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Introduction
Today is our communion service and as you know we do things a little bit differently.
Over the last several months we have been looking at the various Miracles done by Jesus and recorded by the Apostle John.
John has been building the case that Jesus must be God and must be the Messiah because no one else could do these things.
Today we look at a final miracle of Jesus that John uses as his final proof of who Jesus is.
According to the Apostle Paul, the #1 most importance piece of evidence for the Christian faith is the resurrection of Christ.
I believe that it is due to this reality that the resurrection of Christ is one of the most attacked doctrines of the faith.
And yet in some ways it is rather easy to defend the reality of the resurrection.
That is what we will consider today.
Everything that we have looked at in John has been building toward this climax.
We saw last month that the pinnacle of John’s evidence was Jesus raising Lazarus form the dead.
Jesus has demonstrated beyond all doubt that He is God and that He is the Messiah!
The miracle of Christ’s resurrection is John’s crowing proof of who Jesus is.
What is fascinating is that all the people involved in John’s account of the resurrection have to see to believe.
John is endeavoring to convince doubters by showing how doubters were convinced.
The question we will consider this morning is this:
Can we know that Jesus has risen from the dead?
More to the point of what we have been studying, can we know from John’s account, that Jesus is risen?
John offers us three lines of evidence to prove the reality of the resurrection.
When we accept the reality of the resurrection it demands that we trust in Christ and walk in obedience to Him.
An Empty Tomb vv.
1-10
Mary is the first one to arrive at the tomb.
It is still dark and she sees the stone rolled away.
She runs to Peter and John and informs them that Jesus has been taken out of the tomb and His body put somewhere.
This is the first hint we get that something has happened.
The seal for the tomb has been broken and the body moved.
There is urgency, fear, and passion here.
Peter and John leave and head for the tomb.
V. 4 tells us that they ran.
There is no hint, no suggestion that they believe He is risen.
They are convinced that the body has been stolen.
John outruns Peter and arrives at the tomb first.
He stoops down and looks to see the linen that Jesus had been wrapped in laying there.
He doesn't go into the tomb.
Ponder for a second what John must have been feeling.
Not only has someone moved Jesus' body, they stripped it first.
What's going on?! Why would someone do this to Jesus?! Peter arrives at the tomb and, being Peter, immediately goes inside.
He too sees the linen lying there and also the head wrapping folded and placed separately.
Things just keep getting stranger!
In v. 8 John enters the tomb as well.
Here we have the first instance where someone sees and believes.
What did John believe?
John sees that the tomb is empty and the body is gone and this convinces him that Mary had first told them was true.
Jesus' body has been moved.
We know that John does not yet believe Jesus is risen because v. 9 tells us so.
The other Gospels reveal that Jesus had told them at least twice that he would be betrayed, crucified, and rise again the third day.
The simple reality is that they did not understand what Jesus was talking about and so they ignored it.
What is fascinating here is that John states they didn't yet understand the Scripture.
The death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah had been prophesied in the OT.
This passage was understood to be Messianic.
Yet the disciples and others were not expecting the Messiah to come and die for sin!
So what does John believe?
He believes that the tomb is empty.
After they have confirmed Mary's words, they return to their homes.
Many today are like John and Peter were at first, they do not believe that the tomb is empty.
I want us to contemplate a question this morning.
What is going to convince you that Jesus’ tomb is empty?
Do you need to go see it?
The tomb is still there and it is still empty.
We can go and look at it and believe as John did.
Is that we you need to believe?
Or... Will you accept eye witness accounts of it?
We can simply read and believe the Word of God.
Peter said that the written Word of God is more certain than any experience that we can have!
Here we have two skeptics.
Two men who didn't believe that the tomb was empty are convinced when they see it!
What will convince you and me?
If we are already convinced, then we have another question to answer.
What does it mean to be convinced that the tomb is empty?
It means that what Jesus taught and said is true!
It means that He is who He claimed to be!
He is the Messiah, the I Am, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
If the tomb is empty, than Jesus is the redeemer and we are to walk in obedience to Him!
All those who didn't believe in Jesus had to do was produce the body and everything the disciples said and taught would have fallen apart.
But there was no body to produce!
Jesus is alive!
He rose from the dead and the tomb is empty!
All that remains is for us to place our faith in Him and live in obedience to His Word.
Sing with me...
#330 "Only Trust Him" (verses 1-2)
John's second line of evidence is...
A Woman's Testimony vv.
11-18
Mary stands weeping at the tomb.
She stoops down and looks inside and is greeted with a vastly different view than the disciples had.
The tomb is no longer empty!
The body is still gone, but now there are two angels in white.
This is a deliberate, intentional thing here!
The angels and Jesus could have appeared while John and Peter were still there.
But one of the facts of this account that helps to establish the truth of these claims is that it is the testimony of a woman that first affirms the resurrection of Christ.
This is important because if you were fabricating a tale, you would not choose a woman to be the first one to tell it.
In that society a woman's word was considered less than reliable.
And yet it is this woman to whom these angels speak.
They ask her why she is weeping and her response reveals that she does not yet believe in Christ's resurrection.
She believes that someone has taken Jesus' body and put Him somewhere else.
After she has said this she turns and sees Jesus but doesn't know it is Him!
I don't think we can really blame her for not recognizing Him, she believed Him dead and His body stolen.
Jesus asks her two questions.
"Why are you weeping?", and "who are you seeking?"
She is weeping because she longs to find Jesus, He is the one she is seeking.
I love that thought.
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