 Let's open our Bibles together to the Gospel of Luke chapter 24. We're going to be looking today at verses 1 through 12. Luke chapter 24 verses 1 through 12. I'll begin reading at verse 1. I'll read to verse 12. We'll get into our study. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying, 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. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the 11 and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. And the word seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves, and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Let me lay a foundation for us as we look at this particular portion of scripture. Let me remind us as believers that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christian faith. The fact is, if you remove the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, then our faith is actually without value. It's worthless. The apostle Paul made that abundantly clear. He was writing a letter to a church in Corinth, and he was speaking concerning resurrection there. And in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 14 through 17, he wrote, and if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can't be true if there's no resurrection of the dead. If there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. So the resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of all of our faith. Somebody once said, without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation. Everything we hold to be true centers on one thing, and that's the reality of Jesus's death, burial, and his resurrection. It's so important that from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ began to speak concerning that. If you look at the Gospel of John, for example, and you were to look at chapter 2, John records an incident that occurred early in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. We remember that story very well. He entered into a temple, into that temple, and he found people who were there who were selling livestock, along with some who were referred to as money changers. And as Jesus walked in there, and he began to look at what was taking place, John is very clear when he says that Jesus began to fashion a whip that was made out of cords. Now very often when I think of Jesus, I think of Jesus meek and mild. I think of him with a sweet face and a compassionate, graceful demeanor, and yet in this particular portion of scripture, it's very clear that he was angry. And as he was there, you can almost see him as he's watching and as he's looking at these money changers. And he's seeing these people who are speculators who are making money off the pilgrims. And slowly, but surely, he is fashioning a whip out of some cords. And when he finally finishes that whip, he drives them out. He drives them out after he has done that. And he pours out the money changers' money. He overturns their tables. And John says, the zeal of the Lord had consumed him. Well, this made the Jewish authorities quite upset. And so they questioned him. They said, who is giving you such authority? Well, what sign do you show to us since you are doing these things is what they said. And Jesus answered according to John 2, 19, and 20 and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. So Jesus began ministry by saying that he would be raised from the dead. Later in his ministry, he spoke of his resurrection on several occasions, preparing his disciples. You can see that clearly in Matthew 16, in Matthew 17 and Matthew 20, as well as Matthew 26. All of these chapters have references that speak about Jesus being betrayed, judged, crucified, and resurrection. And so his resurrection validates the truthfulness of all of his claims. His resurrection is the center of everything that Jesus taught concerning himself. His entire ministry rests on whether or not he was raised from the dead. So if Jesus was not resurrected, then all of his teachings can be rejected. And because this is true, Satan has worked to undermine the event of the resurrection. And yet, this is what we're looking at today and this is what we'll see in this passage. You see, as we begin, Jesus has been crucified, he's died, he's been physically buried. His death we know is according to God's plan in order to secure salvation for mankind. He voluntarily gave up his life to ransom us. He purchased us with his own blood. And as you see him dying on the cross, that sacrifice reveals both the justice and the love of God. It reveals the justice of God because sin must be dealt with, but it reveals the love of God because it was love that motivated him to rescue us. Paul said it like this. He said, God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And John said it like this. He said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Justice placed Jesus on the cross. Love was the motivation. Jesus has been crucified, he died, and he was buried on Good Friday. Two disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, had anointed his body and then placed it in Joseph's tomb. Some of Jesus' followers had followed. They saw where he was buried and they left to prepare spices and oils. Sunday morning has arrived and the women now return to the tomb to finish the burial. And that's what it's saying in verse one when it says, now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they insert another woman with them, came to the tomb bringing spices which they had prepared. But verse two goes on to say, but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. This is something completely unexpected. As they were on their way, they actually were speaking amongst themselves. Mark tells us what they said. In Mark 16, verse three, they said, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? You see, this stone was a stone that was shaped in the form of a wheel. It was on an incline. It rolled down the incline, lodged into a portion of the wall and it weighed 6,000 pounds and it had been sealed with an iron bar. And so they're wondering, how are we gonna be able to get into the tomb seeing that it has been sealed in such a fashion? Well, the question was answered for them when they arrived at the tomb because the stone had been rolled away. When it says rolled away, there's a rut there and the stone actually was out of the rut. It was out of the groove as if a mighty force had hurled it away. The Bible tells us in Matthew 28, then an earthquake had occurred when an angel descended from heaven and rolled away the stone. And so as they are there, now verse three says they went in and