Please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 20. John chapter 20 and beginning to read at verse 1. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went out to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head not lying with the linen cloths but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. Amen. Father, we thank you for this, your word. And as we dig into it, we pray that our faith, our hope would be encouraged and that you would bless this people, but that we in turn would bless you and have the reach of the heart as our hearts worship you for all that you have accomplished in Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. John Watson, were out in the wild camping. And they had set up their tent on the first night, crawled in and went to sleep. And several hours later during the night, Holmes woke up his friend and said, Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see. And Watson replied, well, I see millions of stars. What does that tell you, asked Holmes. Watson pondered for a minute and then said, astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, it's evident that the Lord is all powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Watson rolled over and he asked, well, Holmes, what does it tell you? And Holmes' reply is classic Holmes. He didn't have a stitch of sensitivity in his body. He said, Watson, you imbecile. It means that someone has stolen our tent. Watson's academic approach had missed the obvious, and they no longer had a tent over their heads. And I do love any of the detective stories that you see on TV, but we're going to do a detective analysis of this story this morning, do a little bit of our own sleuthing, and ask some questions. Why was the clothing lying there? What shape was the clothing in? Why was the face cloth separate and why was it folded for that matter? Where are the hundred pounds of spices? Why didn't the disciples grab the clothing? What is the significance of the fact that Jesus left that clothing behind? In verse 8 we see that John is actually a pretty good detective because with one look inside of that tomb it says he saw and believed. What did he see? Just like Holmes, all in one moment, he takes it in and he comes to a remarkable conclusion that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. And I want to ask, why? Why did he come to that conclusion? Why did he not come to exactly the same conclusion that the women came to earlier in the day that somebody had stolen Christ's body? Why did he come to the conclusion that Jesus had come to life. And I've deliberately not given you an outline this morning because I want you to process this detective story one point at a time. What does the clothing prove, if anything? Some people say it doesn't prove a thing. What does it prove, if anything? What are the implications of those clothes? And we're going to look at six implications, and I'm going to be approaching this differently than the evidentialists do, and you'll see why a little bit later on in the sermon. First of all, The clothes would have reminded them that there really was a death. Now notice I didn't say that the clothes prove that there was a death. but it would have reminded them that there was a death. Now that's pretty obvious, almost not needing to be point out, but it is actually missed by a lot of people. Liberals frequently deny that Jesus died on the cross. They use the swoon theory, and there's a number of other theories that they have concocted. Muslims deny that Jesus died on the cross. In fact, if you want to get into a fun argument with the Muslims, Tell them that you believe Jesus was crucified and sometimes they will even fiercely argue with you on that point. They believe that Judas Iscariot took his place on the cross and so it was Judas who was crucified. It was not Jesus who was crucified. And to others that deny that Jesus ever died, we would insist that there are over 100 references to the death of Jesus Christ in the New Testament alone. And of course, there's references to his life and death in the secular literature of that time as well. The apostle was witness to Jesus having been speared in his side, his heart being punctured, water and blood bursting out of Christ. And His mother was there at the cross. His friends were there. They knew Jesus. There was no doubt in their mind that He had died. Jesus was also wrapped up very tightly, according to the Jewish custom, in over 100 feet of linen cloth. And it would have taken a while to wrap his body. And so those who were wrapping his body would have been able to examine the state of his body. They were convinced that he was dead. And so this is the first important clue to believing. If you do not believe that Jesus died as a substitute for you, there is no hope of your salvation. A second thing that these undisturbed grave clothes gave a clue to was that the body of Jesus had not been stolen. That was actually the first anti-resurrection theory that people came up with. If you want to read about the theory, it's in Matthew 28, verse 13. I'll just very, very quickly summarize it for you. after the guards had actually given clear testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. And they told this to the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders bribed them with a huge sum of money, the text says, to change their story and to say that he had been stolen away while they were sleeping. But all of the facts stand against this. And there have been actually numerous books that have been written showing how this and other series similar to it just will not square with the evidence. Now, first of all, the presence