That You May Believe

Resurrection Sunday

John 20:1-31

Transcript

They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid
him. 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 outran Peter and
reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying
there. But he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into
the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth which had been
on Jesus' head. Not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by
itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first 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 stooped to look into the tomb and
she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. One at the
head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said
to them, they have taken away my Lord. I do not know where they have laid him.
Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus but she did not know that it
was Jesus. 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, gabonai, 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. 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 to
them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his
side the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,
peace be with you as the Father has sent me, so I am 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 will be forgiven them. If you withhold the
forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Now Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin,
was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen
the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails
and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I
will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas
was with them. 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, put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but
believe. Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you
believed 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 the disciples
which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may
believe that Jesus is a Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may
have life in his name. The word of God. Let's take a moment and we'll pray
together. Lord God, what a joy to be here this morning and we commit this time
to you and ask for your Holy Spirit's help as we look at this resurrection
account. In Jesus' name, amen. So what an amazing thing, what a joy for us to be
able to gather like this on Resurrection Sunday. The resurrection is the
foundation of the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul writes to the church at
Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15 and he says, for I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the 12,
then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still
alive, though some have fallen asleep. Paul mentions that Jesus was buried to
emphasize that he truly died and he mentions the hundreds of eyewitnesses to
emphasize that he truly rose. When we look to Jesus, the resurrected Christ, to
forgive us our sins or to give us strength to live in a way that pleases him,
we're not relying on just a story or a myth or a legend, some sort of metaphor,
he is truly risen. Jesus is risen and because of that, we can have resurrection
life. This morning we're gonna look at the account from John 20 that Tom just
read. You might have noticed in that passage that there are kind of four
intervals, four sections, four distinct scenes in John's Gospel and you might
have noticed the transition of time as well. There are four movements as we go
from Sunday morning in the dark, then out of darkness into the dawn of Sunday
morning, then to Sunday evening in the locked room, and then to a Monday eight
days later. And then in conclusion, John wraps it all up by telling us what it
means and what it's for. He gives us a purpose statement at the end of chapter
20 and tells us what it all means for us as readers today. It's interesting to
note, John wrote his Gospel last, so it is not as though his readers were
eyewitnesses. He's writing closer towards the back end of the first century. So
these people are like us, his readers, in that they were not there. Okay, but by
way of background, where we left off on Good Friday, if you were with us on
Friday, we read the account of Jesus's crucifixion and death and burial from
John 18 and 19. John 19, 38 through 42, summarizes this scene. After these
things, John 19, 38 through 42, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of
Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away
the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his
body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. So they took the body of
Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of
the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in
the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the
Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus
there. So these two men, Joseph and Nicodemus, have seen the burial of Jesus.
They're both secret followers of Jesus. So first, in that, John emphasizes the
danger of the situation. Joseph was a secret follower of Jesus, while Nicodemus
was a Pharisee who had visited Jesus by cover of nightfall. Their interest in
Jesus was suppressed because of the religious pressure that they both faced.
Second, John emphasizes the physical nature of the burial. Nicodemus comes
bringing many pounds of myrrh and aloe. He's given a proper Jewish burial.
