Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] So I know that I'm preaching a very unique sermon in a very unique period of time because we've been traveling through the Gospel of John. We've just walked through the scene of Jesus being crucified. We saw last week he was buried. And today we're going to look at the news of Christ's beautiful resurrection. Usually we preach these sermons on Easter Sunday, but, you know, I think it's appropriate in light of even what we've celebrated here with the honoring of those who have laid down their lives for us, those who have served us, to bring us freedom. Jesus died in order for you and I to experience freedom. And so this message this morning is going to help us move past sorrow into a new vision of life. Because we're going to look at the disciples. They're experiencing tremendous levels of grief. And we're going to see how their whole life, they went from sorrow to joy. How many want to move from sorrow to joy? And I believe that God wants us to do that. I know that death, it stalks all of our lives. This Friday, I just got notified that Mabel Forgay passed away.
[00:01:11] Mabel Maines now, and she was in her late 90s. Her daughter just preceded her by about six, six weeks. And so there's going to be an amazing reunion in heaven when mother and daughter reconnect. But for the family members that survive these things, we recognize that grief is a very painful experience. How do we keep going when we feel most like giving up? You know, life's darkest hours can only be understood for people who have walked in that place and then come to the other side. You know, we don't remain there forever. God helps us move through very challenging experiences in life. Probably the most powerful truths of God are often told in narrative, in story form. When God wants to communicate the greatest truth about life and death, he gives us the most powerful story. He himself is the main actor in the story. He himself comes and lays down his life for us. But then we find out he conquers humanity's greatest enemy, and that's death itself. We all, in one sense or another, have to deal with that huge enemy that lies before us. But because of what Jesus Christ came to do and what he did, you and I don't have to fear death the way we did prior to that. And so after the cruelty of the cross and the powerful sense of loss experienced by these early disciples who are told of a dawning of a new day, the Sunday after crucifixion, Friday, it's really the exclamation point on our faith. And I love that.
[00:02:51] I think this is the most glorious message that has ever been told. Jesus came and conquered death, and so because of that, he promises us eternal life. You know, it always amazes me, and I don't know if it amazes you when people in our society today talk about life after death or they talk about heaven, but you have no idea of the grounds upon which they're standing on. How many know what I'm talking about. You know, everybody seems to get promoted to heaven. Doesn't that seem to be the way it is? But what grounds can we even have for that kind of a hope? And that just shows you that there's a vestige of Christian truth that's lying at the foundation of our society, even though it's corroding that truth of having a hope in life after death. And. And it's founded upon something exciting. It's founded upon truth. It's founded upon historical facts. I think we need to understand how God dealt with death on our behalf. And that's the real issue that helps prepare us, each of us, not only for our life, but as well for our death. I don't know who wrote this, but I've never forgotten it. He said, unless we are prepared to die, we will never be prepared to live.
[00:04:05] That's a very profound thought. I'll leave you thinking about that. But our response to the fact of who Jesus Christ is and what he's done on our behalf really addresses this issue of death itself. And I think it causes us to face our own mortality with a tremendous confidence that you and I can actually have hope. We don't have to live in trepidation and fear. At that point in our life when we're facing our own death, we can actually face it with a longing, a hope to see our Savior face to face, to see those that have gone on before us, beautiful people. You know, the longer you live, this is true. The more people are populating heaven. Pretty soon, you know, all your friends are going to be there. So, you know, you kind of want to join them. That's the great hope, I think, of a believer. And I think it gives us an assurance that death is not permanent separation from those that you and I have loved so much and have gone on before us. You know, we will be reunited with them. What a glorious day that's going to be. And so I want to just take a look a little bit at one of the eyewitnesses to the whole story. And John himself is writing as an eyewitness one of the first people standing there at the cross, watching Jesus crucified, and one of the first people to see the resurrected Jesus. One of the first people to come to the empty tomb. Not the first, but one of the first. He's now recording this for us in the Gospel of John. And we're in chapter 20 today, and we're going to look at the whole chapter. And I want to just look at basically two evidences that will help us move from sorrow to a new vision about life. We can move forward because of the hope we have in having eternal life, having this resurrected life. Now let's take a look at these evidences.
[00:05:54] I think it's, as I said, it's built on a historical basis, solid history. And so let's take a look at the first evidence. And it's simply this.
[00:06:05] It's an absent body from the grave clothes. Now, just leaving it as an absent body. I mean, people can steal bodies, but how many know it's a lot harder to have a body be gone and the grave clothes remain.
