Racing to the Tomb

If you feel like you’ve been running in circles or carrying a weight you can’t drop, Now is the time to fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the author of your story and the finisher of your faith. And He is Risen!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Good morning and welcome back to the Preacher Man Podcast Sermons and Lessons. As always, thanks for listening. I appreciate the support. This last Sunday was Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, and we were very, very busy. Not that I'm making an excuse, it's just it is what it is. When when Easter time rolls around, things get a little more fast-paced, if you will. So the the youth and the little kids were up in Dallas on Friday and Saturday participating in leadership training for Christ. And uh they did a really good job. They represented Northcrest well, and then of course on at Sunday morning, we don't necessarily do a Bible class per se. Instead, we will do a morning brunch. We will do an Easter egg hunt for the little kids, and that's always a fun time. And then we will uh have a focused worship, and then we'll be done for the day. So it starts off really, really busy, and then it kind of winds down, and I kind of appreciate that because it allows us to have time together as a Christian family, celebrating the resurrected Savior, but it also allows for family to come in and enjoy some biological family time. Um I was pleased to have my children back in Mahaia, and that was always a good thing. Me and my wife always enjoy it when the kids come home to visit. So this Sunday we did a f uh uh my sermon was a a resurrection sermon because I focused on the part of the resurrection where uh Mary runs back to the disciples and informs them that uh the tomb has been opened uh in a nutshell. She basically thinks that it's been raided and then that someone has taken uh the body of Jesus. Peter and John uh take off running and they run toward the tomb. Um it's always humorous to uh read or and and wonder what was going on in John's mind as he writes that he outran Peter. Um none of the other synoptic gospels talk about that. But they both run to the tomb, they both see what's going on, and uh the end result is belief. And so we take that uh story and we line it up with the first part of Hebrews chapter twelve, which I've always been personally I've always been a believer that the first three verses of Hebrews chapter twelve should have been the last three verses of Hebrews chapter eleven. But you know, that's tomato tomato sometimes. Anyway, um Hebrews twelve gives us a a idea about running the race being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and with Jesus uh there also keeping our eyes fixed on Christ. And we did some comparisons, we did some analogies of the same kind of race that we're running toward is really the same kind of race that was unintended, but they did run to this tomb to see what had happened. And in many ways, that same thing applies when the Hebrew writer comments, and I can see how the Hebrew writer would uh maybe even think about that experience with if knowing what had happened. I'm I I I we don't know who wrote Hebrews. And so there are many speculations about who actually wrote it. I can see how the Hebrew writer would know that story of the running to the tomb by Peter and and John. So let's go ahead and jump into it. This is uh sermon titled This is the sermon from Easter Sunday titled Racing to the Tomb. The text is uh mainly Hebrews twelve one through three, but we also reference and look at John chapter twenty. John chapter twenty, the first eight verses of that. And we'll be back after with some closing thoughts. Open your Bibles to John chapter twenty, Gospel of John chapter twenty. I know that Hebrews is read, and we'll get to Hebrews here in a minute, but I want kind of want to start out on something that we are working on in 2026. Our theme for 2026 is to fix in 26. We're uh taking some time um this year to address, talk about, maybe rethink some ideas about what we can do to be better in the areas that we need to work on. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. There's nothing wrong with a little preventative maintenance. And uh and and and as we as we look at Hebrews, which we I did a little bit of Hebrews at the beginning of the year when I was introducing this theme, and so I kind of wanted to I guess catch us back up. We've we've we've spent some time in Corinthians, and we and we accomplished that last Sunday, and so I'm kind of gonna circle back up to Hebrews, and and and I want to this morning I want to kind of merge some uh some lessons that we can see that will help us understand what the importance of how we should and why we should fix our eyes on Jesus. Many of you may have may see this on the news sometime, and some of you may know about this way more or better than um than me. Um it always it always confused me a little bit because I never understood where the tradition came from. Um I'm I'm a I'm a history, I'm a history guy, and I like to uh I like to know stuff about the history. And every so on the Monday after Easter, all the kids in Washington, D.C., if they so choose and and and anything else, they they are allowed to go up to the