Grounded: He Rose Again from the Dead - Luke 24:1-12 - Jordan Varghese

May 10, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Empty Tomb, Full Hope

The women carried spices through Jerusalem’s dim morning light. Their hands gripped linen-wrapped myrrh, prepared for a corpse’s stench. But the tomb’s gaping mouth held no body. Two men in lightning-bright clothes asked, “Why seek the living among the dead?” Their grief met an unthinkable reversal: Jesus wasn’t here. He’d risen. [09:23]

The resurrection shattered their despair. Jesus’ absence in the tomb proved death’s defeat. God rewrote their story mid-sentence, turning funeral rites into fuel for faith. The women’s low expectations collided with divine disruption.

Where have you settled for “normal” hopelessness? When bills pile up, relationships fracture, or prayers seem unanswered, do you approach life like a New Yorker expecting delayed trains? Name one area where you’ve stopped anticipating God’s intervention. What if His resurrection power waits to surprise you there?

“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.”
(Luke 24:1-3, NIV)

Prayer: Ask Jesus to reveal where you’ve buried hope. Thank Him that empty tombs precede resurrection joy.
Challenge: Write down three “low expectation” areas in your life. Circle one to pray over daily this week.

Day 2: Linens and Wondering

Peter sprinted through Jerusalem’s streets, sandals slapping stone. He’d heard the women’s “nonsense” but had to see. Bent double at the tomb’s entrance, he stared at abandoned burial cloths. No body. No thief’s mess. Just linen strips lying orderly, like a shed cocoon. He walked home wondering. [19:58]

The discarded grave clothes signaled transformation, not theft. Jesus didn’t need help escaping. His resurrection body moved through walls yet ate fish. Peter’s doubt began unraveling as evidence piled up—thread by thread.

What proof have you brushed aside? A friend’s changed life? An unexpected provision? A nagging sense of God’s nearness? Like Peter, run toward the questions. What if your doubt, examined closely, becomes the doorway to faith?

“Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves. He went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”
(Luke 24:12, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one doubt you’ve been avoiding. Ask for courage to investigate it.
Challenge: Text a trusted friend about one resurrection evidence that puzzles you. Discuss it this week.

Day 3: Mangoes and Miracles

The angel’s question pierced the women’s grief: “Why seek the living among the dead?” They’d come to anoint a corpse, not greet a King. Their spices suddenly seemed as absurd as subway mangoes—ordinary objects in an extraordinary moment. [04:24]

Jesus’ resurrection reorders reality. Death becomes temporary. Mourning becomes dancing. What we call “impossible” becomes God’s workshop. The women’s spices found new purpose: not masking death’s smell, but celebrating life’s fragrance.

Where are you holding “spices” of old solutions for new problems? Clinging to control when surrender is needed? Hoarding bitterness when forgiveness could free you? What ordinary thing might God repurpose for His miraculous work?

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’”
(Luke 24:5-6, NIV)

Prayer: Thank Jesus for His power to repurpose pain. Ask Him to transform one “spice” in your hand.
Challenge: Share a resurrection hope with someone today—a text, note, or conversation.

Day 4: Death’s Failed Grip

Peter stood before the Pentecost crowd, resurrected himself. The man who’d denied Jesus now declared: “God raised Him, freeing Him from death’s agony, because it couldn’t hold Him.” The Greek word for “hold” implied a wrestler’s chokehold. But Jesus reversed the pin. [25:23]

Resurrection isn’t resuscitation—it’s revolution. Jesus didn’t barely escape death; He dismantled its authority. The early church clung to this as Nero’s lions roared. Chains, prisons, and stakes couldn’t stop their witness.

What “death grip” feels unbreakable in your life? Addiction? Anxiety? A relationship beyond repair? Name it. Then name this truth: What couldn’t hold Jesus can’t ultimately hold you. How might living this truth change your next 24 hours?

“This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
(Acts 2:23-24, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one area where death’s grip feels strong. Declare Jesus’ victory over it.
Challenge: Write “IMPOSSIBLE” on your mirror. Each morning, state: “Death can’t hold me.”

Day 5: Breathing Resurrection Now

Paul told Roman believers the Spirit who raised Jesus “gives life to your mortal bodies.” Not later. Now. The same power that vaporized grave clothes energizes grocery runs, diaper changes, and subway commutes. Resurrection isn’t just future—it’s oxygen for today. [26:47]

Jesus’ resurrection guarantees ours, but it also empowers present victories. Every act of love chips death’s armor. Each choice to forgive loosens its grip. You don’t wait for resurrection—you breathe it.

