Hope for the Hopeless

0:43While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, 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? 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. And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

1:14Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he said. Saw the linen claws by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened. This is God's word. You may be seated. Don't you love a good comeback story?

1:43Everybody loves a good comeback story. And just a couple of years ago, our very own men's basketball team mounted the greatest comeback in NCAA tournament history. This team was led by a great group of seniors. They won the SEC regular season title. They almost won the tournament title and earned a number three seed in the tournament. They won the first game in the tournament, but in the second game against the University of Northern Iowa, they only made six field goals in the first half and found themselves down 12 points with about 35 seconds to go in the game. It seemed as though there was no hope for victory. But over the next 30 seconds, I lost my mind as I watched them create four turnovers and go on a 14-2 run to send the game into overtime. And after a second overtime, Texas AM prevailed over UNI 92-88, capping off the greatest comeback in NCAA tournament history. Hope had been restored.

2:52And I think for every one of us, we have all been in positions, we've all been in situations that felt hopeless to us. Maybe for you it was your family situation growing up, or maybe even your family situation currently. Your parents may have been absent, maybe they went through a divorce, maybe you've been struggling in your marriage. For others, maybe you felt hopeless in your finances. You made decisions throughout your life that have led you into a difficult place. Maybe you're saddled with debt. You're wondering how you're going to pay your bills.

3:28And for still others, maybe you've felt spiritually hopeless before. You've looked everywhere for transcendence, for meaning. You've tried a bunch of different things that you thought would fill a void in your life. But no matter what you've tried, no matter how hard you've worked, you still feel spiritually hopeless. Wherever you find yourself today, I believe that nearly all of us have felt hopeless at one point or another. And if that's true, we can relate to Jesus' followers because they certainly felt hopeless at one particular point in their life at the end of Jesus' life and ministry. See, Jesus of Nazareth lived an amazing life. He taught with great authority. He performed many miraculous signs. He had thousands of people following him at different aspects in his ministry. But Jesus' popularity made the religious leaders around him very jealous. And his teaching, particularly when he confronted their hypocrisy, made them very angry.

4:31And so they conspired with one of his own disciples named Judas Iscariot to betray him. Jesus was arrested, condemned, beaten, and then crucified. He died on the cross, and during that time, all of the disciples ran away from him. And so two men, one named Joseph of Arimathea and one named Nicodemus, came and took Jesus' body down from the cross. They wrapped it in cloths. They placed it in a new tomb, rolling a huge, heavy stone over the entrance. And every indication at this point was that this was the end. The disciples had hoped that Jesus was the Christ, that he was the one who had come to restore all things, that he was going to expel the Roman occupiers, that he was going to take those who were at the bottom of society and bring them to the top of society. All of their hopes rested on Jesus, and now those hopes seemed dead and buried along with him.

5:31And then we come to Luke chapter 24. And Luke chapter 24 begins with this word, this very important word, this word that you long to hear when anybody is sharing bad news with you. But maybe there is hope for the hopeless after all. Look at what it says in verse 1. But on the first day of the week, Early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. So, this is very early on Sunday morning. Remember, Jesus was crucified on Friday, and so this is the third day since his crucifixion. They go to the tomb, and they is referring to these three women in particular: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. There was other women with them as well, as we saw in this passage and as we learn from the other gospel accounts. Now, as observant Jews, what these women did is after Jesus was crucified, the Sabbath for them started on Friday evening. It was a 24-hour period from Friday evening until Saturday evening. And so, as observant Jews, they rested according to the Sabbath from Friday night until Saturday night. And obviously, they're not going to venture out after sundown to this area to go and anoint Jesus' body. That's why they've brought these spices. They're not going to set out on Saturday night when it's dark and late. And instead, they wait until Sunday morning. And very early, very early, they set out for the tomb. And this is so significant because it's these women, not Jesus' closest friends, not the disciples, who are the ones going to the tomb to honor him. The men were hiding in their homes, afraid for their lives.

7:23But none of them, not even these brave women who went to the tomb very early on Sunday morning, was expecting to find what They found. Look at verse 2. It says, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. According to one of the other gospel accounts written by a man named Mark, the women, as they were walking to the tomb, were asking this question: look on the screen: who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?

8:02I mean, this is a huge stone meant to cover a doorway. It was shaped like a disc so it could be rolled back and forth so the right people could get in and out, but animals and grave robbers, they couldn't get in, or at least it would be very difficult to get in. And these women knew, I mean, there's no way for us, just the small group of us, to roll this stone away. Who's going to do this for us? I mean, if we're going to anoint the body, somebody's going to have to move this stone. We can't do it.

8:31But it's amazing because when they arrive, it's a non-issue. The stone is already rolled away from the entrance, and the body of Jesus is no longer there. Well, who did this? I mean, there's really only three options for groups of people that would have or could have done this. Maybe it was the Jewish leaders, Jesus' enemies. But when you stop and think about this and you read the other gospel accounts, you realize. Very quickly, that's exactly the opposite of what they wanted. They did not want Jesus' body gone. They wanted Jesus' body to stay right there. In fact, after Jesus died, they went to the Roman officials and they said, we want the tomb made secure until the third day so that the disciples can't come and steal the body and say that Jesus rose from the dead. So this is the very thing they're trying to prevent. They absolutely don't want the tomb to be empty, for Jesus' body to be gone. And so Pilate, the Roman governor of the area, he sends this band of soldiers to guard the tomb for three days to make sure this doesn't happen. And on top of that, as we learn from other accounts, the tomb was sealed. And what that probably means is they probably took a rope and they put it across that circular stone, and then they took some wax and they stuck it to the rock on either side and then imprinted the Roman seal on it.

10:05And what that did is it made it a capital offense, a crime punishable by death, for anyone without authorization to break that seal. And so these Roman soldiers are the second option. Maybe they're the ones that took the body. But keep in mind, they're the ones that are charged with guarding the tomb. So to steal the body, to break the seal and to take this away. This body away was not only dereliction of duty, not only going against their direct orders, but it was a capital crime. This was a serious offense. It's unlikely they would have done that.

10:42And the third and final option is the disciples. But even if they wanted to steal Jesus' body, what was that going to involve? That was going to involve these 12 ordinary men, these fishermen, these tax collectors, these regular guys, overpowering a cohort of soldiers from the finest army in the world. It was going to involve them removing the stone from the entrance, going in there and taking the body. And yet, these guys, as we know, are not inclined to do this because they're all sitting at home scared to death for their own lives.

11:19So, here are your options for what happened to this body. And so, what in the world is going on here? Look at verse 4. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. Well, the women are perplexed and understandably so. I mean, it's not likely that they thought through these options as systematically as we just did in their shock. But, nevertheless, these women are thinking to themselves, what was the motive here? Who would have done this? Who would have taken this? In this body. And just then, two men appear to them in dazzling apparel. If you look at Matthew's gospel, it says that their appearance was like lightning and their clothing was as white as snow.

12:16And it becomes clear these men are angels who have come to explain what's going on, just like the angels who appeared to the shepherds to explain what was going on when Jesus was born. One of the things that you learn very quickly in the scripture is that God doesn't just do miracles to do miracles. He does miracles and then always provides an explanation so that they can be rightly interpreted and understood. You see this all throughout the Old Testament with, for example, Moses and Pharaoh. Moses declaring forth the word of God, this is why these plagues are coming on you. You need to let the people go.

12:55Or Jesus in his ministry, for example, when he heals the paralyzed man, he says, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I tell you, take up your mat and walk. Anytime God performs a miracle, he does it with explanation and interpretation so that we can understand what's happening here. And that's why these angels are sent, so that we can understand and so these women can understand what's going on and why.

13:24And I love their question, don't you? Look at what they ask. Verse 5. Why do you seek the living among the dead? In other words, what are you doing here with your spices? Why are you here? This is a place of death and mourning. This is not an appropriate place for someone who's alive to be. What are you doing here? Why would a living person be in a tomb? Verse 6: He is not here, but has risen. And I love what Matthew adds in his gospel. He says, He is not here, but has risen as he said. As he said, as he promised all along throughout his life and ministry, this is not something that they didn't know anything about. In fact, there's many times that Jesus told them, I'm going to be arrested, I'm going to be killed, I'm going to die, and I'm going to rise from the grave. He's not here, but he has risen, as he said.

