Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to Living Hope Church. Children ages three to five are welcome to go to Children's Church and as they're doing that, encourage you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John is where we are today, chapter 20. And as you're opening your Bibles, kids are leaving. Hopefully you grabbed a bulletin on your way in. Inside your bulletin there's a list of things that you can see happening in the life of the church that you can sign up for or be a part of. I do want to make note of just a few things before we dive into God's word this morning. Firstly, if this is your first time here at Living Hope, welcome, I hope that you can look to the person maybe later on look to the person to the right or to the left of you and that they smile at you, be kind to one another, all of those things. The welcoming place where the family of God is able to rejoice together.
[00:00:45] Also in a couple weeks, in a few weeks, at the end of this month, we have what we call a family meeting. It's a time for the the church body to come together again because we are one family, as I just noted. But to be able to share what's happening in the life of the church in ministries for ministry leaders, to be able to give reports for us, to be able to share what we are looking at as leaders looking ahead into the future. And then at the tail end of that family meeting on the 26th, we'll have a special business meeting as well. Just one item on the agenda and that is to update the bylaws of the church.
[00:01:19] And you have in your inbox for many of you, the updated version that you can look at, you can ask questions about. And in the foyer I put some copies there for you as well.
[00:01:29] That's at 6 o' clock on the 26th. And then at 5 o' clock, we encourage you to come just an hour earlier for a potluck great time together.
[00:01:37] And so with that said, Pastor Les mentioned the Watoto Children's Choir coming tonight at 6. There'll be about a 45 minute show for the whole family and that'll be just a fun, fun time for you. I want to note two other things that are not as fun for us, but something that these two individuals are rejoicing in right now. Someone who took part in our church over the last few years. His name is Ed Borchard.
[00:02:04] A few weeks ago he passed away from this earth and went to be with our Lord in heaven. And he regularly would attend here at times at Calvary Baptist. And so there'll be a service for him on this Tuesday at 11:00am so if you knew Ed and you'd like to be able to encourage the family by being a part of that, that'll be this Tuesday at 11 at Calvary Baptist. And then another member of our church, someone who many of you knew, her husband's name is Norman Williams. His sister Karen, attends here. Norman's wife, also named Karen, passed away. She has been dealing with for about 30 years, a battle with cancer and just a grueling, grueling time, but one who looked to the Lord for her strength in that journey. And so I had an opportunity this last week to pray with her just a few days ago. And then I got a message this morning saying that she had gone home to be with the Lord and so be praying for Norman, her husband, for their children, for their adult children and grandchildren as they walk through this season.
[00:03:05] As far as service times and things like that, I don't have any information about that, but be praying for Norman, her husband, and the family, but both Ed and Karen are able to be face to face with Jesus. Amen. We rejoice in that, knowing that this morning, let's go before the Lord right now and pray. And then we will jump into God's word here.
[00:03:25] Oh, Lord, we approach you right now as your people, in this place, as we just sung moments ago, you. You are a holy God. You are different. You are set apart, an awesome God, Someone much greater than we could even fathom, more powerful than we could even fathom, more perfect than we can even fathom. And yet you chose to step into our world and become like one of us.
[00:03:50] And more than that, you became someone who was willing to serve a people like us, and more so even to die and to die on a cross so that we could, as people plagued with sin, approach your throne with confidence because of the power of your blood, shed for us. And so this morning, we're able to approach you, a holy God, because of what you have done and our faith in you. And so as we spend time in your word, Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes to the things you want us to see here. You would continue to change us into your likeness. We're grateful, Lord, that we're able to come alongside brothers and sisters who have.
[00:04:30] Who have lost loved ones like Norman and his family and Ed Borchen and his family, knowing that both of them are. Karen is with you. Ed is with you, rejoicing because of their faith in you. And so we who are left here were able to encourage one another because we have hope.
[00:04:46] And it's in that security, in that hope that we have that, that we rejoice this morning in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:52] Well, John, chapter 20 is where we are. Verse 11 is where we will start off. I want to give just a brief background, so hopefully your Bibles are open. Chapter 20 of John, I'm reading from ESV this morning, starting in verse 11. Last week, Pastor Carl walked us through verses one through 10. And so let me just give you a brief. You can look in your Bibles, a brief reminder of where we were there. The end of chapter 19 ends with Jesus dying.
[00:05:20] You can see that.
[00:05:21] And then him being buried. Can you say buried?
[00:05:25] All right. And then chapter 20 begins with now on the first day of the week. Now what is the first day of the week?
[00:05:32] Sunday. So this is Sunday morning. We are introduced to a few characters in verses 1 through 10. Mary Magdalene starts off the chapter in chapter in verse one. And later we meet someone, Peter. We find out about John as well.
[00:05:47] And as we go through this passages 1 through 10, what we find is Jesus is not in the tomb. And we saw that last week. And this would be one of the most significant, one of the most powerful events in all of history. Now, I would say perhaps the most powerful is God speaking life into existence just with his mouth, right? There is nothing. And he said he speaks. And suddenly substance comes to be. God does. In Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And all he did is he had to speak and it came to be. He created life just with his voice. And now here, perhaps the most significant, I would say the most significant event in human history, that is, since humans have been around, is a man has gone to the place where he was suffering, where he was flogged, where he was hung on a cross. And most assuredly, we saw this last week as well, and two weeks ago, that he did die. He did in fact die. And now what we saw last week is he was put in the tomb. And now the tomb is empty. Say empty. The tomb is empty. And there have been, we see other accounts in the Gospels, angels that have said, he is not here. He has risen. Right? We're all here on the same page. He is risen. And a glorious day. That. That is something significant.