White House and do an they they call it an Easter egg roll. And it's kind of like a race, but you roll your Easter egg, I don't know how you do it, have they ever seen it washed fully commitment. It must be a, I'm not trying to pick on the differences between the north and south. It must be a northern thing because I don't, I don't know if I'm I don't know if I've ever been a part of an egg roll. I mean, I like egg rolls, don't get me wrong. I mean, they make some really good ones at that Chinese restaurant in Grossback, but um, I've never done one of these like this before. So I uh and I was thinking about this as we were thinking about running a race and Easter and Resurrection Sunday, and I'm thinking there's there's gotta be some way to kind of tie this all together. So it turns out that back in um the the White House Easter egg roll started back in the 1870s. So it's been around for a while, but they didn't have it at the White House. It started out um that uh Capitol Hill became a very, very popular place in the 1870s for children to do this egg roll thing, and and and sometimes they would actually roll themselves also down the hill, the same hill, on Easter Monday. And the event grew so popular that it took a toll on the grounds. They were tearing up, they were basically tearing up the grounds, the grounds on the capital at the Capitol building. And so Congress put their heads together and came up with a brilliant idea for this, and they passed a law forbidding the children in 1876, they passed a law forbidding that the Capitol grounds to be used as a children's playground. Are government at work. Now, so and so so then like, well, the kids can't do, can't have their egg roll anymore on the Capitol grounds. Fortunately, though, President Rutherford B. Hayes Hayes in 1878 issued an order that if any children should want to come to the White House, they can come to the White House and roll their Easter eggs on the White House lawn. And they would be allowed to do so. And that tradition has been going on since 1878. Um, and it's a it's a major event, apparently. Uh, it gets some coverage sometimes, you know, they'll have a big party and they'll have concerts and they'll have all this other stuff. But the idea is that you you take a spoon, you're in a lane, and you get an eat, you get an Easter egg. I guess it's one of them hard-boiled ones. I don't know if them candied ones would make it, you know, and you race as you roll your egg, and whoever wins wins. That's how you do the race. It's just a little fun thing to do on the Monday after Easter. Instead of eating all the candy, you roll your Easter eggs. So we're gonna look at the story that's found in John 20, and we're gonna look at the verses found in Hebrews. And we're I want to make a parallel on why the Hebrew writer encouraged us to run with endurance and perseverance, and why that is so important when we are also celebrating a resurrected Savior in an empty tomb. So that's why I call this sermon Racing to the Tomb. And as we look at this lesson this morning, I have a question that I want you to think about this morning. And that question is this, and you don't have it's something you can talk about while you're having your Easter dinner or Easter lunch or wherever it is you're doing after the morning services are concluded. In order to run well, we have to drop extra baggage, it says. So this morning, what is clinging to you that you need to lay off in order to run better? All of us here are dealing with something. Every one of us has something going on in our lives, and as much as we would probably want to and and and desire to, we sometimes have a difficult time leaving it at the door. But that's what you're asked to do. You're asked to lay aside all your earthly worries and come in to the church family and worship God, especially on a day like on a day like Sunday, where we have an emphasis, we highlight, we celebrate, we we get excited about a resurrected Savior. The main point of this lesson this morning is this. Because Jesus endured the cross, and because he rose again, like he said he would, we can do what the Hebrew writer encouraged us to do, and that's run the race with endurance by keeping our eyes fixed on him, even though we know that he's not in the tomb anymore. So looking back on this, we can see that this story in John 20 turned out to be a race that didn't necessarily start be intended to be a race. Now, I have uh I like sports. All of us do, all of us can have many of us have an appreciation of sports, some of us have participated in many sports, but one of the sports that doesn't get a whole lot of uh of uh of attention because let's face it, it's it's grueling is cross-country. Um I I knew a lot of kids, and I went to school with a lot of kids who who ran cross country. And um my kids, my children had a lot of friends who ran cross country. And you knew it was cross-country season when you would see a bus just stop off at the side of the road somewhere, and kids pile off the bus and just take off running. And they would have to run, basically run back to the school. And that's how they build up their endurance, that's how they practice. They they just run. And they didn't run, they didn't run on the track. No, they ran down the streets, they