Empty Promises Acts 2:29-32 April 16, 2006 Speaker: Randal Myers

Home > Learning Center > Sermon Outlines

Empty Promise: an Empty Tomb

• God did make an empty promise - He promised that the tomb would be found empty!
• Peter spoke of this promise in Acts 2:29-32: "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact."
  • For Peter, the empty tomb was not faith but fact.

What is the significance of the empty tomb?

• It testifies to the trustworthiness of God's promises
  • If God can bring someone back from the dead, he can accomplish anything.
  • But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. - 2 Corinthians 1:18-20
• It proves the ultimate defeat of Satan
  • Death is Satan's most powerful weapon.
  • In Jesus' victory over death, we find our hope.
    • Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fadeókept in heaven for you... - 1 Peter 1:3-4
• It illustrates God's power within us.
  • You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. - Romans 8:9-11
    • The same power that allowed Jesus to overcome death is living in us.
  • Many of us live in tombs of various types - despair, depression, hopelessness, helplessness, fear - but if God can raise someone from death, he can handle anything that happens while you are living.

Conclusion

Why was the stone rolled away?

• "The angel rolled the stone from Jesus' tomb, not the let the living Lord out, but to let the unconvinced outsiders in." - Donald Grey Barnhouse

Home | Search | Welcome Center | Learning Center

Copyright © 2003 - Highlands Church of Christ
All rights reserved.