Resurrection Sunday: Can you believe that? - Part II - John, 20:19-31
John 20:19-31 · Vern Peterman · Apr 8, 2007
Holidays
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926023277802

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good Resurrection Day morning. Now, as we approach this passage, I need to bring up something before you for your thought and consideration here. Today, this morning, we need to talk about the elephant in the living room. Yeah, the elephant in the living room. You might say, what elephant in the living room, Vern? Well, this one.

In John chapter 12, Verse 16, Jesus had told the disciples what was going to take place. And this is what it says, these things His disciples did not understand at the first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him and that they had done these things to Him. They didn't get it. All four of the Gospels record that the Lord told all the disciples in advance a number of times, not just once or twice or a few times, a bunch of times, that he was going to be killed, that he was going to be buried and raised on the third day. He made it abundantly clear to them. So they understood perfectly exactly what he meant, right? Not.

As this verse shows and says, and it's just one sample of the number that I could quote, none, underscore, none of Jesus' disciples understood what He was saying. It was not simply a matter of doubt. It was a matter of clueless. They hadn't a clue. They did not in the least understand.

The church and even the general culture will make reference to Thomas the doubter or a doubting Thomas, right? You've heard numerous references to that. I'm here to give some support to Thomas, right? That's the elephant in the living room. The reality is Thomas was not the only doubter. Thomas was not the only guy who didn't get it and who didn't believe, okay?

The fact is, every single one of the eleven, obviously Judas is not in the picture, but every single one of the eleven, every one of them, no exceptions, all the others that were along with them and spent a great deal of time with them, didn't have a clue what Jesus was telling them, did not understand.

They had to be brought first to a place of even comprehending what he was saying, would take place. They didn't even begin to understand. Every single one, every single one of the eleven, all the others from any record we have, had a total lack of understanding, a complete lack of comprehension of the reality of Christ's death, His burial, and His resurrection. They did not understand. They were clueless. Not only did they not comprehend it, they didn't have the comprehension to believe it. And to go from that belief to a belief and an understanding of not just the physical, but the spiritual consequences of that belief. They did not understand any of it.

Alright, that's the elephant in the living room I'm talking about. So don't give Thomas such a hard time. All right. Now, so that you'll have the whole collection here, you've got three pages on your initial part of your handout. And we've got the supplement. We went ahead and included that on page four. So you got that. It looks kind of like this. All right.

This will get the elephant in the living room dealt with, okay? And so we'll be going through the portion of the resurrection passages that are on that fourth page here, five of them, that are in John chapter 20. The first 31 verses, skipping over a few that are outside our point here. Alright, so we're going to let up on Thomas the Doubter, right? Okay, let's take a look here.

The very first verse. The first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. Now, Sunday we would call the first day of the week, but that's how they were referred to it then. And so that would be the first day.

Christ had, by this time, been resurrected, as was apparent in the account here. Mary Magdalene is the one referred to here. As we look at other gospel accounts, it becomes quite apparent that there were other women there as well. But Mary Magdalene is the one put as the primary contact and informant here. Now, question for you.

Notice that both in the account, as we'll see here, and in the picture that the artist has put in place, was the tomb opened so that Jesus could get out? Let me out of here. Was the tomb open so Jesus could get out? No. As we'll see here, the tomb was open not so Jesus could get out. He wasn't trapped in the tomb. The tomb was open so that everybody else could go in and see that the tomb was empty. That the grave clothes were vacant. Vacancy here. Now, verse 2. So Mary She ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved.

And in a handout that we offered as a supplement a couple weeks back, we pointed this out. John, writing about himself, didn't write about himself using his name. What did he do? He referred to himself as the other disciple, or he sometimes called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Here he puts them together. The other disciple whom Jesus loved. This is the one location. Isn't it interesting? Kind of referring to himself with humility, the other disciple, but also noting that the Lord loved him. That's a good thing. That's a neat thing. So here is Mary Magdalene, she says. I'm sure she must have said it with a quiet monotone, right?

They have taken away the Lord. No. It might have been a little bit towards the falsetto range. They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him. Some things to observe as you look at that verse and as you look at the first verse. Mary Magdalene didn't look at the empty tomb and say, Aha! He's resurrected. Right?

The only thing she thought was possible In spite of what she had heard the Lord Himself say numerous times was, they moved Him and I just don't know where. So the only question in her mind is, where is He? Where is the body? She assumed that somebody had done the moving and she just needed to find out. So that was to her the great puzzlement. That was the announcement made to the Apostles.

The other part of that, and this is an interesting thing, the Law of Moses required that any important fact, especially in legal testimony, be confirmed by two or three witnesses. Let's see if I can count right. Two or three witnesses required to confirm any fact. But here's the wild thing, is that the rabbis by this time had determined that women were not valid as witnesses. Their testimony did not count. Isn't that wild? It was one of a number of things that were added to scripture. And so, interesting, think about this.

