Jesus Risen

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Today, I thought it would be better to summarize John's gospel through video. And so, this is from a ministry called Spoken Gospel. Take a look. In the beginning, Jesus created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, he was with God and was God. In the beginning, Jesus was the Word. And it is this word who made men that men wrote about in words. For when women and men encountered him giving them bread in the wilderness, or shepherding them through brokenness, or bringing light into a world of darkness, they would write of this word using words which forms what we know in the present as the Old Testament. And the one word they would write again and again was the word's name, which was, I Am. And this word, this I Am, would be encountered afresh, not as an invisible word, but in visible flesh. So people began again combining paper and pen to tell the story of this word

named Jesus they had come upon. And one of those people was a man named John. John says he wrote these things so that you might believe. Believe that Jesus is the word of God from eternity past, and that this eternal God has come to dwell with us at last. But that is a lot to believe. And for many, it just crosses too many lines. Which is why John records Jesus saying, if you don't believe me, at least believe the signs. For these signs are the things Jesus did, which pointed to who he is. Some of them were miraculous, like what Jesus did at a wedding that had run out of wine, or what happened at his friend Lazarus's grave plot site. But miracles are not his only signs. He also did symbolic works, like what happened with the merchants at the temple who sell and buy, or what he said to a woman at a well who was tired and dry. And through all of it, whether miraculous works or symbolic guides, what these signs

point to is what Jesus is heard teaching in nearly every one of John's lines. It's that he is divine. He is the very same God seen throughout the Old Testament. All of Jesus' signs, every one of them, points to the fact that he is God who was called I Am. Which is why Jesus says I Am all throughout John's account. He says I Am the bread of life that fed God's people in the wilderness. He says, I am the shepherd that led you through your brokenness. He says, I am the light that first shone into darkness. He says, all of this, I am the resurrection, I am the vine, I am the way, the truth, the life. And he does this to show that he is God, the Word, who was before the beginning of time, which is a lot to believe. And it's why Jesus said, if you don't believe me, at least believe the signs. For these signs not only pointed back to prove who Jesus is, they also pointed forward to

prepare us for what he ultimately did. And whether that sign was the water he turned into wine at a wedding that pointed to the blood he would be shedding, so that he may provide for his bride the Church a marriage that is never-ending. Whether the sign was raising Lazarus from the dead that pointed to what he would do from his own deathbed to earn for all who believe in him a final resurrection. Whether the sign was turning over tables in the temple to show that his sacrificial death would fulfill that of which animals were only assembled. Whether the sign was offering eternal water to an outcasted Samaritan to show that he would be struck to provide living streams of life for every nation. Whatever the sign may be, the message it would tell is that this Jesus who is God the I Am was going to accomplish his plans through death and burial. That is what the signs pointed to. On the cross is where their meaning was unfurled.

That the I Am would be the Lamb who dies to take away the sin of the world. But Jesus would perform a final sign that would prove he is the I Am, the Word, who in the beginning spoke and the universe was made. And that sign is that Jesus rose from the grave. That is why John wrote his book, to give us the signs that point to who Jesus was, what Jesus did, how Jesus died and rose to life. And now, John's gospel comes to each of us and asks the same thing. to please look at these pages, see the signs of Jesus. The signs that Jesus does all point towards something bigger, like breadcrumbs showing us the way. Today we are going to be discussing the seventh and final sign in John's gospel, which is the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. Now it's good to stop and acknowledge that the resurrection is really what makes us Christians. It is upon this resurrection that all of our hope hangs. And we see that in 1 Corinthians 15,

in verses 14 and 17. And it says, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins. Listen, we take one day every year to celebrate the resurrection because without it, we would be delusional and hopeless. Without it, we would still be in our sins. We'd still be slaves to sin and death. And so today is our freedom. Today is our Independence Day. we proclaim our freedom from sin and death. Just like we sang with Dan Hey, it says, when death was arrested and my life began. That's exactly what we're going to be celebrating today. And so we're going to be in John 20 and 21, John chapters 20 and 21. And as we're looking at the resurrection today in John 20 and 21, we need to see the way that John handles the resurrection in particular. It's similar to how he handles many other signs where the action typically focuses on

