JESUS CHRIST: RESURRECTED, RESURRECTOR, AND JUDGE – John 5:26-29

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INTRODUCTION:

There is much we can learn from little children. They are so eager to learn, and so straight-forward in their conversations with adults. Here is a case in point. It was Sunday morning and the church service was over. A little girl had been taught about the second coming of Christ and was quizzing her mother. “Mommy, do you believe Jesus will come back?” “Yes”. “Today?” “Yes.” “In a few minutes?” “Yes, dear.” “Mommy, would you comb my hair?”

That little girl thought her mother was paying close attention to what she was saying and was answering her clearly, so she wanted to look her best when she meets Jesus! How about you? Do you want to look your best when you meet Jesus? That topic of conversation is appropriate to the passage of Scripture we are now studying: John 5:26-29. Jesus mentions five resurrections in verses 24-29 and we examined the first two, which the Lord Jesus described in verses 24-25. The spiritual regeneration and resurrection of believers was described by Jesus in verse 24, and the physical resurrections from the dead by the words of Jesus are predicted in verse 25 and will be happening soon. There are three more resurrections described by the Lord Jesus in the order of their occurrence. Jesus is sharing that information as further proof to the Jews that He is the Son of God. Let’s take a look at those resurrections, one-at-a-time.

I. THE THIRD RESURRECTION: HIS OWN (verse 26)

In verse 26 we find these words spoken by Jesus: “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.” You may wonder, “What does that verse have to do with the resurrection of Christ?” “The word ‘resurrection’ isn’t even mentioned in that verse!” That’s a good question! Let’s see if we can find a satisfactory answer. The Lord Jesus uses a similar expression in John 10:17-18. “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I have received from My Father.”

Putting these two passages of Scripture together, Jesus is saying that He always existed with the Father. No one gave Him life because He has always had it, from all eternity. Only God could say that truthfully. Therefore only Jesus could lay down His life and take it back up again. Warren Wiersbe puts it this way: “Our life was derived, but His life is original.” As John 1:4 says, “In Him was life”. That’s why Jesus could say, in John 2:19, when the Jews asked for a sign after Jesus cleansed the temple, “Destroy this temple (His body), and in three days I will raise it up.”

We have looked at Scripture passages which seem to point to the fact that Jesus raised Himself from the dead by His own power. But the question, “Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead”, hasn’t been completely answered yet. There are other passages of Scripture that seem to disagree with that conclusion. Let’s take a look at some of those other Scriptures and see if we can resolve the issue once we get a good look at it.

Acts 10:40 says, “God raised Him on the third day”. In Romans 6:4, the apostle Paul says, “Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father”. In Romans 8:11, Paul says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dwells in you . . . “. So who raised Jesus from the dead? Was it God, the Father, the Holy Spirit, or Christ Himself?

You may disagree with the next statement, but keep reading. God is not a Person. God is a title that is given to the divine nature or essence. So when the term “God” is used, it represents all three Persons in the divine essence: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That helps us understand Acts 10:40, which says that “God raised Him”, but what about the Scriptures that speak specifically of the Father and the Spirit raising Jesus from the dead? I’m convinced that it was a cooperative effort, and the apostle John wanted to make that clear.

This is not the first time that all three Persons in the Trinity are mentioned. I’ve found that each of the three members of the Trinity is mentioned in every “major event” in history (from God’s perspective). Creation was the first “major event”, and all three are mentioned as participating (Genesis 1:2; 1:26; John 1:3). The words spoken by God, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness“, tell us that God wants us to know, right from the beginning of the Scriptures, that He is a plurality. The Jews knew that; one of the Hebrew words for God in the Old Testament Scriptures is the word “Elohim” which is plural. The second “main event” was the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. Luke 1:35 says, “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most-High will overshadow you.” Jesus was the “Seed of the Woman” Who was implanted in Mary’s womb (Genesis 3:17). I think that God wanted those particular words to be spoken to Mary so that she would know that this was the true and living God who was going to accomplish this miracle in her. The third “main event” was the baptism of Jesus, which marked the beginning of His public ministry. It’s recorded in all four gospels. Together with Jesus was the “voice of the Father, and the Holy Spirit descending as a Dove and resting upon Him.” Can you imagine what that scene must have looked like? The heavens opened up, causing everyone to look up into the sky. What they see is a dove descending out of heaven and they hear a booming voice say, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased” (Luke 3:21-22). The fourth “main event” is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, as we have already seen. His resurrection was so irrefutably true that the elders and the chief priests of the Jews gave a large sum of money to the guards and said, “you are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep’ ” (Matthew 28:11-15). In each of those major events in the Scriptures, God wanted it to be known that the God of heaven and earth is a Trinity composed of three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

