Shine - John 20:1-30

Join us this week as guest speaker Faron Thebeau brings us through John 20:1-30 and Jesus' resurrection. 

Transcript

Hello fellow youths. Good to be here with you this evening and you all have been going through the gospel of John for the two semesters now and talking about shine, the ministry and the life of Jesus Christ. We've come all the way through the story down to chapter 20 now and the resurrection and I'm excited to share that with you a little bit tonight. For every generation there are cultural touchstones that leave us with a little bit of a sense of connection. It's that that feeling of I was there when we all kind of have that for my generation going back a few years we went through things like the challenger disaster, the explosion, the Berlin wall falling. There was this little baby that fell down in a well and took up the news for two or three days. Those kind of things. If you go back the fall of Saigon, the Kennedy assassinations further back you can get into the Hindenburg disaster, everybody remembered where they were at. Even for people that are young like you there are those cultural touchstones like I'm sure you all remember exactly where you are when you heard that Taylor Swift was Dayton Travis Kelsey right? Is that they didn't laugh at that at church Sunday either it's okay. We're there but we have these cultural touchstones and there's so much so that the better the experience and the more that we hear about it we almost start to develop this sense of jealousy and wish we were there so bad that we start to make ourselves a part of the story like one of the big ones in the 60s was this thing called Woodstock this this big concert communal get-together thing and there were thousands upon thousands of people there and there's like a million that will tell you they were there because after a while we want to be involved because the things that we experience they affect our identity the very first thing that happened that had worldwide ramifications we find in the book of Genesis that's the fall when Adam and Eve rebelled against the will of God followed after their own desires and sin entered into the world and by sin came death and that reached into all generations that was a worldwide effect it introduced war jealousy bitterness fear and it brought on us all the tyranny of death we've all felt the varying degrees the weight of that misery that's touched us in some shape or form this fall but a little over two thousand years ago there was a second world shaking worldwide shaking event that was the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Savior so as we have been partakers of death every one of us have had a taste of that fall by the very same token we have been invited into the life of Jesus Christ so there's three things we're gonna read the text in just a second three things I want to touch on just really briefly there's not enough time to get into everything you can find here I pray that you read and dig into and find things that challenge and encourage your heart but I want to talk about the problem that we have sometimes and that we very easily identify with death in the world the feeling of hopelessness the feeling of things aren't ever gonna work out the way they're supposed to the feeling of I'm never going to be good enough we identify with that very readily but even for those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ sometimes we struggle to identify with the life and that's what it's all about so three things number one that life in Christ triumphs on the site of death's apparent victory we'll come to that in a minute secondly the understanding of our heart often lags behind our senses the testimony of our senses the last is it's the living presence of Jesus in our life that bridges that gap so let's read the scripture here very quickly John chapter 20 verse one now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb so she ran went to Simon Peter and the other disciple the one whom Jesus loved and said to them they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid so Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb both of them were running together but the other disciple out ran Peter and reached the tomb first and stooping to look in he saw the linen clothes lay a clause lying there but he did not go in then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and he saw the linen clause lying there and the face cloth which had been on Jesus's head not lying with the linen clause but folded up in a place by itself then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead then the disciples went back to their homes but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stopped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had laid one at the head one at the foot or the feet and they said to her woman why are you weeping and she said to them they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid in and having said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing and she did not know that it was Jesus said to her woman why are you weeping whom are you seeking supposing him to be the gardener she said to him Sir if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away Jesus said to her Mary she turned and said to him in Aramaic "Rabboni!" which means teacher Jesus said to her do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father but go to my brothers and say to them I am ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her and on the evening of that day the first day of the week the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you when he had said this he showed them his hands in his side and then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again peace be with you as a Father has sent me even so am I sending you and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of any they have forgiven them if you withhold forgiveness from any it is withheld now Thomas one of the twelve called the twin was not with them when Jesus came so the other disciple told him we have seen the Lord but he said to them unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails in place my finger in the mark of the nails in place my hand into his side I will never believe and eight days later his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them and although the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you then he said to Thomas put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand place it in my side do not believe disbelief but believe Thomas answered in my Lord and my God and Jesus said to him of you believe because you have seen me blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name so first name life in Jesus Christ triumphs at the side of death's apparent victory now John we don't have time like I say to go into everything but John and crafting this gospel that you've been reading for the last two semesters John has very carefully chosen the imagery and he has interwoven his narrative of the life of Jesus Christ with the creation narrative from the book of Genesis if you go to Genesis 1-1 in the beginning God created the heaven in the earth and darkness was upon the face of the deep and all those things you come to John 1-1 in the beginning was the word the word was with God all things were made by him without him was not anything made that was made Genesis 1-1 John 1-1 reflect each other and that motif carries itself on throughout the gospel and its book ended as it begins in John 1 it's book ended here in the resurrection in John 20 here in John chapter 20 verse 1 Mary comes to the tomb on the first day of the week just as creation had began on the very first day as God is creating matter and God is creating space and God is creating life at the very same moment he is creating time and it is that first day of the week that he creates on he rests on the end of that week on the Sabbath day he rests he does nothing and that's kind of where the disciples find themselves now within the sphere of God's time he has hung on the cross he has done all of the work and he's proclaimed with his mouth it is finished the same as God before had looked at creation and said it is good Jesus looks at the cross and says it's finished he gives up the ghost and then he enters into the grave and it's the Sabbath and the disciples are hanging there in their moments of doubt and anguish and fear and concern discombobulated uncertain of where they're going to go next but they're going to have to wait until the first day of the week and it was still dark as Mary came to the tomb on that first morning it was still dark just as in Genesis chapter 1 where it tells us that as the spirit of God hovered over the waters that darkness was upon the face of the deep see the deep and darkness especially over the deep the ocean represented chaos to these ancient societies they couldn't fathom them you couldn't get down below the surface I mean all the way up until when Magellan circumnavigated the globe he left with three fully stocked ships and three and a half years later when they made it all the way back around with one ship there were 18 people left alive people left into the ocean and they never came back the ocean sometimes just threw waves out there and nobody knew where they came from it was chaos and so they began to believe in their mind that creation had come from chaos was the great mother of all things and like waves come in from the ocean and make foam that somehow out of that came life and life entered to the world and there was a great struggle and order finally displaced chaos well in the very same way as darkness was on the face of the deep Mary comes in the darkness in chaos believing that her Lord is dead the ancient societies believed that chaos had to be conquered and it was a great struggle but God in Genesis was pre-existent he doesn't have any struggle to displace chaos he simply says let the waters be separated from land let their dark separate from light and with a spoken word as easy as that he is able to do all things and it was the same with death Mary just doesn't know it yet he's not going to struggle we struggle with death he rises up alive and powerful and there was a new created order when Jesus comes out of that tomb and just as in Genesis water was separated from dry land and the bones of creation were laid bare the stone was going to be rolled back and death and life were separated victory wasn't just a possibility it was a reality the fact is that wherever we often find ourselves and our struggles and it seems like Satan has got a strangle hold on us and we are never going to make it up the fact that Jesus Christ arose up victorious over death after having paid for all mankind's sins testifies to us there is a new created order and victory is not just a possibility it is a reality secondly let me hurry on here very quickly the understanding the understanding of our heart often lags behind the testimony of our senses this is why it's hard I told you earlier I think sometimes we continue to identify with death that's so easy but we struggle to identify with life I want you to look at what is happening here Jesus has told them very clearly over and over again that he would be that he would die he would be buried and he would rise again in three days he told him in a number of ways in a number of places Matthew Mark Luke and John each have three places recorded repeating where Jesus had told this narrative to them Matthew 16 21 17 22 and 23 2018 and 19 Mark 8 31 9 31 10 33 and 34 Luke 9 22 18 32 33 24 66 and seven and then in John chapter 2 19 through 21 were given another example but over and over Jesus has told them I will die be buried and I will rise they hear it but when they see it they have no way to comprehend that and understand it they could see that he had risen Mary goes and sees the stone has been rolled away and she declared immediately not Jesus has risen from the dead she says the gardener took him which we can kind of laugh at but I if I like died of a heart attack up here right now and we found the sixth strongest of you to care and maybe eight it might take eight to carry me to the grave and you put me in the hole and three days later you come back and there's just an empty hole there and my body's gone who's going to stand up and go oh yeah I think he rose from the dead because our senses are tuned to the natural physical world and God is supernatural and so the testimony of our senses often the understanding of our heart is lagging behind John and Peters come running and they see that there's order in the tomb I mean the cloth have been folded and they've been laid over to the side this isn't something where somebody came and drugged the bodies away they folded up the face cloth but they have struggled in understanding and believing Mary Magdalene sees him standing there before and she thinks he's a gardener the disciples are in an upper room with the door locked because they are afraid and Thomas refuses to believe eyewitness accounts because he demanded that he would have to touch the scars to believe our senses were made for a natural world and life in Jesus Christ is supernatural that's why it's easier to identify with death and life if you are looking for something measurable to convince you your flesh cannot help you the proof