[00:06:22] Most grave robbers are not going to take the time to unwrap the body just to take the grave, whatever they try to find there. No, they're not going to do that. And so we're going to look at the story and see it from the lens of John and these early disciples, and hopefully we're going to have a little personal epiphany of how profound this moment was. You know, this is probably one of the most unique things about Jesus Christ. I mean, we've gone through John, we've looked at the miracles. We could talk about walking on water, feeding the multitudes, the blind seeing. We've talked about all of these things. But now we're actually at a moment where Jesus himself is conquering death. And we saw foreshadowing of that in the story of Lazarus. Now we're looking at it with Jesus himself being crucified, but now raised from the dead. You know, one of the great things about Christianity is we can honestly say that our founder, Jesus Christ, is the only religious leader that ever came back to life again. All the other religious leaders are all buried. They're dead, and they're not coming back to life in that way. And Jesus himself told the audience that he was speaking to that in his day, that he would come back to life. That would be the sign of his authenticity of who he said he was, that he was literally their Messiah. He was God himself in the flesh, and he was going to prove to them that he was the true Messiah by raising again from the dead. And this is exactly what experiences they've had. Now I want you to notice it's really an unexpected experience in the sense of the disciples because for them they're in a state of shock. How many would imagine to yourself if you didn't know the story ahead of time? See, we have this terrific advantage of looking at the story from hindsight. These guys were living the story and Jesus was on the scene and he was telling them he was the Messiah and they were buying in and they were seeing the miracles and they had this assumption that Jesus was going to establish the earthly kingdom at that moment and they would rule and reign with him from Israel, that they would be ruling and reigning. But that's not what happened. All of a sudden Jesus is crucified and all of their hopes are crushed. Now if you've invested your whole life into an idea and it comes to an abrupt end, how many know that's going to be a very devastating experience. You're going to be shell shocked. And these guys were, they were just totally shell shocked. They didn't know what to do. The Bible says they were hiding in an upper room. The doors were locked for fear of the Jews. They were devastated, they were crushed. They didn't know how to move forward. They were in a state of shock. This is a picture we need to have of these early believers. And they were not anticipating what was about to happen. And we picked the story up In John chapter 20 and verse one, it says early on the first day of the week. First day of the week was Sunday. While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. Now when you read the four gospels together, you'll recognize that Mary was with a number of other women. But now we have John relating the story. Now why does he absence the other women from the story? I don't really know why. It's just that he's focusing in on Mary and we're going to see why he does that in a little bit. Here she sees that the stone has been removed from the entrance. And these women, when they were coming there, they were kind of considering how are we going to move the stone so we could actually prepare the body for burial. That was their focus, goes on to say here. So she came running to Simon and the other disciple, which is the writer John, the one whom Jesus loved, and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him at this point, Mary's understanding is simply the body's missing. How many see that? And she makes the assumption someone has moved him. Someone has moved the body of Jesus.
[00:10:41] The rolled stone and the empty tomb brought this assumption on her part. She didn't make the assumption immediately that he had risen from the dead, even though Jesus had told him he was going to do that. That did not factor in her thinking.
[00:10:56] So why is it, and we're going to see this in a moment, that Jesus first appears to Mary? It's very fascinating. I've asked myself the question, why Mary? Why did Jesus choose to reveal himself to her? And it's strictly conjecture. We don't know. I mean, think about it. Mary's prior credibility wasn't great.
[00:11:22] There's different understandings. We know from Luke's gospel she was delivered from seven demons. Some people make an assumption she lived in prostitution. Nobody could support that. That's a traditional understanding. But we just know that anybody that's demonic in behavior is going to have some very weird behavior. I mean, her credibility wouldn't be that great. First of all, in the first century, women did not have credibility as witnesses in a court of law. So why did Jesus appear to her first? And all I can say is this, that Mary, once she was set free, she was a truly a devoted follower of Jesus. She was with him right to the end. She was with Mary, the mother of Jesus at the cross. She was one of the first people to the tomb. How many get a sense that when you're passionate about knowing God, God's going to make himself known to you? That's just the way it works. I believe God reveals himself to those who love Him. Now, first of all, he has to reveal Himself to us before we even get to know Him. I get that. But I believe that if you and I are a passionate follower of Christ and we're seeking God, God's going to make himself known to us in many different ways in our lives. And so I'm going to encourage us to keep seeking after God.
