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John 20:1-10  THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS

Introduction:
	
In our previous text the body of Jesus was taken from the
cross and was buried.  In our text today His grave is found
to be empty.

I.  The arrival at the tomb

V. 1, "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene
early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth
the stone taken away from the sepulchre."  Three days and
three nights had gone by since the burial of Jesus.  You
will remember that the Jewish day started at dusk dark.  The
body of Jesus was buried at dusk darking closing out the
Passover.  A special sabbath day started about the time His
burial was completed.  His body lay in the tomb all night
and all the following daylight period.  That made one night
and one day in the tomb.
	In this text John mentions only Mary Magdalene, but
according to the other gospel writes there were other women
who had gone with her to the tomb.  The women had not been
able to buy spices on that day because it was a sabbath day.
It was not the regular seventh day sabbath, but the sale of
merchandise was prohibited on that day.
	During the night which followed the special sabbath
there was no prohibition concerning the sale of merchandise,
but the women could not purchase spices during the night
because the market places were all closed.  It was during
the daylight hours which followed that the women could visit
the markets and purchase the spices which they desired to
anoint the body of Jesus.  But by the time the women got
together and made their purchase of the spices, the daylight
hours had run out and they were unable to go to the grave.
So two nights and two daylight periods had gone by.
	The next night with its following daylight period was
the regular seventh day sabbath.  So even though the women
had already purchased the spices, they could not visit the
grave and anoint the body of Jesus on that day.  So the
night time and then the daytime of the regular sabbath day
made three days and three nights that the body of Jesus had
been in the grave.
	This completes the amount of time that Jesus had
predicted that He would spend in the grave --- three days
and three nights.  Or, in the order it actually transpired,
it was three nights and three days.  So it must have been
right after dusk dark after those three nights and three
days closed out that Jesus actually arose from the grave.
If He had remained in the grave throughout the night and
arose at sunrise, as most people think, He would have been
in the grave four nights and three days.  But He wasn't.  He
was there three nights and three days as He said.  So He
came out of the grave right after dark on Saturday night.
This was on the first day of the week, but was in the early
part of the darkness period of that first day of the week.
	Yet it was not until early the next morning, which was
still on the first day of the week when the women appeared
at the tomb.  They arrived while it was still pretty much
dark.  However, they had enough light to tell that the stone
had been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb.
		It is difficult to put the various accounts together in
their proper order, but according to John's record, it
appears that Mary Magdalene had run ahead of the others and
had arrived at the tomb ahead of the others.  This
apparently is the reason that John mentions only Mary being
present at the tomb at this time.
	Mary can see that the stone has been rolled away from
the tomb and it startles her.  It disturbs her.  She assumes
the worst.  She assumes that someone has moved the body from
the tome.  Perhaps someone has even stolen the body.  Jesus
most certainly had lots of enemies and it appears to her
that something tragic has happened.

II.  Mary's encounter with Simon Peter and another disciple

	V. 2, "Then she runneth, 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 sepulchre,
and we know not where they have laid him."  As she ran along
Mary encountered the Apostle Peter and another disciple.  In
order to save time, I will go ahead and identify that other
disciple.  He is John, the apostle John, the writer of this
book.
	Mary related to them that the body of Jesus was missing
from the tomb and expresses to them her distress at not
knowing where it was located.  It did not cross her mind
that Jesus had arisen from the grave.

