Behold the Empty Tomb
Easter at WCC

Below is an automated transcript of this message:

All right, good morning, church. We want all of the kids to come down. I want to talk to you about some important things; about the empty tomb, too. All kids under the fifth grade, come on down. Come on and have a seat. Get up here behind me, beside me and in front of me. They’re still coming. Some of you might have to sit right here.

Okay, So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to read from the book of Matthew. And I want you to listen very closely for the word, “behold.” And every time you hear the word “behold,” I want you to count quietly. Don’t say it out loud; quietly count, and at the end, I’m gonna ask this question, “How many times did you hear the word, “behold?” Okay, you got it? To say the word, “behold,” that word means to see something, and to see it really, really well. Okay, so here we go.

Matthew 28:1-10 (ESV) 1 “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Okay, here comes the question. How many times did you hear the word, “behold?” Did you hear it three times? What do you think, parents; was it three times? Yep. So if God says something once, that’s pretty important, right? If He says it twice, it’s really, really important. If he says it three times, we should really take notes. So, He’s wanting us to “behold” the empty tomb.

Now there’s something else I want you to “behold;” pastor Jonathan is going to bring something over. I want you to “behold” it; I want you to see this. What is that? What do you think laid an Easter egg that large? A triceratops? A giant Easter bunny? Those are very creative answers. I wonder what’s inside. Pastor Johnson, will you open it? Let’s see what’s inside. It’s another Easter egg. First of all, we see this; what does it remind you of? Which cross? The middle one. Who’s on either side? The two thieves. That’s right. Two thieves. They were crucified. So, we remember that Jesus, on Good Friday, died for our sins. Who does this remind you of in the story? We just heard Mary; she’s one of the women who came where? To the empty tomb.

Let’s see what’s in the green egg. You think there’s anything in the green egg? Okay, let’s check it out. There’s another egg. You see, parents. It takes very little to make them excited. I don’t know what you have been complaining about. So what does this remind you of; an angel? What part of the story did the angel do? He said, “Do not be afraid,” and he opened up the tomb. He opened up the tomb by rolling away the stone, so the women could see that the tomb was empty.

Wait a minute. There’s somebody else in here. Who’s this; soldiers? Yeah. They were what? They were supposed to arrest Him. Well, they tried to arrest the angel, but, instead, it scared them so badly they fell out like they were dead men.

Let’s see what’s in this other egg. There’s something else in there. What’s this? That’s right. That’s the stone that covered the tomb. That’s right. That’s the stone that covered the tomb that the angel rolled back. The women were worried about it. It was too big to move, but the angel moved it. And then when they looked inside, they saw what was inside of this.

What do you think’s gonna be in here? Money was a good guess; some of you have rich parents. The empty tomb is represented by the empty egg. Now, here’s the thing that really matters; it’s what you believe about this. Do you believe this story? Did it really happen? It really happened; that means we never have to be afraid again, because Jesus has conquered sin. Jesus has conquered death and the grave. Can you kids say, “Amen?” Amen. All right, take a seat.

The soldiers fell right out, didn’t they ? They fell right out. Parents give them a hand as they take a seat; your kids are geniuses. Now, who’s gonna help me up? You’re gonna help me up? Pull hard. Thank you.

“Behold;” that word is in there three times. Behold in the Bible; you know, it’s kind of an archaic word in the English language. We don’t go around saying, “behold,” do we? Maybe we could reintroduce it back into the English language. Let’s try this as you’re leaving today, just as a check to see if you really were listening to the sermon. When you greet me out in the foyer, could you say, “behold, pastor Gary!” I will, then, know that you really listened. We’re going to try to get this word back in the English language.

The word, “behold,” has this idea not just to see something but to perceive with spiritual understanding that what you’ve seen. We come together every year at this time to celebrate Easter, the day that we believe Jesus was raised from the dead. When we look at the empty tomb, it’s one thing to see it. There’s another thing altogether, to see it with spiritual eyes, to see the implications of the empty tomb, to behold the empty tomb.

I want to give you three instructions that I see in the scripture here that are really given twice. We have three “beholds,” and we have three instructions listed. First, by the angel, in verses five and seven, second, by Jesus, in verse 10, and third, to the women.

Here’s the first instruction that’s given when we rightly behold the empty tomb, we can…

1. Live without fear because of Jesus.

Did you hear what the angel said to the women? “Do not be afraid. Again Jesus said the same thing to the women; “Do not be afraid.” You see, we’re afraid of the unknown, but the biggest unknown of all is, surely, death. We’re afraid of death.