II. THE FOURTH RESURRECTION: TO ETERNAL LIFE (verses 27-29a)

In verse 27, Jesus says of God the Father, “and He gave Him (Jesus) authority to exercise judgment, because He is the Son of Man.” He’s telling the Jews that He has been given the authority to judge all men, and it’s based on the claim that He is the “Son of Man”. Evangelist Billy Sunday said in one of his sermons, “There are two hundred and fifty-six names given in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ.” I’ll take his word for it! The Jews knew very well what Jesus was saying about Himself when He used the name “Son of Man”. The prophet Daniel used those words in Daniel 7:13-14 as he was describing visions He had.

“I kept looking at the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like the Son of Man was coming
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

The Jews listening to Jesus’ words knew that He was again claiming to be the Messiah. If His claim was true, then He had the right and the authority to judge the world.

Having made that claim again, the Lord Jesus continues, in verses 28-29, to describe the events and judgments that are going to take place in the future by the voice of His mouth. In verse 28 He says, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice”. Notice that Jesus begins with a caution or a warning: “Do not marvel at this” as if it’s too amazing and far-fetched to be true. Think of all the amazing things God has done in the past. Jesus is speaking in the third-person, using the words “He” and “Him” instead of “I” and “Me”. He wants their focus to be on the word “Messiah” and what the prophets have declared about Him and His reign as King and Judge of all the earth.

Then Jesus does say something amazing: “all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice.” The dead can’t hear! They can when Jesus calls them! He’s going to be proving that claim very soon, only on a much smaller scale: one-at-a-time. But right now He’s talking about millions at one time. There are many today, and there have been many throughout the ages, who have chosen to believe that death is the end of one’s existence. You’ve probably heard the saying, “ALL DRESSED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO”. That saying is sometimes found on tombstones. But the Lord Jesus tells us that death is not a dead-end street. Rather, it is a fork in the road. Jesus is going to tell us about the two roads that split-off and continue in opposite directions forever after the road of this mortal-life ends. So we do have “someplace to go” – every one of us!

I’m going to call the first road “The Narrow Road” because, sadly, there are so few who follow it. This road or path often has much more than a “one-percent grade”, but if you ask any hiker, it can be a joyful and exhilarating experience if you bring along the right equipment, wear the proper clothing, have some fellow-hikers with you, and follow the rules. You’ll even build up some “spiritual muscles” along the way! And don’t forget to enjoy the scenery along the way, and give praise and glory to the One who created it!

The first half of verse 29 gives us a brief description of where this trail leads for the devoted followers of Jesus Christ: “those who did the good deeds to the resurrection of life.” That phrase standing alone may seem to say that “good deeds” are what get us into heaven. From the context, Jesus is saying that genuine repentance and faith in Him is going to result in a changed life, and the “good deeds” are the observable evidence of that changed life. If a person is a genuine believer, it should be obvious to the world around him. This “resurrection of life” is the resurrection of Christians and saints of the Old Testament to eternal life with no more death (Revelation 21:4). I Thessalonians 4:16-17 describes the scene. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” That is a description of the next event on the prophetic calendar. It’s referred to as the Rapture and it could happen at any moment. All believers will stand before the Judgment seat of Christ, where each of our lives will be completely reviewed (2 Corinthians 5:10), and rewards will be given for faithful service. My understanding of the “judgment seat of Christ” is that it is going to be “play-back time” for each of us believers. We are each going to be watching a re-run of our lives, and you know how you hate to watch re-runs on TV! Every thought, word, action, and attitude, whether good or bad, will pass before our eyes or in our minds before any rewards are given. We’ll consider that in more detail at the conclusion of this message.

III. THE FIFTH RESURRECTION: TO ETERNAL CONDEMNATION

The fifth and final resurrection will be the resurrection to condemnation. A father and his son were reading epitaphs on some of the gravestones in a cemetery. Every description seemed to indicate that the deceased person was in a state of bliss. After a while, the boy asked, “Daddy, where are all the wicked people buried?”

