The empty tomb serves as the central focus, illustrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The sermon details Mary Magdalene's early morning visit to the tomb, her discovery of the removed stone, and her subsequent report to Peter and John. It highlights Peter and John's race to the tomb, their examination of the burial clothes, and John's belief upon seeing the evidence. The core lesson emphasizes that the empty tomb is a testament to Christ's resurrection, a foundational event for Christian faith, and a call to believe in Him for eternal life. The message concludes by urging listeners to consider their own belief and to go home with faith, mirroring the disciples' experience but with the hope of encountering the risen Lord.
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first met Mr. Woodhouse when he was with the Pilgrim Preachers, somewhere in England. I don't know which town, but I remember how the Pilgrim Preachers used to come in. We'd go out and meet them coming in sometimes, and I met them coming into several towns in England when I lived there years and years ago, and it was always a great time. We used to have wonderful open-air meetings in the market square or somewhere where we could find a place. And in those days you could have open air meetings. We spent all our summer Saturday afternoon, never, never missed the Saturday afternoon, to cycle out on our push cycles, pedal out there, fifteen, sixteen miles to a village.
It used to be my job to plan the food. We used to go and have First of all, give out tracks all around the village and invite people to the open air meeting. And then we arranged tea, English tea, and it used to be my job, arranged in a restaurant or a school room or somewhere. For tea and what wonderful times of fellowship we used to have. Then we had a prayer meeting. Then we got out on the village square and preached the gospel. And it was at one of those open air meetings that I first met the lady that's my wife. long, long years ago, nineteen, nineteen, I think it was.
And that's where we learned to preach. We had some good men. He said, take it out and teach us to preach the word of God. And that's where we learned. My brothers and I and many others in those wonderful, wonderful meetings. And this brother, Mr. England from Norwich, England, he lived in Bristol, used to send me a card every Friday I got a card. Dear Bob, don't forget the open air meeting tomorrow. And I wrote back, I said, listen, don't send me a card that you're wasting your money. I will be there. I live all the week for Saturday afternoon. He said, I should still send a card. I find it pays to remind everybody to be there.
And sometimes we had a group of sixty young people all peddling out there and standing in a great circle and preaching the gospel. They were great, great days. You can't do it today because the cars are rushing by and the noise and the fuss. Those were quiet days. And God used us and blessed us. And that's where we learned many of it. Many young men, they're no longer young, but many of my friends, we learned to preach in those open-air meetings. Now I want to turn this morning to the twentieth chapter of John's gospel. We won't take very much of it. I have been speaking on John's Gospel for a long time here.
Some of you that have just got back from the north, you say, well, she's still in John's Gospel. Well, I am, but I haven't preached very often, so that we haven't made much progress since you were here. I don't know how many weeks ago it was since I spoke, but it must be six or seven or eight weeks ago. We've got to the twenty chapters, so we're getting near the end. And I must say that the studies in the nineteenth chapter of John have meant more to me this time. And I've gone through John's Gospel on several occasions in the Bible school. And when I was with the men in the Air Force in Egypt, we went verse by verse through John's Gospel.
When I lived in Wilmington, we went verse by verse through John's Gospel. and I went to John's Gospel in Southeastern Bible School where I was teaching John's Gospel, but never as the Nineteenth chapter meant to me what it meant this time. The sufferings of Christ, the awful agony, the awful, awful sufferings he endured for you and me. They came home fresh to my heart, more fresh than they ever have. And now we thank the Lord that he went to that awful place called Golgotha. How about before that, he went to the place called Gabbatha. And when I read, as our brother mentioned last Sunday morning, our brother Sneddon, his visage was more marred than any man's.
How they beat and tortured and beat up the Son of God is something terrible. And then after all that was scourged and bleeding back and thorned crown brow. They nailed him to a cross. That was for you and for me. This morning we get the other side of the story. John chapter twenty verse one. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre. It says somewhere in the Bible they that seek me early shall find me. And it tells us, I think it's in Mark's Gospel, that he appeared, after his resurrection, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.
Then the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runeth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, they have taken away the Lord. Notice the word there, they've taken away the Lord. But when you get down to verse thirteen, she says, they've taken away my Lord. They've taken away my Lord. They've taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together. and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulcher, and he stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and see if the linen clothes lie. And the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed.
