The disciples, 2,000 years ago, had just experienced the worst week of their lives.
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Solome had come with spices to anoint the body of Jesus.
“Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” God had taken care of it.
They got a front-row seat to seeing these angels at work precisely because they were busy serving their Lord. Because they were wanting to serve Jesus by anointing Him, they got to witness these things.
God always rewards faithfulness, and these three ladies were faithfully serving.
He is not here for He has risen.
God certified Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as “Accepted—sin-debt paid in full for everyone would believe on Him.
5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.
From this verse, we don’t understand why a young man wearing a white robe in the tomb would amaze them, but the more specific description of the angel in Mathew 28:3 brings this out a little more clearly: And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
6 But he *said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified.
The angel knows exactly why they are there. The angel acknowledges that they have come to the right place, the tomb of Jesus. And that it’s the same Jesus—Jesus of Nazareth, just like Mark introduced Him to us back in Mark 1:9. And the angel acknowledges that this is the same Jesus who was killed by crucifixion three days ago.
He has risen; He is not here; see, here is the place where they laid Him.
The angel tells them, He is risen; He is not here. Talk about exceeded expectations. This is exactly the opposite of what they expected to find in the tomb. With this one word, risen, the whole scenario changes. The tragedy of His crucifixion is revealed as a triumph over death and sin. The women who had probably spent the past 3 days crying were suddenly filled with joy! They get to hear, for the first time, the central belief, the most important belief in Christianity. Paul later makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
This is the means by which God saves us. It is because Christ died, paying for all of our sins, was buried and was raised from the dead that we can be saved. The wages of sin is death—it should have been us sinners hanging on that tree, but (John 3:16 ) 6 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. God gave Jesus, so we wouldn’t have to die for our sins. And God raised Jesus to show that the price had been paid.
God has given you all the evidence you need, if you will choose to believe. And in our verses today, we see the angel providing the women the evidence that they needed saying:
see, here is the place where they laid Him.
These words let us know that they saw the place where Jesus had been laid empty, and that they could verify, as eye witnesses, that Jesus was no longer in his tomb on the morning of the third day. And these words are recorded for us so that we know that God did exactly what He said He would do—raise Jesus from the dead.
Luke 24:3 when he tells us “But when they went in, they did not find the body”.
He saved us in spite of our shortcomings, not because we are perfect. And when we fail, we need to repent, ask forgiveness and move forward. Our salvation is based on Jesus’ righteousness, not ours.
He knew every mistake that we’re ever going to make and decided to save us anyway.
The undisturbed grave-clothes
John saw these “linen clothes lying” undisturbed, just as they had been when the body of Jesus lay within them, but now there was no body; the linen clothes were empty! Now just how would you get a body out of those linen wrappings without unwrapping them? And if you did unwrap them, just how would you get them wrapped back up in just the shape of a body?
Mary’s Lament-Turned to Joy
Mary was still distraught.
But the angels know something that she hasn’t figured out yet.
At the Birth of Jesus, there were all of these public-type announcements-angelic hosts, the Star of Bethlehem.
But the resurrection isn’t like that. It is very much an individual thing.
We see each individual working out in their mind what has happened, and coming to faith in their own way and by different means.
And it’s the same way today—Jesus uses all sorts of means to reach people today—all sorts of ministries to reach the lost.
The resurrection is a very personal thing to the believer.
We believe in who Jesus is, that he died for our sins personally and that he was raised from the dead. We believe that God will forgive us and accept us as we accept His free gift and turn and follow Jesus
After the resurrection, Jesus was only seen by those people who loved him, only heard by people who longed to hear his voice, only touched with tenderness and love?
She immediately threw herself at Him, probably kneeling at His feet and embrace his knees which was a sign of deep reverential love.
We are all born in sin, and we start out by default as enemies of God.
Because Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, we can have peace with God.