Please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 20. Actually, we'll start reading in John 19, beginning at verse 31. Lengthy portion this morning. But I hope it will set the stage and the context for what we study in terms of the empty tomb, beginning in John 19 at verse 31.
Therefore, because it was the preparation day that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones shall be broken.
And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus.
And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews preparation day for the tomb was nearby.
Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark. and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. And she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.
And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there. Yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. And he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.
And the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also. And he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.
But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping?
She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?
She supposing him to be the gardener 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, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father.
Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. 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 retain the sins of any, they are retained. Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful account concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection from the dead. We bless you, God Most High, that we get to remember this event each and every Lord's Day. Each and every Sunday we gather, we are testifying that He is risen. And in this, God, we greatly rejoice and we are glad.
We pray now that you would send your Holy Spirit, that you would comfort our hearts. God, as Pastor Cam prayed this prior to the service, there are a lot of, or prior to the preaching, there are a lot of hurts and a lot of difficulties and a lot of trials in our local body. We know, God, that this lower world is a place of sorrows. It is a place of pain.
It is a place of struggle. Yet God, help us to be encouraged at the reality that Christ is risen, that Christ is enthroned at the right hand of God Most High, that He ever lives to make intercession for His people, that He always saves to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through Him. May we be encouraged at the reality of Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. And as well, Lord God, may we rejoice in His current session.
And our Father, we pray now that You would forgive us for all of our sins, that You would cleanse us in the blood of the Lamb, that You would wash us and purify us and cause us to receive with great joy Your Holy Word. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, two weeks ago in our studies in the Gospel in Matthew, we saw where Jesus Christ, when asked by the disciples of John the Baptist, why do we and the Pharisees fast often but your disciples do not fast? Jesus gave this reply. He said in Matthew 9.15, can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast.
So last week we looked at the crucifixion of the bridegroom, the reality that he was, in fact, violently taken from them, crucified, and died. Well, this morning we're going to look at the resurrection of the bridegroom. You see, the Christian story, the gospel doesn't end in the tomb. The gospel does not end with the death of the Lord Jesus.
Christ is not on the crucifix, but rather Christ is bolted from the tomb. He ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts to man. And we ought to imitate the disciples we see in this passage. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Hopefully, that will be our response this morning. And as well, as we see this particular flow in the narrative, we see the death, as we looked at last week, we see the ultimate death in verses 31 and chapter 19 that I read there. They didn't need to break his legs. They didn't need to make sure that he already asphyxiated. because he was in fact dead, so they pierced his side.
And then he is buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, again according to what was written in the scriptures. And then that brings us to consider the empty tomb, first of all, the appearance to Mary Magdalene, secondly, and then thirdly, the appearance to the disciples without Thomas. And then the chapter ends, the disciples with Thomas, That's something we studied not too long ago, so we'll just focus on those three blocks of narrative. First, the empty tomb, verses 1 to 10, the appearance to Mary Magdalene, verses 11 to 18, and then the appearance to the disciples without Thomas in verses 19 to 23.
The Empty Tomb
Let's just pick up in verses 1 and 2. Notice the first day of the week. That's why we gather for worship on the first day of the week. It is the Lord's Day.
In the Old Covenant, the seventh day, the Sabbath, or the seventh day was indeed the Sabbath rest for the people of God. I believe the theology in the book of Hebrews, specifically chapter 4, underscores the reality that this abiding commandment still applies but the day has shifted in terms of God's redemptive approach to his people. So we remember every single Sunday the great reality that Jesus is risen. We celebrate this recurringly.
We ought to wake up on Sunday mornings with that thought in our hearts and in our minds. It ought not just to be, you know, one Sunday in March or one Sunday in April. It ought not to just be on a good Friday that we remember His death. We remember His death every time we as the Church come together to celebrate the Lord's Supper.
And we remember His resurrection every Christian Sabbath day that we gather together. The body of Christ is proclaiming that He is risen. And this is an affirmation of that reality. Now, the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early.
