The Empty Tomb

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 310, The Empty Tomb.

"He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee." Luke 24:6.

The women arrive at the tomb that morning carrying spices. They came to finish a task of mourning — to anoint a body, to attend to the final details of a death that seemed final and complete. They weren't expecting a miracle. They were expecting to find exactly what they had left behind on Friday: a body, a sealed stone, an ending.

Instead they find the stone rolled away. And in place of the body, two men in dazzling clothes, saying: "He is not here, but has risen."

Three simple words — "he is not here" — dismantle the entire tragedy of that Friday. The place where death was supposed to be celebrating its victory is empty. And that emptiness is the greatest evidence of presence the history of the world has ever recorded. An empty tomb is nothing — unless it was supposed to be full. And this one was.

Notice the verb: has risen. Not "will rise someday." Not "might rise if you have enough faith." It has already happened. It is past tense. Jesus's resurrection is not a pending hope floating somewhere out in the future — it is an accomplished fact, already sealed into history, before any of us were even born.

And notice what the angels do next — they don't ask the women to simply believe with no grounding at all. They say: "remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee." Jesus had already told them. He had said, more than once, that he would be handed over, that he would die, and that on the third day he would rise. The resurrection doesn't catch God off guard — it confirms every word Jesus had already spoken. If that promise came true, every other promise of His can be trusted too.

This verse is the high point of everything Luke has written. Think of everything that came before — the birth in Bethlehem, the miracles in Galilee, the parables, the teaching, the cross. Without this moment, without this empty tomb, Jesus would be remembered as just another good teacher who died too young. But with the resurrection, He is the living Lord — the only one whose word carries power even over death.

I want to ask you: is there a promise of Jesus you've been doubting lately? Some word of His that feels too big, too distant, too hard to believe? The same power that rolled away that stone and emptied that tomb stands behind every promise He has already made to you.

So today, I want to invite you to write down, on paper, one specific promise of Jesus — something you already know but haven't yet lived out in full confidence. Read it out loud, remembering: the same power that said "he is not here, he has risen" stands behind that word too.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.