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“The Empty Tomb: The Report, The Reason & The Response | Easter Sunday 2026” · DFC Podcast

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  Outside Jerusalem to the event that shaped history more than
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  any other moment. And I'll ask Louise to read the
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  story from Luke's account of that First Sunday Easter
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  morning. But on the first day of the
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  week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices
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  they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from
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  the tomb. But when they went, then when
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  they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
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  While they were perplexed about this, behold, 2 men stood by
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  them, dazzling apparel. And as they were afraid, and
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  bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you
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  seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
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  Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee, that
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  the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and
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  be crucified. And on the third day rise.
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  And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they
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  told all these things to the 11 and all the rest.
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  Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of
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  James, and the other women with them, who told these things to
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  the Apostles. But these words seemed to to
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  them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
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  But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping in.
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  Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloth by themselves,
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  and he went home, marvelling at what had happened.
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  For those of you who are new to church, here at DFC we love the
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  teaching and stories of the Bible, particularly in this ever
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  changing world of fake news, AI, bias, media algorithms.
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  We love that we have God's Word, which is truly a fully
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  trustworthy and fully good, which is why we love to read it,
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  talk about it, and respond to it.
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  Therefore, this morning I'm going to spend the next 10
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  minutes talking about this famous passage about that first
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  Easter Sunday morning. And having told heard the story
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  there, I'm going to bring out three simple things.
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  And to make them easy to remember, they all start with
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  the same letter because alliteration always aids
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  application. And these three things are these
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  the report, the reason and the response or what happened, why
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  it happened and why it matters to us 2000 years later.
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  So first the report. Well we see the women go into
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  the tomb and 1st we need to notice what they are carrying.
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  Notice they didn't have balloons, party poppers or a
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  Happy Resurrection Day Jesus banner.
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  Neither did they have a Big Breakfast for Jesus to enjoy
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  after three days without food. No, they came with prepared
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  spices to mask the smell of death, and if you are carrying
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  burial spices, you are not in faith for a miracle.
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  In fact, in Mark's account of this story, their discussion
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  along the way is how they were going to roll that massive stone
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  away. Not I wonder how Jesus is going
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  to jump out in his new resurrection body like some
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  wonderful surprise. But when they reached the tomb,
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  the stone has been rolled away, which was a blessing, but the
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  body had gone, which wasn't. And while they were obviously
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  confused by all this, especially as since they'd arrived while it
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  was still dark, so who could have come earlier that morning
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  to move the body? And why?
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  In their confusion and their grief, 2 men come alongside
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  them, dressed in the whitest, brightest clothes, asking why do
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  you seek the living among the dead?
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  He's not here, but has risen. At which point it seems they,
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  the women, suddenly remembered what Jesus had said.
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  After which they ran off to tell his now 11 disciples of what had
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  happened, but to a mixture of awe and excitement and
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  disbelief, to a mixture of wonder and cynicism.
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  And this report has drawn those same 2 reactions over the past
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  2000 years. The body was gone.
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  The tomb was empty. That is an an historic fact.
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  We can trust the report because if the first opponents of the
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  Christian faith had wanted to crush this new religion, they
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  lived about 1/4 of a mile, 5 minutes walk from this location.
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  They could easily have checked the tomb, or found the real
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  tomb, or found Jesus's body. And yet, since they were unable
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  to debunk these crazy resurrection stories that filled
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  the city and fuelled that faith, strange though it might be, we
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  can actually trust the report. Which then leads us to the
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  reason. Because it isn't enough to say
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  that this is what happened. We have to ask why this
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  happened. And the two men in white,
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  probably angels, made that clear.
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  Because although the women and later his disciples didn't
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  understand, these angels certainly did.
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  They said, Remember how he told you while he was still in
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  Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of
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  sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise according
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  to these angels. No one should have been really
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  surprised because this is exactly what Jesus said would
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  and had to happen. He would be arrested, He would
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  be tried and crucified and then three days later rise again.
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  In fact, on numerous occasions over the previous year, Jesus
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  himself had said that he hadn't come just to give us an acute,
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  exciting season of Christmas. He hadn't come just to teach us
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  about God. He hadn't come just to leave us
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  some great sound bites to live by.
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  Like, do to others as you would have them do to you.
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  Or turn the other cheek, or go the extra mile.
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  He hadn't even come just to ease the ease the sufferings of a an
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  oppressed people with healings and miraculous catering.
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  No, he'd come from heaven to earth so he could be the
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  bleeding, dying man on the cross of Good Friday.
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  In God's rescue plan, Jesus came to be delivered into the hands
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  of sinful men. But sadly, that doesn't just
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  mean those religious leaders or Pontius Pilate or even the
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  traitor Judas. Actually, it means us.