14:25It goes on, I love this part. 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. The angels ask them, don't you remember? Don't you remember what he told you again and again? In fact, in Luke's gospel alone, this is not counting all of the other references in his gospel or in the other gospels. There are three direct times that Jesus is recorded on the way to Jerusalem saying, My friends, I am about to be arrested, I'm about to be killed, and I'm going to rise from the dead. Three different times he tells them this in fulfillment of the prophecies. And so these angels say to them, Don't you remember? Don't you remember that he said this many, many times? Actually, no, they didn't.

15:20They had completely forgotten what Jesus said to them about rising from the grave, and apparently the men did too. After all, none of them even bothered to show up on the third day to see if Jesus' words had come true. They had completely forgotten. But you know who didn't forget? Jesus' enemies didn't forget what he said. Look on the screen at Matthew 27. You remember a moment ago I was telling you that they went to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate? Look at what they say. The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive, after three days I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead. And the last fraud will be worse than the first.

16:25Jesus' enemies did not forget his words. They were burned. Into their minds that he had said, I'm going to rise from the dead. And this is all the more amazing when you think about the fact that the disciples heard him say these things over and over again. And these religious leaders may have only heard Jesus say it once or twice that I can find in the Gospels. And yet, they remembered. They remembered that Jesus said, I am going to rise from the dead.

16:54I'm not sure whether forgetfulness or lack of faith is the greatest problem in the Christian life. But I am sure that our forgetfulness makes it very hard for us to live a life of faith. Would you agree with that? Forgetfulness makes it very hard to live a life of faith. And that's why the scripture is filled with so many reminders, reminders of what God has said, and reminders of what God has done, and all of these commands to pass on what God has said and done to the next generation. Look on the screen at Psalm 78, for example.

17:34He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. He commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

18:08The whole purpose of God's testimony and his law is so that we would be faithful to tell the next generation, so that we would set our hope in God and not forget his works. You read the Old Testament, and again and again, when the people fall into sin, it's almost always preceded by the comment, and they forgot the Lord, or and they forgot the works of the Lord. Because that's what happens to us. As soon as we forget God's works, as soon as we forget God's word, it's very easy for us to fall into sin and disobedience. And that's why God gave us his testimony and law. If you've ever wondered, why does the Bible have so much history in it? Why is there so many stories in the Bible, purportedly historical accounts, of these men and women falling into sin and then God disciplining them and God being faithful to them throughout that whole time? It's because he wants to show us again and again, this is what all people are like, including you and me. And this is what God is like. He's faithful to the end, no matter what. And so he's given us his testimony. He's given us his law so that we will hope in him and not forget his works. Because when we forget him and when we forget his works, we can't be steadfast and faithful to God. We turn our hearts toward other things that we hope will save us.

19:37And maybe some people they say they set their hope in God, but really, if you talk to him for a little bit, their hope is in religion and it's in moral living. And their thought process is: if I can be a good enough person, if I can just somehow get my good works to outweigh my bad works, then I will be accepted by God. And so their hope is not in God, their hope is in themselves, that they will be able to be good enough, religious enough people.

20:09And maybe that's you. Maybe that's been your experience. That was certainly my experience for two decades of my life, hoping in myself, hoping that I would be a good enough, religious enough person. But other people aren't putting their hopes in moral living or religion. They're putting their hope in the world to save them. Their hope is in things like possessions or relationships or experiences or any number of other things. They believe that their greatest problem is not God or anything having to do with God, and so therefore the solution to that problem can't have God in the answer.

20:49And maybe that's where you find yourself today. But either way, whether you're hoping in morality or religion, or whether you're hoping in. The things of this world, what becomes clear the older and older you get is that those things can't bear the weight of your hope. Your personal religious performance, because you know yourself and I know myself, is never going to be good enough. You put your hope in that and it fails. And we all know because we've experienced it: that getting more and more money, getting more and more stuff, having more and more experiences, we put our hope in those things, but the money goes away and the possessions rust or they get broken. They go out of style. The people that we put our trust and our hope in, they let us down, and we find ourselves hopeless for one reason or another.

