Easter Sunday (John 20) A New Day
Notes
Transcript
Intro: New Day
Intro: New Day
Every Thursday morning, 8am. Like clockwork…I show up to a certain starbucks…
Grande Blonde Americano…Black
I flip open my laptop…Earbuds in…
What am I listening to? a playlist on apple music called “Pure Calm”…
Elevator music all the way baby! I can’t write a sermon when songs with words in them are on…
Thursdays are for writing…At this point the research has been done and I am trusting the Holy spirit to craft all the research and the notes I have made into something that impacts your lives
And my goal is to get my notes in by noon so that my team can print bulletins and put everything in the computer
This past Thursday I wake up late…Like 7:45…I don’t use an alarm unless I really need to because I can not remember a time I slept till 7:45 am!
And already flustered because I am late!..But I think I can salvage this
I shower, get ready grab my back pack I get to Starbucks its like 8:25 and I am thinking ok…Just 25 minuted behind no big deal…..let’s get to work
Then the strangest thing happened, because I was sitting that this Starbucks looking at my backpack trying to open it and the zippers were in the wrong place…and I am like What is going on, why are the zippers different from yesterday?
It took me a second to process but in my hurry, I had grabbed my camera bag…
I get back into my car…Go back to my house grab my computer bag…Kiss my wife… get back to the Starbucks…Its almost 9am now! I am really out of my element
then I reach for my phone to make my mobile order….I left that in my car…go to my car…ok…Go to order my grande blonde americano…Black
And I go to my recent orders and accidentally order something that I had gotten for someone else…
So I am at Starbucks…an hour late…with a drink thats too sweet…But I paid for it so I am too proud to walk up and say I accidentally ordered the wrong drink
And I was like…I wish I could just re-start this day…
Its such a small thing…But how many times have you been there?
How many times have you woken up and you just can’t do anything right no matter how hard you try?
And you are just like…Man I need a new day! I need a fresh start
If we were to be really honest, how many times have you in a moment of clarity looked at your life and thought…Something has to happen…
I need a new life
What I have been doing for the last…however many years just isn’t working…
I bring this up because today is Easter Sunday…It has nothing to do with bunnies and eggs, thats all just fun for the kids…
It has to do with the arrival of the cosmic new day…
Today is the day we celebrate a historical reality that Jesus lived for 33 years…He had a ministry for 3 of those years…He was crucified and died on the cross…was in the grave for three days and then on that third day..>he walked out of the grave…
It’s the moment in history that transcends history…because its not just a historical event…It demands a response from us!
So let’s look at this right now
John 20
John 20
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. 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!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.
This Starts by saying, early on the first day of the week…while it was still dark
Nothing John writes is a mistake…It is all on purpose…
When John writes “On the first day of the week” This is both factually true…it was a Sunday but it is also strange
Jesus regularly says that he is going to die and on the third day raise again
But John is wanting us to see that what we are about to see is a cosmic first day
The resurrection of Jesus is a new day for all of humanity
The resurrection of Jesus is a new day for all of humanity
Not every historical event demands a response
But this historical event is different. I mean all through the New Testament, the Authors are like…hey if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead this is all meaningless…But not only did they affirm the resurrection of Jesus they went to their graves for it.
Easter isn’t just a day of fun for the kids, its much much bigger than all of that: It’s a new first day for creation
It’s an invitation into that new first day…And as we go though this story today I hope that you see that the resurrection account is a new first day for you…
The text says on the first day of the week while it was still dark!
Look the entire book of John is prefaced with this verse:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
When john says, while it was still dark…
He is painting this amazing picture…
Darkness in the book of John means there is no hope…Darkness is the realm of the devil
Darkness is what was over the earth in Genesis 1 before God said let there be light!
John is saying this is a new day and guess what…Darkness can never win against light
Light always has the last word…
And you know what darkness is in your life
Shame you can't escape
Sin you keep repeating
Regret over your past
Fear about your future
Doubt about God
And John is super clear in his gospel that Jesus is the light of the world
so with that we actually get to our second fill-in
Easter is the declaration that darkness never gets the last word.
Easter is the declaration that darkness never gets the last word.
I know it…Some days it feels like darkness wins
Some days it feels like nothing goes right
Some days you grab your camera bag instead of your computer bag
But John was there and he is writing to remind you that although it looked like their lives were in complete darkness, although their friend, their rabbi had died…Although it looked like darkness won
It didn’t
The light was coming
The stone was rolled away!
But still the theory up until this point is that it was grave robbers…
I mean that would be the logical thing…
But This is a new day! A day where darkness gets extinguished
so the disciples start rushing toward the tomb
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now there is a lot to say about Peter and John here that I will leave for another time.