[00:12:36] Now, when we come solely to worship him, to serve Him, I believe Jesus surprises us and he blesses us beyond anything we can imagine. You know, so often people come to God, but they have their own agenda. How many say that's true? We come to God, we have a need. We come to God expecting certain things. And I'm not suggesting for a moment that it's wrong not to expect something from God. I think that's okay. I think we can do that. But how many know when we Just come to know God. You know, we come on a Sunday, let's say, and we just come to worship Him.
[00:13:13] We're not just going through the motions. We come with a sense that I just want to spend time in his presence. I just want to spend time worshiping Him. I believe that there's moments in our lives where God surprises us. And I'm going to just encourage us. A lot of us at times, you know, especially when we're newer believers, I'll maybe use that statement. Or maybe we are a little bit emotionally driven. As a new believer, you have to develop a habit of coming to church. How many know that's true? You develop a pattern of it. And when you're new, like I was brand new. I mean, there were moments. I had bad weeks. Anybody ever have a bad week? How many have had bad weeks before? And you just don't feel like coming to church on Sunday. You just don't feel it. You don't have that emotional pull to come. You think, I just want to stay home. I just don't feel like it. But I discovered that every time I had one of those terrible weeks, I was deeply discouraged and I came to church despite how I felt. Those were the Sundays that the spirit of God had something to speak into my life. Every single time I went, oh, I'm so glad I was here. I'm so glad God was speaking into my life. You have to put yourself in a place where God has the opportunity to speak into your life. And let's face it, in our busy, busy lives, we don't take a lot of time out for God. Let's be realistic.
[00:14:35] You're really devoting so many minutes of your time right now, and you're totally focused in on connecting with God in some way. Singing, worshiping, listening to the word of God. You know, this has an impact on our soul. And I just believe that God wants to make himself known to us in a very powerful way. Have you ever wondered why the religious leaders of Jesus Day totally miss the fact that Jesus was the Messiah? You ever say, why did they miss this? Because I think, first of all, they had preconceived ideas and they had false expectations.
[00:15:11] And, you know, sometimes we have to get past our expectations of what we think God should be about, what he should do for us and all the rest of it. Sometimes we have to just come to God and say, okay, what is it you want of me, Lord? What is it you want to say in my life? What do you want to speak into my soul? I'M not coming with a set agenda. I'm coming to have you set the agenda. How many think that's a different approach? Does anybody think that might be a little different? You ever come to God in the morning, say, lord, what are we doing today? You know, like, yes, there's things in my mind I'd like to get done. But you know what, God, you can change my whole day. I had one of those days yesterday. Everything about my day started out. I was going down doing certain things, and all of a sudden I had to change the whole agenda of my day. You ever had those moments? But if you pray, you know, like, some people get upset because they had their day planned and it got messed up. No, if you're a child of God, there are no accidents. There are God's agendas. And, you know, when we have that flexibility to say, okay, God, I'm open to what you want to do in my life. Now all of a sudden, here, Jesus speaks into her life, and he tells Mary, I'm jumping ahead in the chapter. He says, he's appeared to her. He says, do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I'm returning to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God. So this is later on in the story. This is, you know, first of all, she sees an empty tomb. But later she goes back, we're going to come back to that story. She goes back, Jesus appears to her, and then he says, go back and tell them, hey, I'm alive. Isn't that great? So she's one of the first witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. So she went and told the disciples the news. I've seen the Lord, and she told them that what he had said, that he had said these things to her. So she wants to share her experience. You know what I found? When you and I have a profound experience with God and we're excited about it, what do we want to do? We want to share it. And, you know, sometimes we tell people, you should share your faith. I go, you know what? We, you know, maybe what we need to say to people is you need to get excited.
[00:17:19] You need to allow God to excite you and allow God to work in you so that you can't contain it, that you want to share with people. It's bubbling out in your life now.
