The empty tomb signifies the resurrection of Jesus Christ, demonstrating his divine nature and victory over death. The sermon details Mary Magdalene's discovery of the empty tomb, Peter and John's investigation, and the significance of the neatly folded burial cloths as evidence of a deliberate departure, not a theft. Unlike other great leaders whose tombs remain as final resting places, Jesus' tomb is empty because he rose again, proving his divine life and making the gospel complete. This living Savior, now at God's right hand, offers redemption and eternal life to all who believe in him.
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Greetings, friends. John's Gospel chapter twenty, verse one. The Lord Jesus has been crucified. He's been buried in a new tomb where never a man yet had lain. He was crucified in the garden, buried in the garden. And now the first day of the week comes, that is Sunday. And in the first verse of chapter twenty we read that 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 out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, which was John undoubtedly, and came to the supplicant. So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter. In other words, John outran Peter, and came first to the supplicant. And he stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then come a Simon Peter following him, and went into the supplicant. John didn't go into the supplicant, but Peter did. and see if the linen clothes lie, and then he saw the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place of itself, by itself. It was wrapped, wrapped together, and laid in a place by itself.
The Lord Jesus rose from the dead. And he took the napkin that was about his head, and he wrapped it and laid it in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, John, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed. He believed what? Well, he believed the Lord was risen. He believed the Lord was risen. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. They didn't wait. But they have seen the empty tomb. And our subject today might well be the empty tomb. The Lord Jesus' burial. But now the tomb is empty.
Here is the great transaction of the Lord Jesus rising from the dead. And at the same time, God, Jehovah, raising him from the dead. The tomb was empty. The soldiers fell asleep, a deep sleep that was unnatural, and God put them into that deep sleep. And the Lord Jesus rose, and they didn't know anything about it. And so they made up among themselves that they would try to appease the authorities and say that his body was stolen away while we slept. But when they said while we slept, they spelled out their own doom because they should have been executed under the law because they didn't.
They went to sleep on the watch. But be that, as it may, the tomb was empty. Many great leaders, many great religious leaders, have done much for the country, much for their home, and much for the world at times. But my friends, there's one great, big, overwhelming difference. They're dead. Their tombs are still, some of them available, and there are marches to those tombs. Their crusades to those tombs, and even some, their bodies are where they can be viewed, perhaps.
But their body's there. And where the body isn't, there's dust and ashes, and perhaps there's skeletons. But they're gone. They're dead. They remain dead. Why? They were just human. They were just human beings. They did not have eternal life, nor did they have divine life, so that they could rise from the dead. They are still in the tomb. They died, as you and I will die, and we'll go back to dust from whence we were taken. But not so the Lord Jesus.
He would not be suffered to see corruption. That was written of him back in the Psalms. that the Lord Jesus would not see corruption. Everybody else has. Everybody else will, unless the Lord comes and takes the church home to be with himself. Every one of us will go back to corruption, and we will go back to the dust from whence we came. This is the fate of humankind. But here is emphasized in the tremendous feature that the Lord Jesus was divine, that he was God.
God manifested in the flesh. And he was, while he died, bowed his head and died. And he was buried. Nevertheless, he roved again the third day, according to the Scriptures. And this makes the gospel complete. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, your Bible and mine. He did not see corruption. He did rise from the dead. And here Peter and John, those two great, great apostles, and they come, and they see the clothes.
They see the linen clothes lying. And they see the napkin that was about his head, wrapped and laid in another place for the Lord himself when he rose from the dead. No one else had been in the tomb. So they saw the empty tomb. They went into the empty tomb. And here is the divine record. They saw... And they believed. That other disciple, John, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed.
He saw and believed that the Savior had risen. The absolute necessity of the Savior rising, or else he'd be a dead Savior today. And a dead Savior could not help us at all. But he's a living Savior at God's right hand. He rose from the dead. And forty days later, in the presence of more than a hundred and twenty people, his disciples, his followers, he ascended back to glory. And the angel of the peer, the shining one, said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go up into heaven.
This same Jesus, he is alive. Stephen saw him standing at the right hand of God, at the throne of God. The Lord Jesus is a lying. He's a living Savior. We do not present a dead Savior. The gospel presents a living Savior. One who knows all about you. One who knows everything about you. One who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The one who is able... to save to the uttermost because he's now alive. He's the living Savior at God's right hand in glory.
And he's going to come again some of these days soon because he's alive. Oh, what despair it would be, friends, if his body was still in the tomb. Then we'd have nothing. We wouldn't have anything at all. but just a good man, and he died like any other man. But this isn't the fact. Thank God this isn't it. The truth is that the Lord Jesus is alive forevermore. He rose from the dead, triumphant over death, hell, and the grave. And he ascended back to glory, and there he is today a man at God's right hand, the Savior, the mediator between God and men.
The man cries, Jesus. And the angel said, This same Jesus shall come again, as you've seen him go up into heaven. Not a different one, but the same Jesus, the one with the nail prints in his hands and feet inside, the crown, the thorn-clad brow. Oh, the same Jesus. My friend, he's alive today. He's near to you now than the person whose shoulder may be touching yours. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere at the same time. He's alive forevermore. We don't present the dead Christ then. He's a living Savior.
He lives. He lives. Thank God he lives. He lives to intercede for you. He lives to save you. He lives that you and I might have our sins forgiven and that we might be prepared. to meet them in the skies, and to spend eternity in his presence, rejoicing forevermore. Oh, my friend, don't miss this. The Lord Jesus died and he rose again for you and for me. All your burden of sin and mine were laid upon him, all of them. Jesus bore them on the tree.
God who knew them laid them on him. and believing we are free. All those sins you will ever be charged with, or you will ever commit, the Lord Jesus paid for them in his own precious blood. And so Peter could write, we are redeemed now not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Have you trusted him? Do you know him now as your own Savior? Do you acknowledge him as your Savior? Do you live for him every day? Do you speak of them every day? Do you read the Bible and pray to them every day? Do you? Are you really a Christian or only a nominal professor?
Do you belong to some church, and that's a great thing. But, my friends, you need to belong to Christ. You need to be in him because if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things pass away. All things become new. Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee the Savior's alive. We thank thee as at thy right hand. We thank thee as coming again. O God, our Father, may we all be ready to go when he comes. There's a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and all who are in Christ will rise to meet him in the air. We pray for our country, our president, again for each of us, our citizenry in this great country of ours.
We pray thy blessing, as well as upon the world at large. In the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.