The child had a point. There are many who have lived their lives in a way that is evil in the sight of God and have refused to acknowledge their sins, and commit their lives to Jesus Christ by faith. Many enjoy their immorality and even boast of it, defying God. They live as if they don’t realize that there is an occupation many perform here on earth that is also practiced in heaven – accounting! At the end of verse 29, the Lord Jesus tells His listeners, “those who committed the evil deeds to the resurrection of judgment.”

You may be wondering: “Where are all the unbelieving dead residing until the resurrection of judgment”? Their souls are not in hell. II Peter 2:4 says, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment”. The word “hell” is the Greek word tartarus, and this is the only place it is found in the New Testament. II Peter 2:9 says, “ The Lord knows how to . . . keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.” In Luke 16:23, Jesus refers to this place as “hades”, and it is a place of torment. That’s where they are residing before the resurrection to judgment.

Billions of unrepentant, unregenerate sinners from all of mankind throughout human history will be standing before the Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be condemned to the lake of fire. You can find the description of the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20:11-15. Verse 15 says, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” You have never watched a horror movie that’s worse than the description given in those verses. Matthew 25:45 and II Thessalonians 1:8-9 tell us that it is an everlasting punishment. The prophet Amos gave the people of his day a warning when he said, “Prepare to meet your God” (Amos 4:12).

Are you prepared to meet God? Please don’t put aside or put off choosing to make the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. Consider the risks you are taking. You could die at any moment and the Lord could come at any moment. In either case, it will be too late to change your mind. There are no second chances and no loopholes.

Warren Wiersbe tells about a frontier town where a horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon. The child who was saved grew up to be a lawless man, and one day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the man who had saved his life, so he pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced his plea: “Young man, then I was your savior; today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged.”

Today, Jesus Christ wants to be your Lord and Savior if you will repent of your sins and turn your life over to His control. He gave His life in order to make that possible. Don’t put it off until you stand before Him as Judge and hear the words, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!”

If you would like to read a presentation of the Gospel message given in the Scriptures, please click the following link provided by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assoc.: https://peacewithgod.net/steps-to-peace-with-god.

Fellow Christians, in view of the coming judgment seat of Christ that awaits us, and the great white throne judgment that’s ahead for unbelievers, what should be our attitude and our focus?

I personally believe that the judgment seat of Christ should be a source of rejoicing and encouragement among believers. The Syriac expression, “maranatha” (“our Lord comes”) was used as a greeting in the early church. When believers gathered or parted, they didn’t say “hello” or “goodbye”, but “maranatha”. It was the Christian “aloha”. If we Christians had that same upward look and perspective today, it would add to our joy and anticipation in the midst of the struggles we face each day. Let’s use the coming rapture as a means of encouraging one another. The “day is drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). The judgment seat of Christ is also a reminder that, as God’s children, we are stewards of our lives, and of all that God has entrusted to us. (I Thessalonians 4:1; I Peter 4:10-11; I John 2:28; 3:3).

Brethren in Christ, don’t forget to think about and reflect upon the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20. There is a sense in which it applies to us. God is a holy God. Therefore He hates sin and pours out His wrath on guilty sinners. Look through the Old Testament. You’ll see it everywhere because His people kept turning away from Him. God hasn’t changed. He is still a holy God. To satisfy His holiness, He poured out His wrath for sin on His Son. When we repented and turned to Christ as our Lord and Savior, the judgment of God was taken away and we were declared innocent. That “turning” on our part was probably in answer to the prayers and the witness of many people.

Do you have a clear, biblical understanding of the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the great white throne judgment, and eternal condemnation in the lake of fire? If you do, it should cause you to tremble and shutter when you think of those close to you and around you who are facing eternal condemnation. They need your sincere prayers and witness. In Romans 10:1 the apostle Paul said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved.” In II Corinthians 5:20 he says, “We beg you (implore you, plead with you) on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God”. May God increase our burden to pray for the lost, and may He empower our witness as we plead with them to be reconciled to God and escape His wrath through the shed blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be ready and eager to see the Lord Jesus when He comes, and our work on this earth is over. Until then, there is much work to be done for the Kingdom of God.

CONSTRUCTION SITE: COMPLETED

Welcome to this completed construction site: John 5:26-29. Thanks for visiting. Maranatha!

THE RIGHT KIND OF FAITH – James 2:14-26

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INTRODUCTION:

Someone has said that faith is not “believing in spite of the evidence, but obeying in spite of the consequences”. When we read Hebrews 11, we meet men and women who acted upon God’s Word, no matter what the price they had to pay. Faith is not some kind of feeling that we work up, but a confidence that God’s Word is true, and that obeying it will bring God’s blessing. What kind of faith really saves a person? Is it necessary to perform good works in order to be saved? How can a person tell whether or not he is exercising true saving faith? James answers these questions by explaining to us that there are three kinds of faith, and only one of them is true saving faith.

