April 14, 2000

• By John MacArthur

  An Empty Tomb with an Angelic Explanation

  Luke 24:1-12

  The resurrection of Christ is the greatest event in history, as I said.  It is the main event in God’s redemptive plan.  It is the cornerstone and foundation of the gospel.  According to Romans 10:9-10, in order to be saved you have to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The message that God has delivered to sinners throughout all of Scripture is that death does not end our existence. Death is merely the doorway into eternity and everyone goes through that doorway and everyone lives forever, some to the resurrection of life, and some to the resurrection of damnation, to borrow the words of John 5.  Every human being ever born will live forever, fully conscious either in everlasting joy or everlasting suffering.  

  For those who by faith have come into the Kingdom of God, into the realm of salvation, the promise is that they will experience a resurrection unto life, that not only will their spirits dwell forever in the presence of God in eternal bliss, but they will receive a resurrected body fit for that everlasting joy.  This has been the hope of God’s people throughout all redemptive history.  It was the hope of Abraham as Hebrews 11 tells us.  It was the hope of Moses, as we learn in Scripture as well.  It was the hope of Job.  It was the hope of Isaiah.  It was the hope of Daniel, for example.  This has always been the hope of God’s people, whether it is the psalmist who says, “I know that some day I will wake in His likeness,” or whether it is Job who says, “Though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,” the hope of resurrection has always been at the heart of believers’ faith.

  It comes to crystal clarity through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who says in John 14:19, “Because I live, you will live also.”  He is the firstfruits of the resurrection.  He said, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in Me though he die, yet shall he live.”  In 1 Corinthians 15 we are reminded of the centrality of the resurrection in words like this, “Now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep, for since by a man came death, namely Adam, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive, but each in his own order.  Christ the firstfruits and after that, those who are Christs at His coming.”
   
  Resurrection has always been anticipated, it has been fully realized through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The first apostolic sermon is a sermon on the resurrection.  Acts 2 records that Peter stood up and said, “Men of Israel, listen to these words.  Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst just as you yourselves know, this man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.  But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” 

  The reality and power of the resurrection then permeates if not dominates the rest of the New Testament.  The death of Christ was the result of God’s wrath falling on Him instead of us.  His resurrection was the result of God’s reward falling on us because of Him.  And so, we benefit in His death because He bears our sin.  We benefit in His resurrection because we bear then His life. 
   
  This 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. 

  There are some things that all four gospel writers tell us.  One, that Jesus was truly dead, a very important fact.  Two, that on Sunday morning, the third day after He was placed in the grave, the tomb was empty, 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 eye witnesses to the risen Christ were the women.  And they all tell us that the apostles and the disciples of the men, if you will, refused to believe the testimony of the women.  He’s really dead.  The tomb is empty on Sunday.  The angels explained what happened.  The women are the first eye-witnesses and the men did not believe.  All four gospels omit the actual resurrection.  No one was there.  No one saw it.  That it happened is obvious.  How it happened is inexplicable and known only to God. 
   
  Jesus was dead.  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 really dead. 
   
  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.  “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.”  Clearly 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. 

  They were still stunned, they were still in shock.  They had just lived through the most bizarre, horrific experience.  The one who 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, not really a few, a hundred pound weight that Nicodemus brought and they’re anointing His body and putting it in the grave.  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 prepared some spices before Sabbath began, 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.” 

   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. 
   
  She gives this report that the body of Jesus has been stolen, that’s an assumption she didn’t check.  And for that moment then 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 found.  She’s there and gone, headed for Peter and John.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  This is a stunning sight because, frankly, they had been having a discussion on the way, according to Mark 16.  “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. 

  Remember, 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 day after the preparation, Matthew 27:62, “The chief priests and Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember that when He was still alive, that deceiver, Jesus, said after three days I’m going to rise again.  Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure till the third day lest the disciples come and steal Him away and say to the people He has risen from the dead and the last deception be worse than the first.’  Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard, go, make it as secure as you know how.’  And they went, made the grave secure and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.”  The women had no idea that had happened on Saturday.
   