Jesus' body is placed in a new tomb, the first and only body ever to be placed
in that tomb. And then third, John emphasizes the location of the burial. The
tomb is in a garden. That takes us up to chapter 20. So we begin with Sunday
morning in the dark as Mary approaches the tomb. John 20 says, 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 and 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 him. 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 outran
Peter and reached the tomb first, and stooping to look in, he saw the linen
cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him
and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth,
which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, 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
scriptures that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to
their homes. So in the dark, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and sees that the
stone has been rolled away. Her reaction is not happy or thrilled. She sees that
the grave site seems to have been disturbed, and she turns around and goes
backwards, looking for Peter and John. Peter and John both run toward the tomb,
and John gets to the tomb first, but John hesitates at what he sees while Peter
rushes in, and there's John frozen outside the tomb. And finally, John goes
inside, and the linen cloths are there, but there's no body. The face cloth that
would have covered the eyes of a dead man is there, but there's no dead man. And
the cloths, John says, are not strewn about like someone had vandalized the
grave site. They are just folded up and neatly put away, just like when you have
a tablecloth or a napkin or a comforter or a bed sheet, when you have no more
use for it, you fold it up and you put it away. And John sees this all, and in
that moment, he believes. His ability to connect what he's seeing with his eyes
and with the truth of Scripture, that actually comes later. It's later on that
Jesus would explain to him and to his followers that the law and the prophets,
meaning the entire Old Testament, anticipates what's taking place. But at this
moment, he sees the empty tomb and the folded up clothes, but he hasn't made
those Old Testament connections, and yet he believes. But there's nothing else
to do at that moment, so Peter and John, probably not knowing what they ought to
do or should do or could do, they go back to their homes. And John's story
continues now in the darkness. The darkness is fading, the morning is dawning,
and the scene switches to Mary in the garden. In verse 11, we read, But Mary
stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the
tomb, and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain,
one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you
weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where
they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing,
but she did not know where they had laid him. But she did not know that it was
Jesus. 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. If
you read Luke's Gospel, you'll see background about Mary Magdalene, that she had
been delivered by Jesus from demonic depression, spiritual darkness. Jesus
delivered her, and from that point on, she followed him. Mary is this woman with
a questionable background that had been delivered from oppression. She'd been
rescued from darkness, and how fitting is it that here, as darkness turns into
light, that Jesus, the light of the world, has been raised, and she is the first
witness. As the sun is rising, she's in the garden, and she's weeping. She's
confused about the disturbance and the desecration that seems to her to have
happened. And she sees the angels, and they say, woman, why are you weeping? And
then she sees Jesus, and whether it's from grief, or whether he's temporarily
hidden from her sight, she does not recognize him. And he says the same thing.
Woman, why are you weeping? Verse 15 says that Mary supposed that she was
conversing with the gardener. As we mentioned earlier, the tomb is located in a
garden. And I want us to see for a second what John is saying with what John is
emphasizing with Mary's mistake and with the location of the tomb. If you look
at the very beginning of the Bible, when we read the book of Genesis, we see
that God is the sovereign king and creator of all of the universe. He speaks the
world into existence, and he calls it good. And in the second chapter of the
Bible, God places men and women in a garden. Genesis 2, seven through eight
says, then the Lord God formed the man, that's Adam, from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living
creature. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put
the man whom he had formed. So the beginning of Scripture tells us that God made
men and women to image him, to relate to him, to reflect him, and God creates a
garden for his children to inhabit. It's this place of perfect peace and
harmony, so his people can dwell with God and know him and live under God's good
authority. And that first Adam is placed into a garden, and he's given this task
to work it and to keep it, to care for it and to cultivate it. When Adam and Eve
rebel against God's authority, they are sent away from the garden. They can no
longer live in this place of perfect harmony and fruitfulness because they've
rejected his authority, and they experience the curse of sin, frustration,
separation, and death. They're banished from the garden. And at the end of
Genesis 3, we read, "'Therefore the Lord God sent him,'" that's Adam, "'out from
the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the
man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming
sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life.' The flaming
sword and the cherubim bar the way back into the garden. The sword turns every
which way. It tells us right at the beginning of the Bible, every humanly
devised strategy to get back to the garden will be futile and ultimately will be
fatal. Since that day, since that day, man has been trying to get back to that
place of harmony, that place of happiness and harmony, that place with a
restored relationship with God. There's nothing that has not been tried, whether
that is just good works, whether that is other religions, whether that is
ignoring God altogether and pursuing happiness through some other means, be that
accumulation or pleasure or sex or money. But Genesis 3 establishes for us right
away that if there ever was to be a way back to the garden, if there ever was to
be a way back to dwell with God, it will have to be devised by God himself. It
will have to be God himself who makes that way. And Genesis 3 is also embedded
with the promise that there will be one who comes to crush the head of the
serpent, the one who's making war with both God and man. So back to our
narrative, back to John 20. We read about Jesus' burial in John 19, a garden.
