying what Watergate break in or living today and saying Osama bin Hu? Everybody in Jerusalem knew about Jesus's claim that He was coming back from the dead three days after He was put in the grave. The question is, did He do it? The question is, did it really happen? Well, in that regard, I have four pieces of compelling evidence that I would like to present to you this Easter Sunday that corroborate the fact that the Lord Jesus really did rise from the dead the way He said.

Evidence number one is the evidence of the Roman soldiers. Matthew chapter 27, the Jewish leader said to Pontius Pilate, sir, we remember that while He was still alive, that deceiver said, after three days, I will rise again. So please give the order for His tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His disciples may come and steal His body and tell people that He's been raised from the dead.

And then this last deception will be worse than the first. So Pilate said to them, take a squad of Roman soldiers and make the tomb as secure as you know how. So the Jewish leaders posted this guard at Jesus's tomb. Now, we know that a Roman security team like this guarding a prisoner would usually consist of 15 enlisted men and one officer. And these soldiers had a deeply vested interest in making sure that no one tampered with the body of Jesus Christ, because if a Roman soldier lost his prisoner, even his dead prisoner, that Roman soldier lost his life. Many of you will remember in Acts chapter 16, the story of the Apostle Paul being in jail in Philippi, a city in northern Greece, on his second missionary journey. If you don't, let me just tell you that Paul was thrown in jail. And then in the middle of the night, an angel came and blew the doors off all the cells in this prison.

And I want you to see what happened next. Acts chapter 16, verse 27. Then it says the jailer, who, by the way, was a Roman soldier, woke up and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. Why was this Roman soldier going to commit suicide? Well, because he knew that if he had lost his prisoners, his superiors were going to kill him anyway.

So he figured he'd save them the trouble and just do it to himself. Now, friends, in light of this, do you really think that a bunch of unarmed women and fishermen could have gotten past these battle-hardened Roman soldiers and actually stolen the body of Jesus when these soldiers knew their very life depended on that not happening? Preposterous.

Impossible. And then second of all, when it comes to evidence for the resurrection, we have the evidence of Jesus's enemies. You see, as soon as the news began to spread through Jerusalem that there had been a resurrection, that the Lord Jesus had risen, the Jewish leaders, the Bible tells us, became determined that they were going to quash that rumor, that they were going to discredit that news at all costs. And so the Bible says, Matthew 28, that the Jewish leaders gave the soldiers a great sum of money and said, We want you to say that Jesus's disciples came and stole his body away while you were sleeping. And if this news gets back to Pilate, we will keep you out of trouble.

Now, here's the question, folks. In order to discredit the resurrection of Jesus, why did these Jewish leaders have to spend all this money, and why did they have to be willing to go to all this political trouble? I mean, all they really had to do was roll the stone away, pull the dead body of Jesus out of the grave, put it on public display somewhere in Jerusalem, and invite everybody to come see it, and news of the resurrection was over. It was finished, kaput, finito. So why not just do that?

That was a lot easier. Well, the answer is the reason they couldn't put Jesus's dead body on display is because there was no dead body to get out of the tomb and put on display. The tomb was empty. And we've already said that because of the Roman soldiers being there, no human being could have emptied the tomb of Jesus.

So where did the body go if not the resurrection the way the Bible says is the answer to the empty tomb? Number three, I'd like to present to you the evidence of the eyewitnesses. If you've got one witness that saw something and they are a creditable witness, well, you've got a probability. But if you've got two witnesses, three witnesses, 10 witnesses, 12 witnesses who all saw the very same thing, it's not a probability anymore.

It is a certainty. Well, friends, when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it's the latter case that we have. Jesus was not seen by one eyewitness or two eyewitnesses or three eyewitnesses, but by hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw and talked to the risen Christ.

This is what the Apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 15. He says, the risen Christ appeared to Peter and then to the 12 disciples. And after that, he appeared to more than 500 people, most of whom are still living, as I write this, although some have died. And then he appeared to James.

And last of all, Paul says, he appeared to me also. This is why Peter said in Acts chapter 3, speaking to the Jewish people in Jerusalem, he said, you killed the prince of life, but God raised him from the dead. Watch now, a fact to which we are all eyewitnesses. The point, my friends, is that according to every rule of jurisprudence, this much eyewitness testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ turns, as Phippson says, a probability into a certainty. You say, but Lon, what if all these witnesses were liars?

