Sunrise 2025

Intro: Thank you Leighton for leading us this morning. I am excited to be able to do sunrise again this morning. If you have your Bible out here with you please turn to John 20 please. I think sometimes we normalize the resurrection. We act like nobody thinks it is that big of a deal. In fact, I have heard people say before that based on what we know today in the 21st century, the resurrection is just too hard to believe. As if in the First Century AD people were standing up leaving graves all the time. No, it didn’t really happen then. No, the resurrection is a big event, and because it is a big event it should have implications for our lives.

Verses 1-2-The body is missing

Exposition:Verse 1 reads John 20:1 “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.” So Mary leaves wherever she had stayed really early in the morning, we know from other gospel acounts that she had other women with her, and goes to the place where Jesus had been buried. In fact, in Mark’s account, we read the women weren’t sure how they would roll the stone away, but they went anyway to place the burial spices on Jesus’ body. Turns out, that wasn’t an issue because they get there and the stone had already been moved from the tomb. And it turned out that the stone wasn’t just gone. Now, it appears Mary had not been able to see into the tomb because of what we read in verse 2. IN verse 2 we read John 20:2 “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.”” Mary’s first assumption is that grave robbers had taken Jesus. She was probably not able to see into the tomb. Cell phones at that time didn’t have flashlights so she couldn’t just turn that on. So she just assumes that this is a grave robbing situation.

Transition: Peter and John do what anybody would do in that situation. They took off running to figure out what was happening. But what they find as the sun is rising is that something different is going on.

Verses 3-7- The body is missing but the garments were not

Exposition: We read in verses 3-4, John 20:3–4 “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.” John is making sure in his old age that everyone knows that when he was young, he was faster than Peter. John gets to the tomb and stops and looks inside. Clearly the sun is starting to come up at this point, the reason we have sunrise services like this one. We know this because he is able to see into the tomb. And he can see the linen cloths that Jesus was buried in lying there. Verse 5 reads John 20:5 “And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.” Right away, this is strange. Typically, a grave robber isn’t going to take the time to take the cloths off the body. He is just going to take off running. Eventually Peter makes his way to the tomb, and he finds out that it’s even weirder than he thought. We read in verses 5-7 John 20:5–7 “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.” Peter gets to the tomb and he runs in. And what he finds when he gets in there and can see better, is not just that the garments Jesus was buried in are lying in the tomb still. But the cloth that was placed over Jesus’ face after he died is not just lying there. It’s been folded up and placed by itself. This suggests that it wasn’t ripped off as the body was being stolen. No, this actually suggests that Jesus himself had taken it off himself and folded it up neatly and left it there. What this would have suggested to Peter, is that Jesus body had not been stolen. No, what it would have suggested to Peter is that Jesus had risen from the grave, and it was himself that had removed his body from that tomb.

Transition: After Peter goes in, John eventually finds the courage to walk into the tomb, or if he was giving deference to Peter, took his turn to walk in. And he finds the same thing Peter did.

Verses 8-10: The implications of the resurrection

Starting with verse 8 we read John 20:8 “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;” What is it John believed. He believed that Jesus’ body had not been stolen. He believed that all hope was not lost. In fact, he believed that their hope was greater than it had ever been before. This doesn’t mean that John was all the sudden an expert on what theologically was happening. In fact, he writes in verse 9 John 20:9 “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” John and Peter did not even relate this to the OT prophecies yet. They didn’t understand that this had already been forecasted. No, what they knew was that the grave was empty and that had implications for their lives. How do we know it had implications for their lives, because they went back to their homes. Verse 10 reads John 20:10 “Then the disciples went back to their homes.” They did not stand around the tomb wondering what to do next. No, they took the knowledge of the resurrection back to their homes. For one, John had taken Jesus’ mother to live in his house. The ESV study Bible suggests that John probably went back to tell Mary. But they went back with the knowledge that something big was happening.

Application: So what does this mean for our lives. There are implications for our lives that we must take into account. The first is that the tomb is indeed empty. We have enough archaeological evidence to say we know where the tomb of Christ was. It was a pilgrimage site for Christians for years before the Romans built a temple there. This is all explained on the Bible Expedition youtube page. We can trust that Jesus rose from the grave. Second, since Jesus rose from the grave, the things he said about himself have to be believed. Jesus talked about being the Son of God. He talked about being sent from heaven. And he talked about being the only way to The Father. If Christ, who said he would rise after his death, was right about that, why wouldn’t he be right about those other things. Third, we don’t have to be experts to have a saving belief in the resurrection. Verse 9 tells us John and Peter did not understand. But they did believe. You don’t have to be an expert in the Bible today to understand that Jesus died for your sins and rose again. You can be saved by believing that Christ is who he says he is, and believing He is Savior and Lord. Lastly, we must go back to our lives with the life changing knowledge that Jesus is alive. We can’t only live as if Jesus left the tomb one day a year. Without the resurrection there is eternal life because sin would have one. Even the Son of God would have been cursed by sin. But Christ is alive, which means we have hope that goes beyond this life, which means it should affect how we live this life.

Conclusion: As we think about that day when in the early sun rise they found an empty tomb, let’s take hope that the tomb is indeed empty, and may that be what we stake our lives on. Let’s pray.