Well, good morning, everyone. The life and death of Christ would be an absolute tragedy had he not risen from the grave. But he has risen. He is alive forevermore. The cross is empty and the tomb is empty. And it is upon this empty tomb that I want us to center our attention on this morning. Suppose you had the ability to travel back in time some 2,000 years ago, early dawn on the third day after the death of Christ. And you entered the tomb in which he was placed after he died. You would be filled with awe and wonder. Because being a Christian now 2,000 years removed from this event, you understand what took place in this tomb. Why? Because you have the scriptures. And you understand the scriptures. And so you would be filled with joy. You would be filled with gladness. You would have goosebumps all over your body as you contemplate where you're standing and what took place just moments ago. But then suppose that you could go and visit the disciples of Jesus on that morning. You would find an entirely different mood than your own. You would find a mood of hopelessness, a mood of sadness, anxiety, worry, and yes, even unbelief. Why? Because when the disciples saw Jesus crucified on that day, on Friday, to them it was all over. Their hopes were ripped away from them along with the life of Jesus Christ. They were broken people. Why? It's not that they didn't have the scriptures concerning his resurrection. they didn't understand the scriptures concerning his resurrection. The Gospels give us a sad picture of Christ's followers on the morning of his resurrection. None of them expected him to rise from the grave. They were not sitting around celebrating an imminent resurrection of Christ. They were Sad. They were broken. Because they didn't understand the scriptures. Even when Jesus himself, God in the flesh, would tell them, hey, multiple times, I have to go to Jerusalem. I am going to be arrested. I am going to be beaten. I am going to be crucified, buried. But on the third day, I am going to rise again. It didn't register with them. It flew over their heads. They did not understand that Christ must physically rise from the grave. And it wasn't until they saw Him alive that very same day that they came to believe in the risen Christ. It wasn't until they saw Him alive again that they believed in His resurrection. Except for one. There is one disciple that believed in the resurrection of Christ prior to seeing the resurrected Christ. And that is the Apostle John. John believed in the resurrection of Christ at what moment in time? The moment he entered the empty tomb. What caused him to believe? not just the absence of the body of Jesus Christ, but also the presence of linen wrappings and a face cloth. and John believed without seeing the risen Lord. It's a fascinating eyewitness account. We find it in John 20 verses 1 to 10, which will be the text for us this morning if you would like to turn your Bibles to John 20 verses 1 to 10. And before we begin to study this passage closely, I would like to say a few things. All four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, give us an account of the events that transpired on the morning of Christ's resurrection. And if you were to sit down and study all four accounts side by side and to compare them, you might come away thinking that there are gross inadequacies, gross inconsistencies, and contradictions when you compare these accounts. that the details simply don't seem to add up. How many angels were at the tomb? How many people saw the angels at the tomb? Who spoke to the angels? Who didn't speak to the angels? How many times did each disciple visit the tomb of Christ on that day? Had the sun risen or not when they went to the tomb? each author of each gospel seems to give us contradicting narrative. And I want to assure you this morning that there is a perfectly reasonable way to reconcile all of these accounts. to make them fit together. And though I will answer some of those questions this morning, it's not my aim to make this sermon about a harmony of the gospels and to fix every supposed contradiction for you. I want to focus on this one passage, one particular visit to the tomb that we find in John 20, verses 1 to 10. Please follow with me if you have your Bible. Let's go ahead and read this passage. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb. While it was dark, still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that would be John, and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. And so Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the facecloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. This is a historical eyewitness account of what certain individuals saw on the day in which Christ rose from the grave. This isn't fiction, this isn't a fairy tale. The details that John includes in these 10 verses absolutely demolish the idea that the resurrection is a fabricated account, a fabricated story. Well, let's examine it together. Look at verse one. Now, in the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. Ever since Jesus cast out seven demons out of her, Mary Magdalene was a devoted follower of Christ, wouldn't you be? He who has been forgiven much, loves much. He who has been delivered from much loves much. Mary Magdalene was like the demoniac in Mark chapter five, who was possessed by a legion of demons and who was mightily delivered by Christ. All that man wanted to do from that day on was to be with his Lord, to be with his Savior. It's the same with Mary. She wanted to be with Christ, alive or dead. Mary, along with some of the other women, were the ones who supported the disciples and Jesus financially from their own means, according to Luke 8, verse 3. And so she was likely a well-to-do woman. Mary, unlike the other disciples, most of them, the men, who fled and who were closed in a room for fear of the Jews, Mary stood at the cross, and she saw Jesus crucified, and she watched Him suffer for hours, and she watched Him die. and Mary then, along with some of the other women, they watched as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Christ, and they took him