Our scripture reading this morning is from the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 1 through 18. John, chapter 20, beginning in verse 1, Hear now the word of God. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going towards the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And scooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there in the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood outside weeping, and she wept, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father. to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. The grass withers, the flower fades, but not so the word of God. It remains forever. Jesus was crucified on a Friday afternoon. He was taken down from the cross, before sundown, and laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, a tomb in which no one had been laid before. And then on that Saturday, the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week in the calendar, it must have been the longest Sabbath day for those disciples that they had ever experienced. Some of them scattered. Some went as far away as Emmaus, The name of this church, Emmaus Road Reformed Church, named after that place where Jesus met some of the disciples on Sunday. Some went as far away as Bethany. But wherever they had gone, they gathered together again on that night of Easter Sunday. In the meantime, there is much fear. There is much doubt. There is much anxiety. There is much weeping and grief. And we come here in John 20 to what is perhaps the climax of the Bible to this point. What an amazing account. We have eyewitnesses, loved ones, to the resurrection. Eyewitness factual accounts. In our text this morning, we have Jesus appearing to Mary. As we go on in John 20, if you would read the rest of this, perhaps later on this afternoon, you would see that Jesus appears to ten of the disciples later that night. Judas, of course, was dead. Thomas was not there. As you read along, eight days later, he appears to all eleven of them, Thomas included this time. And these eyewitness accounts tell us that Jesus has risen from the dead. Death could not hold him down. This morning, we will look at this question. What is the significance of the resurrection of Christ? And the answer is that Christ defeated death itself by rising from the dead. The death of death. The inauguration of a new creation. The reversal of the curse. This is hugely practical, loved ones, for us now and for eternity. Because if Christ did not rise from the dead, then you might as well go and live like a hedonist. You might as well go and indulge in sin, and sin more, and eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. If Christ did not rise, you and I are fools for worshipping Him. If the resurrection didn't happen, we might as well feed the flesh, because there is nothing worth living or dying for. Paul says that very thing in 1 Corinthians. He says if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our preaching is in vain. Our faith is in vain. We are still in our sins. We are misrepresenting God if Christ was not raised. If in Christ we have hoped in this world only, we are the most miserable and pitiable of all people. We might as well just lock down the church and go home. There's no point. But, Paul says, Christ has been raised from the dead. And that changes everything. Because He has raised from the dead, we have the hope ourselves of the promised, blessed resurrection, if you trust and believe in Him. Here in John 20, we see a text with amazing hope, amazing wonder, awe and delight and joy. And we come on this Easter Sunday, And, like every Sunday, is a witness to the resurrection. That is why we are here. We gather on Sunday, the first day of the week. This is the Sabbath day, not Saturday, because Christ has risen on this day. And we see three points today. The empty tomb, first of all. Secondly, the weeping woman. And then third, the risen Savior. John tells you his purpose, loved ones. His purpose is given in John 20, verse 31. He has written these things so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit you believe this wondrous promise this day. So our first point, the empty tomb. In John 19, Jesus had died. He was put into the tomb of Joseph. And then there's that gap between John 19 and John 20. And maybe you've wondered this. Where did Jesus go when he died? There's at least 30 hours there, maybe more, between Friday sundown and then early in the morning on Easter Sunday. What happened? His body, of course, was lying in the tomb. Some have said that he actually went down to hell itself physically to release captives to continue his work of redemption. But the Bible doesn't talk about that. So where exactly did he go and what did he do? Well, we must say this, that on the cross, God in his divine nature did not die. God cannot die. If God died for three seconds, the world would not exist. God didn't stop being God on the cross. Jesus suffered and he died in his human nature. His divine nature did not die. His soul, upon death, was still alive. Remember what he said to the thief on the cross? He said, today, you will be with me in paradise. He said, as he was dying, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. So, at the moment Jesus died, His divine nature remained united to His human soul, which was alive and was in heaven, while His earthly body laid in the tomb, awaiting the glorious promise of Easter morning when He would rise. These are things that are too wonderful and mysterious for our minds to even grasp. That's what was happening between Friday on the cross and Sunday morning. And so we come to Sunday morning and we see in verse 1 that it is very dark. Darkness is not just used to illustrate the physical location and the physical premises of what's going on. There's a spiritual darkness here. Throughout the