SPEAKER_00: Free to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 28, verse number six.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna read this one verse of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He is, why don't we read it together?
SPEAKER_00: He is not here, for he is risen as he said.
SPEAKER_00: Come see the place where the Lord lay.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to speak to you a few minutes on the testimony of an empty place.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your mercies and grace, for your presence and power that we have felt already in this place, for all that you have done in our hearts and minds already.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would continue to minister to us, that you would anoint us to speak your word and to receive what you want to say to each heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let your spirit, power, and strength minister to every person here and every person join us online.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: You know, most uh most empty places in life are a bit disappointing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you have an empty bank account, that's probably not something you're celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it just says you lack some resources.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we just get that empty feeling of insignificance or or uh little value.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there's an empty chair at the table that represents a lonely place in our hearts for someone we miss, or an empty season when things don't seem to work out like we hoped they would, and life feels a bit futile.
SPEAKER_00: So there that's how we usually refer to an empty place.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes an empty place can speak something, something powerful to us.
SPEAKER_00: And on resurrection morning, God shows us that the most powerful testimony that He gives comes from that empty place, that empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest message that was ever delivered didn't come from a prophet, it didn't come from an apostle, it didn't come from a preacher, it didn't even come from an angel, it came from an empty place, an empty tomb that proclaims the gospel to us, a vacant tomb, no longer in use, because Jesus rose again.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The angel didn't say, look at me, the angel didn't say, look at him.
SPEAKER_00: The angel said, look at the empty place.
SPEAKER_00: Look inside this tomb.
SPEAKER_00: It's empty.
SPEAKER_00: It it he's not here, he is risen.
SPEAKER_00: Come see the place where the Lord lay.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: When I was working on uh preparing for today, and uh of course, you know, there's so many things you could say, and and I taught the early earlier Bible class because there's a lot of other things I wanted to say too.
SPEAKER_00: But when I was reading and preparing for today and thinking about this, I thought, you know, it's kind it really is, it sort of struck me when I read these words of the angels speaking to the people that came to see and just just to tell them not only that he's risen, but come look.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like, come in and see this empty place.
SPEAKER_00: It it's a testimony, it's a proclamation that he is risen.
SPEAKER_00: It became evidence itself of his resurrection, his resurrection power, and of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a testimony in an empty place.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb testifies that God keeps his word.
SPEAKER_00: He is risen as he said.
SPEAKER_00: As he said, the angel alluded to it, as he said, the resurrection is not really a surprising ending, but it's a prophesied ending, it's a promise fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus promised that he would resurrect.
SPEAKER_00: He stated that explicitly.
SPEAKER_00: And so in Luke chapter 2, John chapter 2, it both of those tells us this story where Jesus said he would rise again.
SPEAKER_00: He responded to the Jews who were asking for a sign.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it.
SPEAKER_00: I will build it up again, I will raise it up again.
SPEAKER_00: Destroy it in three days I will raise it up again.
SPEAKER_00: Now, lest you think that it's they understood that to just mean a building, as we read these scriptures, we can find out they understood he wasn't just talking about a building.
SPEAKER_00: Because he promised this, he said this, and then we read later where his enemies remembered it.
SPEAKER_00: They remembered what he said at the crucifixion, at the trial of Jesus, the enemies of Jesus, the Jews, began to taunt him with this promise that he had made.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh, you're the one that said you could raise up the temple again in three days.
SPEAKER_00: Can you take yourself off the cross?
SPEAKER_00: Can you remove yourself from the cross?
SPEAKER_00: You said you could do it.
SPEAKER_00: They understood it was more than a building he was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: They got the message, they saw it right in that moment, if not before, that he was talking about himself.
SPEAKER_00: And they're taunting him with his promise.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to harass him with the promise that he had made.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that Jesus knew what he's doing, and you and I sat here today and knew what he was doing, but nobody else really got that message.
SPEAKER_00: But these enemies of Jesus, they knew that Jesus had promised, and now they're standing at the cross, taunting Jesus with the promise that they believed was forever lost.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting enough, the disciples seem to have forgotten the promise entirely.
SPEAKER_00: And that is sometimes how it is.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the enemy heard the promise and holds on to it and knows it's the promise of God that he plans to keep and he will keep, and yet we hear the promise and we forget that he even made the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we didn't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples forgot it entirely.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had told them, in fact, Jesus didn't just say it in these sort of cryptic words of the building, but Jesus told them explicitly in Matthew chapter 20, and it's also in Mark 9, Mark 10, and Luke 18.
