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Luke 24:1-12
 
! Introduction
            Do you remember the song, “There’s a hole in the bucket?”
Henry - there’s a hole in the bucket
Lisa - well fix it!
Henry - How shall I fix it?
Lisa - With straw!
Henry - The straw is too long.
Lisa - Well cut it!
Henry - With what shall I cut it?
Lisa - With the axe!
Henry - Well, the axe is too dull.
Lisa - Well sharpen it!
Henry - With what shall I sharpen it?
Lisa - With the stone!
Henry - The stone is too dry.
Lisa - Well wet it!
Henry - With what shall I wet it?
Lisa -With water!
Henry - With what shall I get it?
Lisa - With the bucket!
Henry - There’s a hole in the bucket.
It all goes back to the hole in the bucket???
This week I read the Easter story with children at Awana at Rosenort School.
I would never have done that if I wasn’t pastor of REMC.
I would never be pastor of REMC if, 27 years ago, I hadn’t sensed God calling me to be a pastor in the first place.
I would never have received that call to be a pastor if I hadn’t become a Christian at a crusade when I was nine years old.
I would never have become a Christian if my parents hadn’t taught me what it means to follow Christ.
They would never have done that, if they hadn’t heard the gospel when they were children and teenagers… and if we trace this back, the gospel message would never have gone out if Paul had not obeyed the call of the Holy Spirit to go preach the gospel in Gentile territory.
That would never have happened if the Holy Spirit had not come on the believers on the day of Pentecost which in turn would never have happened if Jesus had not ascended into heaven.
And that could not have happened if Jesus had not been raised from the dead.
So, what happened to me this week, indeed, the way I live my life today has a direct connection to the resurrection of Jesus.
It all goes back to the resurrection.
This morning, we will examine the resurrection story from Luke 24:1-12.
!
I. Doubts About The Resurrection
But, how do we know that Jesus rose from the dead?
If what I did this week goes back to the resurrection, and if the resurrection is not true, then my actions, indeed my life, is built on nothing.
It all goes back to the resurrection, but did Jesus really rise from the dead?
Doubt has always been a part of it.
Thomas Jefferson, a great man, nevertheless could not accept the miraculous elements in Scripture.
He edited his own special version of the Bible in which all references to the supernatural were deleted.
Jefferson, in editing the Gospels, confined himself solely to the moral teachings of Jesus.
The closing words of Jefferson's Bible are these: "There laid they Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the sepulchre and departed."
Doubt began with the women, who were the first to realize the possibility.
They did not come to the tomb hoping to see Jesus alive.
They came to the tomb wondering who would roll away the stone so they could anoint the body with spices and perfumes as is proper for a dead body.
When they found the stone rolled away and the body of Jesus missing, they wondered about this.
When the angels appeared to them, and reminded them of Jesus’ prophecy, the words of the angels were a rebuke to them - they should have known, but they had doubted this possibility.
When the reality dawned on them, they went back to the eleven and the others and told them about what they had seen.
Once again doubt is the first thing that appears.
These women - Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary and some others had remembered the words of Jesus and it is likely that they had come to belief.
They likely told the disciples that the tomb was empty, that an angel had appeared to them and they reminded them of the prophecies of Jesus but what was the response of the disciples?
In verse 11 we read, “…they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”
Their words seemed as silly talk to the disciples.
They did not believe them.
Peter, however, was astute enough to consider the possibility and ran to look for himself.
After seeing, it does not say that he believed, rather, it says he “went away wondering to himself what had happened.”
Doubt is a great part of the story and has always been for many people.
There continue to be many who doubt and who offer all kinds of explanations.
Some people have suggested that the women went to the wrong tomb.
Others have proposed that Jesus never died, but that he simply swooned and in the coolness of the cave was revived.
The popular explanation among many including the Jewish leaders (as other gospels record) was that the disciples stole the body.
One group even suggests that the Jewish leaders stole the body.
These doubts have been around for a long time.
More recently, some have suggested that the resurrection never happened.
Rather, they suggest that years later, the idea of the resurrection came come from the imagination of over-zealous disciples who were trying to develop support for their movement.
In a similar way, many have spiritualised the resurrection so that they believe that although there was no real resurrection that is OK because the idea of resurrection, of renewal, of newness and hope is a good thing and we can encourage that kind of thinking.
Doubt has always been a part of the resurrection - not only among detractors, but also among the first witnesses and among those who have heard since.
Are we among those who doubt, those who struggle with belief or believe?
!
II.
Evidence For The Resurrection
            The text we are looking at today, gives three evidences which speak to these doubts and invite us to believe.
The evidences presented are the empty tomb, the presence of the angels and the prophetic words of Jesus.
One of these - the angel visit - is a subjective experience and could not be verified, but two of these are verifiable - the empty tomb and the prophetic word and they can help us make the decision to believe.
!! A. The Empty Tomb
            The empty tomb is a big deal in this passage.
It is held up as the first evidence.
As the women came upon the tomb, their first indication that something was not as expected was that the stone was rolled away.
Then as they came to the tomb and went inside, they came upon the second indication – they did not find the body of Jesus.
When Peter went to see what they were talking about and he wanted to check it out for himself, the first evidence we are presented with again is the evidence of the empty tomb.
It tells us that all he saw was “the strips of linen lying by themselves.”
In other words, we now have two witnesses - the group of women and Peter - who both saw the same thing.
The law required two or three witnesses and we have that.
The body of Jesus was not there.
The tomb was empty.
This observation is presented as evidence.
It is evidence that dispels a lot of the doubt filled explanations.
It dispels the idea that the disciples went to the wrong tomb.
It also dispels the idea that the disciples stole the body.
They would not have gone to see where Jesus was if they had stolen the body.
They would have stayed as far away as possible.
So it is clear that the empty tomb points to the resurrection.
The tomb is empty and this must be dealt with.
The best explanation is the resurrection.
But the purpose of emphasizing the empty tomb is more than just to present evidence and point to the resurrection.
The purpose of the empty tomb is also to indicate the nature of His resurrection.
Some have tried to spiritualise the resurrection.
Not many years after the beginning of the church, there were some who began to look at the resurrection of Jesus, not as a real physical event, but as a spiritual event.
People believed that Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, but that he rose spiritually, that his spirit rose.
Such a point of view indicates that God is not interested in us physically, but that we are merely spiritual beings.
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