[00:17:31] So what is God doing in our lives? We're asking ourselves that question, what is God doing in our lives that creates a compulsion inside of us? To want to share with people. Is God doing something in your life that's special right now? I hope he is. And if he's not, if you feel like it's kind of humdrum and there's not a lot happening, why don't you say, Lord, you know what? Maybe it's because I'm not focused the right way. I think I'm caught up in my own life. I'm trying to navigate through life. You know what? I want to put the pause button on right now. I want to say, lord, what is it that you want to do in my life? What's your agenda? And help me to line up with it and help me to begin to experience some really exciting things that you want to accomplish in my life and through my life. And then I think you're going to have something that you're going to want to share with people. I think that's just going to be the outcome. Peter and John's response to the empty tomb, I think is very significant. When Mary first came and told Peter and the other disciple the body was missing, immediately they ran to the tomb. Well, we got a problem now, right? Let's go take a look at what's happening. Where's the body? So they run to the tomb, and when they get there, John is deeply impacted. And John is now beginning to share with us that he becomes a believer in the resurrection of Jesus without seeing anything. And I think that's an important point in John's gospel. How many know? Most of us are not going to see a lot, but, you know, but what we are told should impact what we think we're going to see this. Now Peter, now he arrives. He's outrun by John. He. He gets there. And very characteristically of Peter, he's a very forward, bold, courageous, take charge, let's do things. He just runs right into the tomb. And we pick up the story there in verse three. So Peter and the other disciples, they started for the tomb, both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Obviously, John's a little more fleet of foot.
[00:19:34] He bent over and he looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but he didn't go in.
[00:19:39] Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived, went right into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there. How many now know? This is an important point. Why are they talking about the grave clothes? Because, you know, you can have an empty tomb, but that doesn't mean anybody's risen. But when you have grave clothes lying there, something else is happening. And this is what John tells us. He says, as well as the burial cloth that had been wound around Jesus head. And the cloth was folded by itself separate from the linen. Now how many know that most grave robbers, if they're going to try to find precious things, they're not going to spend time tidying up afterwards, you know, isn't that true? And so I think there was a message that was being left there. They could see this grave clothes lying there and they saw the head cloth folded up neatly and put to one side. And the Bible says in verse eight, finally the other disciple, that's John, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. He saw. What did he see? The grave closed. And he believed. Isn't that a powerful thing? He saw something and then he became a believer. He immediately realized this is supernatural. And by the way, if you think, why is it so easy for these guys to embrace the supernatural? Just remember they've been hanging out with Jesus for three years and they were seeing a lot of supernatural stuff. So this was not a shock to John.
[00:21:06] Leon Morris says, in general, it is true that the early Christians.
[00:21:13] I guess I don't have. Oh, I see, that one got skipped somehow. Okay. The early Christians did not believe in the resurrection of Christ because they could not find his dead body. They believed because they did find a living Christ. We're going to talk about that in a few minutes. But there was one exception. That's John. He believed in the resurrection before he saw Jesus alive. Not indeed because he saw the empty tomb, but because of the disposition of the grave. Clothes suddenly made the truth clear to him. He looked at that clothes and he said, you know what? Jesus is alive. Look what he's done.
[00:21:51] Jesus had told them. He told him he was going to rise from the dead. How many know his enemies had heard him say that? As a matter of fact, that's why they secured guards to get a Roman seal put over the tomb. Because they had heard Jesus say, I'm going to rise again. And they were nervous about that. And they thought, we cannot let these disciples take his body and say Jesus is alive.
[00:22:13] They were really concerned about that. Isn't it funny that the unbelievers had more confidence in what Jesus said than what his own default followers had? But I think part of the issue there is grief. How many know when we're in a state of grief, we're not thinking clearly?
[00:22:30] A lot of times we don't think clearly. We're grieving. You know, our senses are overloaded. We're experiencing deep emotion. And so these guys were having a difficulty. Now the reality of Christ's resurrection was so life changing that the disciples gave their lives for it. They really did notice that Jesus appeared to them at different times and in various geographical locations. They appeared to them in the upper room of Jerusalem and later by the Sea of Galilee. So how many say, you know, well if it happened one time, that's one thing, right? If it happens that Jesus appears to one person, you might think, well that person's got some issues, but this is happening all over the place. And Paul says in the book of First Corinthians that up to 5, 500 believers saw him in Galilee. How many think that's amazing? This is not mass hallucination folks, this is reality. Jesus was now teaching and these people whole attitude was being transformed. They now understood from scripture because Jesus now began to explain to them. We think of those two men walking on the road to Emmaus, you know, they just were so locked in there paradigm, their vision, their grief, you know, and Jesus is unpacking scripture. They're telling him, you know, we thought that the person that died, Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, but he was crucified. Our hope is dashed and Jesus goes, how slow of you to believe what all the scriptures said. And he began to explain the Old Testament and unpack verse after verse after verse. These guys are just listening to Jesus. And finally when they were about to go beyond, they stopped for the evening. And while Jesus was breaking bread, they realized who it was and he disappeared. And they said to themselves, did not our hearts burn within him as Jesus was unpacking the word of God? And they immediately got up and went back to Jerusalem because they wanted to tell the other followers of Christ that they had seen the risen Christ. Jesus is alive.
