Resurrection Sunday, 2012 John 20:19-25

Good morning. As we enter into this passage here, we have a sampling of the entire chapter that Courtney just read for us here and we see on the screen. What we'll be doing is talking about the elephant in the living room. That's right, the elephant in the living room. And the elephant in the living room will be an important thing for us to examine here this morning. So, what elephant in the living room, you might be asking? Well, that's the appropriate thing for you to ask. I'm glad you thought of that.

Let's look to Matthew 17, 22 through 23 here. And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. He will be raised on the third day. In our study of Matthew that we've been continuing here, we've already gone through this passage, but it's one of a number in which Jesus had told the disciples well in advance, numerous times, that he would be killed, and he would die, and he would be raised on the third day.

He made that abundantly clear to them. And as many times as he did so, it's almost astounding to think, why didn't they get it? But they certainly didn't. They were deeply grieved in response to this. It wasn't, oh man, that's really cool. You're going to do that for us. It wasn't, you know, this is a wonderful thing. A little tough at first, but it'll be a great thing. It wasn't that. The whole thought was grievous to them. It was disturbing. They were even afraid to ask questions about it.

What did Jesus mean? All four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, record that Jesus told his disciples in advance, numerous times, that he would be killed, buried, and raised on the third day. All of them record that more than once, many times in most cases. As the above verse shows, just one that we've looked at, is just a sample.

None of Jesus' disciples understood what he was saying. It was not just a matter of doubt. They didn't have enough understanding to doubt it. Right? Now, the disciples were all just clueless about the meaning of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. They were all fearful, confused, distressed, and greatly disappointed, and a few other descriptions we could come up with. It was very disturbing to them.

Now you have a handout that looks like this, and that'll be primarily on one side what we'll be going through here. On the flip side is a table that looks more like this. And as we talk about the elephant in the living room, we'll be going through the portion of the resurrection passages here through John chapter 20 that are listed here. There are, as you'll see, other passages, and I'll leave it to you to look at those if you like. But it's the John passages, John chapter 20, that we'll particularly be looking at here.

The point we want to make is that Thomas was not the only doubter. He's the one that gets the label. But the reality is, all the other disciples were clueless. All the other disciples, they were almost pre-doubters because they didn't understand enough to doubt.

So the chapter goes like this, John 20 verse 1. Now on 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. That was not what they were expecting. They were expecting to come to this tomb. What's it like? Is it open? Can we get in? And they may well have been wondering, how are we going to get the stone rolled away? There's just three of us, and it might be pretty big. Instead, they saw the tomb was already already open. The first day of the week is a day we would call Sunday.

And you may be wondering, Mary Magdalene, what's that? Magdalene meant that she was from Magdala. Magdalene was not her last name. She was from the city of Magdala on the very western end of the Sea of Galilee. And this would be a view from the mountain above it looking down on Magdala and the Sea of Galilee. So that's what Mary Magdalene means. That's where she was from.

She was one of a few women that showed up there that early Sunday morning, as we call it, and while it was still dark. But there's a question here. Was the tomb open so that Jesus could get out? Was that why it was open? She answered correctly. Yes. It was not open so that Jesus could get out. It wasn't, oh no, I can't get out of here. We'll have to roll the stone away. It wasn't that kind of a situation. The tomb was open so that those who didn't yet understand would see for themselves. That's why it was open. Irma, you are correct.

Verse two, so she ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, Christ has been resurrected, right? No, that's not what she said. She said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they've laid him. She did not believe that Christ had been resurrected.

Now, some things to observe here. Mary Magdalene did not immediately conclude that Jesus had been physically resurrected. She jumped quickly to the conclusion that they just carried the body away. Just some natural explanation. Somebody's taken the body away. She assumed that his body had been moved. She just didn't know where. That was the point of distress and confusion. Where did they move it? Oh no! if only there was a GPS unit on it. Right? Okay.

The Law of Moses required that any important fact be confirmed by two or three witnesses. Kind of a couple passages there in Deuteronomy 17 and 19 that spell out two or three witnesses is the gold standard of Jewish testimony. The rabbis, however, had excluded women as viable witnesses. That's not what the law said, but that's what the rabbis said. Chauvinist pigs. Anyway, okay.

Here's John 20, 3 through 5. So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two are running together, and the other disciple 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. You can imagine, here's John and Peter running. Why are we running for? I don't know. Run faster. You know? But so, okay, they're running. Is the tomb going to go somewhere? I don't think so. But nonetheless, they decided it was a good idea to run.

