♪ What more to say ♪ ♪ Than in another world to speak your song ♪ ♪ What more to say, what more to say ♪ Amen. We are now moved on to John chapter 20, having been in chapter 19 for a time. And this, of course, is the famous resurrection passage, speaking of the first day of the week, how Mary Magdalene and the other disciples would come and see the empty tomb. And as they wrestled with what it all meant, Mary herself was struggling to understand. And we're going to focus on that part of the passage in verses 11 to 18. But I'll read from verse 1. This is 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. But Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there. but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the facecloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciples who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary, stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing. But she did not know 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. Shall we bow in prayer? Lord, may we rejoice in seeing the Lord, not physically this day, but believing the eyewitness accounts of those who did see the Lord and seeing the Lord through the word and by faith in your mercies and in the reality of the miraculous resurrection that seals our future glory. Hear us and bless us in Jesus' name. Amen. Have you ever said, seeing something that's very amazing. I cannot believe my eyes. Something you never thought you might see, like a big snow in January, let us say. Something unusual. I cannot believe my eyes. And history does move so fast. Jesus' disciples It was hard for them to believe even eyewitness accounts such as John and Peter and Mary. And you know that Thomas didn't believe all the way until Jesus appeared to the disciples one day. But just as he was really dead, as we saw last week, he was really alive again. But they did struggle to believe. As surely as Jesus died, and he had to to save us from our sins and from death, He was truly alive, having been under the power of death for three days. These two things, the death, resurrection, together with the ascension of Christ, form one complex of events. His determination to save and his deliverance into glory means that we also can die to sin and live to righteousness, as we read from 1 Peter chapter 2. Now, there are those who might doubt Jesus' humanity. Those were those back in the early church, the Gnostics perhaps. They might deny his death. But those who deny his deity, which is much more common today and throughout history, will deny his resurrection. This is a critical point. Sometimes you have people making accounts of Jesus. And I note that a couple of times I've seen presentations where the resurrection is not listed at all, not portrayed at all, not referred to at all. And then there are those articles that have been printed in books also over the years that have attacked the Bible. The gospel truth question mark. Rethinking the resurrection. I don't think so. Then there was in search of the historical Jesus. Again, questioning the resurrection. Then there was a famous book some years ago called The Passover Plot. The idea being that he was drugged. that his disciples did get him in a drugged condition and brought him out from the tomb and said, look, he's alive again. That's a fake. That would not have been the real resurrection if he did not die and was not raised and we do not have the salvation that we'd have had and have to this moment. Now for Jesus' enemies, oh, they were so relieved. They were just as happy as clams. Early on the first day of the week, Perhaps the women would come and see what happened, but for them, oh, that annoying person. That Jesus, who kept challenging our authority, telling us we were whitewashed tombs. Guess what? He's in the tomb. Ha ha. And they would rejoice. And they might even have been said to have danced upon his grave. And they couldn't wait to get back to business as usual, where the disciples were shamed and the Pharisees were back in charge. One full day, that's Saturday, of false peace for them. He died on a Friday. He's in the grave for one full day, rose again on the first day of the week, the following day. He was, remember, as we saw last week, really dead. And he really was laid in the tomb. And unless God had kept his body from seeing decay, he would have seen decay also, but he did not. As the psalmist says, he did not allow his body, the Lord did not allow his body to experience decay. Meanwhile, his friends couldn't believe that he was gone. They were in despair. They could not believe that Jesus, their Savior, They couldn't understand the cross. But they thought the Savior was a Savior perhaps from the Romans, or merely physical oppression or political problems. But nonetheless, they remembered Jesus tenderly. On the first day of the week, the woman came to anoint the body. And Mary Magdalene, who had been delivered from demons and from a terrible life, found an empty tomb. Now, she did not go in, didn't see anything. She just kind of ran away. and told the other disciples. And then we find Peter and John running back to the tomb. And they, too, saw it empty. And then Mary, perhaps coming back later, far as we can tell, was standing by the tomb again and she was weeping. One day of false peace for Jesus' enemies. One day of fleeting despair for his friends. Jesus, risen from the dead, makes his very first appearance and shows us much of what the resurrection means to all believers. There were three great truths seen by Mary. First, the reality of the risen Christ. Second, the joy of our salvation and even a foretaste of the new age. So in Mark 16, Jesus rose, and it says, first appeared to Mary Magdalene. She was the first one. It is amazing to be the first in something. The first man on the moon. Wasn't that Armstrong? I think we can't remember that, you know? The first woman in space was a Russian lady, and her name was Valentina Petrovskaya, something like that. I had to look that up this week because somebody