ran across the pastures, they'd run through the town, through the town, they'd run everywhere. But cross country is, I mean, you you don't that is probably the the challenge for cross-country isn't the fact that you are that you're that you're uh running in different areas and and not on uh on a path that's not like a loop, but you you want to be as light as you can when you're in cross country. So tank tops and shorts and shoes like that, I mean, man, that's what that's what they want to wear. It's not like when you're it's not like you're playing football where you have to have helmet and shoulder pads and cleats and all this heavy stuff to protect you. No, you want to be as aerodynamic as possible. Now, what happened in John 20 was a a running to the tomb not to see who would get there first, a running to the tomb to see if what Mary Magdalene was saying was true. She comes up, she comes up to them right at the at the beginning of the chapter. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, and while it was still dark, and saw that the stone was already removed from the tomb. And so she ran and came to Simon and Peter and the other disciples, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him. So automatically we see that there is an assumption there. There is an incorrect belief. Mary Magdalene thought grave robbers had already came, or someone had come and moved Jesus from the tomb. She has not put two and two together on the promises that Jesus made as he was pointing his face toward Jerusalem before even the Passover, and he he basically said, Look, a lot of things are gonna happen to me when I get to Jerusalem. And one of those things is I'm gonna come back to life in three days. But that's not what she was concerned about. She says she thought someone had taken him, taken the body and moved it. So Peter and the other disciple uh left and they were going to the tomb, and the two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. So John outran Peter. Understandably so, because history, tradition tells us that Peter was a little older. And maybe he wasn't in that great of a shape. I don't know. Maybe John had just had a maybe John had a couple of extra uh shots of Gatorade that morning and outran him. I don't know what it was. But the trip, but however it worked out, it wasn't intended to be who was going to get there first. They were genuinely concerned about what was going on. He stops and he looked in, saw the linen wrapping lying there, however, he didn't go in, but that's not what Peter does. I always imagine that Peter's like in, I mean, by the time he's getting to the tomb, he is in full run mode. And he doesn't even stop, he just bypasses and just runs right into the tomb and stops inside the tomb. I've always imagined that that would be the case. But then Simon comes along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, uh, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head, the cloth that was still lying in its place separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple, whom he had reached the tomb first, John, also went inside and he saw, he saw and he believed. He believed not that someone stole the body. Both Peter and John believed that Jesus rose from the dead just like he promised. Now, we know from other gospel accounts that other things took place to demonstrate and show. You had a description of how it happened. You had angels sitting on the on the stone, uh, you had the guards asleep and passed out, you had um Jesus' uh uh uh automatically appearing to some of them the same day as he rose from the dead. But this one is specific. Why is that? You you the event, and I would encourage you, you know, sometime today while you're reading your Bibles, I would encourage you to go back. Go back and look at the events that took place from the time he was arrested and the Mount of Olives all the way to his crucifixion and then into his death and then to his burial. A lot of things were taking place and happening. Schemes and plots were being put together. Guards were being positioned and stationed there because the Jews were afraid that the disciples were going to do exactly what Mary Magdalene thought had happened. You had uh people who on the outside appeared like they didn't know who Jesus was or were not the followers of Jesus, take down his body, wrap him, bury him in a tomb that was not that has never been used before. You had a priest, a man of the uh in the high council, Nicodemus, voluntarily bringing an enormous amount of spices and burial clothes and burial uh things to in order to wrap Jesus' body in. That was highly uncalled for back then. Nicodemus was really putting himself on the line. You had the disciples who were scattered at the at the Mount of Olives. When the men came, they scattered, they ran, and they ran away and they hid. Traditionally, you we that we we like to think because we're, you know, you read what took place during the crucifixion and then when what was left afterwards, and then when you start into acts and the Holy Spirit comes upon them with like tongues of fire, it seems to me that what they did was they established the upper room as a headquarters for where they were going to hide out and hang out until they figured out what to do next.

