Are you clinging or waiting?

Scripture Reading

John 20:1–18 ESV

1 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. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 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.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 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.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

Introduction

Why is Resurrection of Jesus so important for us?

Because it is true.

Because it makes everything about Jesus true.

Few months ago I encountered somebody who said that they can’t believe in Jesus. And I asked why. And he said it’s because he can’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, I asked if he can believe in the birth of Jesus Christ. And he said he can’t. And I asked if he can believe in God’s creation of the universe. And he said he can’t. And I think this was very honest of him and it actually made sense why he could not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because resurrection of Jesus is the new creation of God. We cannot believe in the new creation if we can’t believe in the first creation.

It tried my best to explain to him about the creation and the resurrection. And I prayed for him that God can help him to believe.

Church, I think many of us don’t see the importance of resurrection of Jesus as much as this person did. I’ve seen people having no problem believing in the suffering and death of Jesus, who at the same time had problem believing in birth of Jesus, creation of universe and resurrection of Jesus. But we must understand that the death of Jesus is meaningless without the virgin birth of Jesus or the resurrection of Jesus. Why? because without either virgin birth or resurrection, he’s not the Son of God. If Jesus is not the Son of God, the best his death can be is a heroic one but it can never be a saving one.

Jesus’ death is a saving death. And it is the resurrection of Jesus that makes his death a saving death, because resurrection means that he defeated death.

And this is why the Bible shows us the account of the witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. The Bible doesn’t expect us to accept Jesus’ resurrection without any evidences. It shows us that even Jesus’ disciples didn’t even expect or believe Jesus’ resurrection until they saw him with their own eyes.

Now, Jesus’ resurrection is important not only to prove that Jesus’ identity as the Son of God but also because his resurrection is the core of Christian hope. And I think that we’ll be able to share in details of Christian hope as we go through the book or Revelation at our camp. But in short, Resurrection is hopeful because it’s practical. I would even say that Jesus resurrection is going to be the turning point of your Christian faith and Christian journey.

So today we’re going to talk about, 1) Why we can believe in Jesus’ resurrection 2) Why it is practical

1) Why we can believe in Jesus’ Resurrection

There are four books, written by different authors who wrote each of the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now, out of these four, John’s gospel is quite unique in its style. It actually has bit of differences in the sequence of events and some of the details. It doesn’t mean that they contradict each other. But rather they complement each other.

Some people say that the differences in the details are the evidences not to believe in the authenticities of the writings. But according to crime experts, it’s actually the opposite. J Warner Wallace was a former L. A country homicide detective and atheist. After he investigated the event of Jesus’ crucifixion and Resurrection with his skills to investigate cold cases, he realised that the four gospels actually give enough pieces to complete the puzzle rather than contradicting each other. And he had to admit that the gospels were giving true eyewitness accounts. And he said that when number of eye-witnesses give accounts that don’t have any variations but exact details, then it’s more probably that they are fabricating the crime scene. But when they are being genuine, they do have variations which actually give the full picture of the crime scene. If you’d like to find out more, you should read the book “cold-case Christianity”.

Now, when we compare the the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection there are women and there are disciples. And the women are the ones who discovers empty tomb first and then the disciples. And in all four accounts, women brings the news to the disciples, and the disciples don’t believe at first, but later they believed when Jesus appeared in front of their eyes.

Now, let’s have a look at what the women saw.

John 20:1 ESV

1 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.

What the women saw was that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And the tomb that Jesus was buried looked liked this (photo1)

Now in Marks’ Gospel, it tells us how the women were worried about how to roll the stone and get into the tomb. The tomb stone required few mens’ strength to roll. When Mary and the women arrived they saw the tomb opened. Now it was one less thing to worry but it meant something even more worrying; It meant that somebody came to Jesus’ tomb to do something to Jesus’ body.

John 20:2 ESV

2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Now the women realised that Jesus’ body was gone. So they were alarmed and they went to tell the disciples. And the reaction of the disciples were the same. They were alarmed and they ran to the tomb to see what was going on.

And here’s something we need to realised.

Before Jesus was captured, he told his disciples about his resurrection multiple times. He told them about his suffering, his death and his resurrection so they could remember. Now if they did remembered about resurrection, what should be their reaction to the empty tomb? Joy and excitement. But how are they reacting to the empty tomb? Alarmed. Sadness. Shock. They didn’t recall resurrection at all. The best guess they had was that somebody stole Jesus’ body.

And all four gospels keep showing that the disciples had more difficulties believing in Jesus’ resurrection than the women. And it also tells us how Jesus had to reach out to them multiple times for them to believe. They believe in Jesus’ resurrection not because they remembered Jesus’ teaching. They believed only when they saw resurrected Jesus multiple times until they could believe.

Now, there are two more things we need to consider.

It tells us that it was the women who were the first witness of Jesus’ resurrection. In first century, women did not have legal right to give account in courtroom. So if the Christians wanted to fabricate Jesus’ resurrection, they would’ve made men to be the first witnesses. The first church was under many threats internally as well as externally. Many heretic Jews were seeking ways to put down the apostles’ leadership. If they find out that the apostles didn’t remember or believe Jesus’ teachings would be fatal. But the Bible just plainly shows how the apostles had no idea about Jesus’ teaching. They don’t do such thing in other religions. They don’t have anything that would make leaders of the religion look bad. But the gospels plainly shows how weak and faithless the apostles were. Why? because it’s true. Because their faith came solely from Jesus Christ.

John 20:6–9 ESV

6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

The Bible gives details of what was in the empty tomb. And it tells us some evidences of Jesus’ Resurrection. It says that the linen cloths that wrapped Jesus’ body was placed there. And the face linen was folded and left there in a separate place. When Peter and John saw them, they believed.

Now one thing you must notice is that the Bible doesn’t give interpretations of those evidences. And it doesn’t even tell us what John and Peter believed. The Bible simply tells us two things; what was there, and what people did when they saw them. It doesn’t try to convince us. It’s only bringing us into the scene. Now why doesn’t it explain what those evidences mean? Why doesn’t it explain how John and Peter processed when they saw the evidences? Because it wants us to do them. God wants to do the same thing to us what he did to the disciples. God wants us to process those evidences. God wants us to come to a conclusion that makes the most sense.

I sometimes feel like God gives us too much freedom. It seems like God is trusting us too much. But brothers and sisters, this is the only way your faith can grow. You need to do some work on your own. You can’t just watch some youtube videos and believe them. You can’t expect me to convince you. You can’t just sit back and wait till faith appears. If you have been praying that you may be faith in Jesus that doesn’t shake, here are the answers of God; God gave you what Jesus taught, God gave you what happened to Jesus, God gave you what was in the tomb, God even gave you reactions of different people. And this is the question that God is asking you today. What do you think that makes the most sense? What is the most reasonable conclusion that you can come up with? What do you think that actually happened in that tomb?

Church, do you want faith that does not shake? Do you want the truth? Pray, read and study. Don’t just keep winging about how your faith is weak and do nothing. God has given you all you need.

2) Why is Resurrection practical?

Now, you might say that you already believe in Jesus’ death and you don’t feel like resurrection is that important. But actually resurrection of Jesus was and is the turning point of Christian faith.

After John and Peter left the tomb, Mary was still there weeping. If we can have verse15 on the screen, Mary didn’t even get surprised at the angels. She just keeps saying where she can find the body of Jesus. She didn’t even care who she was talking to because she was so sad that Jesus body was stolen. Now when she turned around, Jesus was waiting for her. And in the conversation of Jesus and Mary, we see why resurrection is important.

John 20:16–17 ESV

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

As soon as Mary realised that it was Jesus, she clings onto Jesus. And this shows us how much Mary missed Jesus and loved Jesus. But look at Jesus’ response to this. “Do not cling to me”. It sounds very cold. We can imagine the scene of Mary trying to hug Jesus, but Jesus is backing away. Why?

Mary’s reaction represent many Christians who don’t see the full picture of Christian hope. Many of us see that the Christian hope is in the removal of sin. And for those people, Jesus’ death is the end of God’s plan to save the world. And the resurrection is the extra-bonus. Now, when you see the struggle and fight against sin as the main story of the gospel, then you automatically focus on the battle of sin rather than the defeat of sin. In other words, it can make you to focus too much on sin, that you feel like your job as Christian is mainly about fighting against sin.

But the power to fight against sin doesn’t come within you. Instead, what makes you to overcome sin is two things. 1) The fact that Jesus has already defeated sin. 2) That we are going to be resurrected like Jesus did.

John 20:17 ESV

17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

Look at what Jesus said. We can feel the urgency. For Mary, Jesus’ resurrection is the happy-ending. But for Jesus, Resurrection was the beginning of something huge.

Jesus has to go to the Father. Why? because only then, he will send us his Spirit to each of us. And through his Spirit, not only the few chosen Jews but multitudes of people from every nation all over the world are going to know Jesus. Jesus defeated sin and death that has been oppressing whole humanity. But through the Holy Spirit, the news is going to spread very quickly that they are free from the power of sin and death. Not only that, but Jesus is coming back to put an end to all kinds of evil, bringing a new Kingdom. Jesus is the evidence of that new life.

Jesus was the image of God that went through death. Jesus is the only one who knows what’s after suffering and death. Jesus shows what we’re going to receive once we endure the present suffering.

Do you now what this does? It strips off the power of the devil. Why? because the devil speaks to us as if we can never get away from the power of sin and death. The devil is keep lying to us as if we are forever slave to sin. The devil is keep stirring us that we don’t see the way out. The devil tries to blind us so we keep believing in the worldly realities rather than the spiritual realities.

Once the news of Jesus’ resurrection spread, devil will lose its power of lying. Why? because we know the devil has an end. Because we know that our struggle with sin has an end. You don’t have to cling onto the past or your weaknesses.

Mary was clinging onto the past. She only imagined to go back to when Jesus was preaching, healing people and performing miracles. And I know that some people are clinging onto their past experience of Jesus. When they first met Jesus. When they had fun at church. And you think the best Christian life you can live is in the past. Come on Church. Jesus resurrected!

Let me tell you something interesting. In the book of Gospels, there’s Jesus in person, there are miracles of Jesus and supernatural stuff. But in the book of Acts, which is later in timeline, there’s no Jesus in bodily form, there’s not as much miracles. But does that mean God’s plan is going backwards? No. the book of Acts is the fulfilment of Jesus’ promises of the gospels.

Now, what if Paul was still alive and saw us today? Will he say that he’s disappointed because there’s not as much miracles? No he will say “Praise the Lord! I thought Rome was the whole world and never knew Australia existed. But look at you! you’re worshipping God in multiple languages, you’re sending missionaries! And most of people on Earth have heard the gospel. Praise the Lord that God’s plan is exceeding very quickly.”

Brothers and sisters, we’re only moving forward to the completion of God’s plan. Now if you want to join the movement to forward and make it even faster, believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. Anticipate for the day that you will resurrect and live a life of joy and freedom in God’s Kingdom.

Today, we’re going to sing a song called “O Praise the Name”.

Benediction

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen