Sunrise Service John 20_11_18

Text: John 20:11-18

Title: Found

Intro: Have you ever lost something dear to you, something you prized greatly and you franticly searched for it? Your mind is racing and your emotions are unchecked.

Maybe you found it, perhaps you didn’t.

Hope’s ring, (the center diamond was a Family heirloom) lost it, searched for it forever… took apart plumbing thinking it had fallen down a drain… Used metal detectors and searched the yard… we look high and we looked low and didn’t find it.

Ultimately, we thought Chandler had done something with it because he loved circles, we thought Chandler had flushed it down the toilet.

What is so unique about a wedding ring? It symbolizes the eternal covenant made between husband and wife…. To love, cherish, and honor one another until departing from this world.

It is what finalizes the vow that you made…. It is the LET IT BE SO. AMEN!

2 years later in the early summer of 2013 Hope was cleaning out a closet when she looked down on the floor and their it was.

You can imagine how distraught we were as we looked for this ring.

You can imagine how joyful we were when we found the ring.

*** Hope found that ring … right at the right time…

NB) Can I tell you that the Resurrection is the proof and power of the everlasting covenant that God made with His people?

I will be their God and they will be my people (Jer. 31:33b) For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin (Jer. 31:34b)

Someone once said that THE RESURRECTION IS GOD’S “AMEN!” TO CHRIST’S STATEMENT, “IT IS FINISHED.”

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Orientate Scripture:

This was Sunday morning, the first day of the week… early as the sun rose Mary came to the tomb of Jesus….

Who on Thursday had been arrested…… Betrayed by a close friend

Faced 6 trials on Friday and was found innocent at each and everyone of them……. But the hypocritical and self-righteous religious leaders….. demanded Jesus to be executed and rallied the Mob of preist and temple servants … to shout crucify Him, crucify Him……

These leaders would hold to their sacred Laws (they could not condemn anyone) and had the Romans do their dirty work…..to execute the Messiah they had been waiting for since sin first entered into the world.

He was beaten…. Mocked….. forced to carry His own death sentence to Golgotha (300-pound cross)

Where He was nailed to it and died the death of a robber…… the perfectly innocent Son of God hung on a tree, cursed for the wrath of God which took away the sins of the world…..

His disciples took Him off the cross, laid Him in a borrowed Tomb and it was sealed and guarded….

Now Mary who had lost her Savior on Friday found she had lost Him again on Sunday as she came to properly prepare His body for burial…….. and she wept uncontrollably…

CPS: We have all lost something but the question is have we found it

Mary’s Weeping Vs. 11-13

Mary knew what it was like to lose something special to her….

Two weeks before she had lost her brother to death……. But Jesus had raised him from the dead

Now the One who had raised her brother from the dead had entered into death…… She had hopes that He was the One, Savior of the world……

She had seen 1st hand His authority over death

She had seen His authority over evil …. He had cast 7 demons out of her

Nb) She loved Jesus, she followed Jesus, she had anointed Jesus with a year’s wage of perfume, She had came early to mourn over Jesus, and to prepare His body.

She had come before light and noticed the stone had been rolled away, she looked in and no one was there.

She ran and got Peter and John…. When they arrived, they saw the tomb empty… yet the Linen Jesus had been wrapped up was laying on the mantle

But…. The linen cloth that had covered His face had been folded up nice and neat and was sitting in a separate place by itself.

When Peter and John saw the evidence, the empty tomb, the linen unwrapped the Bible said they believed.

They went home…. But not Mary.

**** I love Mary she is one of my favorite people in the Bible… It is as if she saw Jesus through clearer lenses

Luke 10:38-42 While Martha was busy serving Mary sat at His feet… She had the uncanny ability to absorb the presence of the master

Now she stayed and wept…. She looked inside the tomb at least once before and it was empty other than the Linen.

John and Peter had gone in, the tomb was empty beside the Linen…. Mary stooped to look inside again and behold there were two angles dressed in white, one at the head and the other at the feet of where Jesus once laid.

The Bible indicates that she did not recognize them for who they were, perhaps her tears blinded her or her distress distracted her.

You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. Ex 25:17-19.

It is as though God is saying, “There is now a new mercy seat! My Son has paid the price for sin, and the way is open into the presence of God!

They asked her “why are you crying?”

Her answer… “They have taken my Lord and I don’t know where He is?”

