The Empty Tomb

The point: Pray for a more practical faith, believing that in the path of duty, you will never be entirely forsaken. Go forward boldly, trusting that obstacles may be removed.

Bishop Ryle's comments are quoted to illustrate how often believers are oppressed by anticipated evils that never materialize, comparing it to the women's anxiety about the stone.

And in this we have a wonderful illustration. God's dealings with true disciples. Namely, His surprising intervention on behalf of anxious disciples. Bishop Ryle caught this, and in his comments on this, he said, What a striking emblem we have in this simple narrative of the experience of many Christians.

42:27 - 42:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for a more practical faith, believing that in the path of duty, you will never be entirely forsaken. Go forward boldly, trusting that obstacles may be removed.

An example from another Gospel account where a woman wept, convinced the Lord's body was stolen, illustrating how anxiety can lead to groundless fears.

Let us believe that in the path of duty we shall never be entirely forsaken. Let us go forward boldly, and we shall often find that the lion in the way is chained, and the seeming hedge of thorns is only a shadow. In one of the other gospels, one of the other gospel accounts you remember, one of these very women was weeping because she was convinced, having put one and one together, she got seventeen. The tomb is empty.

43:44 - 44:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Apply the lesson of God's intervention to your own areas of apprehension, recognizing that the Lord often rolls away the 'stone' of your anxieties.

An analogy of fearing lifelong singleness, suggesting that God might be preparing for a uniquely blessed, perhaps shorter, marriage, to illustrate God's surprising intervention in anxieties.

You fear. Here I've come. I'm twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-nine, thirty. I'm going to go through life single.

45:06 - 45:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if your devotion to Christ is rooted in a deep sense of gratitude for deliverance from sin and an apprehension of God's mercy in Christ.

Recalls Mary Magdalene's deliverance from seven demons to explain the deep gratitude and love that fueled her devotion to Jesus.

Remember Mary. She was the one who knew what it was to be possessed of souls. What those demons did to her mind, to her body, to her psyche. Who knows what terrors of demonic torture that woman had undergone.

56:38 - 56:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself if there is anything in your life, beyond formal religion, that proves you truly love Christ, even if known only to God.

An example of a man in a men's room stall, confessing sin known only to God, to illustrate genuine devotion that finds a way to express itself privately.

be a man's room at work you allowed your spirit to be stained with lust or with anger you can't even go on with your work until you take that legitimate break and while there in the quiet stall in the men's room you pour out your heart and say oh lord jesus you're broke before sins known only to god do you know anything about that and get honest think about that talking about something that floats right over the head of your experience i was used to be driving down my street and thinking about where if God may not arrest people that tells you what's such a sense of wonder you can barely drive ...

60:04 - 61:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself if there is anything in your life, beyond formal religion, that proves you truly love Christ, even if known only to God.

A personal anecdote of driving and being so overwhelmed by God's grace that tears come, illustrating a deep, unexplainable love for the Son of God.

be a man's room at work you allowed your spirit to be stained with lust or with anger you can't even go on with your work until you take that legitimate break and while there in the quiet stall in the men's room you pour out your heart and say oh lord jesus you're broke before sins known only to god do you know anything about that and get honest think about that talking about something that floats right over the head of your experience i was used to be driving down my street and thinking about where if God may not arrest people that tells you what's such a sense of wonder you can barely drive ...

60:04 - 61:29 Read in full sermon