Now Mary Magdalene, what was her case before the Lord Jesus had saved her? She was demon possessed. This woman had seven demons cast out of her by the power of the Lord Christ. This was a forgiven sinner.
A sinner who was forgiven much, and certainly she loved her Lord much. So at his burial, she now comes to visit the grave. And she notices that the tomb stone had been taken away from the tomb. Or the stone had been rolled away from the tomb.
Now grave robbing was very popular in that day. Popular, I don't know if that's the... the proper word, common. Grave robbing was a common offense. In fact, a few years later from this time, Claudius would make it a capital offense to rob graves.
You see, she comes to the tomb, she sees that the stone is rolled away, and her immediate concern is with the body of Jesus. She doesn't begin to think that He has risen, she believes rather that they, people, had come and taken His body. So she reports this to Peter and John, and that's what we find in verses 3 to 10. We have Peter therefore went out and the other disciple.
That's John. That's the beloved disciple. That's the apostle that is penning these very words. And in verses 3 to 10, what we see is an eyewitness account.
What we see is eyewitness affirmation. What we see in these details is not something to speculate on. The fact that that John makes it to the grave or the tomb sooner than Peter. Some have hypothesized that there was a difference in the decision.
No, John was probably a faster runner. Probably a younger man, so a faster runner. Peter enters the tomb first. Is that to show that the Petrine community was somehow more...
No, it's to show that Peter, in acting and in keeping with his character, just jumps right into a situation. kind of man that we've met in these gospel accounts. But the details of verses 3 to 10 are given first and foremost to affirm, or to ground, or to confirm, and to satisfy that requirement in biblical law. On the basis of two or three witnesses, every fact is confirmed, or every fact is established. What we have in this account with these details are eyewitness narratives, things that could only come about by someone that was there.
Eyewitness Testimony at the Tomb
Notice in verse 3, Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. Again, probably a younger man, probably a faster man. It's weird how commentators get into some of these things and they speculate and they hypothesize and what is the symbolism behind it?
There's no symbolism. John was a fast runner. It's okay. That's legit.
You don't have to exegete the symbolic meaning. All John wants us to get is the account, the record, the events of that particular day.
The Folded Grave Clothes
Notice. So they both, excuse me, verse five, and he, stooping down, Peter comes to the tomb first, and he's stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. This is John. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.
Now why this detail? Is John writing for good housekeeping? Does John want us to know how to preserve a tomb in the first century setting? What would be one of the allegations or what would be one of the challenges to the biblical doctrine of the resurrection?
Somebody stole his body. Grave robbers perhaps were the ones that levered that stone, they rolled it away, they went in and they ravaged the tomb and took everything they could and left. I don't know about you, but we have had our house burglarized twice since living in Chilliwack. We lived in L.A.
County for most of our lives and never had our home broken into. We moved to Chilliwack and we've been broken into twice. I gotta tell you, when we returned to our home, there were not things folded neatly and placed back on their shelf. Grave robbers would not take time to fold cloths and set them down neatly.
Grave robbers take what they can, and they leave everything in a mess, and they scoot just as fast as they can. It's almost as if the apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is heading off at the pass this potential objection that it was grave robbing. Have you ever met a robber, a burglar? I'm sure in their own homes they might be tidy and neat and recipients of a good housekeeping award.
But when they go and steal from others, they do not spend the time to tidy up after themselves so that the persons they've ravaged are then happy that their homes are in order. As well, Herman Ritterboss made this statement. He says, now they lay there, these grave clothes, left behind in good order. each in its own place as discarded attributes that were no longer of any use, and also with the stone that had been rolled away as silent witnesses of Jesus' victory, not only over death, but also over the grave in which the body had been laid. He is risen.
That's what's going on. That's what's being recorded. That's what's being displayed. That's what's being testified.
And then notice, they enter into the tomb, and notice their response at the empty tomb. Verse 8, Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also, and he saw and believed. Now, let's just parse that for a moment. Of course he believed on the Lord Jesus.
He spent three years with this man. Of course he loved the Lord Jesus. He had spent three years with this man. In fact, John was the apostle, the beloved disciple, who laid his head upon Jesus' bosom.
