Remembering the Promises

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBqSkLE52o?is=S2oRU7ogGaSrzFmD

September 20, 2026

Luke 23:50-24:12

“Remembering the Promises”

We look back, once more, to Luke 9. There we were told that Jesus set his face for Jerusalem. That’s the simply honest way of saying Jesus intentionally continued the trajectory of our salvation history. He was heading for the cross.

Here’s the big-picture-point in today’s passage. The resurrection is not the epilogue to the story. It is not the postscript to the life of Jesus. As we said, Jesus set his face for Jerusalem. The resurrection is the goal of his life. It is the objective of his life. The resurrection is the purpose of Jesus’ life. In fact, that purpose is spelled out in no more obvious terms than in when we worship. Sunday. The first day of the week. We worship on the day of the most important event in human history. We worship on Sunday because it marks the day of our Savior’s resurrection. What else can we do on Sunday morning than give God all the glory and honor and praise for the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

As we move forward, here’s an essential truth you might want to write down:

WITHOUT THE RESURRECTION, THE CROSS IS ANOTHER MEANINGLESS DEATH.

The resurrection is everything. Here’s how John MacArthur once put it:

“The purpose of the gospel is that we, having been forgiven of our sin, could enter into eternal life, and live in the bliss of heaven forever, in perfect holiness and perfect joy, in glorified, physical, resurrected bodies. Bodily resurrection is peculiar to Christianity, and bodily resurrection is essential to Christianity. The Christian gospel is not designed to deliver you from your troubles here; not at all, not even close. The Christian gospel is not so that your spirit can float on into eternity in some nebulous way. The Christian gospel does not promise that you will live on in influence in some way, nor is the gospel saying that Christ lives on in His influence, or Christ lives on in spiritual form. The Christian message is that Jesus Christ rose from the grave in a glorified, physical body, in some way like the body you now have, only stripped of all that is sinful and fatal; and that we one day will receive a body like unto His glorified body, and we will live in bodily resurrected form through the eons of eternity.”

There is no other message or promise like that in the history of the world. Listen to how Paul captured it in 1 Corinthians 15:12-14:

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

Little wonder that all four gospels deal with the resurrection. That is huge. So, in light of this one, essential truth, here’s today’s passage:

Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.

On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 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. While 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. Now 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, but 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 saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Luke 23:50 - 24:12

Here’s the lovely progression which gets us to today’s passage:

RESURRECTION PROMISED

RESURRECTION HAPPENS

RESURRECTION PREACHED

RESURRECTION REALIZED IN OUR LIVES MOMENT AFTER WE DIE

What a beautiful promise.

Here’s why we hear that beautiful promise. It’s an important underneath-ness to the passage. These verses spell out the process for seeing the truth of the resurrection.

In the first case, beginning with 24:1, the first visitors to the tomb had no expectation that God would raise Jesus from the dead. Focused on the task of preparing Jesus’ body for burial, they fail to remember his promise that he will be raised. Plain and simple, they expect to find a corpse.

In the second case, the eleven remaining disciples and core followers return to a central place of lodging. A couple of others return home to Emmaus. None of them are waiting for Jesus. They’re not there to make up some rationalization for what happened and how Jesus failed. They’re there in despair. They don’t know what to do next. They initially reject the report of the women.

In the third case, the women insist they saw what they saw. So, Peter goes

to check things out. I wonder if his initial thought is, “How can it be?”

All three scenes reveal confusion and perplexity on the part of Jesus’ followers. They haven’t figured anything out. They are caught in the fog of grief and confusion. More than anything, it reveals the patience and goodness of God. He works through slow, dull, and imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will. And I have to tell you, as one of His slower, duller, and imperfecter people, that makes me very glad. God doesn’t need our cleverness or our ingenuity to move the gospel message of resurrection forward. God will use us in spite of us. All God needs is His Word, the Bible. That’s the power of the gospel.

Here’s the main idea in how these verses unfold:

FAILING TO REMEMBER JESUS’ WORDS AND PROMISES LEADS TO DESPAIR. JESUS WAS DEAD AND BURIED, BUT HIS PROMISE THAT HE WOULD BE RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY HAS BEEN FULFILLED.

Never forget. Despair doesn’t belong in a believer’s vocabulary. But

perseverance does. No matter what you experience or go through in life, it

will be okay in the end because Christ has risen. Your worst case scenario

has been defeated.

Here’s the last verse of one of my favorite songs:

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

This is the power of Christ in me;

From life’s first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand:

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

All that matters is knowing Jesus Christ…Christ crucified…Christ resurrected. If you believe this…if you trust him…you can live joyfully and courageously no matter what happens in your life. I love what Luke shares in verse 5: “And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground.” Have you ever been frightened? The word Luke uses is phobos. It means, literally, “full of fear; terrified; alarmed.” We’ve all been there. Well, guess what? That has been dealt with on resurrection Sunday. Are you with me on that? Why ever let anything trouble you, bother you, or get you down? Your Saviour is risen and he has ensured you will be in his presence the moment after you die.

Let’s close with a few huge truths, in no particular order, from this powerful and pivotal section of Luke.

First, Luke reports what the women said to the other disciples when they returned from the tomb. As Luke records it, “When they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” Notice what isn’t said. They don’t say the body of Jesus. They say, “Lord Jesus.” This is not a title used in the description of the death and burial of Jesus. It’s the title used after his resurrection. Here’s something else you might want to write down:

GOD RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD AND DECLARED HIM LORD.

In fact, at Pentecost Peter said, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.” {Acts 2:36} Jesus is now Lord. He has been given the name which is above every name, the

name Lord, that at that name every knew should bow. That’s why we do

what we do every Sunday.

Second, Jesus was truly dead. The women saw his dead body. Broken, beaten, and bloodied. They saw him taken down from the cross. They knew he was dead, which is why they prepared burial spices and went to the tomb. They went to the tomb fully expecting to find his dead body. Jesus was really dead. But the tomb was empty.

Finally, there’s the angel messengers. The women were in shock. The body was gone. They didn’t go to the wrong tomb. They had absolutely no expectation of finding it empty. They were terrified. Unlike us, they had never heard this story before. They had nothing to reflect back on. So here stood the angels. Signaling something extraordinary has happened. When did angels appear in Luke? To give divine information about the births of John and Jesus…at the time of Jesus’ birth…and the resurrection. Their appearance carried the full weight of the work of God in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen?

So here we are. We can understand the power of this evidence from Luke

about the resurrection. We are not simply told of an empty tomb and then left to draw our own conclusions. Here’s where Luke is leading us:

THE PROOF OF JESUS’ RESURRECTION COMES ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH AND WHO KNOW AND REMEMBER HIS WORDS.

Come back next week to see how that continues to play out in the lives of those who know and love Jesus. Until then, an affirmation and a prayer.

The affirmation is from Romans 6:9-11:

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let’s pray:

FATHER, FILL OUR HEARTS WITH JOY IN BELIEVING WHAT YOUR WORD SAYS. THANK YOU FOR GIVING US LIFE THROUGH YOUR RESURRECTION POWER. THROUGH THAT SAME POWER, DRAW TO YOURSELF THOSE WHO NEED TO BELIEVE AND BE SAVED FROM SIN, AND DEATH, AND HELL. TOGETHER, WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE GLORIOUS RESURRECTION THAT AWAITS THOSE WHO LOVE THE LORD JESUS. WORK SAVING FAITH IN EVERY HEART. WE PRAY IN CHRIST’S NAME. AMEN.