Easter Sunday: Why The Resurrection Flips Your Expectations | Luke 24:1–12

An empty tomb can sound like nonsense until you realize what it’s actually saying. We open Luke 24:1–12 with the women walking to Jesus’ grave at dawn carrying spices and expecting death to be the final word, only to find the stone rolled away and the body gone. Their first reaction isn’t instant celebration, it’s confusion and loss, because most of us default to the same assumption: dead men stay dead.

Then the angels speak the line that reframes everything: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” and the core of the Christian gospel follows fast: “He is not here, but has risen.” We talk through why the disciples initially dismiss the resurrection as an idle tale, why doubt can be honest, and why Peter running to the tomb matters. The details Luke includes, like the linen cloths left behind, push us toward a historic resurrection and not a vague symbol.

From there, we bring Easter down to street level: guilt, shame, sin, and the ache that nothing in this world fully satisfies. We ask the most practical question we can ask on Resurrection Sunday: how is your soul? The story of Martin Lloyd-Jones leaving a high-powered medical path helps spotlight what lasts beyond a healthy body, and why peace with Christ is better than every temporary fix. If you’ve ever wanted to “see for yourself,” this message is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with the question you’re still wrestling with.

Transcript

Gratitude For Easter Worship

Luke 24 Reading And Prayer

Paul Harvey And The Rest Story

The Women Arrive Expecting A Body

Angels Announce The Risen Jesus

The Disciples Doubt The News

Peter Runs To See For Himself

Seeing With Your Eyes Then Heart

How Is Your Soul Really Doing

Invitation To Respond And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello and welcome to the FBC El Doredo Sermon Podcast. My name is Taylor Gere, and I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist. And I want to thank you for listening into our sermon this week. And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a Turk home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist El Doredo. Would you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week? Amen. Amen. Aren't we just Turks so blessed with uh just the music ministry that leads us so well, leads us with such excellence, takes us right to the throne, especially on an Easter morning. We are we are blessed indeed. I appreciate the many people that uh a moment ago were behind me. Now they're they're gone. But uh uh I appreciate the many that that work so hard, not just this morning, but uh many uh evenings really leading up to this morning. They are so special. I want you to turn uh to Luke chapter 24, and we'll be in verses 1 through 12. Luke 24, 1 through 12. Let me pray for us as we uh begin our time in God's Word. Lord Jesus, by your Spirit would you speak to our hearts? For that's what we need on Easter morning and every morning. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. I'm not sure exactly what uh the audible voice of God sounds like, but I wouldn't be surprised if it sounded a little bit like the voice of Paul Harvey, um, the great radio talent born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1918, who really became, probably for multiple generations, just the voice we think of when we think of turning on our radio dial. And I remember even into the 90s uh heading to school in the morning and hearing Paul Harvey tell me the rest of the story. And maybe you remember that, the rest of the story, always with that kind of punctuation on the word rest. And so the the idea Paul Harvey would do is you might know the headlines or the celebrity behind the story, you might know the event, but he wants to tell you the rest of the story, something behind the scenes that you didn't know. He'd tell you about, you know, some kid from the middle of nowhere who, you know, dropped out of middle school and couldn't get into college and all this, and you know, he'd go on to become, you know, he was Albert Einstein, you'd figure out in the last, you know, 30 seconds of his story. Something like that. It was the rest of the story. As we come to the gospel of Luke this morning, we've made it uh really uh all the way to Luke 23, and we've seen the headlines, we've seen the stories up to this point. It's been a beautiful story. We saw in Luke 2, we saw this baby being born in Bethlehem, we saw that that God has come in flesh. What could be more glorious than that? We saw him grow into the man who would go out and do great ministry all around Galilee in the north and uh Jerusalem in the south, and he would heal many people, and he would uh cast demons out, and he would uh feed 5,000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish, and he would do this great work, and then we saw where uh this man who uh we we we thought would be our Savior now has been arrested, now has been placed on a cross, a criminal's cross, now has been uh killed upon that cross and has been placed in the tomb. A stone has gone in front of that tomb, and we're tempted to believe through Luke 23 that the story is over, that the story is finished. And maybe we can learn some good lessons from Jesus about life and loving others, but as far as being the king who conquers death, up through Luke 23, we've kind of got bad news. But I'm thankful that the true voice of God, not just Paul Harvey, the voice of God told Luke to keep writing. And in Luke 24, what we get is the rest of the story. We get the rest of the story, that the story is not finished, that everything Jesus promised he would do, he has done. So let's look at the rest of the story as we look at verse 1 in Luke 24. But on the first day of the week, that is Sunday morning, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. Now, who is the they that has gone to the tomb? It's it's the ladies that are going to prepare Jesus' body for his long-term burial. Look up with me at verse 55 and 56 of the last chapter. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. So let me just paint the picture real quick. These ladies want to do their uh their ritual customs of preparing Jesus' dead body for his long-term burial. And so Jesus dies late afternoon on Friday, and so as soon as it's sundown, it is now the Sabbath until the next sundown on Saturday evening. And then it's dark, and so the first light they have on Sunday morning, that's when they come to the tomb, because they are going to go back into the tomb, they are going to find the dead body of Jesus, they are going to anoint that body with these oils and spices so that it is prepared for his uh eternal burial. So I don't want you to miss this in this moment. When the ladies are heading to the tomb in Luke 24:1, there is one thing they are expecting to see, and that is the body of Jesus. I'm not talking about the living, breathing, walking body of Jesus. I'm talking about the body of Jesus lying dead in that tomb. They are going there preparing for that moment. Verse 2. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Verse 3. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Now, you and I read verse 2 and 3, and we're fired up. We love these verses. The stone is rolled away, the body is not there. You and I, maybe we've been around long enough that we know where this story is heading. And so we read that the stone rolled away, the body's not there, and we're ready to uh jump for joy. Now, the ladies in this moment, this is not their story. This is terrible news. The stone is rolled away, and the body is gone. And if you go read John's version of this story in John 20, verse 2, you see instantly that these ladies, their assumption is that someone has taken the body of Jesus. That someone has stolen the body of Jesus. In this moment, this is bad news. He was our dear friend. We just wanted to give him a proper burial. We just wanted to do things the right way. We prepared the spices and everything, and someone stolen the body away. This is terrible news. You and I know this is not terrible news. This is the best news we've ever received. Verse 4 continues. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. We'll see, these are two angels. Verse 5. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? That's a good line. Why do you seek the living among the dead? That's a line that just means this. Uh, ladies, you're in the wrong place. You're looking for Jesus, that's a good thing, but he's the living Jesus, and you've come to the cemetery. You you've just arrived at the wrong location. You plugged it into Google Maps, and it just brought you to the wrong place. This is the place of the dead, but you're looking for the living Savior. Why do you seek the living among the dead? And here are the greatest words maybe ever uttered, verse 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. Let me say those first few words again. He is not here. You're looking for Jesus, you've come to the wrong place. He's not here. Why? Not because his body's been stolen away, not because it's just some trick, some hocus pocus. No, no, no. He's not here. He has risen, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as he told you he would do, has walked out of the tomb into glorious life, defeating sin and death. Now that's good news on an Easter morning or any morning. He is not here, he is risen. I remember mentioning this in the past, and I believe it today, and nothing has taken over for the top spot. I believe this, I've said it before again, the most brutal words in the business world are those words per my previous email. You remember talking about this? Per my previous email. And I've been on the receiving end of that, and I've had to look back in former emails, and I say, oh no, you're exactly right. I should have known this. Per my previous email, I've told you this before. We've walked through this before. You should have already known this information. The angels in this moment, very kindly, as angels do, give maybe the greatest per my previous email of all time. They say this he did exactly what he told you he would do. And you know, we can look back at the former emails, we can see the receipts and in Luke 9, verse 22. This is Jesus talking. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and here it is, and on the third day be raised. Now, for these uh disciples in this moment, maybe the the women hearing these words way back in Luke chapter 9, maybe they were thinking of some uh figurative, metaphorical resurrection. Maybe it was just too hard to believe because you and I both know dead men don't walk out of tombs. Whatever it is, they had heard it, but but it didn't click in that moment, and the angels are saying, He's not here, he is risen, just as he told you he would. Then in verse 8, and they remembered his words. It clicked in that moment, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to the rest. And so I I love the the task that the Lord gives these women at the resurrection, that these women are to now go and be the first heralds of the gospel message to go tell the eleven disciples, now eleven, Judas has gone his own way, and so go tell the eleven and the others what has happened, and they go report exactly what they've seen. Verse 10 it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James and uh the other women and uh with them who told these things to the apostles. But now, verse eleven. But these words seemed to be an idle