the Gospel of John, chapter 20, and the first 10 verses of that portion of God's Word. Give your attention then to the reading of God's sacred words. 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 down 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 lain 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 stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up into 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. And this is the word of the Lord. If you are a curious person, and truth be told, you all were once very curious, perhaps in your childhood and certainly in your toddler years. There's no one more curious than a toddler. You know there are times when You just have to know. You just have to know the answer to a question. You just need to know if mom and dad has gotten that Christmas gift that you've been pressing them for. You just want to know. You just can't wait till December 25th. It's that sinking feeling that if you do not know, you just won't be settled. You'll never be right. You'll always be anxious, always have something nagging, pressing. But even that kind of curiosity, does not come close to describing what, say, it would be like for a parent looking for a lost child or waiting on news from a doctor or waiting to hear from work on whether it will continue or not. There are some things that are far more important. That curiosity just doesn't satisfy what it's like to desire an answer to the questions. There are questions that are simply absolutely necessary. to know, truly so, not just felt that way, they are necessary for your own life. John chapter 20 forms a unit that looks at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, his appearance to his disciples, his confrontation of individuals who have longed to know what happened to Jesus, what happened to him, and there is already a question that John previously answered that they were well satisfied in knowing the answer to, and that is, did Jesus really die? And John very carefully sets forth the argument and the facts of what had happened. It was without doubt a truth. The crucifixion did its job, and Jesus Christ died. It's really indisputable to unbiased minds. There's absolutely no reason to fake or pretend a death, certainly not to involve Roman soldiers. There was, after all, the spear thrust into the side. There was the confirmation of death by the soldiers themselves, leaving no doubt it was finished. He was buried. Another fact well attested to, two men known to the Sanhedrin, had an important part in taking care of that, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus' body even laid to rest in the tomb given by Joseph of Arimathea for that purpose. He was dead and he was buried, meaning that Jesus had, in fact, left the world of the living. Being buried in the grave was not simply the hiding of a body from the sight of the eyes. It was reflective of a fact that the one who was once alive is no longer among us. He is surely in a different place wholly altogether, Sheol. But Sunday morning came. Sunday morning came and it was the third day as Christ told. So we're going to look at and learn a few lessons here from Mary Magdalene and Peter and John, the disciple whom Jesus loved about about the importance of knowing what happened to Jesus. And we see Mary Magdalene already introducing this. It is a truth worth being certain of. Mary Magdalene, we are told, reached the tomb while it was still dark. Other gospel writers tell us that the women came and it was about dawn. It may be, perhaps, in comparing the synoptic gospels with John, that Mary Magdalene had gotten there a little bit earlier when it was still, yet, dark. She saw the empty tomb with her own eyes, and it could only mean one thing to her. And this is very important for us to see as we We learn how much Mary Magdalene had yet to learn. The body was taken away. It had not crossed her mind that there was a resurrection, but certainly for this, it was clear. The body was not there. Later, she had asked the gardener, please, if you have taken the body, perhaps she was thinking that Joseph of Arimathea had second thoughts. You know, I may need that someday. And it was fine just in a moment's notice on a Sabbath evening to take the body. and at least get him in a tomb and then maybe we'll move him on to another place more suitable for him. But whatever Mary Magdalene was thinking, it wasn't fully the case. She took a report in light of these things, which her eyes had seen to the disciples. She'd have been certainly quite sure that the tomb was empty. She was not in any way persuaded to lie, to hold some talking points of a new religion that hadn't been formed yet. She didn't expect the resurrection. She was in fact one of the crew coming to take care of what was anticipated to be a dead body lying in that place. Now the conclusion. of this whole section, which really forms a conclusion to the gospel, is verses 30 and 31, very important to John, that based upon the testimony, it was John's desire that people would believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing in this, these signs that he had performed have faith and have everlasting life through faith. That's important for Mary Magdalene's testimony, because it is insufficient at this point. Mary Magdalene was bound by the same need to know and to have certainty. The same need you have for revelation is the same need Mary Magdalene had for