[00:24:30] Jesus himself, as I said, explained scriptures that foretold the event and its significance to us as a human family. But at that moment John tells us they did not understand the scriptural significance of this.
[00:24:44] As he says here in verse nine, they still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Let me move to the second evidence. It's Christ's appearance to his followers. How many know an empty tomb is not enough to sustain the idea of his resurrection? That doesn't say anything because later on the religious leaders are going to say the disciples stole the body. I don't know why they would steal the body. What gain would they have in doing that? They're not going to make a lot of money. That's for sure. And every last one of them, except for John, was martyred. So that's not what's going on here. Mary assumed someone had moved the body. And the fact that Jesus appeared to his disciples repeatedly for 40 days after his crucifixion forever seal that truth in their hearts and in their minds.
[00:25:32] So Jesus now appears to Mary. And I want to focus a little bit on this appearance. She's the first one that sees the risen Christ. In verse 10, it says, Then the disciples, after they had run to the tomb and seen it empty, they went back to their homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb crying. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white. How many think that's amazing? So she sees these angels, but they don't even affect her in any sort of way. She sees them seated where Jesus body had been, one at the head, the other at the foot. And the angels, they say to her, woman, why are you crying?
[00:26:21] Here is Mary's response. Well, they have taken my Lord away, she says, and I don't know where they have put him. In other words, they have taken the body. Where is the body? She is totally locked in her mind that Jesus Christ is not alive. How many catch that? That is where her mindset is at. And even angels are talking to her. And she is such in a tremendous state of grief right here. Continue to read at this. She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't realize that it was Jesus. Isn't that amazing? Do you know, sometimes in our lives we can be in the throes of such great pain and difficulty. We can be in a high state of grief. We can be going through maybe some terrible trial in our life. And we just feel like darkness and blackness is over our soul. And you know, Jesus could be standing right next to us. And we're not seeing it because we're letting what happens is the pain and the problems become so intense and great in our lives. We can't see. We can't see past the pain. We can't see past the grief. We can't see past these things in our lives.
[00:27:27] So now, as I said often, we're just, you know, we feel God's abandoned us. We can't seem to find Him. And yet, as we see in this passage, he's here, he's near. The promise in the scripture is he'll never leave us nor forsake us. How can he do that? Because when we're a child of God, God's presence lives inside of us. So God goes everywhere we go. Isn't that amazing? We're carrying the presence of God. That's why Jesus says, I'm going to be with you even till the end of the age. I'll never give up on you. It's such a beautiful promise from God. Mary goes on and makes another assumption. She hears the man talk, and here's her assumption.
[00:28:09] I think we could say we make a lot of assumptions.
[00:28:12] Thinking he was the gardener. She said, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I'll go get him.
[00:28:20] Hey, if you've moved him, let me know. I'll make sure we bring them back, put them back in the tomb, right? And I think sometimes that's what we want to do with God. We just want to put them back in the tomb.
[00:28:31] We're just having got ahold of this idea yet he's alive, he's ruling, he's reigning, he's in control. We act like this world somehow is coming unhinged. It's unglued, it's falling apart. There's no hope, there's no nothing. It's almost like God is not even.
[00:28:49] He's not working. Let me tell you something, folks.
[00:28:52] If you only focus on the negatives, that's all you'll see. But I want to just make a declaration to you today. God is working very actively on our planet right now. And he's moving very powerfully. And I'm watching what he's doing in people's lives. God is working, and we need to stop looking at the problems all the time and look a little higher and look up and see Christ. You know, Jesus said, when you see all these terrible things happening in the world, he said, lift up your head. Your redemption is drawing near. Why aren't we looking up, you know, instead of looking around and we're seeing all the problems, why aren't we looking a little higher and seeing what God's doing? Because God is at work in our world today. Now Jesus does something very beautiful. It says, jesus said to her, mary. When Jesus spoke her name, everything changed. Isn't that true? When God calls our name, it changes things. He calls us to trust him. It's a call meant to evaporate our fears, our doubts, our disappointments and our sins.
[00:29:53] So often when God calls our name, we've made false assumptions about the events of our lives. And God calls our name when we're experiencing sorrow and when we're blinded to the truth, God calls our name. And we're groping our way through grief and loss. It's so real that it's numbed us to the pleasures of life, you know? And God calls our name to lead us out of our. Excuse me.
[00:30:17] Wow. Sorry, guys.