notice, and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Now it's interesting that Luke records what they found and what they did not find. They found that the stone was rolled away but they did not find the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus's body had been reanimated, had instantly been glorified. It passed through the grave clothes, leaving them flat, passed through the solid stone and left the tomb completely empty. Somebody said the stone was rolled away from the door not to permit Christ to come out but to enable the disciples to go in. And it happened as it says in verse four, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again and they remembered his words. These two men are identified as angels in Matthew 28. Only one of them speaks but he does so on behalf of both of them. Luke says that their garments were shining and they have the appearance of men and the natural response to something like this is recorded in verse five, they were afraid. In the presence of such glorious beings, the natural response would be great fear but the question I wanna spend time looking at is when they said, when it was said, why do you seek the living among the dead? It only takes a moment to recreate the final week of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem to great procession. It's what we call Palm Sunday and we know that there were some who poured out of the city of Jerusalem and those who were coming into the city of Jerusalem and that two crowds had converged. We know that they began to throw palm branches before the Lord, they began to shout and they began to cry out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and there was great festivity taking place and as you follow that and if you were to follow it further on beyond the triumphal entry, the Bible goes on to tell us that Jesus entered into the temple but it being late, all he did was he looked around for a moment and then came back the next day. When he came back the next day there was what is called the second cleansing of the temple. Once again he came in and once again he thoroughly cleaned it and during that week Jesus did many things. Jesus taught and he disputed. He did a number of things that are recorded in scripture, gave some of the greatest teachings and some of the final teachings that he would give. He celebrated Passover with his disciples and as he celebrated Passover he gave the most thorough teaching that he gives on the work of the Holy Spirit. You find that in John chapter 13 all the way to chapter 15 where he speaks concerning these things and he gives tremendous insight to the disciples concerning these things. He celebrates Passover and Judas makes a determination that it's time for him to go. Actually the Lord speaks to him and says to him what you do, do quickly. And Judas leaves into the darkness. Jesus continues, finishes the celebration of Passover and with his disciples he leaves that upper room and he goes to a garden, a garden called Gethsemane and while he's there he leaves eight of his disciples at the entrance, takes three of them further in and then he says stay, watch here and pray and he goes, a stone's throw from them and the Bible tells us that he began to pray and asks his father to remove the cup and yet he comes back three different times and he discovers his disciples who are sleeping for grief for sorrow of heart. What he says to them, could you not watch for an hour? Watch and pray, the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak and as all of this is taking place here comes Judas with a contingent of officers and they come with swords and torches and they enter into the garden and as all of this is taking place the apostle Peter pulls out his sword and he takes a swipe at one of the men nearby and hits a man by the name of Melchus and removes a portion of his ear and Jesus heals Melchus and tells Peter put away your sword, you don't wanna because if you live by the sword you're gonna die by the sword and they take Jesus and as they take him they take him first before the Jewish council and he's tried and then they send him to Pontius Pilate and as this is taking place his men are not quite sure what's going on. The apostle Peter and John because John has access into the garden there in the high priest's place they come walking in and the apostle Peter is there by a fire warming himself when on three occasions we know that he was questioned concerning his relationship to Jesus and on three occasions we know that the apostle Peter denies knowing the Lord. Jesus is now walked by the apostle Peter and after he has said I do not know him the apostle Peter looks up and sees Jesus and Jesus and he lock eyes for just a moment and that sudden awareness of his fulfilling what Jesus said he would do has tremendous emotional ramifications and we're told that he went out and he wept bitterly, it was Friday. Now it's Thursday rather into Friday and Friday Jesus is taken, stands before Pilate ends up being taken out, walked up to a place called Golgotha and he's violently crucified. John showed up at the cross, Jesus's mother was there and some other women but the other apostles were not there. The other apostles were hiding, that was Friday and then Saturday, Saturday is silent. Saturday is that day in between something eventful happening and something else eventful happening but many of us live in Saturdays, in times of despair, in times of disappointment, in times of grief, in times of wonder, in times of sorrow, of heart. Many of us live in Saturday, we're familiar with Saturday. For many Saturday is a day of disappointment. We thought this one was to be Messiah, yet he's dead because on Saturday Jesus is dead. He's in a tomb, heaven seems to be silent. The disciples and the rest are thinking, they're in shock and there's no doubt about it. This one who could raise the dead, this one that we thought to be Messiah, he's dead. All hope is gone, all peace is gone, all joy is gone. All of it is in a tomb, it is dead and many of us live in that, ourselves, in the disappointments of life and the pain and the uncertainty. Jesus is dead, the one who walks on water, the one who raises the dead, himself is dead, the one who cleanses the leperin, the one who heals the sick, the one who wins all the debates, is dead. We had hoped in him and we died in our heart with him. They knew he was dead, they saw him die in anguish. You can forget all that you've ever thought you believed. When you go through moments like that, you're challenged whether or not what you thought you believed is actually true. There's an interesting