To Ready Something New

Introduction:

‘Unfinished Business’—Jesus’ last acts before ascension

John 20-21

‘Unfin. Bus.’ more attn.-grabbing than literal… Jesus’ only had 40 days, examine who he visited & what he did, acc. to John’s account.

Speaking of Unf. Bus… clear up one thing from last week:

Love enemies =/= capitulate or support their cause

Seeing value in a person who disagrees (worldview)

Not seeing value in their way of viewing world.

Culture: Treating some1 well = agree’g w/ everything || X and Phar’s!

Hopefully give you context or even grace… but not mean have to support same things

WRONG to blindly assign blame or think badly of person based on group or ideology

RIGHT to condemn/call out ideology or way of thinking that goes against Word.

1/2 time the person you disagree w/ thinks they are in right, helping others; makes them dangerous, but also pitiable…

ok. Wanted to address that quick b4 we got started today…

Let’s hit our passage for this week’s Unfinished Business

John 20:10–18 “[Peter and John left Jesus’ empty tomb &] went back to where they were staying. Now Mary [Magdelene] 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”). 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.”

B4 we get into Jesus’ Unf. Bus. today: Highlight lesson from our passage:

Waiting on Jesus Reaps Tangible Benefits!

John 20:10–11 “Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb”…

John and Peter ran to the tomb in the verses just prior to this.

Went in, stayed outside, saw Jesus’ graveclothes; one even BELIEV’D!

But they ran off after they saw the evidence.

Sure, probably went to tell others; had lots of plans to make & things to do.…

Lots of really great intentions and ideas…

But they missed out on the physical enc.; real tangible experience

Mary M. just stayed—lingered, waited at the tomb—and she experienced the real risen Lord; a personal encounter!

Psalm 40:1–2 “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

Sometimes we need to stop the hustle & bustle. Take time to pause (as unproductive as it feels). (Psalm 40)

Like Mary, it was in the quiet stillness—just her and her emotions—that Jesus came to her.

Often, we rush to the evidence or the fix-it-quick solution and we actually miss Jesus in the middle.

We can spend years learning more or knowing more or understanding the gospel better—working to earn some greater right’ss—and miss the simple joys of spending time w/ Jesus.

STOP, like Mary, and wait at his feet

Sit and think and pray instead of acting right away

Consider all angles before responding

Think before you speak—no matter how DIRE the situation feels.

Oft'times, we make matters worse when we jump in, open big mouth, say that thing we think we need to, instead of considering our actions or person engaged w/.

Let Jesus provide a way through that we never thought!

TODAY: Jesus’ Unf. Bus. is a reminder that we stand on the shoulders of a huuuge change

The moments we are reading about in John 20-21 (even later: Acts) represent a big shift in the salv. plan, how people related to Father God/YHWH.

Jesus calls us to step into something New with Him!

Jesus Initiates Something New!

John 20:17 “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.’ ””

No fault of hers, Mary was trying to relate to Jesus exactly as she had Friday (+before).

“This was how it was! This is my same Jesus/teacher/master! It’s going to be like it used to be!”

By telling her not to cling, Jesus was saying, "Don't hold onto the past version of our relationship, because I am upgrading it."

COVID: “NEW NORMAL”, negative example…

Society today, March 15th, 2020 defining day—Went to church on Sunday, woke up lockdown on Mon.

“New Normal” & we rebelled, pushed back, were certainly didn’t want to admit that anything changed.

Truth is—everything did change.

Had opp. to run with it & change too (not like culture wanted), but let Jesus work in us.

Instead, true 4 me, pursued “back to normal”

Ran toward what we were used to instead of how God might change us

Missed opportunity for something new!

Jesus was forecasting to Mary M that something new was initiating.

That involves interacting w/ God a new way—not relying on old means for giving info:

1. Don’t Cling to your Emotions

John 20:2. “So [Mary] 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!”

Now, I don’t want to fault Mary too much here.

Her emotions are emotions and so they are valid, important, but ultimately not helpful.

At first, she spreads just the biggest assumption: “They’ve taken him!”

Understandable she’d feel that way! Makes sense…

But honestly, it created a panic over nothing.

It’s easy to go overboard in either extreme with how we we relate to our emotions as a Christian.

Ex: I was raised in evang. climate that seemed to say, “deny your emotions”.

If you have them, they are wrong, lead you to wrong path. Shove them away and pay no mind…

Can definitely cherry-pick Bible verses to get you to that point. Grew up hearing them.

Also leads to plenty of repression and host of other misspent energy to deny self full range of human XP

Reason: Culture at large was leaning toward, “let your heart be your guide”.

Esp. true today! Logic & biology often disregarded when determining ‘ID’!

It’s true: emotions are not the best indicator for where to go. ID-crisis proof of that…

And so church cult. pushed back!

Full truth is much more nuanced.