[00:30:22] He leads us out of our blindness to begin to see his true identity. And we need to see that. So at the sound of her name, Mary knew who this man was. She knew it was Jesus, the one she had been searching for. Can you imagine the joy? I can't even imagine the switch inside of her. You know, you go from one minute despair, anguish, grief, sadness, and the next minute, the switch flips on. It is Jesus. He is alive. I mean, this is better than winning the lotto. Way better. I mean, she is overjoyed by his appearing. I think that is so profound and powerful.
[00:31:02] So the one who she had been searching for, she now has a joy. Not because she finds a dead friend, a dead teacher, but now she finds a living Lord. So what is Jesus trying to say to us? Have you ever discovered the resurrected Lord? If not, you're groping through life, blinded to the most amazing life ever offered to people. Can I just say this? If you don't know Jesus personally, you're living life at a lower level. I'm just being honest with you.
[00:31:32] Jesus said, I've come to give you life, and I've come to give you that life to its fullness. You know, I've said this when I've shared the gospel with people. Do you think most people are living life to its maximum? Do you think most people are living life abundantly? If you don't know Christ this morning, you're not living that life. And you don't have the same level of hope. And when problems come, who are you relying on? Yourself and those around you. You know, we need to learn how to rely on Christ. He's so amazing.
[00:32:00] His life can transform our lives in such profound ways. You know, Jesus said, I've come to give you peace. And we're going to talk about that in a moment. So he goes on to say, you know, we can be like Mary. We can make all kinds of assumptions and come to the wrong conclusions. Maybe you are like Mary, searching but not finding. Maybe you are here today and he is calling your name.
[00:32:25] And the question you have to say is, how am I going to respond to this?
[00:32:31] Notice Mary's response. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I've seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her. Isn't that Amazing. I am really convinced. You know, when you become a true follower of Christ, you want to tell everybody. You really do. You want people to know this, people you care about, people you love. You want them to experience the joy and the person of Jesus. You just do, you know, something happens to us over time, though. I think it's just that we get caught up with our own little agendas, our own little worlds, and we start living as if this earthly life is all there is to it. Can I just tell you, we're just passing through. We're just pilgrims. We're on our way. This is not the final destination, folks. You know, we're just traveling along. We're coming to the end here pretty soon, and we're going to be at the destination. I don't know about you, but if you've ever been on a super long trip, eventually you just get tired at the end and say, just get me there, you know? You know, sometimes we jokingly say, the little kids say, are we there yet? I think sometimes as an adult, when I'm on a long trip, I'm starting to say, are we there yet? You know, And I think eventually in the human journey, as we age and age and age, and pretty soon we're in our 90s and moving to 100, we're just probably saying, are we there yet? You know what I'm saying? We just want out.
[00:33:43] And I'm not saying that in a malicious way. I'm just saying that's reality. We want what God has to offer. Now Jesus appears to the ten disciples.
[00:33:53] And so where were they? Well, they're hiding in the upper room. They're fearful. They're worrying about their future. They're in a state of shock and grief.
[00:34:02] How could they go on? You know, I think sorrow obscures our vision of life. Jesus comes through the locked doors, breaks down their fears. I think our fears create barriers. But here's the good news. Jesus can penetrate any fear you have. He can break through any barrier you have in your life. He can just come stepping right into it. It's so beautiful. On the evening of the first day of the week. This is now that first day of the week when the disciples were together. The doors were locked for fear of the Jews. And Jesus came among them and he said, peace be with you. The great Jewish shalom. You know, peace. That's what the word means, peace. The first. Then he says to them, he shows them his hands and his side. The disciples are overjoyed. They realize this is the Lord. And again, Jesus Says, peace, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I'm sending you. He's commissioning them. Well, that first piece, as I've already said, is the ordinary greeting. But that second expression is the peace that Jesus is giving to us so that you and I can have the peace of God. We can have peace with God because until that moment, people could not have peace with God. We couldn't be reconciled to God unless we accepted the sacrificial death that brings about reconciliation with the Father. But now we have peace with God and then we can have the peace of God. And how many think it's amazing to have the peace of God? You know, when you have the peace of God, nothing bugs you. You can have all kinds of things bouncing on around you, but you can have the peace of God. Isn't it amazing? You can be in the middle of a great trial and you have the peace of God. You know, I've been quoting Isaiah 26 here, 3. This whole week I've been just saying, you know, and I will give, you know, I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me. And boy, you could talk about a state of mind. How many like to just live with the peace of God? I've got the peace of God in my heart. I've got the peace of God in my mind, regardless of what's happening around me. This peace in verse 21, Tasker says, is the peace of the pardoned sinner. The peace which Jesus called, called my peace. For he alone can give it, and he alone can give it. And he gave it after his passion. So what locked doors does Jesus have to penetrate in my life? What fears keep me hiding and afraid of what others will think? Consider how wonderful it is to have Jesus come walking right into your fears and your shame and your brokenness and all of those things and step right into your soul and say, I'm giving you my peace. Isn't that beautiful? Man, these guys were overjoyed.