of a Roman guard would have made it extremely unlikely that anybody could have gotten past them into that tomb without being noticed. Second, there was the death penalty imposed upon any soldier who fell asleep or who let a prisoner escape. They would have taken their job seriously, but even if for some reason they didn't take their job seriously and they had fallen asleep, you really think that they would be spreading the story, oh yeah, he got stolen away while I fell asleep. No, they're not going to do that because it would mean their head if the governor finds out about it. And so the text in Matthew 28 tells us that the motivating factor for them was, first of all, they had a vast sum of money. They didn't need to be soldiers anymore. And the authorities told them that, hey, if the story gets to the governor, don't worry about it. We will cover your tail for you. Third, the time that it would take and the noise of moving this several hundred pound stone would have surely woken up those guards. If you know the technology that they had and this stone being rolled, it was a very, very heavy, noisy process to get the grave, the tomb opened. And so the noise alone would have woken up the guards. But consider the spices. Jews prepared the bodies for burial by wrapping these long linen craws around and around and around the body, and they would layer all of these spices in between. In fact, if you take a look at chapter 19 and verse 39, you will see where the spices are mentioned, it says, A Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Now that's an enormous amount of spices. So we've got a big problem here if the body was stolen. Who would be crazy enough to spend the time unwrapping this body rather than just taking the body all wrapped up out past those guards? It would have been, I think, somewhat awkward for them to do that. And the sticky spices all by themselves would have been a mess to deal with. I think it would have made much more sense for them to just carry the grave clothes with the body. Also, if his body had been unwrapped, the spices would have been much more conspicuous than the clothing itself. In fact, the scattering of the clothing and the spices all by itself would have alerted Peter and John to something, a disaster has occurred here, something tragic has happened, but it did the opposite. What they saw led John to believe in a resurrection. And so putting two and two together, the conclusion I have come to is that the grave clothes is all that they saw, which means that they were not unwrapped. It appears that the spices are still within the wrappings, the windings there. It's still in the shape of a body with the spices hidden within those layers. That would be impossible for any grave robber to pull off while the grave is being guarded by a band of soldiers. And so all of those reasons proved that the body had not been stolen. Now the third thing that those clothes helped to demonstrate was that Christ's resurrection was different from all previous resurrections. And I want you to flip back with me to John chapter 11. And take a look at verses 43 through 44, where we have as vivid a contrast in the area of these grave clothes as you could possibly get. John chapter 11, and this is a description of the resurrection of Lazarus. And we'll begin reading at verse 43. Now, when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he who had died came out, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go. Now do you see there's a pretty remarkable contrast here. Lazarus is bound hand and foot and was not able to get those sheets off that were tightly wound around his body. And the answer as to why that is the case is he was not raised with an immortal body. Jesus is the first one to be raised with an immortal body that can pass through doors and obviously in this case pass through those grave clothes. Lazarus' body was revived, but it was not glorified. Now keep this in mind when I bring up a little bit later on a new theory that's been concocted by a number of full preterists that the body Jesus presented to his disciples was the old unglorified body, not his resurrection body that he was resurrected with. We'll look at that, but his old body would have had the same trouble of getting through those grave clothes that Lazarus' body did. Lazarus' body was a body still subject to the laws of physics, unable to pass through those grave clothes like Christ's body did. You see, Acts 26, verse 23 says that Jesus was, quote, the first to rise from the dead, unquote. If Lazarus had an immortal body, Jesus would not have been the first to rise from the dead. So the post-resurrection body of Lazarus and of Christ were quite different. Lazarus's body would die again. In fact, they tried to kill him. The leaders, they say, wow, this is embarrassing to see Lazarus walking around. He's dead. And so they tried to put him to death again, according to John 12, verse 10. But everything I've said here also gives a blow to the theory that Jesus was simply resuscitated. I've already mentioned the swoon theory and the basic idea is that he had blacked out and was unconscious, but people assumed that he had died. But later on when he was in the the coolness of the tomb, he revives and he manages to get out of his grave clothes. Now if you've studied anything about the the written instructions of how the Jews buried people or even the archaeological evidence that we have, you know that's just not possible. As tightly wound and as thoroughly as all of these linen clothes are wound around them, even Houdini could not have gotten out of these grave clothes. That does not make any sense. Yet, so here's a situation, there