Alive

Introduction

Well, good morning! Happy Resurrection Day!

If you’re visiting with us, we hope that you feel welcomed, loved as you worship with us this morning.

It’s usually at this point in our service that we recite our church memory verse, but because of today…because of the significance of why we’re gathered together, we’re just gonna jump straight into our passage this morning and examine the Resurrection story…the centerpiece, the cornerstone of our Christian faith.

All across the world, millions are gathering together for the exact same reason…to reflect on the cross…but more importantly, to reflect on the Resurrection. You see, while the cross and Jesus’s death was instrumental in taking on our sin, paying the penalty of our sin…the resurrection, its confirmation that the cross really was enough. You see, without the resurrection…nothing else matters…and nothing matters because if there’s no resurrection, then it means Jesus, He’s just a man…it means, He’s not God…He wasn’t capable of paying our debt…it means He wasn’t perfect. The resurrection, its critical to our salvation and to our hope…without it, we’re just like every other religion…and it means there really is no hope for life after death.

But praise Jesus that so many of us this morning, we know there is hope…we know that Jesus is God…and we know that Jesus did die…and we know that the tomb’s still empty, even today…because Jesus, He’s alive. He rose from the dead…and as believers, we look forward to the day we’ll experience that same kind of resurrection. We don’t have to fear death…because when Jesus defeated sin on the cross, He defeated all the consequences that came with it. And so now, even as we live in this flesh, in this dark world…one with pain and suffering and sickness…we know what lies before us because of the empty tomb.

Listen, if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do…open ‘em up with to John chapter 20…we’re gonna dig into the first ten verses this morning…looking at the accounts of the empty tomb according to John. (And you can stay seated as we do that this morning)

It says this:

John 20:1–10 (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. 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.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

[Prayer]

If you’ve been with us the past several weeks, we’ve actually been walking through the final moments of Jesus’s life. We started four weeks ago looking at Jesus’s arrest, where Judas betrayed Him…and then we looked at Jesus’s suffering as He was beaten and mocked and tortured on His way to the cross…we looked at Him being nailed to the cross and what a crucifixion was really like. And then last week, we dug into Jesus’s death…where He said those famous words, “It is finished.” We looked at Him being our perfect sacrificial lamb…the One that fully and entirely paid the debt of our sin.

And listen, in between last week’s verses and this week’s…Jesus was taken off the cross and He was buried by two men named Joseph and Nicodemus…two of His disciples…but listen, the point of that, it was to show that Jesus was dead. Jesus was God…who became fully man…and who experienced a real, physical, human death on the cross…because of us, and for us.

I said this last week, but I’ll say it again…without Jesus’s death, we have no resurrection. Part of our faith in the resurrection, its believing that Jesus really was 100% God, 100% man…and that He died a real, physical death.

And listen, in knowing that…that Jesus died…I just want you to put yourself in these disciples shoes. They gave everything up…they spent the last 3 and half, 4 years with Jesus…and in a brief moment, everything they believed in…everything they thought they knew, it came crashing down around them. They’re confused right now…they’re hurting, they’re broken…they have no idea what to think.

It’s almost like that movie you saw, where when you were finished, you had to google what you just saw…none of it made sense…the ending didn’t actually resolve anything…it just created even more questions. That’s how I felt after Brittany and I watched “The Box” for the first and only time…I searched Google for hours trying to figure out what I just watched.

You think you get it…you think it all makes sense…and then the ending, it just blows everything else up, right?

That’s what just happened to these disciples…except they had no where to turn…they had no where to go to find answers…or at least they thought they didn’t. They were defeated. They were broken. This was their valley.

And you know…for some of us, before we came to know Christ…or for some of us still searching for truth…the resurrection, it still feels that way to us sometimes. It’s hard to grasp, it’s hard to wrap our minds around what actually happened…why it happened the way it happened.

But listen, what I love about Scripture, its that Jesus, He comforts all human emotions…He comforts the defeated…He comforts the broken…He comforts the confused…and listen, He doesn’t ask for perfection from us…we see that His disciples certainly weren’t perfect…heck, John was the only one with Him all the way through the crucifixion…the rest ran away. Jesus, He just asks for our belief. Isn’t that great? We don’t have to have all the answers…we don’t have to be perfect…we just have to see Jesus for who He is…and simply believe. That’s the beauty of the gospel…and listen, that’s the message of our passage this morning.