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't just once.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told them explicitly, he said, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and shall, and they shall condemn him to death, and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify him, and the third day he shall rise again.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus said to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: But through this process, looking at the evidence in front of them, they couldn't quite believe that.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know that he was actually going to keep the promise.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus gave the promise, he keeps his promise, and the empty tomb tells us today that Jesus will keep his promises no matter how dire the situation looks, no matter how difficult the situation looks to us.
SPEAKER_00: And every every resistance that the enemy gives declares that his promise is known.
SPEAKER_00: That he's gonna come out of that grave.
SPEAKER_00: It makes me think, I don't know if I have time to cover it, but it makes me think about when we went to Israel, we've gone to Israel a couple times, and and the uh the prophecies about Jesus entering the Messiah, Jesus entering the Eastern Gate, and so in order to prevent that from happening and try to keep that from going on, uh there's a Muslim cemetery blocking the eastern gate.
SPEAKER_00: They built it there on purpose to keep that from happening because they don't believe the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, their works say they do believe the promise.
SPEAKER_00: They do believe that Jesus is going to come to the Eastern Gate.
SPEAKER_00: They're doing all they can to prevent it.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of the same story here.
SPEAKER_00: They're doing all they can to prevent Jesus from keeping his word, but the empty place reminds us, the empty tomb reminds us that he keeps his promises.
SPEAKER_00: There's a testimony in that empty place.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a testimony that death doesn't have the power we think it does.
SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders wanted to ensure that Jesus didn't keep his promise.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 27 tells us that the next day, the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they came to Pilate and they said, Sir, we believe that the deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
SPEAKER_00: Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people, He has risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: So the last error is worse than the first.
SPEAKER_00: And Pilate said, You have a watch.
SPEAKER_00: Go your way and make it as secure as you can.
SPEAKER_00: And they went and they made the sepulchre sure.
SPEAKER_00: They sealed it, they put a stone in front of it, they sealed it and they set a watch.
SPEAKER_00: They set guards in front of it.
SPEAKER_00: In the minds of Jesus' enemies, the tomb is supposed to be the final word.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna make sure it's the final word because we're gonna roll a heavy stone in front of it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna seal that stone, and we're gonna furthermore put guards out here to keep anybody from rolling that stone away because we're gonna make sure that it doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews sealed it, the soldiers guarded it, and hell celebrated.
SPEAKER_00: But when the women arrived, the stone was rolled away.
SPEAKER_00: The grave was open.
SPEAKER_00: No human being rolled the stone away.
SPEAKER_00: The angels or the power of God rolled the stone away, and and they didn't have to roll the stone away.
SPEAKER_00: The stone wasn't rolled away to let Jesus out, it was rolled away so they could see the tomb was empty.
SPEAKER_00: So they would know that Jesus keeps his promise and he has power over death, that death is not as scary as you think it is, because there's promise after death, and he will keep his word.
SPEAKER_00: Death is defeated, the grave is temporary, the sting of death has been removed.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is not just an event, it's Jesus Christ saying, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb is God's announcement that death does not get the last word.
SPEAKER_00: You can look at the empty tomb today and be reminded that death isn't the last word.
SPEAKER_00: We all will die at some point unless we're raptured.
SPEAKER_00: We're all going to die.
SPEAKER_00: But death isn't the last word.
SPEAKER_00: There's hope beyond this life.
SPEAKER_00: There's a testimony in that empty place.
SPEAKER_00: There's a testimony that lets us know.
SPEAKER_00: The women came expecting to anoint the body.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned it earlier today.
SPEAKER_00: They expected in the quiet stillness and the heartbreaking sadness of death.
SPEAKER_00: This is what they expected, but they left announcing not death.
SPEAKER_00: They left announcing a living Savior.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb turned everything around.
SPEAKER_00: They came to mourn, they left rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens in an empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: In an empty tomb, mourning turns into a mission for God.
SPEAKER_00: Mourning and an empty tomb turns into, uh turns fear into faith.
SPEAKER_00: It turns confusion into clarity.
SPEAKER_00: It defeat turns defeat into destiny.
SPEAKER_00: The empty place tells us that your worst day is not the end of your story, but God can resurrect what you thought was finished.
SPEAKER_00: That God can make you whole, that God can renew you again and take what you thought was dead and raise you to life.
SPEAKER_00: Even a promise that looks dead, even something that looks without hope, he can make it new.