But here is what I want you to notice.
John is the author here…he is the one who outran Peter to the tomb and he said about himself “He saw and believed”
What did he see? Because he didn’t even see Jesus yet…
So what did John see?
John saw an empty grave and the grave clothes…
And by the way the grave clothes were laying there…exactly where they would be if jesus had just passed right though them…
So John believed that something amazing happened, he just didn’t fully grasp it…
But then immediately afterwards John will write: They still did not understand from the scripture that Jesus had to raise from the dead
Well what is that scripture?
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
Jesus talked about the scriptures being all about him! and his coming
So the faithful one in Psalm 16 is Jesus
So the disciples saw this…The believed in jesus…They didn’t quite understand what they believed and then they ran back to where they were staying
See John and Peter got to the empty tomb and what they experienced was that this was a new day for humanity
Because it was a new day for him
He saw the empty tomb and believed
I want you to catch what is happening here….. the scene starts in darkness and it is getting brighter and brighter
More and more hope is coming in
So now Peter and John go back to tell the disciples that something happened…they believed but were not quite sure what happened yet but Mary Magdalene was still there
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
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.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
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.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
It was the first day…
It wasn’t just any Sunday…
It was like when Jesus died…The old world died with him and on the first day…
This is the first day of a brand new creation
And the scene keeps getting brighter and brighter
See Mary is outside the tomb and she is in darkness
She is crying
But then amazingly…She has what we call in the Bible a Theophany…That is when God breaks in to an ordinary scene….And in the middle of her grief Mary experienced a new day!
Mary is left alone at the tomb and when she looks in she sees two angels then outside there is a man who she mistakes for the gardener that is actually Jesus
It’s like all the sudden John wants us to think of the garden…
Where God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of day…
because Mary encounters these angels, she is in a garden and all of the sudden Jesus is there and she thinks that he is just a gardener
And God meets Mary in the middle of her grief
Mary has no sense that this is in fact the risen Jesus…She just thinks he is a gardener
Jesus asks Mary: Who is it you are looking for?
It’s an existential question
It’s deeper than you might realize
What kind of messiah are you looking for?
One that will kick out the Romans?
One that will make you rich?
One that will make you happy?
One that will make you famous?
Who are you looking for?
Or Maybe its a question that asks…Is your view of God too small?
I mean probably Mary didn’t have a view of Jesus as one who can overcome the grave
The resurrection of Jesus begs us to ask the question: Who is Jesus and who am I looking for?
The resurrection of Jesus begs us to ask the question: Who is Jesus and who am I looking for?
And then Jesus said her name: Mary! And instantly she heard his voice and looked up and saw that it was Jesus
In an instant Mary’s darkness turns to light…
Whatever the cause of Mary’s blindness…her non-recognition of Jesus…It goes away when Jesus calls her by name
Her heart is filled with Joy because it is her rabbi and he is alive
Its just another moment that confirms…The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In this moment it is a reminder of who she is really searching for.,.
She is searching for the messiah who knows her by name
Jesus would say 10 chapters earlier when he was talking about the good shepherd
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Jesus calls Mary by name
But that next verse in John 10
is this
…and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Not only did Jesus know the name of Mary
But Mary knew the voice of God in here life
She recognized Jesus’ voice!
I mean let’s pause and look at this scene in a big way…
The two big dogs….John and Peter were just at the tomb and they ran away..Basically leaving this poor woman in her grief at the tomb.
She can’t grasp all that is happening…She is crying…>She is in despair Mary is having a bad day and she needs a new day
Guys its those moments when you are out of clever ideas, its those times when you have nothing left
It is those moments when you have no power when God shows up in your life
It’s when he showed up for Mary and when he shows up he calls her by name!
He know’s Mary’s name
he know’s your name
And I don’t know where you’re at today but maybe you are like Mary you are just in the middle of it.
Walking through a tough time…It’s tough to see a way out…Its tough to see hope. Jesus is here calling you by name!
So lets look what happens next…
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.’ ”
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.
Mary’s whole agenda here was to find Jesus’ body
But Jesus calls her by name and then gives her a job to do…And here is what is crazy.
He sent her to give good news to the other disciples.
In the earliest christian traditions Mary Magdalene was give the title, The “Apostle to the apostles” Jesus trusted her with the good news that he was alive
The Eastern Orthodox tradition called Mary “Holy Myrrh-Bearer” Which means “equal to the apostles”
Unfortunately in 591 AD pope Gregory made an error in biblical interp. and conflated Mary with the Mary of Bethany and the unnamed sinful woman in Luke’s gospel resulting in calling Mary a prostitute. There is no evidence of this….