If you’re taking notes, I have three points for us as we walk through these 10 verses…number 1, the resurrection gives hope to the defeated…number 2, the resurrection brings clarity to the confused…and then finally, number 3, the resurrection gives life to the believer.

And so, if you’re there with me, let’s jump into the first point together.

I. The Resurrection Gives Hope to the Defeated (vv. 1-2)

The resurrection gives hope to the defeated.

Look back at verses 1 and 2 with me again. It says, “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.”

And so listen, this woman…Mary Magdalene…she was so devoted to Jesus, even believing that He was dead at this point…not knowing, not understanding that there would be a resurrection…she’s so sold out to Jesus Christ, that she comes early Sunday morning just to complete the burial preparations…because listen, she loved Jesus.

Mary Magdalene, I think more so than any other follower, she stands out as an extraordinary believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I love about her story, its that Mary, she was a woman with an assorted past. She was demon possessed. She had seven demons living inside her. She was a slave to Satan. She was enslaved to a life of sin and misery…until she meant Jesus. Jesus cast the demons out…and her life, it was radically changed and transformed. She had a new life in Christ. And from that point on, she followed Jesus.

And so, here she is, on this first Easter morning…a woman who experienced forgiveness and transformation…a woman whose been sold out to Jesus…and her heart, its just been ripped out of her of chest. She’s defeated. She’s broken.

Notice it’s early in the morning…so much so that’s its still dark. She gets up and she immediately goes to this One that changed everything for her.

Even though she was defeated and confused…she didn’t understand the things going on…she still got up, even before the sunrise, and she went to Jesus.

Listen, for most of us…we struggle to be on time for church. Even though we’ve experienced radical life change. Even though Jesus has helped us overcome so much in our life…some of us, we have some amazing testimonies…we so quickly forget and we become consumed with ourselves all over again. Let us live lives like Mary Magdalene…who, even when defeated…even when confused, she comes to Jesus.

John, more so than any other author in the New Testament…he writes with tons of metaphors and symbolism. It’s one of the reasons I interpret the Book of Revelation the way that I do, which we’ll get into beginning next week. But if you’re familiar with John, from the very beginning of his gospel account, he starts with this battle between light and darkness and he continues that theme throughout his book. In chapter 1, verse 5 he writes, “5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” He says in verse 9, “9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” In chapter 8, Jesus calls Himself the light of the world. Over and over again, there’s this theme of light versus dark.

Well, look at our passage again…John, he gives so much detail that oftentimes we overlook it. He says, Mary, she goes to Jesus’s tomb early in the morning, when its still dark, right? Now, it really was dark…it really was early…but most scholars believe John put that there because he was building on this theme that he was presenting with light and darkness.

It was a dark time for Jesus’s disciples. They didn’t know what they were gonna do. They gave everything up to follow Jesus. Some were hurting, some were angry, some were scared…it was dark.

But look at the rest of verse 1. John says, “When Mary got there…she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Even in the midst of darkness, light shines through…in this case, the empty tomb, that’s the symbol of light. Now, she still didn’t have any answers…she still didn’t know what was going on…but look at what the empty tomb causes her to do…Verse 2, it causes her to run to Peter and John (who the author wants to make sure the reader knows Jesus loved…I love this little feud between Peter and John…it shows us they were just like us)…but listen, she runs to them.

Now, we see there’s still a ton of confusion here…there’s still a ton of brokenness and defeat. Verse 11 shows us that. But listen, the empty tomb, the resurrection…it gives her some kind of hope. When she comes, early in the morning…when she sees the stone’s been rolled away…when she sees that Jesus’s body isn’t there…it gives her hope…so much so, that she runs to Peter and John and she sends them to confirm what she’s found.

The resurrection of Jesus, it gives hope to the defeated. When we hear truth…when we begin to understand that the gospel speaks about a real person, that experienced a real death on our behalf…when we begin to see the evidence that this person rose from the dead…it doesn’t matter that we don’t understand all of it…it just begins to give us hope. Because here’s the reality, believer or not, we all experience defeat…we all live in a broken, sinful world…and every one of us, we walk through some really painful stuff. And we all know what life ends in…death.