So here is John comes in and he comes up to the door and he's looking in. Now, John typically called himself either the other disciple or the disciple whom Jesus loved. And you see that example here. So here's Peter and John. They both ran to this empty tomb with John arriving first, but waiting in the entrance while Peter rushed in. Well, that's typical of Peter, right? Ah, Peter, yes.

The one that says, oh, let me walk on the water, too. And then, boop, right? And then, he's the one that says, oh, you can't wash my feet. Oh, but I must. OK, in that case, wash everything. Oh, you don't get it, Peter. OK. That Peter who says, Lord, I'll always stand up for you, and then turns around and says, I don't even know him. Blankety, blankety, blank. Right? OK.

So John 26-9 says, And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the facecloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple had first come to the tomb, then, this is John, entered, and he saw and believed. Believed what? Hmm, we'll take a look at that. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. What did he believe? Here is Mary Magdalene bringing the news. Do they believe then? Here they are running. Are they running in belief? Here they come up to the tomb. They believe. They believe what? They believe Mary Magdalene, the tomb is empty. That's all.

They didn't go, yeah, he's resurrected, yeah, cool! Instead, they believed, yeah, she was telling the truth, I don't know where the body is. Now, the tomb was open, empty, and only the wrappings remained. Both Peter and John were in the tomb and saw the same thing at the same time.

It's not in the wrappings. How'd that happen? What they found was separate head and body wrappings without a body inside. That's pretty amazing. So they're going away just stung. Matter of fact, it says they went away each to their own house. Imagine if you were coming there. What? There's no body. What'd they do? Where'd they take it? Verses 10 through 14 read like this. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. I'm going home. I guess that's the right thing to do, right?

But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. I guess she hadn't run, or at least not run inside. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. 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? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they've laid Him.

That was her great distress. They've taken the Lord away, and I don't know where. I just, I don't know where. I can't show Him any respect if I can't know where the body is. When she had said this, She turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Seems to me that question has been asked before, hasn't it? 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. And Jesus said to her, She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me.

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 and my God and your God. You ever wonder about why this complicated, you know, my God, your God, my father, your father. And it seems kind of funny. It's it's because he had a special relationship with the father. that fellowship of eternity past, now with the cross behind, had been restored. My God and your God, my Father and yours.

Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I've seen the Lord, and that he said these things to her. You can imagine, she comes back, oh no, it's Mary again with another story. You have here on this back side again a couple of places that list Mary and one of the things you'll notice Mary Magdalene was not only among the first group of women there to see the empty tomb but the first person to see the resurrected Lord. I think it is a matter of the Lord's humor that the Lord would take a woman and interestingly one particular woman and make her the first and primary witness when the culture would have had no regard.

I think there's something else very special about this. Last week we made the point how the Lord called out to Zacchaeus and said Zacchaeus come down and hurry about it because I'm going to stay at your house today. That focuses on the point that the Lord cares about individual people. and not just big masses and groups. The Lord cares about you and I personally, individually. He's not too busy for us.

And the same thing here, how amazing it is to have arranged things such that Mary Magdalene is there, the first one to see the open tomb, and the first one to see the Lord resurrected here, as we see this account. In John 20, 19 and 20, and this gets to the passage that Courtney read for us here. So it was evening on that day, so the first day of the week. What is that? The very same day. Only hours have gone by, right? So evening on the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. You can imagine some doors like this, fairly hefty, not with windows likely. Jesus came in and stood in their midst and said to them, hi guys. Right? No, he said, peace be with you, which was the Jewish greeting was what? Shalom, right? Which means peace. So he just greets them in a usual Jewish way. So he walks in. And it would be like we're saying, hi, howdy.

Isn't that amazing? Now, if they were afraid of the Jews, guess what? Somebody walking through the doors and the walls into the room, and then, wow, wait a minute, I thought the door was locked. And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

I'm sure their first thought was, oh no, we're toast. We are in deep yogurt. That's what I'm sure was their first thought. So then the Lord begins to give them the identifying marks. Guys, see, it's me. The relief is tremendous. He's not here to kill us, right? The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

The disciples, and there are 10 of them, remember the 12 minus Judas, and as we'll see subsequently, minus Thomas. The 10 of them there, it's only a few days, actually just a couple of days past the time of the crucifixion. It had been only hours since Peter and John had seen the empty tomb after the women's report that the tomb was empty. The doors were shut, and from the implication for fear of the Jews, you can imagine it wasn't casually shut.

