Go all the way in.lakeview

John 20:1–10 NIV

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. 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.

Pray.

Opening illustration

Does anyone have trouble trying to commit to anything? Yeah that’s me. Like when I go to a restaurant, I can never order anything different, first of all. When I know I like something, why run the risk of ordering something that you wont like. Ok so when trying to order and I cannot decide on anything. I have to wait for the waiter to come to the table and then I can order because my urge to be a people pleaser and not cause the waiter to stand there awkwardly is the only thing great than my inability to choose anything. It is a real mess.

And sometimes our non committal can get us hurt.

Middle school tackling drill. Kenderick Lamar. Almost killed me

Or worse. I spent most of my life dancing on the edge of the Christian faith….I just could not find a way to step far enough in and it led me down a dark road.

Difficulty committing in the story.

1. Text: describe what is going on.

1. Mary Magdalene makes it close enough to see that the tomb is open…someone has moved the stone and she bolts back to the guys. Peter and the other disciple.

a. She is worried about robbers, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

b. I love that she makes it all the way to the graveside and takes off. She does not even get to the point of peering in.

2. So now the boys take off. Peter and the other disciple take off. Little side note it seems that other disciple wanted it to be clear for ever that he won the foot race.

a. First disciple stops at entrance and peers inside. The tomb probably requires one to step down into it. All he sees are the strips of cloth and he kind of freezes it seems.

b. Then peter catches up and barges in…where he lacks in speed, he does not lack in the spiritual pride department….or at least eagerness. Now the head cloth is in full view.

c. Finally the first disciple comes in. he saw the cloth he saw the head covering. He believed.

Over the next few moments I want to talk about the different responses that we see here. The response to the resurrection is vital. But first, what do we do with the resurrection?

Resurrection is the central piece of our faith

For so many the resurrection is hard for us to understand and believe. The early church struggled with this belief too.

Paul says it himself in 1 Corinthians 15…

Paul reminds these people. Listen this resurrection of Jesus was a real thing. He appeared to Cephas (Peter), to the disciples…(they would die for it). Then over 500 hundred more and then to me before he ascended and then he says this:

1 Corinthians 15:12–19 NIV

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Without a literal, physical, bodily resurrection of jesus and the promise of resurrection found in the truth of today….our faith means nothing. If death is still final then we are still held subject to the one end that no one can out run. There is no answer for cancer, shootings, evil in the world. There is no answer for addiction, for broken marriages. And if we are honest with our selves….this whole “try really hard and we can make it out of this thing I am facing—it aint working.”

There is no self-help book, no dieting plan, nothing that will ever bring salvation like an empty tomb.

In Jesus, God intends to make all things new…to restore what was broken. Resurrection is the kingdom of heaven breaking into our world. And when we understand that we understand that there is so much more for us in the resurrection tomb. We have work to do….

“Christian speech falls apart without Easter////Resurrection is the verb that makes Christian language coherent. And yet there are still so many of us that stand on the margins wondering if we really believe in this bodily resurrection thing.

This is the lynch pin. You remove this block from our faith and everything comes crashing down.

What is really cool, you get to see some skepticism from the disciples as well....

Going into the tomb

Look at what happens when they go to the tomb.

And in that we might see our reaction as well.

I think we might be able to find ourselves in the story today. And listen I am taking some poetic license here, these people in the stories at some point come to a full response to the gospel to the point that they give their entire life to it.

Mary Magdalene: First one the scene, scared to find out what is inside

How many of us today are standing in the vicinity of the resurrection tomb? Like we can see it over there. But we are worried what might happen if we get to close. Like church people are weird. And all I can think about is my aunt sally is God bless this and God bless that, and Praise God after she eats a PB&J sandwich…. Or I have been close enough and when I tried to get close people hurt me.

Beloved Disciple: Hanging out on the front porch of faith

Or how many of stayed just on the outside. Close enough to peer in. We can see the resurrection cloths laying there. We have heard testimony and we have seen God do some neat things, but maybe this resurrection thing isn’t for me. We have allowed a spouse or a family member to be the God liaison for us. Or maybe we are afraid of what healing might feel like, or what God might ask us to lay down.

Peter: Eager but still oblivious

How many of us have us have walked right into the tomb and have not grasped the resurrection…not the power…not the healing….not the purpose… we have been in church, done the bible studies, tried it, but the more God things we did it didn’t seem to matter.

Today is an opportunity to go further in the resurrection tomb. It is when we go all the way into the grave that we find resurrection. When we let go of the rat race and the attempt to fix it ourselves, when we give God our marriage, and addiction, and our careers, and our lives. Because he is inviting us to participate in the kingdom breaking into our life right now.

“I am Struggling to Believe”

I have been there friends. Here is my hope, that you might come to know this God that Peter is preaching about in Jerusalem.

That you would come to know that God created you with identity and purpose. He created you to be his son and daughter. Not just in the familial sense like we think of. But God wanted you to be the first born. The one that would create and lead and steward in his name in the world. That you would carry his agency in the world.

And in our lives and throughout history we have made it clear that with that agency and freedom we often choose ourselves. If you think I am wrong think about marriage or any long partnership, working relationship you have been in....or think back to when you had your best friend as a roommate.

Goodness....this is hard because we choose ourselves and its not necessarily that we are then bad children that God is ashamed of (though it carries that), it is more that God knew what we were called to be, full of love for others and full of love from God and we have not gotten to live into that.

So he showed us the way.

Jesus. Not just a symbol, not just an example, but a real historical person. Non Christian historians talk about this person and the movement born around him. This movement claims that this person is in fact their God come to not do what gods do....destroy, conqueror, win, or even be popular, but to truly live, truly love, to suffer, and to die.

This Jesus had very strong things to say about God, about the kingdom of heaven, and about us. These things have consequences and possibility about who we might be with him.

This Jesus is claimed to have died and then defeated death. The one end no one could flee. And when he rose again, it wasnt just physical death that was conquered but it was the spiritual death of that separation we have experienced being buried.

This movement, it created something that has never stopped. No regime, no amount of persecution, no amount of failure, backbiting and ugly, no amount of schism, political mess, no amount of human error could stand in the way of this kingdom that Jesus spoke of.

Friend, you may not fear God. You may not fear hell. You may not even fear being bad. My parents and grandparents responded to those things.

But I wonder if you desire clarity of identity?

Friends, this identity is not based on performance, or party lines, or achievement, or success, but it is received…given.

Written on your bones, and set free in Christ.

How do we believe?

We believe by the fellowship:

look at the text again.....

1 John 1:2–4 NIV

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

John says the most amazing thing here, the life appeared..... we have seen and touched and heard and listened.... in other words,

But do you get the scandal, he is saying the eternal one, the word of life, is in our small group, in our fellowship and he is inviting you to join.

If believing in the resurrection makes your brain hurt, its ok, it does me too.

Augustine says “If you can’t understand, believe, and then you’ll understand.”

God’s trustworthiness is verified by experience.

That doesn’t mean that Christian belief is an irrational leap into the dark. It is more like tasting a dish that you have never tried. You have seen other people enjoying it; you have read the reviews; the chef swears you’ll like it. There are good grounds for trusting, but you will never know for sure until you try it. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” sings the psalmist (Ps 34:8). The first act is an act of trust that gives rise to ever-increasing certainty, which in turn nourishes a deeper and a more knowledgeable trust.

This is not blind faith, let me try another illustration.

Blind, irrational thing would be to say “there is a stool behind me.”

But now. There is a stool and I cannot see it....

I believe in Jesus.