clarification, for certainty about what happened to Jesus, because her eyes told her something and then you know what happened. Her mind filled in with a speculation about what it meant. See, there's this great event. However it happened, there's a body missing from a tomb. Even if nothing miraculous happened, that's something that's worth, it'll make the newspaper, I'm sure. If someone went to visit the tomb of a family member to find it was empty, whether a resurrection happened or not, there would certainly be some news to discuss. Mary needed certainty. It would take the correcting and the clarifying word of God the appearance of Jesus to speak to her, to confirm her faith in the resurrection. You see, the facts are not left to our own interpretation. Mary's speculation was partly wrong. It was right that Jesus was dead and there was a body there, and it was right that the body was gone. That she seen plain enough. She wasn't completely out of sorts, but she was terribly wrong about why. was terribly misinformed about what happened. She was ignorant. But here is a person who longed to know. You know, there are many who will accept if you were to tell them that Jesus somehow rose from the dead. And they will be very quick to tell you that does not mean he atoned for your sins. They'll be very quick to mean that doesn't mean Paul was right. You see, we need the revelation of Scripture to inform us what happened and what it means. But I want you to see a big difference with Mary Magdalene. What does Mary Magdalene actually say? They have taken the Lord out of the tomb. I'm going to tell you why that's important. Mary, though confused, speculating about things, Mary was nevertheless certain that Jesus is the Lord, that the body she would be find there is the body no less of Jesus, the Lord, unresurrected as she may have thought at the time, a body removed from the tomb, nonetheless, still the Lord. His life, his very life did not detract. His death could not take away from her a faith and who he was, though misinformed about what had happened to him. There was something about the events of his life, something about what he did for her in casting out her demons that not even death and burial could take from her. This was, this was the Lord. She didn't say the guy we thought was the Lord, his body was stolen. She says, the Lord, the master. Now, why is this important? Because for someone like that, more information is welcome. For someone who accepts Jesus as Lord, a revelation of it being the resurrection of his appearance to her was not something that contradicted. It was something that enlightened. It was something that brought great joy. You see that for someone who holds Jesus to be Lord, there's a hunger for more and more revelation, for more information, whatever she could get to know about him. He could never be anything less than Lord to her. Now, some application, there's some basic teachings that we all believe. But there may be some things, certainly there are some things, not maybe there are certain things that you may struggle with, wonder about in scripture, you read them, you say, I don't understand this. I really don't comprehend this. I don't know what really happened to Philip that he was there and he ended up there, it was in Antioch and he was traveling down, all of a sudden he's with an Ethiopian eunuch. And how'd that happen? I don't really know how Paul rose up from being stoned to death. It seems to me they'd be pretty good at stoning people to death and how Paul ended up alive. There are places that we don't have more information. There are places that you may wish there was more, but then there are some places where there is more information. Mary had to wait a little bit longer to get some clarification. But for her, the wait was well worth it because she was looking and desiring. She wasn't just curious about what happened to Jesus. She wasn't just curious. It'd be good to know where he's buried so I can go take care of him. She needed to know that she was open to the word of God, to Christ speaking to her. You know, there's things worth knowing in the Bible, not just the resurrection. There are things worth knowing from the very first page to the very last. And if we start from a starting point of that, well, maybe there is something in there that will strengthen my doubts. Or maybe there's something in there when revealed to me, I will just cast it all off as something that should have never been believed. But when you're like Mary, when you say, Jesus is Lord, whatever happened to the body is Lord. Oh, then you turn to the scriptures. Whatever it has for you. It is not merely, well, it's nice to know it's something that this is important for my life to know. You find in the scriptures, things that are important for you to know, uh, much more so about the matters concerning the benefits of the resurrection. And we'll see a little bit more about that in a moment. So the resurrection is certain to be something you need to be certain about. You need to have great certainty over it's worth giving your attention to God's word to study it. And we see that with Peter and John, that the truth of the resurrection is actually worth reading for yourself. Mary Magdalene sought out Peter and John, perhaps because Peter was a leader among the apostles, and she would have known that the disciple whom Jesus loved would have been good to let him know. The two people