When it says he saw and he believed, he believed this reality, that he's risen. You see, when Mary saw the stone rolled away, the first thing that popped into her head was that grave robbers had come and stolen the body away. We know not where. But you see, when John looks into that empty tomb, when John surveys the situation, when he sees those cloths neatly folded and lying there, he believed.
It was true. Christ is risen. He's no longer here. John did not feel suspicious of grave robbers.
John rather had it underscored in his heart of hearts that this man whom he had seen crucified, this man whom he had seen died, this man whom he had seen put into this grave was now risen from the tomb. Notice he doesn't elaborate on that. Notice he doesn't report Peter's frame of mind. Luke tells us when Peter went away, he marveled at the reality of this empty tomb.
And then
Scripture and the Risen Christ
verse 9 is very intriguing. Verse 9, it says, for as yet they did not know the scriptures that he must rise again from the dead. So John surveys the tomb, he sees the clothes, he knows this of a truth, that he is risen. But he didn't understand the redemptive historical record of the Old Testament.
He didn't understand all the particulars that Jesus had spoken. It's as if he is giving us a step-by-step bit of progress into his maturity. He's telling us and he's teaching us how his eyes grew, how his understanding flourished, how he progressed. It is a remarkable thing.
He knows that Christ is risen, but as yet he hasn't reflected upon Daniel 9. He hasn't reflected upon Isaiah 53. He hasn't put the two and two together with reference to Psalm 16. Psalms 2 and Psalms 110, at this particular point, not that he was ignorant of them, but how they had found fulfillment in this Jesus of Nazareth.
So he sees and he believes, but as of yet, they did not know the Scripture. Notice how John refers to the Scripture, this standard, this authoritative guide, this document that gives meaning and interpretation to historical events. It is the Scripture to which we go. It is the Scripture that we base our faith upon.
And then he says, then the disciples went away to their own homes.
The Appearance to Mary Magdalene
Let's pick up secondly with Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene in verses 11 to 18. Verse 11, but Mary stood outside by the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. Her weeping is consistent, right?
The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will mourn. She had witnessed this tragedy. She had witnessed this one whom she loved, this one who had the power, the authority, the majesty of God Most High to cast the demons out of her. She had seen Him with this crown of thorns put into His brow.
She had seen Him spat on. She had seen Him mocked. She had seen Him exalted, not on a throne, but on a cross, and she had heard the crowds mocking Him. She had seen and witnessed all these things.
The bridegroom had been violently taken from her, and now she is weeping at the tomb. That is consistent with what Jesus teaches with reference to his removal from their presence. So Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb.
And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? What's the matter? What's the deal?
What's the reason? Why are you weeping? going on. You notice he's not here. There's two angelic beings here.
Beasley Murray says their position in the tomb, one at the head and the other at the feet where Jesus had laid, is a reminder of the silent testimony of the grave clothes, but of another order. It witnesses that God, not robbers, had taken Jesus for a purpose yet to be revealed. Verse 13, she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Verse 14 is interesting.
Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. Why do you think that is? I mean, he could have stepped on a twig and made a noise to alert her to the fact that he was behind her. Probably the angel stood up.
When the angels are in the presence of their God, they don't remain seated. When the angels are in the presence of the one that they cry, holy, holy, holy to, they don't sip their frappuccinos. They're marked with reverence. They're marked with fear.
They're marked with respect. The angels more than likely stood up in his presence. She turns around and she sees him and supposes him to be the gardener. Now, there are a lot of reasons why people speculate as to why she didn't immediately understand who he was.
It was early in the morning. Some say her eyes, the darkness was such that she couldn't make out his particular form or face. You know, when Jesus is walking with those two men on the road to Emmaus, He is teaching them. He is speaking to them.
And it wasn't until the end that He opened their understanding to behold that it was Him. They later report, did not our hearts burn while He spoke? There's continuity between the pre-tomb and the post-tomb. There's continuity in terms of the same Lord Jesus but there is some discontinuity as well.