[00:07:12] The most significant event in all of human history has occurred. Someone who was dead for how many days, three days has risen from the dead. Something that has not happened. And more than just that, it's not just that he rose from the dead after three days, because we know Lazarus was dead for how many days?
[00:07:29] Four days. And he rose from the dead. But what's unique about Jesus is that he said before he went to the cross, he, he said how he was going to die. And not just that, that he was going to rise again after three days. That's not something that just the common folk does, is it?
[00:07:45] And not only that, now the tomb is empty after these three days. But there's a problem.
[00:07:54] And the problem that we will find is not a problem that we're going to wrestle with here in the next few few weeks is this.
[00:08:03] No one has seen this Jesus just yet.
[00:08:07] There is this proclamation that he is alive, but no one has seen him. So today we see part one of really three parts of sightings of Jesus. Okay, so that's why I entitled the sermon Jesus Sightings Part 1. Now, all joking aside, it's not just a fun thing to say, oh, there was a Jesus sighting because there was lots of sightings that people have in the world. There's Bigfoot sightings. Have any of you ran into anyone with a Bigfoot sighting? Now, I needed to do some research about sightings, significant sightings. And so I thought I would ask, as most Americans today, in this century, in this year do when they're researching something. I googled it.
[00:08:50] So I googled Bigfoot sightings and this is what I saw.
[00:08:55] Bigfoot sightings are a reoccurring phenomenon primarily reported in North American's heavily wooded and mountainous regions, especially in the North Pacific Northwest. While accounts vary from visual encounters to audio recordings and the discovery of large footprints and hair samples, no conclusive evidence of Bigfoot's existence. This might be hard for some of you to hear.
[00:09:21] Bigfoot's existence has ever been found.
[00:09:25] Most reported sightings are considered misidentifications of known animals such as black bears or potential hoaxes. So here we have part one of Jesus sightings. And I would like to encourage you this morning by letting you know I know I'm jumping ahead in the story. This is not a hoax and this is not some strange creature that someone saw wandering through the woods. Jesus truly did come back to life and he was seen very clearly and he was interacted with. So let's start off point one on your outline. You could write this down as we walk through this. Mary and the angels. And what we're going to see as we go through these three points and some of those sub points is this encountering the Risen Jesus will transform you. You can write that down somewhere. Encountering the risen Jesus will transform you. Because you will see that Jesus is not just a hoax. He's not just some random sighting that somebody had in a wooded area. I think that might have been Jesus Christ. Cause they really wanted to see him. But rather it is substantial, the evidence that we have about Jesus coming back to life and the people that interacted with him. So Mary and the angels is what you could write in. And then we're just gonna walk through, starting in verse 11 together. So we saw already that the disciples had seen the open tomb. We can see that in verse 10 of chapter 20. And then verse 11 starts off. We've already met Mary earlier, part of chapter 20. Now we go on. Someone who loved Jesus. This is Mary Magdalene. Here's what it says. Overcome by grief is what you could write down. Point A.1A is overcome by grief. Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. She's run over, she's gone to the tomb. She was going to give, put some more spices on Jesus, properly take care of his body. But she saw the tomb was empty. So she goes, she's weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look in the tomb. So we'll just pause right there. Just a few days earlier, let me remind you what has happened.
[00:11:22] Just a few days earlier, Mary was there as she saw Jesus get flogged.
[00:11:29] Someone that she walked with for years. She saw that. And not just that. She saw the cross being carried by Jesus out to the mount.
[00:11:39] Then after that, she was there during the last words of Jesus at the foot of the cross. Many of the other disciples had left, but not Mary. She was there. She was faithful to stay with Jesus. She loved him deeply. And then not just that. When noon hit, the sky went black. Mary didn't leave. She stayed there. And then after that, she was there when Jesus spoke his very words. She was there. She didn't leave. And then after permission was granted to be able to take the body of Jesus down off of the cross, it says that Mary also was still there, even though everybody else had left. She was there when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body down and they put him in the tomb. She was there.
[00:12:25] And now she comes back on Sunday morning. And where was Jesus? Not there.
[00:12:31] That was all that she had left him. She's like, I love this man. I cared for him. I followed him. He was my master. He was my teacher. And now all that I have left of him is this body. But now Sunday morning comes and even his body is gone. Now, as the other accounts mentioned, she comes with some other women who are not there with her at this time. We'll get into that in just a moment. But she comes back. She seems to be alone. She's weeping because she is sure, as chapter 20 earlier said, she believes that someone has taken away the body of Jesus. Who did she think that was?
[00:13:01] Grave robbers?
[00:13:04] They've taken them. I don't know who they are, but they have taken the body of Jesus. And so she is overcome by grief.
[00:13:12] Sit with that for just a moment. Then as she's weeping, she thinks to herself, let me just glance inside the tomb where one more time and verify again that the body of Jesus is not there. And so she leans in and she looks inside the tomb. And what does she see?
[00:13:31] Verse 12 goes on to tell us that she sees two angels, but she's blinded by her grief. Note this point B on your outline. Blinded by grief. Look what it says. And so she leans and look into the tomb. She saw how many angels?