I wanted to find out what Americans are afraid of most. What are the top ten things that Americans most fear? And so, I asked that expert that we all ask these days, google. I googled it and here’s what came up. Look at this.

The top ten fears; notice that it’s on a background of spiders. How many people do we have that are afraid of spiders? Okay, see, you’re in the top ten, right? Spiders. Spiders is number nine in the top 10. For some of you, it’s number one. What is number one? (1) Fear of flying. That was strange to me because I love to fly, but I know some people are terrified of flying. (2) What I’m doing right now; public speaking. Fear of death is down here on (6). We have several people who are scared of heights. A lot of people today are scared of commitment. Some are scared of the dark.

You know, I can remember being scared of the dark when I was a kid. I, also, remember being scared of failure. We could organize these, maybe, into two categories.

One is the categories is pain, suffering and death; anything that might hurt or kill. The other category seems to be more of a social fear; the fear of being rejected, the fear of public speaking. I’m not going to be good at this and people are going to reject me.

Here’s what both, the angel and Jesus, are saying as the women see the empty tomb; it’s this, “behold.” You no longer have to be afraid. You don’t have to be afraid of death or anything that will hurt the body because of Jesus. Eternal life is promised for those who believe Him. You no longer have to fear other people because you can live for the applause of ONE. You can live for the approval of God. That’s what the empty tomb rightly beheld. It suggests to us that fear is gone; that we can replace our fear with faith. We can believe that the tomb was empty and that Jesus is alive.

If we look at the book of Mark 5:36 (ESV) “But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” Jairus was the ruler of the synagogue, He had gone to Jesus, because his daughter was sick unto death. He went to Jesus, saying, will you come to my house and will you heal my daughter? I believe you can do it. But then, right as he was saying this, some servants from Jairus’ house came to Jairus and said, don’t trouble the master. Your daughter has already died. Jairus drops his head; Jesus puts his hand on Jairus’ shoulder and says, “Don’t be afraid; only believe.” Jesus follows Jairus to his house and he lays hands on the little girl and she is raised to life. In fact, she wakes up hungry and Jesus says, “fix her something to eat.”

“Don’t be afraid; only believe.” Death has its sting removed. As we see in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (ESV) “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The sting of death has been removed. Yes, these old bodies will still die; they’ll still “run down.” Some of us, that are getting a little older, are already experiencing some of that “running down,” aren’t we? But we don’t have to be afraid. Let’s use these bodies up and wear them out for Jesus because we get a new body someday. The empty tomb points to the reality that we get a new body because Jesus was raised in a new resurrection body.

Do you believe this? Do you behold the tomb rightly and recognize that the empty tomb says you no longer have to fear? You no longer have to be afraid.

Here’s the second instruction that’s given when we rightly behold the empty tomb, we can…

2. Go and tell others about Jesus.

Both the angel and Jesus say the same thing in verse seven. The angel says “quickly;” in other words, have a sense of urgency about it. Jesus is talking to the women; Mary, the other Mary and some other women were there. According to the other Gospels, they came there bringing spices and other things to do the last rites, if you will. They were there to do the last things you do for a loved one when they have passed away.

They hoped, as they walked there, that someone would move the stone because they were afraid it would be too big for them to move. When they got there, the angel had already landed and caused an earthquake upon his arrival. The angel had moved the stone so Jesus could get out. Jesus didn’t need any help getting out. Trust me; He could move the stone. So the women could see the empty tomb; He had heard their prayers. The Lord heard them, as they were wondering who was going to move the stone? Well, God sent an angel to move the stone.

As they looked in there, the scripture says that folded there, on the place where Jesus had been laid, was the linen that He’d been wrapped in. Even the cloth over His face was folded neatly. Apparently, Mary had insisted that Jesus learn to make his bed. As he got up, he paused for a second and folded that which once had wrapped His crippled and suffering body but now is resurrected and whole again. As they looked in there, the angel said to them, you need to go and tell His disciples about this. “Go quickly” and do it, get a sense of urgency about it.

Then, when they’re headed out, it says they’re running, and they run into Jesus. He says, “Greetings.” They fell at His feet and began to worship. He says, “Don’t be afraid. Go quickly. Go and tell my brothers that I’m risen.” “Why do you seek the living from among the dead? Go and tell.” Now, they got it twice.