everyone else. So when you think about, for example, Jesus feeding the 5,000, which is Jesus' fourth sign. All right, whenever we're reading that in John 6, it's we're reading about the disciples who are struggling to believe it. We're reading about the boy who brought the fishes and loaves. We're reading about the crowd wanting more food the next day, right? But Jesus actually spends very little time talking about the sign itself. Jesus actually just does the sign and kind of moves on and everybody else is still feeling the ripple effects of it. So when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus, John's gospel follows the same pattern where the action is focused on the people experiencing the resurrection. How are they handling it? What are they thinking? What are they feeling? Now, it isn't to say that the resurrection is not important. It's just to say that how John handles the resurrection

is how we're going to look at the resurrection today. And so we're gonna handle it just like John handles it. And so instead of focusing a lot on the resurrection, really going to focus a lot on the aftermath of the resurrection. And right at the outset as we open up to John 20 and we're gonna start in verse 2, right on the outset we should notice that the scene begins with Mary, not the disciples. The disciples really aren't anywhere to be found. Mary goes to the tomb, she finds it empty, but she does not believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. And if you look in verse 2, it says, so she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, which is John by the way, he refers to himself that way, the one who Jesus loved. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and John and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know

where they have laid him. So she's assuming someone has stolen Jesus' body. So Peter and John run to the tomb and John gets there first. We're gonna skip down to verse 5, going through 9, says, And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, which was John, he went in and he saw and believed, for as yet he did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead, that Jesus must rise from the dead. So you have Peter and John, they're going into the tomb, they're curious, but they do not believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. In fact, in verse

8 it says that that John believes, but what he believes is that Jesus's body has been taken. John believes Mary's report that someone stole Jesus's body. Now after they investigate, they don't hang around, they don't talk, they don't wonder what happened, they just leave. In fact in John 20 verse 10 and 11 when you read them back to back it says a lot, it says the disciples then the disciples went back to their homes. This is Peter and John, they just went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. Let's not forget these guys spent three years following Jesus. They were crushed to see Jesus die and when they visit and they see what they believe is a crime scene that Jesus' body has been stolen, they leave. That's all do. And you get the sense that they've given up. And it's accentuated by the

fact that Mary stays. So it really looks like the disciples kind of just shrug their shoulders and go home, but Mary is at least sticking around. But even Mary, she doesn't believe that Jesus has risen. In fact, when she sees Jesus, she doesn't really recognize him. And so while she's at the tomb crying, Jesus kind of comes up on her in starting in verse 15 Jesus said to her, woman why aren't 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. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, rabbani, which means teacher. It is almost as if Jesus interrupts Mary's rant. Like she's pleading with this guy that she thinks stole Jesus's body. She's like, look, I'll take him. Just tell me where you put him. And Jesus, he just kind

of quiets her and just says her name. He just says, Mary. And when she realizes, And she just holds on to it. Look at verse 17. Jesus said to Mary, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers the disciples, and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. So Jesus chooses specifically to reveal himself only to Mary. And it kind of invites the question, like, why not show yourself to all three, to Peter, John, and Mary? Wouldn't it have been quicker? But it makes you wonder, like, what is Jesus after if he's not after confirmation? I believe that he's after the personal experience of seeing Jesus, of seeing him. And so Mary's response then is that she goes back, she obeys what Jesus says, but her

her response is, I have seen the Lord back for the disciples where they are still stuck, the disciples are still stuck in unbelief. And if you look in verse 19 at the beginning of 19, it says, on the evening of that day, so that the same day they found Jesus, his body gone. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. the disciples here are actually hiding in fear. And just like with Mary in the middle of her rant, Jesus interrupts the disciples. Look at the second half of 19. It says that so that they were hiding in fear and then Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. Look, the disciples are obviously living in fear. They did not believe all that Jesus said, or they didn't remember it, all that he said about rising from the dead. And so when Jesus