And we find that these two secret followers see that Jesus was placed in a tomb
in the garden. Now Mary walks into that garden. She is confused and she supposes
that the man was a gardener. And I want you to recall something that Jesus said
earlier in John chapter 12. Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies,
it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life
in this world will keep it for eternal life. The first Adam was placed in a
garden and given work to do, and yet he failed in his task and rebelled against
God. And we are his children, sinners by nature and sinners by choice. We have
rebelled against God. And now Jesus, the second Adam, has come. And he is the
grain that goes into the ground and dies, he is the good news of the gospel.
Come in the flesh. And he gives his life and is buried in a garden tomb. So it's
not the gardener that Mary sees, it's the resurrected Lord Jesus. And the very
first person to see him is this poor, oppressed woman. And Jesus, in his
resurrection, appears to this broken sinner in a garden tomb. In a garden,
because he's conquered death and he's made a way back for man and women to dwell
with God. In his death and in his resurrection, Jesus has created a way back to
the garden. The question on Easter morning is, do you believe that? Jesus speaks
one simple word, Mary. Earlier in John's gospel, Jesus said, I know them and
they follow me. Just like that, in that one word, Mary. Jesus hears, Mary hears
Jesus' voice and her eyes are opened and she recognizes him and like John,
there's still plenty that Mary does not yet understand, but she believes. And
she runs to Jesus and she clings to him. And Jesus commissions her to go and
tell the disciples, I'm ascending to my father and your father, to my God, to
your son, to your son, to your father, and your father, to my God and to your
God. Jesus' father is now Mary's father because through the death and
resurrection of Jesus, Mary can now boldly call God her father. And that's the
promise to Mary, not just for her, but to everyone who comes to Jesus in true
belief. John says, to all who believe him, all who did receive him, who believed
in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John believes, Mary
believes. And now we move to this third scene behind closed doors, Sunday night.
On the evening of the day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked
where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and he stood among
them and said to them, peace be with you. When he said this, he showed them his
hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And
Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, even so
I am 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 are forgiven
them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. So these disciples
are hiding. Sunday night, interesting news is working their way back to them,
but they are hiding. They are the followers of Jesus who have disgraced
themselves in his hour of need. And they're also wondering who will be next? Who
might be the next person to be identified and killed? So they are huddled behind
locked doors. They're hiding in this moment. They're isolated and they're
afraid. And at this moment on Sunday night, Jesus appears in the room in his
resurrection body. And he says, peace be with you. And he shows them his wounds.