[00:13:47] Two angels in what?
[00:13:49] So they're not just wearing regular clothes. Like there would just be two other guys walking by who decided to sit in a tomb, which would be strange.
[00:13:57] But she sees two angels in white. We don't know if they're radiating light or anything, but we know that they're wearing white, sitting there where the body of Jesus had been laying, one at the head and one at the feet. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping?
[00:14:16] Now, in almost every other interaction between angels and humans, there is awe, there is trembling, there is fear at the least. And that's usually why angels have. And I don't know this per se, but I'm going to just guess that's why angels have been instructed on their mission. Whenever God says to the angels, angels, whenever you go and talk to people, your opening line is, do not.
[00:14:37] Because they're always going to be afraid whenever they see you. That's your opening line. Angels get that right? What's the line? Do not.
[00:14:43] Right. The angels have got that down. But Mary, she sees them.
[00:14:47] And is she afraid?
[00:14:49] It's like she doesn't even know what's going on. Like she doesn't, oh, my goodness.
[00:14:53] What are you doing here? How did you get here?
[00:14:56] That's not what happens. She sees these angels sitting there and they ask her a question. They don't even have to say, don't be afraid. Because it doesn't seem to be that she's very afraid. They ask One simple, powerful question, why are you what?
[00:15:11] And they don't seem to have a rudeness attached to their tone. Like get it together. Like that's not the tone that we have here. It's probably one of care also.
[00:15:22] He said he was going to rise.
[00:15:25] She seems to have forgotten this. It also would have been unique being the angels there. Get this. Walk with me here. On the spiritual end, the angels know that their master and king has finished the lowly and painful work before him to bring about the redemption of mankind.
[00:15:42] They would rightfully be rejoicing at the return of the Holy King. Right? Jesus created the angels. He was the one. At their inception, at the their beginning, he was the one that was there. And then they knew Jesus is now going to the earth. And what did the angels do when Jesus was born that night in Bethlehem? Were they weeping? No, they were rejoicing. They went to the shepherds, rejoicing. Jesus is coming. Peace on earth. And Jesus is going to bring peace to a mankind that is running away from him, that is enemies of you. They know that their master and king, the Holy One, lowered himself and now so that he could go to the cross and die, so that redemption could take place for mankind. Something that has never happened before, where God lowered himself lower than his creation so that he could bring about their redemption. And now Jesus has completed that work of redemption and they would be as angels rejoicing. He did it. He did it. And one of the first witnesses of the risen Jesus is she rejoicing.
[00:16:45] You just imagine inside these angels, Jesus has done it. And here you are as the witness and you're weeping. You don't understand what's going on. She was blinded, not just quite literally to these two individuals, but the spiritual significance of what took place because she forgot the words of Jesus. We'll come back to that forgetting in just a moment.
[00:17:07] What happens next? She was not just blinded by grief, but she was focused by grief. 13B. Here's what she says in answer to these angels when she they say, why are you weeping? Here's what she says. She said to them, they, whoever they are, they have taken away my Lord, my Lord. Not just the Lord, my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. By the way, in verse two of chapter 20 she says the exact same.
[00:17:34] And notice Mary's answer isn't assuming that these angelic creatures took away the body of Jesus. She says they, whoever the they are. And she doesn't ask them for help. She doesn't seek them for guidance on where to find Jesus.
[00:17:47] She answers their questions, but she's so focused. Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? So before we go on to point two and we see what happens next, let's think about some application. If you're writing some things down, consider some of these things. When you are weeping or hard things are going on, right? Weeping is is listed at least three times in these just few verses.
[00:18:07] When weeping overtakes you, or strong emotions come upon you when you can't maybe get a grip on the big emotions going on inside of you and they seem to be controlling your thoughts or your actions, your words.
[00:18:20] The way you and I can regain control of these emotions, these things going inside of us that just is throwing us all over the place is by remembering the promises and the words of Jesus.
[00:18:34] So just think in your life, what are the things that rock me back and forth or that pull my emotions, my attention, my thoughts in the wrong direction? And how do you anchor those is by saying, what has Jesus already said about this? For example, when you're angry, what does God's word say? Vengeance is mine, says the when you're sad in heaven, he will wipe away every tear from their eye. When you're grieving, he is close to the brokenhearted. When you're afraid, I am with you even to the end of the age. Jesus says, when you're anxious, be strong and courageous for the Lord. Your God is with you wherever you go. The reality is big, hard things are going to happen in our life. Even this grief that Mary is walking through right now. But she's forgotten something. The words of Jesus that would have been the anchor that she needed because she forgot grief in her case, took control.
[00:19:31] So when hardship overtakes you and you are feeling like you're being tossed around like a small little boat in a rough sea, the promises of God are the things that are going to anchor you.
[00:19:43] It's not to say that the sea has stopped raging, right? But it's to say that the promises of God is what keeps you steady in the midst of a raging.
[00:19:53] She's yet to find Jesus, but if she remembered, wait a minute, he said this had happened. Now, how many of you know that you and I are forgetful people too?
