Lux Lucet

John W. Robbins

The following sermon was preached by John Robbins at Reformation Chapel in Unicoi Tennessee. Please click here to read part two.  The transcription is my own.

-Steve Matthews

And now Luke moves on in his narrative to the resurrection. Then he begins by saying it happened on the first day of the week. And there’s a Jewish idiom here, it’s the first of the Sabbaths. And it’s a phrase that appears in the Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:1, it’s called the first day of the Sabbaths or the first of the Sabbaths. From now on this will be the important day. This is what John calls the Lord’s Day. This is why we meet on Sunday and not on Saturday, because this has taken on the characteristics of the most important day of the week. This is the day that Jesus rises from the dead.

“Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning,” Luke says, “they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb brining the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.” Christ had dies on the sixth day of the week, on Friday, he was in paradise that day and the entire next day, and then early in the morning on the first day of the week he rises from the dead.

Luke says these women, and they’re named in the previous chapter, they go very early in the morning. John says in John 20 verse 1 that they leave when it is still dark, yet dark. And some people have, again, tried to make contradictions in the Bible by saying the various evangelists say well it was at dawn, and John says it was while it was still dark, and another Gospel says it was when the sun was rising. Well, these women had to travel. And they left when it was still dark and when they got there the sun had risen. And it’s very easy. If people would just think about what’s going on in these narratives, all these so-called contradictions and problems would disappear. The women can’t transport themselves like they do on Star Trek from one place to another instantaneously. It takes a while for them to travel, to get together, to pack up their spices and to arrive at the tomb. And so you would expect a variation between the time they leave to the time they arrive there. Which is what the four narratives say.

Well they go with these spices that they have prepared, And they have prepared a lot of them, and they’re called aromatic spices. And they’re going there to do what Nicodemus and Joseph had done on Friday, in a hasty way. They’re going there and re-do everything, and they’re taking these spices and they’re there to, because they’re aromatic, they’re there to preserve the body and to hold down the smell, the stench. of a decaying corpse.

Now the actions of these women, as well as the actions of Joseph and Nicodemus on Friday, indicate love for Christ and zeal and a devotion to Christ. But they also indicate complete lack of understanding and a complete lack of faith. Because Christ has said repeatedly that he will rise the third day, and he says it quite plainly in the Gospel accounts to the disciples. He says in detail that he will be delivered up to the authorities, that he will be scourged, they will spit on him, and he will be crucified, and the third day he will rise again. The Old Testament, and Peter quotes a Psalm in Acts, the first sermon, saying that God would not suffer his Holy One to see corruption. And it’s corruption of the body that all these spices are to guard against. So by their very action of using all these spices, preparing all these spices, and going to take care of the body on the first day of the week, they’re showing that they don’t understand and they don’t believe because they don’t understand. Now they obviously believe some things about Jesus, but they don’t believe these words that he spoke. And perhaps it’s simply a case of them not remembering. But if your don’t remember, you can’t believe them. And we’ll get to that in a little bit more detail in a moment.

Well, they come to the tomb having prepared these spices, not expecting the resurrection, they expect to find a dead body. They don’t expect the resurrection, even though we’re told by Christ in very literal language. And they find the stone has been rolled away in front of the tomb. Now the tomb isn’t like we imagine it today. It’s not in the ground. It’s hewn of a stone we’re told. Joseph had had it cut out of a stone. And we don’t know whether there’s one of two chambers in it. There may be, some of these tombs had one chamber, some had two. Joseph was a rich man, he may have had a two chamber tomb. We’re not told exactly what it was like. But it was a hole, obviously, in the rock large enough for people to pass through, and so you have a large stone in front of it.

And on the way there Mark tells us in Mark 16 verse one to three that the women were wondering as they were walking who’s going to roll the stone away. And this indicates another lack of forethought on their part, I suppose, because they’re travelling to the tomb not knowing who’s going to roll the stone away. The stone is too big for them to take care of. And it shows again, their actions show their zeal, they show their devotion, but they also show a lack of understanding, and a lack of knowledge.