I. DEAD FAITH (verses 14-17)

In verses 14-17, James talks about dead faith. People with dead faith substitute words for actions. They know all the right words to say during times of prayer and testimony, and can even quote the right verses from the Bible, but their actions do not measure up to their talk.

James gives a simple illustration: a poor believer came into a fellowship without proper clothing and in need of food. The person with dead faith noticed the visitor and saw his needs, but he did not do anything to meet those needs. All he did was say a few pious words: “Go in peace, be warm and be filled.” But the visitor went out just as hungry and unclothed as he came in!

In verse 14, James is saying, “Can that kind of faith save him?” What kind? The kind of faith that is never seen in practical works. The answer is “No”! Any declaration of faith that does not result in a changed life and good works is a false declaration. What kind of faith is dead faith? In verse 17, James says “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” True saving faith can never be by itself. It always brings life, and life produces good works.

In a Decision Magazine article, missionary Patrick Harris tells of his son David, who was brain-damaged. When David was very young and his family was home on furlough, many people told them, “We are praying for David.” Patrick and his wife were grateful. But one woman said, “I have Wednesday off. Give me the privilege of taking David out that day to relieve you.” Harris said, “That was what was needed – not only prayer but practical help!” An important part of praying is a willingness to be part of the answer.

II. DEMONIC FAITH (verses 18-19)

Only God can see “faith” in the heart of a person. People see our faith only by our works. Faith is like a seed planted in the ground. It is hidden from view, but if it is a living seed it will soon manifest itself by pushing its stalk up through the soil for all to see. Out of the war comes a story of faith in action. A godly chaplain in the army found a dying soldier on the battlefield, and being anxious about his salvation, he took out his Bible and said, “Shall I read a portion of Scripture for you?” But the soldier replied, “No sir, I am thirsty and need a drink of water.” At the risk of his own life, amid bursting shells, the chaplain went in search of water, and having found some, gave it to the wounded man. Then he asked again, “Shall I read some Scripture to you?” But the man replied, “No thank you, I am so cold. I am almost freezing,” The chaplain removed his own coat and wrapped it around about him, and once more asked with shivering and chattering teeth, “Now may I read to you?” Again the reply was, “No sir, I am too uncomfortable on this rough ground.” The chaplain gently lifted him up and placed him across his knees with his head in his arms and once more asked the same question. “Yes sir”, he replied, “for if what you are going to read can make a man willing to risk his own life like this to ease a dying stranger, I want to hear about it!” And there on the battlefield, he was told about Jesus who died that he might live. This is the gospel in action! This is what the world is looking for today!

Then James says in verse 19, “the demons also believe and shudder.” It comes as a shock to many people that demons have faith! What do they believe? For one thing, they believe in the existence of God. They are not atheists. They also believe in the deity of Christ. Whenever they met Christ when He was on this earth, they bore witness that He was the Son of God. They also believe in the existence of a place of punishment. They live there! Not only that, but they also recognize Jesus Christ as the Judge, and they submit to the power of His Word. Yet, knowing all that, they still rebelled against God and were condemned to hell.

In verse 19, the word “shudder” or “tremble” meant to be “rough on the surface”, “to bristle”. It has the idea of making your hair stand on end and goosebumps to appear. That’s the way the demons respond to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ!

III. GENUINE FAITH (verses 20-26)

Dead faith touches only the mind; demonic faith involves both the mind and the emotions, but genuine faith also involves the will. The whole person plays a part in true saving faith. The mind understands the truth, the emotions desire the truth, and the will acts upon the truth. Faith and works go together.

Pastor John MacArthur says it very clearly in his sermon entitled “Living Faith”. Preaching about James 2:21-26, Pastor MacArthur says: “There is a faith in God, there is a faith in Christ, there is a belief of Scripture, there is a belief of the gospel that does not save from hell. . . . It is possible to believe in God, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to even believe that what Christ did He actually did, to affirm the cross and the resurrection and never be delivered from sin and never be given eternal life. This is what James would call ‘dead faith’.” That’s what he called it in verse 17, and now he says it again in verse 20 and again in verse 26.