If this were a made-up event, if the account that we just read was made up by somebody who wanted to make up a resurrection story, would you pick women as the first ones at the tomb? No. If you wanted to make up a story that would sell well, you'd say, no, we'll have men there at the tomb, knowing the culture would accept that as better testimony. No, the Lord says, I'm not going by what the culture says. I'm going to have the women be the first one there at the tomb.

Now, next three verses. So Peter and the other disciple went forth. Here's the other disciple phrase, John. and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together. And the other disciple, here's John, ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first.

And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. He stopped, looked, but he didn't go into the tomb. Well, here they are running alongside each other. They get there. Here's the linen wrappings. John stops. He's looking at it. Right? Well, John typically called himself this other disciple or the disciple whom Jesus loved. But as we get to the scene here, what happens? Peter and John both running to the tomb, John arriving first, waiting in the entrance. Peter rushed in.

Well, you know, this is typical Peter. This is Peter. This is the Peter that says, hey, I'll be the first to walk on the water, right? I'll just get out of the boat and walk on the water, of course. That's Peter. It's that one. This is the Peter when the Lord says, I'll wash your feet. He says, wash everything. It's that Peter. This is the Peter that says, I will never deny you. And the Lord says, oh yeah? Hey, three times easy. It's that Peter who goes and rushes in.

The tomb was empty and open. Only the wrappings remain. And the wrappings were not unwound. They were vacated. Vacated. Now, verses 6 through 9. So Simon Peter also came following him, and entered the tomb. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself." Neatly. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb, then he also entered, and he saw and believed. John saw and believed.

For as yet they did not understand the scripture, not up to this point, that he must rise again from the dead." Wow! You mean what he was telling us all along was true? Dozens of times? Yes, it's true. It's worth running for, even if you're panting by the time you talk to each other. Now, soon we run into a surprise here.

Now both Peter and John were in the tomb and saw the same thing at the same time. By the way, do people have simultaneous joint hallucinations that are identical? Not a good explanation of this, is it? What they found was separate head and body wrappings without any body inside.

There's a vacancy sign on these things. Now here is the surprise. Verse 10. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. I don't know why they chose to do that. I'm not sure I would. But that's what they did. Verse 11, But Mary, this is Mary Magdalene, was standing outside the tomb weeping. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked inside into the tomb. Verse 12, And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

Guess what? She didn't understand. A wonderful lady, but clueless. She didn't understand. She said to them, because they've taken away my Lord. She still has that stuck in her head. They've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him. She still doesn't know. And apparently the other disciples didn't help at all. Peter and John walk in, and instead of staying there and saying, hey, let's explain this to people, they go home for some reason. Verse 14, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

Besides that, she was looking for a body still wrapped up somewhere, right? Verses 15 through 18, 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. Ah, she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father, My God and your God. Question, why would Jesus say it so, in a way, almost awkwardly?

My Father and your Father. My God and your God. He had a special relationship with the Father, did He not? And so He made this distinction. This is the Father. from whom for a time he had actually broken fellowship there on the cross. That one. Verse 18, Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that He has said these things to her. Imagine that. Now, was her testimony valid in the culture? No. But the Lord didn't care about what the culture thought. He wanted her to be the one to testify of these things.

Verses 19 and 20 here, So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Think about this.

When the doors were shut, it's possible that the doors were just simply closed. But the implication for fear of the Jews was not just that the doors were shut. But rather, as was typical in those days, they didn't most often use locks like we have, but they would have a bar across the door, something like this appearance. A bar that would go completely across the doorway, and that would be the security at the door. But Christ wasn't to be stopped by the doors, or the bars across the door either. No, the closed doors, just like the stone at the tomb.

We're not going to hold him in or out. Notice here also, we have this, for fear of the Jews. And he walks in, what does he say? Peace be with you. Something we saw in the first Peter passage this morning. Excuse me, second Peter. He gave him a typical Jewish greeting. The Jewish greeting would, at a minimum, be something on the order of Shalom, peace.

But it's likely a far more significant thing than that, because after all, these guys are afraid. They have seen the Lord crucified, and of course that's not something they were looking forward to happen to them. And for fear of the Jews, even though Peter and John had seen the empty tomb, and the vacated grave clothes, even though Mary Magdalene had come to them and said, I have seen the Lord, and this is what he said, and this is how it happened, and where it happened, and what he did. Even with that, they were still afraid of the Jews. So it says peace to them. Christ then, having walked through with doors closed, probably barred, shut, walked into the room, just the same, Showed the 10, as we'll see, Thomas was missing.

