Sunday Is Here
Notes
Transcript
A famous artist once created a masterpiece, but the world only saw the empty canvas before him. When asked why he worked on it for so long, he replied, 'In the emptiness, there is potential, waiting to become art.' Similarly, Christ’s empty tomb is a canvas of hope awaiting His brush of grace. In our darkest hours, when all appears empty, we must believe that God is poised to create something beautiful out of our lives, just like He did through the resurrection.
We have been going through the Gospel of John and for these past two weeks we have jumped ahead so we can get the Revelation of the Cross and today we will look at the Empty Tomb.
Why? Because the grief and turmoil of Friday has past, the heartache and loneliness of Saturday is fresh in our hearts, but church...Sunday is here!
It is this day we celebrate the most significant aspect of our faith, a Risen Savior. We do not celebrate a dead prophet. We do not celebrate a dead messenger. We do not celebrate a dead saint. We celebrate a Risen Savior that defeated death, hell and the grave. Church...Sunday is here!
In the church today, we can see the whole story for it is laid out for us in the bible. We can read ahead and get the whole story. But my question is have you ever tried to look at it from the perspective of the disciples?
The Gospel of John lays out this beautiful story of what happened this glorious day. Today, you will not have to flip anywhere else in your bible, we will look at John 20 to get this picture of the Resurrection of Jesus and how the reactions of the disciples seems very familiar to our own walk into faith.
Let’s take a moment and pray before we get into the word for today.
On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”
At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to the place where they were staying.
Disillusionment
We have several teachers here and I am sure they can give an account of how they have taught on a subject and the students still don’t get it!
I have two beautiful and amazingly bright young daughters that can bust through school work and college work... until it comes to Algebra!
When it comes to algebra, my two beautiful and amazingly bright young daughters turn into two monkeys trying to figure out a math problem. It is just something they just don’t get, no matter how many times my wife and I try to show them.
They have it in their head it should be this way, but it really is something else. And they sit their with a look of...How the heck? No one told me it was supposed to be this way!
It was the same way with the disciples. Jesus told them at least three times, according to the Scriptures, that he would have to die so He could be raised from the dead.
Did the disciples understand, No! They were just like my kids...How the heck? No one told me it was supposed to be this way!
They were completely disillusioned by what they wanted compared to what they needed. They wanted a conquering king that would remove all the pain a suffering they were bearing by their enemy the Romans. What they got was a suffering servant that took away all the pain and suffering of the true enemy they were under, the enemy called sin.
Jesus fulfilled exactly what He said, He was raised bodily from the dead. This means He was not a ghost or a spirit, He was Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the same person that was laid in the tomb, was the one who got out of the tomb.
The disciples did not understand this even though they were told several times.
We see this in the world today. People will say, well I will believe what I want to believe. I will follow what I know of the bible. I will follow what I know of Jesus Christ. And when they see that there is more to what they think they know, they leave disillusioned the same way the disciples did here.
They live in a perpetual state of... How the heck? No one told me it was supposed to be this way!
Little do they know...Sunday is here!
Let’s continue on reading in John 20
But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”
Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?”
Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”—which means “Teacher.”
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what he had said to her.
Despair
Despair is one of those feelings that everyone has or will feel at one time or another. It is that deep in your gut feeling that seems to not want to go away. It feels like a pit and when you are trying to get out, it feels like you are digging deeper downward. You feel powerless.
It could be despair from a missed opportunity, it could be from the pressing issues plaguing your life, it could be from the lost of a loved one.
Despair is an ugly mean feeling that the devil loves to use in your life. There is nothing more he loves to see is the down trotted, heart broken, in the pit of despair Christian.
Imagine being in Mary Magdalene place. A woman who Christ removed 7 demons from her, who became her whole world, and now it seems that someone has stolen his body. A person who she hung onto his every word. Who would have known his voice from a mile away.
But here, she is in such despair, she can not hear his voice at first.
It is the same way with us. When we are in that pit of despair, we can not hear the voice of reason. We are locked into that powerless feeling.
When my dad died, I was locked into that powerless feeling. And I would love to tell you that I got out of it easily, but I spiraled to a point that I never want to get to again. Dani had to take up the position of being the priest in our home, because I was too far gone.
I wanted to hold on to the past.
Notice in these verses, so did Mary Magdalene. But Christ tells here, Don’t cling to me! Christ was not scolding her, he was telling her, Do not hold onto what your despair by clinging to me this way, in your sorrow and despair something better is about to happen.
In other words, do not cling to your powerless feeling of despair, go out and say I have seen the Lord...Sunday is here!
When it was evening on that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
The disciples went from disillusionment, despair and now they are in
Discouragement
How many of you are package watchers? When you have a sweet little treat for yourself from Amazon, and the email or text comes across that it is going to be delivered today by 2pm. You know what I am talking about, every little noise outside you go running to see if it is the delivery guy. Then 2pm passes and no package, you look to see what Amazon says...it is delayed and will be there by 5pm...then 5pm comes and goes...You get where I am going.
You start to get discouraged. You were expecting something but it was delayed.
Here the disciples heard from a trusted member of theirs that she had seen the Lord. So they sit themselves down, lock themselves in, cause they know that they could be next on the chopping block, and they wait, and they wait, and they wait.
Mary sees Christ early that morning and He does not show himself until that evening.
I personally went through this just a few weeks ago, as most of you know, I started what my wife calls my big boy job. Explain how I was suppose to start April 7th.
It could have taken 9 months.
But the wait is so worth it at times. The disciples rejoiced. And because of their faith and obedience, He breathed the Holy Spirit into them.
The disciples after the crucifixion—overwhelmed by grief and confusion. When they found the empty tomb, they were confused. But when Christ came to them, their sorrow and confusion turned into astonishment and faith. Like the disciples, we all encounter moments when life feels heavy and hopeless. But the empty tomb reminds us that what seems like an end can be a new beginning. We must seek out the 'empty tomb' moments in our own lives where God might be calling us to hope, renewal, and transformation.
Out of all this, there was still one that had trouble believing and that is doubting Thomas.
But Thomas (called “Twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were telling him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.”
Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Can you imagine being known you whole life and long after as the one who had
Disbelief
I spoke earlier about the loss of my dad. Like Thomas, I wanted tangible proof that everything would be okay again. Yet, it was in my searching and questioning that I found deeper faith, realizing God meets us in our uncertainty, just as He did with Thomas. He knows our struggles and invites us to bring our doubts to Him, promising revelation in His timing.
Our coming to Christ is not dissimilar to what the disciples went through.
When we first start questioning about Christ and faith, we are disillusioned by what the world says about the bible. Then when we start to learn, we go “That is not what I was told or taught!”
So we sit, and some get more confused and they fall into despair wondering “Can Christ really take away all my sin, pain and sorrow?
Then a lot of new Christian get discouraged because the changes do not come in our timing but in his.
So we wallow in our disbelief that any of this is true.
The only difference between us and the disciples is this.
Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
True faith comes to those who are not afraid to call out to God and say, “I do not know what to do. I hear so much Lord and I am not sure what is truth. Lord, remove my discouragement and my disbelief. I am a sinner, this much I know. All I know is I need you in my life.”
That is the start of true faith.
True faith comes when you are truthful with Christ. He knows what you are going through, have you sat with him and talked with him.
I will close with this.
I get asked why should I tell God what I am feeling if he already knows?
Great question and a very valid one, but let me ask you this
Do you talk with your best friend even though they know you better than you know yourself?
Most of the time you talk with your friend, they already know what is going on in your life.
It just feels good to talk it out and say things aloud. It is the same when you pray with true faith, Christ hears and understands every word you are saying.
He just wants you to trust that though they beat, scourged and hung Him on the cross, he is alive today in heaven wanting to hear from you.
Sunday is here!