For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. May God bless the reading of his precious words. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for this book we have in our hands, the precious word of God. Perfect in every detail because it's thy work. We thank the Lord that has given us this book in our mother tongue so that we can read it. And we ask, Lord, this morning the Holy Spirit of God might take these words and apply them to our hearts.
Do something in our hearts for thy glory this morning. The heart knows its own bitterness. but thou the one that knows every heart. And so we pray thou grant the message this morning, in it there might be something for every heart here, for thy glory. We ask it in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Some, let me see, thirty-three years ago this year our brother John this morning mentioned that in his prayer that it was, it was, thirty-three years ago today, that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
But earlier that year, nineteen forty-two, way in the summer of forty-two, I went for the first time in my life to Jerusalem. Now we have people here this morning, they have just come back from Jerusalem and they have seen things which I did not see because over the years things change and in over thirty years I know they have changed a lot. I had impressions. The Lord made impressions upon my heart and on my mind in those days. They were war days, but He made impressions that I will never forget. And I don't think anyone can go to Jerusalem, and anyone can go to Calvary, and no one can go to the Garden Tomb and come back just the same.
Can't be. There's something about it. Many, many places in the Holy Land, many places in Israel, I've been spoiled because wherever there is a place that they think is the holy place, they build a church over it. There are three great religions out there. The Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Eastern Coptic Church. And they all claim they fight over almost the holy places, as they call them. And they built these great edifices over them. And they've all put... decorations ornate, valuable. They say that the jewels that are placed around the supposed manger there in the crypt of the Church of Nativity at Bethlehem, they say that the jewels are worth millions of dollars, so unlike the birth of the Lord Jesus.
When I was there, I left the party and I went up a narrow street in Bethlehem all alone. And I found that most of the houses had a ramp running right down underneath. And I looked all the way and there was nobody around and I went down under a house. And right under the house I found myself in a stable. There it was, a dirty old stable with a straw on the floor and the manure and the donkey tell it in the corner and some chicken there. And the manger, isn't a wooden manger as you suppose, it's cut out of solid rock, out of the rock wall. And there was the manger with the hay in it and bits of rope and the spade and a fork and all that makes up a stable with a smell that you can only find in a stable.
And as I stood there, I thought to myself, this is it. It was in a place like this that the Lord Jesus came into this world. Not that beautiful place with a lovely gold star on the floor and all the jewels. And what I'm saying is this, that most of the places out there, in my judgment, are ruined by the churches that have been built over them. But, of course, those churches, God has overruled, they have preserved the sites. If they hadn't been built that way, I suppose all the sites that have been built over by ordinary houses and lost. There is a place, however, When you go out through the Damascus Gate at Jerusalem, in my day when I was out there over thirty years ago, and I went there several times, several years, I mean, we went up to Jerusalem every year we could, every vacation we could get.
But you go out through the Damascus Gate on the north side of the city, and I don't know what it's like, they've changed it all, I believe. But we used to go up what we call the Nablus Road. And then turn on the right up a little dead end street. And there was a high wall on the right side. And then we came to a little wooden door, very unpretentious, ordinary common little door. And there was a notice. It says, the garden too, believed by many to be the place where the body of the Lord lay. Then you pulled a rope, and that rang a bell inside.
And in our day a young lady came out and opened the door. And we went in and down the steps, broad steps, and we found ourselves in a beautiful terrace garden. The flowers were not arranged beautifully like our brother Milligan does here. They were kind of wild flowers, some cypress trees, a few flowers, but not properly set out like a beautiful modern garden like you'd see in London. But there was something about that place. When you go in there and shut the door behind you, you leave the world behind you, and you're in something altogether different.
The atmosphere is different. The peace is wonderful. And then you go down the steps, down the steps, and you come to a paved area. And right opposite there is a cliff that runs right up, and on the top of that cliff a little to the right, is Golgotha. I remember going there on Sunday morning, Easter Sunday, nineteen forty-three. That was some three years later than what I'm telling you about. No, next year, nineteen forty-three. And I remember going there seven, seven o'clock in the morning for the Easter Sunday sunrise service there.
There was such a lot of people, some seven hundred in the garden, but I got there very early. And almost on my own, I went in and we were in the, almost like Mary, it says, when it was yet dark, she came to the sepulchre. The sun had not risen high enough for the sun to shine down in the garden. There was the shadow of Calvary shining right down across the tomb and across the garden where I sat. That's where I want to go this morning, into that garden with you. My subject this morning will be the empty tomb. So, I suppose no one can be absolutely positive and say that's the exact place where the Lord's body lay, but I can tell you that it agrees in every detail to the Scriptures.