SPEAKER_00: He can breathe life into it in a way that you never expected.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb testifies that he is leading us.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, 7.
SPEAKER_00: This is the instructions he said that he was going before them into Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: That he was going to be for them.
SPEAKER_00: He already told them, I'm going to go before you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be ahead of you.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be still waiting at an empty tomb, waiting to see what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be in Galilee already.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb is not just what Jesus left behind, but it's where he's taking us.
SPEAKER_00: It's what he wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's how he wants to work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that we don't walk alone, but he walks with us into the future.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that he is still going with us, that he has never left us.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds of his resurrection power.
SPEAKER_00: Resurrection power is not something that happened in your past and stays in your past.
SPEAKER_00: But resurrection power is in your present, and resurrection power is in your future.
SPEAKER_00: And the empty place, the empty grave, is a signpost pointing you to where God wants you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't tell his disciples, y'all all come to the cemetery.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all all come to the graveyard and let's camp out here.
SPEAKER_00: No, he said there's a future.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't end here, it doesn't stop here.
SPEAKER_00: But resurrection extends beyond this grave.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take you into the future.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take you where I want you to go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to lead you there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take you there.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the ending place.
SPEAKER_00: There's a testimony in that empty place.
SPEAKER_00: There's a testimony that we can live.
SPEAKER_00: We can live in resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: That you can live in a life filled with resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: That you can stand in the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: That you don't have to live buried in your sins.
SPEAKER_00: That you can rise above sin.
SPEAKER_00: That you can rise above the shame, the remorse, the pain, that you can rise above the fear that you may experience, that you can rise above that old life.
SPEAKER_00: The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is available to raise you into newness of life, even today.
SPEAKER_00: Even today.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's so powerful to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so great to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so moving to us because we understand that in that empty place we are reminded.
SPEAKER_00: It screams a testimony, it shouts the praise of God, it shows the glory of God and the power to raise us into new life.
SPEAKER_00: Where we used to be is not where we are now.
SPEAKER_00: Where we used to be is an empty place.
SPEAKER_00: Where we are now is where God is leading us from there.
SPEAKER_00: It's a resurrected life, it's a new life, it's a born-again life.
SPEAKER_00: How God wants to work in our what used to hold us in a grave, what used to strap us down in anguish and addiction and the struggles of this life, God has set us free and made us new.
SPEAKER_00: And that place is now empty because we have moved into the resurrection power that God gives to us.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to move past your empty place today, if you want to move past where you are that's holding you down and leave it empty and alone in just something that's in the past, God will take you into something new today.
SPEAKER_00: He will let you be born again of the water and the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection testifies that God can do his greatest work in a place that's now empty.
SPEAKER_00: That the tomb was empty so your life could be full.
SPEAKER_00: That the grave was vacant so your heart could be filled with his grace.
SPEAKER_00: That the stone was rolled away so you could hope again.
SPEAKER_00: The testimony of this place, of this empty place, is he is not here.
SPEAKER_00: He has risen.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever place you have in your life that may hold you, that may squeeze your life, that may feel like it's choking the life out of you, that may put you in a predicament that you would like to be released from, I want to tell you that God can set you free.
SPEAKER_00: God can give you his power, his strength, his grace, his mercy ministering to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll open your heart today, God can fill you with his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God can fill you with his spirit in this house today.
SPEAKER_00: God can fill you with his presence and his power.
SPEAKER_00: Because he lives, you can live.
SPEAKER_00: Because he rose, you can rise.
SPEAKER_00: Because he rose, you can have hope in your life today.
SPEAKER_00: And you can rejoice in the hope that God gives you.
SPEAKER_00: Can we stand?
SPEAKER_00: I told you I was gonna watch the time.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't believe me, did you?
SPEAKER_00: I believe God wants to touch somebody's life in this house today, and I don't want to talk too long.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go too long so that you feel rushed.
SPEAKER_00: I want God to do something in your life today.
SPEAKER_00: We have felt the presence of the Lord in this house as we worship God.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's Easter, and some of you are, you know, you're all dressed.
SPEAKER_00: All of you women are beautiful, your new clothes, all that, you know, it's all great, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: All that's good.
SPEAKER_00: But I think God wants to do something in somebody's heart today.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to minister to somebody's heart.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to leave you new today, not just celebrating Easter and and dressing nice and celebrations and cultural things and traditions that you may have, but God can change your heart and your life today and make you whole and new.
SPEAKER_00: Fill your life with peace and joy and strength if you will open your heart to God.