[00:36:38] Jesus finally appears to Thomas. Where was Thomas? That's a good question. Preach a whole sermon, where was Thomas? You know, sometimes you have to ask that question, you know, where are certain people? You know, where are certain people today? Are they sick? Are they playing hooky? What are they doing right? You know, where was Thomas? Well, Thomas was struggling and he told those guys, after that first week's meeting, they said, hey, Thomas, guess what? Jesus showed up. He's alive. Thomas goes, right, forget that nonsense. He said, I'm only going to believe it if I see Jesus myself. I can put my hand in the piercings. That's the only way I'm going to believe. Jesus is so gracious. He accommodates our unbelief. He comes to us, you know. Now, Thomas called Didimus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples. When Jesus came the first time. There was only 10 of them.
[00:37:32] So the other disciples had told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger where the nails were and put my hands into his side, I will not believe it.
[00:37:43] I could make a whole argument of why we should gather together and not miss church right there. Wasn't that a great line? Think about it. If he would have been there with the other 10, they wouldn't have had any problems. But now he is struggling. He is struggling because of his absence.
[00:37:59] But who knows where he was. But Jesus shows up again. Aren't you glad Jesus shows up again more than once in your life? So he shows up. He says to Thomas, hey, put your finger here. See my hands? Reach out and put your hands into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Wow. When Jesus, you know he's going to challenge our unbelief. How many know that's true now, Thomas?
[00:38:22] And really the whole argument that John is making in his Gospel is simply this. We're not going to all be able to see Jesus like these 10 did.
[00:38:31] So we're going to have to learn how to believe by faith. Just like John did when he saw the linen garments, just like you know, as John says, and Jesus says to them, or Tasker says it this way, the time would come that neither sight nor touch would be possible, for Jesus would have completed his return to the Father beyond the range of physical senses. Yet he's still visible to the eye of faith. So Jesus tells him, because you've seen me and have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have belief. So the point that John is driving home not only in this chapter, but in the entire book, he now concludes at the end of this chapter. So this is going to seem interesting, at least it is to me. Here's the purpose statement of John's writing. He says, this is why I wrote what I'm writing to you. John had a very specific purpose in mind when he wrote his Gospel. Here's what he tells us. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. Do you know how many recorded signs that Jesus that John writes in this book? Seven. That's it. He only focuses on seven. He said, yeah, Jesus did many other things. I'm not even talking about those things. I'm only going to tell you these seven. But then he goes on to say, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you might have life in his name.
[00:39:59] That's what I'm talking about, life in his name. Well, you say, well, I have life, Pastor. Yeah, you have physical life, but do you have spiritual life? That's the question. Now, this is eternal life. That they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So how do you respond to the resurrection of Jesus? You can deny it. You can say, I never think about it. The religious leaders of Jesus lied about it and they fabricated another story which they could not substantiate.
[00:40:30] They didn't want to surrender to the implications of this historical event and what it meant. So Jesus is he who said that he was God in the flesh. And when the significance of this event is understood and embraced in our lives, it transforms us. It helps us deal with our own mortality. We know that life, you know, will not come to an end. To the believer, our physical life, yes, but our spiritual life, no. We'll have eternal life. And God's going to give us a new body. And some people who are now waiting for a long time for new parts. Let me give you the good news.
[00:41:06] You'll get the new body. It never wears out. You don't have to worry about replacement parts. It'll just be that way. Right?
[00:41:13] So what's the significance of this event?
[00:41:21] It needs to be embraced to transform our lives. We know that life will not come to an end, as I've already said.
[00:41:28] But humanity's greatest problem is not that we're sinners, but it's to realize that we are to acknowledge it. To come to God and accept his provision for our lives.