Gospel of John, he refers to darkness and light. And early in the morning, these women, while it's dark, go to the tomb. The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Synoptic meaning with the same vision, so one eye, all the Gospels are harmonious, of course, but these three talk about other women who also went to the tomb. Mary, the mother of James, was there. Salome, Joanna. Here in John's Gospel, Mary Magdalene is the only one that's mentioned. However, as we read in John 20, verse 2, Mary was not alone. She says to the others, we, plural, we, do not know where they laid the body of Jesus. So she is there with these other women. They are there with spices. They are there to anoint and to prepare the dead body. Eyewitness testimony of women. This, loved ones, is truly remarkable. It might not be a big deal to us. We see women on Eyewitness 5 News. We see women reporting the news all over the place. But in the first century world, this would have been stupendous. This would have been totally out of the ordinary. The testimony of a woman. John, in his Gospel, pays particular attention here to the testimony of Mary Magdalene. This is extremely important because the resurrection of Christ has often been dismissed as a myth or as a fabrication of the disciples and a lie of the early church. Often that has happened. It still happens today. In Matthew's Gospel, Matthew draws attention to the fact that the Pharisees tried to discredit the reports of the resurrection by bribing the guards. by telling the guards to spread the lie that Jesus' body had been stolen. These false ideas of the Resurrection started in the very first century and they continue today. And we see here Mary Magdalene. One theologian said, it is strange that a more competent witness to the Resurrection than Mary could not be found. Now he's not taking a jive at Mary when he says that. Rather, he's kind of taking a sarcastic jibe at those who suggest that the Resurrection is kind of an invention, a fairy tale. Because if the Resurrection is an elaborate concoction of the early Church, then Mary was a horrendous choice to use to have credibility for the story. Horrible! You would never want to start a religion on the testimony of a woman in the first century. Craziness! Because in the first century, women couldn't vote. They weren't counted in the census. They were considered in court to have nothing to say in terms of their testimony. They wouldn't even be allowed into court. And here's not just any woman. Mary Magdalene, as the kids know from the Gospel accounts, is the woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. That's the woman whose testimony is here before us. This testimony guarantees that the disciples and the early Christians did not invent the resurrection. If you want to start a religion, you don't do it in this way. The only logical conclusion for why John calls Mary as a witness to the stand to testify is because her testimony is true. There's no other reason he would do it. She really saw and she really heard what is reported. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. That's what's happening here. This never would have been mentioned unless it happened. The testimony of women was so unexpected. There were early pagans who mocked Christianity particularly because of this. But the gospel writers are interested in one thing, reporting what is true. Here the women are coming to express their grief. they come to the tomb with spices, but they don't know if they'll actually be able to gain entrance into the tomb. You may know from Mark's Gospel that it says, who's going to roll the stone away for us? It's big and we're not sure we're going to actually be able to see the body. But when they arrived, wonder of wonders, the stone had been rolled away. They were shocked, they were fearful and surprised, all perhaps at the same time. Matthew tells us what happened, doesn't he? There was an enormous earthquake. The angel of the Lord removed the stone himself. The guards trembled. They shook and they became like dead men. That's what happened. A miracle. So the stone was out of its groove. And they looked into the tomb. It says that Mary Magdalene peered inside and what happened? She freaked. She panicked, it says. And in verse 2 of John 20, it says she ran away from the tomb to Peter and to John, who is the disciple whom Jesus loved, the author of the gospel. It's not hard to understand why she reacted like this. Because the faith of the Christian church itself doesn't rest only on an inference drawn from an empty tomb. An empty tomb could mean many things. The last of which they would have thought would have been a resurrected body. In these days it was common for grave robbers to rifle the tomb. So that's what she thought happened. She thought someone had come and had stolen the body. She said this is a horrendous situation. The body of my Lord is gone. When Peter and John heard Mary's story as they ran into her on the road, They went to investigate. They're perplexed by her report. You can see in verses 3 and 4 how this kind of ramps up. At first, they're kind of wondering. Then they're walking. Then they're running side by side. And then John kicks it into another gear and he outruns Peter. Running ahead, you can see the drama of the story. All these things taking place. Lively. Not boring. John reached the tomb first. He outran Peter. And the entrance to this tomb was probably fairly low. So don't think an enormous mausoleum. Small entrance. So he had to stoop on down to look in. And the personalities of these disciples kind of come out as they reach the tomb, don't they? John is kind of reverently peeking in. He notes that the grave clothes are there. He sees the linen bandages. And he's filled with alarm, because at this point in verse 5, any idea of a resurrection is not first and foremost