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  He came because we needed him to.
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  He died because we messed up, went our own way.
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  We couldn't even meet our own moral standards, let alone the
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  standards of a holy God. Someone had to die for sins, and
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  Jesus willingly gave himself up. And even the method of of death
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  is significant because it was on a wooden cross, because just as
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  man's temptation and rebellion had come about through a, a tree
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  in the Garden of Eden, so man's salvation would come about
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  through another tree, but this one would be formed into a a
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  cross shaped on a hill outside Jerusalem.
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  But as the Angel shared on that first Easter morning, this, this
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  cross of Christ wasn't a, a random act of cruelty or
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  injustice. Actually, it's the outworking of
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  a greater plan. It had meaning.
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  There was purpose. There was there was a reason for
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  all this. Because again, as Jesus had
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  revealed 3 days later on that Easter morning, he would rise
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  again. Because having lived the perfect
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  life that we haven't, death had no power over him.
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  It's like that beautiful moment in the storyline The Witch and
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  the Wardrobes, as the Jesus representative Aslan declares.
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  He says, when a willing victim who had committed no treachery
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  was killed in a traitor stead, the table would crack and death
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  itself would start working backwards.
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  When we look for a reason in the report, we see that although God
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  created a perfect world that we ruined with our selfishness and
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  our greed and our anger, God was not willing to leave us in that
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  place. He came down for you and for me.
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  Out of love. He willingly stood in the dock
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  for us. He took our punishment and now
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  he invites us into the same resurrection life that we
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  celebrate today. The best part of Easter is not
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  that one man was raised to life, but that through that moment,
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  all who trust in Jesus can have their own resurrection morning.
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  And so the report may sound amazing.
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  The reason may that the Bible gives to explain these strange
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  events, I think is even more incredible.
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  And so finally we're left with our final R, their response, and
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  as importantly, our response. And in the final 2 verses we
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  have the the two major responses to this report.
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  Well, to them, these words to them seem like an idle tale.
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  They didn't believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the
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  tomb, stooping and looking in. He saw the linen clothes by
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  themselves and went home, marvelling at what happened.
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  There are two ways we can respond.
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  Firstly, we can say it's not just an idle tale, a nice story,
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  but surely too incredible. Maybe the women were deluded
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  with grief. Maybe the disciples did arrange
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  a hoax to make themselves rich and famous.
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  Although taking that light to the grave, normally through
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  painful martyrdom, is is dedication in the extreme.
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  Maybe it's just a nice story to add to the rest of our Easter
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  celebrations. Of bright spring flowers to
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  cheer up our lives after winter, of Easter bunnies who for some
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  reason choose to lay chocolate eggs on one weekend rather than
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  live young as they do the rest of the year.
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  And of Jesus, who some think came back to life.
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  Nice, but an idle tale. Or maybe you see a marvellous
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  message. Maybe, like Peter, you will
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  pause to take a proper look at the empty tomb to realise that
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  every other religious leader in history has a tomb site you can
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  visit. And yet despite being worshipped
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  by more people, 2.4 billion people today, 1/3 of the world's
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  population, Jesus followers never put up a shrine over his
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  tomb. They never pilgrimage to the
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  site like the followers of Muhammadu and Medina.
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  Maybe this Easter you might see the empty tomb represented by
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  our many yummy hollow chocolate eggs and believe the report of
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  this historic event that there really was an empty tomb and a
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  missing body. And then believe the reason of
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  the angels that he's not here. He has risen, incredible and
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  unexpected though it was. And then accept that reason for
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  yourself, that for us to know a holy God, the problem of sin
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  needed a solution, and that this Jesus, as he said, did give
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  himself into the hands of sinful men and women.
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  Like you and like me, he willingly gave his life to pay
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  the penalty for sin and then rose again to bring us all into
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  new life. The English lawyer Frank
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  Morrison, he once set out to write a book to deny all the
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  miraculous parts of the life of Jesus.
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  And yet, after exhaustive research was forced to admit he
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  said, it's easy to say you will believe nothing that will not
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  fit into the mould of a rationalistic conception of the
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  universe. But suppose the facts don't fit
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  into that mould. The utmost that an honest man
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  can do is to undertake to examine the facts patiently and
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  impartially, and to see where they lead him.
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  Will you let this report, with it's incredible reason, lead you
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  to a response of faith, instead of dismissing these events as a
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  nice but idle tale? Maybe like Peter, you can take
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  another look and find a God who loved you to death, even when
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  you've done nothing to deserve that love.
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  And the one who invites us to share in his resurrection story
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  through the offer of new life through Jesus Christ with God
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  your Father. And as we gaze into that tomb,
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  maybe we can see that because it was empty, we can now be full.
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  As it's next video, we'll wonderfully demonstrate.