Well, they don’t have to worry about it when they get there, because the stone has been rolled away. And Luke tells us, “Then they went in and did not find the body of [the Lord] Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.” They walk into the tomb, the stone’s been pushed away, they walk into the tomb, and they’re greatly perplexed, they’re confused. What’s going on? And their perplexity, please understand, is due to the fact that they did not understand what Christ had said. They did not understand the Old Testament. That’s why they’re perplexed, and that’s why we’re perplexed. We’re perplexed about things, because we don’t understand God’s word. And if we understand God’s word, the perplexity disappears.

Luke calls our attention to this event here by using the word “behold” there were two men suddenly standing there, “that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.” Now two of the evangelists – and the evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – two of the evangelists mention one man, two of the evangelists mention two men, and these are angels. There is no contradiction here either, because apparently only one of the speak. And they focus, in those accounts in which there are one speaker, they focus on the speaker. And these two men show up. Now there’s a little aside that can be learned from this. You’ve see representations of angels, I’m sure, either statues or pictures or something, or in the movies. And in many cases they are portrayed as effeminate, and in some cases in paintings or in pictures you see them portrayed as infants even. Cherubim are sometimes regarded as babies. Well, they aren’t. They’re always masculine, they’re always powerful, and they always strike fear into the hearts of those that they appear to. Remember, at the birth of Christ the angels appear and speak to the shepherds and practically the first words out of their mouth are “Don’t be afraid; Fear not,” because the shepherds are struck with terror at the sight of these beings. They’re not like they are depicted by Hollywood, or by artists or in statuary.

There’s also another point I want to make mention of here, which I’ll develop, I hope, in the next few minutes, and that is there were no witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. And I want to emphasize that. There were no witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. You hear in some Christian theologians, they say the resurrection is the greatest apologetic device that there ever was. But there are not witnesses to it. And that’s something that people overlook when they read these accounts. By the time the women get there he’s already gone. The guards are struck dead, as it were, we’re told. They are so terrified that they don’t know what’s going on. All they know is he was there, now he’s gone. There are no witnesses to the event of the resurrection.

Now there are many witnesses to other resurrections in the New Testament. Look at John 11, for example, which is the account of the resurrection of Lazarus. John 11 starting at verse nineteen I’m going to read a large part of this chapter, because we can learn about the resurrection of Jesus from this resurrection as well.

“Many of the Jews,” at verse nineteen, had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’

Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ ”

And this was a common understanding and belief of the Jews. They believed in the resurrection at the last day. And that was one of the reasons why they spent so much time preparing the body. They had great respect for the body. And they would prepare it for death for that reason. But Jesus speaks to Martha, and he says,

” ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’

She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’ ”

See, she answers a different question. She tells him what he believes, she doesn’t quite answer his question.

“And when she had said these things , she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, ‘The teacher has come and is calling for you.’ As soon as she heard this, she arose quickly and came to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her , when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying ‘She is going to the tomb to weep there.’ ”

So there’s a lot of people following Mary heading to the tomb.

“Then when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?”

They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’

And some of them said, ‘Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave.”

See this was very similar to Jesus’ tomb, it was a cave.

“And a stone lay against it.”

The same method of burying.

“Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.’ Now when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.”

See this is exactly the way Jesus was wrapped up, bound hand and foot. It’s not a simple sheet, that he has. He’s bound. He looks like a mummy. And there’s a separate cloth for the head, for the face.

“Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.”

He actually gives instructions for people to go up and take the wrappings off him and let him go, freeing from them.

“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him.”

See, a multitude of people witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus.

“But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus did.”

And then the narrative continues with the Pharisees plotting to put Jesus to death. So the resurrection of Lazarus has a twofold effect, some believe, and some redouble their efforts to murder Jesus.

Well, look over at Luke chapter seven and you’ll see another resurrection, again one that is witnessed by many people. Beginning at verse eleven in Luke seven,

“Now it happened, the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and a large crowd. and when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a crowd from the city was with her.”

Here’s a large crowd.

“When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then he came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And he presented him to his mother.

Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen up among us,’ ; and, ‘God has visited his people.’

So here’s a couple of resurrections in the Gospels, the widow’s son and Lazarus, that many people witnessed. At the resurrection of Jesus there are no crowds, there’s no one there to witness it. And this becomes very important in understanding what Christianity is all about. They see Jesus as he is dying. They see the body of Jesus when it’s dead. And they see the resurrected Christ. But the event of the resurrection itself there are no witnesses for. None at all.