on John's mind. He doesn't believe yet. Then in verse 6, we read of Peter. He's breathless. He arrives and he runs right by John. You can see John looking in, and Peter just flies on by, right into the tomb, which is typical of Peter's conduct. He's a brash type of guy. And he sees the grapevoles empty. There they are. He sees the evidence for the resurrection. But as of yet, he doesn't believe it. Jesus told Peter and all the disciples that he must rise from the dead. But at this point, Peter does not have the eyes of faith to understand and to connect that very thing. And they discover something strange. As they entered the tomb, they saw that the body was gone, but the grave clothes were there. The head bandage was laid where the head once was. The linen bandages were very orderly. All of it was right in the very same place in which Christ had been lying. If someone had stolen the body, why would they have unwrapped the bandages? There's probably 75 pounds of ointment and bandages wrapped around a dead body. Why would a grave robber systematically unwrap that, place it back exactly in the same spot in which the body had lain? They wouldn't. Of course not. That never would have happened. So as they go in, John himself, in verse 8, sees these linen cloths lying in exactly this way. And wonder of wonders, it says, he believed. Now he understood. Now he had eyes of faith. Mary Magdalene was confused. The robbers did not come and take the body. The body has risen from the dead. The Son of God has defeated death. The Lord of glory has conquered the grave. That's what he believed. There's echoes here. of what had happened a few weeks earlier. In the Gospel of John, we had read a few weeks back that Lazarus himself was in the tomb. And Jesus stood beside Lazarus' tomb. Remember the story? Our kids probably do. And Jesus called out, Lazarus, come forth! If he didn't name Lazarus by name, all the dead would have come forth. He had to name him by name. Lazarus, come out from the grave. Rise from the dead. And Lazarus responds. But how did he come out? He was bound. Bound in those grave clothes. Someone had to take those grave clothes off of him. Because Lazarus had been raised from the dead. He did not rise from the dead himself. He had not conquered death. He would die again. The curse of death remained upon him. But Christ, This is a resurrection unlike any other. This is the one who has conquered death. This is the one who left behind clues of his conquering death for those with eyes to see. That's why the great clothes are there. It says in Acts 2, God raised him, loosening the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. That's why the stone was taken away. to indicate that death has been conquered. He has broken the power of it. And John says something interesting in verse 9. He says these words to say, we didn't make this up. We really didn't understand the Old Testament at this point, John is saying. We didn't get the parts that talked about the resurrection. So John is telling us, I didn't make up this story to fit into my preconceived idea of what would happen. This isn't a lie. This isn't a falsehood. This is not a myth. I did not understand this as of yet. It wouldn't have been until 50 days later, at Pentecost, when these disciples, as the Holy Spirit came down, would see and understand Christ from all scriptures. That it was all pointing to Him. That Psalm 16 says, You will not abandon my soul to Sheol. Your Holy One will not see corruption. that text after text in the Old Testament, hundreds of them that pointed to Christ, now the disciples would believe it and see it. This wasn't a made-up concoction. This is a true eyewitness account. In verse 10, the climax has been reached. In the heart of John and Peter, together, there is great rejoicing. Peter went to his house, it says. John went to his house. They both went to tell the news to other people. And John went in particular to tell it to someone. Do you remember what Jesus had said on the cross? He had said to John, take care of my mother. From that point on, from the cross of Jesus onward, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, took Mary, Jesus' mother, into his home. So among others, John was going home to tell Mary, the mother of Jesus, what he had seen. And what had happened? The tomb was empty. But as of yet, the woman was still weeping. That's our second point. The weeping woman. There's a new scene in verse 11. Picture this as a camera angle. It had been zeroed in on John and Peter and now we're back to Mary and she is in front of the tomb. She's crying and you wonder, didn't she run into John and Peter as they ran back and she was still coming to the tomb. For whatever reason, they didn't cross paths again. And Mary is here now, weeping outside the tomb, and this time she looks into the tomb and sees something that John and Peter had not seen a few moments before. She sees two angels. One at the head, the other at the feet of where Jesus was lying. and she's unfazed by them. It's almost as if she hardly even recognized that these are angels. So deep is her grief and her sorrow at this point. Mark says these angels appeared like white, white robed men. White indicating holiness. White indicating light and the triumph of light over darkness. Grace over sin. The angels are their loved ones because heaven is taking a vital interest in what is just taking place. If the angels weren't there, we would be surprised. This is the most momentous account in the history of the world up to this point. Here are angels. And it's an interesting scene, isn't it? As you read and remember your Old Testament, it reminds us of something. Back in the Old Testament, there was a mercy seat. The mercy seat was something on which the Ark of the Covenant was, and the place where God met His people most directly. The Mercy