finds them, they are a disgrace. They have nothing to be proud of. They're hiding in fear. They don't believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. But what Jesus that does next is interesting because Jesus commissions and equips them anyway. He's undeterred by the fact that they're at His grace and He just goes into it. Look at verse 21 and through 23. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you as the Father has sent me even so I am sending you. And really Jesus is picking up right where He left off. This is a lot of what Jesus said to them before he went to the cross. Sorry, verse 22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. And so John's gospel here is giving us a couple of pictures of people going from unbelief to belief. Mary, she thought someone,

stole Jesus's body and then Jesus interrupts her. The disciples heard Mary's story, didn't really believe Mary's story, and then Jesus comes in and interrupts. Now we're going to see that it's Thomas's turn to go from disbelief to belief. Verse 24 through 25, we're still in John 20. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with him when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. Again, that's mirroring exactly what Mary is saying. But he said to them back to the verses in verse 25, But Thomas said to them, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Okay, first thing, that is incredibly specific. Thomas is saying, I want to trace where those scars are. I want to see exactly the same person that was on that cross if I'm going to believe. And second, you know, Thomas is

called doubting Thomas for this reason, for this passage actually. But I want to say something about this. Thomas is actually not doubting. Doubting would actually be seeing the evidence that he's asking for and still not believing, still not trusting the person that's presenting the evidence to you, right? So Thomas is not doubting, Thomas is disbelieving. In fact, Jesus even says it in the verses later, so 26 through 28. Eight days later, Thomas had to wait eight days before he had to regret those words. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, place your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe. Notice Jesus didn't say don't doubt believe. He said don't disbelieve but

believe it. Thomas answered him really in a just an obedient and a beautiful way. My Lord and my God. He didn't even stop to apologize. He was just, okay, I was wrong. I'm sorry. But look at Jesus again. There is no derision. There's no scolding. Jesus doesn't say, you really should have believed. You really shouldn't have. Jesus Jesus doesn't worry about all that because Thomas disbelieves just like everybody else. Mary disbelieved, the disciples disbelieved, and Thomas disbelieved. And what Jesus does is he interrupts that disbelief. He pushes right on through it and he offers himself. He offers himself. He stands in front of them. He doesn't send a messenger and says like, I'm really alive. Jesus goes there himself. Jesus is less concerned with condemning Thomas's disbelief than he is welcoming Thomas back into a relationship with him. I want to spend a moment here on the difference between belief, disbelief, and doubt.

Oz Guinness writes a really great article called I Believe in Doubt and he talks about the differences there and I want to put the quote up for you to see. It says, to believe is to be in one mind. Accepting something is true. To disbelieve is also to be in one mind, rejecting something is true. And to doubt is to waver somewhere between the two and thus to be in two minds. And as we read here in John's gospel, Mary begins in disbelief and she moves to belief. The disciples are also in disbelief, although they doubt Mary, that's not exactly the same. Then they move to belief. Thomas follows the same pattern. So far, no one is doubting, not even Thomas. And even though that's true, many of us still can't shake the idea that doubt is the same as unbelief. I mean, it's why we call him doubting Thomas in the first place, is because Thomas expresses unbelief, disbelief. He doesn't believe that Jesus

has risen from the dead. That's the definition of disbelief. He's rejecting the idea, but we so call him doubting Thomas. Even though doubt is not even discussed here, it's disbelief. I believe that the reason that we confuse doubt and disbelief is because doubt feels like betrayal. It feels like unbelief. Let me give you an illustration. I want you to assume that a Christian mother of three young children is beginning to privately doubt that God is real or that God is good. Yet she believes that kind of giving way to that doubt is going to mislead her children or it's going to pollute her marriage or it's gonna make that doubt seem more real and so she keeps it to herself. Or let's assume that there is a Christian college student and he begins running into competing worldviews in his courses. The course is in science and history and anthropology and he begins to have to defend his Christian

worldview and he doesn't defend it very well and it causes doubt in his mind. Now this Christian college student is brought up in the church. He feels pressure to be Christian. He feels pressured to live up to what his parents are hoping for him. And so entertaining these doubts that he has, it feels like he's betraying his parents, his home church, his Christian friends. And so he keeps it to himself. Doubt feels like betrayal and when it does, we are tempted to stuff it, to hide it. But that will only make doubt grow. Rather than stuffing it, let's take some real comfort from the verses that we are reading here. Let's take comfort in the way that Jesus deals with the unbelief of Mary and the disciples and Thomas,

because each of them do not believe that Jesus had risen. Each of them rejects that idea, but also each of them needed Jesus to interrupt them. Mary's going on about this, you know, she thinks Jesus is the gardener and he interrupts her and he just says Mary, the disciples were hiding behind a locked door. Jesus comes in and interrupts them, says peace be with you. Thomas is with the disciples, they're still behind a locked door, probably because they're still afraid and Jesus interrupts them again, the only way out of disbelief or doubt is to begin to ask Jesus to interrupt your life. Let me say that again, the only way out of disbelief or doubt is to begin to ask Jesus to interrupt you, to interrupt your life. And before we go into that, I want to look at one last interruption. And so we see, you know, just after the resurrection, it's just a series of interruptions. And this one is with the disciples fishing, or at

least planning to fish. We're in John 21, verses 1 through 3. It says, After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Canaan Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm gonna go fishing. And they said to him, we'll go with you. Great, let's go. So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. So they really weren't... well, I guess they were fishing. They were just fishing unsuccessfully. And at this point, I think that if we are reading the resurrection story, The disciples, they seem like they really need to get it in gear. Right? It seems like they're not responding really well. Because in John 21, after Jesus has appeared to them twice within eight days,

they are still hanging out by the sea of Tiberius and like, you want to go fish? OK, I'll go with you. They're just not really doing anything. They're not making plans. They're not preaching. They're not healing. Where is all that? What are the disciples doing? And really, when you look at that, just when you look at John 20 and 21, every time, every time it's their turn to step up, they're leaving early, they're hiding from opposition, or they're fishing, there is no merit whatsoever to their action. They show no inclination of starting a revolution. They show no desire to begin praying. They aren't starting up a fast that they're all going to do. They're not studying the Old Testament. They're not looking for all the things that Jesus told them to look for in the Scriptures. He said, you're going to find me in those Scriptures. They're not looking there.

They're not doing anything. Every indication is that the disciples have moved on, even after He appears to them. And so Jesus interrupts them again, John 21, 4-7. It says, just as they was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Again, it's the second time that people are not recognizing Jesus. First Mary in the garden and now Jesus. I'm sorry, now the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. Verse 5, Jesus said to them, Children, do you have any fish? And they answered him, No. He said to them, cast them on the other side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast it. And now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. This is a repeat of something that Jesus has done before with the disciples, he said, hey, throw it on the other side. And then they caught a boatload of fish.

Verse seven, that disciple whom Jesus loved, which is John, John therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and he threw himself into the sea. and we see in the verses later that he he swam you know a hundred yards to Jesus and And Jesus ate some fish with him and restored Peter. So Jesus is interrupting the disciples here again They're not doing anything

But this is this last interruption really drives it home for us Because the resurrection story the the resurrection that we celebrate That story is not about Jesus finding people ready. In fact, if you read this, if you're reading these verses for yourself, John 20 and 21, and you kind of shake your head at the disciples like, okay, I believe, you know, if I was a disciple, I would have believed. And that's really, you're missing the point. If you read these verses and think you would have done better, then you're not reading the point of the resurrection story. You're missing it. The resurrection and the gospel itself is not about you trying harder to be like Jesus or you somehow being found ready because you were just you were just so on point and whenever Jesus rose from the grave he's like, look, oh, I found you and you were totally ready. Let's go. You're the one I'm going to choose. That's not

Now what happened? What the resurrection shows us is the plain gospel that Jesus needed to be faithful to you and me in spite of you and me. Mary, the disciples, Thomas, me and you, if we were there, we would not be the heroes in this story. Jesus is the hero in the resurrection story. Let me put it a different way. The resurrection illustrates, it illustrates the Gospel in that Jesus needs to interrupt our lives to make us new. Jesus needs to interrupt our lives to make us new. Jesus is the one who needs to confront our disbelief. Jesus is the one who equips us and sends us way before we're ready, even in the midst of our disbelief, even in the midst of our doubt, even in the midst of our fear. or just lack of qualifications. Jesus brings the relationship and the restoration to us. And this, this can be our prayer. These are the kind of things that we can pray for.