to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and they watched them as they buried the Lord. This is the Mary who went to the tomb early on the first day of the week. That would be Sunday. And this is why Christians worship on Sunday, by the way. It is the day of the Lord's resurrection that's confirmed in Acts 20 and verse 6. Now, the other gospel accounts, if you were to read them, tell us that Mary was not alone when she visited the tomb, that she went with other women to the tomb. She was not alone. It's not likely that Mary would walk in the dark by herself to the tomb. And so this is one of those supposed contradictions that naysayers point to and say, see, these things don't add up. John does not mention other women. Why doesn't he mention the other women? Because John wants to focus to be on this one Mary. The authors in the Bible did this often. One person would mention few people, the other person would mention one among that group to focus on that one person. So why would John want the focus to be on Mary Magdalene? Because if you jump to verse 16 of the same chapter, we learn that Mary Magdalene is the first eyewitness of the risen Christ. She is the first disciple to see the risen Lord. We need to understand that the biblical authors were not interested in giving every detail of every situation. They were not even interested in giving the exact chronology of how the events took place. Different authors focused on different details and recorded different details. It doesn't make them contradictions. Each author wrote from his own point of view and included facts that substantiated his purpose in writing. And I think we can relate to this, if we all witness, say 10 of us witness a crash, and the police tells us to write a report, all 10 of us are going to tell the truth, we're going to write down what happened, but it's going to have different details, different emphases, because we're writing from a different viewpoint. Well, it's the same with the narratives of the Gospels. And by the way, this is probably a good place to tell you that if you were writing a gospel and you wanted people to believe the gospel, you would never include women in your story. Because women in that first century, in that culture, their testimony was hardly ever admissible in court. The witness of a woman was not respected at all. And yet, all four gospel authors tell us what? Women were the first to go to the tomb. A woman was the first to witness the risen Christ. Now, if you were writing a fabrication, you would not put that in your book, unless it's true. Unless it's true. And so when we piece it all together up to this point, here's what went down on that morning. Friday, Jesus dies on the cross. They bury him. Saturday, he is in the grave. Early Sunday, he is risen. Matthew tells us that an angel came from heaven. He rolls the stone away. A short time after that, a group of women are approaching the empty tomb, and they see that the tomb has been opened. Okay? And so Mary is in that group. Mary leaves the group, and she goes to inform two of the disciples of Christ, Peter and John, leaving the other women to continue to go to the tomb. You see that? And so Mary, she leaves the group and she goes to tell Peter and John what she saw. Look at verse two. So 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, notice that even in John's gospel, there's indication she wasn't alone, and we do not know where they have laid him. Now in those days, tomb robbery was a very common occurrence, although it was a very serious crime. people would rob bodies out of the tomb. And so naturally, when Mary sees the open tomb, she assumes someone has stolen the body of Christ, and they have placed him somewhere else. Because notice in verse one, go back to verse one, John doesn't say that Mary even looked inside the tomb. John doesn't say that Mary even made it all the way to the tomb. All that John tells us is that Mary saw that the tomb was open, and she leaves right away. So we can assume from a distance she sees this, and she runs, and she tells the disciples. And this is important. Why? Because the other women that Mary left behind, they went all the way to the tomb, and the other accounts tell us that they were met by what? Angels. And the angels tell those women, Christ is risen from the grave, go and tell his disciples. Mary wasn't in that conversation. Hence her ignorance as to what happened. And so she goes to Peter and John and she tells them, the tomb is empty. Someone stole the body of Christ. We don't know where he is. Then look at verse three. It says that upon hearing Mary's report, Peter and John get up and make their way to the tomb to check things out. So Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb. Well, what about the other nine disciples? Judas is dead. What about the other nine disciples? Did they not care? Why is it only John and Peter? I believe that John and Peter were by themselves somewhere in Jerusalem, the other nine disciples in the town nearby of Bethany. That's one theory. Because when we read the Gospels, who are the only two disciples who go through the door to witness the trial of Christ before the Sanhedrin? Peter and John. Now Peter denies Christ and he flees, weeping. And if it was me, I would not want to be around people at that point in time. And so I would flee somewhere by myself to weep that I had denied my Lord. John is the only one who makes it all the way and he witnesses the death of Christ on the cross. After the crucifixion, It's likely that John and Peter meet up somewhere in Jerusalem and they're staying together. The other nine disciples by themselves somewhere else. That would explain how the women who stayed at the tomb did not cross paths with Peter and John as they were going to the tomb. They were not there. It was only John and Peter. We have to understand this morning was very chaotic. A lot of things going on, people running to and fro. And John and Peter were certainly running. Look at verse four. The two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. Why would you include that fact? What we learn from this verse is that if you were putting together