Seat, and you have angels, one on either side of it. Cherubim, they're called. That's where God would meet with His people as the High Priest would sprinkle blood on the Holy of Holies. Atonement was made. And here we have now, the climax of God meeting with His people. Angels there surrounding the tomb and saying to Mary woman. Why are you crying? Almost unrestrained sobbing is taking place bitter sorrow and the term woman is not meant to be derogatory it's a term of endearment and Implied in the question is saying this is not a time to weep This is a time to rejoice Mary is weeping because she had gone to the tomb to look for a dead body. And we recognize that tears are appropriate for death. All of us have been to a funeral. Jesus himself wept at the grave of Lazarus just weeks before. We've all stood beside an open grave. In our culture today, though, death is sanitized. Caskets are often closed. Often you don't see the coffin drop into the ground. You don't see the enemy that death is. It's all kind of wiped away. Hidden. Camouflaged. To sanitize it as if we could possibly do that. It is good to weep at death. It is good to see the enemy that death is. But here before Mary was not death. Here before Mary was life. The one who has conquered death. Don't weep, Mary. Rejoice. But Mary's thinking, I just saw Him die. I stood by the cross as He was put to death a few days before. There's only room in Mary's thought right now for one idea, and that is that someone stole the body. She's perplexed. She's panicked. She cannot understand. She just wants to be near Jesus, even if it's just a dead body to anoint with some spices and oils. She's been peering into the tomb. But then in verse 14, it says she turns. She's now facing a person she doesn't recognize. Perhaps the most unexpected encounter she could ever imagine. John doesn't tell us why Mary couldn't recognize Jesus who was standing before her. On the road to Emmaus, it says the disciples were prevented from recognizing Christ, but here we're not sure why. And then Mary hears the same question that was asked a moment ago, verse 15. Woman, why are you weak? The stranger adds, for whom are you looking? Remember, she's not looking for a risen Christ. She's looking for a corpse. And then in verse 15 it says, she assumes this was the gardener. She assumes this was the caretaker of Joseph of Arimathea's tomb and the garden surrounding it where Jesus was laid. So, that's interesting, isn't it? The fact that she took this person to be the gardener means that he had a human form. This is not a ghost. This is not a phantom. Sir, she says, I have a favor to ask of you. If you have perhaps moved the body of Jesus, or if you know someone who has moved the body, can you please tell me? Can you please bring the body back so that I can anoint it with oils? She's hoping that this gardener is the one responsible for the missing body. She's so desperate and she's not thinking coherently. The grief is really paralyzing to her. The sorrow has overwhelmed her. And before her is the risen Savior. The empty tomb. The weeping woman. And third, now, the risen Savior. In verse 15, Jesus says, Woman, why are you weeping? She heard that same voice a few days before. She heard Jesus from the cross say to His mother, woman, same word. She cannot take it in at this point. She still doesn't recognize who He is. But then, verse 16, He says her name, Mary. No one says her name like Jesus. No one knows her name like Jesus. Loved ones, He knows your name. He knows His sheep. His sheep hear His voice. Here is the one who has come to undo everything that happened in the sin of Adam. Here we are in another garden, not the Garden of Eden. Here we are where the last Adam has finally conquered the enemy, death itself. And he says, Mary. And she replies, Rabboni. Which means teacher. Jesus is still alive. He is still calling people into His kingdom by name. He is doing it by His Word, through His Spirit, as the Gospel is proclaimed all around this world this day. As the Gospel is proclaimed every Lord's Day Sabbath. He is calling His people. And I ask, have you heard His voice? Not an audible whisper. Not a dream. His voice, which is in His Word. His Spirit, which makes His Word alive, it is active and sharper than any two-edged sword. He's calling you this day to trust Him. He's calling you by His grace to believe in Him. He is alive forevermore. The risen Christ continues to call His people. And Jesus, in one word, puts an end to Mary's grief. No more is she sorrowful. No more is she devastated. Mary, the eyes were opened. She had come to the tomb and it was dark. It was dark spiritually and dark outside, but now the light has broken into the darkness. She had come to anoint a body for burial, but now she is speaking to the risen Lord of the universe. She realizes God has caused the seemingly impossible Death has been overcome. And she says, Jesus, I let you go once, I'm not going to let you go again. She clings to him. The picture is almost of one who has fallen down at the feet of Jesus, grabbing onto his ankles. And then Jesus says, don't cling to me. Strange, isn't it? What does he mean by that? Well, he doesn't mean I have a resurrected body and you cannot touch it and you should not even be near it. No, he told Thomas to touch him just eight days later. He ate fish with his disciples. He was not a phantom. It was a real resurrected body. What he means is this. Mary, don't assume that I'm going to be with you physically day by day as I have been. I am here for but a short time. I have to go to my father. I have to ascend so that my communion with you can actually grow. How can that happen? By my Spirit. By my Spirit being poured out and by my Spirit uniting you and all of my people, all of my sheep, to myself. So that in the death of Christ we have died to sin. In the resurrection