What if all these witnesses were dishonest and crooked and it was all a con game that they were running and they were just con men and con women? Well, that brings us to the fourth and final piece of evidence to support the resurrection, and that is the evidence of their martyrdom. You see, my friends, virtually every one of these eyewitnesses that we just mentioned gave their life rather than recant their testimony that Jesus had come back from the dead. For example, the apostle James, when he refused to recant, was arrested and killed by Herod, Acts chapter 12. And Stephen, when he refused to recant, was stoned to death, Acts chapter 7. And when the apostle Paul refused to recant the resurrection, Emperor Nero cut his head off.

And when Peter refused to recant the resurrection, that same Emperor Nero crucified him upside down in Rome. Now, how do we explain the willingness of all these people to die rather than deny the resurrection? Well, it's simple, my friends. They weren't running a con game. Listen, when you're running a con game and the con is up, maybe every person doesn't defect and tell the truth, but some people do.

I mean, just watch Law and Order. You understand what I'm saying, right? And yet none of these people did this. You know why?

I'll tell you why. It's because these people had seen the risen Christ with their own eyes. These people had talked to the risen Christ, and they knew what they had seen, and they knew what they had experienced, and they refused to recant something that they knew absolutely was true.

So let's summarize. The risen Christ is the sine qua non, the without which nothing of the Christian faith, and the evidence confirming that there is a risen Christ is compelling. Number one, we have the evidence of the Roman soldiers, which makes human tampering with the body of Jesus impossible. Number two, we have the evidence of Jesus' enemies, who could have stopped Christianity dead in its tracks by simply producing the dead body of Jesus, but they didn't because they couldn't. Number three, we have the evidence of the eyewitnesses, hundreds of whom saw the risen Christ with their very own eyes.

And finally, we have the evidence of their martyrdom, the fact that these very same men and women died, rather than recant their testimony about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, can I prove to you in a test tube that the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened? No, I can't. But can I give you such a strong preponderance of evidence that even Judge Judy would be convinced?

Yes, I can. As a matter of fact, I just did. Now, that's as far as we want to go in our discussion of did the resurrection happen, because now we want to talk about, well, what difference does that make to us? And we do this here at McLean Bible Church by shouting a little phrase, and since some of you may be visiting and I want you to participate, let's show them, Cheryl, what our little phrase is, shall we? All right, there it is on the screen.

So what? So are we ready? This is Easter Sunday now, are we ready? All right, here we go. And I want to hear all of you folks on the Internet campus and all you folks at Loudon and everybody in the Edge and in the community. Here we go. Ready, one, two, three.

Oh, that was good. You say, all right, Lon. So what? Say, the resurrection. Okay, so it's true. So what difference does that make to my life here today in the 21st century? Well, we're going to talk about that because, friends, if the resurrection really did happen, the implications of that for your life and my life are enormous.

They're huge. Listen, if the resurrection is true, it means that Jesus really is Jehovah God in the flesh exactly the way He claimed to be. If the resurrection is true, it means that there really is an afterlife and that heaven and hell really do exist exactly like Jesus said they do. And if the resurrection is true, then finally it means that the plan of salvation that Jesus offers us that enables us to escape hell and get into heaven that it is really the one and only plan that works exactly the way Jesus declared it to be. And I want to talk to you about the plan of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ offers to us in the little bit of time I have left. And let me begin by saying that we need to understand that every other plan of salvation offered to us by every other so-called Savior, whether it's Buddha or Confucius or Mohammed or Rabbi Schneerson or Joseph Smith or L. Ron Hubbard or any, you know, secular philosopher, it doesn't matter.

We need to understand that all of these plans are based on human effort and human works and human performance of one kind or another. Now the problem is that God says in the Bible that all such human performance systems are worthless when it comes to getting into heaven and being righteous in His sight and getting eternal life. Listen to Romans chapter 3 verse 20.

It says, no one, may I repeat that? No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law, by works of human performance, good works, religious activity, trying to keep the Ten Commandments, all other forms of human effort. The Bible says anybody who tries to approach God like this, I don't care how sincere you may be.

I don't care how hard you may be trying. The Bible says God's answer to this kind of a system will always be no. But you see, the plan of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ offers you and me is completely different. Jesus' plan of salvation is different because it is exclusive. This is what Jesus said.