Where can you inhale resurrection air today? A grudge released? A kindness extended? A dark corner illuminated? What if you approached one mundane task as resurrection practice?

“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 because of his Spirit who lives in you.”
(Romans 8:11, NIV)

Prayer: Ask the Spirit to make you aware of resurrection power in your body today.
Challenge: Do one physically engaged act of hope—plant a seed, walk a neighbor’s dog, dance to a worship song.

Sermon Summary

We gather around a single, strange claim: on the third day Jesus rose from the dead. We treat that claim as an anchor that reorients how we see our lives, our city, and the world. The resurrection shocks our expectations because it breaks the pattern we take for granted: death as the final end. We notice the oddness of life all the time; the tomb scene forces us to notice the deeper oddness God has placed at the center of reality. The women go to the tomb with low hopes and find evidence that undermines their despair. That surprise points us away from resignation and toward rigorous wonder.

We build our faith not on wishful thinking but on evidence and experience. The gospels survived careful transmission, and early followers persisted under threat and even death because they claimed to have seen Jesus alive. Diverse communities across centuries and cultures have agreed on this claim and reported the same living presence. That convergence of historical trace and personal encounter gives us permission to treat the resurrection as a believable foundation for life.

The resurrection refuses to be an accident or a mere trick. The narrative frames the rising as the culmination of God’s plan, not a failed ending. Death attempted to win, but the grip could not hold Jesus. That reversal changes the grammar of reality: evil and empire can wound, they can kill, but they cannot write the final line. If Jesus is the one through whom God rules, then his victory over death becomes the measure by which we judge meaning, courage, and hope.

The promise reaches beyond a past event. The same Spirit who raised Jesus breathes life into our mortal bodies and invites us to participate in unloosening death’s hold here and now. We are called to live as agents of restoration: to heal, to feed, to welcome, to confront structures that keep people in ruin. The resurrection assures us that the work we do to unbind suffering has power because the God we follow has already begun the work of overcoming death itself.

Key Takeaways

1. Resurrection reveals divine and beautiful weirdness We confess that the resurrection upends our normal expectations and calls us back to attention. Strange events in our city become a signpost to a stranger, truer reality: God acts in ways that surprise and unsettle. This weirdness invites us into worshipful wonder rather than comfortable familiarity. [03:07]
2. Faith builds on believable evidence We stake life on claims supported by both testimony and experience, not on private fantasy. The careful transmission of the gospels, the perseverance of early followers, and recurring encounters with the risen Christ across cultures give the claim weight. That weight frees us to risk resolute trust in a God who shows up. [10:26]
3. Death cannot hold Jesus We trust that death tried to win and failed; death has no final say over the Messiah. That conviction reframes suffering: it does not erase pain, but it promises a decisive reversal in God’s economy. We live with the confidence that ultimate defeat lies outside death’s grip. [23:13]
4. Resurrection summons us to action We believe the risen life extends to the world through our hands and choices. The Spirit that raised Christ invites us to unbind the needy, contest systems that profit from death, and practice resurrection by serving the vulnerable. We join God now in making death’s hold weaker in concrete ways. [30:51]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:55] - Apostles Creed and Resurrection
[03:07] - Resurrection as a strange twist
[06:50] - Women at the tomb
[09:23] - Evidence confronts expectation
[11:17] - Reliability of the Gospels
[16:07] - Jesus foretold his rising
[23:13] - Death cannot hold Jesus
[26:19] - Resurrection offers us life
[30:51] - We untangle death from world

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
- Luke 24:1-12 (ESV): "But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.' And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened."
- Acts 2:23-24 (ESV): "This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it."
- Romans 8:11 (ESV): "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."

Observation Questions

In Luke 24:1-5, the women went to the tomb expecting to find Jesus’ body. What specific evidence did they encounter that challenged their expectations?
How does Peter respond to the women’s report in Luke 24:12, and what detail about the tomb does the passage highlight? [19:58]
According to Acts 2:24, why was it “impossible” for death to hold Jesus? How does this connect to the sermon’s claim that resurrection was God’s plan, not an accident? [23:13]

Interpretation Questions

The disciples initially dismissed the women’s testimony as “nonsense” (Luke 24:11). Why might the resurrection have seemed unbelievable even to those who followed Jesus closely?
Acts 2:24 says death could not hold Jesus because of God’s power. How does this redefine the relationship between evil (like empire violence) and God’s ultimate authority? [24:38]
Romans 8:11 links Jesus’ resurrection to the Spirit’s work in believers. What does this imply about how God’s power interacts with human suffering or “death’s grip” today? [26:19]

Application Questions

The women at the tomb moved from despair to wonder. Where in your life or community have low expectations (like resignation or cynicism) kept you from recognizing God’s surprising work? How could you cultivate “rigorous wonder” instead? [07:47]
Death’s “grip” shows up in systems like poverty, addiction, or injustice. Where do you see death’s hold in your neighborhood or relationships? What small, practical step could you take to “unbind” that area, as an agent of restoration? [30:51]
The sermon argues that faith is built on evidence and experience. What historical or personal evidence strengthens your trust in Jesus’ resurrection? How might you share this with someone wrestling with doubt?
Peter ran to the tomb to investigate for himself. Is there a part of your faith where you need to “bend over and look in” (like examining doubts or questions) instead of relying on others’ answers? What would that look like?
Romans 8:11 says the Spirit who raised Jesus now lives in believers. How could this truth reshape your response to fear, failure, or habits that feel unbreakable?

Sermon Clips

46s

#ResurrectionNotPlanB

“``See, what's so crazy about the resurrection is that it's not kind of plan b. It wasn't an accident, it was actually God working in the world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In the face of what was a state execution by an empire, in the face of what was a sham trial created by religious hypocrisy and corruption, the resurrection of Jesus is the promise that God is still at work, despite the brokenness and evil that surrounds this community. That God can still work despite and even somehow through the greatest evils we are confronted with.”

36s

#DeathWillLetGo

“But see, the promise of the resurrection, the promise of the gospel of Jesus, is that through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we are promised that death will one day let go. And, that day can be today. But, even if we have to wait, we are given the promise of a future where death will let go. It will let go finally and forever. In Jesus, it's impossible for death to keep its hold on us.”

40s

#ResurrectionForEveryone

“See, there's something about the resurrection of Jesus that can't stay just in a historical moment of a single person. The resurrection of Jesus is promised to every single one of us that would put our trust and faith in Jesus. See, the important hope that the resurrection of Jesus is this, that in the same way that it was impossible for death to hold on to Jesus, for those of us who put our faith in Jesus, in Jesus, it is impossible for death to keep its hold on us.”

36s

#FaithBuiltOnFacts

“See, in many ways, you know, when we think of faith and the idea of it, we often think that what we're supposed to do is believe something unbelievable, believe something that is impossible to believe. But that's not actually, I think, what the Christian faith is founded on. See, faith, I think what it is, it's the courage to build your life on something that's believable. And, the Christian faith and the Christian tradition has always been built on the historical fact of Jesus' resurrection. That Jesus actually raised from the dead, and was found alive after his execution.”

46s

#EvidenceAndExperience

“And yet, across these differences, they all agree on this claim, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, that he was killed and he is raised from the dead. And, not only is that a historical fact that they can agree on, many of us, and I think there are people in this room that can probably speak to the way that they've experienced Jesus as alive. That Jesus is in their life, that they speak to him, that God is alive in the person of Jesus. See, this common experience, I think, speaks once again to both the evidence and the experience to which the claim of the historical resurrection of Jesus is built on.”

40s

#ChurchUntanglesDeath

“You know, Christian communities have always been places where death is untangled from the world. Where the ill are healed, where the naked are clothed, where the foreigner is welcomed. That has always been the mission and nature of the church, to partner with God in the ungripping of death from our world. So, if you're here and you feel death has its grip on you, the promise of the gospel is that it will let go as we put our trust and faith in Jesus.”

36s

#JoinTheUntangling

“And, if you look at the world and wish and desire for death to release its hold, not only do you have the hope that death will let go through the work and ministry and life, death and resurrection of Jesus, but you'll also be invited to participate in the untangling of death from this world itself. Whether it's through the way you relate in your relationships, there's through your work, whether it's through art, God calls all of us who follow Jesus to be a part of the unwrangling of death from this world.”

39s

#ResurrectionInvitesWonder

“See, when we actually begin to wrestle with what the resurrection means, when we actually accept its strangeness, the way that it defies all our expectations, and all the ways that we know how the world works. Dead people stay dead. But, when we are faced with the evidence that Jesus truly raised from the dead, the resurrection invites every single one of us to wonder. To wonder about what is possible, about what God is doing in the world, about what we think life is all about.”

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