There are some differences. D. A. Carson explains it this way.
The resurrection accounts provide a certain tension. On the one hand, Jesus' resurrection body can be touched and handled. He bears the marks of the womb inflicted on the pre-death body, and not only cooks fish, but eats it. On the other hand, Jesus' resurrection body apparently rose through the grave clothes, appears in a locked room, and is sometimes not, at least initially, recognized.
The closest we are likely to come to an explanation is found in 1 Corinthians 15.35 and following. Again, that idea of continuity versus discontinuity. When we go into the grave on that final resurrection day, when we are united body and soul back together again, there'll be continuity. We don't become something other, but there is something discontinuous.
The Spirit indwells us in such a powerful manner. We are fit for communion with the living and true God in a specific manner. There is something different in terms of that glorified state, and that's what we, and that's what the creation is groaning toward even now. You see, when a believer dies and his soul goes to be with the Lord, that's the intermediate state.
The Christian hope is always the bodily resurrection. The Christian hope is not Gnosticism. The Christian hope is God's purposes in creation realized through the second Adam. It is a blessed and wondrous thing that we look forward to.
The aches and the pains of this world, the sorrows and the trials of this world, the discouragements and the difficulties of this world do not enter in to the new Jerusalem. God will wipe away every tear. He will wipe away every sorrow from our eyes. He will fit us specifically for communion with himself forever.
It's an amazing reality. So Jesus sees her and he asks the question, woman, why are you weeping? And there's a gentle reproof here. She should have believed that he would rise.
He told them he would. She should have believed the prophets and the Psalter. She should have understood those things. So there's a gentle reproof in his words.
And then when he says, whom are you seeking? There might be a little bit more to this. I don't want to get all symbolic and strange, but what kind of a Messiah are you looking for? What kind of a champion did you expect?
What kind of a victor come from God? Did you anticipate? Did you anticipate the earthly, ruling, majestic monarch that would subjugate the Roman Empire and put them down? You weren't looking for one who came to suffer and die for his people's sins and to rise again.
Whom are you seeking? What manner of Messiah is it that you are looking for? And then notice.
Recognition and the Good Shepherd
She, supposing him to be the gardener, 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, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. This is that moment where the lights came on.
This is that moment where she saw. This is that moment when her heart leaped. I don't want to read too much into this rabboni, but here is the master, here is the teacher, here is the Messiah that cast those seven demons out of me. Here is that one that I saw scoffed at, mocked, ridiculed, and ultimately tortured to death.
Here he is! When he says this word, when he speaks this word, Mary, John 10.3 comes to pass. My sheep know my voice. They hear me, they follow, they respond.
It's at this particular point in her history that hermeneutics became proper. She understands the truth. She turns, she says, Rabboni, and he says to her,
Do Not Cling: Ascension and Brotherhood
do not cling to me. The translations have, do not touch me. brings a bit of tension with what he tells Thomas to do. I think, do not cling to me is better. Do not grab hold of me.
Do not latch on to me. My task is not completed. Do not fear that I'm going to go away again in the manner that I did. There'll be no more bloody assault upon my person.
There'll be no more crucifixion. There'll be no more calvary. There'll be no more man of sorrows. There'll be no more away with him, away with him.
Crucify him. Do not cling to me because I'm going to ascend to my father. In other words, understand the reality of my redemptive work. Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.
And then notice what he says. It's the first time in the Gospel account. Go and tell my brethren. Isn't that beautiful?
Who's his brethren? His disciples. The believers. The apostles. us.
He is not ashamed to call us brethren. That's what the book of Hebrews tells us. Does that make you happy? You have a Lord, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the creator of the universe, the governor of all things, who's not ashamed to call you brother.
Isn't that beautiful? I just think we can lay our heads down in this verse and be content for the rest of history. Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren, not because of virtue in us, not because of good works in us, but because of His virtue, because of His good works, because of His grace, because of His mercy. He cleansed us, He purified us, He washed us, He brought us into this realm of salvation, and as a result, He is not ashamed to call us brethren.