was a change in the body itself. Somehow Christ's body was so physically changed that it passed through those clothes, and yet the same body is able to pick up clothes. Verse seven says, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. I find it interesting that Jesus even took the time to do this. I mean to me it says something about Christ's attitudes toward neatness and taking dominion of your environment. I mean, think about it. If you were there, you were the one that was getting resurrected, you had all kinds of important things to do on that day. Would you have taken the time to fold that napkin neatly and lay it aside? You know, some of you are maybe too busy in life to be able to make your bed. And if you're a Mr. Messy, And you think you're just too busy. I dare say that Jesus probably had a little bit more important things to do on that day than you probably do on your ordinary day. And yet he took the time to take dominion over his environment, to fold things up, make everything neat before he left. I'll let you parents run with that rabbit trail with your kids if you've got struggles with your kids on that. But back to the main point, all of these things that we have noticed give us hints that Christ's resurrection was different than all previous resurrections. Jesus was the only one who had been in that tomb prior to the ladies coming in. And actually in the other gospel, it mentions that the angel opened up that tomb right there. So they were able to look inside. They go and they tell the apostles. So Jesus is the only one who would have been able to pick up that cloth, fold it, and lay it aside. So there are two observations we can make with regard to these clothes. The main pile of grave clothes remind us that there was no mere resuscitation. And yet the folded napkin shows us that Jesus rose with a real body that can pick things up. and can fold a face cloth and put it away. In fact, later on in chapters 20 and 21 of John, you see that Jesus ate things, and he drank things, and he touched things, and he was able to be touched. And so there was a real body that he had. But the point is that this resurrection was obviously different from anything that had previously happened. Lazarus had to be helped out of his grave clothes. Jesus did not. And this is evidence that the new kingdom of Christ had started and He was beginning to make all things new. You see, the Old Testament prophesied that once the first resurrection of the new covenant happened, God would start the process of restoring, renewing all things. There was to be a resurrection at the beginning of the kingdom, there was to be a resurrection at the end of the kingdom. And in between is this process of the new covenant, this new kind of resurrection, hinted that the restoration of all things was beginning. Fourthly, the absence of the body and the presence of the clothing help to inform us about the nature of the resurrection body. It is different from his old body, why? Because it can pass through clothes. In fact, if you compare this count with Matthew 28, you'll see that Jesus actually left the tomb before the door was opened. He passed right through the walls of that tomb. So the angels did not open up the tomb to let Jesus out. The angel, when he rolled away that stone, he said that Christ was already gone. So he didn't open up the tomb to let Christ out. He opened the tomb to let others get into that tomb so that they could see the miracle that had already happened. In Luke 24, Christ goes through locked doors. In John chapter 21, the same thing happens. There is a change in relation to the physical laws that govern a body. And yet, in some way, it was the same body. Now, why is this important to notice? Well, there are books coming out of the full Preterist camp that deny that resurrection bodies have flesh and bones. In fact, they deny that our bodies have any relationship whatsoever to our old body. But there is a certain domino effect that happens once you buy into that theory. It affects other theories. I'll just mention one. Because 1 John says that our bodies are identical to Christ's resurrection body, If our bodies have no relationship to the old body, they've got some explaining to do. They have to explain how somehow his resurrection body is not the body that he showed to them, so why did he bring it out of the grave? And let me give you a couple of quotes. This one from Daniel Hardin. He said Christ was resurrected not so much by the act of reanimating his earthly body, but by escaping death and Hades. That's a really bizarre, bizarre statement there, but he's basically saying his soul leaving Hades, that's what is the resurrection. And I'll just read that again. Christ was resurrected not so much by the act of reanimating his earthly body, but by escaping death in Hades. Christ's reanimation of his earthly form wasn't the resurrection itself. It was a byproduct and proof of his resurrection, and even Christ was not raised to be in the flesh. His view is that Jesus was raised just temporarily to give his disciples faith but then his body gets discarded and he continues on with his real resurrection body which has no flesh and no bones. Here's another quote. He was raised into the same body he used before he died. This was done to prove to the disciples that he had kept his word. However, He now appeared to his followers at need, having the same properties as the angels. In other words, having no flesh and bones. At some point, he supposedly discarded his own old body. But I want you to turn with me over to Luke chapter 24. Somehow this body has flesh and bones, it can eat, it can be touched, and yet the same body