You take any Scripture, whether it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and you read any verse, you can see the anister there. They looked into the tomb and it was kind of dark. Well, there's one little slit that makes the window and that's all the light that could get in there. It was sort of dark in there. It was hewn out of the rock. This tomb is hewn out of the rock. They had to stoop down to get into the door and we had to stoop down to get into the door. I tell you what, all proud men have to stoop in the face of what happened there. And we went into that tomb. Now that's just what these people did.
On the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher. Mary could find no rest. I'd like to have gone on further in our chapter. We won't have time today. That will be our next subject. But she could find no rest except outside of that tomb. And she ran to the tomb. She was the first to see it, but we should not get that this morning. That comes in our next talk, God willing, if the Lord allows us. When it was yet dark unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. It's remarkable.
I suppose she had good eyesight. I don't know. Still doubtless. The stone was taken away. The stone, there is a groove there today, and there must have been a big flat stone, like a millstone, if you know what I mean. It must have been, oh, probably nine inches thick, and a great big stone must have been six feet in diameter, and they rolled it up like a wheel to the door. She couldn't move it. As they went to the tomb, it tells us in the other books that they said, who shall roll us away in the stone? Not only that, the stone was sealed with Pilate's seal on it, the Roman governor's seal. How could they roll away the stone?
And in the darkness, the semi-darkness, she could see the stone was rolled away. Now, here, John tells us, and don't forget that we have four writers of the Gospel. And I believe theologians and Bible students have been, for centuries, trying to make all the accounts of the resurrection. Matthew's account, Mark's account, Luke's account, John's account to make them harmonize. You can't do it. Each gives the detail as he saw it, as he heard it. And some things, the sequence and so on, doesn't quite agree. One day we'll get the whole story.
But Mary ran there, and it says in the other chapter, by other Gospels, that the women went there. Now this is really borne out in John's Gospel. John says in the second verse, She runeth and cometh to Simon Peter. And what did she say? She said to Simon Peter, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and note the pronoun, We, we know not where they have laid him. So Mary did not go alone. If she'd gone along, she would have said, I know not where they have laid.
But she said, we know not where they have laid. And so his perfect harmony with the other gospel says that a number of women went early to the sepulchre that morning. She found the stone rolled away, and she was so amazed that she couldn't. I think the other women went on, but Mary came back, and she ran back or forth. ran back to tell Peter and John, these two disciples who had been so favored, had always been with the Lord on all the special occasions, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Transfiguration, and John who leaned upon his bosom.
She ran back to tell them they seemed to be the leaders. Where did she go? I have a notion, I don't know, I have a notion that that upper room where they had the last supper was probably the home that they used there during that time. They all came from Galilee. They really didn't have homes in Jerusalem. But she ran to tell Peter and John early in the morning, and she said they have taken away the Lord out of the supper. Now, she didn't know this. She assumed they'd taken away the Lord.
All she knew was that the stone was all away, and the sepulcher was open. They had taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, who of course was John himself, and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together. That's a good thing to do. They ran both together, but the other disciple did outrun John. Now, some say that's because John was that did outrun Peter, let's say, because John was so much younger than Peter. Well, nowhere in the Bible does it say he was so much younger than Peter. But I know he lived to be older than all the rest, so he must have been probably younger.
But anyhow, he got there first. But what did he do? He ran to the sepulcher. He came first to the sepulcher. And he stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. He just, it seems to me there was a kind of a holy reverence here. How could John, who knew the Lord so much, how could John, who leaned upon his breast, How could John, who heard him say from the cross, Son, behold thy mother, mother, behold thy son?
How could he enter what must have seemed a very sacred thing? He knew something had happened. What was it? And he dared not tread in thy holy place. He looked in. And there was enough light for him to discern the fact that the linen clothes were lying there. He stood down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes, yet went he not in. But let's go with Peter. He did go in. Then come a son of Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and see if the linen clothes lie.
And a napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Something had happened in that sepulchre that night. The Lord's body was not there. I personally believe some commentators say that he found a heap of all the linen that they bound about the Lord. Don't forget there was a hundred pounds worth of spices. And they say, some of these early writers, some of the early writers and the fathers of the church, they say that those spices would knit together like glue, you know, and it would be a solid, like the Egyptian mummies.