story found in the Gospel of John. Jesus says, and the response to that was that they wanted to make him king. They wanted to do so by force because who wouldn't want a king that could feed you at any time you're hungry? And they had followed the Lord Jesus Christ and they were wanting to force him to become king when Jesus said, listen, he said, you're following me because I fed you. You're not to seek for the things that perish, for the food that perish, you're not to seek for the things that perish, for the food that perish, you should be seeking after the food that leads you into everlasting life. And he begins to speak to them and he says, what you really need is the bread from heaven. He said, I'm the bread and I've come that I might give you my life. You need to eat of this bread and you need to drink of my blood and if you do so, you will have life in you. And as he says that, we used to call them fair weather disciples, they began to melt off because they say amongst themselves, this is a difficult saying, who can receive it? And as Jesus watches all of these people disappearing from view, he turns to his disciples and he asks them a question, do you also want to go away? There are going to be times in your life that probably have been many times, if not yet there will be, if you're a believer even, that you're going to have that question that's going to resonate in your soul and the question is a simple one, do you believe or do you not believe? Do you want to go away? Do you want to turn around and walk away from Christ? Do you want to go into the world as it was before? When your conscience right now is being pained by something you've done or perhaps you're just lonely, you're in an anguish, you're feeling that you've been forsaken by friends, you used to have friends, now you're a Christian and where'd they go? They're not there anymore and then the question comes, do you want to go away also? You have a disappointment in life, somebody you love very much that you prayed for seriously, you wanted them to be healed and yet they did not heal, as a matter of fact they died and then you have that moment of anguish, you have your Saturday, that time of pain when you know he's dead and yet in your mind you say, but God said, I'm the resurrection in the life, you who believes in me should never perish, will never die. But do I really believe this? We all have our Saturdays, our sorrowful Saturdays, our times of pain, where everything we thought we believed is challenged when every grief we were afraid would one day come upon us does and it's a silent Saturday because our hearts are broken. Why wouldn't they think that Jesus was dead? He had died. The eternal Son of God was lying dead on Saturday. Why believe that he's alive? You see the question, why do you seek the living amongst the dead is intended to provoke them to realize that Jesus is not to be thought of as dead? So the question really is, why are you looking for his body? The question, why do you seek the living among the dead? There are those today who are doing just that. The founders of all world religions have one thing in common and that is, they're all dead. I had a letter, I have a Muslim who's evangelizing me. He writes me to convince me to become a Muslim and he wrote me just last week and he said, Jesus is not the Son of God. That's where you Christians are wrong. God has no Son and so I wrote in response and said to him, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. He was not conceived by natural means. He was miraculously conceived by the agency of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ is the great I am referred to in Scripture as God in flesh and Jesus said, if you do not believe I am He, you will die in your sins and he said and Paul made it very clear, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father and that includes your prophet, Muhammad who will one day bow his knee to Jesus Christ and say he is Lord. He is Lord. Because Muhammad is dead, Jesus is alive and so the question is asked, why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here. He is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was in Galilee? He reminds them that his resurrection is something that he had taught them. He had mentioned that, he had taught them that well in Caesarea Philippi. He had said, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed and be raised the third day and what he does here is he comforts them. He comforts them by reminding them of Jesus' words. He is risen as he said. That's where you get your comfort from brother. That's where you get your comfort from sister and the Lord. It's not through your friends who are there giving you a shoulder to cry on. Thank God for those who weep with us when we weep. We need that. We need the community of believers. We strengthen each other, but my comfort, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth and it comes from his word. So in those moments, in those silent Saturdays, in the sorrowful times that we can have in between some great event and something that's about to happen in that silence of that moment when we're questioning everything that we thought we believed in, we hold fast to one thing, that one thing is the word of God for let God be true in every man a liar. And God's word is true. Jesus, when he was praying in John 17, verse 17 said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And so in 1 950 it says, this is my comfort in my affliction for your word has given me life. And as he reminds them, it says in verse 8, they remembered his words. Jesus had taught them that he would be resurrected, but they had misunderstood it. In Mark 9, verses 9 and 10, as they came down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen till the son of man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead means. They didn't understand. There are some things that God is teaching you that as you go through them, you do not understand until you've gone through them. And then you're able to look back and clearly see God was with you every step of the way. On one occasion in John 13, Jesus said, what I'm doing, you do not understand or know now, but you will afterward. And there are many lessons that we learned after the fact. So they're going through those moments just in anguish, in shock, but God is not going to allow them to remain in that way. It says in verse 8, they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. And the words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves and he departed marveling to himself at what had happened. They knew that he was