A Visit with the Joneses

Carol Jones Saint: Hello, hello there, come right in to enjoy a special time of family devotions at home sweet home at this special Easter season. And what a joy to greet you in the name of our risen living Lord. In this time of family devotions, we have some very special thoughts planned for you, rejoicing in our risen Savior.

Guest (Male): Easter song says, "Come ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness. Come, come ye faithful, come." It's from John of Damascus way back in the eighth century. And I want to play it for you on the pipe organ right now as we invite you to come and with us to raise the strain of triumphant gladness.

God hath brought His people forth into joy from sadness. Now rejoice, Jerusalem, and with true affection, welcome with unceasing praise, Jesus' resurrection. Come ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness.

And all the notes of full organ say it. 'Tis the spring of souls today; Christ hath burst His prison; from the frost and gloom of death light and life hath risen. All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying from His light to whom we give thanks and praise undying.

Hallelujah now we cry to our King immortal, who triumphant burst the bars of the tomb's dark portal. Hallelujah with the Son, God the Father praising. Hallelujah yet again, to the Spirit raising.

And so in this radio visit planned by Carol Jones, we want to emphasize the empty tomb. That's the glad good news of Easter, the empty tomb. The grave is an empty one because Christ lives.

Many years ago, there was a contest held asking people to give a one-sentence description of Christianity. And the winner was this simple sentence that said, "Christianity, the Christian message, is described in this one sentence: Dawn breaking over an empty tomb."

Carol Jones Saint: Oh, isn't that beauty? It's not only the message of Easter, but it's the message in one simple sentence of our Christian faith.

Guest (Male): In other words, what it's really saying is the empty tomb is what makes all the difference. And so we read these words of Scripture of that early morning hour found in Luke 24.

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, and they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. And as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but He is risen." The glad good news: He is not here, but He is risen. Dawn breaking over an empty tomb.

I hope you will remember the Scripture from Luke 24, and I hope you will remember this message: dawn breaking over an empty tomb. Ruth, you have a good quote or two there that emphasizes the fact of the empty tomb.

Guest (Female): Oh yes, there are two of them here, Bert. The first is, "The Easter lily's pure white bloom proclaims the joy of the empty tomb." There it is again. So when you see the lilies, remember that the Easter lily's pure white bloom proclaims the joy of the empty tomb.

And then this is a very interesting one. These were words found on an old tombstone: "What three little words keep this grave from being a prison? They are simply these: He is risen." Oh, isn't that wonderful? And when you ever go to a cemetery to pay your respects to loved ones that are buried there, how wonderful to think of that little phrase.

Guest (Male): Wouldn't that be nice to have carved on a tombstone? Read it again, Ruth.

Guest (Female): "What three little words keep this grave from being a prison? They are simply these: He is risen." And my, how wonderful when you go to a grave like that to know that your loved one is not imprisoned in the ground, but because of Jesus Christ, there is the hope of that resurrection day.

Guest (Male): There's a lovely old French carol that goes back many centuries, and it thinks of the grain which we plant like the winter wheat, and then the way it springs up at springtime, as an object lesson of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The old carol is called "Now the Green Blade Riseth."

And of course, the Scripture speaks of the corn of wheat or the seed of wheat that has to die and then will spring up. And so here it is, listen and listen to the words as they speak of the empty tomb. It's a delightful old tune, this French carol.

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain, wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain. Love lives again, that with the dead has been. Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love whom men had slain, thinking that never He would wake again, laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen. Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain, He that for three days in the grave had lain. Quick from the dead, my risen Lord is seen. Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Carol Jones Saint: Oh, what a lovely carol. And the music just is very frolicking and happy and joyful.

Guest (Male): And here's a carol of Easter that comes from Brooklyn, New York. For it was many years in Brooklyn, New York, many, many years ago, that a pastor there was impressed with the fact that Easter is the empty tomb and the living Christ. And so he wrote a song for his people.

A song that speaks of the grave. "Low in the Grave He Lay," Jesus my Savior. From 1874, the hymn by Robert Lowry, both words and music. Not only did he pastor in Brooklyn, New York, and other Baptist pastors, but he also was a part-time professor at Bucknell University. Catch now the message. "Low in the Grave He Lay." But it became an empty tomb.

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord! Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior; vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord! Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Savior; He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

And now I climb up into the organ chamber of the great pipe organ and play it for you now on the organ: "Up from the Grave He Arose," and it was an empty tomb.

People used to notice a little girl who cheerfully walked home from school every day, and she had to pass through a cemetery as she walked along the way. She was always cheerful and always happy, sometimes with friends but more often alone, but skipping and jumping. And so they said to her, "Aren't you afraid to walk through that cemetery?" And the little girl answered, "Oh no, I'm not afraid, because I just go through here on my way home."

The empty tomb. Because He rose from the dead, we too shall live. And the Scripture says, "Now if Christ be not risen from the dead, then is our preaching vain and your faith is in vain. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are still dead in your sins. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and He is become the firstfruits of them that slept."

Oh, my friend, the good news of the Gospel is, because He rose, His tomb is empty and our tomb will one day be empty too. When loved ones have died, what hope is ours because of the empty tomb? Listen now as Carol reads for us a beautiful poem that expresses that hope that is ours because of an empty tomb.

Carol Jones Saint: In all the world there is no place so dear to me as is an empty tomb within Gethsemane. Men sing the praises of the cross and rightly so; yet it is to the empty tomb I love to go. It's there with Paul I daily die when sore oppressed. It's there where men are loath to go that I sweetly rest.

It's there, the empty tomb, when heartache's angry waves envelop me, in faith I lift my mournful face my Lord to see. There is no place so fraught with power our souls to save as is our Lord's last resting place, His empty grave.

In darkest hours of grief beside a new-made mound, I go again the depths of God's great love to sound. And while I view the grave enclosed, the echoes ring: "Oh grave, where is thy victory? Oh death, thy sting?"

As one by one the loved ones cross the threshold's gloom, I fain believe, embrace, receive the empty tomb.

Guest (Male): And so we read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: "Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

And that speaks of the victory of the living Christ, the victory of the empty tomb. Praise God, we have victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer, one day the stone rolled away from the door; then He arose, over death He had conquered, now is ascended, my Lord evermore! Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me; buried, He carried my sins far away; rising, He justified freely forever: one day He's coming, oh glorious day!

What is a one-sentence description of Christianity? Dawn breaking over an empty tomb. It's an ancient song with great words. "Thine is the Glory," and it speaks of the empty tomb.

Carol Jones Saint: Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son; endless is the victory Thou o'er death hast won. Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, kept the folded graveclothes where Thy body lay. Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son; endless is the victory Thou o'er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets thee, risen from the tomb; lovingly He greets thee, scatters fear and gloom. Let His church with gladness hymns of triumph sing, for her Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting.

Guest (Male): And will you remember it as we say goodbye, leaving you with the message of our living Savior? A one-sentence description of Christianity is dawn breaking over an empty tomb. Bye.

Carol Jones Saint: Bye, He lives, He lives! I'm so glad you were here. He lives, He lives! The grave is empty, He lives! The Savior lives!