[00:41:42] To decide to live independently of God is the greatest sin of humanity. There's our problem. It's done to our own demise and destruction. And to the believer, Christ's resurrection is a single signal to all of us that he has conquered death and that we'll have eternal life. So, you know, if you say, what are you basing your hope on? That you'll go to heaven? I'm basing it on the fact that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I'm basing it on the fact that he died and rose again. I'm basing the fact that there's life after this Life because Christ himself conquered death. That's what I'm basing it on. I'm not basing it on my behavior. I'm not basing it on all kinds of other things that people come up with. No, it's based upon that. To the believer, Christ's resurrection is that signal. The last and greatest enemy. Death is defeated. To die is just a change of residence from earth to heaven, from seeing darkly to seeing clearly, from spiritual conflicts to the place of ultimate peace and rest, from hope to reality. Jesus is here and he's calling our name and we have a response. How are we going to respond? In faith or in doubt? Let's stand.
[00:42:58] So if you're a believer in Jesus good news, you can anticipate being with him one day, no longer. Through the barriers of our material world. We'll be with him forever and ever and ever. He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth. Isn't that beautiful? I love it. That's our hope. It's a blessed hope. Here's the hope. Jesus is coming back again, folks. You know, you can watch all the history you want being played out in front of you. He's coming back. He said, I'll be back. And he will be back. And that's exciting news. But if you don't know Jesus this morning, I want to encourage you. I did this last week and I'll do it again this week. If you don't know Jesus and you want to, what are you going to do? It's real simple. You just got to repent. What does that mean? You got to change your mind. Say, you know what? I'm tired of living independently of you. I want to trust you with my whole life. That's step one. Step two. Would you say, lord, would you forgive me? Would you come into my life and I'm going to allow you to rule and reign? I'm going to serve you instead of serve myself.
[00:44:04] I'm going to serve you. It's going to change the whole course of your trajectory of your life.
[00:44:09] God does have a plan. I'm going to tell you this right now. He does have a plan. For every person who surrenders to him. He's got a game plan. As a matter of fact, In Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, it says that God prepared things in advance for you and I to do. You know, too often people are forfeiting what God has for them. For I think something that's far less than what God wants for you. You know, a lot of people think they know what they want. I'm saying, no, I don't think I know what I want. I think God knows what I need. That's how I look at it. Why don't I just follow in his footsteps? Why don't I just obey what he's telling me to do? Why don't I just let him be the one that sets the course of my life and stop sweating all this other stuff? I don't have to worry about that. I just got to walk and trust him and do what he's asking me to do. Obedience. It's so powerful of a life. It's amazing. And then when you have trials and we're all going to have them in this world, believer and non believer, we're all going to have difficulty. But, you know, to the child of God, we have a joy, we have a hope, we have a peace, we have grace, we have, you know, a community of faith to support us. It's amazing. We got so much going for us.
[00:45:18] So if you're here this morning, that's your cry. I'm just going to have you just raise your hand, say, would you pray for me, Pastor? I want to give my life to Christ. I've never done this before. This is somebody who's never done this before, but I want to follow Jesus. That's you. Just raise your hand. People are doing that.
[00:45:33] Last week we had a number of people do that. Okay. I don't see anybody this morning, but that's okay. There's still people watching me. Live stream. Okay. Yeah. Okay, I see that. Beautiful.
[00:45:45] Thank you. Thanks. Mark, if you could fill out that contact card that we have in the pew, we'll contact you and help you to grow in your life. Maybe you're here today. You said, you know, I have struggled in my walk and I'm not where I should be. That happens to a lot of us. It's called backsliding. And now where there's an awakening, we realize, wow, I'm really not where I should be. Maybe that's you. Contact us with those little contact cards. Say, lord, forgive me and help me to get in step with where you want me to be. You do have a plan for me, and I want to embrace that plan. I want to be on your agenda, not mine. And if that's you, we want to help you in your journey. Listen, that's what we're here for. We're here and committed to helping you grow spiritually and develop and understand and become all that you were designed by God to become. That's our joy. That's why we're here. So fill that little card out. We're happy to follow up and contact you and talk with you and help you to figure out the best path for you going forward. Okay so Lord we thank you this morning. Thank you for this beautiful, beautiful gospel message. You came. That's what we're going to celebrate that the coming of Christ here next month. But now we're at the end of it and we're seeing why you came. You came to die for our sin. You came to substitute and pay the penalty for our sin but now you've conquered our greatest enemy. Sin produces death and you've conquered death. We're so grateful for that Lord. And you've given us this amazing abundant life this incredible life and it's eternal in nature and we thank you for that. Bless our week. I pray help us to walk with you in a special way in Jesus name amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