a marathon team, you wouldn't want Peter on your team. You would want John on your team, okay? John was likely the youngest apostle. And so he sprints, leaving Peter behind, and the two of them leave Mary behind, poor Mary, to make her way back to the tomb by herself. And so he he sprints past Peter. However, notice. At first, John does not enter the tomb. He stops at the entrance. We don't know why. Look at verse 5. And stooping and looking in according to the design of the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there. But he did not go in. And so John gets to the tomb, he stops, he looks inside, all he sees are these linen wrappings which Christ's body had been wrapped with according to Jewish custom. He doesn't go in yet. Was he in shock? Paralyzed? He stops dead in his tracks. And just looks in. And eventually he hears wheezing and huffing and puffing. And it's his buddy Peter who gets that's not in the text. That's how I envision it. I see Jesus. Add a little spice to the story. He's out of breath. Verse 6 and so Simon Peter also came following him. And entered the tomb. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there. Peter, true to his character, he is brash, he is spontaneous, he runs all the way in, he doesn't stop to think. And he sees the linen wrappings lying there, and, verse seven, and, and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the face cloth was a separate cloth that the body of a deceased person would be wrapped with. Okay? And then separate from that would be the linen wrappings with which you would wrap the body of a deceased person. And in between the folds of the wrapping, you would insert expensive spices, aloes and myrrh. And these spices would have added somewhere in between 75 pounds to 100 pounds of weight to the dead body of Christ. Important detail. This was done with the body of Christ, as Mike read for us this morning. John 19, 39 to 40. Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds of weight. And so they took the body of Jesus, bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. And so the body of Christ was wrapped from the feet to the shoulders, and then there would be a gap the length of his neck. And then you would see the wrapping around the face of the deceased person. And Peter notices what? This face cloth was rolled up in a place by itself. Nice and neat. Verse 8. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb, that's John, then also entered and he saw and believed. The sight of linen wrappings and a face cloth rolled up by itself in the empty tomb was enough to engender faith in the apostle John. He didn't see the Lord risen. He didn't see angels. All he saw was an empty tomb with linen wrappings, and he believed Christ is risen from the dead. He is alive. What caused him to believe? A careful analysis of the evidence. A careful analysis of the evidence that he saw in the tomb. Okay? You have an empty tomb. You have linen wrappings. You have a face cloth rolled up by itself nicely to the side. No body. Naturally, if a dead body is in a tomb one moment, and the next it is not, there are two possibilities. Either someone stole the body, or God did something. Or God did something. And upon inspecting the scene, John concludes, no, no one stole this body. Mary, no one took the Lord away and laid him somewhere else. The evidence does not point in that direction. Number one, if you wanted to steal the dead body of Christ, you would have had to gone through the guard, the Roman soldiers who were stationed at the tomb, according to Matthew 27, 65. Whether John knew there was a guard or not, there was. You would have had to get past Roman, highly trained Roman soldiers. Then, if you could do that, you would have had to roll away a stone with the estimated weight of 3,000 pounds without being noticed by the guards or other people. Then, assuming you could do those first two steps, are we to believe that whoever entered the tomb would take the time to unwrap the dead body of Christ and risk getting caught and suffer severe consequences for tomb robbery, And not to mention, leave behind the expensive spices that are really the only reason you would want to rub the body in the first place. No. No. In fact, the original language implies that the linen wrappings were undisturbed. They were not all over the place. There's no mention of myrrh and aloes all over the tomb that would happen if someone was unwrapping the body. The linen wrappings were just lying there. And so John concludes this body wasn't stolen. The body of Christ went through the linen wrappings, leaving the linen wrappings to fall in place. The resurrected body, the glorified body of Christ went through the linen wrappings, leaving all of that in place. And then he rolls up the face cloth and puts it to the side because there's no use for it anymore. There's evidence that Christ could do that now, even in this same chapter. In John 20, verse 19, it says, So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, same day, when the doors were shut, and by the way, when it says shut, it means locked. where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. Doors locked, no Jesus, and then Jesus. Okay? Glorified body, resurrected body. He went through the linen wrappings. Another suggestion, which is less likely, is that Jesus disappeared. His body disappeared. Because he could also do that according to Luke 24, 31, where he vanished in the presence of the disciples when they were eating. Not as likely. He went through the linen wrappings and then he goes through the stone, sees himself out. The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out. The stone was rolled away to allow the disciples to come in and to see the evidence of what had happened. And John believes. He believes. And now looking back, writing this account, he adds a note in verse 9. In verse 9, he says, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. The disciples did not understand the Old Testament scriptures concerning the Messiah's resurrection, such as Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, hence their sadness and hopelessness and despair. They did