21:51But, friends, the good news is that the gospel is hope for the hopeless. See, these disciples and all the other people that were following Jesus, they wanted Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom. They wanted him to come and get rid of these Roman occupiers. They wanted him to come and bring them, the people that were at the bottom of society to the top. That was what their hope was in, and their hope seemed dead and buried along with Jesus. That is, until the angels appeared with this great news to these brave women. And look at what happens next in the text. Look at verse 8.

22:30Remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. After the angels reminded them of what Jesus said, they remembered his words. They remembered that Jesus said that he was going to be arrested and killed, and that on the third day he would rise from the dead. And so these women return. The other gospel accounts say that they run, probably half from fear and half from excitement. But they run and they go find the 11, that is the remaining 11 apostles, and then all the rest.

23:07We have a reason to believe from Acts chapter 1, there's 100 or more other people who are following Jesus. And so they go find all these people and they tell them all of these things. But this is crazy. The men didn't believe them. The men did not believe them. Look at what it says. It says, Their words seem to them an idle tale. You know, oftentimes you'll hear people say stuff like, you know, the Bible is just made up. The gospel is just a made-up story. It's not real.

23:45But I find that really hard to believe. Because if you're living in first-century Israel, if you're living in the first century Roman world, and you're going to make up a story, you're not going to have women. Finding this good news, being the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the resurrection, their testimony was not even permitted in court. That would be a very foolish decision if you were going to make up a story. And the men, if you're making this story up, surely you're going to have them remembering all that Jesus said and eagerly waiting outside the tomb, camping out for three days, just waiting for Jesus to rise from the dead. You're going to have these men looking like heroes, heroes of faith.

24:35But the men, when the women show up to tell them that the tomb is empty, they don't even believe them. Nobody fabricating a story is going to make these things up. As we would say today, it's a bad look. The whole thing is a bad look. I think that's one of the reasons that we can believe that it's true. See, Luke is saying to his readers, Do you find this hard to believe? If so, you're in good company because so did everybody else that day. The women found it hard to believe, the men found it hard to believe, everybody found it hard to believe, nobody believed.

25:14Peter didn't believe either. He's sitting at home scared for his life. He's crushed by guilt over denying Jesus three times two days before. But the testimony of the women also gives him a spark of hope. Look at what happens now in verse 12. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in. He saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened. Here's what I love about Peter. The women come back and they say, the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive.

26:00And Peter says, no way. I don't believe it. But he doesn't stop there. He doesn't stop there. He says, no way, I don't believe it, but I want to go examine the evidence for myself. See, there's a lot of intellectual dishonesty these days. And this is really pertinent in an academic community like ours in College Station with Texas AM. Because you've got lots of people around us that claim to value science, that claim to value the scientific method, and yet they rule out Christianity even before examining the evidence.

26:49They're not even willing to give the resurrection of Jesus a fair shake. See, Peter didn't believe that Jesus was alive, but he was willing to go and examine the evidence. Evidence for himself. And friends, I pray that's true for you today as well. I pray that even if you doubt that the resurrection is true, just like all of these people, just like all of us at one point, I pray that you'll at least be willing to examine the evidence for yourself.

27:16What does Peter find when he gets there? He finds just what the women describe. The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. And perhaps most significantly, the graveclothes are lying there inside of the tomb. I mean, the reality is, if you're going to go to the trouble to overpower Roman soldiers, roll a stone away, and take a body from a grave, you're not going to spend the additional time to unwrap a mummified corpse on the site. That's going to take forever. You're going to grab the body and get out of there as quickly as you can. But what he finds is the graveclothes are there lying in the empty tomb. And we know from the Gospel of John, the cloth covering his face is in a different place, folded up and lying by itself. It doesn't look like a crime scene at all. It looks totally orderly. And look at what Luke says to conclude this section. And he went home marveling at what had happened.