asked me. was the first woman in space? It was a Russian. And so we kind of, at least I remember that. And thinking, oh no, we're behind in the space race already. So being the firstborn from the dead, that's Jesus. And now being the first to see Jesus, what a privilege that is. The firstborn. The first one to lay eyes on the firstborn. A great privilege given to a woman and a former demon possessed before the apostles, always named first in the list of women who followed and served Jesus. The body of Jesus had been in the tomb, but now it was not. He is completely alive. Now some people like to say, well, Lincoln is dead. But his spirit lives on. We know he's dead. If he's a believer, he'll be alive again. But for now, he's dead. Over in Moscow, in Red Square, there is this tomb of Lenin, which lies in state, which means it's been preserved with wax and other things. It actually has been renewed as of 2013. They still have it there in Red Square. And people who remember Lenin remember fear. Although they revere him in some ways as a great historical figure in the motherland. But you have people walking by and sometimes they say, he looks so natural, but he's dead. And one lady was heard to observe, he can't harm us now. Lennon was dead. Jesus came alive again. Which means, for his enemies, he will judge. And for his people, he will save. He will save us now, we can say, of Jesus. We find that the tomb was empty. We saw it very clearly. The body? Where was it? Well, the first thing they might have thought of, as Mary did, maybe somebody stole the body. Now, for John and Peter, I think it would be unlucky for them to imagine that, because the grave clothes were there. And the head cloth was folded up in a separate place. If somebody steals the body, they're not going to unwrap the body. That would be horrible, you know? They would carry the whole thing out and hide him somewhere, as some later on in the Gospel of Luke said that he did. So the Jews had spread the myth that the gardener had stolen the body and later produced it. Or perhaps the disciples had stolen the body. And John may have been responding to this tale with this very detailed history. So, Jesus himself appears to Mary. She saw Jesus, but did not know it was Jesus. Now it's possible in his glorified body he was less recognizable, but it's also perhaps more likely that in her tears and her crying and the fact that she knew he was dead, theoretically, she would not have expected him to appear. And so she thought this shadowy figure appearing was perhaps the gardener. She says, where have you laid him? Perhaps you've taken him. And then Jesus, in a very dramatic moment, spoke to her one word. A word that he had spoken of her and to her many times in a voice that she could not forget. He simply said, Mary. He knew she had been weeping. He had said even, whom are you seeking? Which is ironic because he was the one she was seeking and yet she couldn't see him right away. And now this sight of Jesus is accompanied by Mary, as it says, turning, and more likely means something like recognizing Jesus. She turns to him. And then Jesus says, do not cling to me. She must have tried to cling to him. Oh, just like the good old days. We have you back. Now we can wander around Galilee and Judea again. It'll be wonderful. But he says, no, no. do not cling to me, I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to your Father and my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God." Notice, as the God-man The Father is His Father, Heavenly Father. But as truly God, it is in a different way than we have God as Father. So he says, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Jesus really did rise from the dead. And that means, according to the Bible, that we can expect that we will rise from the dead. I had a close friend up in Columbus whose niece Beautiful young girl died at age 27 and they don't know why. They have no idea. They're gonna do an autopsy. Can you imagine dying at that age and losing a daughter or a granddaughter or a niece? And yet, the parents and the uncle said, we know we shall see her again. That's the only hope any of us have for whenever our loved ones die. So we shall overcome sickness and death for it is conquered and the resurrection is proof of that fact. It is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep and we await a savior from heaven. Philippians 1 says, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body. Now you have to ask yourself this question, do you believe it really happened? If you don't believe that Christ is really raised from the dead, then you cannot be a believer, you cannot be a Christian. I happen to know through a friend or two who have been in the Jehovah's Witnesses, including my sister-in-law and my mechanic back in Columbus, they do not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ. Now why, I am not sure. How it is that they could deny that Christ rose again from the dead. I know his body was different. It was glorified. It had certain properties that we don't understand, like passing through walls and so forth. I think that's what they're thinking. But Jesus was standing before his disciples and later on he says to Thomas, look, touch me. I'm real. And he ate a piece of fish to make sure they knew he was alive again. So we have to remember that we must believe that the resurrection of Christ really happened physically, literally, and historically. Now sometimes you hear people say, someday we'll be able to cure people who are dead. There are some people that actually freeze themselves and expect when that technology comes around, they will be thawed out. and they can be healed from whatever disease would have killed them. I say, Balderdash, you can't conquer death through science. Death has to be conquered through the power of God and through defeating that terrible result of sin in our lives. When sin is ended completely in our lives, death also will be ended and we shall be raised incorruptible. So, First of all, believe with Mary that Jesus is really alive. Second of all, do not weep. Mary saw the joy of her salvation. She was weeping in the tomb, by the tomb, and she was frustrated. She didn't know what happened to Jesus. The word there, weeping, means wailing. A loud hopeless, extended cry of sorrow and bitterness. Peter also, when he saw Jesus, look at him, wept bitterly. Same idea. She lost Jesus at death. She lost everything. And now even his body was gone. And notice the love she has for him. But then Surprise, surprise, she looks into the tomb and there are these angels. Now angels often appear to look like just ordinary men. Sometimes they're more glorious than that. But angels can sometimes just appear as men. And those two angels must have looked like two people that might have been guarding the tomb or something. And she says, and they say to her also, again, woman, why are you weeping? As Jesus would say in a few minutes. She said to them, they have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him. You realize that these angels were able to be a testimony to the risen Christ. The Lord would have to be the one to reveal that truth to her. And so, as she sees the angels, says, I, they have taken the Lord away. The angels are there. There was no need to weep. But notice, she says, they've taken my Lord away, or taken my Savior away. I do not know where they have put him. And Jesus, the last person she would expect, was able to dry her tears. Imagine you're at your father's funeral, and someone taps you on the shoulder, and there's your dad. You would just collapse in astonishing joy. Wait a minute, I thought you were dead. And this is what Mary is able to finally believe. She sees him shadowily. She hears his voice. She's able to fall down on his feet, and she's able to be comforted. This is not a ghost. This is Jesus raised from the dead. Don't you yet know what I told you, Mary, he might have said? But no, Jesus simply speaks the name, and she says, Rabboni, which means teacher. A familiar name rescued her from demons, raised Lazarus from the dead by that same voice. Lazarus come forth, a little girl, Talathakumi, raises her from the dead by that same voice. The voice sealed to her. father's glorious power to raise his son from the dead, joy, love, and surprise. Luke says, blessed are you who weep now, remember the Beatitudes, for you shall laugh. That's the Luke version. Blessed also, I happen to think, this week, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God See God. Now I have a four-year-old granddaughter and we were watching a show that talks about the birth of Christ. And of course it became evident in this very powerful little movie that Jesus was the Son of God. She's four years old. She says, wait a minute. I thought there was one God. And her mother's sitting next to her. How can there be God in heaven and this is God? She's a theologian already at four years old. And her mother was able to say, well, don't you remember the song, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one, three in one. It's a mystery. But there it is. Something that we all still struggle with, not just curious four-year-olds. We have to understand that Jesus was raised by the Father, but he is also the glorified Son. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh, or those who mourn. As Matthew says, you will be comforted. Jesus gave comfort to the widow of Nain at the death of her son, the only one that she had left in her family. Or Jairus' daughter's death. Or his own presence at Lazarus' tomb. Do you remember the shortest verse in the Bible? It's two words. Jesus wept. Really? He didn't have despair, but he saw the tragedy of sin and the sorrow of his friends who did not expect to see their brother again except as they were able to confess on the last day. That hope is there. But Jesus tarried for three days so that they might see his power and glory and know who he really was. And he said, Lazarus, with that same voice that he said Mary, Lazarus! Come forth, and Lazarus, not as gracefully as Jesus must have been raised from the dead, comes struggling out of the grave, wrapped in his grave clothes. And there he is, and Jesus says, untie him and let him go. And there's Lazarus. sort of a first fruit of the first fruit, someone showing that Jesus really can raise people from the dead. In Revelation chapter 5, the elders' words to John, do not weep because the Lamb is worthy to open the book, to unfold the plan of God. So weeping occurs at night, but you remember what happens in the morning? Joy comes in the morning, and here it is, this first Lord's Day morning. So now Jesus even comforts us with his victory and resurrection. We know the Lord is alive, and now we rejoice We may still weep now at times, but he will dry our tears. Jesus' bodily resurrection turns our weeping into joy. Mary had seen the joy of her salvation. However, this joy was not just personal, though very tenderly so for Mary, delivered as she had been, but also cosmic and earth-shattering, seeing the Lord, seeing the joy, but now seeing the new age, and we see this in verse 17. Do not cling to me. I'm ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. And so as we find out elsewhere, he is there preparing a place for us. We don't see him now. There are some who claim to have seen visions of Jesus. I very much doubt so, because Jesus' body is raised and is in heaven. We know where Jesus is. If he needs to comfort us, what has he done? He has sent his Holy Spirit. we need. He's the Comforter. Jesus promised, I will not leave you as orphans, but I will come to you. And so He does. And so though we haven't yet seen Jesus. And Jesus would say at one point, I'm so glad you see and you believe, but blessed are those who have not yet seen, yet do believe. Guess what? That's you. Or it better be, if you know the Lord. So, we do not cling to Jesus or some vision of Jesus. We remember that Jesus is alive, and we very much expect to see him coming again, and so we shall. Mary Magdalene was finally able to say to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and they had to double check. You see what's going on here? The disciples gradually are waking up to the reality. of Christ being raised to the joy of their salvation and the glorious future that the Lord has for them. We have a risen Lord, and we see that risen Lord by faith. Sometimes I play a mental game. What if Ben Franklin were alive and sees airplanes or electricity as he did catch that electricity lightning, I guess it was, in a bottle through a key on the end of a kite string? I mean, you know, that's a strange thing. Electricity became quite an event in the future. Or Thomas Edison, same thing, incandescent light bulb. It took him a long time to try one thing after another before he found carbon in a vacuum would do the trick. And he turned it on and there was light. Suppose he was alive today and were suddenly introduced to the lights of New York City or even Chattanooga or whatever. You see, you realize that this is an amazing thing, something you'd have to see to believe. But because of that great providence, God has done things that we might find difficult to believe unless we see it. We sometimes say, seeing is believing, don't we? Or I'm from Missouri. That's the show me state. You've got to tell me, but you've also got to show me. Or Jules Verne, who wrote a story called The Man on the Moon. And now we have some people who have walked on the moon. Not too many. but a few. We see the Lord. We can see God face to face by faith. In Genesis chapter 32 at Peniel, he wrestled with God. Afterwards he realized the angel of the Lord was God himself. And he says, for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved. Moses on Mount Sinai, show me your glory. No one can see me and live without a mediator. So Jesus, or rather Moses, was sheltered in the shadow of a rock, and the Lord showed his indirect glory to him, and he did not die. A more amazing one even, I suppose, might be Job, where he has lost his family, everybody, but his wife who kept bothering him, and his so-called friends who doubted him. But Job would say in Job 19, I know that my Redeemer lives. How could he say that? But it was his only hope in the midst of death. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at last he will stand upon the earth. There it is, the resurrection. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God. You shall see God in Christ. Yes, you cannot see the very essence of God. No one has seen the Father in any time, but Jesus, the Incarnate One, has shown us the Father. Whoever has seen me, he would say, has seen the Father. That's that close connection in the triune God. Someday, Revelation says, that they will see his face, and his name will be upon their foreheads. And of course, Thomas, I referred to earlier, he did not want to believe until he saw Christ. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet come to believe. Instead of the nightmares of hell and destruction, all the hopes and dreams of all the years are met with Jesus, in his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. All the reality of the life of Jacob, who saw the Son of Man and Jacob's ladder going up and down, up and down, descending to earth, the face of Moses shining with reflected glory that he saw when God revealed himself to him. The resurrection of Job would one day stand upon the earth and see the risen Christ in the pure heart hope of all believers, transforming us, as Paul says, from glory to glory. They don't look very glorious. But as we're sanctified, we are being made like Jesus. We are reflecting his holiness more and more. And someday when all of our sins are completely gone and in every way, shape, and form, we shall also be raised and shall stand upon the earth with the risen Christ returning from heaven. I know we have questions. Why do we suffer? Why do we have to fight unbelief? Why do our loved ones die? Why is heaven not here yet? Why do I still have to struggle with sin? All of these are some forms of unbelief, but if Jesus has been raised, he answers every one of those questions. We find that Jesus has gone to heaven, but meanwhile he's poured out his Holy Spirit, and heaven has come into our hearts. Jesus was the first man of the new age. Unlike Lazarus, he would never die again. The resurrection links us, through Jesus, to the age to come. Mary has seen the Lord, and she believed. The disciples saw the empty tomb, and they believed. Thomas saw the risen Lord, and he eventually believes, making a tremendous confession, my Lord and my God. But these are written, John would say in John 20, 31, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and having believed, have life in his name. This is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Have you seen the Lord? Not visually, but responded to his voice in the word of God. For this word is spoken by him and inspired by him, because of the Holy Spirit been poured out. Some see and do not believe. Some hear and do believe. Have you seen by faith, as the old song says, have you seen Jesus my Lord? Shall we pray? Lord, we thank you that you have delivered us from death. You've really died. You've really been raised from the dead, really alive again, really praying for us, really returning someday. May we therefore stake our hopes not upon ourselves or science or our own overcoming, whatever that might be, but do overcome in us. And through the Savior, we pray that you will raise us someday victorious from the grave. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. We once again are at the Lord's table, and before I invite the elders to come forward, I will read from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This is often our custom. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is a 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 the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. Let me ask the elders to come forward as I continue to read the words of instruction.