How will you respond?

ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE

This is the event that defines all other events.

Near death experience

life saving surgery

WE: IDENTIFICATION (MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU STRUGGLE)

How will we respond?

There are people who reject church:

Maybe we were made to go and they never made a connection.

The witness of the church didn’t connect with the gospel they heard?

Church is run the same old way and they don’t connect.

Church offended them.

If the resurrection is so powerful why don’t be smile and are happy, joyful.

Why do we hear more of what the church is against and less about what they are for.

GOD: ILLUMINATION (THE GOAL IS TO RESOLVE THE TENSION

I. circumstance can color what we see.

A. illustration: Learning how to ride a bike

Mom and no training well

My relatives ability to run aside of us

We learned how to fall and that was not fun

B. The disciples were shocked, fearful and in pain

Mary was shocked, in pain and could no erase the memory of what she saw.

could you imagine that her sabbath was filled with thoughts tears and prayers to God.

Early

d. no woman would travel alone to the tombs it would be very dangerous.

20 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.

Mary’s return to the tomb (along with other women) indicates that Jesus’ burial on Friday was done in some haste or that the women did not know about the preparations completed by Joseph and Nicodemus (19:40).

Mary’s discovery that the tomb door has been rolled to one side suggested immediately to her that someone has entered the tomb.

Mary’s report to Peter and “the other disciple” (presumably the Beloved Disciple or John, also mentioned in 13:23; 18:15–16; 19:35) conveys something of her dismay and fear. The reference to “they” (“they have taken the Lord”) likely refers to the temple authorities (cf. chs. 18–19), Jesus’ opponents who now (possibly) have done something further to him.

d. She panics and ran to the disciples

One of the illuminating things in this story is that Peter was still the acknowledged leader of the apostolic band. It was to him that Mary went. In spite of his denial of Jesus—and a story like that would not be long in being broadcast—Peter was still the leader. We often talk of Peter’s weakness and instability, but there must have been something outstanding about a man who could face his fellow men after that disastrous crash into cowardice;

What follows is an unusual description comparing the two men and their examination of the tomb. The Beloved Disciple arrives first, does not enter, and sees the burial clothes. Peter arrives second, steps into the tomb, and sees the burial clothes in greater detail. Then the other disciple enters, and when he sees everything alongside Peter, he “believes.” Oddly the story is silent about the faith of Peter.1

C. Peter and John ran to the tomb

a. one could think they were jogging together to the tomb

b. they were running with all they had.

3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there,

7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus'[a] head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;

9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.

II. Human need

Peter with typical impulsiveness not only looked in, but went in. For the moment, Peter was only amazed at the empty tomb; but things began to happen in John’s mind. If someone had removed Jesus’ body, if tomb-robbers had been at work, why should they leave the grave-clothes?

Then something else struck him—the grave-clothes were not dishevelled and disarranged. They were lying there still in their folds—that is what the Greek means—the clothes for the body where the body had been; the napkin where the head had lain1

The part that love plays in this story is extraordinary. It was Mary, who loved Jesus so much, who was first at the tomb. It was John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and who loved Jesus, who was first to believe in the resurrection. That must always be John’s great glory. He was the first man to understand and to believe. Love gave him eyes to read the signs and a mind to understand.1

Believe

Believe

to consider someth. to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust, believe

πιστεύω (pisteuō). vb. to trust; to believe; to be faithful. This verbal form expresses the idea of trust in or faithfulness to someone or something.

This is the most frequent verb in the nt concerning faith or trust. It can be used to indicate believing facts (e.g., believing that God raised Jesus from the dead;

III. Mary

This whole story is scatterd with indications of her love,

It is interesting to me Mary’s actions. Weeping and then looking in the tomb. I see a woman in emotional pain. She can barely comprehend what she sees. I think they all felt similar. (Frank)

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Mary of Magdala is hardly in Jesus’ inner circle when compared with the apostles; yet angels who refuse to appear to the two men now unveil themselves to her as she examines the tomb

They do not solve the riddle of Jesus’ disappearance but by their question (“Woman, why are you crying?”) they suggest that sorrow is not what the present moment requires.1

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,[b] “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

John notes how Mary alone experiences the first and most profound moment with the resurrected Jesus once the two disciples have departed for home

But it is their presence that is telling. It has not been robbers who removed the body.

Rather, what has happened here stems from God’s power.

The scene buttresses once more that the tomb is evidence that Jesus is not dead—but it also interprets it, saying, in effect, that we are seeing divine involvement that validates the truth of Jesus

The tomb is now history, it is a cave to be disregarded (as it was among the earliest Christians), and only the living Jesus matters.

18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

IV. You

A. My salvation story

a. Richard parks and double dating

b. almost fell down a quarry

c. hanging out with Christians, they were different

d. we had to go to church Sunday evening or we couldn’t go out.

e.. born again Sunday School teacher

f. Movie For Pete Sake, witnessed my first Altar call in a movie theater.

g. I saw what Christ did in the lives of others.

H. my surrender

B. your turn

YOU: APPLICATION (TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO AND WHAT THEY HAVE HEARD)

Salvation

renewal

Be more open to the gospel