  On Saturday the Jews who were afraid that the disciples would steal the body to fabricate a phony resurrection asked Pilate for a guard.  They got a guard.  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. 
   
  When they arrive, there’s no guard there.  It doesn’t say anything in any of the four gospels about the women ever meeting the Roman guard, never.  Matthew 28:2, 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.  “A severe earthquake had occurred for the 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.” 
   
  Some interesting things have been going on while these ladies were away.  The guard is set on Saturday and on Sunday 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.  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? 
   
  In the deep dark night of that Sunday morning when the earthquake came and the soldiers were knocked into their coma, they eventually they came out of it and they realized what had happened.  The stone was gone, they had these shaken 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.  By the time the women get there, they’re gone.  
   
  Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb, doesn’t look in just sees the stone away.  Concludes, “O boy, somebody’s stolen His body.”  Spins, goes and tells Peter and John, they’re pretty incredulous about it, they’re going to check it out for themselves.  They start back to the tomb.  Mary Magdalene did not think for one split second of a resurrection.  Her instinctive conclusion was that, somebody stole His body.  Had no concept of a resurrection in her mind.  John then follows the story, if you follow John’s account, of Peter and John as they rush to the tomb.  And John being younger, remember, runs faster and gets there first.  They’re running to verify Mary Magdalene’s story that somebody has stolen His body.  So in the dawn, the women are already approaching the tomb, the men are still a couple of miles away headed in that direction. 
   
  Verse 3, “When they entered, they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.”  Unlike the impulsive Mary Magdalene without looking, they go into the tomb.  All the natural assumptions would be that Mary Magdalene was correct, somebody had to steal the body because dead people don’t get up and walk out of a tomb, they have to be taken out.  Her conclusion is very reasonable.  

  The tomb is empty.  The soldiers know it’s empty, that’s why they left.  If the body was still there, they would still be guarding it.  They never interact with the women at all, the women never see them.  They’re gone because there’s no body there.  Clearly the women look and find no one there.  Amazing because He was stoned in, sealed in, guarded so that there was no way that anybody could come and remove the body, yet it’s gone.  Clearly the followers of Jesus didn’t steal it because their assumption was somebody else stole it.  They didn’t expect the resurrection. 
   
  Whatever did happen to the body of Jesus no one saw, soldiers didn’t see it.  They were hit with a divine anesthetic, the blazing appearance of an angel in an earthquake.  It wasn’t the followers of Jesus who came and stole the body, they knew that.  They knew something very powerful, very unnatural had happened.  So let’s pick up what they said.   Matthew 28:11  When they finally got to the Jewish leaders to try to explain, “While they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city, reported to the chief priests all that had happened.”  What would they then say?  Sir, there was this really, really severe earthquake and then there was this blazing flashing dazzling being who rolled the stone away.  And then we were knocked out.  And when we came to, the body was gone.
   
  That’s what they said because that’s what happened.  Verse 12, “And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers.”  They said to them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’” But, they’re not likely to say that because a Roman soldiers who slept on his guard would be more than court marshaled, he could even be executed.  But you’re to lie.  And if it comes to the governor’s ears, Pilate who was the commander in Chief of all soldiers, they knew they would be in trouble, the Jewish leaders say, “We’ll win him over and keep you out of trouble, we’ll save your hide.” 
   
  “And they took the money and did as they had been instructed and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day, to the day that Matthew is writing, that is still the story the disciples came and stole the body.”  The Roman soldiers knew it was a lie, they were bribed.  The Jews knew it was a lie.  They paid the bribe.  The tomb was empty.  There was no explanation other than the soldiers’ experience and they were paid off not to tell the truth.
   