[00:20:03] So because of that, something that you can write down before we look at point two is this. So in the bottom of point one there, what I want you to write down is write in three promises of Jesus that will help you stay anchored this week. Maybe three things that you know, I need to remember these promises or these words of Jesus, because these things are happening normally in my life or these are the things that toss me back and forth. If I remembered these three promises of Jesus or these three passages of scripture, these three words of Jesus that would help anchor me. Think through that. Have a moment of self reflection about your own life. What are the things that shove me around emotionally, mentally, and what are the promises of Jesus, the words of Jesus that can anchor me in those places?
[00:20:44] Let's look at point two now, Mary.
[00:20:49] Now we're finally going to have the first.
[00:20:51] Well, in Mary's case, Jesus sighting Jesus has actually already shown up to a few other people. But for Mary, we have Jesus sighting number one.
[00:21:00] Point two, Mary and Jesus. You can write that down.
[00:21:03] So Mary, still being overcome by grief, being blinded by grief, being focused in her grief, burdened with the loss of her Savior, now is about to experience her grief turning into joy. Can you say joy?
[00:21:19] Joy is about to happen for this woman who loves her Savior so much. She's about to be transformed in a significant way. Her actions even because of her interaction with Jesus.
[00:21:31] Let's look at verse 14 and go point A. You can write this in a better body. Verse 14 says this. And having said this. So she's leaned over, if you're here with me, kind of still, imagine this. There's the tomb here. The stone has been rolled away. The tomb door is low, so she has to stoop down to look inside because it's something carved into rock. She looks inside, she sees the angels. They say, why are you weeping? And she says, they've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they've laid him. And then she turns around and that's where we are right now, verse 14. Having said this, she turned around and she saw who Jesus standing. But she did not know that it was who Jesus. She didn't know. Now why didn't she know? She spent a lot of time with him already. Why didn't she know I'm looking for him. There he is. A few options or a few things we can ask her when we get to heaven.
[00:22:23] But a few things. One, she turns around, she sees the figure of a man she thinks is as we're going to see in a moment. She thinks he's the gardener. And since the tomb, because the tomb is in a garden, she turns around. You imagine she's crying, her head is down. She sees the figure of somebody. And now maybe if any of you have cried before, have any of you cried, you can raise your hand. Have any of you cried before.
[00:22:47] Most of the time when we're crying, we're not going. I would like to look at people in the eyes, right? Like, your head is usually not up. And like, let's make eye contact.
[00:22:55] Usually it's. My head is down.
[00:22:58] I don't want to make eye contact. Especially if it's somebody that you don't know.
[00:23:02] Especially. Even more so, culturally speaking, it's a man and a woman's relationship here. And so that wouldn't have been something where they would have been sharing that kind of interaction. And so she sees this, she realizes it's a man. And so rightfully, she would kind of turn and look away. So perhaps that.
[00:23:20] Secondly, perhaps it's because the last time she saw Jesus, he was hanging on a cross, not in a glorified body, not in this better body.
[00:23:28] This better body we know can go through walls, can show up and disappear as he desires in his glorified body. And thirdly, it's perhaps because, as it was Jesus, when he was interacting with the men on the road to Emmaus, it says that he kept his identity from them. They didn't recognize him. So perhaps Jesus kept her from noticing or realizing who it was. So we don't know. Like I said, when we get to heaven, we can ask. But we do know this, Jesus has a better glorified body. But what's wonderful about this new better body of Jesus is even though it's glorified, even though it's perfect, and even though it can do all these things that are supernatural, the scars still remain. You know, when you read Revelation, the scars are still there.
[00:24:10] He could have made them go away, couldn't he? But he chose to leave those significant for us. So we see here that Jesus not only has a better body, but he asks, I would say, maybe a better question. Verse 15, look on with me.
[00:24:23] Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Which is the same question that the angels just asked. But he asks one more. Whom are you seeking? Now, as I said moments ago, supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you.
[00:24:39] She didn't assume the angels had. But, gardener, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him.
[00:24:46] And here's a significant statement that maybe you've skipped over before, and I will take him away.
[00:24:54] That's pretty significant.
[00:24:56] I Mary by herself. Now, I don't know how strong Mary was, but even if she was really strong, a dead body carrying that would be really significant.
[00:25:06] But you see here, the grief is still heavy and how many of you know that sometimes what we say when we're grieving can be a little bit irrational?
[00:25:15] And maybe that's what we see here. Maybe she was gonna go find some friends, but she says, I will take them away. The love that she had.
[00:25:22] And then Jesus says something, verse 16.
[00:25:27] He doesn't ask another question. He just makes a statement.
[00:25:30] Well, it says one name, one word, verse 16. And Jesus said to her, what?
[00:25:35] Mary?
[00:25:37] If she didn't pick up on his voice earlier, maybe she did. Maybe she was like that sounds kind of familiar, but there's no way Jesus is alive.
[00:25:43] But then he says her name, and she goes, wait a minute. I was right. I knew that voice.
[00:25:48] And so she turns and says to him, end of verse 16. And said to him, in Aramaic, it says, rabboni, which is actually a different word than rabbi. It's a more significant term. It's more esteemed term, I should say, than the word rabbi. So rabbi and rabbi. It's like, here's Rabbi, here's rabboni. It's like one step above just the regular name of rabbi and teacher. And then what does she do? Verse 6:17 tells us verse 17. You can write this in C on your outline. A better purpose. Then Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But. And here's the purpose that Jesus is going to give her in verse 17. But here's the job. But go to my what brothers?