Paul tells us we are joint heirs, co-heirs with the Lord Christ. We have God the Father as our Father. Again, there is a distinction. Jesus is the one and only.
Jesus is the only begotten. He is the unique Son of God who has, by eternal generation, has always been We are the adopted sons and daughters of God Most High. I wonder if while Mary was running to tell the other disciples, she was saying, did he just call me brethren? Did he just call me sister?
Did he just call me family? It's an amazing reality that somebody that at one time had seven demons in her is now called a sister of the living God. It is a blessing. He tells her, do not cling.
He tells her to go and report these things to the disciples. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her.
The Appearance to the Disciples
And that brings us thirdly and finally to the appearance to the disciples without Thomas. This is amazing. This is what's important for Jesus. If you died and you came back from the dead, let's just say if you died in a violent, horrific, criminal manner, and you came back from the dead, you'd probably go to the FBI.
You'd go to the RCMP. You'd go to whoever it was that was responsible for bringing malefactors to justice. And I'm not against that. In fact, that's probably my first stop. 911.
You'll never believe what these guys did to me. You can tell a lot about Jesus, what's important to him, when after the tomb he visits his disciples. First thing he does is he pronounces peace upon them. Peace.
Verse 19, Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you. Remember that with Jesus this isn't a cheap wish. With Jesus this isn't, I really don't care if it happens or not. You ever been guilty or indicted in your own mind when you've asked somebody, how are you doing?
And then a few minutes later, you kind of think, I really don't care. It's not the case with Jesus. I actually do care when I ask you. Don't think that every single time.
But I gotta say, if I'm bumping into people that I haven't seen for a long time or I don't know, you know, how's it going? Do we really want to know how's it going? Really? Every single time?
These are conventions, these are things that we say, and I think at times we can read the scripture that way. We can read a greeting from Paul that says, grace and mercy and peace be upon you, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, and put it in the category of convention. Or we can hear the Lord Jesus say to his disciples, peace be with you. Well, you know, that's just a greeting.
That was common. That's just the way you did things. Jesus really means it. Jesus conveys peace.
Jesus gives peace with God. He gives peace with men betwixt one another. He is fitting. He is preparing.
He is getting his disciples ready for the mission that will mark their lives. Peace, he says, to them.
The Wounds: Continuity of the Crucified Lord
Notice in verse 20, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So he shows them the wounds. He shows them the marks.
Not just the ones in his hands, but in his side as well. Remember that the side wound wouldn't be consistent with all persons crucified. The side wound was unique to the Lord Jesus. Remember that when the victim of crucifixion was hanging there, they put the block of wood at the bottom of his feet so that he could press on that block of wood so that he could fight asphyxiation.
Well, if the crucifixion was going on too long, they'd break his legs so that he couldn't prop himself up and that he would asphyxiate. when these men who knew how to kill people. You see, that idea, the swoon theory, the idea that Jesus was just really hurt, or Jesus was just really traumatized. So they put a living man into the tomb, and after three days when he regained his health, he left there. He rolled this big stone away, and then he left.
That just does not hold up to scrutiny. What did a Roman soldier do? Not kill people? not know how to end someone's life, not know how to determine whether the chest was rising and falling with life, they didn't need to break his legs because he was dead. He wasn't mostly dead, he was completely dead.
And that's when they pierced his side. So when Jesus comes and he shows his hands and he shows his side, that is unique to him. Carson again says, others who had been crucified, if somehow they had been raised, could have shown their feet and hands. Only he could show his side.
The disciples were forced to grasp what became a central confession of the church. The risen Lord is none other than the crucified sacrifice. Remember the idea of continuity and discontinuity? Continuity is seen when he says, see my hands and see my side.
Continuity is seen when he says to Thomas, reach out your hands and place them in my wounds. Ryle makes this observation. Calvin strongly holds that our Lord's use of the wound was only temporary until the apostles were fully convinced and that his glorified body is without them." So Calvin says, when we get to the New Jerusalem and we see our Lord, there will not be those wound marks. It was a temporary situation for the good of the apostles.