  If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, it would have been an easy thing for the Jews to prove.  Just bring out His body.  But they couldn’t so they entangled themselves in this hopeless series of absurdities trying to explain away the empty tomb.  And they came up with a lie, a huge lie to cover the truth.  They never, no Jewish leaders, no Jewish people ever denied the tomb was empty, they just invented the lie that the disciples had stolen it, a lie that is impossible because the disciples, the women, the men had no expectation that Jesus would rise.  

  It’s important to understand the tomb is empty.  There is no explanation for that on a human level.  The only explanation is the text of Scripture, an angel came, rolled the stone away and Christ who promised to rise was alive and walked out.  And by the way, the empty tomb alone was enough to convince John.  He was the only one really convinced.  According to John 20 verses 6 to 8, “John saw the empty tomb, saw the clothes lying there and believed.”  Nobody else did.  

  The women are in shock.  The first important testimony is that that tomb was empty.  Now some have said, “Well, they went to the wrong tomb.”  No, they didn’t go to the wrong tomb, they knew the tomb to go to cause they had been there on Friday night.  They knew the tomb.  And the Jews knew the tomb because that’s the tomb which they sealed and guarded.  And the tomb was empty and there’s no way the disciples stole His body.  What fool would steal a body and then die as a martyr for a hoax?
   
  The second element of this story that is so important is the angelic messengers, verses 4 through 7.  The women are in shock because the body is gone.  They’re about to be terrified, verse 4, and it happened while they were perplexed about this, behold two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel, like the angel who had come in the darkness when the soldiers were still there and removed the stone, same dazzling appearance.  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.”
   
  The first great evidence of the resurrection is the empty tomb.  The second great evidence of the resurrection is divine revelation.  They are perplexed, back to verse 4, they are perplexed, no idea what occurred, the whole ordeal, the trial, the cross, the whole thing is surreal.   As they stand in the dawning sunlight and shadows, they’re jolted into the most frightening scene they have ever experienced in their entire lives.  There’s no reason to assume that any of these women had seen angels apart from the mother of our Lord.  Two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing.
   
  John describes them as two angels.  Angels appear often in human form.  Mark describes one of them as a young man, so they are angels, spiritual beings who can take on human form and take on the form of a young man.  That would be a consistent thing for an angel to do because angels don’t age.  Clearly there are two of them, perhaps because of Deuteronomy 19:15, two witnesses to validate anything.   They had a conversation with angels for the first time in their lives, trying to sort it out.  The angels are standing and later they’re sitting at the place where Jesus had been lain inside the tomb.  They’re wearing these dazzling clothes, like the dazzling appearance of Jesus in the transfiguration, the blazing appearance of the saints in Revelation 19 who returned with something of the glory, the Shekinah reflection of heaven itself.  This is clearly indicating that these are divine messengers.  There’s no other explanation.  They’re not just angels who are men and you can’t tell that they are really angels, they are angels who appear in the form of young men but who are dazzling, blazing, brilliant, shining beings that are obviously heavenly, and the result is predictable, as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, they are terrified, emphobos, an emphatic form of the word phobos from which you get phobia, fear, panic, terror sets in.    And even after the message is given by the angels, their terror is not really mitigated because Mark 16:8 says that after they heard the message, they went out, fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. 

  This is kind of an Isaiah experience, you know, where he collapses in on himself in chapter 6.  This is kind of an Ezekiel experience where he goes in to one of those spiritual comas when in the presence of angels.  This is a John experience when he falls over dead in Revelation 1 in the vision of the glorified Son.  This is an experience like the transfiguration.  They’re absolutely terrified and they run in astonishment. 