[00:26:35] He doesn't say, my servants. He doesn't say, my disciples. Do you notice that, my brothers, this is the first time that Jesus references his disciples as his brothers after what has just occurred.
[00:26:48] The resurrection, different kind of relationship now that his people, his disciples, can have with him. Now, because the work of redemption has taken place, we can now be a part of the family of God. And so Jesus, the one leading the way in that says, brothers, speaking about his disciples, and says to them, I am. Go to them and say, I am ascending to my Father and to your father again, family of God. To my God and to your God. Now, understandably, after Mary has thought Jesus was gone, last time she saw him, he was being wrapped up and laid in a tomb and a stone being rolled in front of it. That was the last time she saw the body of Jesus. And now he's standing there in whatever this glorified body looks like there before her.
[00:27:41] And he says, mary. And that's all she needs to hear. And what does she do?
[00:27:46] Clings to him. She holds onto him it's as if I've been looking for you. I've been looking for you and now I've got you. I'm not letting you go. And then he says, mary, you need to let me go. There's something greater for you. Two things for us to think about as far as application before we go to point.
[00:28:02] It can be desiring of us, which is really, really good, for us to say, I love Jesus and I want Jesus, and he's meaningful to me. He's a great teacher, really, really good. And so we hold tightly to him.
[00:28:14] But what Jesus said to Mary was this.
[00:28:16] Don't cling to me because there's more people that need to know about me.
[00:28:21] You have a greater purpose. Yes, yes, definitely. Hold tightly to me. Right. It was even that interaction, right? Mary and Martha, one of them is out serving and doing lots of things. And. And there's Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus says she has chosen to do the good thing, the better thing. It is good. As followers of Jesus, hold tightly to Jesus, cling to him first calling. And secondarily, we also must do what Jesus just told Mary to do, go and tell. There's those two jobs, those two purposes that we have been given by Jesus.
[00:28:51] And secondly, because the work on the cross is now complete, Jesus is able to call us, not just servants, not just those people out there, but now you're part of my family.
[00:29:02] We have a new identity as followers of Jesus. And it's not just as people that can say, oh, I read a book once, or I looked at history and I said that I can see that Jesus lives. Warren Wiersbe says this. He says, history says Jesus lives.
[00:29:20] Christianity says Jesus lives in me. And that's a significant difference. It's not just I believe that those events happened, but I have trusted in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. That's not just good information for out there, that's good information for me. Because now that means someone who was once enemies of God can be close to God. Our life changes not simply when we believe in the historical fact of the resurrection, but when we realize that we're one, enemies of God, far from him because of our sin. Two, when we realize that Jesus is the only way that we can be brought close to a holy God, the only way. And three, when we trust in him alone for forgiveness of our sins. That's the gospel. I first have to realize I am far from a holy God. Jesus did the work to bring me close, and so I will trust in his finished work. So that I can be close to Jesus, I can be in relationship with Jesus. Mary's interaction with Jesus, it transformed her. It transformed her. When you and I have an interaction with Jesus, Jesus desire is that it would transform you too.
[00:30:27] Jesus not only Mary's not the only one who has a Jesus sighting. Jesus also shows up to his disciples. Point three on your outline, you could write that in Jesus and the disciples.
[00:30:37] So now that Mary has once she was clung to Jesus, he says, go and tell the disciples we're gonna verse 18 through 23 kind of walks us through that interaction. But before we get into that, I wanna give you a little bit of setting for what just has occurred. We know that Jesus has risen. We'll just kind of have some placement here. I'm gonna move around a little bit. Here's the tomb off over here. Let me give you a little bit of a timeline based on the other accounts. The tomb is off over here. Mary Magdalene and the other women, they're coming from one direction and they're early on Sunday morning, they're going to the tomb to bringing spices for Jesus body. What we see occurs through the interactions here and through the different accounts of the Gospels is they approach the tomb, they see the stone is rolled away. What we assume happens is this is Mary sees the tomb is open. Then she goes somewhere, wherever Peter and John are, she runs over to them to tell them that the body of Jesus is gone. They've taken away the body of Jesus. What's interesting is it seems that she didn't actually look inside the tomb, but the other women did do that. And they're the ones that the angels talked to and said, why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. It seems that Mary might not have been there in that interaction. Then these women leave to go back to where they were. Jesus has the first interaction with them. Mary, on the other hand, is way over here. She just told Peter and John they've taken away our Lord and I don't know where they put him.
[00:32:03] Peter and John run over to the tomb. Now who gets there first, by the way? John. John. Just to clear that up, John wanted us to be clear that he was there first. John runs over to the tomb. He looks in, Jesus is not there. Peter gets there. Being Peter, he runs right into the tomb. They both see that Jesus is not there. And it says that they leave the tomb, perhaps even to join the other disciples. They leave the tomb pondering this, wondering what could this mean? Mary, because she seems not to have been as faster than both John and Peter, which is understandable, maybe in what she was wearing. She gets there weeping to the tomb. And that's the interaction that we just had. Mary's alone at the tomb. She's weeping. Jesus is gone. She looks in. That's when she sees the angels. Jesus shows up. He says, now go tell the disciples. Then she goes back to the disciples. So now we have these other women who are with the disciples saying, we saw who?
[00:32:57] Jesus. We have Mary who says, we saw Jesus. But Peter and John, they haven't yet seen Jesus.