And so, when we begin to hear this message…when we begin to see it for what it is, it just naturally gives us hope, because it shows us that Jesus defeated the things we’re most afraid of. And listen, it doesn’t matter that we can’t explain it all or understand it all. Like Mary, we become so transformed by the power of Christ that nothing can take that away from us. We just know who Jesus is and what He did. That’s Mary. She didn’t understand why the things happened the way they did…she didn’t understand why the tomb’s empty (she thought someone moved the body)…but listen, the empty tomb it was meant for Mary’s hope, even if she didn’t understand it…and listen, that lack of knowledge, it didn’t change the fact that she loved Jesus…she followed Jesus…because He radically transformed her…and she knew who Jesus was.

Guys, you have to see this…the empty tomb…its a symbol of light…its a symbol of hope…Christ allowed her to be the first to witness this tomb, to show that the resurrection, it gives hope to the defeated. When you feel overcome…when you feel defeated…remember the empty tomb…Jesus raising from the dead, its a reminder that as believers, we’ll raise too. That’s what Jesus taught in John 6:40 and that’s what John’s showing his reader here.

And so, that’s the first point.

II. The Resurrection Brings Clarity to the Confused (vv. 3-7)

The second point…the resurrection brings clarity to the confused.

Look at verse 3 with me again. John writes, “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.” (I have to imagine that when Peter read John’s gospel, he was like, “Really, dude? You had to put that in here?”)

Verse 5,“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.”

If you’re familiar with the ministry of Jesus…He spent 3 and half years or so, sharing with His disciples about what would happen…but even with all that knowledge…all that teaching, they’re still confused right now. They have no clue what just happened or why it happened. And so, they’re investigating this tomb, clueless. They’re confused…they see what Mary’s talking about…but it’s like an escape room, they have no idea what’s going on, right? And so, they’re investigating what’s been left behind.

And so, again…Mary, she comes and tells them of the empty tomb…Peter and John, they run to the tomb…John gets there first because he’s a better runner than Peter…that was an important detail to add, right? But John, he sees that Mary’s right…and so, he doesn’t go in…he’s piecing it all together…he’s skeptical, he’s confused. He doesn’t wanna go in and mess up the crime scene so to speak…but listen, he does see the linen clothes lying there and he realizes Jesus’s body isn’t there.

And then here comes Peter, he doesn’t stop and try to piece anything together…he just barges right on in. Which if you know Peter’s personality, it just fits him. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago, when we looked at Jesus’s arrest in the garden…what did Peter do? He cut off Malchus’s ear, right? And listen, he wasn’t aiming for his ear…no one swings a sword looking to cut off someone’s ear. He wasn’t Mike Tyson…He was swinging for Malchus’s neck…that’s what you do with a sword. He missed…he wasn’t a soldier. But listen, that was his personality…speak now, ask questions later.

And so, Peter, he goes into the tomb…he sees the linen cloths, he sees the face cloth…he notices that the face cloth, its not with the linen cloths, its folded up in a place all by itself. And so, he’s investigating this scene here.

But what they don’t realize…and John actually mentions this in the following verses…its that at that point, when they’re standing there in the tomb, they didn’t realize how these things were bringing clarity to what Jesus taught them…they didn’t realize what Jesus was showing them. They didn’t realize that everything Jesus taught, it was being fulfilled. The resurrection, the empty tomb, it was bringing clarity to their confusion.

It’s easy to overlook details when we’re reading through the Scriptures, but this isn’t the first time grave cloths are mentioned in John’s Gospel. In fact, if you remember the story of Lazarus, that’s the first time. In chapter 11, John says that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, right? But if you remember that story, it says that Lazarus, He came out of the tomb still wrapped in the linen cloths…it was like seeing a mummy or something.

Jesus’s resurrection on the other hand, its different…and listen, Peter and John, they should’ve seen this because they were with Jesus when this happened…Jesus, overcame death…therefore He’ll never need grave cloths again. He has a perfect, glorified body. Lazarus on the other hand, He died again. He wasn’t resurrected in the same way Jesus was. Lazarus’s spirit was placed right back in that same, old, sinful flesh…one in which He did die again…one in which he needed those grave cloths again. Lazarus saw death again.

Jesus was bringing clarity to His teaching by showing Peter and John, even with the smallest details, that He’s overcame death…He was showing that this resurrection, its eternal. He folded those linen cloths up because His work, it was finished…He didn’t need ‘em anymore.