of God is in the supernatural he does things in the natural life but when he speaks to our heart that is a supernatural moving of the spirit of God that cannot be quantified by physical means I mean over and over again Jesus does these things that just seem bizarre to our senses he's standing there watching people go by and put money in an offering plate and a widow comes by after people have given impressive sums and she puts in some little coins and he says look she gave the most it doesn't make sense because it's not tuned to our natural senses it's tuned to God he gives this statement to us that like it is more blessed to give than it is to receive but if there's not a present for me underneath the Christmas tree I'm questioning that just a little bit I want at least one present it's supernatural satisfaction that we find in Christ and so these concepts are not readily interpreted well by a carnal mind you must rely on his testimony of his word and testimony of his Holy Spirit in order to understand here's the crux of the matter it's the presence of Jesus that bridges the gap between the tyranny of death and the hope of resurrected life there's nothing else that builds that bridge that gets us from one side to the other I mean like for years and years if you wanted to get to the courthouse you could just walk across the bridge and then they tore it down this week there's no bridge there's no way to get across and you may not know what I'm talking about yeah here in town there's no bridge the only bridge that gets us from death to life inhabiting bodies of flesh with senses that are tuned to the flesh is the supernatural life of Jesus Christ and Mary is anguished with fear and all of the worst case scenarios but when Jesus mentions her name and she hears his voice say her name peace and joy come springing into her heart the disciples who have some of them as Peter said they were so bold and willing to fight for Jesus are now locked behind a door for fear that the Jews might come and drag them away to and Jesus enters in through their locked door brings peace among them and sends them out as some of the boldest men that have ever lived in the history of the world because he bridged from death into life Thomas is moved from doubt to faith we will not advance in our spiritual life until we learn to lean in holy in the Jesus see the life of Jesus wasn't just there for the simple removal of the fear of physical death indeed he spoke to Peter after his resurrection and told Peter by what death he would glorify God which you know I'm glad that everybody's willing to serve but sometimes I'll you wish you get the easier straw let me serve God by being an awesome singer let me serve God by being a dynamic personality I don't want to serve God by dying there's something more here that God is offering death has lost its efficacy as first Corinthians 1550 to 58 tells us death is swallowed up in victory sin has no claim on us death cannot hold us and we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus I was not there physically present might be hard for some of you to believe but I was not there two thousand years ago for the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ I have the testimony of history I know and I believe but I was not there for that world shaking event I was not present but he is here with me in his victorious life I'm a protector and you if you know him as your Savior are a protector of the victorious life of Jesus Christ see John summing up this gospel story of the shining of Jesus Christ says there are many things that Jesus did that were never recorded and they were never written things that will never know but these things that are encapsulated in the gospel were hand chosen and they were written down and recorded with the purpose that you and I might hear be touched no and believe what I am in Jesus Christ is an experiencer of his grace an experiencer of his life and an experiencer of his victory time after time after time I have brought my pitiful miserable failures to his feet with my head hanging down and his victorious life has lifted me Bible says we're sin did abound grace did much more abound I'm an experiencer and so my challenge for you that are here tonight most of you most likely being believers and disciples and followers of Jesus Christ my challenges to you tonight are to embrace your relationship with the risen Lord if he is alive then live life with him let his word be a path for your feed be a light in your feet and a light your pet let his word guide you every day of your life spend that time with him in prayer allow him to work in you embrace your relationship with the risen living Lord unlock the doors of fear that might enclose you and leave your room to carry the good news of the gospel to all of those that are around you may not know the words to say you may not have a great outgoing personality but you can be a living breathing example to someone that is watching that this guy this lady believes what they say they believe and I don't know how to explain it but it does make a difference in their life embrace the risen life leave your room in this embracing of the faith thank the Lord Jesus Christ that he is risen from the dead and after all of these years in generation by generation he is still speaking to every one of you Jesus makes this statement and I'm going to finish I already blew past my time Jesus makes this statement that these works that you have seen me do greater works show you do not because you are greater but because he is in us working through us as a body of Christ throughout the world so you as you are here students and you are marching steadily towards graduation we hope have the opportunity to experience that thrill that Mary felt on that morning the Peter and John and the disciples felt in the upper room to have looked at where death seemed to rain and see victory overwhelm it to have your understanding of your heart finally catch up to what the senses are telling you God is real and he can't handle all of these things go out in his presence to minister into a world let's pray together dear Heavenly Father thank you so much for all that you've done to us thank you Lord for your gospel Lord what a blessing to have been able to go through the gospel of John still one week to go Lord read about your life and how you shine the truth of heaven the hope of heaven in an impoverished world Lord I pray you bless these young men and women bless the staff that leads them God use them to realize something amazing and miraculous here on this campus as people hear your name and see who you are through what you are doing in them in your name we pray amen