Before Jesus’ resurrection appearances on that first day of the week three days after His death the Scripture indicates that there were three separate appearances of angels to the women from Galilee who had arranged to meet early that morning to complete their burial custom for Jesus’ body. The first appearance was to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph who arrived very early that morning, “there yet being darkness”, perhaps to indicate to the other women the exact location of the tomb. The second appearance happened shortly afterwards to the other women who arrived at the tomb while Mary Magdalene was on her way to inform Peter and John, and may have included the other Mary who perhaps ran into them after she left the tomb to inform others and returned with them to show them what they had found. The third appearance of angels occurred to Mary Magdalene after she had followed Peter and John back to the tomb, after they had left, and just before her eyes were opened to meet the risen Savior whom she at first mistook for the gardener; Joh 20:11-16. Whereas these multiple women on three occasions encountered angels at the tomb, Peter and John did not, just the empty grave clothes. Nor is there any indication that angels appeared to any of the other apostles. Why not? See Luk 24:11, Mar 16:14, Joh 20:29, Heb 11:6, Luk 12:48b, and consider how many times Jesus had specifically told them He would rise from the dead (Mat 12:40, 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 26:32, 27:63, Luk 24:6-7, Joh 2:19, etc…). What does this again remind us about the importance of faith to our walk with God, and what it means to have true faith? Cf. Tit 1:2, Heb 6:17-18.
What was the key question in regard to the empty tomb that was the test of faith for all Jesus’ followers? Recall that at that time no one could have conceived of what rising from the dead in terms of the resurrection actually meant (cf. Mar 9:9-10), as opposed to the resuscitations from the dead they had experienced with Lazarus, the widow of Nain’s son, or Jairus’ daughter. God was doing something entirely new that they could not understand, so that absent Jesus’ body it was only and entirely by faith that they could believe He was actually alive. Do we have that same faith, that although we don’t understand what is happening and things may seem completely hopeless—like Joseph when he was first carried into Egypt as a slave—that we can still trust God that His words to us are completely true and “we will understand it better by and by”? Which of the apostles seems to have been richest in faith for having been the first to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead and was alive, despite the absence of His physical body to prove it? See Joh 20:8-9.
In what way was the appearance of the angels to announce the resurrection, as opposed to Jesus Himself appearing to them, a test of faith even to the women, which they didn’t initially pass any better than Jesus’ apostles who were initially unwilling to believe? See Joh 20:1-2; cf. Mar 16:8, which appears to be the way Mark abruptly ended his gospel to punctuate as a literary device to his readers the very faith his gospel witness sought to instill. (His readers would already have been familiar with the resurrection accounts through the oral traditions heralded by the early church.) What does this teach us about the way the Lord tests our faith, according to whatever faith, or lack thereof, that we may have, to reveal not only to Him, but to ourselves, what is really within our hearts in order to strengthen our faith to trust Him all the more? Cf. Gen 22:1-2, Jam 1:2-4. Although they had no physical evidence that Jesus was alive, of what did the angels remind the second group of women at the tomb to increase their faith and give them hope that He had risen from the dead? See Luk 24:6-7. What does this teach us about the importance of reminding ourselves of the Lord’s words to increase our own faith? Cf. Rom 10:17, Psa 77:11-12, 105:4-5, 1Co 11:24-25. See also Num 15:38-40, Neh 4:14. What does the fact that we so easily forget and need to actively remind ourselves of what God has said and done teach us about the way sin in our world numbs our spiritual senses and dulls our understanding and perceptions so we are prone with time to drift further and further away from God’s truth that is our life and salvation? In what way is the second law of thermodynamics that describes how our physical world is tending toward disorder and winding down a reflection of this spiritual state, so that if we don’t actively work to maintain our homes and renew our possessions, then in time, like our faith, they are subject to corruption and fall into disrepair? Cf. Rom 8:19-23.
What does Luke say that the women did upon hearing the words of the angels? See Luk 24:8. Can we remember something we have never learned? What then do we understand about the importance of education to our faith? Cf. Deut 6:1-9. In what way does Luk 24:8 communicate that the angels’ words had their desired effect of fanning to flame the dying embers of their faith? In what similar way does reminding ourselves of God’s words fan to flame our own faith, as opposed to allowing the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and desire for other things to cause us to forget His words, drift away from the truth, and to lose faith? We understand that it is only by faith that we are saved; what do all these things teach us about the nature of the faith by which we are saved, and how we obtain that faith? See Job 13:15 and again Rom 10:17.