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So when

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Mary Magdalene ran back. She appoints, she finds Simon and uh she finds Peter and John there. All these things are taking place. The curtain in the temple gets torn in two. The moon turns to blood. There's an earthquake, there's an eclipse, there's there's all these things that take place, and Peter and John were witness to it all. And you think, and and I'm sure that after every event took place, one of them or one of the disciples was probably thinking, or saying, Well, you know, maybe this is it. Maybe this is how it's supposed to end. Maybe, maybe, you know, maybe we need to stay here and hang out and be together a little bit longer. Some of them probably didn't know what to do. But all of that changed emotionally for two men when Mary comes to the door and says, I've been to the tomb, it's empty. They've taken my Lord, and I don't know where they've put him. Now you have two men on foot running as fast as they can. Because all of this now has it's been a climate. This is, hey, we can do something about this, maybe. Maybe we can figure out where he went, where who took him. Maybe we can figure out where they laid him. Maybe Mary went to the wrong tomb. They did not, at the time, they weren't like Mary, they didn't put all these things together in order to understand that this is what Jesus said he was going to do. Until they got there, until they looked at the evidence, until they saw where the linen was, and they saw that the face wrapping was, and they saw how everything was set up. And then later on you can read in the gospel how there's uh appearances one after another. But that demonstration of what was left behind in the tomb got these two men back on track and believing and understanding what took place. So, why is it then that I am wanting to combine that story with the first three verses of Hebrews 12? Well, first of all, I will say this. The first, I believe that the first three verses of Hebrews 12 should have probably been the last three verses of Hebrews chapter 11. Many of us know and appreciate Hebrews chapter 11 because it's a hall of fame of faith. Name after name after name of Bible characters, Abraham, Moses, all David, all of these people, some of them just listed by their name and not what they did by faith. And then finally, at the end, starting in verse 12, he says this. He says, Therefore, because of all of these people of faith who we admire and know Bible stories about, therefore, because we have so many examples from the Old Testament of faithful people who walked the walk and talked the talk. Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid ourselves of every obstacle and sin which has easily entangled us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The Hebrew writer makes sure to point out that we are in a way, not that these men are up in heaven right now looking down upon us. It's just that with the examples that we have, we can use those ideas to say, these people have done it, and there's an expectation that the Hebrew writer has for us to be able to do it too. An enduring faith, a faith that goes, that understands that this race, this Christian thing, this thing called Christianity, it's not a hundred-yard dash. No, it is a marathon. It is a cross-country race that we are called to run, run with endurance, and the only way we're going to be successful is to get rid of those things that are going to tangle you up, trip you up, weigh you down. I know that some of us, we you know, we would be, we we'd feel a lot better if we didn't have to carry around so much of this of this baggage that the devil keeps putting on, and we keep allowing him to put it on us. In this race that we're running, we can see how we get how he paints this picture of a great crowd of witnesses that runs before us, that has gone on before us, and and he and they have been living a proof of a faithful God. But what Hebrew traitor is trying to tell these people who's reading this letter is you're not running just by yourself. You've got teammates who are running alongside you. You've got a stand full of people who are cheering you on, yelling, yelling and cheering you on to go. Keep going, keep going. It's like being in a in a in a uh having a being in a in a an arena with a track. You got people in the stands, and when your name gets called out, they cheer and holler. And when the starting gun goes off, they're yelling and screaming for you. And and every coach tells you, now just drown out the noise and focus on your running. Well, yeah, but you still hear them. The great cloud of women and women, men and women who were faithful to God till the end. We know about them. We there's where there's tons of Old Testament history about them. They are so they they they have He has this idea of them cheering us on, encouraging us. And the idea is that we are to the we someone in that stand would probably say, Well, you know, Riley, if you would just get rid of that one thing, man, you would be ten times faster. Because, yes, while they do cheer you on, they probably know what hiccups you have and what's what's keeping you tangled up as well. Why? Because they've ran the same race you running, you're running. They've gotten tripped up and tangled up by the same things that trip them up and tangled them up. It's not supposed to be just a quick lap around the one one lap around the track and you're done. No, you're gonna have to run through some stuff, run around some stuff. We are to purposely shed our sins and selfishness and anything that is holding on to us as we strive to fulfill God's plan that He has in store for us. And we all know of God's former works. We have a bunch of Old Testament stories to show that. Those kinds of stories are to be inspiring, they are to they are to make us feel complete. We can read about their dedication and their devotion of his will. And we have people in our own lives who were examples for us in modern times, who ran the race of faith with endurance. Now, the next verse we're going to see here is going to show us how we are to the ultimate example. The ultimate example is Jesus Christ Himself. That's why we're running toward an empty tomb in many ways. Because not only did Jesus exemplify how we ought to live our lives, but we also by resisting all the temptations that we face with a firm understanding that his suffering was part of God's plan. The work together for the good of everything for his glory and benefit. And so to run well, yes, we need to get rid of and drop