The Resurrection of Jesus

Well, we are drawing near to the end of this study of the life of Christ, and as we begin to approach the last few studies, we are on the resurrection of Christ. Just remind you that the last time we were together, we were talking about some of the events that take place in relationship to the burial of Christ. We have looked at his death and the events that occurred right after his death and then the events that led up to the burial and the actual burial of Christ, and that's where we left things last time. We were together a couple of weeks ago, and today we begin to talk about the resurrection. It will take us several weeks to finish up the resurrection of appearances. Jesus appeared ten times to people after the resurrection, and so the events of the resurrection and the appearances will take us just a little bit of time, but we will be wrapping up this study no doubt this summer, not sure exactly when, but no doubt sometime this summer. Let me just say a couple of introductory words in regard to the resurrection before we actually jump into it and study the passages that describe the resurrection. The resurrection obviously is one of the foundational truths of our faith, and for good reason. Jesus prophesied that he would be raised from the dead, and if that did not happen, obviously he was a fraud. If Jesus was a liar and a fraud, then nothing else is true about Scripture. Certainly our salvation is not accomplished. It's a very cardinal foundational truth. It is also foundational because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and the Bible says in the book of Romans, he is declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection. That's one of the proofs of his deity. It's tied also to the deity of Christ that he was resurrected. It's a very foundational truth. I don't want us to lose that in the process of moving through the gospel accounts chronologically. I don't want us to miss the theological importance of the resurrection. That importance is not really developed in the gospels. It's developed more in the epistles. Paul in particular really develops the crucial nature of the resurrection and the cornerstone of the gospel. It's a very important and fundamental truth to our faith. The gospels tell the story and that's what we're studying in the life of Christ. We're going to go chronologically through the events of the resurrection. Having said that, this is probably the most difficult portion of the life of Christ to all four of the gospels obviously deal with the resurrection, but there's such differences in the accounts on many details that it is quite difficult to put everything together in a sequence of events. I'm going to give it my best shot. I've attempted this a number of times through the years and come up with a little different scenario each time I've done it. We'll see what we come up with this time. We know there were ten appearances. Some of the events that go along with the appearances of Christ are a bit difficult to put together step by step. I'm going to give it my best shot, but if you have a study Bible or another author that may take a little different approach, I'll give you some of the different views on some of these events, but don't necessarily write that person off. There are good people who disagree on some of the details of this, and I have certainly been known to be wrong before, and that would not be a first this time. But having said that, I will do my best to piece together the events in the chronological fashion in which they happen. What we begin with on the resurrection morning, and actually we're going to start with Saturday night and then move into Sunday morning, but what we begin with really is the early confusion of the disciples, of the followers of Christ, because early on before Jesus appears to anybody, there is just terrible confusion about what's going on. There are four or five events that we'll look at tonight that describe that confusion of his followers. The first thing on your outline tonight is the women go to the tomb, and let's begin with Mark's account in Mark chapter 16, because Mark gives us a little detail that the others don't give us, and that is something that happened actually on Saturday evening in the way we figure time would be Saturday evening. Matthew and Mark pretty much cover the same material, Luke and John just briefly mentioned the women going to the tomb. Let's begin with Mark. We'll bounce back and forth between Mark and Matthew. Mark 16 verse 1 says, when the Sabbath was over, now let's stop right there. When would that be? When would the Sabbath be over? Sunday morning, not quite. Now, that's what we would think, because we would think in terms from the way we figure time, Sabbath would be on Saturday, well that ends with Sunday morning. Now, that's the way we would think of it, but that's not the way that Jews figure time. Early evening, not hearing a consensus there, about what time? About six o'clock, probably about six o'clock Saturday evening is when the Sabbath went in. After remember that that isstrial is right close to the equator, and so the days do not vary in sunlight and darkness as much during the year as what we experience. Right now we're experiencing long days and the winter we experience short days and not near enough sunlight. That's not true in Israel. It's pretty uniform throughout the year. The way they figured time was their day would start in the evening, and typically about six o'clock is when they would figure the start of the new day, six o'clock on Friday evening would begin the Sabbath, six o'clock on Saturday evening would end the Sabbath. Now, the Saturday evening, our time, but it would actually be the beginning of the first day of the week for them. So what we have here is when the Sabbath was over, remember the ladies had gone on Friday evening before Sabbath started at six o'clock. They were already preparing spices to anoint his body, but they ran out of time. Remember that? They ran out of time. Sabbath came. They had to stop their preparations before they could get back to the tomb and observe the Sabbath. So we pick it back up at six o'clock on Saturday evening with this accounted mark. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, that's three of the four women who were mentioned as being at the cross. The fourth one was Mary the mother of Jesus, so she is not present at this. She probably has gone with John or has been taken care of by family. John's family. So these three women brought bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus body. So what they were unable to complete on Friday evening, they complete on Saturday evening. They buy the rest of the spices and they're getting things together to go anoint his body. But then the very next thing that is said in verse two is very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise. And so evidently darkness catches them on Saturday evening before they can get to the tomb. And so while they've finished getting the spices and getting those ready, they're not able to go to the tomb on Saturday evening. So they have to wait till Sunday morning. Obviously all of this is in the sovereignty of God planned to give them a wonderful surprise on Sunday morning. You see if they had gone on Saturday evening, Jesus would quite possibly have still been in the tomb. So that's what we find here. This is Saturday evening they go finish preparing the spices. Now hold your place here and flip back to Matthew 28. We're going to look at Matthew's account and then back to Mark. Okay. Now before we go any further though, I want to show you a few pictures and the reason for that is I want you to have these pictures in mind as we go through the accounts as to what they will experience. Not necessarily this picture. This is the church of the Holy Sepulchre. And I know many of you, if you're sitting more than halfway back, will not be able to really make this out. But this is a large church. This is a cutaway showing the inside. I've talked with you about this before that the actual place of crucifixion and burial are not what we typically see with Gordon's Calvary and the empty tomb. That was not even suggested historically until the late 1800s by a British general Gordon. And so probably it has no historical verification at all. But this is where Constantine built a church in the 300s. It has the historical tie to the actual place where Jesus was crucified and buried. It's almost depressing for those of us who understand the simplicity of the scene to go to today. And that's why another place has been suggested. You go into this church and I've been there before. You go in right. This is the entrance right here. And to your right is Calvary. And remember I showed you some pictures of the plexiglass that covers the rock where it was the hill where Jesus probably was crucified. But right down here is the Sepulchre entrance. And I'm sure you can't read that. But this area right here is where the Sepulchre is, where the tomb is. Very close to the place of crucifixion. And it does again have the most history behind it. Alright, let's look at the next picture. This is inside the church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the place where this structure covers what is called the Sepulchre or the tomb of Jesus. And you go inside it as I have. You have to bend down to go inside. It's a very narrow and short door. You go in this door and this is what you see on the inside. This is a marble slab that they have put over a burial place that was empty and may well have been the burial site of Christ. But obviously today it's, how do I want to say it? It's very Catholic-y. It's very adorned. And forgive me for those of you who may have a Catholic background. But you understand what I'm talking about. This receptacle over here is full of candles. There are candles. If we had a better shot of their candles burning all around this place. People go in, light candle and leave it there. And so it's not the simple empty burial tomb that you would expect to see. It probably is, at least has the best likelihood of being the actual place. All right, let's move to the next one. This is what we typically think of. This is the empty tomb that you see the garden tomb. And this is kind of a dark picture. Let's go to the next one. This is a rolling stone tomb. This is not the garden tomb, but it's a picture. It's a good example of a rolling stone tomb. There are a few of these still in Israel where you can go visit and see them where you can see how the rolling stone worked. First of all, you can see it's pretty large. And this one, you can see the channel that's cut in front of the tomb. There were different ways of doing this. But most of the rolling stone tombs had this kind of channel that held the stone in place. And right in front of the entrance, that channel would be cut deeper. There would, a deeper groove would be cut. So the stone would fall down into that and it would lodge it in place. So keep all of that in mind when you're reading the account of the women trying to figure out how are we going to move the stone? There's no way we can do it. Who's going to move the stone for us? It's a pretty large thing and it's lodged down in a crater that would be difficult for a number of men to move it. Really, it can be done, but it would be very difficult. So keep those things in mind as we read this story. Matthew's Gospel, now, chapter 28, verse 1. After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. This is dawn. This is right at sunrise. They start out for the tomb. Luke says that they are going with spices. They had their spices prepared on Saturday evening. Luke includes the fact that they were going with the spices. It was obviously their intent to go inside the tomb and further anoint his body for burial. They had seen what Joseph and Nicodemus had done, but they wanted to add their own tribute to what was done for Jesus. So they're coming to bring the spices, but Matthew doesn't focus on that. Matthew says they just came to look at the tomb. And the reason why Matthew phrases it that way is, Matthew is more concerned with what's going to happen when they get there. Matthew is more concerned about the soldiers. He's the one that's told us about the guard being posted, back in chapter 27. So he's more interested in telling us about the soldiers and what will happen to them and the ladies get there. So verse two, there was a violent earthquake for an angel, the Lord, came down from heaven and going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on it. There's a violent earthquake. Matthew tells us about that. Matthew tells us of two earthquakes related to the death of Christ. One at his death and then this one on Sunday morning. Now probably this one on Sunday morning was more localized to the site of the tomb. It does not appear to have been a widespread earthquake. There's no indication the women are alarmed by it. This is basically in relationship to the angel moving the stone away from the entrance. A violent earthquake for an angel, the Lord, came down from heaven, going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on it. Now notice the way this is phrased, the angel came and went up to the tomb. So evidently, you know, oftentimes when you see the pictures, you see the angel coming down right over top of the tomb or right at the tomb. That evidently was not what happened. He evidently touched ground somewhere away from the tomb and walked up to it. So he makes his approach to the soldiers who are guarding the tomb and that must have been quite a scene. But he rolls back the stone and then the Bible says he sat on it. That's always been one of my favorite parts of the story. I think I mentioned that at Easter. This angel just sitting on the stone. I mean, we think of angels as dignified heavenly beings and they are. And we might think of them as standing alert, at attention waiting for the ladies to come. But this angel could he be clarenced from its wonderful life? I don't know. But this angel kind of reminds me of him. He can't figure out anything better to do than just sit on the stone. So he crawls up on it and sits there and waits for the ladies to come. I just love that little touch. Maybe too much. Maybe I like it too much. But anyway, he rolled it back sat on it and his appearance was like lightning and his clothes were quite a snow. So he's dazzling to look at. Absolutely dazzling. His appearance is shining like lightning. You know, a dazzling that is when it lights up the sky and then his clothes are quite a snow. And we see the effect on the guards in verse four. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. Now, again, remember, it has been said many times. These are not Barney V kind of soldiers. These are not nervous kind of guys that are trying to find their one bullet and get it in their gun. And, you know, these are hardened Roman soldiers who are accustomed to battle. And Roman soldiers trained diligently daily. They had a workout routine that was grueling, no matter where they were, no matter what they were doing. They had a routine that kept them in tip top shape, ready for anything that might happen. So these are not, you know, these are hardened soldiers. But they have never seen anything like this in battle. They have never seen anything like this anywhere. And so they are so afraid that they are shaking and they become like dead men, which probably means they fainted. They lost consciousness. And that allows some other things to happen that we'll see in just a few moments. Just imagine this scene. It is quite a scene as the angel comes and moves the stone and the soldiers see this angel. Okay, any questions about that before we skip back to Mark? And see, Mark, we're going to go back to, see Matthew is focused on the soldiers and the angel, Mark is going to focus on the women who are still on their way to the tomb. But any questions about what's happening here? Steve? The reaction by the two different groups, it doesn't really say the women were terrified. It says the guards were terrified. The women, they don't be afraid of those things. Because they're not demacterized in their own way. Well, the women haven't showed up yet. There's no, there's no real reason to attack. Right, right. Yeah, they do. In fact, they are terrified when they see the angel. We'll see in Mark and Luke. But they, they have not showed up yet. In fact, it's possible by the time they show up, the soldiers have awakened and are gone. There's no indication the soldiers are there when the women get there. Which leads some to believe that the soldiers were temporary paralyzed and then took off. It's kind of hard to know exactly what happened. But the other women will be afraid when they see the angel in the tomb. That's where they will see the angel in the tomb, not outside. Okay, now again, it looks like, like you said, there's no break in the text here. Verse 5, the angel speaking to the woman, but Mark tells us something else is happening before that. So let's go back to Mark 16. Verse 2 says, very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb. And they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb? Now that's, we're back to the women now. They are still on their way to the tomb evidently when the events in Matthew's account are taking place. They are still on their way to the tomb because the earthquake and the rolling of the stone has already happened by the time they get there. So they are evidently still on their way and they ask a very innocent question and a very good question. Here we've got these spices ready to prepare to anoint Jesus' body. How are we going to get in? How are we going to move the stone to get in the tomb? Verse 4, but when they looked up, evidently they got to the site and they looked up and they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. And the next thing that Mark says is they go in. So obviously there are no soldiers around anymore. I mean, there's nobody there to stop them. There's nobody there to say, who goes there, anything like that. And I don't think the soldiers would have been in any mood to hang around after what they've seen. So as soon as God either releases them from their paralysis, temporary paralysis, or they wake up, they split. They're gone. And the women evidently show up at about that time, realize their dilemma is solved because the stone has already been rolled away. They still have no clue what's happened. They've just gotten there and they realize the stone, the stone is gone. Now remember, the issue of the stone being down in that groove, obviously they were in a quandary as to how they would move it and get in. They really don't have any idea how that's going to be accomplished, but the Lord has already has already done it for them. They evidently don't see any soldiers. They're evidently gone, but they're going to go inside the tomb in just a few moments. Okay, questions about those two accounts and kind of how they fit together. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's faith. They know their heart, their heart compels them to do what is right for his burial. Now, the logistics of how it's going to get done, they don't know, but they're going to give it their best shot. They're going to go with everything they need. That is commendable. Now, that's an interesting question because the stone was not put in place until Saturday. It's possible that words spread quickly from, you know, from the chief priests and so forth who had arranged for that to be done with pilot, whether it reports spread from soldiers or from the chief priests. I don't know, but they would have had to find out by word of mouth or someone may have gone to the tomb that Saturday evening after Sabbath was over and realized the stone was there. We're not really told, so we kind of have to guess at that. Walt? Apparently the word has been changed. Do you have this question? Yeah. It would have been sealed whether or not the word had gotten around about that. Don't know. You know, the, let me back up a little bit here. They did go to the tomb on Friday and saw where the body was placed. They would have been able to see it was a rolling stone tomb. They probably did not see the stone put over the tomb, but the stone would have been put over the tomb before Saturday back up in my thinking a little bit. It was just the guard and the seal that was done on Saturday. So they may have actually seen the stone put in place on Friday evening or at least known that the stone was there or it was a rolling stone tomb. So yeah. Okay. Any other thoughts? Help me think through this here. John? You say out of the four counts of the empty sense of the first thing that you order. I think so. Except for the one detail in mark that talks about them getting the spices finished up on Saturday evening, then the next event seems to be what Matthew records. The stone being rolled away so that by the time the ladies get there, the women get there, they'll be able to get in. The reason why these are all in, we were talking about the greatest single event in World History. There's just written from different perspectives. Yes. If the scenes of this one would have been given more earthquakes, they'd be able to see the four percent. The women in there was someone sitting there. Right. The others don't think this is. Yeah. It's... Peaching it all together is extremely difficult. As I mentioned earlier, it's probably the most difficult part of the life of Christ to get all the details to fit in the right order. We're going to come up against one of those things right now in just a minute. But that's a great question as to why there are differing accounts and why they don't all include the same information. Of course, that's been true of the entire life of Christ, but you would think with this event, everybody would be saying the same thing. But there's a sense in which the integrity of the gospels is seen even better by the fact that you have the different accounts. Because what you've got is four different perspectives. Each of the gospels is writing with a different audience in mind. So there are different details that would be more important, maybe, to their audience. They're writing with different theological motives in mind. John, in particular, writes his gospel with a particular theological motive. So he's picking certain details. Not everybody has all the details. But does that mean that none of us is unpredictable? No. And this is one of those instances where you see it best, where you have to put all the gospels together to get the full story. I mean, that's been true with other accounts, but some of them are much more much closer in the way they give the account. Like some of the parables Jesus told, or the feeding of the five thousand is in all four of the gospels. And that's pretty much the same story in all gospels. But there's so much going on that each writer covers a little different piece of it. Robin? Right. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Matthew did not witness what he's written about, and to this point, in chapter 28, you're right. Mark didn't witness any of this because Mark is writing from Peter's perspective. Mark is an extremely young man at this point. We don't really encounter him till we get in the book of Acts. So yeah, they didn't witness all of this. John would have witnessed more than anybody. Luke would not have witnessed any of it. Yes, they heard the testimony of the women. They had different details. The important thing to remember, we're looking at the human perspective of how they got their material. An important thing to remember is that the Holy Spirit, as he guided them to write, guarded them from any error so that you put all four of the accounts together and you've got an accurate presentation of what happened. It's just difficult for us, in some instances, to figure out how it all fits. Because there are some gaps too. There are some things that we're not told, and so where it all fits is a little difficult sometimes. Okay, very good. I think it's just a little difficult to bring someone to the boil. Yes. Yeah. You know, John says that the women went and witnessed what Nicodemus Joseph of Eremothaea had done. How much did they witness? Did they witness the amount of spices? Maybe, probably. Did they was the reason why they brought more? Simply, they didn't want to be left out. Everything was hurried, and nobody expected Nicodemus or Joseph to be doing this at all. I'm sure these women would feel it was their responsibility to do it, to start with, and now they don't want to be left out. Maybe that was the motivation. They just want to add to what's already been done. But, yeah, tremendous amount of this spicy type thing had already been done. How much of, how much have they realized it's hard to tell? But they did witness where the body was put, and they saw what was done there. Yes, the body was wrapped. That was part of what Joseph and Nicodemus did, though. The spices would be a part of the wrapping. Actually, the spices were put in between the layers of the cloths, and actually helped the cloth adhere, so it would not come loose. So that was all done at the same time. Okay, the next event, and this is where there's a little bit of controversy, but the next event, and the way I'm going to present it, is in John 20. And that is that Mary immediately runs to tell Peter and John. Let's look at John's account. Early on the first day of the week, John chapter 20 verse 1. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him. Now, because of the way this is stated, it is stated that it was still dark when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. Because of that, some, like John MacArthur in his commentaries, say that Mary Magdalene came before the other women, by herself, before sunrise, and left before the other women got there. That's possible, and that's where it's hard to know for sure, but the other gospels present Mary coming with the other women. So again, there are several possibilities here. It's quite possible that Mary came alone and left before the other's got there, and the other gospels are just compressing the events and indicating that all of the women did go to the tomb, not necessarily in the order in which they went. I really prefer to take the view, however, that Mary was with the other women, and that when they arrived at the tomb, they may have started for the tomb before sunrise. We don't know how far they went. They were somewhere in the city of Jerusalem or just outside the city. They may have even been in Bethany, which is a couple miles away. So they may have started before sunrise, but didn't get there till after the sun had come up, and that's another way to harmonize these two accounts. But I personally believe what happened is the women came together. Mary Magdalene was a body of women that came, including at least three others. Luke mentions a Joanna that none of the other gospels mentioned. So there were at least four women who came. I think they probably came together, but here's the way I see this happening, and many others do too, it's not original with me. That was the case, you could probably absolutely mark it down as wrong. But what I think happened is they got to the tomb and they see the stone rolled away, and they're in shock as to how that happened. What's going on here? And they look inside cautiously, obviously, they don't know if grave robbers are here, or what's happened? So they cautiously look inside. They see enough to know that the body is gone, and Mary takes off. Now we'll see in a few moments, or next week maybe, that the other women actually go inside. I think Mary saw enough looking from the outside to see the body was gone, and she took off. And I think that's why John kind of treats her singly alone. Because John is more interested in his account with what happens with Mary later on when she's the first one to see Jesus. And so as he leads up to that account, he's going to focus on Mary Magdalene. See, that's again the purpose of his gospel and the purpose of what he's telling. So I think they all came together, but they looked in, realized the body was missing, and Mary immediately turns and runs to tell the disciples. She evidently finds Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, who is John, and she just barks out to them. They've taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they've put him. She has seen enough to know that his body is missing. She assumes that someone has stolen his body. Notice there's still no recognition or belief or awareness that he could have been resurrected. They still don't have that yet. They haven't got that yet. And so her assumption, she knows the body's gone, her assumption is somebody has come and taken it. We don't know where they put it. They don't know where we would she have been talking about Joseph and Nicodemus. And these women did see Joseph and Nicodemus place the body there. Is that who she's talking about? They've come and moved him to another place. We don't know where they've taken him. Maybe that's what she was referring to. It's hard to know. But I think that's probably what happened. Mary immediately runs to tell Peter and John. Comments, questions there. Right. Yes. There had to be several of the women together for that conversation to take place. Right. Because she would have already seen. Unless in the other scenario, the Mary does not meet the other group of women. The other group of women are coming wondering about the stone. They get there after Mary is already left. It's a little hard to put all the details together. But I really believe from what the other gospels present, they all came together, including Mary Magdalene. And then she is focused on by John because John is going to lead up to her being the first one to see Jesus. And so he focuses on her and his gospel. Okay. The next thing that happens then is I believe in this scenario, the other women enter the tomb and see the two angels and then go to report to the disciples. Okay. Let's go back to Mark's account, Mark 16. Okay. Where we left them in verse four was they had just arrived at the site and they saw the stone which is very large, have been rolled away and in verse five says, as they entered the tomb. So if you put John's gospel together with that, that's why I'm saying, I think Mary probably did not enter the tomb. She probably looked in with them first, recognized bodies gone. She takes off the other women enter the tomb. They entered the tomb. They saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. Let me show you again a picture of the interior of the tomb, at least a typical tomb of that day. If you walked in a tomb, you would walk in. Actually, this