David Green's sermon 'The Tomb Is Empty!' highlights the critical importance of the resurrection in Christian belief. Drawing from Mark 15:40 to 16:13, Green emphasizes the role of women who first discovered the empty tomb and the significance of Jesus' resurrection as the cornerstone of the Gospel. He argues that without the resurrection, the crucifixion would hold no meaning, and salvation would be impossible. The sermon underscores the tradition of holding church services on Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, as a testament to this belief. Green contrasts Jesus' crucifixion with others, pointing out that while crucifixion was common, only Jesus rose from the dead. He addresses skepticism by focusing on eyewitness accounts and insists that the resurrection, while not scientifically explained, is a matter of faith supported by historical testimony. The sermon concludes with a call to trust in the risen Savior, affirming that the empty tomb is the foundation of Christian hope.

We'll start reading at Mark 15, beginning of verse 40, and we'll read all the way into chapter 16 and verse 13. So Mark 15, verse 40, and we'll go to Mark 16 and verse 13. There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less, and of Joses and Salome, who also when he was in Galilee followed him and ministered unto him and many other women which came up with Him unto Jerusalem. Now, when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled if he were already dead.

Calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been in the wild dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, took him down and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulcher, which was hewn out of a rock, rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulcher. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph beheld where he was laid. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him.

Very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, and they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher?' And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And Entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.

But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall you see him as he said unto you." They went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher, for they trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen very early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. She went and told them that had been with him as they mourned and wept, they when they had heard that he was alive had been seen of her, believe not.

After that he appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them." My message today is on the subject of the tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. Jesus has resurrected from the grave, the tomb is empty. Praise God that as we are entering into the final Part, the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we don't have a dead Savior.

Praise God that Jesus is alive. Praise God that our gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is just that. It's not the death of Jesus. It's not the burial of Jesus. It's the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord.

No matter the reason why you're here today, I mean, we all have our reasons. I'm sure it wasn't for the music. It wasn't for the instruments. You didn't come for the crowd. It wasn't for the big-name preacher that's here.

It wasn't for none of that. But I know, And I hope you are here today because the tomb is empty. The resurrection, beloved, is not just a piece of the gospel. It's the main event. Because understand something, when we talked about Jesus' death on the cross, I mentioned that there had been Many who died on the cross.

Crucifixion was very common. The Romans didn't invent it, but they sure did use it a lot, didn't they? History records that multitudes died on crosses throughout history. Jesus' death was different than any other. And we pointed out the difference.

How that Christ's death on the cross was different, but understand something, that without the resurrection of Jesus, you and I would still be in our sins. Without the resurrection, Christ's death on the cross would mean nothing. Without the resurrection, there could be no salvation. There could be no salvation. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning of verse 12, 1 Corinthians 15, beginning of verse 12. Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain in your faith is also vain, beloved. If Christ be not risen, then there's no reason for me to preach.

There's no reason for us to meet today. We may as well just pack it up and go home. You and I, we could argue and we could debate on what day the Lord actually died on the cross. And there's been hours upon hours And lots of things printed online and on paper, lots of time spent, men, good and godly men, who have gotten tangled up in that debate. Was it on Friday?

Was it on Thursday? Was it on Wednesday? And lots of opinions going around about that sort of thing. When did Christ die? What day of the week was it?

As important of a debate as that is in some circles apparently, the churches don't meet on those days. We meet. Well, we can meet, we do meet on Wednesday, but we could we could just as easily meet on Thursday. We could just as easily meet on Friday, we could just as easily meet on Tuesday, but the non-negotiable Among the Lord's churches is we meet on Sunday, the first day of the week, the Lord's day. Why?

Why is that? Across all of the evangelical world, across all of Christianity, we meet, they meet on Sunday. Why? Why? Because the tomb is empty.

Because right here in our text in Mark in chapter 16, very early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, and they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? When they looked, they saw the stone was rolled away, And guess what? It was empty. It was empty. There was no body there.

And so that's why. That's why this church meets. And that's why the church down the road meets, and that's why the church over yonder meets, and that's why the churches in Brunswick meet, and the churches in Atlanta meet, and the churches in Washington, D.C. Meet, and the churches, though we may differ on other things doctrinally, Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians, and all down the road, why do we all meet on Sunday? Why do we all meet on Sunday?

Why do we all meet on the Lord's Day? Because the tomb is empty. And if we go across to the other side of the world, to Australia and to New Guinea, and go to Africa and down into South America, and they're meeting on Sunday, the Lord's Day, and speak different languages and have different cultures, but they're meeting on the Lord's Day. Why? Because the tomb is in...

And just like us, they may meet on Wednesday, they may meet on Thursday, they may meet on a different day of the week. But Sunday takes priority. But Sunday takes priority. Why? Why?

Because of the text before us. Because the tomb is empty. As we look at the text before us, we notice some details, but we also notice some missing details. And what do you mean by that, preacher? Well, I mean that when we read about the crucifixion, there was a lot of detail about him being on the cross.

There was a lot of detail about the mechanics of it all. There's no details about the resurrection, only the fact that the tomb is empty. There's no description of it, no real explanation, just that when they got there, the stone was rolled away, and that there was no body. Now on Wednesday night, you all know this, but I'm saying it for those who may be listening to the recording. On Wednesday night, we've been meeting at our house, still part of, still under the authority of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, but we're meeting at our house.

I'm preaching through the book of Genesis currently. So far, we've gone through the first chapter. Now the position of this preacher is to take Genesis literally, and that's the way I've been doing it. Now suppose I got into Genesis, like some of these wise guys that are out there, and I took Genesis and I said, well, I can't explain how it is that All of this happened the way Moses described it. Scientifically, it doesn't really make sense.

It goes against scientific explanation. It contradicts my public school and college textbook, national geographic channel, and so on and so forth. All of those things, I don't want to be laughed at by my neighbors I don't want to be seen as being out so I'm going to scrap the little reading of it and I'm going to explain all of this away and suppose I droned on and on like Hugh Ross Jordan Peterson or those guys and explained the text away And now Sunday morning here I am in this text. My question is, why should I treat this text any differently than I would treat the Genesis text? My point is this, can science explain the resurrection?

It cannot. It cannot explain the resurrection. The same wise guys that are on the National Geographic circles, They can't explain the resurrection. The wisdom of this world cannot explain the resurrection. They can't explain the virgin birth.

They can't explain the miracles of Jesus. Over in Matthew chapter 11, we find John the Baptist, Matthew chapter 11, and verses 2 through 6. And verses 2 through 6. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, He sent two of His disciples, and said unto Him, Are down He that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things that you do hear and see.

The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in thee." Can you imagine when John, as he's sitting there in that jail cell, he's maybe having some doubts. And he says, hey, to his disciples, go and check this out. And he gets the answer back. He says, wait a minute, no, this adds up scientifically.

I won't believe it unless I see it explained to me how all this worked. No, no, no, no. Over in John chapter 3 and verse 12, Jesus says this. John chapter 3 and verse 12, He says, if I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? If I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

The Bible is not a history book or a science book, but when it speaks of history or science, it's 100% accurate. We can trust it. Some preachers have played fast and loose with the text and been very inconsistent. And I think that's one of the reasons why that so many young people have left churches, because they say, oh, you can't believe Genesis because that doesn't make any scientific sense. But oh, by the way, here's the virgin birth, here's the resurrection.

You need to believe that. You see, our God is a great God, and He can create, and He did create in six literal days, just like the Bible says. And guess what? Jesus did come as a virgin born baby. And he did live a perfect life.

And He did perform many wonderful miracles. He did die. He was buried, and yes, He did rise again, just like the Bible says. We can take Him at His Word. The mechanics of it all is not described here in the text, nor do you find it in any of the other gospels.

We take it to be true by faith, but understand something. Even though the Bible, Martin doesn't describe it, neither does Matthew or Luke or John give us the mechanics of how the resurrection worked. It's not a blind leap of faith to believe the resurrection. It's not a leap in the dark to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Far from it.