tale, and they did not believe them. This these words seem to be silly, seem to be foolishness. There's no way this is true. Now, there's two ways we can look at this uh as the disciples respond to this message from uh these women. Are they responding to the the mess the messengers or the message? I mean, we we could look and say maybe they're responding to the the messengers. Uh they they absolutely should believe these women, but maybe they they don't believe their testimony. But also we can look at this, it's all about as well the content of the message because it sounds like an idle tale, because for the history of humanity up to this point, that would be an idle tale. Because you and I both know, the disciples know, the women thought they knew. Dead men don't rise from the grave. I had two weeks ago the chance to travel a little bit, and I was at a very special place, and I got to go visit the grave site of two kind of literary heroes. You can put this picture on the screen. On the left is the grave of C.S. Lewis, and on the right is the grave of J.R.R. Tolkien. C.S. Lewis, the Chronicles of Narnia and other great Christian works. Uh Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit. So two great literary heroes, and it was cool on days to get to go out. And I mean, obviously, I'm a I'm a Christian. These men were Christians. I mean, we know when we visit a grave site that that their spirit is with the Lord. Uh we we know that, but it is still neat to just be at that place. It's just neat to be there. And it's interesting. I I I visited those two grave sites, and I would go home uh where I was staying at the end of the day, and the the the person who kind of uh the the warden of the the home I was staying at, he a couple times uh throughout the trip would ask me, Hey, what'd you do this day? Uh what what all did you see that day? And you know, I might tell him I I saw the the graves of C.S. Lewis and and Tolkien, and he said, Wow, my goodness, what was that a was that a special thing? Was that neat to see? And and and and what if I had responded, I uh, you know, sir, I gotta tell you, it was neat and beautiful location and all, but but neither of them were there. He'd start to say, Well, what in the world do you mean by? I think I know what you mean. I mean, they're within the presence of the Lord. I know they're not there. No, you don't understand. No, neither of the guys were there. No one was home when I got to these two grave sites. And he said, Taylor, uh, let's say he said, I don't know what in the world you mean by that. I say, hey, they weren't there, but don't worry about it. They made it up to me. We grabbed lunch later in the day. Now he's starting to look at me and say, uh, you probably need to go find a different place to stay. You've you you probably uh we we don't want you here at this home anymore. Something's gone terribly wrong. We laugh at that because it's so silly. Because you and I know, if we could just put it bluntly, dead men stay dead. Can we say that? Is that is that too straightforward? Dead men stay dead. It feels like it's how it's always been. Some days it feels like it's how it will always be, and yet in this moment, the disciples hear the story of one man who rose from a tomb, and in verse 11, it sounds like an idle tale, but there is just this one individual who just can't help it. All throughout the gospels, there's a guy named Peter, and it just feels like he can't help himself sometimes in the best way. Peter has to get up. It may be an idle tale, it may be absolute foolishness, but if anybody's gonna see it for himself, it's gonna be me. And so what we see is verse 12, but Peter rose and ran to the tomb. I love this. Stooping and looking in, he saw, that word he saw, the linen cloth by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened. He wants to see it for himself. If they're just messing with me and telling me a story, I at least I'll be able to say I've seen it for myself. But he goes there, he sees the stone rolled away, he looks in the tomb, and he sees with his eyes the grave clothes folded up in the corner. They are no longer being used, utilized. There is no body in the tomb, and so he goes home marveling at what he has seen. What does that word marveling mean to marvel? I mean, it could mean a few things. It could be uh marveling, but still not belief yet. I'm marveling at I'm thinking, giving thought to what has happened. Has a body been stolen? Has someone played a trick on us? But what what we see throughout the Gospel of Luke, that word marvel is really used in a very positive way. We see at one point in Luke chapter 2, the shepherds report to Mary and Joseph what the angels have told them, and they marvel at the things they have heard. The next, uh a little later on, the same chapter, Simeon tells Mary and Joseph about, you know, who this young baby Jesus will become, and they marvel at what they have heard. It seems that the word marvel in the Gospel of Luke is a very positive thing. And so I believe in this moment, Peter sees an empty tomb, sees that the body is gone, and now he is marveling. He is beside himself. Maybe he doesn't know everything yet. He's about to, because Jesus is about to walk into the room where he's at, but he is marveling at the fact that the Lord has risen. And I just want to see two quick things this morning that really is the trajectory of, I believe, the Christian life. And it's just this I see the resurrection with my eyes, and I marvel at the resurrection in my heart. It's exactly what Peter does in this moment. First, I see the resurrection with my eyes. Again, Peter has to know for himself. He rises, he goes to the tomb, and he just looks. He he sees. Now, I wonder if you're here this morning, and this is exactly