would be like to your left or your right as you go in the tomb. There would be what's called an antichamber out here somewhere. And you would walk in the tomb and then these little burial chambers would be off to the sides. And most of the burial chambers would look like this. They would have two slabs in them. I remember explaining to you before that they would be used over and over again. Once the body decomposed, the bones would be gathered and put in an osu-rary or a little bone box. And then these slabs would be used over and over again by family members later on. So this is probably what you're talking about. One of these slabs is where Jesus would have been laid by Joseph and Nicodemus. And so the women walk in and they see a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side. So on one of those slabs, he's sitting. Luke tells us that there were two angels and their clothes were shining. Now, which one's right? Is there a conflict here? Obviously again, you put the gospels together, you get the whole story. There were two of them, but Mark focuses on the one who will speak. There was one of them speaks. And so notice what he does. Well, verse five says, and they were alarmed. Okay, when the women did finally see this angel, they are alarmed. They're terrified. Verse six says, do not be alarmed. Don't be alarmed, he said. And he goes on to explain what's happened. These are the words that we're familiar with from Easter services. You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. Okay, so he's describing what has happened. What's interesting to me is that divine revelation, this time coming through the account of an angel, is necessary for them to understand the resurrection. They will not piece it together on their own. They must hear from God and God must explain to them what's happened. And so he uses an angel to do that. That's why the angel is sent, first of all, to move the stone and then to explain to them what's happened. Otherwise, they might have continued to wonder where he was until finally someone saw him and everybody kind of start piecing that together. But the angel explains, this is divine revelation. I know who you're looking for. He was crucified. He's risen. He's not here. Look where they laid him. And then she said, or then the angel says, but go tell his disciples and Peter, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. So they are instructed to go back and tell the disciples that Jesus is risen and wants to meet with them. Luke's gospel adds one other bit of information that I think is very critical to the story. In Luke's gospel, let me just read this in chapter 24, verse 6, he is not here. He is risen. Now, here's what Luke adds. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, the son of any and the angel quotes what Jesus had told them. The son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again. And verse 8 says, then they remembered his words. Now, that I think is a key bit of information. We're still talking about the women. None of the disciples are there yet. These are the women. The disciples followers of Christ. They have gone inside the tomb and the angel reminds them after he explains that Jesus has been resurrected. He reminds them, don't you remember what he told you in Galilee? He explained to you. Remember we've seen this. Jesus explained to them several times. And the angel reminds them. He explained to you that he must be crucified and he would be resurrected the third day. And the Bible says they remembered his words. This, I think, is the beginning of understanding what has happened. And it was a first explained and the first little bit of light of it was embraced by these women who were at the tomb. Okay, so I think that's critical because they are going to be the ones trying to convince the disciples as to what's happened. And I think it's because the angel explained to them and reminded them what Jesus said. And when they remembered what Jesus said, they start putting two and two together. And it was the women who first understood the resurrection. Not the disciples. It was the women who showed up at the tomb who began to put the pieces together first. I think that's a really interesting part of the story that's not very often highlighted. And I know what some of you think. I can see it on your face. I can see the heads nodding. Well, we would expect women to understand this first. Of course. I think it is very interesting that women are the first to receive the evidence of the resurrection, the explanation of the resurrection. They are the first to begin to embrace what has happened and begin to understand it. They don't understand it completely yet. But they're beginning to understand it. And the reason why that's so interesting is that in Jewish law, women were not allowed to testify in court. Jesus turned that completely upside down. And it's almost as though counter culture to elevate the status of women as he always did. He made sure that it was the women who first saw the tomb was empty, who got the report from the angel, the explanation about the resurrection, the reminder of what Jesus had taught and first began putting the pieces together. And they are the ones who take that testimony back to the disciples who didn't believe him. That's going to take a while, at least the rest of this day, for people to start grasping what's happened, especially the disciples. And we're going to have to leave it at this point. We're still not to the first appearances. Jesus has not appeared to anybody yet. But we'll come to that later. Real quick, any questions before we go? It's a couple of minutes after eight, so we've got to go. Okay? That's pray. Father, we thank you for this marvelous story, the foundation of our faith is built on the fact that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day. And so we rejoice in the story once again. It's been told so many times. We hear it every Easter. We hear it many other times. And yet it is thrilling to see it again. And we thank you for the joy and the victory and the power of the resurrection. Lord, help us to always live in light of our risen Savior. We ask in His name, amen.