Dr. Ron Sumners
March 27, 2005
A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was the custom in the affluent neighborhood for the parents to give the graduate an automobile. The boy and his father had spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect car.
On the eve of graduation, his father handed him a gift-wrapped bible. The boy was so angry that he threw the bible down and stomped out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news of his father's death that brought the boy home again.
As he sat one night going through his father's possessions that he was to inherit, he came across the bible his father had given to him. He brushed away the dust and opened it to find a cashier's check, dated the day of his graduation - in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.
As I thought about this story, I couldn't help but wonder how many people in this world have done the same thing to God. They have literally tossed aside a wonderful promise because they didn't understand it, or they didn't believe it was possible.
In our world, we are taught that "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." So many of us have been taken in by empty promises that we are leery of anything that tells us that we can have something for nothing. The world simply doesn't work that way.
But God does make promises that are too good to be true. The truth of the matter is the world is full of empty promises. We watch TV, and the advertisements tell us that we can be happy, sexy, rich, or famous, if we only purchase a certain product. It doesn't take long before we have been fooled enough to know that the world's promises are full of emptiness. But God is different. Instead of promises full of emptiness, on Easter, He gave us emptiness that is full of promise!
Today, I would like for us to think about the promises of Easter. There are three of them that I would like for us to consider. Each promise is marked by something empty: an empty cross, an empty tomb, and empty burial clothes. It is the very fact that each of these is empty that assures us that God's promises are real. Jesus was not held by the cross, the tomb, or the burial clothes and we can be sure of the fullness of His promises in our lives.
Let's begin with the empty cross. Because the cross was empty, we have the promise of forgiveness for our sins.
Let's go back to that first Easter morning. It is before dawn and the sun has not risen yet. A few of Jesus' followers, women, are on their way to the tomb, the borrowed tomb where Jesus is buried. They have been walking for about a half hour. The conversation is subdued. The task before them is a sad one. They are going to anoint the body of Jesus. As they come to the top of a rise in the path, they all stop. Motionless and quiet, they all stare off into the distance. As you look at them, look off to the right, just outside the city stands a gruesome reminder of the events of three days ago. Do you see it? It is silhouetted by the glow of the pink morning sky. It stands atop the hill that the locals call "The Skull." There are three wooden crosses standing stark and bare against the sunrise.
Yesterday was the Sabbath, so nobody had yet removed them. They stand there an empty reminder of the horror of Friday. The one in the middle is the one that I want you to see. On Friday it held the body of Jesus.
Take a close look at it. Look up at the top - those bloodstains are from the crown of thorns that was crushed into Jesus' skull. There are stains on the ends of the crossbar - they are from the spikes that were driven into his hands. The main beam is soaked in blood from his back. He was beaten with a cruel Roman cat-o-nine-tails and his back was a bloody pulp as he hung there. It also has stains from the blood that poured from his side when another Roman soldier ran a spear through his side to confirm that he was dead - he was!
Don't ever believe anyone who tells you that he was just faking it. There was no question - Jesus was dead. The soldiers knew it. There were used to death, and they knew a dead man when they saw one. The Jews who had clamored for his blood knew it and they left that ugly hillside with satisfaction that this irritating Rabbi was dead.
After the resurrection, these folks made up a lie to cover the miraculous. They said that the disciples had stolen the body. Can you imagine eleven, timid men, ten of whom were not even at the crucifixion, overpowering a company of Roman soldiers, moving a two-ton rock, and stealing the body of Jesus, just so they could claim that he had come back to life, and then willingly die to protect that lie?
Jesus really did die. That is why I want you to see the cross this morning. It is the place where he died. But today, it is empty. It is empty of the body of Jesus, but full of God's promises. It is full of hope for you and me.
The promise of the empty cross is that you and I stand forgiven. It was on that cross that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.
Sin - now there is a word that is just not popular anymore. It is a word that is not politically correct. But the fact of the matter is that we have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. So, here is the problem: the bible says that "the wages of sin is death," we have all sinned, therefore we all deserve death! But when we look at the empty cross, it is a reminder of God's promise that we have been forgiven. On that cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins. When Jesus breathed his last and shouted, "It is finished," the penalty was paid.
Before that Friday, God looked at the book of life and written by my name and yours was one word - guilty! But when Jesus died on the cross, God literally transferred our accounts to his name. On that day, Jesus wrote across every name, in his own blood, "Forgiven!" The empty cross promises us forgiveness.
Let's get back to our ladies. They continue on their way to the tomb and one of them wonders out loud, "Who will move the stone for us?" They have good reason to be concerned; the stone placed in front of the tomb was very large, weighing two tons.
When they get to the tomb, they are amazed. All the soldiers are unconscious, and the stone has been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb. An angel, glowing like lightening, is sitting on the tomb and says, "Don't be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen!"