where you are at. That you are at a place in your own life where where you are here and and and you would say, I'm just here to see what this is all about. Maybe you're someone that that maybe you did grow up in church, but it never really connected with you. I mean, you were there when the doors were open because uh mom or dad or grandma had you there when the doors were open, but it never connected in your own life. Maybe you didn't grow up in church at all, and you just said it's Easter morning, and and you know, I uh maybe I need to go somewhere. That feels like something you should do on the Easter. I don't know how you come into the room. Maybe in your heart uh you you you know and you've seen so many things in your life, and you just want to in one moment just see what this Christianity thing is all about. What is Jesus all about? I I've I I know, I mean, Easter, I I've heard about the Easter bunny, I've heard about hunting for some Easter eggs. What does the church believe? What has Jesus done? What do they say about Jesus? And you just want to see what the resurrection is all about. And maybe you're in this moment because you have seen enough from your own life, just as I had seen enough from my own life to know that I don't have this figured out on my own. That I've I've I've looked at the depths of my own heart, and I've seen all the ways in my own life that I have tried to find, that maybe you have tried to find, fulfillment and worth and validation and identity and satisfaction in anything and everything this world has to offer. And I've seen the things of this world, and maybe they satisfied me for a little while, but then I realized I still feel like I'm missing something. I've seen enough to know that there is this hole in my heart that as to this point I haven't been able to fill it. Or maybe you're like this as well. And I've been here too. I'm not just preaching at you, I'm I'm talking about me as well, because I have been to this moment where I see the the I look in the mirror of my own life and I see the own the brokenness of my own soul. I see the sin that exists in my heart. What is sin? It's any way you and I uh disobey our Lord. We we fail to meet his glory. Glorious, beautiful standard. We fall short of his glory. We disobey him. We fall short of the life he's called us to live. And we look into the mirror of our own lives and we see our own sin and brokenness and we see our own guilt and shame. And maybe you are like I have been in the past. And you just wonder, what can I do with my guilt and my shame? What can I do with the fact that that I am just a broken person in need of healing? And and maybe this morning is just a morning where for the first time you just you've seen enough of this world, you've seen enough of your own brokenness that this morning you just want to see the person of Jesus Christ. And you'd say there's there's one thing I I've yet to see that I haven't tried. What can Jesus Christ do for me? The one who has died for my sins, who forgives me of my sins, who has risen from the grave. I want to see him. I want to know what that kind of forgiveness feels like in my life. I want my eternity to be shaped by Him. Now, you see Jesus. Peter sees Jesus in this moment, but then look at this. I marvel at the resurrection with my heart. Not only do I see the resurrection with my eyes, I marvel at the resurrection in my heart. And maybe for you this morning, you've seen enough in your own life, you've seen enough from the world around you to know it has left you wanting something more. And maybe this morning you now see the person of Jesus, but it's time to move the seeing to the marveling. I'll say it like this: move from the eyes or from the head to the heart. That I don't just see Jesus. I believe. I believe that he's the one that can do what nothing else in this world can do for me. That that I marvel at the fact that he would die for someone like me. That that he would go to the cross to forgive my sins. I marvel at the beauty of that. And maybe this morning is your morning, where all of this gets very personal. That you realize this morning that it's not simply that Jesus died, he did that, but but let's make it personal that that for you now, that he died for you. That he died for me, that he saw my sin and took my sin upon himself and your sin upon himself, that not just I see my Savior, I now marvel at the fact that I can be counted as a child of God by placing my faith in him. Maybe this morning is the morning for you. That you see Jesus, you see the empty tomb, and you marvel at the fact that he would do this for you. Last Sunday morning, I mentioned um one of my favorite preachers, Martin Lloyd Jones, and I mentioned I got to be at his church a few weeks ago and uh the church he served at many years ago. But his story is fascinating. Uh Martin Lloyd Jones uh had an unbelievable career ahead of him in the medical field. It's a fascinating story. He was accepted into medical school at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London at the age of 16 years old. Now, at 16, you and I were hoping to get to class on time, okay? And and he was accepted into med school at St. Bartholomew's. Now, St. Bartholomew's means nothing to you, it meant nothing to me, it probably shouldn't. But if you think about, you know, those hospitals that we know about in America, the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, you know, those big ones. Like St. Bartholomew's is at the top of the list there in London and has been for many, many decades. And Martin Lloyd Jones was accepted and he just uh top of the class in medical school. He became the chief clinical assistant for Lord Thomas Hoarder. Now, another name that means nothing to us this morning. Lord Thomas