In verse 20, James responds to the unwillingness of his readers to recognize the connection between faith and works. He says: “You foolish fellow”. The Greek word can be translated “empty” in the sense that they are “without spiritual life”. James goes on to say, “Can’t you see that faith without works is useless”? The Greek word “arge” means “barren”, “unproductive”. Faith that fails to produce genuine works motivated by willing obedience from the heart is a dead faith. It demonstrates that it has never been alive because there has been no external evidence sufficient to remove any doubt. Righteous behavior is an inevitable result of genuine faith.

In verses 21-25 James proves his point by giving two examples of true living faith from the Old Testament: Abraham and Rahab, described as “our father” and “the harlot”. The evidence for Abraham’s genuine faith was his willing obedience to God’s command to offer up his own son, Isaac, on the altar. Because of his obedience, Galatians, chapter 3, teaches that Abraham is the spiritual father of all true believers..

James 2:22 reads, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected.” The Berkeley version says it this way: “You see how his faith cooperated with his works and how faith reached its supreme expression through his works.” Abraham’s works made his faith complete. In verse 23 Abraham is called “the friend of God”

On the opposite end of the social and moral spectrum, James now chooses Rahab as an example of true living faith. Even though Rahab was a Gentile and a prostitute, James says “Likewise also”, telling us that the illustration of Rahab teaches the same lesson about faith as the illustration of Abraham: “God saves, not because of one’s righteousness, but because of one’s faith.” Remember: only God can actually see our faith. We see genuine saving faith only by works. Rahab demonstrated her saving faith by her words to the spies in Joshua 2 saying, “… the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth below”, and by her willingness to hide the spies at the risk of her own life and the lives of her family members. Joshua 6:25 and Matthew 1:5 tell us how God blessed Rahab. She was grafted into the nation of Israel, became the wife of Salmon, and was an ancestor in the line of David and the Lord Jesus Christ. She is also mentioned in Hebrews 11 as a woman of faith.

CONCLUSION AND APPLICATION:

In verse 25, the apostle James states his conclusion one more time: “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” Do you have living faith? Do you have saving faith? Is it evident to those around you? Is it evident to you? You may have been baptized, you may have made a public or private profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be attending a church at the present time. You may be in the choir or teaching a Sunday School Class. You may be on the deacon or elder board. You could even be a pastor and not have a saving faith that manifests itself in a deepening walk with Jesus Christ and increasing joy in serving Him and obeying his Word. I’m not saying this to point the finger at anyone or embarrass anyone. I just want you to be sure if there might be any doubt. Good works are the proof that Jesus Christ is living and reigning in your life. As Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “And why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

May our faith be genuine and evident to the world around us, and may we enjoy the privilege of being children of God through faith evidenced by works (Ephesians 2:8-10).

CHRIST’S RESURRECTION AND FIRST APPEARANCE – John 20:1-18

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I. INTRODUCTION:

Christians meet together for worship and fellowship on Sunday morning because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, and Christians have been worshiping on Sunday ever since. Throughout the centuries men have tried to honor their heroes by erecting lavish monuments. The massive pyramids of Egypt were built as resting places for the Egyptian Pharaohs; the glistening Taj Mahal in India is the tomb of an Indian emperor and his favorite wife. Lenin’s tomb in Russia’s Red Square is where the body of the Marxist leader is preserved by some mysterious process, and the burial vault at Mt. Vernon is the site of George Washington’s’ body. Jesus’ simple grave can’t compare with these costly burial places. But the tomb of Jesus excels all of these in the most important respect. It’s empty! He is not there! At the heart of the Christian faith is the claim that Jesus Christ, on the third day after His death on the cross, rose from the dead and is alive forevermore. No other world religion has dared to make such a claim about its leader.

I. MARY AT THE TOMB (verses 1-2)

Let’s look at what happened in John’s Gospel on the third day after Jesus’ death on the cross. In Verse l, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb very early on the first day of the week. Luke’s Gospel tells us that Mary was bringing spices to prepare His body for burial. She must not have known that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had already done so. Why did Mary wait until the third day after Jesus’ burial? The Jewish traditions taught that the soul hovered over the body of a dead person until the third day when it finally left. Friends and family were often in the habit of going to the grave up to the third day, when corruption was supposed to begin, in order to make sure that the person was really dead. The first thing Mary sees is the stone that had been rolled away from the tomb. The stone was a large disc-shaped stone that had been rolled down against the entrance to the tomb. It would have taken many men to move such a heavy stone away from that tomb. Mary must have been in a state of shock as she ran to tell Peter and John what she had seen. She tells them in verse 2 that “they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid Him”. Notice that Mary says, “WE do not know”. Luke tells us in his Gospel that Mary was accompanied by Joanna and Mary the mother of James, as well as other women when she went to the tomb.

