Empty Cross, Empty Tomb ... Full Heart

Empty 3: Empty Cross, Empty Tomb ... Full Heart

Easter is all about an empty cross and an empty tomb …
because that’s what it takes to fill an empty life!

It’s Easter Sunday April 20, 2025, but I want you to
imagine it’s very early on the first Easter Sunday
Morning, nearly 2000 years ago.

Imagine you are one of the disciples of Jesus and you
wake up in a cold sweat remembering the horror of
what had happened on Friday.

Your friend, your teacher, the one you gave up
everything to follow is dead. Crucified like a common
criminal.

If only you could have done something. If only the
crowd had let Him go instead of that murderer Barabas.

Your shouts of “let Jesus go, He has done nothing
wrong!” had been drowned out by the screams of the
crowd yelling “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”

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You had watched as He was beaten; you watched as a
crown of thorns was pushed into His brow.
You watched as He was forced to carry the heavy wood
of His cross to Golgotha, the place of the skull.

And then they had nailed the body of Jesus to that
empty cross. The empty cross that we look at today,
had once been full – full of grace and mercy, full of
compassion and love, full of forgiveness and truth, as
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the World
was nailed to the cross by Roman Soldiers.

And as you watched, you waited… not for him to die…
but for some miracle. Maybe a soldier would come
riding up with an official document from Pilate that he
had changed his mind… Maybe the angels would come
and rescue him… You knew you were hoping against
hope, but you hung to that last sliver of hope…

You cried as you watched His last hours of pain and
suffering till He shouted “It is finished” and breathed
His last breath. As He died, it felt like something inside
you had died as well. Your dreams shattered, your hope
turned into fear, your purpose now purposeless,
everything gone.

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And then you watched as they took down his lifeless
body and the cross was once again Empty!

EMPTY! That word described more than just a cross, it
described the disciples and the women who had
watched the whole ordeal.

And then his body was placed in a “borrowed tomb
where no man had laid”. A tomb that had once been
empty now held the precious, lifeless body of Jesus.

The tomb was no longer empty, but the disciples were!
All hope was gone. Emotionally, Mentally, Spiritually,
they were drained.

That was Friday, But Sunday was on its way!

[Luke 24:1-12 NLT] 1 But very early on Sunday morning the
women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had
prepared. 2 They found that the stone had been rolled away
from the entrance. 3 So they went in, but they didn't find the
body of the Lord Jesus. 4 As they stood there puzzled, two
men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. 5
The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the
ground. Then the men asked, "Why are you looking among

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the dead for someone who is alive? 6 He isn't here! He is risen
from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee,
7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of
sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on
the third day." 8 Then they remembered that he had said
this. 9 So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven
disciples--and everyone else--what had happened. 10 It was
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and
several other women who told the apostles what had
happened. 11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the
men, so they didn't believe it. 12 However, Peter jumped up
and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw
the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again,
wondering what had happened.

Empty!
An Empty Cross … and now…
Empty Linen Wrappings
An Empty Tomb
… but still… Empty Lives

Mary Magdalene, one of those ladies at the tomb..
one who had once been filled with demons but whose
life had been changed and filled with Jesus love… was
an empty cup …

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On that Sunday morning so long ago … the sun rising
… she finds the stone rolled away.
The tomb … empty.
His body … gone.
Her heart sinks and the emptiness she had been feeling
for the past three days just got emptier.

Imagine her utter despair. Her grief. … that hollow
feeling in her gut. The emptiness of the tomb pushing
the emptiness of her heart to a whole new level. She
stands outside Jesus’ empty tomb weeping. John
describes the scene:

[John 20:11-16 NLT] 11 Mary was standing outside the tomb
crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She
saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the
other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had
been lying. 13 "Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels
asked her. "Because they have taken away my Lord," she
replied, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 She
turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was
Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. 15 "Dear woman, why are
you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?" She
thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have
taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will

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go and get him." 16 "Mary!" Jesus said. She turned to him and
cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher").

She didn’t shed tears of silent grief. She wails at the
top of her voice! Her whole body is wracked by deep,
inconsolable sobs. Her love, her pain, her fear, her
grief pour out of her heart uncontrollably.

And then … with a word … her broken and empty
heart was filled to over-flowing. As Jesus appeared to
her in the garden and spoke her name: “Mary!”

Mary Magdalene was an empty cup and an empty
cross and empty tomb filled her up. And if you are an
empty cup this morning, let me tell you how an empty
cross and an empty tomb can fill you up.

First … The empty cross and empty tomb can fill you
with Truth.