I side with dear brother Ryle. He says, I cannot, however, agree with him. After a great victory, the scars of a conqueror are marks what he intended. And then the disciples were glad.
Isn't that beautiful? See, when the friends of the bridegroom are with the bridegroom, they can't help but rejoice. But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken away, and then they will mourn. No doubt there was a lot of mourning in these three days.
No doubt there was a lot of tears on this Friday and Saturday. No doubt there was a lot of anguish and a lot of wet pillows because they cried over the Savior who had left them. But now, He has risen. Now they are glad.
You see, brethren, I think there is a lesson for each of us here. As I mentioned already, there's a lot of bad news that affects us in this world. There's a lot of horrible things that happen in this world. There's a lot of trials.
There's a lot of heartaches. There's a lot of pains. There's a lot of suffering. But this one thing continues to be true.
That tomb is empty. That Savior is risen. That Lord is reigning. And He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
He will right every wrong. He will vindicate every evil, or every Christian, or every righteous man that has suffered evil for His cause. The Lord God Most High reigns. He has stationed His Son at His right hand, and we, like the disciples, ought to be glad.
And then notice what Jesus does.
The Commission and the Spirit
He commissions His disciples. You see, remember what I said, if we came back from the dead, our first call would be to the FBI, you need to right this wrong, these guys murdered me, these criminals, these crooks. Jesus says, I want you to do something. You have a task, you have a particular job, you have a particular mission.
Verse 21, so Jesus said to them, again, peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. not to be a sacrifice, not to be a propitiation, not to die and be crucified for the sins of others, but to proclaim Christ. This is what we see in Matthew, called the Great Commission. This is what Jesus enjoins on his disciples.
As my Father has sent me, I also send you. Your lives are radically altered. Your lives are radically changed. You are now apostles of the gospel ministry.
Your task is to preach. Your task is to teach. Your task is to go out to the known world and to the farthest parts of the world and to proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. He equips them for this particular task.
He breathes on them and they receive the Holy Spirit. Now this is one of those passages that we scratch our heads at and wonder what's going on. It is an anticipation of the Pentecost event. It is Christ giving the disciples his spirit to equip them and to enable them to go about their task in preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And then he highlights that primary emphasis that is to be theirs. The Church foremost is not to be an institute for political change. The Church foremost is not to be an institute for social change. The Church foremost is to be an institute that preaches the forgiveness of sins.
That's where the stress lies. That's where the emphasis falls. Now, I'm not saying politics and social ethics and all those things are irrelevant, but when it comes to the pulpit ministry handed down by the Apostolic Church, it is to proclaim Christ and Him crucified. That's what Christ says.
Receive the Holy Spirit. Verse 23. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
Now a lot of Weird things have emerged as a result of this passage. Let me just tell you, this text was not given to promote the confessional. It was not given to promote the indulgence system. It was not given to promote Roman Catholic priesthood or priestcraft.
It was given to emphasize that the Church of Jesus Christ is the healer in terms of the spiritual realm. We preach the gospel of free and sovereign grace, where it's Christ that's the healer through the Church. When the prophet Jeremiah is given his mandate to raise up and to tear down nations, how does Jeremiah do that? He does it through his preaching.
You see, God alone forgives sins. Christ alone forgives sins. When we turn to the book of Acts, what do we find? Do we find the confessional?
Do we find the indulgent system? Do we find a few men that wear funny hats and have the ability to forgive sin? No, we see Paul, we see Peter, we see John, we see each and every one of them stand before men and say that God is holy, you're a sinner, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be forgiven. That's the emphasis in the church.
Again, let me just qualify. We ought to preach the whole counsel of God. We ought to preach every jot and tittle. We ought to be those from Genesis to Revelation.
We ought to preach the glory and the beauty of God's holy law. That's why we meet on Wednesday nights and we study the book of Deuteronomy. We ought to preach the law throughout the scripture, but we must preach forgiveness. We must preach the cross.