Again, John is emphasizing the bodily nature of the resurrection. And when Jesus
says, peace be with you, like he says three times in this section, he's not
expressing a wish like I hope you have a nice day. He is granting peace because
he has purchased peace. He can give peace because he has made peace through the
cross. Jesus has made peace. He's forged peace by making atonement for our sins
and thereby closing the gulf between God and man. Peace with God is the gift of
Christ for all who believe. Everyone who places their faith in the work of Jesus
and in his death and his resurrection can have that peace. When Paul reflects on
this later on in Romans, he says, therefore, since we have been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So like John, like
Mary, we now see this third response of belief in Jesus. As the disciples see
the resurrected Jesus, in their midst, John says that the disciples were big
understatement here, glad when they saw the Lord and Jesus repeats to them,
peace be with you. They're not reproved or corrected or shamed or guilted about
all that has gone down. They were racked by failure. That's why they need to
hear the words repeated. But in that moment, they receive both peace and
purpose. When he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the
Holy Spirit. Back in Genesis 2, God breathed into Adam, the breath of life and
placed him in the garden and gave him work to do. And now he speaks to these
disciples who have already established beyond any doubt that they are complete
failures. And Jesus, like Adam, reanimates them. Jesus, like Adam, reanimates
them and breathes into them his Holy Spirit. They've been forgiven and they've
been commissioned. They've been filled with the Holy Spirit, given authority and
sent out with purpose to serve him. And now this final scene in chapter 20
happens eight days later. There's a fourth scene of belief. Eight days later,
his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. And though 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
and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my
Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you've seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Thomas had already
stated, because he had not been an eyewitness that Sunday night, that he would
never believe unless he had the physical evidence. And when we see these four
episodes of belief, it's instructive to us that the truth about Jesus and his
resurrection did not hit everyone instantaneously like some self-evident
thunderbolt. We see Peter and he's hard charging right into the tomb. We see
John frozen outside. We see Mary weeping and afraid. We see Thomas and he's
skeptical. He needs more hard evidence. The whole group is terrified. It's eight
days later, the doors are still locked. They're still hiding. There's nothing
about the resurrection account, the way that it's portrayed, that makes it as
though it was easy to believe or everyone just saw it like that. Thomas has
heard some hopeful reports, but in his mind, it's impossible. He's never going
to believe. When he says, unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails and
place my finger into the marks of the nails and place my hand on his side, I'll
never believe. Thomas is really saying it's impossible and I'm not going to
believe. You might've said that yourself at some point. You might've thought
that Christian faith in Jesus is not for you because it seems like other people
believe so easily and you have questions that haven't been answered. I hope that
you can look at this story and just recognize that Jesus has patience with those
who doubt, that people do not all believe on the same timeline. Jesus appears
and he says for the third time now, peace be with you and he shows mercy to
Thomas. He shows Thomas his wounds and he gives them the simple command, do not
disbelieve, but believe. And Thomas responds in worship, my Lord and my God. So
we have these four separate settings and four separate instances of belief and
now we come to the most direct and simple purpose statement in the Bible. When
we get to the end of John's gospel, he just says, here's why I wrote it all
down. He says in chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, there's a lot of other things I
could have said. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the
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. There are two reasons why John's gospel is written.
It's for us. The four episodes of belief in Jesus are recorded for us that we
might believe. These events took place around 35 AD. John wrote his gospel at
the end of his life, at least 35 years after the crucifixion. In other words, he
is not writing to a bunch of eyewitnesses. Just like us, many, if not all of his
readers, did not observe Jesus on earth. He's writing about Jesus's identity and
work so that his readers might hear and believe, whether it's the first century,
whether it's the 21st century. And the gospel and this account of the
resurrection is written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. The
resurrection is not something that's like, oh, that was interesting, that was
good. It requires a response. For us who have come to believe, this is a day of
worship, of celebration. It's a day when we look to Jesus, the bedrock of our
faith, the resurrected son of God, and we realize that we've been forgiven and
that we have life in his name. But for those of us who have not yet believed,
this day is also an invitation. Hear the words of Jesus that he said to Thomas,
don't disbelieve, but believe. Earlier in John's gospel, he said, this is how
much Jesus loved the world, that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life. It's the gift of God to us, his son
sent to earth, that we might believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and
that by believing you might have life in his name. So would you pray with me now
as we reflect on this passage? Lord God, we thank you for giving us this
account. And there are things in this text that we will never fully grasp here
on earth, things that we can only stand back and worship. But Lord, we praise
you and thank you for the life and the hope and the peace that we have in the
resurrection. Lord, I pray for those that are wrestling with belief here in this
room that by your Holy Spirit you might bring illumination and clarity. Lord, we
thank you for your mercy to each one of us, the way that you deal with us
uniquely, in your love and kindness. And we praise you for the hope that we have
in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. In a short time we're going to celebrate the
resurrection through baptism. If you have, the five to 10 year olds are being
brought in.