not understand the scriptures. In Luke 24, 25 to 26, we know of Jesus that he meets up with these two disciples on the way to Emmaus. And he says to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And so John is now writing this gospel account looking back with the full picture of what happened. And he writes it down so that you and I might to believe in the risen Christ. To believe in the Messiah. And then in verse 10, he ends this segment of the day of resurrection by telling us plainly, so the disciples went away again to their own homes. Did John tell Peter what he believed? It doesn't say. It's likely that John kept this to himself. In the words of D.A. Carson, he probably had a fledgling faith at this point. He believed, but he wanted to wait and see what would happen. And we know for a fact that Peter did not yet believe in the resurrection of Christ yet at this point, according to Luke 24, verse 12. Luke 24, 12 tells us that he went home marveling at what had happened and what he saw. But Peter had not yet believed until Christ appeared to him later that day specifically. And so the empty tomb is an indisputable fact. The body of Christ was gone. And we have multiple eyewitnesses accounts. That even secular historians have to. Wrestle with. And seek to explain away. Stubbornly rejecting the evidence. Because if Jesus Christ is risen. It demands everything from us. It demands our worship. It demands our service. It demands our love. It demands our life. If He is risen, He is Lord. Not He might be Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord. People often, they understand that the tomb robbery theory is incredibly weak. And so they've come up with other proposed theories. Maybe the Roman soldiers took the body. That's the last thing the Roman soldiers wanted to do. The Roman soldiers wanted to keep the peace. They didn't want to play into this idea that there would be a risen Messiah. and cause some kind of chaos. They wanted to keep the peace with the Jews. They had no motivation to steal the body of Christ. And even if they did, and there was some kind of chaos that ensued, all they would have had to do was show the dead body of Christ and say to the disciples and everyone else, see, he is actually dead. What about the Jews? The Jews might have stolen the body of Christ. Again, the Jews had no motivation to steal the body of Christ. And if the Jews had the body of Christ, when the disciples began to preach boldly on the day of Pentecost, the risen Christ, all they would have had to do was what? Produce the body and say, no, he's not risen. He's actually dead. Here's the evidence. But they didn't do that. Why? Because they didn't have the body. The body was gone. And then the most common theory is that the disciples themselves stole the body of Christ and then began to preach, lying, that he had risen. And ironically, this was contrived by the Jews themselves. Matthew tells us, doesn't he? Matthew 28, 11 to 13. It says, now, while they were on their way, some of the guard who were at the tomb came into the city and reported to the chief priest all that had happened. Notice that we have the witness here of Roman soldiers themselves. Of what had happened. An angel came down, we got very much afraid. And he moved the rock, he moved the stone. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, you are to say, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep." What's the irony there? How many of you know what happens when you're asleep? You don't know what's going on when you're asleep. It's a foolish, Explanation. Why not, you know, the disciples, why not the Jews stole him while you were asleep? Why not did he rise again when you were asleep? You don't know what happened when you were asleep. And then, by the way, if the disciples had to steal the body, they would have had the same issues. The guards, the weight of the stone, And they would have not taken the time to unwrap the body of Jesus in the tomb. They would have just taken the whole thing and then done whatever. The only explanation, saints, is that Jesus rose again. And they saw him. Over 500 people, eyewitness accounts, seeing the risen Christ at different points in time. They saw him alive. And after seeing him alive, these men turned into some of the boldest men in the world, proclaiming the risen Christ and suffering death for it, martyrdom. And so either they lied and they were living a lie and they died for a lie, which is nothing to gain, or they were telling the truth. The empty tomb is empty because Jesus lives. And because he is alive, saints, we have hope. We have a future. We have the same boldness that we can live with, that the apostles lived with, after seeing the risen Christ. Because Jesus lives, our sins, those of us who believe, have truly been forgiven, have truly been put out of the way. We do have eternal life. And we do have, by the way, a resurrection body that awaits us. Who's looking forward to that? Yeah. In the likeness of Christ. Do we know what exactly that's going to look like? No, but it's probably an upgrade from this one. Maybe. Just a hunch. So let me ask you here who are visiting, have you believed in the risen Savior? If not, the evidence is irrefutable. Even secular authors write about this event and speak of a risen Christ. He is alive. And if that is true, and it is, again, it demands a response from you today. Will you repent of your sins and believe in the risen Christ? Will you believe that he rose from the grave after making payment for sins? Will you believe as John did in the evidence of the empty tomb? Father, thank you for your word. Thank You that our Lord is risen. That He is alive. Thank You that You have not left us in the dark as to what happened. Thank You that many saw Him on that day and that they have written their testimony for us to read and to study and even to scrutinize. that we might believe, and in believing, have eternal resurrection life. We ask, Father, that if there's anyone here that does not know You, that You would use this message to convict them of their sins and open their eyes to the truth of Your risen Son. we ask in His holy name.