"Feelings are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate where your heart is in the moment, but that doesn't mean they have the right to dictate your behavior and boss you around." — “Unglued”, Lysa TerKeurst

I have uncharacteristically bad sens of dir.

6th gr. camp—Got lost on compass merit! Missed whole next activity.

My internal sense of dir.—"gut feeling"—told me that the parking lot is back that way.

You feel it in your bones with 100% certainty. But the GPS/compass points in the exact opposite direction.

I trustd the feeling in my gut and was really bad at reading the compass!

And so I got lost in the woods and lead my group astray.

Our emotions are exactly like that internal sense of direction. In the moment, they feel 100% true. They scream, "This is the way things are!"

But just because you feel something intensely doesn't make it the true.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Emotions make good barometers (assess the temp, humid, of the room at that moment) & bad compasses.

Feelings can show us how our body is responding right there, but they’re trying to keep us safe—not forecast correct info.

Feelings are good in the right context… don’t trust them to lead you to truth.

We can’t cling to our Emotions, Jesus leads us into a way that might be scary, but is still good. Secondly >>

2. Don’t Cling to your Five Senses

On the opposite side of the ‘emotions’ debate would be the empirical evid. side

All that we can see and test is real.

This was a very real and problematic sentiment in the late 70’s into the early ‘00s:

New Atheism popular camp to be in

Still lingers in modern society in a real way

Empirical evidence, likewise, not bad.

Eventually, evidence is going to fall short and you’ll miss out on believing in real metaphysical truth.

AP says that the thing that should drive us, direct us, move us in this life is FAITH.

2 Corinthians 5:6–7,9 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight… “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”

He starts by pointing out that there is currently a divide between our physical bodies and Christ.

Means we are going to experience things in this dimension WAY different than Christ…

And that means we can’t always trust our phys. bodies/senses to lead us to ultimate truth! Something more out there.

The resurrection, Creation ex-nihilo, divine judgt, god’s existence, etc. etc…

some more contingent on our faith than others!

In our faith walk, we’ll be confronted with things that contradict our senses or are difficult (impossible) to prove.

Philosophy only gets your so far, too! Pastor to the Hebs says this:

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

In order to be in relationship with God, you must believe that he exists and he’s interacting with humanity.

There are some basics when we come to the table of religion that we can’t prove and require trust in God.

Jesus asks things of us that require trust in Him.

Part of relating rightly to Jesus means listening to His will/dir. for your life.

You won’t follow Him well if you don’t trust Him, don’t have faith.

Many mom’ts of Jesus’ ministry that he demanded or pulled faith out of the person he was ministering to.

And evidence/senses will come short where faith prevails!

In very real sense, Mary was physically clinging to the physical Jesus.

He was previewing: you won’t have this physical body to rely on soon.

I’m going to be joining you in Spirit…

We can’t fully rely on emotions, OR physical senses. Lastly, >>

3. Don’t Cling to your Desires

One great thing that Jesus’ departure did for his Followers (Xians) is reorient our desires.

John 16:8–11 “When [the Spirit] comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

When we accept X’s invite & find salv., HS takes residence and changes our hearts’ desires

Rather, begins the process to mold those desires.

Great sign of tranf. Xian life: desires begin to look more like Jesus.

Changing ‘old’ appetites to meet Jesus.

Old sexual desires, old food habits, old desires of getting MY WAY, old desires to defend and justify self.

As we’ve seen in the “Red Letters”, Jesus calls us to a higher standard than our human default: Isaiah 55:8-9.

Isaiah 55:8–9 ““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Mary had the desire to reach out and hug Jesus—and right desire—but X was initiating a new era!

Physical touching X was not going to be possible!

Likewise, our desires need to be in check. Just bc you feel like you ‘NEED’ it or you WANT it, doesn’t mean that it’s the best plan.

Anecdote? Desire one thing… worked out poorly!

So what do we do in life? How do we walk this out in principle??

Cling to the Holy Spirit

John 16:7 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

It is for OUR GOOD that Jesus ascended and left His Spirit.

We have something better than the physical Jesus in our hearts!

Hard to imagine, but X had real practical (human) limitations,

Holy Spirit able to spread and multiply globally (in the hearts of those who believe)!

Mary was very interested in the old way of relating to her Savior:

Jesus says, "Do not cling to me." He is telling her, Don't hold onto the old version of our relationship, because I am rolling out the ultimate upgrade.

But Jesus tells her to let go.

He had to ascend so that the Spirit could descend—He was taking the localized ministry of one man and expanding it to build the global Church.

We can't cling to what God was doing if we want to be part of what He is going to do.

So how do we ‘cling to’ the Holy Spirit? This new gift; new way of relating?

The early church was figuring this out as well.

I think the bottom line is to…

Spend time with Him.

The more time we choose to devote to the Spirit (praying, listening, seeking) the clearer we’ll hear his voice.

Galatians 5:25 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Theological ponderings

Action Steps

Prayer focus

ommittal?

Altar time?

Salvation call?