And you'd have to chip it off to get it off. And some of them say, well, it was all piled up in a heap on the floor. Personally, I don't believe that. I believe that the mummy, as I should say, the linen... Claws that were bound about the Lord's body were lying just as they were when he lay in them. That's what I think. And the Lord came out without moving the linen at all. And they could only tell he was written by looking in. Ah, but the Lord took the napkin. Whoever did the job there, the angels who did it, they took the napkin off his face.
and folded it up and put it in a separate place so they could look into that empty chrysalis, that empty shell to know the Lord was no longer there. The Lord didn't need to have the clothes taken off to rise from the dead. And the Lord didn't need to have the door rolled away to get out of the tomb. He was out before they rolled the tomb, the stone away. The stone was rolled away to let us go in, not to let him come out. Peter came and he saw this wonderful fact, but I'd like to stop and think a minute. I've often tried to imagine what happened that night in that tomb.
You see, I often think, and you've heard me speak sometimes, about this garden of Joseph of Arimathea. He built a tomb. He built a tomb for himself. And in that lovely garden he had there, at the end of the garden he'd built this tomb. And I suppose some nights when he walked in that garden he must have thought to himself, well, one day I'm going to lie there. One day I'll lie there. He had it already. He kind of lived, he sort of lived quite near to death, you know, because often he could hear the crowds going up the road, the shouting when they were taking some poor wretch out to...
crucify him and just upon the hill he could hear the hammer as they nailed him to the cross. That's where he lived, quite near that place of a skull. And he built this tomb for himself. But on this night, after they put the Lord's body in the tomb and rolled the stone to the door, Joseph walks in the garden. And I tried to think of what he thought. He must have said, I made that tomb for myself. And there's somebody else in that tomb.
And the door shut. And what a wonderful lesson. The way Jesus sin is dead. And you and I have to go down into the tomb because the way Jesus sin is dead. But somebody else went into the tomb. and somebody else lay where he should have lay. What a wonderful gospel message for anyone here this morning. If you've not yet accepted Christ as your Savior, the Lord Jesus took your place. The wages of sin is dead, and he went into the tomb. He hung in torture and agony on Calvary's cross and bore your sins in his own body on the tree. And Joseph, it must have come to him.
And sometimes it comes to me when I read this, and I say, That's where I should have been in that tomb. And the Lord Jesus was there for me. And in that garden, the Roman soldiers paced up and down. But something happened. I don't know. There must have been great commotion. Earthquake. The soldiers all ran away. And when the women got there, the stone was rolled away. But think of what happened inside the tomb. They saw, in the other gospel, it says they saw an angel sitting on the stone.
I like that. That's triumphant to me. Not only did he roll the stone away, but he sat on the stone in triumph. Triumphant to me. And it says he was bright and shiny. His clothing was shining. A brilliant angel. I have a notion. that the Son of God had heavenly attendance that night in that little tomb. And it's not so little, I think there were eight or nine of us in there together when I was there. But in that tomb that night the heavenly angels came down in their bright glory.
Have you ever thought this? When the Lord Jesus was crucified, They took his clothes and divided his clothes amongst them and cast lots for his vesture, which was made him one piece. So he had no clothes. They bound him in the linen. And yet when Mary saw him, he was clothed all right. Where did he get the clothes from? Have you ever thought about that? Where did he get those fresh clothes? Not the ones that they tore off of him when they crucified him. But he was clothed in a vesture that God placed upon him. And I think God sent those heavenly attendants down not only to get him out.
It was the power of God that raised him. It tells us the mighty power of God. Ephesians one, which God displays when he raised his son from the dead and set him at his own right hand. The mighty power of God raised him from the dead. But I think the heavenly attendance of heaven came down and clothed him. I oftentimes put these things together and wonder, if the Lord came this morning, I'm saying something a bit funny now, but just think it out. If the Lord came this morning, what's going to happen with all these clothes we're wearing? I don't think we want them in heaven.
I don't honestly think that Iwanda said clothed in heaven with a garb of earth. I don't think so. Have a notion that in heaven will be clothed in light. And I have a notion that in the Garden of Eden they were clothed in light, somehow I don't know, but clothed in light. And I have a notion that we have to leave all this behind in that moment when we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And so the Lord Jesus came out and Peter went in and he saw not only the linen clothes, but he saw the napkin laid aside, neatly placed aside, folded and put there. And then went in that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed.
I like this. You see, the whole purpose of John's Gospel, and we've said it in all our talks, the whole purpose of John's Gospel is that we might believe. These things are written that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. And in all the chapters you get this word. I understand the word, but I've counted them up. Ninety-three times in John's Gospel you get the word believe, and this is one of them. He saw and believed. What did he believe? That was Peter that said, when the Lord said, will he also go away?
Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Sixth chapter John, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, when we believe and assure that thou the Christ, the Son of God. We believe and assure, but it doesn't save it that Peter believed. He says it, John believed. John believed. He saw and believed. What did he believe? Well, he believed anyhow that the Lord's body was removed. He must have believed that he'd risen from the dead because they couldn't take his body out of that chrysalis binding and leave it there.
They couldn't do that. Only a miracle. Only God could do that. He must have believed that Jesus was raised from the dead. But look at the next verse which rather throws you off. For as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Whether that's referring generally to all the disciples, up to this moment they didn't know the scripture. Although the Lord had told them and told them and told them, the third day he shall rise again. The third day he shall rise again. As Jonah was three days in the wells, then he so shall the son of Man be three days. The third day he shall rise again. They read about Abraham and his son on Mount Moral and how it says in Hebrews he received him as from the dead, like resurrection, that all these Old Testament scriptures, they knew that it said, Thou will not leave my soul in shill, nor suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.
The Lord's body didn't corrupt, like Lazarus' body. The Lord didn't sin, I think that's the reason. The way to the sin is death, and His body did not go to corruption. The Lord said, He shall not go to corruption. And they believed, John believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, then he must rise again from the dead. Now look at this verse, and with this I'm closing, our time is up. And I hope next time our subject will be, this is the subject, the empty tomb, the next time it will be the risen Lord. Look at this last verse here, verse ten.
Then the disciples went away again. unto their own home. Now let's put the two verses together, the three verses. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the Sepulchre, and he saw and believed. And verse ten, then the disciples went away home again to their own home. It doesn't put it just that way in the Greek. It really says in the Greek, if you could say in the actual language, it says, Let me see, verse ten. It says they went to themselves, it really says. Verse ten. It says they returned again to themselves, the disciples, to themselves.
They didn't have a home in Jerusalem. Do you know that? Their home was in Galilee. But they went home anyhow to whatever was home, their lodging, and wherever they were. But see how they went home. John went home believing. He saw and believed. And they too went home. We're going to go home now. Our meeting is coming to an end. And our meeting ends like all gospel meetings. I'll show you how the gospel meeting always ends. Twenty-eight chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and that's how this meeting has to end this morning.
Twenty-eight chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and verse twenty-three. And when Paul had appointed him a day, when they appointed him a day, there came many to him to Paul in his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. I look at verse twenty-four, and this is how the meeting broke up. And some believe the things which were spoken, and some believe not. You say, well, what difference does that make? It makes all the difference for time and eternity.
Some believe. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. These things are written that he might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the believing he might have life through his name. Some believe, and some believe not. As we close our meeting, where are you this morning? Some believe. Some believe not. John and Peter looked into the tomb. John believed, and they went back home, both of them. Pity they didn't wait a bit longer. Mary... We come to that next time, God of the meeting. She didn't go home, she stayed there. And the Lord was first seen of Mary Magdalene.
How do we stand this morning if we close our meeting? You can be saved this morning if you're not saved by simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before thee and thank thee. for this wonderful and yet simple story. Those who have seen this tomb, which we think may be, may possibly be the very tomb, it means so much to us, Lord, to think that we've been in that very spot. And we think of Mary running and seeing the stone roll away.
To think of John coming and looking in. of Peter coming with all these bold and dash and going writing, to discover that the Lord Jesus was risen from the dead. Oh, we thank thee. That was the theme and the preaching of all the apostles right through the Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And that's our theme this morning. And we pray, Lord, that God speak to every heart here. May we not just go home and forget. But as we go home, may we go home believing, and grant that these things might have an effect on our lives for the coming week.
We again ask if there should be one of our number, young or old, unsaved. Did thou reach them now? Did they may go home believing? We ask it in the precious name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.