Hoarder, who was that? He was was the royal physician. He he sir, he was the chief physician for King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI. He was the partnering physician for King Queen Elizabeth II. That's who Thomas Hoarder was, and Martin Lloyd Jones was his chief clinical assistant. Martin Lloyd Jones had a career ready for him in his early 20s because that's the standard he had already risen to. That's where he was. And yet, at one point in his medical school, the Lord began to get a hold of his heart. As a young man, he had heard a lot about Jesus. Like I mentioned a moment ago, his parents had him in church on Sunday morning, but uh, you know, it didn't connect. He was there kind of because he had to be. He might could have told you some facts about Christianity, but something happened. He says, I love this phrase, that the hound of heaven chased after him in the days of his medical school, and the Lord got a hold of him and he came to know Jesus Christ personally. He had a personal relationship with Jesus. It changed everything. And in fact, uh the Lord then called him into ministry and he left uh the medical field behind and went to be a preacher of the gospel. I love how he talks about it, that in reality he's he's doing the same thing, but instead of working on the body, he's working on the soul. Uh he says this I saw men on their sick beds, I spoke to them of their immortal souls, they promised grand things, and then they got better, and back they went to their old sin. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is alright, he is alright to the end. But a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is all right for 60 years or so, and then he has to face an eternity of hell. Oh, yes, we have sometimes to give up those things which are good for the things that are best, the joy of salvation and the newness of life. I just love the way he talks about and really convicted by the way he talks about this. The most important thing in your 70, 80, 90, 100 years on this earth is this question. How is your soul? Is your soul healthy? Does your soul know the person and work of Jesus Christ? As Lloyd Jones says, if if you have such a healthy body, I pray that you do. If you have a healthy body, yet a sin-sick soul, you're in trouble. And yet, even if your body is breaking down, yet your soul is at peace with Christ, you are good for all eternity. I just want to ask you personally this morning, right where you're at, as we've talked about, as we talked about seeing the person of Jesus, marveling at the work of Jesus, how is your soul? Does your soul know the person and work of Jesus Christ? Do you know that you are at peace with him both now and for eternity? Do you know that your life is locked up in the person and work of Christ for all eternity that you will be with him? Do you know that your sins are forgiven? I want you, however, you walked into the room, I want you to leave the room this morning with a soul that knows it is at peace because Christ Jesus has done the work to forgive my sins and give me life. I want to tell you there's one way to have that peace. The world would tell you there's many. I'm gonna tell you there's one. Believing in Jesus Christ, saying this morning, Lord Jesus, would you be the Lord of my life? Would you forgive my sins? I want to proclaim you as Lord. I want life in you. And I want to tell you, friend, if that's you this morning and you want to come to know him, I'd love nothing more than to talk with you about it. I'd love nothing more than to tell you, if you make that decision, that's not the finish line. That's that's the start. The start of a beautiful life, both now and for eternity, that the Lord has for you. Because here is what I believe this morning: that maybe someone's walked into this room and the story of your life has been told up to a certain point. And it's been a great story. The story of where you were born, the story of your parents, your school, maybe where you went to college, a spouse, a children, a grandchildren, whatever it might look like, the story has been told up to this point, and yet I believe this. That in the words of Paul Harvey, maybe the Lord wants to do a work this morning to start telling the rest of your story. The rest of your story that goes from now unto eternity. And maybe that's you, and that as we worship in just a moment, you want to come. I'm gonna be right down here, and I'd love to talk with you. Maybe you just want a pastor to pray with you. I'll be here. Wherever and however you might want to respond, I pray that you would do it. There is no bad day to come to know the Lord. There is a really good one, and that's Easter morning. I like that one a lot. And so if that's you and you just want to chat about it, I'm going to be right here. In just a moment, I'm going to pray for us. We'll worship together. And as you need to respond, you come. Bow your heads with me. Lord Jesus, I do thank you for the gospel. I thank you, Lord, for your love for us. That you forgive us of sins, that you give us new life, and Lord, we can experience that life. And I pray if there's one this morning that needs that life, would they respond now? Lord, I pray that they would respond and today we receive salvation. Receive the hope of eternal life. Maybe there's one that wants to join our church family. There's one that knows Jesus and wants to talk about baptism. There's one that just needs prayer, whatever it may be, whether they respond down front or maybe just do business with you right in their own view, whatever it looks like this morning. Would we all respond as your spirit pleases? We pray this. In Christ's name. Amen. Would you stand now? I'll be down front. You respond as you need to respond as we worship.