Jesus and the Empty Tomb

Mark 16:6 states clearly, "And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him." 

Easter is not about a fictional Easter Bunny, colored and decorated hard boiled eggs or loads of chocolate goodies being delivered in baskets. It's not a celebration of a rabbit, it's a celebration of Jesus, our Lord and Savior's resurrection from the grave! This day is a very important day for Christ believing Christians because it's a time of celebration for Jesus' empty tomb. The importance of the Easter season is so much more than what we wear to church, candies and baskets, or stories of fairy tales. For the believer, the reality of the risen Savior holds the ultimate eternal significance. Four important truths scream out of the empty sepulcher in the hills of Israel. These four words should come to our minds: the Bible, forgiveness, redemption and triumph! Because these are the things that the resurrection emphasizes. This is why the empty tomb MATTERS!

Believe!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ validates four very crucial points for the believer. First, it authenticates the Scriptures. The Old Testament prophesied the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. In John 2:19, Jesus, talking about his body, said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." Even Jesus' enemies knew that His resurrection was the heart of His claim to be God. That's why after Christ's death they were so insistent to Pilate that the tomb be guarded. Second, the resurrection validates our redemption through faith in Christ ALONE. Justification is the act by which God takes our sin and places it on Christ and takes Christ's righteousness and credits it to us. As a result, God declares us not guilty. Christ's resurrection is proof that God has accepted Christ's payment for our sin. Third, the resurrection speaks directly to our own spiritual victories. The pain and heartache you may be experiencing now are real . . . but also temporary. There is a final chapter to be revealed, and the empty tomb gives us a hint of how that chapter will read. Death, sin, and suffering will be swallowed up in victory. God had said, the chosen one would reign so the most important facet of the resurrection has be the predictability of it. A dead Messiah couldn't complete such a task yet, there still were those people who didn't believe, and were still surprised, that God could raise His Son from the grave. This very event had been declared many centuries before in the Old Testament. A dead king cannot be a reigning King! Keep in mind, the extraordinary fact that there is NO other faith that can proclaims a living sacrificial deity! I would say that alone is strikingly amazing! Coupled with the fact that numerous verses throughout the Bible, predicted such an event can only serve to strengthen our faith in God and the precepts of the Scriptures. Fourth, it clarifies the nature of eternity. The empty tomb clarifies what our bodies are going to be like in eternity. When Jesus arose from the grave, He did not leave His body behind and enter into some eternal spiritual existence. The Bible says that Christ's physical body was transformed into a new body that was superior to His old body, and yet retained some of its characteristics. The same will be true for our new bodies. We will be able to eat and drink as Christ did, and will be recognizable to others as Christ was to His disciples.

In I Corinthians 15:4 testifies to this by saying, "and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," Paul was a learned scholar of the Old Testament and was familiar with the numerous predictions of a risen Messiah. Despite Israel's blanket refusal to accept Jesus as the promise of the scriptures, God remained faithful to fulfilling and authenticating the promises of the Old Testament. Praise God! In Acts 2, Peter testifies to the foundation principles of the resurrection: "The Lord has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: “I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body." (Psalms 132:11). Peter eventually ties in the idea of God's promise to David and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the resurrection, God authenticated the authority of the Word by fulfilling the promise of a risen savior. We all accept that Jesus needed to die in order to perform humanity's final atoning sacrifice. But we need to realize just how important it was to raise the chosen Son of God. Just as the voice at His baptism and transfiguration proclaimed to those who witnessed God's satisfaction, the resurrection proclaimed to the ages "it is finished." We are reminded of the importance of the resurrection in I Corinthians 15:14, "And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty." Ask yourself why would our faith be empty? Well, in Romans 4:25, it is answered for us, "who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." Christ's resurrection results in God's ability to consider us justified in Christ by demonstrating God's acceptance of the Son's sacrifice. If Jesus hadn't been raised, the preaching of the gospel would have then, been a lie; the faith would be without meaningful content and TRUTH; and Christians would be hopeless.

The resurrection of Jesus authenticates our ability to be victorious in our Christian walk. There are two passages of scripture that confirm and confer this principle. Let's take a look at what Romans 6:8-10 says, "(v8) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, (v9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. (v10) For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God."  Walking in the "newness of life" if prevalent throughout Romans 6-8, but not in OUR own strength,  but in the power of the resurrected Christ that we've obtained spiritual power from in order to overcome our old way of life. Romans 6:8-10 relays the truth of our empowerment, because we also have that very same  position from our faith in Christ. We are resurrected into a new life in faith in Christ too! However, we aren't  left to our own devices. With the awesome miracle of the resurrection also came an awesome gift. In Romans 8:11 exclaims, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." 

Colossians 3:1-17 also appeals to our new life of faith through the resurrected Lord. In the opening verse, Paul encourages us to live in the VICTORY of our new life in Christ Jesus! He says, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." He is telling us to become in experience what we already are by God's grace. We need to take victory over all of our life circumstances, our defeated thinking processes, our failures and grab onto our ability to overcome them, as is outlined in the following verses, is all possible because of verse 1: "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (5) Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (6) Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, (7) in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. (8) But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. (9) Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, (10) and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, (11) where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Character of the New Man
(12) Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; (13) bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (14) But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. (16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

As Promised....

While no one witnessed the actual resurrection, many people swore they saw the risen Christ after his death, and their lives were never the same. Archaeological discoveries continue to support the Bible's historical accuracy. We tend to forget that the Gospels and book of Acts are eyewitness accounts of the life and death of Jesus. The Lord will continue to allow us to uncover evidence of His existence to present to those who still don't believe! A large crowd of more than 500 eyewitnesses saw the risen Jesus Christ at the same time. The Apostle Paul records this event in 1 Corinthians 15:6. He states that most of these men and women were still alive when he wrote this letter, about 55 A.D. Undoubtedly they told others about this miracle.

N. T. Wright, a scholar who has written extensively about the resurrection, contended:
If nothing happened to the body of Jesus . . . I cannot, as a historian, see why anyone would have continued to belong to his movement and to regard him as its Messiah. There were several other Messianic or quasi-Messianic movements within a hundred years either side of Jesus. Routinely, they ended with the leader's being killed by the authorities or by a rival group. If your Messiah is killed, you conclude that he was not the Messiah. Some of those movements continued to exist; where they did, they took a new leader from the same family. (But note: Nobody ever said that James, the brother of Jesus, was the Messiah.) Such groups did not go around saying that their Messiah had been raised from the dead. [Nicholas Thomas Wright, "How Jesus Saw Himself," Bible Review 12 (June 1996): 29.]

So, with Easter upon us, let us not forget what this extraordinary day represents! Let us not focus all of our undivided attention on a fictitious rabbit, hard boiled and decorated eggs and new Spring dresses! Remember the importance of the Empty Tomb, remember that He IS Risen and that God loved you so much that He gave His only Begotten Son to die on the cross, to shed His blood for your sins, buried and rose three days later! HE IS!

I don't need proof. I already have it....He LIVES!



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