Application: This morning can I give an answer to where Jesus was and wipe away Mary’s tears for her?

He laid in the tomb dead until the proper time… when the Holy Spirit of God breathed breath onto the body which Jesus had once occupied and He was alive.

He came out of the Linen perhaps by Himself or by the aid of the Angels and folded up the Linen head wrapping and He walked out of that borrowed tomb.

Mary came looking for Jesus because she loved Him, she was distressed because she couldn’t find Him.

“I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early shall find Me. Proverbs 8:17

Do you love Jesus?Do you seek Jesus as Mary did?

We are here early in the morning… but are searching for a word from the Lord or are we doing this because of a tradition started by man a few years ago?

Mary came searching for Jesus and she was about to find her Lord.

Mary’s weeping was about to be turned into rejoicing as Jesus revealed Himself to her.

Mary’s rejoicing Vs.14-18

It was still early, Mary was weeping terribly bad, She had lost a loved one. She was distraught, discouraged, Perhaps she was even depressed. She hadn’t recognized the angels inside the tomb, perhaps she had tunnel vision.

Now she meets someone in the garden who she didn’t recognized, she thought him to be the Gardner. For a second time she is asked the question, “why are you crying?”

Then asked the question, “Who is it that you are seeking?”

Who was she seeking?

She was seeking the One who would make all things right……

The One who had authority over all things…

The One casted demon out of her…

The One who Calmed storms….

The One who had the power to heal the sick…

The One who had forgiven sin…

The One who pronounced He was the resurrection and the Life…

The One who calls the dead back to life…

The One who said I go to prepare a place for you…

The One who Jerusalem proclaimed as Messiah just 7 days before, with shouts of praise… Hosanna… Save us.

She was seeking the One who had promised to deliver her.

Now it seems all is lost… He was dead and someone had removed His body.

Illustration: Have you ever met someone and you as you talk with them you start to question; do I know this person… They sure know a lot about me.

Then you find out that yes you do know this person, He was my friend….

Mary is talking to this man and asked him had done something with her LORD… just tell me and I’ll go get Him.

The man called her name…. “Mary”

Now Mary in her frantic search had turned around perhaps she was walking away…. When she heard His voice… she knew him.

It was Jesus…. her Lord, her master, her Hope, the object of her affection, the love of her life!

Can I tell you that Thursday for Mary was difficult, Friday was devastating, Saturday was hopeless and unbearable….

The Bible said She had came to the tomb while it was still dark, perhaps she had been up all night….. her heart had been broken, her hope had been shattered…. But the Bible tells us

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

All Jesus had to do was call her name and her eyes were open to see Jesus alive.

the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3

Application: Has Jesus called your name? Are you a part of His flock?

Her joy as she found who she sought.

Typical of Mary she grabs ahold of Jesus…. I believe she falls at His feet and clutches His ankles, not letting go of Him so He wouldn’t leave her again.

He is alive… He had been dead…. Crucified… Confirmed by the spear that was thrust into His side.. but death could not contain Jesus… Because He is the resurrection and the life.

Don’t cling to me –

You will see me again…..

We know that Jesus appeared to His disciples many times over a period of 40 days before He acceded to the father…

She had a job to do..

Go to my brothers and tell them…

NB) I am ascending to My father and your Father! My God and your GOD!

NB) My father and your father…

Jesus had called them Servants (John 13:16), Friends (John 15:15)…. Now He calls them brothers.

This meant that they shared His resurrection power and glory.

I am reminded of the words of the New Covenant: I will be their God and they will be my people (Jer. 31:33b) For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin (Jer. 31:34b)

The resurrection is proof positive that God has kept His promise that whosoever believes in Jesus they will inherit eternal life.

Her declaration:

She went to the disciples and proclaimed

“I have seen the Lord!”

Application: Mary went searching for something in the tomb of a dead man and she found what she was looking for walking in the garden… the resurrected Lord.

Death couldn’t defeat Him, the Tomb couldn’t contain Him, and all of Mary’s fears faded, and her tears turned to Joy.

Mary went seeking and she found what she sought

What are you looking for?

Hope – found in the resurrected Lord…. He gives a future to all of those that are His

Peace – He is the prince of peace, setting man at peace with God

Comfort – He is the God of all comfort – He comforts with an everlasting love

Life – He is the source of life - O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusion: The question is are you looking for these things in the right places… Mary looked in the tomb but found them in the resurrected Lord.