of Christ we have been raised to new life. That's who we are. We are not dead in Adam any longer. We are a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. Mary, I have to go to my father. I have to receive the kingdom that was promised to me. The rights of the king. I'm not going to be here very long. And Mary, I have a task for you. Don't cling to me. I have a mission for you to accomplish, verse 17. This is truly an amazing account. Because Mary Magdalene, the one out of whom seven demons had been cast by Jesus, is now given the task to announce the message of the new creation to the disciples themselves. She is to go to the ones who will be the foundation of the church, the apostles, and tell them, Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. Tell them what's happened. Tell them that I will appear to them later in Galilee. In fact, He would appear to them later that night. Tell them what He is to go and to do, that they are to go to all nations, baptizing and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A woman is commissioned to speak the grace of God. The dignity He places upon a woman. Incredible! Jesus is not a social crusader. That's not the point. The point is, he is saying, I am the Creator, I am giving this woman a task to do. A pox upon the false Gnostic Gospels of Dan Brown, the Da Vinci Code, and others. Those false teachings which say that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' lover. A pox upon it. She was given a much greater role to do than to be a girlfriend to Jesus. She was given a role to go with a divine message to the apostles themselves and announce the resurrection which from them was launched into the world. That was her role. Go to them, Jesus says. And speak to them this name. You are to tell them they are my brothers. A brother is closer than a friend. A brother is one who is a joint heir of the inheritance. Tell them they are my brothers. Which means that Christ himself is our elder brother. We are joint heirs with him. I ascend to my father and to your father, Jesus says in verse 17. Amazing. By nature, God is not our father. God is our judge. But in Christ, he is now our father. We are the adopted children of God. My God and your God. Mary did as she was told. Mary is a deeply emotional woman. Kind of like Peter in that way. She's not stoic. At one point, she's almost overwhelmed with grief, and then she's overcome with joy, and with excitement, and with thankfulness. She can hardly wait to shout to the disciples, I have seen the risen Christ. Where Jesus went after this, we don't know. Really, could our minds even grasp it, even if we did know? The day-by-day association physically with the disciples is over. He appears now, first to this group, then to that group. We know very little about the resurrection body, except that it is a real, glorified body. Mary did as she was told. And loved ones, perhaps today you come with doubt. Perhaps you come anxious, downtrodden, discouraged. The Word of God tells you Christ is living. The Word of God tells you Christ is interceding for you, even in this moment. When you feel joyful and when you feel sorrowful, He is a living, risen, interceding Savior. In the 1950s, in communist Russia, It was Easter Sunday morning. A town village was gathered together by the communists of that day to hear a debate. A debate between a Christian and a very skilled communist atheist. The communist atheist tried to disprove the Christian faith. To denounce the resurrection. So he said to the Christian, prove that your savior is alive. Do it if you can. Come on. Mocking him, really. The Christians stood before the people that were gathered together on that Easter Sunday morning. And he spoke. The Lord is risen. And the people thundered. He is risen! Indeed! Hallelujah. And the debate came to an end. That was it. He is alive, loved ones. The light has come into the world. The darkness cannot extinguish it. Not in Soviet Russia. Not in materialistic America, not in China, not where the church has to go underground. The darkness cannot overcome it. This is a fact. Our faith is not divorced from history. It really happened as the Word of God tells us it happened. Eyewitnesses. The woman, Mary. The disciples. More than 500 people to whom Christ appeared over the next number of days. All eyewitnesses to this account. He is not dead. He is alive. The resurrection is not like an appendix to the story, loved ones. It is the climax of the story, the grand purpose for which God created the world and planned this wonderful plan of redemption after the fall. It is an announcement that the new creation is at hand. You too will have a resurrected body, much like Christ, if you trust in him. Without the resurrection, Christianity is meaningless. It is like every other religion. It is dead. Because the Savior is dead. But if Christ is alive, then Christ is unlike any other teacher. He is the Son of God. No other religion claims this. Every other religion teaches a dead God or a God within yourself. But this God is alive. He spoke the world. He redeemed his people. He will return again. Don't grow sluggish. As Martin Luther said, here's how we are to live. Live as if Christ died yesterday, as if He rose from the dead today, and as if He is coming again tomorrow. What joy! What blessed assurance! The death He died to sin He died once for all. His resurrection means He has destroyed death. It means He is God as He claimed to be. It corroborates every word He uttered. It tells us the gospel is true. You can trust it and you can believe it. It tells us that the Father is satisfied in what He did. It is good, the Father says. It tells us that He is our representative. It crowns us with loving kindness and compassion. What a Savior we worship. What a God who saved us. Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray.