#40 Four Gospels & One Empty Tomb

An earthquake. Rolled-away stone. Angels who speak like certainty. And one moment so personal it feels like it was written for you. As Lent comes to a close, we pull the resurrection story from Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20 and weave the four Gospel accounts into one clear, faith-strengthening picture of the empty tomb. We talk about why the stories aren’t identical and why that actually builds confidence instead of confusion. 

• Matthew 28:1-10
• Mark 16:1-8
• Luke 24:1-12
• John 20:1-18

Subscribe for more practical teaching that helps women draw closer to Jesus, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

What part of the resurrection story do you come back to when you need courage?

Transcript

Welcome And Lent Context

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life Out Loud. I am your host, Desiree Melfi Bozo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakable, unwavering, unmassable with joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement a little bit like confetti and giving you support to live your very best life. Ciao friends.

Why Four Gospels Matter

Matthew Shows Resurrection Victory

Mark And Holy Amazement

Luke Calls Women To Witness

John And Mary’s Name Moment

Stay Near And Keep Trusting

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Welcome back to the Life Out Loud Podcast. I'm your host, Desiree Melfi Boatso. We are nearing the end of Lent. And today we are going to talk about the one irrefutable story, the resurrection of our Jesus. So lock in. It's going to be good. I hope it's good. I hope you think it's good. As you know, this podcast exists to help women draw closer to Jesus through really practical teaching. And so if there's somebody in your life that you think could benefit from listening to it, please pass it on. It is absolutely the biggest honor to have this passed on to the people you love. So without further ado, let's dive in. Today we're gonna um, I'm gonna put them down in the comments but or in the description, but we're gonna talk about all four of the gospels. So we're gonna cover John 20, 1 to 18, Matthew 28, 1 to 10, Mark 16, 1 to 8, and then Luke 24, 1 to 12. These four passages woven together give us this irrefutable evidence that King Jesus has absolutely risen. Um, if you've ever read the stories of the gospel, um, in each of the four, you notice that uh they aren't identical. Okay. Each gospel tells the resurrection story from a different lens. Um, and so I want to break break down the different angles that um that the stories are told from. They're all woven together at in and at the end of the day, they're all woven together to show that Jesus meets us personally, to show us that he transforms our greatest grief and hope, and that he calls us to share the good news. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tells the same true story from very different perspectives. So if we dive into Matthew, the theme is Christ as King, and the story of Matthew emphasizes victory. Okay, as you read through it at every pass, there's this emphasis on victory. The theme of Mark is Christ as a servant, and this the story emphasizes amazement. The theme in Luke is Christ as man, and the story emphasizes witness. And lastly, the theme in the Gospel of John is Christ as God, and his story emphasizes a personal encounter. So four people, same events, each pulling different themes to weave together a full picture for us almost 2,000 years ago. No matter which version of the gospel accounts you read, the message doesn't change. The tomb ends up empty, and Jesus is alive. All of them hold the same um foundational truths to them. Women came to the tomb early Sunday morning. The tomb was empty. Angels announced Jesus has risen, had Jesus had risen. The women were sent to tell the disciples, and Jesus was alive. In every one of the accounts, those are the foundational facts that are true. John zooms in on Mary Magdalene, Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell more of a group story. It encompasses more people. So I want to take some time to highlight pieces of each of the Gospels to help us fortify in our lives what this means for us 2,000 years later. What does this mean for us as we traverse our days? So we're gonna start with the Gospel of Matthew. It emphasizes victory. In Matthew, there's an earthquake, there's a powerful angel, and there are guards who shake with fear. So Matthew 28, I'm gonna read two to four, and then I'm gonna read eight to ten. So Matthew 28, too, there was a violent earthquake, earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. These guards, the guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. Verse 8. So the woman hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. Greetings, he said, and I don't know why. That makes me chuckle a little bit. Just greetings. I don't know. Anyways, they came to him, clasped his feet, and worshiped him. Amen to that. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me. Matthew reminds us that the resurrection wasn't some quiet thing that caught us off guard, leaning back on our heels, reacting. It was loud. There was an earthquake. There was a boom. The Lord was getting the attention of people. The angel's appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The imagery is incredible here. And at every pass it shouts, victory, victory, victory. The resurrection is a victory of a masterful king who knows exactly what he is doing. He knew exactly what he was doing 2,000 years ago. And friends, I can promise you, he knows exactly what he is doing today. On Good Friday, when we remember how Jesus' body was beaten almost beyond recognition, and the nails were driven into his flesh because of us. In that moment, that seemed like defeat. But God knew victory was in the process. He knows exactly what he's doing. So as you go through your days and things blindside you and come out of nowhere and shake you off course, seemingly, God knows exactly what he's doing. He's still on that throne. He is still in complete control, and his sovereign will still reigns over each and every one of our lives today. With that, I want to point us over to Mark. So Mark emphasizes amazement. I'm going to read Mark 16, 1 to 8. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they might go and anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb. But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in white and a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. Don't be alarmed, he said. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, he's going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Verse 3, they worried. Verse 4, God had it handled. They were like, oh my gosh, who's gonna roll away the stone? And God's like, he must be thinking, I don't know what God's thinking, but if I can imagine, he was probably like, hey ladies, it's been handled. Like, that's our God. That's what he does in our lives. That's what he does for us. Anyway, moving on. Verse five, an angel is there because he commands his angels concerning us, Psalm 91, 11, and 12. Verse 7, then they're going to see him in Galilee. God does things so amazing and astonishing and surprising. He gives us holy amazement. But here's the thing: if we don't go looking for it, we're never going to find it. What if those women wouldn't have been obedient and gone to anoint Jesus' body? What if they were like, I don't, you know, Mary, I got laundry, okay, and there's a I'm in the middle of this book, and the kids are crazy today. I'm tired. Okay, it's been a long few days, and I am just what if they would have fallen into their fleshly worldly excuses and not went and been obedient? They would have missed the entire miracle. Stay obedient. Our God desires, delights in amazing us. So stay obedient, stay on the path, do the next right thing. God shows up, and sometimes he sends his angels. Luke, Gospel of Luke, emphasize emphasizes witness. Okay. We're all witnesses. In a lot of Luke's writings, there are multiple people in all accounts. Okay. So there's multiple women we see taking spices. There's two angels gleaming like lightning, which is amazing and also terrifying. Verse 9: the women went to tell the eleven and all the others. Luke emphasizes witness. Luke 24, verse 11. But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. The first people, if you know anything about this time, the first people God entrusted with the resurrection message were women. During this time, that would have been unheard of. In a world that overlooked women, God chose them. He chose them to carry the greatest news in the history of the world. Just like he chose women to carry children, he chose Mary to carry Jesus into the world. After he chose women to carry his message out. They were the first ones on the scene. He trusted them to speak truth, to strengthen the faith, to remind them of what Jesus had said. And just like these women carried this truth back to the disciples, ladies, we carry this truth into our homes. We carry this truth into our marriages. We carry this truth into our children's lives. We carry this truth if we work outside of the home into our workplaces. We carry this truth into our friend groups. That is a very serious, huge responsibility that the Lord is giving us. It is imperative that we walk in obedience with him. Sometimes we're the greatest witnesses of God's love and God's truth that our families, that our husbands, that our children, that our coworkers, that our friends will ever see, that strangers on the world in the world will ever see. We have to learn scripture. We have to grow a personal relationship with Jesus. And if you're like, all right, great, but where do I start? Start opening the Bible. Read a chapter a day. Start with Psalms. Those are lovely. Figure out what it is and how. Maybe you're in a season where you're like, lady, I don't have time to sit down and read anything. Like, I just I don't sit. That's fine. Put it on your earbuds. Put it in your card. Use the duel app, use the Halo app, whatever app that you have that can read you the Bible, read you scripture. There's um audible uh Bible studies you can listen to. That's real, right? So figure out whatever season you're in, figure out the tools that are gonna help you learn scripture. Right now I'm doing some memorization and I have a scripture verse in my bathroom mirror. And then every I spend a lot of time apparently in the bathroom getting ready and putting in makeup and doing all the things. And I sit there and I recite it as I'm putting on my mascara. I recite it and recite it and recite it so I know it so that when I'm out in the world and the situation comes up, I can call on that and I can recite it over life, over people, over circumstances. It's powerful. So learn scripture and grow a personal relationship with Jesus. Spend time with him. How do we get how do we grow in relationship with people? How did we grow in relationship with our spouses? We spent time with them. How do you deepen friendships? You spend time with them. You go get coffee with them, you go do playdates with them, you go do things with them. Spend time with Jesus. Make time for him, carve out time in your calendar to just sit and just try and listen to what he's telling you for your life. It's probably not gonna be audible. If it is, tell me that that'd be cool. It's never been audible for me, but it's always been like this nudging. I think I talked about this last podcast. It's like a nudging in your gut. It's an idea in your head when you're sitting meditating over something. Do this. Oh, that might be a key to unlocking something. All of this leads us to John. And John emphasizes personal encounter. So John 20, 11 to 16. I'm gonna read the whole thing. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white seated where Jesus's body had been, one at the head, the other at the foot. And they asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They've taken my Lord away, she said. And I don't know where they have put him. I can hear the exasperation in Mary's voice, her grief, thinking it was completely and utterly over. Her beloved Jesus was dead, and now his body is gone. You've got to be kidding me. I can hear as I read these words the exasperation in his her voice. I don't know where they've put him. They've now they've first they've killed him and then they took him, and now I don't know where he's at. At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't realize it was Jesus. Verse 15, he asked her woman, Why are you crying? Who is it that you're looking for? Thinking he was a gardener. She said, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. In verse 16, the whole world shifts on his act on its axis, and everything changes because Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Raboni, which means teacher. In verse 16, in that moment, Jesus could have said anything. He knew he asked anyway, because that's what he does. He draws us in. Remember, I said this before, he draws us in every time. Jesus will never push himself on you, and he will never push you, push himself onto your life. But he'll draw you in. And it's up to you to take the step toward him. Verse 16. Jesus said to her, Mary. He could have said, Hey, it's me. He could have said, Hey, check this out. I just, I did what I said. I just rose. He could have said, like, something, I don't know, kingly, like, I am your victorious king. There is none other than me. He said none of that. He said, Mary. He called her by name. Instead of saying something about him or worldly, he got into her space. He said her name. The other incredible thing here, besides this deeply personal savior, the other incredible thing is that Mary didn't recognize him. She didn't s recognize him with her eyes when she saw him. And it reminds me of John 10 3. I'm paraphrasing it. He calls his sheep by name and they know his voice. But it wasn't until Jesus spoke that she recognized him because she had spent time with him. He called her by name and she said, Oh my gosh, it's him. The veil was lifted from her eyes, and she saw her savior face to face. Mary knew his voice because she spent countless hours and moments walking with him. The closer we are to the king, the more we recognize his voice. It's no different than when we're in a crowded space and a baby cries, or a kid calls mom, and you know in an instant when it's your kid, because you know their voice. You've spent time with them. You know the cry. Remember when my son was little, in the middle of the night when he'd cry, I knew what the cry meant. My husband's like, how do you do this? I'm like, I don't know. I just know. I know exactly what he needs, whether he was hungry or he needed his diaper changed or he was uncomfortable, or, or, or. We know the sound of their voice and what it means because we sit in proximity. And unless we sit in proximity with Jesus, we can't possibly decipher his voice in our life. My loves, God is at work even when we can't see the ending. On Good Friday, when they stood around that cross and watched him die, God was at work. He knew the ending. And we have such an unbelievably amazing vantage point because we've seen all of it. We have all the evidence we need in this scripture. The scripture. I'm trying to hold up. The scripture. We have all the evidence we need for this irrefutable story. And now we get to be obedient. And now we get to take this, and now we get to go live it out in our lives. As these stories weave together. Remember what looks like loss isn't the end. As things happen in your life and you're like, it is finished. Surely it is done. It's never done, and it's never the end. Jesus sees each one of us just like he saw Mary on Resurrection Sunday. Mary went to the tomb expecting death. And she left saying, I have seen the Lord. Friends, God is doing something greater than we can ever imagine. Even when the only thing we see is the defeat or the disappointment or the heartbreak or the frustration or the sadness. He's weaving together stories in our lives that we can only imagine sometimes. Greater than what we can imagine sometimes. Friends, I encourage you in the coming weeks. Stay near the tomb. Stay obedient. If you're like, I don't know what to do, do the last thing God told you. And keep doing the last thing God tells you until you hear from him again. Keep trusting him. He has never in 2,000 years let us down. He's not gonna start now. Stay near the tomb. Be obedient and keep trusting. Because the resurrection, my loves, is much closer than you think. Friends, I hope that hearing the gospel with four different lenses woven together into one unbelievable, it is it's not unbelievable, it's completely believable, amazing, astonishing way. I hope hearing it woven has helped to give you some encouragement this holy week. As we head into Thursday and Friday and silent Saturday, stay encouraged. Because the resurrection is just around the corner. God hasn't forgotten about you and he never will. Come back next time. You have an incredible holy week.

Holy Week Farewell And Requests

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Happy Easter. Cheers. Thank you for joining me, Desiree Melfi Bozzo, for this episode of Life Out Loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment, tell me what topics you want to talk about, and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link, share it on social media, or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, beep up over to my webpage, lifeout loud.me and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time, sweet listeners.