II. PETER AND JOHN (vs. 3-10)

After listening to Mary’s words, Peter and John have a foot race to the tomb in verses 3 and 4, and John wins. It’s interesting to see the differences between these two men. Verse 5 says that John looks inside the tomb, sees the linen wrappings, but does not go in. Peter, however, is bolder. He goes into the tomb, sees the linen wrappings lying there, and also sees the face-cloth rolled up in another place. In verse 8, John also enters the tomb, sees the linen wrappings, and believes. What did John believe and why did he believe it? John believed Jesus’ promise that He would rise from the dead, and he believed when he saw the linen wrappings. The wrappings were strips of linen cloth. The spices placed between the wrappings were like glue, and they held the strips of cloth together. It was like a cocoon around Jesus’ body from His shoulders to His feet. Jesus’ glorified body somehow passed through those wrappings, leaving them flattened but still wound together. A little boy once said sadly to his mother. “I’m so disappointed! You told me that something beautiful would come out of that brown thing I picked up the other day, but when I just now looked at it, I found a hole in it and only an empty skin was left!” The mother said, “My child, you have looked in the wrong place for what I have promised. Come with me.” The mother took the boy back into the other room, and there, not too far from the empty cocoon, was a beautiful butterfly. It had perched on the window sill so that it could dry its wings in the warmth of the noonday sun. Jesus’ disciples did not understand that Jesus must rise from the dead in fulfillment of Scripture, so verse 10 says that they went away to their own homes, to go back to their old way of life. In much the same way these friends and followers of Jesus looked in the wrong place when they looked for the Savior.

III. MARY AND THE ANGELS (verses 11-14)

In verse 11 we find Mary Magdalene remaining at the tomb weeping, and then, when she looked inside the tomb again, she saw two angels sitting one at the head and one at the feet of Jesus’ empty wrappings. However, Mary did not realize that they were angels. In verse 13 they ask her, “woman, why are you weeping”, and Mary gives her reason. She says, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid Him.” Mark’s Gospel tells us that the angel on the right tells Mary: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified; He is risen; He is not here.”

IV. MARY AND JESUS (verses 15-18)

You can imagine Mary’s confusion in verse 15 when she turns around and Jesus is standing there. But Mary didn’t recognize Jesus, nor did anyone recognize Him. He now had a glorified body and His physical appearance was changed. Jesus asks her basically the same question that the angel asked her. Mary didn’t recognize Him until verse 16 when Jesus said her name. Then she recognized His voice and the way He always said her name. She calls Him “Rabboni”, which means Teacher. Jesus is not chiding Mary in verse 17 when He says to her, “Stop clinging to me . . . “. He is actually gently letting her know that the time is short and there is much to be done. Then, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives her a commission when He says, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see Me.” Mary does so in verse 18.

CONCLUSION:

If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, He would not be God. Our faith would be in vain and we would still be condemned for our sins. But Jesus did rise from the dead just as He said. J. Sidlow Baxter tells of a rumor which spread across Asia that the bones of Buddha had been discovered. These bones were paraded through the streets of India where millions gave homage. A Christian missionary watched the people prostrate themselves before the bones. Then he said to a friend: “If one bone of Jesus Christ were found, Christianity would fall to pieces. He was right. We serve a risen Savior, don’t we? The resurrection of Christ is mentioned 108 times in the New Testament, and it is the greatest miracle in the New Testament. For the believer, the cross of Jesus Christ closes the door to hell, and the empty tomb opens the gates of heaven. Andrew Blackwood makes this observation: “There is not a single pessimistic note anywhere in the New Testament after Christ’s resurrection.”

How does the Lord Jesus want us to respond to Him as a result of what He has done for us? How can we express our joy to our risen Lord? Colossians 3:1-2 says, “If then you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.”

Near the end of Jesus’ public ministry, He said to His disciples in John 17:11 that it was His desire that “My joy might be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Even when He told them of His approaching death, He added in John 16:22, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

Are you experiencing the joy of the resurrected Christ? Is He living and reigning in your life? May we experience that joy and peace every day of our lives. Let’s not let a day go by, or a waking hour go by without thinking about and thanking God for the death and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and sharing that good news with others.