[00:33:03] So now Jesus is going to show up to the disciples. But something happens before that. Look what it says. Verse 18. Jesus and the disciples point A on your outline. They doubted. And I know this line doesn't hint at this, but what we see in both Luke 24, if you want to write some things down, Luke 24:11 and Mark 16, verse 11, both of them say this.
[00:33:23] When Mary went back to the disciples and says, I've seen the Lord. And the other women said, we've seen the Lord. Here's what Mark and Luke both say. The disciples assumed it to be an idle tale. Can you say idle tale? An idol tale. They thought they made it up. They thought it was reference way back to the beginning. A Bigfoot sighting, if you will. You don't know what you're talking about. That's totally impossible. You must have seen some other person that kind of looked like Jesus. It wasn't the case. That's just not the case. And so it seems all day long that these women were probably trying to convince these guys to believe them. That would have been frustrating, wouldn't it? My goodness. I saw him. No, you didn't see him. I mean, that was early in the morning. And it isn't actually until the end of the day that Jesus shows up. Now, you know this and I know this. There is times in your life and my life that people are gonna reject the message of the gospel, aren't they? No matter how clear. You may present it before someone, they may say, that's nice for you, but that's not good for me.
[00:34:22] I believe that that's good. It makes you happy. That's wonderful. But I don't think that that's true for me. Here's the thing about the resurrection, friends.
[00:34:29] Jesus rose from the dead. That's not subjective truth. That's objectively true. It's not just that it's good for us because it makes us feel good, but it's not true for you, because you don't really care. It is simply true.
[00:34:41] Now, what you're going to do with that is up to you.
[00:34:44] So let's look at point B. Jesus now reassure them. Look what it says, verses 19 through 20. They were reassured. It says point B on your outline on the evening of that day. That is the first day of the week. What's the first day of the week?
[00:35:00] Sunday evening. Now, the first day of the week. The doors being locked where the disciples were. But just to note, this is important for next week. Thomas was not there for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them again, glorified body, and said to them, peace be with you. When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. He could have made his scars go away, but he didn't. Then the disciples were what?
[00:35:27] Glad? They were fearful. A moment ago, they were glad when they saw the Lord. A couple of the other accounts says not just were these ten disciples there, but also there was some other followers of Jesus that were hiding away in the room. So the women have tried to say, jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. And the disciples are like, no, that's not the case.
[00:35:50] That just can't be. That just can't be. We saw him die.
[00:35:54] Then Jesus shows up and seals the deal just, so I'm here. There's no forest that they're looking through. It's not some hoax that occurred. This is real proof. Jesus offered them. So he says, here's my side. Now, what I love about this is a couple other passages, say in the other gospels, it says they were still uncertain. They thought he was a spirit, or some versions might say a ghost. And you know what, what did they try to do to make sure he wasn't a ghost?
[00:36:21] Gave him some food, like, let me make sure. Let me touch you. Make sure that. All right, yep, those are real. Here's some food. Because we all know that ghosts don't need to eat. I didn't know that, but they seemed to know that. And so they gave him some food and he ate. And they're like, okay, it really is.
[00:36:38] It really is Jesus. And he reassured them. But just as with Mary, who Jesus said, yes, I'm here, but you have a greater purpose. He does the same with his disciples. And we'll conclude with this last point, point C, on your outline. Not only did Jesus reassure them, not only did they doubt, but also now that they've been reassured that clearly Jesus is real, they were commissioned by Jesus. The end of verse is, well, verse 21, 22 and 23, we see four interesting things. At least four interesting things that Jesus says. Jesus said to them again. Cause he's already said it once. Peace be with you. They had fear. He says, here's peace. They check, make sure it's really Jesus. Yes. And he says, peace be with you. Then he says, more, as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. There's the first thing.
[00:37:27] Then when he said this, it says he breathed on them and said to them, receive the what?
[00:37:33] The Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Now, there's at least four interesting things that he says here. And yes, there's some conversation around it, but I'd like to offer some clarity here for you. Firstly, the first thing he says is this. Peace be with you. When he's speaking peace, he's speaking peace over their anxious and fearful hearts. We know that when they were glad to see him.
[00:37:59] But there's still some uncertainty in their hearts about what's going to happen next. They've been walking with Jesus for three years. Then he dies. He rises from the dead, Then he shows up. They're like, cool, It's Jesus. They're probably thinking, now what? Like, do we go back to what we were doing before? Do we start the ministry again? Like, what happens now? So he says, peace be with you. And now he's gonna answer possibly that internal question that they're wrestling with. The second interesting thing that he says here, he says, is, the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. So here's what Jesus is saying. You have a job to do. This is not new information for them. He's reminding them that they are to go into the world on Commission. John 17 says this. That says the same thing Jesus says here. He says, just as the Father has sent me, that is into the world, so I am sending you. John 17, 8 says that. So he's reminding them, because we're forgetful people, aren't we?
[00:38:52] He's reminding them, I told you before I died that I was sent from the Father, so I'm sending you into the world. I'm telling you this again now. You are to be sent into the world just as I have been sent into the world. Jesus was sent into the world. And it wasn't all daisies and tulips and stuff, was it?
[00:39:10] And that's the reality for us too, isn't it? When we go into the world as witnesses for Christ, it's not always lovely. And easy.