It probably had some kind of a crossbar there. Christ gave them a typical Jewish greeting, and then he showed the ten disciples there the marks of his crucifixion on his hands and on his side. Hi, I'm Jesus. Shalom. Now the verses in between, verses 21 through 23, are certainly worthy of our study. For our purposes today, we'll set them aside and move on then to verse 24.

Ah, but Thomas, the famous Thomas, Thomas, the one known for doubting, when in fact were not all the others beyond skeptical, but phenomenally ignorant of what had taken place. But they had in fact seen the Lord. Thomas 1 of the Twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, We have seen the Lord! And he imagined ten guys, eyes really big, We've seen the Lord! Thomas! Thomas says, Uh-uh. I'm not going for this. I'm not falling for that. You guys are really pulling a big one on me. I'm not buying it.

Uh-uh. Now, Thomas was not going to accept the standard testimony from the Law of Moses, which said two or three witnesses is all it takes. Roger is shaking his head at me. I know I'm going to hear about this on Tuesday. Anyway, okay. So Deuteronomy 17 and 19 each have verses calling for two or three witnesses and that is an acceptable standard according to the Law of Moses.

Thomas says, you can have ten of you here and I'm still not going to believe it, right? He had to personally see and touch the marks. He says, I have to see him, and I have to put my finger into the wounds, and I have to put my hand into the side, or I will not believe. Forget it, guys. I don't believe you, even if there's ten of you saying you've seen the Lord. No, I'm not going for that. I've got to see, and I've got to touch, or no belief. Not even the testimony of these ten witnesses.

Witnesses that he had been with over the last three years. Witnesses that he had spent lots of time with. All of them consistently telling him the same story. I'm not going to believe it, guys. Even after the Lord Himself said repeatedly, I will be raised up on the third day. He's still not going to believe it. He's not going to believe the testimony of ten men and the Lord Himself. Unless I see, unless I touch, unless I personally verify, I will not believe.

Now think about this. What does unbelief cause you to do? It causes you to have an I problem. Right? I, I, me, my, I, I, me, my. It's an I problem. Interesting how unbelief is. Unbelief all comes back to me. It's belief that puts the focus on the Lord. Verse 26, after eight days, so get this, this is over a week has gone by, and here is Thomas, guys, look, I don't care how many times you tell me, I don't care how many of you tell me you've seen the Lord, I'm not going to believe it. Now shut up! Right? You can imagine Thomas repeatedly, no, guys, forget it. Forget it. No way.

Disciples were again inside, but this time Thomas is with them. Over a week has gone by. You can imagine Thomas' denial and refusal day after day until this eighth day. Jesus came, the doors having been shut like before, and stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. We've heard that before, haven't we? Shalom. Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger, you know, that one that you wanted to go and touch, go ahead, go ahead, and see my hands and reach here with your hand and put it in my side and do not be unbelieving, but believing. So what's Thomas' response? What does Thomas do? Does Thomas go up and say, okay, I see you, let me do all the touching here?

No. If he did all that, it's not described. What is described is this. Thomas answered, said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, Apparently it doesn't make reference to the touching. Have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed. That's talking about us. Luke 24 also records a somewhat similar encounter here.

Think about Thomas, my Lord and my God. Did Thomas just say, my God, just as sort of an expression? Or did Thomas say, my Lord and my God, because he was addressing his Lord and his God? I believe it's the latter. He was addressing his Lord and his God. Not just swearing. My Lord and my God. To the Lord of the universe.

In John 20, 30 and 31, it records this. Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. Many other things. Quite a few. But these have been written, what is written in here, was 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.

Now, John's an interesting one in his major works, the Gospel of John, 1 John, and the Book of Revelation. In each case, he writes why he is writing the book. So the Gospel of John, here he has written his purpose statement in these verses. These are written so that you might, what? Believe. That's why this was written. I've gone through all this, and yes, I have not included everything But what I have included here is for the purpose that you might believe. It's not just curious. It's not just a nice story. I'm not just writing this because wouldn't it be nice if.

I'm writing this so that you might believe. I'm writing about my friend Thomas so that you might believe. I'm writing about the lack of understanding that I, John, had at first. so that you might believe even though I was slow and reluctant to do so. Even though I don't get it, I'm writing this so that you do. These two uses of the word may and the King James that has might are not to convey some probabilities like you're flipping a coin or something. Maybe yes, maybe no. That's not what this is about.