that baggage. And I can't think of a better time than Resurrection Sunday to be an ultimate reminder of those chains of sin that once tripped us up have been broken permanently, and we are free to move. Look at verse 2 of Hebrews chapter 12. Looking only at Jesus, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, sat down at the right hand of God, the right hand of the throne of God. The Hebrew writer is very bold. He's very bold to say that what hat what happened with Jesus was a joy set before him. I don't think Jesus woke up one morning and go, you know what? I think today's the best day to start my trial. Today would be a good day to go and get that thing started. I got nothing else better to do. Let's just go ahead and knock this out right now. I don't think that's what happened. I know I know you don't think that either. Jesus didn't endure the cross because he just loved pain. In fact, he prayed against it. He didn't endure the cross because, well, he endured the cross because he knew of the joy that was going to be on the other side. The joy of bringing, being able to bring us home, the joy of being setting his creation free from their sin problems, the joy of overcoming death in the tomb, the joy of knowing that his perfect blood sacrifice was the only thing that was going to take care of our sin problem and for us to and and and give us the final ability to have the relationship with God that God always wanted all the way back into Genesis, where we can walk and talk with him in the cool of the evening. So that's where the joy came from. And the empty tomb was the finish line. And that's what gives us hope today. Here we can see how Jesus again serves as that ultimate example of Christ's suffering and hardship, persecution, as well as overcoming the temptations, but he never wavered in his resolve to do the will of his heavenly father. He would even go as far as to say, I don't do anything unless my heavenly father tells me to. That's how connected I am and how on point on the mission I am for him. Christ's entire ministry and superiority of the new covenant is grounded in his example, which we are called to strive to follow. Run that race, knowing that Jesus is at the end of the line, ready to welcome you with a deep embrace. His willingness to endure the cross and the trials come from an understanding that God of that God could and does still work together for the good of all things. And so the end goal is Jesus. The end goal is understanding obedience, that it was established, the purpose of why we're striving for. We're striving for a city with foundations. We're striving for a relationship with God where we can be with Him for eternity. Nothing keeps us from experiencing the glory of God. Heaven is great, but being with our Heavenly Father is greater. Now there is a little more of understanding that these trials that we're going to face come from something else, that we're going to have to have a little endurance. Verse 3 says this for consider him who had endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. All the time we need to be considering Jesus. Because, yes, he is the author and perfecter of our faith. But he also is the ultimate example of enduring hatred and hostility by people who he was coming to this earth to die for. So the writer emphasizes that we should take the same approach when we are faced with trials of our own. Jesus endured hardship at the hands of his enemies, and even though Jesus was God incarnate, he still was subjected himself to the hostility and the struggle. The passage continues. No, instead, it's only through Jesus, who lived a perfectly sinless life and experienced that pain and suffering, that we can and are able to face those challenges in our lives. And we should not see it as a sign that God has abandoned us. No, we should see it as something that allows us to persevere, knowing that what perseverance does is only going to make us better, stronger, more dependent on God. While it is true that no man is an island, and you cannot be, you are not called, or it is impossible to be a Christian by yourself, you also have to understand that we are through the Holy Spirit, we have a connection with God that helps us keep on, keeping on. So the takeaway this morning is really, really simple. This morning I want to encourage you all. When those times where you feel like your heart is about to break. Always make sure no matter where you are in your race, you know where Jesus, the risen King, is and can have appreciation for the fact that he's already won. And he's encouraging you, knowing that you can win too. Easter is always a special time for Christians, and uh it it allows us to uh maybe give a little more emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. And we've been jumping or we've been going through uh a lot of verses, and I'm I'm just reminded of what Paul writes about Corinthians about how if we don't believe or if we don't have an appreciation for the resurrection, especially the resurrection part of Christ, and all of this is done in vain. And we are to be pitied. Paul says that in Corinthians, and then the Hebrew writer I can the idea of running the race with our eyes focused on Jesus is something that we're going to continue to look at for the next couple of Sundays. Um Lord willing, next Sunday we will jump into another story of f making sure how we are staying focused on Christ even in times of turmoil and strife. And we will be looking at the story found in Matthew where Jesus walks on water and encourages Peter to get out of the boat and walk on water to him. And we know what happens afterwards, and so we're gonna come we're gonna look at that and and and and glean from those verses next Sunday. When to just to see what we really what's really important when it comes to um the focus on Christ, not only in the good times, but in the bad times. As always, I would love to hear from you. Uh I would love to uh get a feel for how you feel about the podcast. Um maybe you have a question about something that was uh mentioned in the sermons. Maybe you want to know a little more insight about um anything that we've talked about so far on this podcast. And um we would encourage you to uh contact me through email. Um my email address is preacherman1178 at gmail.com. That's preacherman1178 at gmail.com. Would love to hear from you, and maybe your suggestions or ideas or questions can be part of a podcast show in the future. In the meantime, this is the Preacher Man gonna hand it back over to you. Have a blessed day, and always remember who you are and whose you are.