  Matthew 28:8, “And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy.” They start to process this.  The tomb is empty.  We just had a conversation with angels.  And as the fear fades, the joy takes over as they head to the apostles who are there, minus Peter and John who are on the way, and by the time they get there, they’re just blabbering their heads off to tell those apostles what has happened.  But it starts out terrifying.  They bow their faces to the ground, that’s the recognition of holy presence, that kind of bowing.  They know they’re in the presence of angels.  And angels are associated among the Jews with the giving of the Law, right?  “The Law came by angels.”  This is so very, very important because the angels speak.  This is divine revelation from God, personal testimony from God through His angels as to the reality of the resurrection.  “The men said to them,” in verse 5, ‘Why do you seek the living one among the dead?’” A kind of mild rebuke.  The living One who is the resurrection and the life who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  The one Romans 6:9 says whom death could not master, whom death could not hold.  This, by the way, is the first announcement that Jesus is alive.  Why are you seeking the living One?  The One who is life, the One who cannot die, the One death cannot hold among the dead. 
   
  Then the angels get very specific.  Verse 6, “He is not here,” why?  “But He has risen,” passive, He has been raised.  This is the only possible explanation for the empty tomb and it is the testimony of God’s holy messengers.  It is inerrant, it is authoritative, it is irrefutable and it is a fulfillment of the promise and they remind them of that, remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee saying that Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third die He rise again.  Three-fold, delivered, crucified, risen.  He told you, He told you way back in Galilee.  This is nothing new.  This is a reminder. 

  Why do you seek the living One among the dead?  He’s been saying this for a long time.  In Luke 9:22 He warns them and says, “Son of Man must suffer many things.  Be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.  He told them that.  He reiterated again in chapter 9:43, “They were all amazed at the greatness of God, while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, ‘Let these words sink in to your ears, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’  But they didn’t understand this statement.  It was concealed from them so they might not conceive it and they were afraid to ask Him about it.’” He repeats it and repeats it and repeats it. 

  So the evidence concerning the resurrection is the empty tomb and there is no other explanation for the empty tomb than a resurrection.  The Jews didn’t steal His body.  The Romans didn’t steal His body.  The Apostles didn’t steal His body.  The women didn’t steal His body.  His enemies had no reason to steal His body and fabricate a resurrection.  His friends didn’t even believe in a resurrection and nor would they steal His body, fabricate a false resurrection and then go out and die as martyrs for a phony.  The angels give the only possible explanation, He’s not here because He’s risen. 

  So here you have the first two great proofs of the resurrection, one an empty tomb, two, divine revelation.  And you start in the book of Acts and the first sermon, “God raised Him from the dead.”  You come to the book of Romans, “God raised Him from the dead.”  You come to 1 Corinthians 15, “God raised Him from the dead.”  You come to Ephesians 1, “God raised Him from the dead.”  You come to Colossians, “God raised Him from the dead.”  You come to revelation 1, “He has the power of death.”  This is the ongoing testimony of Scripture, God’s holy Word, that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God.
   
  So to deny the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is one, to deny the reality of historical evidence, and two, to deny the Word of God. Hebrews 2:2 says, “The Law came by angels,” they were used to having angels deliver the revelation of God.  The issue of those who reject the resurrection is not a lack of evidence, it’s a love of sin and a hardness of heart.  The demon doctrines that deny Christ’s resurrection are driven by wickedness.  People are unwilling to accept the necessary and inescapable consequences of the resurrection, namely that Jesus is therefore Lord.
   
  If you believe in the resurrection, Jesus is Lord.  If you don’t want Jesus as Lord, then you better deny the resurrection.  If there is a resurrection, Jesus is Lord and the Bible is true.  And every man is therefore accountable to His lordship.  The single greatest evidence of the resurrection, listen to me, is the testimony of God, given by angels from His presence and reiterated by the Spirit of God inspiring the writers of the New Testament.  And I will say what Geldon High wonderfully said, “If Jesus hadn’t risen, the New Testament would never have been written.”  Never.  “For who would have taken to write the biography of anyone who had laid tremendous claim to Messiahship and divinity but whose career terminated in a shameful death?  But God be praised, Jesus did arise and that is why the group of men who wrote the books of the New Testament took up their pens with such enthusiasm and holy conviction and throughout their writings we perceived the clear note of their firm conviction that Jesus Christ who had died rose again from the dead and was invested with divine power and glory." 

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