The tomb was empty! What a tremendous promise that holds for us.
Let me tell you about a boy named Phillip. Phillip never felt like he belonged. He was pleasant enough, but he looked a bit different and was a little slow and sometimes he seemed unusual to his eight-year-old classmates.
In his Sunday school class, the week before Easter, Phillip's teacher introduced a special project. She gave every member of the class a plastic egg. She asked that each child was to bring something inside their egg the next week that symbolized the meaning of Easter.
The next week the eggs were opened. In the first, there was a pretty flower; in the next a beautiful butterfly, green grass was in the next. The children "oohed" and "asked." In another there was a rock. Finally, the last egg was opened - it was empty.
"That's stupid," said one child. "Somebody didn't do it right," said another.
The teacher felt a tug on her skirt. It was Phillip. "That's mine and I did do it right! It is empty, 'cause the tomb was empty." There was an unusual, thoughtful silence. And from that time on Phillip was accepted as part of the group.
Phillip continued to struggle with his physical problems, and they proved to be more serious than anyone suspected. He developed pneumonia and could not fight off the infection. He died just a few weeks after Easter.
At his funeral, nine eight-year-olds, with their teacher, brought their symbol of remembrance and placed it with him in the coffin. I'm sure you know that it was an empty egg. It was Phillip, the "different" child who helped his friends see the wonderful hope in the message of Easter.
The empty tomb is the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise to every one of us that we too will be raised to eternal life.
To those of us who know Jesus Christ as our Savior, death has lost its sting. It is no longer something to be feared. Why should we fear when we have the promise of eternal life?
A father and son were riding in the car on a spring day with the windows down. A bee flew into the car and the boy began to panic because he was allergic to bee stings. The father reached out and caught the bee in his hand. Soon, he opened his hand, and the bee began to buzz around the car once again. The boy began to panic. The father reached over to his son, and opened his hand showing him the stinger in his palm. "Relax, son. I took the sting; the bee can't hurt you anymore."
The empty tomb is God's way of saying to us, "Relax, my child, I took the sting, death can't hurt you anymore."
The tomb was empty because Jesus is alive. The promise is that we too can live even if we die. That is the second empty promise of Easter.
There is one more promise that I want to share. It is the promise of the empty burial clothes.
After the angel had spoken to the women, they immediately went back to the disciples and reported what had happened. Peter and John immediately raced back to the tomb to see for themselves. When they got there, John stopped just outside the tomb, but Peter ran right in. He discovered that the tomb was indeed empty. But that's not all. Peter found the linen grave clothes that Jesus had been wrapped in. They too were empty. This could only mean that Jesus was alive. If someone had stolen his body, the grave clothes would not lie neatly on the slab where the body had lain. Jesus was alive!
The Gospel of John records Jesus' encounter with Mary Magdalene, and then to all the disciples and eventually to over 500 people. He sat down with them, walked with them, talked with them, and ate with them.
Once again, they were able to fellowship with him. That is the promise of the empty burial clothes - Jesus is alive and wants to have fellowship with you. Jesus isn't some nebulous force out in the universe; he is a living Savior, and he desires to have a personal relationship with each one of us.
The cross could not hold him; the tomb could not contain him; the burial clothes lay like an empty leather glove after the hand is removed; he was and is alive!
Do you know Jesus Christ? I know that many of you have your name inscribed on a church roll somewhere, but is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? I did not ask if you know about Jesus. My question is - do you know Jesus?
We can know about someone and not truly know them. Everyone here knows of George W. Bush, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan. These are people that we know something about, but I doubt if any of us really have a personal relationship with any of them. But you can know Jesus Christ. You can know his love, his care, his healing, and his forgiveness. He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me."
That first Easter, as the women went to the grave, they had no idea what was about to happen to them. They were not yet aware of the wonderful promises they would encounter that day. Off in the distance stood an empty cross - the promise that their sins were forgiven.
At the end of their journey was an empty tomb-the promise of their eternal life.
Inside the tomb were empty burial clothes, the promise that they would once again have a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ - their living Savior.
Today, Easter Sunday 2005, you can know the freedom of forgiveness from your sin. You can claim the promise of eternal life in heaven. You can know a personal relationship with Christ as your Savior and Lord.
Some of you are in church for the first time in a long time. I think that is true because you understand, at some level, that there is hope and life to be found here. On Easter, we realize that God has made us some amazing promises. So amazing and outlandish that some of us cannot bring ourselves to believe them. Can you believe? My question today is this: will you take him at his word? If so, listen to this final promise. It is found in Romans 10:13, "For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."
Jesus is alive today - Easter 2005. Today could be the day that he comes alive for you!
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