It's the one and only way. John chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Here comes the key word, no one. No one comes to the Father. No one gets eternal life. No one gets into heaven except through me. This is Acts chapter 4 verse 12, which says salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven. Not Buddha, not Confucius, not Mohammed, not Rabbi Schneerson, not L. Ron Hubbard. There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we can be saved. You say, all right, all right, Lon, stop.

Take a breath. Listen, you know, I don't see how you can say this. I mean, in our world, in our pluralistic world today, in our diversity-driven world today, in our world where there's tolerance for every religion is the highest value and every religion says they're all taking us to the very same place, how in the world can you justify a narrow position like this that Jesus Christ is the only way?

Well, it's very simple, my friends. Buddha's tomb isn't empty. Confucius' tomb isn't empty. Mohammed's tomb isn't empty. Rabbi Schneerson, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, their tombs are not empty, but the tomb of Jesus Christ is empty. Hallelujah.

And you know what we love to say around here? We love to say, follow a dead savior and you'll end up just like him. But the great news of the Bible is we don't have a dead savior. We have a living savior.

The great news of the Bible is we have a risen savior. And listen to what our living risen savior said. He said, John 14, 19, because I live forever, you who follow me will live forever also. He said, our risen living savior, John 11, 26, the person who believes in me shall live even after they die here on earth because I am alive forever and I'm running eternity and I'm going to see to it, Jesus said.

That means that the converse is just as true of what we just said. Follow a living savior and you'll end up just like him. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross for you, my friends, and that's why he rose from the dead for you, my friends, so that you could have that same confidence to face life and to face death. And that's what I'm going to offer you today on behalf of the Lord Jesus right here where you're sitting. So let's bow our heads together, shall we? Let's close our eyes. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed and nobody looking around, here's what we're going to do.

If you'd like to trade in today every other system of salvation you've ever trusted, if you would like today to trade in your own human works of righteousness to get you into heaven, a system that God says is bankrupt, and if you instead would like to embrace Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross for you and me as your hope of salvation, the response of which will be that God will declare you righteous in his sight today, that transaction we talked about will take place for you today. Then here's what we're going to do. I'm going to pray a short prayer out loud. I want you to pray silently right behind me. And let's tell God that and let's get it done.

So here we go. You pray silently. I'm going to pray out loud. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I want to be able to face life unafraid and death unafraid. I want to know that I have eternal life. I want to know that I'm going to heaven when I die.

And I want a life here on earth that's worth getting up for in the morning. And so today I give up every other plan of salvation I've ever trusted. Today I give up trying to earn my way into heaven with my own acts of righteousness.

And instead today I embrace what Jesus did for me on the cross, shedding his blood to pay for my sin as my only hope of eternal life and heaven. Lord Jesus, come into my heart today. Become my personal Lord and Savior. Forgive my sins. Grant me eternal life. And make me a new creature in Jesus Christ. Declare me righteous in your sight as you promised you would.

I commit my heart and life to you today. In Jesus' name I pray. And Father, I want to pray for the folks who prayed that prayer, that you would confirm in their hearts even as they sit here today that the transaction we talked about, God pronouncing them righteous in his judicial sight, if they were serious, has taken place in the heavenly places.

And they have passed, as John 5-24 says, from death into eternal life, never to go back. And for the rest of us here who have already done that, I pray, Lord, that you would remind us today that because the tomb is empty, there is always something right going on every day. We may have problems.

We may have struggles. But as long as Jesus is alive and his promises to us are true and amen, then there is always a reason to have hope and resiliency every day in our life. This is the legacy of the empty tomb for us. And so, Lord, encourage our hearts this Easter season with your resurrection. And may it be the dominant feature of our life every day that brings hope and resiliency to our everyday existence. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for rising from the dead. We look forward to meeting you eyeball to eyeball one day because you have guaranteed it as our living risen Christ. And we pray these things in Jesus name.

And what did God's people say? Amen. You've been listening to So What with Dr. Lon Solomon. So What is an outreach of Lon Solomon Ministries. To listen to today's message or for more information, visit our website, lonsolomonministries.org. Thank you for your support. If you would like to contact us, please visit our website or call us at 866-788-7770. We hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, So What.