The women went to tell the disciples; they didn’t believe at first. They just thought they were being a group of hyper emotional ladies. One of the things, I think, that makes the story more believable is the fact that the women saw the empty tomb first, that the women saw the resurrected Jesus first, that the women were given the instruction to go and tell others first. How about that, ladies? Jesus appeared to you first! It makes the story more believable because during this time a woman had no right in the court system. She had no legal rights and so her witness had no power. It had no authority. There had to be a male witness for there to be authority. But the writers of the Gospel weren’t concerned about writing a good story. They were concerned about riding a true account.

The women went to the disciples and the disciples didn’t really believe it at first, but Peter and John decided to go check it out. We read that, in one of the other four gospels, Peter and John took off running, but John was faster. He was probably younger by ten years, and he bolted and sprinted all the way to the tomb. He got there first, slid in and stopped, realizing he didn’t think he really wanted to go in there. But then, Peter lumbered on in, and then John followed, and they saw that the tomb was empty.

Peter is a good example of why we should believe the veracity of this story as being true. Just a couple of days before this, he had denied Jesus three times out of fear. He didn’t want to tell anybody that he was a follower of Jesus. You know, a lot of us are afraid to admit to others that we are a follower of Jesus. But Peter denied him three times.

But we know this; after he saw the empty tomb and after he saw the risen Lord, he was changed forever. He became a “go and tell” disciple to the point that, when he was crucified in Rome years later, he said, “I’m not worthy to be crucified as my Lord.” And so, they crucified him upside down. He was Peter the bold, Peter the rock; he no longer denied Jesus. This is evidence that the empty tomb really happened, because how else would you explain the lives who were changed by those who saw it? Go and tell others.

Look at these pictures I have. This is the garden tomb in Israel. I’ve been to Israel a few times. I’ve taken some of you with me, and some of you have seen this. It’s a beautiful setting. This is near the Golgotha scene that’s called “Gordon’s Calvary,” where in the rock, there’s an image of a skull. The place of the skull. Right next to it is the garden tomb, and we see here’s the stone. In the next slide, you can see proof that I visited. Friends, the tomb is empty. It’s empty; in case you were concerned about that. I’ve been there and many of you have been there with me. It’s empty.

We don’t worship a memorial. We don’t worship a tomb. We worship a risen Savior. He’s alive. Will you go and tell others? Will you be like Peter and no longer be afraid to tell others? Tell them because there’s no other religion like Christianity. Every other religion, if you go to their grave, it says “occupied.” But when you go to the tomb of Jesus, it’s empty. It’s empty. We serve a risen Savior.

In the book of Mark, Jesus instructed His disciples, Mark 16:15 (GW) Then Jesus said to them, “So wherever you go in the world, tell everyone the Good News.” Will you do it? Will you behold the empty tomb and recognize the instruction to go and tell that Jesus has risen?

Here’s the third instruction that’s given when we rightly behold the empty tomb, we can…

3. Be ready to face Jesus.

Be sure of this; the empty tomb says He’s alive and you will come face to face with Him. Whether you believe or not. Someday all will believe, but for some it will be too late. You must believe, having heard the gospel. There comes a time when it’s too late to believe. But all will one day see Him. He is alive and He will rise again.

The angel said, in verse seven, “Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” Jesus tells the women, in verse 10, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” There they will see me. He’s promising that they will see Him. The implication here is not just that they saw Him, but that we will see Him as well.

Remember what Caiaphas, the high priest, asked Jesus during the trial? You know, Jesus had not said one word. He was silent as a lamb during the time of accusation, and finally, Caiaphas says to him, Tell me the truth. Are you the Messiah?” And Jesus says this to Caiaphas; He says, “You have said so. But I tell you from now on you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. You will see him even though you don’t believe me, someday you will see him.” That’s what he said to Caiaphus.

There comes a time when we all will come face to face with Jesus. Remember what the angel said to the disciples at the time of Christ’s ascension? It is in Acts 1:11 (ESV) “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” As Jesus ascended up into the clouds, all the disciples looked up. For some reason, I’ve always found this a little bit humorous because it’s just so human. We’re just all looking up. Then, the angel taps Peter on the shoulder and he says to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” He’s coming again. Just as sure as anything; just as sure as the empty tomb. He’s coming again.

Do you believe it? Do you believe He’s coming again? You should. Order your life accordingly by being prepared. What if He comes right now? I’d be thrilled for Him to come right now; He’d catch me preaching. He would catch all of us at church. We were at church when Jesus came again. That’d be awesome. But there are other times that perhaps you wouldn’t want Him to catch you. You wouldn’t want Him to come at that moment. The scripture says He’ll come when we least expected.

This is Jesus speaking, in Luke 12:40 (ESV) “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Get ready , people. Get ready; be ready.

How do you do it? How do you get ready for Jesus? How do you prepare yourself for Jesus? Well, I think there’s only one way to be ready for Him, and that’s to believe in Him and to accept Him.

I believe it’s a three part decision. The first part is to believe the facts. That’s an intellectual decision. Believe the facts. Believe the empty tomb. Believe that He’s risen. Believe that He was crucified for your sins today and He is coming again. There’s some facts to believe, but that’s not enough. There are people here that believe the facts, but their life remains unchanged.

We, also, need the Holy Spirit at work. He affects the emotion; he affects the whole person. You believe the facts but the Holy Spirit is at work for some of you. Right now, you know exactly what I’m talking about because the Holy Spirit is stirring you.

The Bible talks about how Jesus knocks at the door of your life, and that’s the Holy Spirit is wooing you, asking you to come into the kingdom. Some of you’ll say this, you know, I just feel better when I go to church. But you know, feelings aren’t enough. It’s not enough just to have a good feeling. The third part is really critical. The intellectual part is important. The emotional part is important, but the third part is really important. That’s the part where we say, “I do.”

We baptized some people yesterday, and we have some more people being baptized this morning at our Rocky Mount campus. One of the things that we say, when we baptize people, is it’s like “putting the ring on.” It’s like “putting the wedding ring on;” the baptism doesn’t save you. What saves you is Christ’s blood; believing in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. That’s what saves you; believing in Him. Saying “I do” to Jesus. So we ask each candidate, “Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” And they reply , “I do.” It’s kind of like getting married is the “I do “ and baptism is like putting “the ring on.” Baptism doesn’t make you married, but it tells everybody else that you are, as an act of the will.

Have you ever said “I do” to Jesus? Have you ever said I believe in You? I believe You’re the son of God, the Messiah, the risen Savior. “I do.” I believe in You; I’m drawn to You. I say “yes” to You. Have you ever done that? That’s the only way to be ready. That’s the only way to be ready. That’s the only right way to behold the empty tomb.

In 1969, a Christian artist, Larry Norman, who was often referred to as “the godfather of contemporary Christian music,” wrote a song that was very popular, entitled, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” Here’s one of the stanzas:

A man and wife sleep in bed, she hears a noise and turns her head. He’s gone. I wish we’d all been ready. Two men walking up a hill, one disappears and one’s left standing still. I wish we’d all been ready. There’s no time to change your mind. The Son has come and you’ve been left behind. I wish we’d all been ready.

Oh, I hope that every one of you is ready. You’ve heard the gospel. You have no excuse. Behold the empty tomb that points to the risen Jesus. Are you ready? Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus. We thank You for Your word. We thank You for Your instructions, through the angel and through your own lips, that we don’t have to be afraid anymore. We can tell people; we can shout it out on the mountaintops that You’re alive and You’re risen. We can be ready for your return. The empty tomb points to Your return. You’re alive and You’re coming again. I pray for the person right now that came in, far from you, but wants to leave near. Is that you, my friend? Right where you are, right in your seat, . would you pray with me by prayer of faith, believing? Pray a prayer saying “yes” to Jesus. Say something like this. Just pray with me. Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner and I believe You died on the cross for my sins. I pray right now that You will come into my life because I know You’re alive. You’ve been risen from the grave and You’re alive today. Come into my life and forgive me of my sins and make me a child of God. I want to be a follower. I want You to be my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that prayer, believing, you’re saying “I do.” Say it right now. “I do,” Jesus. I say “yes” to you, Jesus. I want You as my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that prayer, believing that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Others are here and you know Jesus as your Savior. But you haven’t been following Him as Lord. , You’ve got some things out of order in your life. You’re in a relationship you shouldn’t be. You’re involved in a business situation or your life has slipped. Something’s gone wrong in your life right now and you’ve become bitter. Your faith has ebbed and you feel distant from God. You don’t have to leave that way. Give it to the Lord right now. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be anxious. Behold, He’s alive. Let Him change your situation. Repent and recommit right now. We lift all this up to You, knowing that You’re alive, that You’re able and that You’re coming again. It’s in Your name, we pray. Amen.