This May conveys God's complete provision for us. It means something is now possible by God's doing. God's provision for us to actually understand, because it's been revealed, because John has been inspired to write this, and believe in Christ's death for sins, his burial and resurrection, so that we have life. have life, that you may have life. It's in the present tense, by the way. So it has a couple of important and significant outcomes for us. The fact that it's in the present tense, the life that comes from God, through our believing what he has revealed for us is not just in the future. It is not so that we can say, you know, it's really cool. I can believe because when I get out of here, I know there's something good for me afterwards. You know, I'm going to a better place. And so that's really cool. No, that's not what this is. You see, believing isn't a get out of hell free card, right? That's not what believing is. It isn't an eternal life insurance policy. It's not for that. It's none of those.

Believing instead. Believing instead is life now, that you have it. These words convey the person who Believes does does so with the outcome that he or she will be having right now this moment moment by moment as a personal possession life and All of who Christ is now eternal life is not later.

It's now 100% You ever heard the statement, you know, possession is nine-tenths of the law or some such thing? Well, guess what? Possession is 100% by grace. 100% by grace. All you can do is believe, and that's not a merit. You do not earn anything here. It is entirely, 100%, totally, completely, all by grace. Pure, unadulterated, infinite grace. The last part of that is that believing you may have life in his name. Life is the believer in Christ and Christ in the believer. It's his life that we are in. It is his life in us. That's life and life. In Colossians 3, 1 through 4, It's a passage we won't be studying in depth, but there's a point there I want us to look at.

Go ahead and read it all. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is, see the present tense, who is our life, is revealed, you also will be revealed with Him in glory. The revelation in glory is future, but the life is when?

Right now. right now. Eternal life doesn't begin then, it starts right now and it continues right now. That is God's intent, that you might right now be having that life because you believe. Like John, Paul said that for those who believe Christ is, present tense, our life. Paul wrote here about the future that future about being revealed and our being revealed with Him. But Christ is our life right now, right this very moment.

That's God's intent, that believing you may have life in His name. Now, so due to progress in modern technology, the requirements for getting into heaven have recently been changed. You've got to have your login name and password. Seriously, let's talk about what are the requirements for getting into heaven. If you have life right now by belief, what are the requirements?

Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians 15, in just the first couple of verses here, for I delivered to you as of first importance, top priority, what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures so that's point one Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures it's that simple it's that simple none of us is going to be good enough to get to heaven we're not gonna earn our way there. We're not going to have God great on the curve, any of that. It's these things. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised on the third day.

Do you believe that? Then you have salvation, eternal life because of believing that and nothing else. After that, Paul testifies about some of the things we've been looking at here, about the Lord appearing to those after he was resurrected. But belief that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, that is the gospel.

Believing that you may have life in his name, out on the water, if that happens to be where you are, Believing that you may have life in his name right now while you're working. Believing that you might have life in his name while you're walking about, even floating about while you're walking. Believing you may have life in his name even when life gets a little hairy scary, right? When things are on the edge. Believing you may have life in his name when you're trying to relax. A little sideways about it, but relax. Believing you may have life in his name when you're just having fun. But it's believing that you may have life in his name. You see, the disciples, they didn't understand enough to doubt at first. Then, Thomas, who gets called the doubter, He didn't understand either. That was his problem, really. But they all came to believe. They all came to believe. And that invitation is open to all of us as well. Every single one. And just like Thomas, the Lord comes to us personally and said, do you believe?

You know that I was crucified. You know that I was buried. And now you see that I'm resurrected. Do you believe? Good. That's exactly what I did this for. So that you would believe. So that you would have life in my name. That's why the Lord did this. That we may have life in his name. No matter where we happen to be. No matter what we're doing. Life in his name. Let's pray.

Lord, we've read through almost the entire words of a chapter here, and yet as we look at this, lots of things happened. We even see Mary Magdalene kind of going back and forth and back and forth, and multiple times Christ coming into a room with the doors are shut. A certain complexity, and yet as we look at these things, we find that the salvation that you have brought about through Christ is actually very simple. And what is to be believed is very simple. And what is unfathomable is that we, right now, have your life through his name. Thank you for that. What a simple, wonderful, awesome thing that it will take us eternity to grasp. We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.