Death Defying Power!
John 20:1-18
Introduction: This week was a significant anniversary. Most of us
are too young to remember, but on June 6th 1944 the allied forces
began the D-day invasion of Normandy. Victory
came at tremendous cost, thousands of American and allied lives were lost, but
the battle was won, and even though many other battles were yet to be fought historians
tell us that the defeat of Hitler was certain. A decisive moment in the history of World War
2. The death and resurrection of Jesus
together were such a moment in the history of redemption. Paul said that Jesus was
“…declared to be the Son
of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from
the dead” (Romans 1:4). Peter wrote in his first letter,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to
His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time” (I Peter 1:3-5).
So the
resurrection both vindicates that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and
gives us a sure hope because He has defeated death. We started our walk
through the Fourth Gospel about two years ago. Taking into account that we
deviated from this study for some special days and guest speakers and the like,
we’ve probably had about 80 messages on John over that period of time. For the
last six weeks we looked into the passion of Christ in John. In many respects
that surely is the climax of the story from John’s perspective as Jesus
willingly goes to the cross and lays down his life for his sheep. That is the “lifting
up of the Son” which the entire Gospel had been anticipating. But John won’t
neglect to report “part 2” of the glorification of the Son – His resurrection
from the dead. Recall Paul’s summary of
the gospel at the beginning of I Corinthians 15:3-4, “…Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buried. He
was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures…” It is that part of the gospel story, as
related by the beloved disciple, an eye witness, one of the first to arrive at
the empty tomb, that we come to today.
The heart
of the Gospel message, the power that works in us and gives assurance, is the
truth that Christ “…rose again the third
day according to the Scriptures…”
Every other human biography eventually terminates with the death of the
person who is the subject of the book. There is an indispensable addendum to this
story… Jesus is alive! We serve a
risen Savior!
The
Big Idea: Because Jesus defeated
death we know He is who He claimed to be. He is worthy of our worship and our
obedience.
I. The Tomb
was really empty (20:1-10). It seems
as though it was the last thing that any of them had expected. It may be something of a surprise that they
were so slow to catch on. After all
Jesus had repeatedly told them that it was necessary for him to be betrayed,
crucified, and ultimately raised from the dead on the third day. They didn’t
yet have ears to hear or eyes to see. They had some frame work for the
possibility of someone rising from the dead in that Lazarus was raised by Jesus
after four days in the tomb. But now Jesus himself was dead, it was the third
day. How could they hope that He would somehow walk alive out of the
tomb on his own? There were no “hooks” to hang that hat on!
As the passage opens, we see the Struggle
of Faith (20:1,2). We see that in the struggle
of Mary Magdalene to grasp what had happened.
Somehow John tells us that she arrived at the tomb before the other
women and is the first to see the stone rolled away from the entrance. According
to the other gospels, at some point she met the other women, and apparently at
least looked into the tomb to see that the body was not there. Her immediate
conclusion: someone must have stolen his body and removed it from the tomb. It
wasn’t bad enough that the rulers had rejected Him and that Pilate had gone
along with an unjust execution, now He is denied the decency of having his body
left in peace in the grave!
Notice a
small detail here: Mary came to the tomb
while it was still dark. Besides giving us the obvious time reference,
night and day in John has repeatedly also had a spiritual significance.
Remember that Nicodemus had come to Jesus “at night” and we saw that he was
still in the dark spiritually as well. He couldn’t understand what Jesus was
saying when He talked about being born again. “How can these things be?” He was still in the dark. Mary Magdalene
arrives at the tomb, sees the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, but she is
still in the dark, she doesn’t understand the meaning of the empty tomb.
She concludes someone must have stolen the body! So she runs to Peter and John
with the news.
The prophet
Habbakuk said “the just shall live by
faith” and that became one of the key themes in Paul’s letters. Though at one level faith is “believing God,
taking Him at His word…” it also means trusting Him as His story unfolds
in history. Many times as we are passing through this life we will struggle, as
Mary did, and pray, like the Father who brought his demon possessed son to
Jesus in Mark 9:24, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief…”
As
the story continues we see the Growth of Faith (20:3-9). Peter and John
race to the tomb, John gets there first and stops at the entrance and looks in,
Peter catches up and runs right past him into the tomb. It’s not too surprising at this point to see
Peter go rushing in. No doubt their heads were spinning as they tried to make
sense out what was happening, what this meant. NB. Peter first sees the grave
clothes lying empty. But John sees, and believes. In this context, after the resurrection, it
seems like this must mean that he came to a fuller, correct understanding of
who Jesus is and that He was alive again.
The two responses of these disciples serve as a good reminder that God
is working in our midst and we are all different, at different places in our
walk of faith. The tomb is empty! That
is a fact. Has the significance of that truth come home to your heart? It
is not only the revelation of that fact historically, but the
interpretation of it verbally that God uses to speak to our hearts.