dead and the shock and the pain overwhelmed their faith. For them death is certain and Jesus' death is final. They couldn't believe otherwise. Now did the Lord accept that? Did he think that was fine? No, because in Mark 16 verse 14 it says afterward he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and he rebuked their unbelief and the hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He doesn't want us to remain in unbelief. He wants to remove us from unbelief. But what happens when verse 12 tells us Peter arose, he ran to the tomb stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves and he departed marveling to himself at what had happened. John records the same thing as found in chapter 20 in verses 2 through 8. It says she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple out ran Peter and came to the tomb first and he stooping down and looking in saw the linen cloths lying there yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and he saw the lying cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head not lying with the linen cloths but folded together in a place by itself and then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also and he saw and believed. Both ran to the tomb, both saw the linen cloths lying there both saw that the tomb was empty yet only John is mentioned as having believed. So the question has to be asked why was John mentioned as having believed but the apostle Peter is not mentioned in the same way and the answer is because Peter was still dealing with the fact that he had denied knowing or belonging to Jesus Christ. It is likely that the shadow of sin that clouded Peter's spiritual sight because sin will cloud your vision. Sin does. It's like what it says in Psalm 40 verse 12 for troubles without numbers surround me my sins have overtaken me and I cannot see they are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails within me. Sometimes the only thing that you can see clearly is your failures. You may have been raised in such a way that your failures were reminded to you constantly. Somebody whispering to you and speaking to you and saying things like you'll never amount to anything. You're a failure. You've always been. You always will be. You're a drug addict. You'll never be free from that. You're an alcoholic. You'll never be free from that. You're an immoral person. You'll never be free. Just get used to the fact that that's what you are. You will never succeed. You will never amount to anything. You are nothing. You are just a failure. Just admit it, accept it and die that way. Sometimes we get used to that. Sometimes the things that we've done are the only things that we can think about. Sometimes the sins that we've committed haunt us. We can become depressed. We can be laden with sorrow. We can even get to the point of being unable to function, filled with grief and sorrow. When you think of King David, he's referred to as a sweet psalmist of Israel. When you read the Psalms, over half of them were written by David. This is a man who couldn't go out to a field without writing a song to God. When God speaks of him, he says, this is a man after my own heart. This is the one that God intended to be the king in Israel. But when you think of David, you can think of various things. How handsome he was. David was a man's man. He was the kind of person that won the heart of the entire nation of Israel and the men of Israel would get behind him and gladly die for him. He was a leader amongst leaders. This is a man when he saw a giant, a flisting, a lieth by name, nine foot nine. And David looked at him and thought, this is just light work. This is no problem. I'm going to take care of him in the name of the Lord. And we marvel at this man, this man of valor, this man of faith, this man of eloquence, this man of creative abilities. And yet, when I mention the name David, there is a name associated with him, even for those who do not read the Bible and that name is what? It's Bathsheba. Because all people remember about David is that he had an illicit affair with a married woman, had Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, killed and took her for his own wife. When you do things like that, they haunt you. Sin haunts you. It clouds your vision. For a year, David was clouded. That was the one thing he saw. His sin, he says, was ever before him. In Psalm 32 verses 3 through 5, he said, when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. John tells us, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's not a single thing you've ever done that God's grace, mercy and the blood of Christ cannot cleanse you and forgive you from if you come to him. Peter couldn't fathom what had happened. Peter, who heard the Lord Jesus Christ speak so often, undoubtedly heard Jesus when he said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You can forget sometimes those sorrowful Saturdays and the silent Saturdays of our lives. You can forget the promises that God has given to you. He was filled with grief and filled with self-condemnation and he had forgotten the truth that would set him free. Jesus had said, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble and hard and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. My burden is light. That was an invitation given to all men including the apostle Peter. You see, John and Peter had seen the exact same thing. They saw an empty tomb. They saw the same thing but each had a different point of view. As he viewed the tomb, he remained puzzled about what he was seeing. The body should have been carried away along with the clothes but the clothes are still there. Could it be that Jesus actually rose just as he said? You see, there's an invitation for us that we find in Scripture. It's a simple one. It's found in Psalm 348. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Could it be that Jesus is alive and the answer is indeed he is alive and he was seeing it? You see, had Jesus remained in the tomb he would have been simply a dead teacher. The fact that he rose from the dead reveals him to be the Son of God. In Romans chapter 1 verse 4 it says, Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him by means of the Holy Spirit. So, we live because he lives. Friday was painful. Saturday was silent. Sunday was resurrection. Jesus is alive and we live because he lives and he rose to justify us and he rose to give us hope. He rose that he might send his Holy Spirit to dwell within us. He rose in order that we might live through him. So, we do not worship a dead teacher. We worship a living savior. Jesus Christ.