During His trial, Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?”
Jesus did not answer Him because it is impossible to fill
a cup that is already full, And Pilate was full of himself,
thinking he already knew the truth, and nothing Jesus
said would change his mind.

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The truth was standing right there before Him, but he
couldn’t see it. Jesus is the truth, remember? The
way, the truth, the life. He is the only way to the
Father.
He is Truth … and according to the Bible “You shall
know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” If you
are bound up today, Jesus – the Truth – can bring you
freedom – freedom from guilt and regret… freedom
from sin and shame… freedom from the things that
control you and destroy you.
Jesus’ death and resurrection had been written
about hundreds of years before they happened.
Jesus Himself had proclaimed the truth of His death
and resurrection.
And now the empty cross and empty tomb are proof
of His truth.
The empty cross and empty tomb can fill you with
truth … and

Secondly, The empty cross and the empty tomb can
fill you with Hope.
When Mary saw Jesus die on the cross, her hope
died with Him. Nothing but emptiness remained … until
she reached the empty tomb and hope was restored.

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Her hope was resurrected because He was resurrected.
Her hope was no longer dead because Jesus had
overcome Death.

And because He had overcome the grave and Death,
because He lives, our hope lives too … and not just our
hope but our bodies too. Because of the empty tomb,
we have the truth and the hope that we will rise too …
that we will be with Christ in glory … that we will be
forever with our resurrected King!

Because of the emptiness of the cross and the
emptiness of the tomb, we are filled with the truth and
we are filled with hope … and

Third, We are filled with Forgiveness.
… because of the cross and the empty tomb, we have
the full forgiveness of God. Everything Jesus did,
everything He endured, all of the pain, all of the
torment, all of the rejection, all of the abuse … He did
all this … He went through all this … to buy our
forgiveness.

Sin has a price and that price must be paid … and
Jesus paid that price for you and for me and for all

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humanity. The tomb is empty and for those in Christ,
so is our past. It is behind us. Our debt has been paid
… forgiven and forgotten… thrown in the sea of
forgetfulness … never to be seen … never brought up
again.
The empty tomb means our sins can be forgiven …
gone… poof! Vanished. Our wickedness, our stupidity,
our mistakes, all the bad things we did on purpose …
poof! Gone! All forgiven … if we, like the thief on the
cross, acknowledge who He is and ask for His
forgiveness … forgiveness bought with the blood
sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and guaranteed by an
empty tomb.

Because of the empty cross and the empty tomb,
we are filled with truth … we are filled with forgiveness
… and

Finally, we are filled with love.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,
so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish
but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s love.
… a love that knows our mistakes and our past

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… a love that knows us and loves us anyways
… a love that understands us even when we don’t
understand ourselves or understand why we do what we
do
… a love that knew us before we were born
… a love that makes us whole … that fills us like nothing
else can

God sent Jesus because He loves us and He showed
us how much He loved us by accepting our lashes, by
accepting the pain and punishment that should have
been mine and yours. He showed us how much He
loved us by stretching out His arms and accepting our
nails. Because He loves us, He took the humiliation.
Because He loves us, He took the ridicule and the spit.
Because He loves us, He took the beatings and the
rejection. Because He loves us, He took everything we
deserved.
So that an empty cross and an empty grave could fill
our empty lives!

Conclusion: Musicians Come
On Friday, Jesus declared: “It is finished!” They
took Love off the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

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Mankind lost all hope. But on Sunday, Love got up and
walked out of the tomb!

Because the cross and tomb are empty, we know that
we are loved …
Because the cross and tomb are empty, we know that
we have hope …
Because the cross and tomb are empty, we know that
we are forgiven …
Because the cross and tomb are empty, we know that
we have the truth …

It took an Empty Cross and an Empty Grave to fill an
Empty Life!

Are you still empty? Jesus can fill you …
Are you still living with your mistakes? Your past?
Jesus can forgive you …
Is that emptiness stealing your hope? Jesus can restore
your hope …
Are you struggling to find what is true in your life?
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life …

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Jesus Christ is, was, and will always be God. He
came to earth, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and
then suffered and died for your sins and mine.

The Bible says that we were all sinners and that the
penalty of sin is death. And because of our sin, we
would be facing an eternity separated from God … were
it not for an empty cross and an empty tomb! While we
were yet sinners, says the Apostle Paul, Christ paid the
price for our sins and died for us.

But He didn’t just die on a cross. He rose from the
Dead!

This is the truth of the empty cross and the empty
tomb. Jesus came to provide a way to Heaven and He
is the only way. By dying, by being resurrected, He has
provided us with life … full life … abundant life.

Because of the empty cross and the empty tomb, our
hearts, our lives, our future is full.

Let us pray …