Guys, I know these details seem pretty small…and they are…but that’s what I love about Jesus and His Word…He uses the smallest of details to bring clarity to the confused. He does everything He can to convince people that He is who He says He is and that He alone provides life and restoration.

The resurrection, it brings clarity to the confused.

You see, when you realize that you’re a sinner and that your sin separates you from God…you begin to realize that you do deserve a just punishment…you begin to understand why’s there’s things like sickness and pain and death…you understand that we’re all sinful and separated.

When you begin to hear this story of the gospel, you realize that on your own, there’s really nothing you can do about this problem…you’ll never be good enough. You start to understand that only God Himself can fix this problem for us…which He did through His Son Jesus…who is God and who became man…to die in man’s place…to experience our death…And listen, the resurrection…its brings clarity to all of that because it confirms that Jesus is exactly what the Bible says. Without the resurrection, Jesus, He’s just some man that died a human death like everyone else. And really, it changes the cross from this great act of love to this horrific act by an evil God. Instead, the resurrection, it shows us, it justifies our faith in Jesus…as One who does provide life…as One who does love us beyond measure.

Listen, I follow Jesus…because He’s the only One that would die for me, the only One willing to take on God’s wrath for me…I follow Jesus because I know that He rose from the dead and that He’s the only One able to offer eternal life. I might not understand every little detail that we see in Scripture…but I’m confident that the tomb’s empty because of what John says and Matthew says, and Luke and Mark…and so many others. I’m given clarity and confidence because of the resurrection accounts.

And so, that’s the second point.

III. The Resurrection Gives Life to the Believer (vv. 8-10)

The third and final point…the resurrection gives life to the believer.

Look at verse 8 with me again. John writes, “Then the other disciple (This is John…he’s like that person you know that always talks about themselves in third person)…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.

And so, what did John believe?

Well, I’m glad you asked!

Guys, the evidence John’s showing us here…the accounts he’s giving…he’s showing us that He believed the tomb was empty…John believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Now, he didn’t understand it yet. All the puzzle pieces, they hadn’t come together in John’s mind yet…but he believed. He saw the empty tomb…he saw the significance of the linen cloths…which if you haven’t caught it yet…he’s saying Peter didn’t, he didn’t catch it. He’s not as smart as John.

But listen, I love the Greek word John used here for “believe,” it literally means to have a genuine faith. The seeing and believing in the empty tomb…its similar to how we come to faith in Jesus ourselves. We see the signs, we see truth…but it’s not always something you can touch or feel, right? But John, he has this genuine faith that Jesus rose from the dead. He saw and he believed.

And I just love the following verse…he believed even when he didn’t fully understand the Scriptures.

Guys, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to that thought, “Well, I can’t come to Jesus now because I just don’t know enough about the Bible or I don’t know enough of what it means to be a Christian.” Guys, read these passages…John says he saw…and he believed…and then he says even when I didn’t know everything the Bible was saying about Jesus’s resurrection, even when I didn’t fully understand it…I just simply believed.

Listen, the theme throughout John’s Gospel account…its been to believe. In John 3, he said:

John 3:15–18 (ESV)

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 1:12:

John 1:12 (ESV)

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

John 2:22

John 2:22 (ESV)

When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The empty tomb…the resurrection, it allowed them to believe everything Jesus taught.

John 6:40:

John 6:40 (ESV)

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

I think you guys get the point…belief, its a big deal in John’s gospel. It’s the whole reason John wrote this account…we saw that last week in John 19:35. He said:

John 19:35 (ESV)

He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.

That’s the purpose of his gospel…so that you might believe!

And listen, the resurrection of Jesus, it gives you the ability to believe everything else Jesus teaches…it gives you the ability to believe in God and eternity and everything else…it gives you the ability to believe in hell and judgement. The resurrection, its like the hinge on the door…without it, we’re like every other religion…one that says you have to do all these things to be good enough.

But listen, the resurrection, that’s what separates us from everything else. It’s not about what we have to do, it’s about what Jesus has already done. You see, I follow Jesus because He’s alive…He rose from the dead…and every single scholar across the planet, they’ll tell you that Jesus was a real man and that Jesus was crucified. And there’s so many accounts that show us that this Jesus was seen after the crucifixion. Even the Muslims’ll tell you that Jesus was a real man…read their scriptures. But to get around the death of Jesus…because without a death, you have no resurrection…to get around the death, they say that Jesus ascended to heaven before He died. By the way, their scholars, their the only one’s on the planet that say Jesus wasn’t crucified…but do you know why they say that? Because if Jesus really did die, then they can’t deny He rose from the dead…and that changes everything for them.