We can say, Jesus, interrupt my life. Jesus, break into my heart and heal me. Jesus, ransack my plans and set me on your course. I know many of us are feeling like that with COVID-19. We feel like our plans are ransacked. Whatever we're planning to do, my family, we are looking to move to Burleson in 2020. That was our plan. As far as I know, we're still planning to do that. But man, we did not anticipate a pandemic coming and slowing everything down or maybe completely messing up the housing market. I don't know what we're gonna do, but I do know that Jesus is in control And that if I begin to worry that my plans aren't gonna work out the exact way that I want them to work out, I can begin to pray and say, Jesus, Jesus, would you please break in and give me some new plans? Would you please interrupt my small thinking? Would you please interrupt my very selfish point of view?

And would you open me up to whatever you have planned? Jesus interrupt my life. We don't have these stories. We don't have the resurrection story so that we will get pumped up about how spiritual we can be. There is, there is no poster of like David killing Goliath and it says like, be all you can be, right? Go slay your giants. That's not the point of scripture. Um, worship music, right? Worship music should reflect this truth. We should not, We should not sing songs that are just spiritual cheerleading, right? It should not be amazing strength I have in me. I am God's MVP. It should not be that our music is and should be amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. We have these stories to feel how frail the disciples are. The disciples are not stout-hearted zealots, armed to the teeth with a battle plan to evangelize every corner by the year 2030.

They are not fixed on bringing down the religious establishment. The disciples are scared fishermen who disbelieved when it was their moment to step up. They faltered, and they needed Jesus to interrupt them. These are why we have these stories. John says it this way, that we have these stories so that we may believe in Jesus, so that we may understand that it's His power and His grace and His glory that we're going for and that by believing in His name, not in our power, that we may have life. It says it right here in the end of John 20 verses 30 and 31. It says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these signs are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. This Easter some of you are having a great experience with Jesus.

Maybe not all of you, but some of you are. And maybe some of you after that really great experience with Jesus, maybe some of you are continuing to go back to fishing on your own. Or you go back and you think, you know, maybe this will all just kind of blow over, right? This is a nice little spiritual high that I'm on, but everything's gonna really just go back to normal, right? You return to what is familiar, not realizing that what Jesus is aiming to do is interrupt your life with an invitation into something much greater. And I don't mean like spiritual bliss, you know, euphoria. I mean a real risky relationship with him where you are making disciples, where he is transforming you from the inside out. This Easter, let your prayer be, Jesus interrupt my plans. Maybe your plans had nothing to do with making disciples. Maybe your plans had nothing to do with being in a church.

Maybe you have no idea why you're even listening to a sermon online. I have an answer, not that I know what's going on in your life, but the answer is that Jesus is interrupting your life. The answer is that Jesus is breaking through to you to introduce you to himself, to invite you into a relationship with him. And what I want you to do is I want you, We're gonna pray in just a minute. And when we do, I want you to consider what you're saying to Jesus. I want you to consider what he's asking you to do. What is he interrupting your life for? What's the next step? For the disciples, it was a huge step. For Mary, it's a huge step. For Thomas, it was a huge step. Going from down of disbelief to belief, it is what Jesus is in the business of doing. This is how he makes us new. And so let's pray. Jesus, we ask for you to interrupt us this Easter. We pray that your seventh sign, the resurrection, that it's more than just a quaint little truism, that it's more

than just a metaphor, it's a reality, that you beat death and sin, and that you can, you invite us into a life that is free from fear of sin and death. It's free from being slave to sin. Jesus, you have called us into something new. Interrupt our plans and help us to take that next step with you. And it's your name that we pray. Amen.