One of my professors when I was in school always encouraged us to put ourselves in the story. What do you see? hear? smell? taste? feel? And its worth doing. Imagining what it would have been like to physically be there focuses our mindset to take in more of the details. To take note if you will, to be that favorite mystery novel detective and solve the mystery.

It’s also an opportunity for us to go through the emotions the people we have become so familiar with went through. If any moment in the Gospel narrative is filled with conflicting emotions it has to be those early hours after his death to the resurrection day.

Our text today takes us through what happened after the death of Jesus on the cross.

We start with Joseph of Arimathea - a town in the valley of Gibeon, about 5 miles north of Jerusalem, and west of Geba. He was a “secret” disciple of Jesus because he was afraid of the Jews. Yet something is changing isn’t it? He goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body.

And then, Nicodemus shows up. So often we read and our pastors preach in Scripture snippets, so sometimes it’s hard to remember where we’ve seen certain characters before. Nicodemus shows up three times in the Gospel of John. The first time we saw him he approached Jesus at night in chapter 3. It’s in that conversation that we get perhaps the most famous verse in all of Scripture:

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Nicodemus was an influential Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme council in charge of Jewish affairs in Roman Palestine. He too, seems to be a secret follower of Jesus. He called Jesus “Rabbi” and acknowledges that Jesus came from God, yet he appears to Jesus at night. The darkness, according Gerald Borchert and the New American Commentary, represents Nicodemus’ doubt. Yet by the time we get to chapter 7 of John’s Gospel he presents a defense of Jesus before the Pharisees. And now he shows up again at Jesus’ burial providing 75lbs worth of spices and aloes for the burial.

These two men are moving from the shadows of their belief to being much more bold, even approaching the governor and removing Jesus from the cross. And we’re told Joseph of Arimathea lays Jesus in His own tomb, according to Matthew.

Now we move through to chapter 20 of the Gospel of John, and we read:

John 20:1 ESV

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Again, there is darkness. And Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early in the morning. She sees the stone rolled away! According to Matthew there had been a great earthquake (for an angel had descended from heaven and rolled back the stone), and the angel sat upon the stone.

Matthew 28:4 ESV

And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

Mary runs and goes to tell Simon Peter and John. At the same time the Roman guards go and tell the chief priests all that had happened. The priests bribe the guards not to tell anyone.

When Peter and John hear though, they run to the tomb - Imagine their wonder. We’re told that John believes, but Peter didn’t, and then they went back to their homes.

Mary Magdalene though stayed, and wept outside the tomb. And she saw two angels where Jesus’ body had lain.

John 20:13 ESV

They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

Jesus approaches, and she thinks he’s a gardener, until he says her name.

Then we flash forward to that evening (again, one can see the image of darkness). And perhaps even the image that something is to be fear, as the doors and gates are locked for “fear of the Jews”. They had been around Jesus most of his ministry and now they are hiding.

Jesus appears to them, but more than that he offers to them proof that it is him.

John 20:19–20 ESV

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Now before we go on, I want to remind you what Jesus did there:

John 20:20 (ESV)

he showed them his hands and his side.

Now in that room, one of the remaining disciples was missing, and that was Thomas. When they tell him, he’s skeptical.

John 20:25 (ESV)

“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Apparently he’s skeptical for 8 days.

John 20:26 ESV

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Again the doors are locked and yet somehow Jesus stands among them. He approaches Thomas:

John 20:27 ESV

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

And we have the first recognition of exactly who Jesus is from none other than Thomas:

John 20:28 ESV

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

This is the resurrection story. Most of us are familiar with it. The question is, do we believe? If we do, what difference does it make? If we don’t, what difference does it make.

Some think it was all hoax. There are theories such as they hid the body, it was all deception, etc. etc. Charles Colson served as Special Counsel to Richard Nixon. He was involved in the watergate scandal and has said the resurrection is not a hoax. They had 7 people involved in the watergate scandal. They couldn’t stay quiet for 7 days! If there was a coverup these men stayed quiet to the point of death.

Clearly the witness of the resurrection changed these people’s lives. We’ll talk about the great commission next week, and so I’ll just give a glimpse today. The disciples, both men and women, lived their lives differently because they’d seen the resurrected Jesus. At one point he appears to 1500.

A friend of mine, Dr. Maurice Rawlings, was a well known cardiac surgeon and self professed mediocre believer. As a surgeon he was conducting open heart surgery on a prominent business man. The patient went into cardiac arrest, and Dr. Rawlings shares that he was manually massaging the man’s heart when the patient woke up and grabbed his arm. He yelled through the mask “Pray for me, their dragging me down.” Maurice said, “I told him ‘I’m a doctor, not a pastor!’”

The man insisted, “I don’t care - pray for me.” Maurice says, I muttered something, but later asked the man about it. The man shared how while he was under he’d seen a bright light and started moving toward it but the light was not just light but flames and shadows had started pulling him toward them. That’s when he woke up and cried out to the doctor.

Maurice didn’t know what to do with this. He followed up with his patient and saw the man make drastic changes in his life including becoming a follower of Jesus. He was a doctor and wanted more information. Over the next several years he had several patients share similar experiences. He didn’t want to believe it but the drastic changes in these patients lives caused him to explore and ultimately write a book he titled “To Hell and Back”. It’s graphic, but telling testimony of people whose afterlife experience was far less than rainbows and golden harps.

John finishes his book with these words:

John 20:31 ESV

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One, the Son of God.

By believing you may have life in His Name.

It’s more than just believing these are facts. How does it impact the rest of your life? We’re here this Easter Sunday because Jesus came to earth to remind us of God’s great love for us.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:17 ESV

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

From Unbelief to Belief

Sadly, many will know God loves them, but react more like knowing someone has a crush on them. God does not have a crush on you because of your great worth. God loves you because God has known you from the beginning, before you were a twinkle in your parents’ eyes God has known you. You are a child created in God’s image.

How will you respond to God’s amazing love for you?

Let me pray for you.