Showed the marks of his crucifixion. He says, see here. See here. Look for yourselves. It's me. This isn't some fake. You saw the empty tomb. At least a couple of you. You saw the vacated grave clothes. At least a couple of you. You have heard from Mary Magdalene, who has seen me. Now, I'm telling you, look, right here, it's me. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Now, I will let you use your own rating scale, maybe one to ten or something like that, at what kind of rejoicing that was.

Whoopee. Right? Wahoo. Right? Probably not. Okay? It's probably a good thing the doors were shut. My guess is they were either struck with intense awe in which they could rejoice but quietly, or they were just breaking the decibel limits, one way or the other. It would be hard to do anything else. My guess is if you've got a scale from 1 to 10, it's at least 10 if not off the scale. But they did rejoice when they saw the Lord. Now we get into, we're going to jump just a few verses ahead into verse 24 and verse 25.

But Thomas. Now here we've got to defend Thomas, right? This is the elephant in the living room issue. We're going to defend Thomas because while Thomas is the doubter, all the rest of them have come from a place of not even beginning to comprehend what he said. So Thomas here is just saying, I got to have good solid evidence.

One of the 12 called Didymus was not with them when Jesus had come. The account we just read where he appeared to the 10. So the other disciples, the other 10, were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. This is exciting stuff. And he could tell the scale at which they were rejoicing.

He says, I don't believe it yet. It's just a little too much. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, I gotta see it myself. And put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand to his side where he had been stabbed through. to reveal that he was dead. Unless I see those marks, I will not believe. Think about Thomas here.

He wasn't going to accept, remember we said the standard of Jewish testimony, two or three witnesses? Was he going to accept two or three witnesses? He had ten. If you had Mary Magdalene in there, that's eleven. Was he going to accept that? No. He wasn't even going to accept well beyond the standard. of Jewish testimony, he had to personally himself witness these things. Basically he was saying, unless I have these two witnesses and these two witnesses, I'm not believing anything. He's being skeptical.

So verse 26, after eight days, about a week later, his disciples were again inside But this time, a difference. Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut. What do we see? Just like the prior instance. Why do you think the Lord waited until there was an instance where the doors were shut? Both times? It's the same thing as the grave clothes are lying there, not unwrapped, but simply vacated as is. It's so they could see. Both times. So they could see, hey, I don't need doors open. That's not a limitation. They could see indeed, this is not just some other human being simulating Jesus Christ. This is not somebody walking in, doing a pretend job. We have in our era lots of good actors and actresses and special effects, and you could try to pull something like this off, but this is a time he walks in twice in a row, the doors are shut, definitely shut, right into the room, no problem.

He stood in their midst and said again, peace be with you. Shalom. Then he said to Thomas, knowing what Thomas had said. How do you know that? Knowing what Thomas had said, reach here with your finger and see my hands. Reach here with your hand, put it in my side.

Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered him and said, My Lord and my God. Right? No. My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe. That's you and me. Are we blessed because we believe? Oh yeah. Blessed because we believe. Luke 24, 36 and 43 also gives us some additional insights into this passage.

We'll not turn there. But you can imagine Thomas' amazement But also we see full recognition. What did he need to recognize as he saw the marks on the Lord's hands and on his side? Here is the Lord who walked into the room with the door shut. Here is the Lord who has the marks. This is my Lord and my God.

6 and 29 there, put together an amazing, an amazing account. The one who said, yeah, I've heard everything that you've said. I've heard not just two or three, but the whole bunch of you testify. Even had Mary Magdalene come in here and say she personally saw him right next to the open tomb. Now, I believe too. I have seen Him. This I have verified for myself. To my own satisfaction, this indeed is the Lord and God, Jesus Christ.

Verses 30 and 31 here. Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name. I need to inform you that due to some progress in modern technology, the requirements for getting into heaven have recently been changed.

All right. So this is it. Got to have your login name and password. Those of you who have been accustomed to computers know what I'm talking about. You know quite well that I'm kidding, too. Now, as we have looked at previously, it was mentioned in the second Peter class I'll bring up here.

1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 3, Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth saying, and I deliver to you as of first importance, what importance? First importance, priority. Priority, okay? That Christ died for our sins according to their scriptures. He died for our sins. The basic, essential gospel.

Not, I'm committed to Christ. Not, I opened up and led Him into my heart. None of these other things. Not just, I want to be friends. No. It's an understanding of the Gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That He was buried and He was raised on the third day. The basic Gospel message. That's the bottom line. That's what's essential to the gospel. And you might be wondering, well, why do I present that here? We're gathering of believers here this morning, right? I'm going to tell you about a friend of mine from years back.