In fact, there were eyewitnesses. Mark, he's the briefest of all the gospel writers. And it's been a pleasure to preach through Mark. The first gospel that I preached through was Matthew. Matthew is very thorough in his writing.

I appreciate Mark because if I was going to write somebody's story, I'd be brief like Mark, I think. I'm not much of a detailed writer, and man, I like his brevity. But Mark lays it out as he writes under the inspiration of spirit. And we find the eyewitness accounts here as he begins there in chapter 15. And this is the reason why I put all this together in one sermon.

The women were there. They were at the cross. They were witnessing all the things that were going on. They were looking on afar off. Then they came up with him unto Jerusalem, and then he follows them.

And then he follows them, they beheld where he was laid. And the women, they were very detailed oriented, weren't they? When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene married the mother of James and Siloam. They brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. Praise God for the women.

They came to the sepulcher, the rising of the sun, and they said among themselves, who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And They looked and they saw the stone was rolled away. That stone was rolled away not so that Jesus could get out. He was already gone. That stone was rolled away so that those women could see inside.

So there were eyewitnesses. That tomb was empty. And when you read through the text, you see the eyewitnesses, but Luke put it this way As he wrote there in his second volume, He had written the gospel there at Luke, and then he gets to Acts, and he starts this out in verse 1. The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments under the apostles whom he had chosen.

To whom also, ready for this, He showed Himself alive after His passion by what many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me." To the first Christians in this first century, faith in the deity of Christ, this was not, Again, it was not a blind leap of faith. It was not a jump in the dark. Only God could defeat death. And they knew beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ had risen bodily from the tomb.

They had seen Him. They had touched Him. They had eaten with Him. They had been alone with Him. They had been in crowds with Him.

They had been in closed rooms and out in the open. This term here in the King James translated infallible proofs. The LSB translates it convincing proofs. Translates a Greek word that's used only this one time. It means literally many criteria of certainty.

And it's significant. Out of all the places that this word could be used, it's used to the resurrection of Christ. It's not too much to say that Christ's resurrection is the most certain fact in all of history. Many large volumes have been published setting forth the evidences thereof. Is thereof.

In fact, that Bible that you have in your lap, behind it, there are many manuscripts scripts on multiple continents going back through many centuries. And beside of it and in front of it, There are many translations in multiple, multiple languages. People have been willing to die for it. Notice the wording here, he showed himself alive. Nobody else could ever do this.

Paul laid it out this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. What we have here are eyewitness accounts. Some skeptic comes along and says, well, I don't believe that. OK, well, Whatever, man. I'm going to go back to the eyewitness account.

It's like somebody comes up and says, well, I don't believe that George Washington existed. Or I don't believe that Britain was ever attacked the United States. OK, well, you believe what you want. But how much more important is this? You see, someone could go your whole life and deny the resurrection of Christ.

That's...eternity is at stake. You see. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1-9, it says this, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, to keep in memory what I preached unto you unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. In that, he was seen of Cephas.

Peter saw him. Then of the twelve, the rest of the apostles, All the apostles, they saw him. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are falling asleep. Some of them are dead, but they saw him. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.

Last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, and I am not meant to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Oh, beloved, there were so many witnesses of the risen Christ. During that 40-day period Before His ascension, Jesus ate with the apostles. He walked with them, He taught them, He communed with them.

He was truly, as the centurion said, the Son of God. But He was risen from the dead. At first, notice in our text, it was hard to believe. It's hard to believe, you know, and it's easy to sit on this side of the cross, this side of the resurrection. You say, man I can't believe they didn't believe it.

But think about what they've been through. There are some still who have a hard time believing it. But, oh beloved, will you deny the truth of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior? Don't pillow your head tonight without fully trusting in Jesus as your Savior this day. There is witness, multiple witness recorded in his word.

Believe in, fully trust in the risen Savior. Praise God the tomb is empty. He's the only hope we have. May God end the blessing to the preaching of his Word.