We must preach the empty tomb, the risen Lord, the one alone in whom is the forgiveness of sins. You see, when Jesus raises from the dead and he comes to his disciples, he says, peace, and he says, go, preach, teach, proclaim the glories of the Christian gospel so that sinners can come and have everlasting life. It is beautiful where the emphasis falls in our Lord's post-resurrection account. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. The prophets were said to do through proclamation. The apostolic practice was not to set up confessionals, but to proclaim forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is risen.
Application
Well, brethren, just a couple of thoughts in conclusion. The first is the fact of the resurrection. Just a couple of things for you to consider about the resurrection in terms of its veracity, in terms of its truthfulness, in terms of its historical accuracy, Consider the scriptural testimony in the words of Jesus Christ. It's not an isolated passage.
All throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus foretold that he would die and that he would rise again. Consider the testimony of the prophets. Consider the testimony of the Psalter. Consider the fact that Psalm 22 describes a practice that wasn't even in practice.
It is a psalm of the cross written by David several centuries prior to cross, prior to the rise of the Roman Empire. I mean, you read Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah 53, and it's almost like you're reading somebody who was on our side of the cross. He highlights the reality of substitutionary curse bearing, substitutionary atonement. It's an amazing thing that people who want to discard the account of the resurrection never ask the Bible what it says about the resurrection.
You see, that's quite common among the foes and the enemies and the opposers of Christianity. They don't want to ask the scripture. Oh no, we can't trust the scripture. That's what's under debate.
That's like saying we're not going to ask the defendant to go into the box and to give his side of the situation. See, due process wouldn't function if men lived that way. Yeah, when it comes to Bible, no big deal. We don't have to ask the Bible.
Have you ever met the experts in the Bible that haven't read the Bible? Oh, I know that Bible's filled with contradictions. Have you ever met those guys? Maybe I just used to work with them.
I'm sure you work with them, too. Oh, how can you believe that? It's so full of contradiction. It's so full of lies.
It was written by men. It was written by men. How could we ever trust anything written by men? And yet they'll take a math book and trust what was written by men.
Right? There is a natural bent and tendency against the truthfulness of the scripture. You see, that math book doesn't rise up and say, you shall not commit adultery. We have within us a darkness and an inclination toward that which is evil.
It's interesting, as Dr. Greg Bonson pointed out, there's not very many manuscripts of Plato still extend. In fact, there's probably only a couple. Plato, the philosopher that wrote many, many, many years ago.
And yet the copy of Plato that you can purchase at the university bookstore, nobody questions, was this really what Plato wrote? How do we know that this is what Plato wrote? How do we know it wasn't a conspiracy? And yet we have over 5,000 extant manuscripts of the New Testament.
Over 5,000. And there's no way it can be true. How do you explain it? John 3 explains it.
The light came into the world, but the darkness hated the light. You see, everyone practicing evil does not come to the light, lest their deeds be exposed. So at this time of the year, or whatever time of the year, someone says to you, how in the world could you ever believe that this Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead? Because the Bible tells me so.
That's it. Well, that's not going to gain us academic respectability. Who cares? Who cares?
This happens in the realm of creation. You can't believe what the Bible says about creation because modern cosmology has taught us so many other things. The Bible tells us so. Consider as well, though, within the narrative, certain things woven into the text that are just amazing.
Who's the first witness to the empty tomb? It's a woman. The Mishnah reports that the testimony of a woman was not admissible in court. Certainly the authors of the New Testament understood this principle, and yet they tell us that Mary Magdalene and the other women went to the tomb.
See, the truth has nothing to hide. The truth doesn't have anything to cover up. The narrative, the difference in terms of report, the shades of meaning that you get or the shades of detail that you get from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John show us this very clearly. These men didn't sit in a room and hatch a conspiracy.
If they did, they did a very strange job. Consider that there was a lot of unbelief connected with the fact even among the disciples. Again, I have a perfect example of that in this sermon. When I said, I don't care when I ask you, I had to qualify that so I could look good to you, right?
Don't think that next time I say, how are you doing, I really don't care. I had to qualify that to make myself look good. Do you actually think that the disciples of our Lord would put in there, that they didn't believe at first? No.