III.  Peter and John rushing to the tomb

	Peter and John both broke into a run toward the tomb.
Apparently Mary made no attempt to keep up with them.  She
had already been running and would be quite tired and winded
by now.  So it was Peter and John who run on alone to the
tomb.
	V. 3-4, "Peter therefore went forth, and that other
disciple, and came to the sepulchre.  So they ran both
together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came
first to the sepulchre."  John outran the Apostle Peter.  It
seems that John was younger than Peter and perhaps his youth
would account for him being the fastest.
	V. 5, "And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the
linen clothes lying; yet went he not in."  By the time John
arrived at the tomb there was enough light for him to see
into the tomb without entering.  So instead of going right
in, he stopped at the entrance and stooped down so that he
would be able to look into the tomb and see the place where
the body of Jesus had lain.
	What he saw must have been quite puzzling.  What he saw
was that the body indeed was gone, but the grave clothes
were still there.  Now why would anybody move a corpse and
leave the grave clothes behind.  It did not make sense.  He
was astonished.
	He must have been equally astonished to see that the
grave clothes had been neatly folded and lain on the shelf
where the body of Jesus had been.  Now why would anybody
strip the clothes off a corpse in order to move it.  And why
would they neatly fold the clothes and leave them behind?
	V. 6-7, "Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and
went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,"
V. 7, "And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying
with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by
itself."  When Simon Peter arrived he did not stop at the
entrance.  He went barging right in.  Once inside he could
see the same thing that John had seen.  He could see that
the body of Jesus was missing, but that the clothes were
left behind.  And the napkin which had been wrapped about
His head was folded separately and laid separate and apart
from the other clothes.
	By the way, this bit of information knocks in the head
the idea that the burial shroud which a lot of people claim
is the shroud that Jesus was buried in.  That shroud was a
one piece shroud.  It covered from head to food of whoever
was wrapped in it.  And there was the clear image of the
body.  There was not a hundred pounds of spices between that
body and the shroud.

IV.  John's belief

	V. 8, "Then went in also that other disciple, which
came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed."
After Peter went into the tomb John went right in behind
him.  After getting inside he could also see the napkin
folded and laid aside separate and apart from the main cloth
in which Jesus had been wrapped.  But by now the mystery of
it was beginning to fade.  By now it was as clear to John
what had happened.  Nobody had moved the body of Jesus.
Nobody had stolen the body of Jesus.  Jesus had arisen from
	the grave.  What a relief!  What a joy!  What a
wondrous surprise!  Jesus had arisen from the grave!  Jesus
was alive!  He was not here in the tomb; He was alive!
	John had reached this conclusion, not by understanding
the Old Testament scriptures which had prophesied of His
resurrection.  V. 9, "For as yet they knew not the
scripture, that he must rise again from the dead."  Neither
John nor any of the disciples as of yet understood that the
Old Testament scripture clearly reveal that Jesus would come
forth from the dead.  What John now understood what the
meaning of the evidence he saw before him.  It did not make
sense that anybody would come into the tomb and undress the
corpse of Jesus and then move the corpse without the
clothes.  If anybody had taken the corpse, they would have
left it wrapped in its clothes.  They would have taken
corpse, clothes and all.
	But it made perfectly good sense that if Jesus came
back to life again, that He would not keep those grave
clothes on with all that hundred pounds of spices wrapped
over Him from head to foot.  No.  He would take those things
off.  And He would not just take them off and toss them to
the floor.  He would take them off and neatly fold them and
place them on the shelf where His body had been.  And John
was fully persuaded that this is just exactly what had
happened.
	V. 10, "Then the disciples went away again unto their
own home."  I am not certain that John told Peter that he
was convinced that Jesus had risen from the grave, but I
strongly suspect that he did.  I am also convinced that even
though they had not seen Jesus at this point of time, that
they went away from that tomb a lot more excited and happy
than they had come to it.

V.  Some things I want you to know

	I want you to know that Jesus did arise from the grave.
Those men did not go to that tomb expecting to find evidence
that Jesus arose from the grave.  But they both saw the
evidence that He did.  And at least John was thoroughly
convinced that He did even before He saw Jesus alive.
	I want you to know that the reason He went to the grave
was because of our need of salvation.  He went to the cross
and He went to His death in order to provide a way whereby
we could be saved.
	I want you to know that if you will repent of your sin
and trust in Jesus Christ to save your soul that Jesus will
save you.  He will save your soul and you will go to heaven
when you die.
	I also want you to know that if you do not trust in
Jesus to save your soul, that you will regret it.  You may
never regret it in this life, but you will regret it in the
next life.  You will regret it forever and ever.  You will
regret it throughout all eternity.
	
Conclusion:

	Will you trust Jesus and be saved?  Will you do it now?