Mary is the first person chosen to cary the news about the resurrection of the son of God. This is a big deal!
What I love about God choosing Mary to share the good news of his resurrection is not only is this a serious redemption of women in scripture but…The poor woman was having a tough day…She needed a new day
and not only did she get that, but for the rest of history, she was redeemed.
let’s look at what happened next
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Here is what I love about this scene…
Mary must have told the disciples about Jesus being alive
But they are still in this upper room with a locked door in fear
These guys needed a new day
I mean the same people who killed Jesus could kill them too
And then just as jesus passed through his burial clothes he passes through a locked door and says peace be with you!
šâlōm ‘ālêḵem…peace be with you….Still a common greeting today
And what Jesus says to them is to first empower and embolden them
He commissions them and send them…He says…Just as the father sends me, I am sending you out and then he breaths on them…
I know this might sound odd but it recalls this amazing moment from the garden of Eden where man was formed from the dust of the ground and then sent off to care for the garden
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
This is both a picture of the intimacy that God wants with humanity and the commissioning of humanity
Jesus is now telling his disciples…Your life is not on your own power any more
When Jesus breathes on them, it's Genesis all over again.
New creation.
New life.
New humanity.
And from the very beginning the church had a way of stepping into that new life.
They called it baptism.
It is leaving your sin and your shame in the water….And coming out to a new day!
So now Jesus is commissioning his disciples to do what he did!
Your life is now animated by my spirit
and I am sending you out to do what I did…
Don’t mis-interpret this verse…To the untrained eye it make us sound like we are the judges of who is forgiven and who is not…It makes it look like we have a ton of power…But he told the disciples basically go and do what I did
What did Jesus do on the cross?
he forgave sins
So he is saying…..Go and do what I did
he even says if you don’t forgive then the sins won’t be forgiven but the point is…How horrible is that to have unforgiven sin!
See because I rose from the dead, now go in my power
Do not be afraid
Do now cower
Instead go out in the boldness of my spirit and forgive those who need forgiveness
The ultimate new day is to live in the power and presence of Jesus
The ultimate new day is to live in the power and presence of Jesus
There is one more story here this morning…
We don’t now why but the disciple Thomas wasn’t there when all of this happened So a week after the resurrection of Jesus we see these verses
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. 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; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Thomas needed a new day in his life…
Everyone else was excited, filled with the sprit
But Thomas was just filled with doubt
Do you know that Thomas is the patron saint of skeptics.
He’s the guy who says:
“I’m not believing this unless I see it myself.”
And do you know what Jesus does?
He doesn't shame Thomas.
He shows up.
Some of you today are like Thomas.
You’re not angry at God.
You’re just not convinced yet.
But here’s the good news:
Jesus is not afraid of your questions.
he’s not threatened by it…He says come to me with your doubt and your questions! and I will give you a new day!
The apostle Paul would later have to tell the church the significance of this day
and he would sum it up by saying this
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The offer of Jesus is always a new life
and you guys the resurrection of Jesus demands a response from us
I mean I believe we are responsible for what we know…And the story of the first resurrection demands a response.
Just like Paul told the church
Just like Paul told the church
Jesus died for your sin. so you can be made new
He walked out of the grave to give you a new day
And because he lives, your past does not have to define you.
The resurrection means darkness never gets the final word.
Today we have three people (10:30am) who want to get baptized because they have already come to Jesus and said, I need a new day
If your here today and you have said I need a new day…
1. I want to invite you to hand your life over to the one who rose from the grave…
I want to invite you to surrender.
I want to invite you to start living in the power of Jesus and his resurrection rather than your own.
The Resurrection demands a response…so if thats you today…You need a new day, I want to invite you to stand!
Lets’s pray
2. Maybe your here and you believe in Jesus but you have never physically stepped into that new day
Make baptism the physical step into the new day.
In the early church when someone believed this message, they didn't wait months.
They didn't schedule it for later.
They stepped into water that same day.
Because baptism is the moment where you say:
“My old life is gone.”
“My sin is buried with Jesus.”
“And today is the first day of my new life.”
When you go under the water it represents Jesus going into the grave.
And when you come out of the water it represents resurrection.
A new day.
So today you have a choice.
You can walk out of here the same way you walked in.
Or today can be your first day.
If you are ready to follow Jesus…
If you are ready for your sin to be forgiven…
If you are ready for a new beginning…
we have water ready right now.
The tomb is empty.
Jesus is alive.
And today can be the first day of the rest of your life.
Who is ready for a new day?