28:21Again, it does not say, and Peter immediately believed that Jesus was the Christ, and he went away preaching the good news. It doesn't say that. It says that he walked away marveling at what had happened. He walked away going, What did I just see? What does this mean? And it's right here that Luke pauses. His gospel, as you can see, doesn't end here. There's more to come. But he pauses the account here, starts a new paragraph after this. He pauses because he wants us to wrestle with those same questions.

29:01What did we just see? Well, through the eyewitnesses, what we just saw was a seal broken, a stone rolled away, an empty tomb, grave clothes lying there neatly, and angels declaring, this all happened in response to Jesus' prophecies about what was coming for him. And what does it mean? Well, friends, if the account is true, taken with everything else that Luke will say in the rest of this chapter and what the other gospel writers say, if the account is true, then Jesus was who he claimed to be. He was the Son of God who said, I am coming to live and die and rise again on the third day.

29:56If this is true, it means that he is the Christ. Look at what the Apostle Paul wrote sometime later in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. See, Paul takes the time to explain the significance of the resurrection to us. He takes the time to say, the reason that all of us sin is because we have a sinful nature. And the reason that all people have a sinful nature, not just you or your family, not just people from your country, but people everywhere, all over the earth, the reason that we all have a sinful nature that leads us to sin is because we're all descended from Adam and Eve.

30:55Our very first parents rebelled against God. They sinned against him. And when they did that, they died spiritually. They passed that spiritual death down to us. Through one man, everyone on earth who has ever lived or will ever live inherited that death, that sinful nature. But Jesus came to be the second Adam. He came to be the one that would do the opposite of what Adam did. Though he was tempted in every way, he never sinned. He obeyed perfectly, and then he offered himself on behalf.

31:30Of all people everywhere. See, through one man, death and sin came to all men, and through one man and his life and death and resurrection, life comes to all. And maybe you're here today, and your life has not turned out the way that you planned. It hasn't turned out the way that you hoped. The things that you set your hope in let you down. Or maybe your life has turned out exactly the way that you planned.

32:03And every single thing that you've done, every single thing that you've tried, it seems to have turned to gold and worked out for you. And yet, in either case, you find yourself wondering if there's hope beyond this world. Because as we all know, the things that we have put our hope in in this world let us down. But the good news of the resurrection is that it's hope for the hopeless. That's why Jesus came. All who put their hope in Christ will never be put to shame because Jesus defeated sin and death in our place through his resurrection from the dead.

32:43And if you're already a believer in Jesus this morning, then you can rejoice in the fact that no matter what trials, what suffering you go through in this life, no matter how many of your own hopes are dashed, you have a hope that can never be taken away from you because Jesus is not dead, but he is alive. And that's wonderful news. And if you're here today and you're not yet a believer in Jesus, I hope that you will consider Luke's testimony of Jesus' sinless and miraculous life, his death and resurrection from the dead. And my hope is that you will transfer your hope from whatever it's in right now to Jesus.

33:24Because, as the scripture says, Jesus alone is the only one who can actually bear the weight of our hopes. His resurrection is hope for hopeless people. Let's pray. Father, we have all been in places where we felt hopeless. And I know that the disciples must have felt that way as they saw their Savior arrested and crucified and placed in a tomb. It must have seemed to them that all was lost. And that's what makes what we call Easter Sunday so glorious: that Jesus did the impossible.

34:31He defeated death. He took his life back. So, Lord, I just want to pray for the men and women who are here today, as well as men and women who are gathering all around the world who are in need of hope this morning. I pray that as they look upon the person of Jesus, that they would find hope in his perfect life, in his death, and in his resurrection. And, God, I pray for Christians who are struggling because their situation is just not what they wanted it to be. Their financial situation, their health situation, maybe their marriage, their children, their career, whatever it would be, it's just not what they were planning for and looking for.

35:47I pray that you would bring them new hope this morning. That no matter what happens to them in this life, they have a perfect hope in Jesus. Forgive us, God, for despairing at times when Jesus, our Savior, is alive. And so, God, we thank you this morning for the wonderful reminder that we need every single week when we come together that Jesus is alive and that that has wonderful ramifications both for eternity and for today. And so, I pray that we would live in light of that hope.

36:37God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what Jesus accomplished for us. It's in his name we pray all these things. Amen.