You see…Muhammad, he was born…he lived…and he died. Buddha…he was born…he lived…and he died. Gandhi, he was born….he lived…and he died. Joseph Smith…he was born…he lived…and he died. Listen, I can keep going…but Jesus…John says he was with God in the very beginning…and that He was God. He says in the opening verses to his book that, that through Him all things were created. He was there even before the beginning of time…and as He looked down on His people…people He made in His image…people that were good and perfect. That’s what Genesis 1 and 2 tell us. When He looked down on us and saw our rebellion…when He saw our sin…how it distorted His creation…how it brought on pain and suffering and sickness and death…it broke His heart…it grieved Him. We see that in Genesis 6. And it grieved Him because our sin, it makes it impossible for us to be in relation with Him. He’s good and holy…and because of His nature, He can’t be in the presence of sin. And so our sin, it causes separation from God and it causes God’s just and holy judgement, His wrath to be poured out on us. But listen, Jesus looked down and He saw that…in fact, the Bible says, He knew that would happen even before the foundation of the world…and so, He became what He created…He lowered Himself and became man…He came and He dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life as man, facing all the same temptations…facing all the same pain and suffering. And He did that so that He could go to the cross and be our sacrifice…to pay for man’s sin…He did it so that God’s wrath would be poured out on Him and not us. And He died.

You see, Jesus…He’s the only one that was born to a virgin woman…He’s the only one recorded in history to have lived a perfect life…and guys, as we’ve seen today, He’s the only one that’s ever risen from the dead. And so, why do I follow Him? Because He’s not like any other religious leader…He’s not in a tomb…He’s not in the ground…I follow Him because I don’t know of any other worthy of following.

And listen, when I believe in that resurrection, when I believe in this Jesus…John tells me, I receive life.

Closing

Listen, reflecting on the resurrection this morning, would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

What I love about Easter…its that it gives us an opportunity to reflect on this good and gracious God we serve. He’s not like any other god…He doesn’t say you have to be perfect…He doesn’t say you have do all these things to be in His presence…He’s done everything to bridge the gap between you and Him. He did it all. He died the death meant for you…so that you could experience this supernatural joy in His presence for all eternity. In his death, you’ve received forgiveness…in His resurrection you’ve received hope.

All you have to do, its believe. And listen, as you begin to believe in the things we’re talking about…your belief, it starts allowing you to turn from yourself and turn toward Jesus. That’s repentance…its recognizing that you’re sinful…that you’re separated from this good and holy God…and its turning to the only one that can save you…turning to the only one worthy of worshiping.

And so listen, this morning…if you haven’t turned to Jesus…I just wanna give you that opportunity. Maybe you’re visiting with us…maybe someone invited you this morning…I don’t know…but I wanna give you an opportunity to turn to Jesus. And so, I gonna lead you in what some call the sinner’s prayer…now these words, they don’t save you, they don’t really mean much if your hearts not in the right place. But I just wanna help you process what’s going on in your heart right now. Paul tells us in Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And so, I just wanna help you do that this morning.

And so, if that’s you, no one’s looking around…would you just repeat after me?

"Lord Jesus...I believe you are who you say you are....I believe you came into this world and I believe you lived a perfect and sinless life...I believe you went to a cross and wore the weight of my sin....I believe you experienced the punishment met for me…I believe you died and that you rose from the dead. I confess to you now that I am sinful and wicked....I am in need of grace and mercy and forgiveness...Jesus come into my life, fill me with your Spirit....Help me live in your ways and grow me to be more and more like you....I pray this in Jesus's name...Amen!"

Listen, if you prayed that and met those things in your heart...The Bible says, you’ve been saved…you’ve been given eternal life…you have hope that one day, you’ll be raised from the dead just like Jesus. The Bible, it tells us that the Spirit of God, He’s now taken up residence in you. But listen, if you said that prayer with me this morning and you meant those things, I want you to tell someone before you leave. Tell the person that brought you…come tell me during our response time…let someone know.

And so listen, our praise team, they’re gonna lead us in worship…I’m gonna be down front if you need me to pray with you. This is your time to respond to what you heard and to seek the Lord. And so, you come.

[Prayer]