Notice the experience of the
disciples, we read in verse 9, “For as
yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” Elsewhere
Paul reminds us that “Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Rom 10:13). To believe we need
to “hear” the Word. I read a devotional this week that referred to Romans 10:13
and said faith is God’s Word “activated” in us. That means being in the Bible,
reading, it means being under sound teaching, it means receiving the Word which
is “living and active and sharper than any two edged sword.” It is through
the Word that we know that Jesus defeated death and that He is who He claimed
to be. He is worthy of our worship and our obedience. You see the tomb is
really empty because…
II. Jesus is
really alive (20:11-18)! The empty tomb,
if the story stopped there, is intriguing, but it needs to be explained. What
happened? Where was the body? What does it mean? The early opponents of
Christianity attempted to circulate “explanations” to deal with the problem of
the empty tomb, even if they had to make them up. We read for example in Matthew 28:11-15…
“Now
while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and
reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had
assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of
money to the soldiers, saying, ‘Tell them, “His disciples came at night and
stole Him away while we slept.” ‘And if this comes to the governor's ears, we
will appease him and make you secure.’ So they took the money and did as they
were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this
day.”
The language is pretty clear: evidently when
Matthew wrote his gospel, this was an ongoing attempt by the Jewish leaders to “explain
away” the empty tomb. A made up story is meaningless. The only thing that
matters is what really happened. At first even the disciples weren’t
sure.
When
we look at Mary Magdelene it is clear that what we don’t know about this
story brings grief (11-13). Mary returns to the tomb, weeping, heartbroken,
confused. She was hurting, she didn’t
understand, but she didn’t stop seeking.
She bent down and looked into the tomb. The implication is that she
wanted to understand, to make sense out of this story that was unfolding before
her eyes. She was seeking the truth. So
she looks in and sees two angels. By the language here it seems as though she
did not realize that they were angels, even as they speak with her. Morning had
dawned, but Mary, for the moment, was still in the dark. “Why are you weeping?” the angels ask. “…They
have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him…” The
tomb is empty, but Mary still hasn’t understood what had happened. Then the
Light of the World shines on her.
In the midst of our pain Jesus calls us by
name (14-16). That one word, the Master calling her name, opened her
understanding, illumined her faith: “Mary!” He knows us intimately, personally. Have you
had a time of darkness when you were struggling to understand, to make sense of
a difficult moment in your life? Sometimes it’s in those times of tribulation
that God teaches us the most. C.S. Lewis said “God whispers to us in our
pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.” Mary, confused
and in tears, hears Jesus speak her name, and replies immediately, with
recognition and assurance, “Teacher!”
It’s rarely an audible voice, but just as surely the Master speaks to us today.
It may be through Scripture, through the love of Christ that flows through a
brother or sister around us, through a song that brings sound theology to our
heart and moves us closer to Him. Mary, Nancy, Steve, Bob, Wallace, Jeanie… He
knows us by name, and He wants us to trust Him, to believe Him.
Mary was sent as a “witness” (17-18).
Jesus told her to go to the others and tell what she saw and heard from Him. We
read in John 20:17-18,
"Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have
not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am
ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'
" 18 Mary Magdalene came
and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these
things to her.”
Jesus said “Go and tell.” So Mary, obediently,
joyfully, “went and told.” After all, she
had met with Jesus and out of the ashes of her life, sprang hope. Her task now
was to bring hope to others around her who also were hurting, by being a
witness to the Truth.
What is God saying to me in this passage? Because Jesus defeated death we know He is who He
claimed to be. He is worthy of our worship and our obedience. The work is
done. Do you believe it? Will you
trust Him even in the times of darkness?
What would
God have me to do in response to this passage? Sixty-nine years ago the allies won a battle at
great cost that assured victory in World War 2. Two thousand years ago Jesus
won a battle that assures forgiveness and life to all who come to Him in faith.
Have you believed the simple truth of the Gospel message? It means first of
all admitting that we are a sinner and acknowledging that our sin separates
us from God (Rom 3:23). Secondly we have to believe that Jesus is the
Son of God and that He died for our sins on the cross (John 3:16). And then finally
we have to trust Him as our personal Lord and Savior: He died for you,
personally, and rose again (Rom 10:9,10). Will you determine to live by faith,
remembering His presence, even when the trials of life in this sin cursed world
try to eclipse the Light? Remember we know the One who is the Light of the
World. We have seen His glory. Remember Matthew, after He came to Jesus, he
reached out to those around him, with a clear desire to introduce them to
Jesus. Will you determine to be a
Matthew this year? If you know Jesus as
your Lord and Savior, He has placed you exactly where He wants you. The people
in your sphere of influence desperately need to know Him. Think about that. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment