John 20:1-18 | How to Return to Joy
Instagram Reel: How to Raise Kids Who Love Jesus.
Isn’t that so good! I know I can be down on technology and social media sometimes, but it is possible to redeem it for Jesus, like this dude did. What a great little piece of wisdom there for parents that want to raise kids who love Jesus most. The greatest thing you accomplish in this life may not be something you do, but it might be someone you raise. Come on now. That’s gold! So how do you do this? How do you raise children who love Jesus most: here’s what he says you do:
Nobody’s faith is perfect but my parent’s faith was real.... I saw my dad not leading a worship service but actually worshipping Jesus when I was sitting with him at church.
My dad pulled me up and into to his world rather than “getting down on my childish level” which was full of foolishness and rebellion. OOOO… Love that! In a world where our culture is telling us to let our children decide for themselves who and what they should be, this flies in the face of that nonesense! You’re child’s world is fool of foolishness and rebellion. Don’t stoop down to their level. No you be the parent, and pull them up with you into Jesus’ level of adulthood and maturity!
and lastly:
Whoever tells the best stories wins. This dude said it was common practice at the dinner table to hear his mom and dad talk about Marriages getting restored by Jesus, single moms getting helped by Jesus and His Church, and people getting freed from addiction by Almighty God.
And Church do I have a WORD story for you this morning!?
It’s a story of utter loss, of deep confusion, of total devastation and grief. It’s a story of dashed hopes and lost joy, which each and everyone of us can relate to can’t we? Life has a way of stealing our joy doesn’t it? Whether it’s through a break up or a divorce, a death or a disease. We’ve all experienced loss in life that steals our joy. We’ve all experienced our hopes being dashed. Many of us have had our innocence stolen through abuse. We all know what it’s like to loose our joy, to have our hopes dashed and I’m going to tell you a story of just such an occasion, a story of dashed hopes and lost joy, which Jesus eventually returns and restores through the power of His resurrection! This morning I’d like to tell you a story of a woman who lost all her joy but through the power of the resurrection of Christ was able to return her back to it!
This is the story of the Gospel, Church! This is the story of Easter.
We’re going to be looking at the Gospel of John this morning in John 20 vv. 1-18 and I’m going to show you how to return to joy if and when you loose it. I’m going to show you how the resurrection of Christ makes this possible.
We’ll look at John 20 in 3 parts.
In vv. 1-10 we’re going to see Joy Lost.
In vv. 11-16 we’re going to see Joy Returned.
and in vv. 17-18 we’re going to see Joy Shared.
Let’s read it together and then talk about it? Shall we? If you have your Bibles with your or on your device I’ll invite you to open them to John 20 and read it with me. It’ll be on the screen as well, but as I like to say, I prefer for you to have the Word in front of you personally you can keep me accountable, that what I put up on the screen is actually in God’s Word.
Alright, John 20 v. 1
John 20:1–18 (NIV)
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Ok firstly,
I. Joy Lost vv. 1-10
In v. 1 we are introduced to a woman named Mary Magdalene and before we go any further you have to hear this woman’s story. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in every one of the the 4 gospel accounts, which is striking because she’s a woman and when the these stories were penned, society at large didn’t give much place to women. But in God’s story, a women is the first person to encounter the risen Christ. Her name is Mary.
As I said, Mary is mentioned in each of the other gospel stories and while we don’t know much about her we know enough. She was a disciple of Jesus, she was in his band of followers from early on. She supported Jesus’ ministry and she was close enough to Jesus that she was there in the small crew of followers with Jesus, literally at the foot of the cross as He was crucified.
She is 1 of 5 people listed John 19 as being at the foot of the cross and I want to know why?
Why are there only 5 people listed and why is Mary one of them? I mean Jesus was a very very popular dude. He preached all throughout the Country of Israel and did crazy miracles. People loved Him. Just a week ago, the whole city was literally singing his praises from thier roof tops! So why are there only 5 people with Jesus at the Cross?
Well how close would you like to be linked to a man who is being crucified for crimes against the state of the most powerful empire in the world of that day? This is a dangerous and precarious place to put yourself Church, and yet Mary Magdalene is there!
The other 4 people listed in John 19:25 and 26 are
Jesus’s mother, his mother’s sister (Salome), Mary the wife of Clopas (who most suggest is a aunt-in-law to Jesus, a sister-in-law to his Moether, Mary), and John a cousin Jesus and son of Salome, John is the disciple whom Jesus loved referred to in v. 26. These 4 are all essentially family members of Jesus. We can understand why family members would brave the wrath of Rome to be with Jesus to the very end. Right, we say things like blood runs thinker than water. We get family loyalty in this parts. That explains why they are present at the Cross, but what about Mary Magdalene? Why is Mary Magdalene there at the cross?
Lk 8:2; Mk 16:9 tell us.
Luke 8:2 (NIV)
2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out;
Mark 16:9 (NIV)
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.
Jesus delivered this woman from 7 demons! Not just one demon, but 7.
Now I realize we live in a world where most of us even if we say we believe in the supernatural, most of us are content to just keep that stuff up in our heads or the attic of our houses, we say we believe in it, but in reality we don’t go up into that attic and that stuff up in the attic never really comes into our everyday lives. We say we believe in the supernatural and spiritual world but by and large no one would have any reason to think we believe that because in all reality our lives look anything but supernatural and we don’t live as if there are such a things as demons or angels or worse a God who can and does answer prayers!
So before we move on, let me just say, demons are real Church. This woman had 7 of them who were exerting significant influence and force upon her life for evil. By way of thoughts and influence, perhaps even exerting a certain amount of control over her body and mind. She was under the influence of the demonic, and you and I can be too!
I think this goes without saying, but you don’t generally get under the influence of the demonic by being a good person or leading a good and righteous or peaceful life.
Right, demons gain access into our lives through S.O.U.L. — sins we commit, worship we give to the enemy when we come into agreement with his lies, unforgiveness we harbor in our heart and through our family lineage. Sometimes they gain access to influence us in great measure because of things we do, and other times they gain access because of things that are done to us.
We don’t know how Mary came under the influence of the demonic, but she does. Church Tradition suggests that she was a prostitute. This could’ve been simply because she wasn’t raised any better and saw it as an easy way to turn a profit. Or it could’ve been because she was abused and/or raped, and having her innocence stolen perhaps she came to believe she was worthless and so why bother. If everyone in her life treated her like garbage maybe she was garbage and she deserved to live like it, so she made herself what the Devil desires to make us all, dead men walking, a trash heap, human waste, lower than the low, scum of the earth!
Satan stole this woman’s joy, her dignity and I’m willing to bet her reason to live.
The TV show the Chosen does something beautiful with this line of thinking. If you haven’t seen it, it’s in episode 1 of season 1. We get a glimpse into the hell that was quite possibly Mary Magdalene’s existence. While her name is Mary, in the show when we meet her, she’s going by a different name, Lilith or Lilly and she’s working in the red light district of the worst part of town, turning tricks and grappling with alcoholism and depression, and fits of demonic inspired rage where she has just attacked someone. Eventually she considers suicide but as much as she hates herself she can’t get the courage to go through with it and so towards the end of episode 1 we find Lilith, she’s sitting at a bar. She gets solicited again by another jerk of a man, and she’s desperate and alone ready to go on another bender, BUT Jesus finds her. Watch it with me:
The Chosen: Called by Name.
This Church is why Mary is at the Cross with Jesus, this is why we find her with few others at the cross and at the tomb. Jesus was Mary’s Lord and Savior. He was the first man to call her by her name. He set her free from demons and her past. Jesus restored to her hope and dignity. He gave her a new purpose and a new reason to live. He gave her back her life. She had nothing but the bottom of a bottle until Jesus called her by her name. He called her not to use or abuse her but to restore her to who He created her to be, a daughter of the High King of Heaven!
This is why Mary is at the foot of the cross and at the grave side.
And I realize this took a bit of time here, but I wanted you to truly get an understanding of this woman. I wanted you to hear Mary’s past. Before Jesus she was a demon-depressed and drunken prostitute who went by a stripper name. This was her life before meeting Jesus.
Now imagine after 3 years of walking with this man, of serving in his ministry, that this same man, who saved you, who gave you back your dignity and renewed your sense of purpose in life. He was your everything. Imagine He is now dead and buried.
The other disciples, they’re sad and grieving too, but most of them have lives to go back to. Peter. James and John. Andrew, they have their father’s fishing businesses. Matthew has his lucrative tax collecting business. Simon the Zealot, after this there is for sure a war to be fought against Rome. They all have lives and purpose to go back to, but what does Mary have? With Jesus now dead and buried, what does she have to go back to?
To say this was a loss of joy is such an understatement Church. The crucifixion of Jesus in the eyes of Mary, was the most devastating and paralyzing thing she could have ever thought of!
Some of you have experienced similar things. A loss of joy so severe, nothing short of a miracle could ever bring you back. Right.
My question for you is how does on return to joy in the midst of such devastation, when your hopes are dashed and all your joy is gone. There is no light at the end of you tunnel, only darkness and despair and a whole lot more of it to come? How do we return to joy when life steals it from us?
II. Joy Returned vv. 2, 11-16
I want you to notice from the text what Mary does. Her joy is lost, stolen by confusion, grief and utter sorrow, which is only piled upon when she discovers that Jesus’ body is no where to be found in the tomb.
To try and make sense of things. She seeks our her friends and brothers. She runs to them to explain her confusion. Her sorrow. Her astonishment. The tomb. It’s empty! As if matters could have gotten any worse, someone, grave robbers have dishonored her Lord and stolen His body.
Peter and John they rush to the tomb to investigate. When they arrive, they discover the tomb is indeed empty, but the grave clothes, the rags in which Jesus’ body was wrapped, they are folded in a nice neat stack on the stone platform where Jesus was laid.
Why would robbers take the body, but go to the hassle of unwrapping it and folding the clothes in a nice neat pile to leave behind? Either they had mother’s who taught them how to clean up their rooms or something else was going one. John writes, after seeing this peculiarity, that He believed. He didn’t connect all the dots to the Bible yet, He didn’t understand what or why Jesus had to raise, but seeing this scene was enough to convince him, Jesus is not dead. He’s alive.
Peter and John are confused, but they’ve seen enough. Jesus’s body is gone. And then they leave. Apparently they leave Mary behind!
Mary in her grief and sorrow seeks help from her community. They share in her sorrow and confusion, but they like her are still left in the dark. Their presence is not enough to return her joy. They leave and here she is, still all alone. Confused. In shock.
Then angels show up. And surely, who in here as not thought before, Lord if you would just show me an angel! If you would just show me an angel, I’d believe. I’d be OK. I’d have my joy restored. I can’t tell you how many times I hear people after losing a loved one speak of seeing signs that they’re convinced are from that deceased loved one and it brings some level of comfort. I don't know what people see and how that all works, but here’s what I do know. Mary, really does see angels. Not just one but 2.
And this is crazy. Normally, angels when they show up the first thing they have to say is “Don’t be afraid.” But not with Mary. She’s dealt with demons. She’s no stranger to the spiritual realm. She’s not frightened by some angels, but look at what else is super crazy.
Most of us in this moment would have said, OK there it is, there’s the sign from Heaven. Angels, now my joy is returned, but again, not for Marry! No, she will not get her Joy back until her Jesus is returned. You see Mary gets it Church. There is no real or lasting joy apart from Jesus! He’s the author and perfecter of our joy! Mary sees angels. She talks with them, but she could careless. Where is my Jesus she wants to know!
Where have they take my Lord she demands of these warriors from Heaven!
And I picture her speaking this through sobs. Right, she has to be distraught because as she’s speaking with Jesus’ divine messengers, the Risen Christ has sort of sunk up behind Mary. And He speaks to her.
“Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” but she doesn’t notice it’s Jesus!
Now one of 2 things is either happening. Either Jesus is disguising Himself so she doesn’t recognize Him, which seems unlikely, or Mary is so distraught and traumatized by the prospect of being alone once more and staring down the barrel of a bottle and her past life, she’s lost her dignity and can’t bring herself to look up or into the face of anyone. And so not looking up, she hears the voice and the question, but can’t bring her self to look another human in the eye and thus she misses who is standing in front of her, that is until Jesus speaks her name: MARY!
She knows this voice. She knows her name from these lips. He’s spoken her name just like this one time before, when all hope was lost and there was no joy or prospect of joy to be found in her life, she heard her Lord and Savior call her up and out of her sorted past and the mire of her sinful life! Mary!
Thus says the Lord who created you, who formed you. Fear Not, for I have redeemed you and I have called you by name. Mary!
Her community was helpful, but in the end it could not return Mary to Joy, nor could angels from Heaven, it was only through a personal call and encounter with the Risen Christ that Mary’s Joy was returned to her.
In the voice of Jesus, she heard Her God and Friend, Her creator, her Lord and Savior, she heard that He was who was glad to see her. He was seeking her out and coming to her first, to show Himself to her, to restore her hope and her joy. Not even the grave or death could keep Him from coming to her!
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Now, this is where most of us in our individualistic minds would be content to stop. Mary was sad and Jesus restored her Joy. She met Jesus, now she can treasure that memory and go about her life, just her and Jesus, who needs a community of faith.
Right, come on we’ve all heard this said. I can do Church online, I don’t need to go to Church every Sunday to be a Christian, to know Jesus. I’ve got my faith, it’s just me and Jesus and we’re all good thank you! I don’t need the Church. I don’t need Christian community.
Many in our culture would be fine if I just stopped preaching right after Mary meets Jesus and has her joy restored, but here at Crossroads we preach the Bible and that means if the Bible keeps teaching well then I keep preaching!
III. Joy Shared vv. 17-18
Jesus does not let her stop with a Jesus and me joy or faith! No, in fact He commands that she not horde her joy just for herself but instead He commands her to go and share her restored joy with others in the community of God!
Look at the text, Jesus instructs Mary to go and tell the disciples about his resurrection. And thus Mary, a reformed demonized prostitute and drunk, Mary becomes the first witness to the risen Christ and eagerly shares the good news with the disciples, proclaiming, "I have seen the Lord!" And Her joy becomes contagious as she spreads the message of hope and new life.
This is the story of the Gospel and the story of Easter Church. The story is this. Because of the resurrection, our joy is never lost forever. No, because of the resurrection, you and I can always return to joy and we always have joy to share!
Jesus proved to Mary, that He had not abandoned her nor would He ever. The grave and death was not enough to keep Him away from her! He showed her that He was with her and more than that, He was glad to be with her. No body took Jesus’ life Church. He laid it down freely and thus, He was able to take it back up again when He so desired defeating sin, death and the devil!
And while it’s true that He came to Mary alone, while Mary was feeling quite alone, He did not let her stay that way. The same is true of us, when we come to Jesus, we may come alone, but we will never stay that way. No, when Jesus saves us, He saves us into a family and He expects that we live with that family and share our joys with one another!
Which is precisely what He has Mary do! He restored her joy and invited her to complete it and multiply it by sharing it with others!
If you’ve lost your joy, Jesus and the power of His resurrection desires to restore it to you and after He does so, He wishes for you not to remain alone, but to share the joys of salvation within the context of community because joy is relational and it is not made complete until it is shared within God’s community!
Mary lost her joy. But Jesus and the power of His resurrection returned it to her. And then she took that renewed joy in Jesus and shared it with others. May we go and do like wise this Easter.
Pray.