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The Jail is Empty (because the Tomb is)
The Tomb is Empty, So is the Jail
Acts 5:12-32
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
As you realize the grace, the mercy and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, may you realize as well that He has freed you to join Him!
The +1: The Tomb is Empty, He is Risen, The Lord is With you, You are Free.
Last week, during the service and sermon I asked you to respond to a number of things! Actually, I didn’t ask you! You just responded, and did it well. Which is appropriate, as we use these things pretty regularly here at church.
I wanted you to tie them together – a bond that would lead you from one saying to the next – and every time you hear one – hopefully the others will just come to mind as well.
So let’s see if you remember them
The Tomb is ……
therefore, He is Risen…
therefore, The Lord is with…
And to that today, as we look at the reading from the book of Acts, we are going to add one,
36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. John 8:36 (NLT)
Indeed – and that is our theme for this day…as we look at the fact that no longer was the Tomb empty, but so was the jail. Moreover, while this is fact, the difference between the Priests and the Apostles is such a valuable lesson for us. For many of us deal with times in our lives where we feel ourselves imprisoned, bound, captive – and the point is simple –
The Tomb is Empty, He is Risen, The Lord is With You – and IF God has set you free…
Who was really imprisoned? What Imprisoned them?
If you look at the actions of the Priests and officials, you see what motivated them to react with orders to arrest the apostles. We see it there in verse 17 – the were filled with jealously – the word picture describes being overwhelmed and flooded with it – even to the point of not seeing the good they were denying.
They were fighting against good stuff. They stopped people from being healed. The interfered with people being freed from what oppressed them – what ailed their spirits or the demons with whom they struggled. Even more annoying to them, were the crowds that began to believe. The crowds in whom the word of God was working, generating life and faith as lives were brought together with God. Such things that the crowds grew, and the glory of the priesthood and its empty temple diminished, quickly.
The priests were in a prison that was far more insidious, even more restrictive than the facility that the one in which they stuck the apostles. For we can find peace anywhere, but we cannot flee from ourselves. We cannot flee our own idols, and we can’t even free ourselves from the sin and idols which we worship.
That is why I ask – who was imprisoned? The one’s in the community’s jail, or the ones who tossed them into that cell? It’s a pretty common occurrence in scripture, Joseph and His brothers, Saul and David, Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, or Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. Or for that matter – who knew more freedom – Jesus on the cross, or those who crucified him?
When we are bound up in jealousy – when we zealously protect our idols, those things we count on, before we count on God. I am always curious when we think we need to defend our gods anyways. Can’t they stand up on their own? First sign of an idol is when we have to defend it. Such sin is revealed as well when we stop good from happening because it didn’t happen our way. It is then we should realize that we are imprisoned by something that controls us – we are oppressed by it, it suffocates us and can even kill our Spirit – as it did those priests and Sadducees. Imagine not realizing the tomb was empty, or that He is Risen, or that the Lord is ….. indeed, if you didn’t know this – how could you ever conceive of being free indeed?
And how sad is that…? Can we even conceive of it?
Or do we need to be rescued from it?
God Frees them and us in more ways than one
I love that the phrase, “the angel of the Lord” is used to describe who delivers the apostles from their prison. For that phrase is used normally of God Himself – as in the days of Abraham, Issac and Israel, or Moses’ day.
It reminds us that real freedom comes from Him, He is always it’s source. He is our source. The way they are freed, it isn’t a big deal here. Come on, Jesus says, let’s go, time to get back to what I sent you to do – go and give them my message of life! Go tell them, that:
The tomb is…. Praise God He is Risen, the Lord is with….. and… if the Son sets you free… you are free indeed!
So my only question today – is what are you freed from? For the Son has set you free. Have you thought about it recently? Maybe you are here today, wondering if you can be freed from…
Something…
Instead of the something maybe it is the guilt and shame or anxiety that you need to be freed from so that would enable you to act? Or maybe what you need freedom from is the jealousy or zeal for an idol, or a sin, that stops you from seeing that we dwell in the glory of God – He is truly present here, His spirit dwells in each one of us – for that is His desire.
You see, sometimes it isn’t what we think we need to be delivered from, but our being stuck to it, our being superglue’d to it, unable to free ourselves. The guilt and shame bind us, or our desire that no one know we are in such a needy place, bind us far more than the actual issue. Or our desire to protect ours – our precious thing – ends up strangling us, choking our life out.
O we need to get that Jesus has set us free! That all the prisons that sin can create, all the temptations of Satan and the oppression of demons, that the anxiety we have over life and death – that was crushed at the cross. The doors to that which confines us, thrown open, and Jesus, the Angel of the Lord comes to us and escorts us out, reminding us
My tomb is …. I am risen and with you – and I have set you free…..
For at the cross – when He died – when His blood was shed, all that ties us was defeated.. you are free!!
You are free – go and give the people this message of Life…
You are free.. Christ has freed you – the Son has freed you – so you are freed….?
Yes indeed.
I would end with this one thought…. There are a lot of people who don’t get this – that are struggling with very little hope. They may know these phrases – but they don’t ever quite link them together.
or for a moment – because of trauma, or because of sin – they forgot them.
The Angel of the Lord re-commissioned the apostles that night – even as He freed them.
HE said to them, “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”
So you too my friends have been commissioned – to go to those bearing the wounds and those who help carry them, looking for someone to help, praying someone will help – and now you know what to tell them….
The Tomb is
He has Risen
The Lord is With you
and if the Son has set you free…
AMEN?
The Tomb is Empty? Yeah! He is Risen and The Lord is With us!
What Happened?
Luke 24:12, Psalm 16
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
May the God’s presence flood your life with peace and love and mercy, washing it clean as we realize two intersecting truths: Jesus has Risen, and The Lord is with you
Duh – What Happened?
The tomb is….empty?
As he runs to the tomb, the words echo in his mind, the words of the women, the words that can’t make sense…
the tomb is empty?
Nonsense! As the images pound through Peter’s mind, the scene at the last supper, the scene in the garden, the torches, the anger, the betrayal…the words echoing with every footfall,
the tomb is empty..
Even as the rocky ground passes underneath him in a blur, the crowds yelling crucify Him, Christ’s Body whipped and broken, dragging that beam.. and the words echo again,
the tomb is….. empty!
The pain in his legs growing as he runs out of the city and up the hill towards the tomb – yet knowing his pain is nothing compared to what he witnessed, the hammer pounding the spikes, Jesus looking… it seemed like he was looking right at Peter as he talked, begging the Father to forgive them. Those words hurting so much, as Peter realizes his betrayal, and now these words,
“the tomb is empty!”
Nonsense! The words echo, as do other words, the voice of Jesus prophesying the temples destruction, and the miracle of Jonah, so many words about death and something after… as Peter arrives and looks in and sees for himself,
the tomb is empty…
In awe, confused, shaken, dazed, amazed, shocked…he walks away.. not sure what to make of it all…..muttering. “the tomb is… empty
Hear the gospel again,
“then he went home again, wondering what had happened.”
That’s where the gospel ends? Really? With Peter wondering, “what happened? Really? What happened?
Our Journey
As I struggled with this passage this week, the more and more I realized that this moment defines Peter as much as any, as he walks away from the tomb, in awe, confused, not quite sure what is going on in life. It’s going to take him a while to process it all, and indeed several private talks with Jesus. Peter will eventually get it and we see the result at Pentecost, and with Cornelius and as he writes two letters, that tell of the hope he knows, even as he awaits persecution and death.
I also realized that this has been my story, all too often in life. That I know, as we gather around this altar, as we celebrate the death of Christ on the cross and the resurrection, the fact that the tomb is empty. Those facts are undeniable, they are true.
But how often do we walk away, not sure what that has to do with us? How often do we miss that this entire week, was for us? That this isn’t some celebration of history, like president’s day, or the fourth of July or even Mother’s Day. How often do we walk away, sure in awe, but not getting it?
The Tomb is empty folks. That means Praise God, He is Risen. Even more, it means that the Lord is with you!
David’s run!
Since Peter walked away, and his story for a moment was paused – let’s look at David’s Psalm. For there we pick up our story and the kind of thoughts that occur as we get it, we realize what the empty tomb means. David got it – about 1000 years before the cross, and the description of what David realized comes across so clearly in this Psalm.
David’s hit that point where Peter is – so overwhelmed – so out of it as he looks around him. It’s going to take him a few verses to get re-oriented – to get his thoughts straight. At the end of his rope, He “runs” to God, pleading for safety, pleading for a sanctuary, a place of rest – that God would be his Lord, the one accepting the responsibility of caring and providing for David and keeping him safe and sane. Look there – he comes to the realization that this world doesn’t make sense – apart from Christ.
I think most of us get that part at least – what we experience, what we go through, from our own sin to the evil we encounter in the world, it doesn’t click, we find this world – and yeah our lives broken. Out of desperation perhaps – we think we reach out to God.
And somehow – we are surprised at what we find!
Others who God has reached out to – those He has called – the ones He is healing, they are pretty interesting people! They make great people to hang out with – heck – there always seems to be great food around them too! We find that we aren’t the only ones who were shopping for an idol, a false God to meet our needs, only to demand more and more out of us before they fail to deliver what we thought we would.
God’s like addictions, whether work or drugs or sex or whatever it is that we think will provide that which will heal our emptiness that will remove our pain, our nothingness. Heck, we are so good at creating false gods, some of us can even create them to look like religion, Yet there is no peace, the gods we have fail us… even as they failed David, even as they confused Peter.
But the tomb is empty. Praise God – He is Risen! And the Lord is with You!
The Biggest Surprise!
As David processes things – the big “aha” moment shows up in verse 5. Let’s read it together,
5 My choice is you, GOD, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice!
David figures it out – we don’t have to run to God, at least we don’t have to run far – He is here – He chose us – all of us, He wants us in His life, He wants to be our God, our Lord, our Father.
That’s the reason the tomb is empty, that’s the reason He has risen. The Lord wants to be with you – (wait…then ask aren’t you going to response) to share life together with us! To sustain and carry us through the times where we can’t walk alone – and to remind us that we don’t have to be alone.
David got that – oh did he get that – as God cleansed him of sin, as brought healing to a life ravaged by others like Saul and his son. As he lost another son, and his best friend. As his nation turned their back on him, God was there! The depth of emotions of the pain that is turned to joy just pours through the psalms – the worship that He writes.
For he realized God chose him, even as God chose Peter…even as God chooses to walk with us, to dwell with us.
Plot Lines
That’s seen in the next verse – the odd line about a house and a yard. In more literal translations it is talked about as God setting the plot lines for our inheritance, a beautiful and pleasant and peaceful place. But really, it is talking about how we live with God, each and every
Jesus talks about this as the mansions and rooms that He goes to prepare for us.
And yet God doesn’t even wait for that to come and live with us. St Paul asks us,
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit makes His home in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 (Parker’s Paraphrase)
The implications of that will take a lifetime to discover, it’s more than a set of eyes peering into a dark tomb can see.
But that is why David is happy, that is what he realizes He never wants to let go, for the risen and reigning Christ, and His glory is reflecting from our faces, for He has taken our hand – and walks through life with us.
Let’s start by just knowing this –
– The Tomb is Empty
– Praise God! He has Risen
– And that means, He is with you!
And because of that – the peace of God, which passes all understanding, is yours, and in it you are protected, your hearts and mind guarded by Christ himself. AMEN!!!
