Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Evidence of an Empty Tomb | The Gospels | Luke 24:1–12

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Can the resurrection stand up to scrutiny? What evidence supports the resurrection? And what does Jesus's resurrection mean for our future? In today's episode, Keith shares how Luke 24:1–12 points to the historical reality of the empty tomb and why the resurrection is the foundation of Christian hope. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Luke 24:1-12

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Back in 2007, there was a documentary called The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and this documentary purportedly showed that Jesus' tomb had been discovered, that the body had been found, that Jesus hadn't been resurrected. Now, to say the least, this documentary did not succeed in debunking the claim that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. It was condemned as nonsense by archaeologists, historians, and really everyone in between. But one of the more interesting articles about the documentary and the ensuing controversy it caused was written by Rabbi Gelman for Newsweek

magazine. Rabbi Gelman is the senior rabbi for a temple in New York. He wrote this. He said some Christians have said that even discovering the bones of Jesus would not seriously undermine their faith. They say that 2,000 years of tradition does not just get canned because somebody found some bone boxes in the basement of the Israel Museum. He says, I know many Christian clergy who have told me that the main truth of Christianity for them is to love as Jesus loved, and that no archaeological discovery can change that spiritual lesson. The rabbi says, I love these folks, but as an outsider, I just don't agree that decisive refutation of Jesus's resurrection would have no effect on Christian faith. Unlike Judaism and Islam and Hinduism and even Buddhism, which are built on God's teachings, Christianity

is built both on God's teachings as well as on a historical event proving a transcendental miracle. Later in the article in Newsweek, Rabbi Gelman writes this. He says, the divide separating Christians from non-Christians, is not between those who think loving all people is good and those who think loving all people is bad. The real divide is between those who believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day as proof that he was indeed the Messiah sent by God, and those who do not believe this article of faith and this audacious historical claim. That's an amazing article because Rabbi Gellman gets it in a way that some church people don't. It's the resurrection that sets Christianity apart from every other religion. The resurrection changes everything. I started time together

this way because we've reached a point in Luke's gospel where he tells us about the resurrection. Luke chapter 24. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground. But the men said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was with you in Galilee? the son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day

be raised again. Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women because their words seemed like nonsense to them. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb, bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away wondering, to himself what had happened. Since the historical bodily resurrection of Jesus is central to the Christian faith, and since it's frequently under attack, let me briefly review some of the evidence that demonstrates that the resurrection was a historical event. The first piece of evidence is that the

empty tomb is reported in multiple early sources. The first known recording of the resurrection is found in Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 15. That was written soon after the crucifixion. And Paul says that the resurrection is part of the information that was passed down to him. The point is that from the very beginning, Christian said that Jesus' tomb was empty. In other words, the resurrection wasn't something that was made up later. And the Gospels, which were written after 1st Corinthians, and the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke, all four report the tomb was found empty. Early critics of Christianity didn't deny the tomb was empty. They offered an alternative of explanation for why it was empty, which itself kind of concedes the basic fact that it was

empty. The second piece of evidence is that women are named as the first witnesses. In first century Jewish and Roman culture, women's testimony was considered less credible than men's testimony, and therefore it was often inadmissible in court. If the accounts found it in the gospel of the empty tomb were invented to persuade people that Jesus had risen from the dead when he hadn't, Well, the people who invented those accounts would almost certainly have chosen male eyewitnesses. The embarrassing fact that it was women who first saw Jesus raised from the dead suggests the detail was preserved because that's the way it actually happened. Third, there was a lot of eyewitness testimony.

Paul lists appearances of the resurrected Jesus to Peter and the 12 and to James and more than 500 people at once, most of whom he said were still living. And the reason he tells us they were still alive is because he wants the people who first received this letter to be able to go and ask eyewitnesses if what he is saying is true. And then finally, Paul says that the resurrected Jesus actually appeared to him. Now, these appearances of the resurrected Christ appeared in different locations to both individuals and groups to believers and skeptics. So the idea that this was some sort of mass hallucination, well, it just doesn't make sense. The fourth piece of evidence is the transformation of the disciples' lives. Jesus' followers went from frightened and scattered after the crucifixion to publicly proclaiming

a risen Messiah in the very city in which he was executed. The disciples went from scared to being willing to face persecution and death because of the message they were proclaiming. Now, it's true that sometimes people die for their beliefs, beliefs that they hold to be true, but are actually false. But the argument here is that if the disciples had stolen the body, they would know that Jesus hadn't actually risen from the dead, and people don't die for a lie. If the disciples knew that Jesus wasn't raised, why would they give their life proclaiming that very message? Fifth and finally is just the conversion of hostile witnesses. James, who is Jesus' brother, was skeptical of Jesus during his ministry, and yet later he became a leader of the Jerusalem Church.

I mean, you get why you'd be skeptical that your brother was the Messiah, and yet if there's anyone who should, know that he was different, it would be James. And James became a leader of the Jerusalem Church after he'd become a Christian, which was brought about by seeing the resurrected Christ. And then there's the Apostle Paul. Before his conversion to Christ, he had been actively persecuting Christians, but then he encountered the resurrected Jesus and his life dramatically changed. Both James and Paul eventually died because of their conviction, their strong belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. See, the resurrection. is everything to Christians. That's why I wanted to lay out some evidences so that you could be

confident that the resurrection really happened. It's not a metaphor. It is reality. It's the resurrection that validates Jesus' claim to be God. It's the resurrection that transforms the crucifixion from a defeat by Rome into a sacrifice for our sins. It's the resurrection that promises that we will one day be resurrected. As the song says, because Jesus walked out of the grave, we're walking too. The resurrection shows that Jesus defeated our greatest enemy, which is death. Everything rides on the resurrection being a historical event. Paul says if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. But it's also striking what Paul doesn't say, that even if Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead, Christianity is still valuable because of its ethics or because it

provides a philosophy for life. Note, what he says is that if the resurrection is false, then we of all people are most to be pitied. But the good news is that Jesus is alive and he offers hope and forgiveness to all those who will turn and repent and put their faith in him. Jesus is alive. He sits on his throne and reigns over the whole universe. Jesus is alive. He is our hope. Jesus is alive. Therefore, we do not give up on anyone. If God raised Jesus from the dead, then he can do all things. I pray that you would give us the deep conviction that the resurrection is true, that Jesus is alive, that our hope is not in vain. Amen.