We'll leave that detail out. Why would we include that? It makes us look like buffoons. Latch says, while it may not be flattering to the disciples to say that their faith could result only from some objectively revealed experience, this is exactly what the gospel records record.
Liars in conspiracy together do not report unsavory details. They smooth off the edges. They fix the story. They cook it in such a way that no one will oppose or question.
Four, consider the nature of his appearances. He appears to individuals. He appears to a pair of disciples. He appears to small groups.
He appears to large assemblies. He appears to women and to men. He appears in public and private. He appears at different times of the day and both in Jerusalem and Galilee.
This is certainly not the testimony of a mass hallucination. It simply isn't. Fifth, consider the threat to both the Roman Empire and Judaism in the claim of Jesus' resurrection. Certainly, they both, as parties, would have a vested interest in promoting a body, producing a body, to try and kill this idea that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.
And then consider, subsequent to this, the apostolic prayer. Consider subsequent to the fact the apostolic interpretation. Consider after the fact the apostolic practice. These men went out preaching the gospel of a crucified and resurrected Savior.
And that message, God be thanked and praised, has continued to this day. Christ will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We have the fact of the resurrection and then we have the significance of the resurrection. The Apostle Paul tells us very clearly that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses.
And he was raised up because of our justification. You see, in the death and in the resurrection of Christ, there is an interpretation. There is symbol, or not symbol, there is meaning. You see, there were other persons in the gospel accounts.
Lazarus, for instance. Lazarus was dead and Jesus called him forth. But the resurrection of Lazarus does not result in our justification. It is the apostolic testimony, it is the apostolic interpretation, it is the Bible's commentary on this event that took place.
That God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God. in Him. You see, this act was not example, this act was not just a proof of love, this act was not just a proof of an emotional feeling, but rather it was God and Christ reconciling the world to Himself through this bloody spectacle, through this resurrection, through the vindication of the Son of God at the resurrection on the third day. Warfield says that He died manifests His love and His willingness to save. that He rose again manifests His power and His ability to save.
We are not saved by a dead Christ who undertook but could not perform and who lies there still under the Syrian sky, another martyr of impotent love. If we are to be saved at all, it must be by the One who did not merely pass to death in our behalf, but who passed through death. In one word, the resurrection of Christ is fundamental to the Christian hope and to the Christian confidence. All our assurance of salvation is suspended on this fact.
Praise be to God for this indescribable gift. And if you have not believed on the Lord Jesus, that's the point. John says, I looked, I saw that tomb, and I believed. John undertakes to write this gospel so that you may believe, and that believing in his name, you might have everlasting life.
If you are a sinner here this morning, and I know that sometimes offends people when we talk like that, but you are. All of us are. Every single man, woman, boy, and girl is a sinner against God. The difference is some are forgiven by God's grace through the blood of Jesus.
Others are not. While there is breath in your lungs, while the gospel is being proclaimed, may I call upon you to look and live, to believe on Him, and to be saved. There is nothing greater, there is nothing more wondrous, there is nothing more glorious than the dying, rising love of Jesus Christ applied to your life through His precious gospel. And for the believer, it is based on this reality that Paul can say, so when This corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
Paul then makes this challenge, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? We're gonna have trials. We're gonna have difficulties.
We're gonna have troubles. We're going to have pain. We're going to have sorrow. But you know what's on the other side?
Jesus. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus Christ, the one who died. Jesus Christ, the one who rose.
Jesus Christ, the one who saved us from our sins. Brethren, be encouraged on the Lord's day Think these thoughts. He is risen. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for this account, and we thank you for the record, the gospel concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't give good advice. We preach good news, and we know that those who believe will be saved, and I pray that all over the earth today We ask God in heaven that your gospel would run swiftly and that it would be glorified, that multitudes would turn from their useless idols to the true and living God, and they would know the joy of being found in Jesus Christ. God, encourage your saints encourage believers here, all of us, Lord God, may we look upward, may we look heavenward, may we see our Christ reigning and ruling at the right hand of the majesty of God on high.
And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.