can defy the laws of physics in ways our old bodies cannot. It is not simply a reanimated old body. If it was, he wouldn't be able to pass through closed doors. Lazarus could not, and Lazarus' resurrection was simply a reanimation of his old body. So take a look at Luke 24, verses 30 through 31. Now it came to pass, as he sat at the table with them, that he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight. So he could be seen, he could sit, he could serve food, and then vanish. Now that's not really consistent with the idea that this body is reanimated. Look at verses 36 through 43. Now, as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit. That would be scary if you were behind closed doors, as the Gospel of John indicates. It was closed doors when Christ all of a sudden appears right there. That'd be a real scary thing to happen. Verse 38. And he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold, my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." Notice his claim he has flesh and bones, even though he's just finished passing through some walls. It's still somehow flesh and bones. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet, but while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate in their presence. Now John 20 verse 19 says that Jesus passed through the walls just like it does here, but it says Thomas was not there, he was not present, and Thomas says he would not believe unless he could actually feel the holes in Christ's hands and put his hand into the side where Christ had had the spear go through. And let me read you from John 20 and verses 26 through 29. And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach your finger here, and look at my hands, and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now, the wounds in his hands and in his side, for some reason, are not healed by God. In our resurrection bodies, we're going to be healed of all of our defects and everything. For some reason, God left those there. And I suspect there's at least two reasons why God did that. The first reason is to prove His resurrection body really is the glorification of His old body. There's a connection to His old body. And secondly, this would be a forever reminder that we could not be saved apart from Christ's death and His sufferings on our behalf. In fact, in the book of Revelation, it talks about John seeing Jesus as having been slain. You know, He appears as a person who has been slain. And so, There's a connection to his old body and yet in some ways it is a different and more glorious body. And so these grave clothes help to define the nature of the resurrection body, help to define what our body is going to look like at the second coming. If it had simply been a reanimated body that had come out of the grave rather than his final glorious body, then how did it pass through layers, of linen and all of those spices packed in between. It would not have been possible. It is clear that his body had changed properties and yet the fact that there's a missing body from these grave clothes shows that it's the old body that has changed not just a new body unrelated to the old. So even the grave clothes, I think, helps to correct some of the false theologies that are coming out today. You need to really put on, you know, Holmes, what's his first name? Because it's not Dr. Holmes, it's Sherlock Holmes as a sleuthing cat. And try to figure out with logic what the conclusions should be. Now the fifth fact I want to examine is what it was that John believed. Evidence alone will never convert a person or make a believer out of a person, and Jesus was quite clear on that. In Luke 16, Jesus said, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. In other words, evidence alone will not convert a person. And yet the text here says John saw and he believed. Is that a contradiction? No, it is not. Now let me read the text again, Luke 16, 31. But he said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. Actually, when I was in California in seminary, there was a Jewish university professor who was an atheist, but he had said in writing while we were there, that he was convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus had died, that he had been raised from the dead, resurrected. And people said, well, have you become a Christian? He said, no, there's lots of other strange things that happen in the universe. It didn't prove a thing to him. Evidence alone will not convert a person. So what is happening here? What John saw is pretty obvious. There's physical evidence. But what did he believe? Well, verse 9 explains, Now that's actually a poor translation. They did know from the scripture that the scripture said he would rise from the dead. Jesus had told them over and over and over again that he would be crucified, he would be in the grave, on the third day he would rise again according to the scripture. So he had explained all that to them. The ESV better translates it. They did not yet understand. It's a kind of a comprehension. They knew the words, they knew the prophecies, they just didn't know how this could be. They didn't believe those scriptures. In fact, the Apostle John told us at the beginning of this book, this is exactly what was going to happen. In John 2, verse 22, he says, Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Did you get that? When they saw the evidence, they remembered what Jesus had said to them and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now why is that important? because it reminds us that scripture alone is the foundation for our faith. Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that is the conclusion at the end of a long argument that says nobody can be saved without the preaching of the word of God. If they don't have the scriptures, they cannot be saved. And people say, well, what about creation? Doesn't it reveal God? Yes, creation does reveal the existence of God and his attributes. But the scripture is just as clear that creation does not reveal the gospel. And so this gives a critical importance, not only for missions, but also making the Bible the foundation for all of our faith. Do not ever buy into the false idea that creation is a second book on a par with the Bible. Do not be led astray by natural theology. You need the scriptures to interpret the evidence. Yes, miracles are wonderful, but apart from the Scripture, they cannot save. Yes, evidences are wonderful. They're supporting proofs that can remind us of the Bible, can help to confirm the Bible, but without the Bible, all the evidences in the world will not convert a person. It is the Bible that is sharper than any two-edged sword that says in Hebrews it can pierce through into the heart of a man, breaking through his defenses, and all of a sudden regenerate him, convert him. It's the scriptures that are likened to a sword and to a hammer that can break through. of the toughest rock. And this is an important reason why we embrace presuppositional apologetics, not evidentialist apologetics. It's not that we're opposed to evidences. I mean, I love the evidences, okay? We're not opposed to evidences, but it is evidences interpreted by the Scripture. We've always got to start with the Word of God. But there's one more obvious fact that we should not ignore. Christ discarded His old clothes. He left them behind, he didn't take them with him. And like Christ, we too must leave things behind that we can never take with us. He left his clothes behind and he was closed with something far more glorious. 1 Timothy 6, 7 says, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And yet, what is it that we tend to be most preoccupied with during our lives? Tends to be the things that we're going to leave behind. It doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is. What a disappointment it will be for people who, when they get to heaven, yes, they've gotten to heaven, but they have not been laying up any treasures in heaven, why? Because they have spent all their time preoccupied with things like Christ's clothing, or houses, or cars, or money, or things like that. Now, on the other hand, if we have an eternal perspective, all of those things can be a service to Christ, and by doing so, we can lay up treasures for heaven. See, those clothes were not useless. Christ used them as tools for His kingdom. Food and drink are not useless. Food and drink can be tools for serving God's kingdom, but Paul says you're never going to take your tools with you. Use your tools to lay up things in heaven, but you're not going to take your tools with you. Let me quote from Romans 14. Paul says, therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, for he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. In other words, there are some things that are simply tools we will never be able to take with us, and there are other things that we can take with us. You know, you can take people that you've invested with you. If you've led people to Christ or your children, you can take those with you. You can lay up treasures in heaven, Jesus said, through the ways in which you have a stewardship investment down here below, how you use your tools effectively. But if our goal is simply to accumulate things like clothes, money, houses, power, etc., we're going to be disappointed. We've got to know what will last, what will not last. It's important that we have an eternal perspective on life, that we look at life through the lens of the resurrection. Really, when you think about the resurrection, it is the thing that divides between what is temporal and what will last forever and ever and ever when we are with the Lord. It makes a huge difference what you believe about the resurrection, but it makes an even more important difference who you believe, who you trust, who you know. Do you know Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? He left behind what every one of us are going to have to leave behind. and he entered into the glories of heaven as we too can enter into the glories of heaven if we will trust the Lord Jesus Christ. So don't be like Dr. Watson and miss the most important clue of all. Christ's resurrection means that we have a living Savior with whom we must deal. And he continues to live his life through the church with the same power that was at work in his resurrection, a power that is progressively making all things new. So trust Jesus as your Savior and let these clothes remind you of what is important and what is really not that important. Amen. Thank you, Father, for this passage. and the way it interprets the evidence that was out there. We want to make your scriptures to be the ground of everything that we live and do. In fact, we want to live out our lives for your kingdom. We want our lives to count. And we want our lives to be laying up things in heaven that will last for all of eternity. Forgive us for those times where we've been so preoccupied with the tools that you have given to us that they have become idols. We have failed to use them for kingdom purposes, and I pray that as we close out this service and song that our hearts would be stirred up once again to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that as we have needs, you add all of these things to us. You provide for your own. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name. Amen.