His name was Ben Whitney. Now Ben had a wife who had become a believer. and had happened to pick the church that I was going to, Peninsula Bible Church in the San Francisco South Bay. And so Ben started going to church along with her, because it seemed like the thing to do. And Ben had been coming to the church, and we'd all seen him fairly regularly. You know that one day after four years of going to church every Sunday, pretty much, One day he realized, you know what?

I'm not saved. It dawned on him. And so that's one reason, and it's only one, why we present this here even this morning. That it is exceedingly important, first importance, exceedingly important that it sink in. This is the basic gospel, what must be believed in order for a person to be saved. Now Paul goes on in the last part of this passage in verse 5 on to verse 8 to give a summary of what we have seen here and also even some additional times in which our Lord in His resurrected body appeared before believers, numbering a total of over 500 when we add it all together. Something else that comes out of this verse is we've got this A couple of times where the word may shows up, King James has might.

They're not intended to communicate probabilities or things that maybe you will, maybe you won't. It's instead intended to communicate that God has provided for something, that He absolutely intends to be the case. And He intends it to be real, real in this life, real in time, in the real world. Not just maybes. Not just I hope so's. Certainties.

The Greek verb here behind you may have life is in the present tense. That has two really important consequences for us here this morning and every morning. The first one is that life comes from God through believing and it's not just a future prospect. It is not just a by and by.

It's now. The other aspect of that, the word is echo and it means a possession. Something you have as part of your position. A continuing possession is what it's saying. I right now have. That's what John is wanting to convey to us here. So, what are these underlying words giving to us here? They give this idea.

The person who believes does so with this outcome. He or she having right now, this moment, in the present, as a personal possession, something you have, not maybe not, maybe yes, maybe no, as a personal possession, life in all of who Christ is. John wrote this so that he might believe, not just because he wants to have notches on this Bible for converts, right? He wants people to believe so that they might be having right now life in His name. Now life. Not sometime later. It isn't just eventually it helps. Now. Right this minute. This day. It's not just intended to be for the sweet by and by and eventually.

It's not just a get out of hell free card. Okay? It's not just an eternal life insurance policy. It isn't just simply to say, yeah, but when I die, I've got this eternal life insurance policy and I'll make sure that we get that cashed in. That is not what John's trying to communicate here. Now, are you going to get out of hell free if you believe? Yes. Do you have eternal life insurance? Yes, you do. But that's not his point. He says, not sometime in the future, he says now, this moment, you have it as a possession.

John, like Paul, had said, for those who believe, Christ is our life, in the present tense. John said it in the present tense, Paul says it here. Colossians 3, 1-4, verse 4 especially, when Christ who is now, present tense, our life. He is our life. Paul wrote here about the future. He does reference that. He talks about the hope that we have as believers. And certainly don't want to skip that. But Mark well, he used the present tense here and not accidentally and not incidentally. He used it because Christ is now, right now, this moment, our life.

That believing you may be having life in his name is the message. Whether your life right now is just smooth sailing, whether you're going through some rough waters, whether it's kind of a wild ride at the moment, these are written so that certainly you'll be believing, but that you may be having life in His name, no matter what kind of waters you're going through. At times when you're not sure if you're the hammer or the nail. At those times, that you may be having right now, in the midst of those moments, life in His name. Times when you feel like you're walking on air. Perfect time for life in His name. For having, right now possessing, life in His name.

Everyone who believes. Times when you realize you've gotten on a difficult path. A little scary perhaps even. Perfect time. The very best time to realize that right now is the time for life. Having life. Possessing it. Right in the present tense. His life. Life in his need. When things get a little bit tight, when you realize that your path is a little squeezed. Perfect timing for life in His name.

When you're not sure what's up, that's a great time for life in His name. When you feel like you're a little squeezed, when there's a lot of pressure on you, when you're not quite sure what to say, or even if what you said was the right thing, When you kind of wish you'd sort of not said what you just said, that's a very good time to turn to the Lord and depend upon the life that we have in His name, His life, and not our own. When you're not quite sure if you're seeing things right, good time. John wrote these for all times, didn't he?

For all believers, every moment, every time, that you may be having life in His name, no matter what's happening in your life, the life of those around you that you love and care for, no matter what the circumstances are, that you may be having life in His name, His life, right now. That's eternal life. That's the forever life, the ageless life, His life, instead of our own.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, believing isn't just to be believers and that's the end. Believing is not so that we become a notch on somebody's Bible. Believing is not just so that we can join a group. But believing is your life. It means your life in us, your life to us, and your life through us. And Lord, as we go through the circumstances of this life, and boy, they can be varied, and at times they can be wild, and at times they can be tough. As we go through life's circumstances, your life provided to us, your life in us, your life lived through us, is exactly what we need in each and every one of those circumstances. Until the day when we see you face to face, which we can look forward to because you live. We thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.