[00:39:19] 3. The third interesting thing that he says is this. And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. Now, knowing if we're to connect all these together, knowing that this commission is not one that entails them doing this alone, Jesus says something that is unique to this point. Now, one, we see the Holy Spirit talked about in other places, Acts, it says the Holy Spirit comes upon them. And that's a significant event. But here we have this interesting word breathed on them. Now, this is the only place in the New Testament that this word breathed on them is found. And most people would say this when he says this, it's not that he was saying, here is the Holy Spirit now. And by the way, later in Acts, there's going to be a second layer, if you will, but rather it's written as a command. Your job now, because I'm sending you, is receive the Holy Spirit when he comes. Trust in the one I am.
[00:40:10] And then that's why he also tells them, stay in Jerusalem until you receive the Holy Spirit. He's commanding them, trust in my work, in you as sent people. The other place that we see this unique word breathe is. And not written in this language, but in Hebrew is Ezekiel 37. And God speaks to dry, does anyone know where I'm going with this? Dry bones. And he breathes, right, he speaks. That's where. Another place that we see this breath, where there's death, the Word of God brings life. He says, where there is weakness, where there's inability, I have the power to speak, to give you something that you could not do by yourself, you could not attain by yourself, so that you can do supernatural work in my name. So he says, receive the Holy Spirit. And then he says something else that really catches us off guard. This last sentence here, when he says, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. And if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is what withheld. Now, most scholars believe this. And actually, if you go back to the original text, it's written differently than it is in English. And here's how it's written. It's written in such a way, it's. You now have the ability to know, is someone forgiven before God or are they not forgiven before God? Now, how do you know that?
[00:41:27] Have they trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
[00:41:30] So you now with the authority and the power of preaching the gospel, you can say to someone, have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If they say no, you can say with certainty they are not forgiven by God.
[00:41:41] Seems kind of harsh.
[00:41:43] It's real, isn't it? I mean today people ask questions like, well, do you think I'm going to heaven?
[00:41:50] Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you repented of your sinned? Well, no.
[00:41:55] Well, it's not me saying this, but according to what the Bible says, the answer is no.
[00:42:01] Somebody else, I don't know if I'm saved. Well, have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you confessed your sin and repented? Yes, I have. Well, according to what the Bible says, you are forgiven. Can you say forgiven?
[00:42:12] So we see here he's laying out this commissioning work for them. I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit, I'm giving you, I'm delegating, if you will, commissioning you with significant authority to go into the world and be able to speak whether or not if someone is forgiven or not forgiven under the throne of God because of their profession of faith. So let's think about some application and then we're going to go right into the close here. We think about some relevant takeaways. We see this with Mary.
[00:42:40] She went from weeping to witnessing the disciples. They went from fearful to faithful.
[00:42:50] And the question for you and I today is this.
[00:42:53] We see what happens when those two individuals or those two groups of people interacted with Jesus. How have you changed because of your interaction with Jesus?
[00:43:04] How are you continuing to change because of your interaction with Jesus?
[00:43:10] Because even if someone were to announce to these people that Jesus is alive and they believed them, hopefully there would be life change. They interacted with Jesus and we see significant life change. Grief turned into joy, fear and were hiding away in a house to let's go into all the world preaching the gospel. And here we are as post resurrection people saying I believe in Jesus. Here's the question that we have to wrestle with every day is will I choose to spend time alone with the Lord and interact with him?
[00:43:40] Because when we interact with Jesus, we will be changed. We will be changed. Do you believe that can't approach a holy and perfect God who wants to change us and say here I am Lord, send me and him like nope, I don't want to. Like that's not going to happen.
[00:43:55] He will change us from lazy people to longing people. He will change us from stuck up people to surrendering people, from joyless people to joyful people, from whispering about Jesus to witnessing about Jesus, from rage filled people to love filled people, from people who are compromising about our sin to people who are killing our sin. Jesus wants to Continue to transform us. And he will do that if we sit back and say, lord, I'm ready to do with me what you want.
[00:44:25] That interaction with the Lord. And so maybe you're thinking, I don't know how to do that. I would encourage you to do a few things. One, get alone and get undistracted.
[00:44:34] Open a Bible that's not on your phone.
[00:44:37] Get away, even if it's for 5 minutes or for 10 minutes, and sit with a passage of Scripture. Maybe it's one or two verses and you're saying, lord, what do you want me to see here? What do you want to say to me right now? And sit in silence. I know that's a strange thing in this culture, silence.
[00:44:53] But try that and listen for the Lord. Maybe you're reading through scripture and maybe just start writing things down. See what the Lord brings to life. See if you can build some rhythm into your life where you're listening and for the word of the Lord. Now, some of you here today are thinking, okay, that's nice for some people, they can have that interaction with Jesus. I'm still questioning if Jesus is real. I'm still wondering, is this resurrection thing actually a thing? Is it just a sighting, if you will, of Jesus for some people and some emotional interaction, or is it actually real? And I would encourage you, I would challenge you. I would actually beg you, please, investigate.
[00:45:31] Ask questions. Ask questions. Say, I don't know about that. What about this? What about this? Ask those questions and do the research. Find out. There's a few books I would offer before you to say, like maybe take a picture of this or write these titles down if you want. If you are thinking about people in your life, maybe that should. Read some of these books, offer this and say, I think you should read this. Because here's the thing, is if I'm wrong, it was worth a few hours of your time to read the book. You learned something new. But if I'm right, we're talking about your eternity here.
[00:46:01] That's worth a few hours of your time to do a little bit of digging. That's worth your time.
[00:46:08] For us, as followers of Jesus, we're not only called to believe in Jesus, but to keep believing in the promises of Jesus. In the words of Jesus, it's not good enough for us to say, I made that decision a long time ago. But every day I'm waking up to make a decision to say, I'm still going to trust in Jesus. And if you haven't trusted in Jesus, investigate Jesus. I promise You. He is real.
[00:46:31] I'm gonna close our time here with a word of prayer. If you are helping with communion, we're gonna transition to that time. So if you're helping with that, you can get ready. But the rest of us, bow your heads. Pray with me before we transition to a time of remembering the work of Jesus on the cross.
[00:46:46] Lord Jesus, we are grateful this morning that you are alive and well, that we can speak to you right now, that you hear us, that you know that.
[00:46:54] That we are here this morning desiring to honor your with our lives, with our hearts, with our minds, and as we go through the rest of the day and the week, whatever that may bring. Lord, we know that you're calling us to interact with you, to spend time alone with you, so that you can continue to transform us, to change us into your likeness.
[00:47:13] Lord, for those here today who might be questioning, who are uncertain or trying to be good enough for you, Lord, I pray that you would show them your beauty, your power and your love and the great grace that you have as you call them to yourself.
[00:47:30] I pray that you would help them to see their sin and to see the power of your forgiveness in their lives. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:47:39] If you have your Bibles still open, I'm going to read a portion from Romans 5. As the ushers are getting ready, some music's playing, and then we'll just set our hearts up for this posture of communion. Romans 5, starting in verse 1, it says this. Just listen in or read with me in your Bibles. It says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, that is, since we have been made right with God by our faith in him, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. And we have to believe that we were once enemies of God. That's what scripture says. And because of the work of Jesus, we were brought close to Him. And not just brought close to him, but have peace with him. Not just as servants, but as he says about his disciples. We're brothers. We're part of the family, brothers and sisters with one another through him. It says in Romans 5, we have obtained access by faith to his grace in which we stand. If you want the grace of God this morning, it's found only in the person of Jesus Christ. And here's what it says. And we rejoice. Someone say rejoice.
[00:48:43] We rejoice knowing that because of the faith that we have, we have peace with God. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Four, verse six says, while we were still weak at the Right time. Christ died for the ungodly. That's you. And I, for one, will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person we would even dare to die. But God shows His love for us in this while we were still, what is it? Sinners.
[00:49:10] Before even we were looking for him, before we were so searching for him, before we were saying, I need a Savior. Before we even knew we needed a Savior, he said, I'm dying because I know you need a Savior.
[00:49:22] While we were yet sinners running away from him, enemies of Him. Christ died for us in our place.
[00:49:29] And because of that, we have been justified. We have been made right with God, and we trust in him as our Lord and Savior. And so as we take communion together, firstly, this is for those of you here today who have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You've repented of your sin. Said, I know my sin is wrong. I see that now. I'm turning around, turning the other direction, and I'm running towards Jesus. So for those who have trusted in Jesus, your Lord and Savior, that's why we do this, remembering the body and blood of Jesus that was shed, that was broken for us.
[00:49:59] We believe that this is a wafer that we'll take together and a little cup of juice. We don't believe that those changes into anything, but it's something that we do in remembrance of the work of Jesus.
[00:50:10] As the plate is passed, as the music is playing, I'll pass and distribute in just a moment. I would encourage you to do three things. One, consider this past week, this past month, consider, are there sins? Are there things in my life that I've yet to confess before the Lord? Confession is just telling the truth to God. He already knows he's telling the truth. God, that was wrong. And that was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. I walked away from you to. I'm confessing.
[00:50:32] Consider. I'm going to confess these things, and then I'm going to celebrate. As I just read, we know we have grace because of the work of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven, justified, reconciled to God. So I'm going to pass these elements out. You can take it and then just hold it. And then we'll eat and drink together in a moment.
[00:53:28] Psalm 32 says, Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts, no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin in the same way. First Corinthians 11 says, he took, I'm sorry for I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you.
[00:53:58] For the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, he took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's eat together.
[00:54:14] Isaiah 1 says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins were like scarlet, they became white as snow.
[00:54:23] Though they are like red crimson, they shall become like wool.
[00:54:27] In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. Until he comes forever, eats this bread and drinks this cup.
[00:54:44] An unworthy man will be guilty.
[00:54:47] Let each person examine himself.
[00:54:50] We are able to rejoice this morning because we've examined ourselves. We find ourselves guiltless, as Jesus does, because of the blood of Jesus Christ covering us. Let's drink together.
[00:55:02] We're gonna close with a song here. If you would like to pray with myself or Pastor Les, we would love to do that. If you'd like to pray with a couple people in the back, we'd love to do that. Let me pray right now.
[00:55:13] Lord Jesus, we're grateful again for the forgiveness that we have in you, for the grace that we're able to experience, the mercy, the great mercy we're able to experience in you because of you.
[00:55:24] And so for our lives, whatever we might be carrying right now, Lord, we lay them before the cross. We lay them before you who is strong enough to handle anything that we have this morning. And we rejoice, knowing that we are not alone. We have not been abandoned. We have family around us. And we have you, a father who loves us. We rejoice in that this morning, in Jesus name, amen.