among the 11 that would have been, she would have been willing to tell or quick to tell would have been them. It may have been that they were the only two she found. It could have been that. But Peter and John ran to the tomb. They weren't simply, oh, that's a curious event. This is just some kind of a misunderstanding with Joseph. We'll go take a look and we'll just take care of this. We'll go find Joseph, see if something's happened and maybe try and get the tomb back. It's not it's not at all the way they respond. They respond as two men who wanted to know for themselves. And kids, listen. As you grow up as covenant child, owning the faith for yourself is very important. It's what Peter and John did. Yes, your parents tell you these things. They tell you the stories. But as you learn to read God's word yourself, you know what? You get into that word. You say, I want to know these things, not because you doubt them. I want to own these things. I want to know these things for myself. I'm not just curious about what I believe. I really want to know what does the Bible say about this? And you dig in. And you'll learn. Well, it's very important to Peter. There are things you've just got to understand and see for yourself and know for yourself, hear for yourself, perceive for yourself. Peter thought this so important that in his Pentecost sermon, he assumed that this would be the question to answer. When he preached it, he says, listen, drawn from Psalm 1610, He said, David, understand David's still buried, and you can go to his tomb, and if you were to dig him up, he'd be there. But you need to know something, and as Peter preached it, that Jesus is not there. That Jesus is risen from the dead, a key question to be answered. What happened? And Peter gives a great answer. So they are not merely curious, he and John. They make their way to the tomb. John gets to the tomb first, peeks in, but does what? He hesitates. Peter, for whom perhaps a little hesitation in his life would have done him well as a virtue, passes right by John and goes in. He had to see. He had to have before his eyes a revelation of what happened. This kind of reminds us of what the shepherds did after the angels appeared to them. The Lord spoke to them of the child who was born. Let's go and see this thing that has happened that the Lord has made known to us. Let's go see for ourselves. How can we how can we stay out in the pastures? How can we stay in the hills with our sheep when this great and glorious event has taken place now? They needed to know what had happened. I think. Sometimes our struggle with faith. Especially for those of us, perhaps, who walked with the Lord for a long time, many decades. And perhaps I would suggest to those who have walked with the Lord for many, many years, perhaps those who are senior most and have walked with the Lord for seven, eight decades. Does it happen sometimes that there becomes a waning sense of importance to know the things of scripture that maybe they don't strike us as as important to know that to open up our scriptures and read them. to study them, to get answers to our questions. Could it be that we doubt or are somehow ignorant about the Word of God because we really aren't that interested in knowing? We may be curious, certainly, but do we run to revelation? Do we run to the Word of God? Do we seek it out and we pour ourselves into it and receive it as answering questions that our whole lives need to know? But I think the second thing you see with Peter and John is that Christian companionship is a great source of encouragement. And driving us to the study of God's word and owning them, they did run together. Stirring each other on sharing in the excitement, the the wonder, the suspicion even about what they might find, and you ever get to a Bible study together and you come as a group and you say, what are we going to find as we open up Ephesians? Maybe at the start of a Sunday school semester, what is going to be opened up to us? Or a sermon series as your pastor comes and he begins a new series on the book. What is it that we are going to find? The truth of the resurrection is really worth reading for yourself. It's really worth getting answers. Thirdly, what we see in this passage is that the resurrection left death behind. There's a lot to know about the resurrection, and it's certainly one of the first. We get different details among the synoptic gospels in John. We have John paying particular attention, and it's always good when you see someone giving particular attention, maybe through repetition, that there's something that's important to that author. And we find something in John that seems to be important to him, and it's grave clothes. Peter and John get there. Stooping in, John looks, he sees the linen cloths lying there, the first reference to that. Then Peter actually goes in, and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth which had been on Jesus, twice he mentions the linen cloths, the same burial cloths that applied to him by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus when they wrapped his dead body on that Friday evening. Well, some have merely looked at this as a curiosity about how the resurrection took place. Did his body just kind of disappear and the grave cloths just kind of fall down? What about that shroud of turn that people talk about all the time? Is there something to that? How do we understand? the manner in which this resurrection from the... But I don't think that's John's purpose. I don't think John is introducing us to some speculation about what materially happened with the resurrected body of Christ in the grave cloths. The point of John is that the grave cloths were there and Jesus was not. That's John's point. And it's not a minor point. Well, certainly it tells us the body wasn't stolen. If you're going to steal the body or even just move it, you just, why unwrap him? I think there's even more to it than that. The articles of death were left in the tomb. And so, well, what's the big deal with that? Well, the big deal is when you compare it with another man who was raised from the dead, Lazarus. Lazarus, it was different. John 11, 44, the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Lazarus came forth from the tomb with death still pursuing him. Yeah, they took off the cloths and what covered his face and they released him, but But Lazarus was one still where those grave cloths would once again wrap his body. When Jesus comes from the dead, when he rises up, the grave cloths are left in the tomb because that's where death belongs. Death belongs in the tomb. Jesus does not. Jesus saw no corruption. Jesus resurrection was once and for all, he could never, ever taste Death again. He would never be so wrapped, never so entombed, never living under the anticipation and expectation of a death that would come in time. When he left behind the tomb, he left behind all things dealing with death for him. He'd never taste it again. The author of Hebrews describes it this way. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Listen, if, if, if, if Jesus had to, had to walk out with death clothes upon his back and that memory of death and the return to death still haunted him, it would still haunt us. If death still haunted Christ. Oh, brothers and sisters, we have a lot to fear. But it doesn't. He left behind the finality of death itself, its power to claim him. And its power to claim you. He left it behind in the tomb, he left it all back there. The certain fear of death's victory is taken away. The fear that had spread among all peoples, for there hadn't been any who had seen their own loved ones. Yes, time to time in scripture there is, through a miracle of God, through the prophets, a raising from the dead. But it was not the ordinary pattern of life. It was not the common experience of man that the dead get up. And even the Old Testament saints who did die in hope, Hebrews 11 tells us, they died in hope. But they looked, I understand, they looked for the one who's coming would secure the very thing they hope for. They look for the one who would leave the grave closed behind. The empty tomb says that he is risen. The empty and abandoned grave closed tells us that death can never claim him and that all that now remains for Jesus is life. That's all that remains for him. Life that is unstoppable, life that is undefeatable, life that is victorious, life without any future death, eternal life. So also for those who believe in him, quite a subject. The resurrection is worth studying in God's word, and it is no wonder, and it is no surprise, and it is no accident that the gospels are followed, not by the words, the end, but they are followed by the words of Luke and acts. They're followed by the epistles of the apostle Paul. They're followed by the general epistles, Peter, Hebrews, they're followed by the book of Revelation. They're followed by books that explore that flesh out, that unpack all that is to be known about the benefits that come to us because of Christ's resurrection. And so if you're merely curious. That's kind of sad. But if you realize that your life, how you live your life depends on knowing these things, dig in, because the resurrection has more to say. John believed. Up to this point, we are told that the disciples didn't understand the promise of the resurrection. Surely they didn't, but now it's a little bit different. There is always more to be mined in your life about the resurrection of Christ. If you value life, if you believe that through faith in Christ, you are connected to the benefits of his death, as Paul teaches in Romans. If you believe that he has given his life for you, that his resurrection is the promise and the certainty of your own and those who have gone before us. The last thing you want to do is become a believer who only thinks about it once a year around springtime. The resurrection of Christ is the most certain and the most important truth. That is the truth that must, must enlighten every moment of your day and inform it. Mary Magdalene didn't leave a stone uncovered to find out what happened to Jesus. Don't leave a stone uncovered. Don't leave a page of scripture unturned when in it is the treasure of answering the questions about what it means for you. What it means for those. What it means for eternity. Oh, Lord, our God. There's so much we don't understand, but may we, like Mary Magdalene, say whether we understand it or not, the Lord is the Lord. And you are God. Father, satisfy, please, through your word, our yearnings and desire to know more about what it all means, what it has to say to us and our families, what it has to say about our loved ones, what it has to say about our day-by-day life. And never, O Lord, grant that we never lose the desire to know. Let me pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.