Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1725

April 5, 2026

Luke 24.1-12                 Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The Tomb Is Empty!”

 

 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

 

• The Tomb Is Empty, Part 1

This is the greatest day in the life of the church. This is the greatest day in the life of the world. This is the greatest day in the life of every believer in Jesus Christ. This is resurrection day. This is the day Jesus was raised from the dead. This is the day that was so powerful that Christians call it the Lord’s Day and our Sabbath Day. The resurrection has shaped much of our culture and social structures, but we also recognize that some of those structures are breaking down if not already broken by the anti-gospel influences in the world. Jesus reigns but the world still rejects Him just as His own people rejected Him in His time on the earth.

Today we celebrate Jesus and we rejoice with the gospel message of life in Christ. Today we recount the story once again. I have selected to preach in Luke 24 today and in the next two Sundays because Luke 24 recounts the entire day of Easter. It begins early in the morning with the women going to the tomb and this is our topic for today. Next Sunday we will see the story of the two on the road to Emmaus and the Sunday after that, when Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in Jerusalem.

I have portioned out the story for today into three parts. At the center of each are the various testimonies that were given. We start at dawn. Sometimes I wonder how the women got up at early dawn. I would imagine they did not sleep much Friday or Saturday night. Even though Jesus encouraged His followers that they let not their hearts be troubled, that would have been a hard lesson when Jesus was crucified. The women brought spices to do what could not be done prior to the Sabbath. While we read about Jesus’ suffering and death, it is terribly difficult to imagine what everyone was going through after the event of the cross. We have the post resurrection view so we know the empty tomb as a part of the whole story. It must have been confusing, frustrating, and deeply grieving for the women and the disciples to see Christ crucified and all the hopes and dreams once thought possible for a Savior to come to an apparent end. That side of it is hard to fathom on our part.

They came to the tomb, the stone rolled away, Jesus’ body gone. Perhaps they wondered if someone had taken him. Who could have rolled away the stone? The stone rolled away is the first testimony of the resurrection. The second is the empty tomb. The crucified One is no longer there. Where could He be? They come expecting death, expecting to properly prepare His body. Confusion, more pain, shock, and questions. Is it not enough that they crucified the Lord that now His body has gone missing? Two signs, two testimonies: the stone rolled back, the body not there. If they had remembered what Jesus told them multiple times, perhaps they would have been excited rather than perplexed. But they were perplexed. It made no sense to them that the body would be missing.

 

This is what the women saw. Now, I want to jump ahead to what the women later said, that is, the testimony they gave to the disciples. They went back to where the disciples were gathered. They told the story of what they witnessed and what they were told. We will get to the men at the tomb in Part 2! Perhaps it went something like this: “We went to the tomb this morning and the stone was rolled away and Jesus was not there! Two men were there and asked us why we sought the living among the dead. We did not know what to think of it at first until they told us to remember what Jesus had said. He would rise again! And He has! He is risen!” They told this to the eleven disciples and Luke says they told it to all the rest. I would think that everyone who had been with Jesus, not the twelve, would have still been gathered. They told everyone who would listen, everyone who walked with Jesus and followed Him and knew Him and loved Him. We do not know exactly how many women there were. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, James’ mom, Mary, and the other women, Luke says. Too many to name perhaps. I imagine they spread out after telling the eleven and spread the word.

 

The women gave their testimony – this is the first sign for the disciples – the testimony of the risen Christ.

• The Tomb Is Empty, Part 2

 

We have the testimony of the stone rolled away, the empty tomb, and the women. Part of the testimony of the women was the testimony of the two men, no doubt angels, and part 2 of the empty tomb testimony. The two men in dazzling appearance, bright enough that the women are afraid and bow their heads. They know they are in the presence of something beyond them. Then comes the question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Living? I imagine the women with their heads still bowed looking toward one another perhaps mouthing the question, living? Did he say living?

The question hints to something miraculous, unbelievable, and more marvelous than they could imagine. The question is quickly answered almost like it was a rhetorical question, “He is not here, but has risen.” There is a reason why the stone is rolled away and His body is not here! He lives!

Then the angels tell them to remember what Jesus had said. In Luke 9.22 we have one of those times when He said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Maybe they looked again at one another and gave a bit of a glimmer of hope, “I do remember!”

We do that sometimes. Someone will tell us something that happened or something said long ago and they remind us about it and our response when our minds click in, “Oh, yeah, I remember now!” They remembered. This is a huge part of the story of Jesus, and really the story of God throughout the Bible. We are constantly called to remember what God has done, what God has said, and what God has promised to do. Israel got in trouble time and time again because they forgot God or forgot His commands.

Here at the tomb, the women remember Jesus’ words like a light bulb coming on and it transforms their demeanor. This changes everything. Yes, the tomb is empty, the body gone, the living not among the dead, because He is risen!

 

One of the ways we might understand more of this story is in the abnormal sequence of events. Resurrection is the inverse of what we experience and what the women were used to experiencing. Our normal experience is life to death. Someone is alive and then they are dead. But here it is reversed – death to life. That is why this was so perplexing. Death to life does not happen. But life has now come after death and this is a major theme in the life of people who know and follow the risen Savior. Deep in the gospel there is life after death. We die to ourselves in order to live to God, a spiritual death to life. We will die a physical death, but we have the promise of eternal life! All our losses and all our griefs have the potential for life again. Life is always possible because of Jesus Christ the risen One. He has completely transformed the paradigm we normally experience.

 

Everything has the new possibility of resurrection because He is risen. Hope, expectations, dreams, all resurrected. That is our story. Any hint of death is overcome and we have resurrection life, resurrection hope, resurrection expectations and resurrection dreams.

• The Tomb Is Empty, Part 3

The testimonies abound: stone rolled away, empty tomb, angels reminding the women of what Jesus said, the women giving witness to what they had seen and heard. The final testimony of these twelve verses is that of Peter. He has heard the women, but their testimony fell on disbelieving ears. Perhaps that was not unusual, the disciples are very slow to grasp things all through the gospels. Maybe they thought it was a case of fake news. We have to measure that all the time these days! It seemed like an idle tale, Luke reports. It was an unfounded story. They did not believe them. And yet, it is not an idle tale, it is the good news of resurrection!

But one disciple, in Luke's version, only one runs to the tomb. Something must have stirred in Peter's heart while the women were speaking. Something caused Peter to go see for himself. If he really did not believe them he would not have bothered to go to the tomb. “...they did not believe them, but Peter rose and ran...” The pivot word, “but”, injected in the story signals that Peter may have thought twice about what the women were saying. Maybe that same light bulb clicked in Peter’s memory and he remembered Jesus’ words.

When he gets there, he looks and sees nothing but the burial cloth. He now knows the same testimony of the women, rolled stone, no body. Did he remember Jesus' words? Did he wonder, like the women probably did, where have they taken the body? Luke reveals that Peter marveled – he was astonished, in wonder and surprise. But Luke does not add anything more at this point. Peter goes home marveling. Of course, we know that Peter will become one of the most powerful witnesses of the early church. He will give testimony to the risen Christ.

We hear the story again, a familiar story, not an idle tale, but truth. We hear the conclusion of the gospel narrative of life. These are the events Jesus foretold. This is the story of resurrection the women told the disciples. This is the testimony the church has been giving ever since that Easter morning. We cling to these words because we trust that these testimonies give life. These are the only words that will take us through our lives in victory and hope, no matter what happens in our lives, no matter what circumstances we face, these are the words of life. In the stark reality of death, the women find life in an empty tomb. We marvel at these words as Peter marveled at the empty tomb.

 

Like the women when they were transformed by remembering Jesus’ words, we are transformed by the resurrection. In essence, every Sunday is a memory Easter. It is why we worship Sunday and not Saturday. It is why we display a cross rather than a crucifix, because He is not on the cross and He is not in the tomb.

The message is this, “He is not here; but has risen!” This is all we need to say. This is our testimony. This is all we need to hear. He has risen and we can say He is right here, revealed in the Word, by the Holy Spirit at the table in the sacrament, here with us as we worship, in us – present in Spirit and Truth, for He has risen! Christ is risen and Christ calls us to believe the good news, to sing His praise, to give thanks, for Christ is Lord of our lives as we journey between life and death, and from death to life. Christ is risen! Jesus is alive and because He lives, we live! Alleluia and amen.