Good morning Christ is risen Amen my name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors here and if you have a Bible would you turn with me to John chapter 20 We're going to look at John 20 verses 1 through 18 if you have your own Bible you can turn there if you're going to use one of ours Underneath the chairs in front of you. It's 1,153. That's the page that John chapter 20 begins on Here now God's holy and true word from John chapter 20 starting in verse 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and Saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple the one whom Jesus loved and Said to them they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and We do not know where they have laid him So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb both of them were running together But the other disciple out ran Peter and reached the tomb first 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 and The other disciple then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stood to look into the tomb and She saw two angels in white sitting there where the body of Jesus had lain one at the head and one at the feet They said to her woman why are you weeping? She said to them they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him Having said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus Jesus said to her woman Why are you weeping whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener she said to him sir if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away Jesus said to her Mary She turned and said to him in Aramaic Reboni which means teacher Jesus said to her do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father But go to my brothers and say to them. I am ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples I Have seen the Lord And that he said these things to her The word of the Lord You pray with me Father, we give you thanks and praise the smorning we lift high the name of Jesus Christ our savior Who died on the cross to pay for our sins who rose from the grave to prove his success Father, we thank you for this morning. Thank you for gathering us here today Thank you for your word and its power We pray now, Lord that as we look in this text that you would Holy spirit that you would Shine a flood light on the majesty and glory of our Lord Jesus We pray that you would use this time to change us to transform us to make us more like our Lord Jesus and to equip us To run with the gospel to our neighbors and to the nations For it is in Jesus name that we pray Amen a lot happens in a minute There was an article in the magazine called the Atlantic and they had done some research to see the amount of things that take place in A minute on earth and just a short list of things that they came up with in a minute before the second hand does a complete rotation on a clock 25 people will get a passport 58 airplanes will take off from somewhere around the world 116 people will get married 11,000 packages will be delivered by a UPS 243,000 pictures will be posted to Facebook half of them probably selfies 5.4 million pounds of garbage will be created most importantly 7.1 billion human hearts will beat and they will beat 500 trillion times And that will produce 800 quintillion new red blood cells That's a lot for a minute, but of all the minutes in the history of the world There's never been a more important minute Then the minute in which the greatest thing that has ever happened took place And that is the resurrection of our Lord our Savior the King of Kings Jesus Christ And that is what we are celebrating this morning that he broke the chains of death That he secured our way to God that he is our way to God because of what he's done on the cross That is such amazing news to sinners like you and me and that's what we're celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and this means so much to you and me Who follow Jesus it means that God has accepted the death of Jesus on the cross in place of our death It means that Jesus our King has is can conquer all enemies even death And it means that for those of us who believe no matter what happens in this life We too will rise again just like our King that is amazing news and we're celebrating this This is what we're celebrating we celebrate this every Sunday in reality and today We're celebrating the resurrection as well as kicking off this new sermon series that will be in for today and the next three weeks It's called the difference and it's all going to be focused on some amazing things about Jesus that make a major difference in our lives For those of us who believe and so the hope is that as we look at these things today and over the next few weeks that our faith is strengthened if we are a believer And if you're not a believer or if you're a skeptic or if you were dragged here by your friend We hope that you'll join us for this whole series and that you would seek to understand some things because we really believe that as you begin to understand more and more about Jesus You will see more of what we see maybe Your whole life will change today. We're going to take a look at this account of the resurrection from John 20 and we just want to be focusing on the fact that nothing compares to the salvation we receive through faith in Christ nothing Nothing compares to the salvation we have in Christ and we're going to do this by looking at three things Sometimes our members here make outlines if you're a guest with us you're free to do that on the back of your worship guide And if you're going to make an outline we're going to talk about three things this morning We're talking about experiencing the power of Christ and then evidence for the resurrection of Christ and finally expecting the grace of Christ all from these verses this morning So I'd encourage you to keep your bottles open and let's just we'll look at this passage this morning Take a look at verse one and two and see that It's we're going to see that Jesus has the power to tremendously change people's lives Okay, take a look one and two it says now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early So she goes after it was it was while it was still dark she goes and she sees That the tomb is open the stone has been rolled away and so verse two says she takes off running To tell the disciples Basically what we need to see here is look at her devotion She got up really early in the morning to go to the tomb Some scholars think she was probably going to finish some of the burial preparations that might have been cut short by the Sabbath that came upon The people as Jesus had died on the cross But she gets up early and she goes and you just see this devotion in her then when she gets there and the the stone has been rolled away She panics She is distraught you can see that in the way that she takes off running I mean, this is not some little job. She starts running as fast as she can to get to the disciples And then if we were to look down in verse 11 We see her just weeping uncontrollably. She is absolutely destroyed at this sequence of events They she had watched Jesus die and now his body is apparently missing. She is absolutely destroyed And she stands there weeping and what's interesting is in this time it was Illegal to publicly mourn for somebody who had been executed as a criminal and she doesn't even care She risks it. She stands there at the tomb and is weeping weeping weeping Which helps us to see that she must have experienced something phenomenal in her life Something has given her this tremendous affection for Christ this tremendous affection and this and this diminished devotion to him And that is true We know that that happened if you looked in Mark 16 or in Luke chapter 8 You would see that Jesus had delivered Mary From seven demons she was a demon possessed person and he had delivered her from those things So her life had gotten to the point where it's completely out of control She'd been overtaken by these evil powers. You imagine she reached a point where she was feeling absolutely helpless absolutely hopeless And then she met Jesus and he delivers her From the power of those demons and you can just almost imagine She's feeling free for the first time ever. She's feeling whole again. She is feeling loved She's feeling protected and so obviously she's got this tremendous devotion because of that because she experienced the power of Jesus To change her life and just like Mary people who are following Jesus people in this room We that are following Jesus we have experienced this power to we have experienced his power to do things We could have never done on our own and it is amazing and it is what compels our love and our affection for him I mean think about that for a moment think about this on this resurrection Sunday. What are some of the things that he's delivered you from? How have you seen his power? I know that you have if you're following him in fact I know that if we were to take a quick survey There are people in our church that we know that I know have been delivered from Alcoholism have been delivered from drug addictions people who have been delivered from loneliness I know that people have been delivered by Jesus from things like racism and selfishness and pride and anger He has the power to change lives. He's delivered us from Meaninglessness. He's delivered us from our guilt. He's delivered us from our shame the fear of death. It is it goes on and on That's why we celebrate that's why there's no salvation like there is in Christ There's no other salvation except for in Christ He has the power to change our lives. He does it over and over and again, and here's the difference that makes in our life The difference that that makes is that we can live Always having hope we never have to be hopeless because we know that Jesus is all powerful and can always Deliver us according to his good and perfect will and that makes a huge difference in our lives We always live with hope as we follow him Not only do we see the Experience of his power in this text, but we also see the evidence for the resurrection Let's take a look at that look at verse three. I love this Christ has left Evidence of his resurrection to strengthen our faith This is amazing. Look at verse three. It says so Peter went out With the other disciple that's John It's the other disciple. He's writing the book so he humbly doesn't use his name, but it's Peter and John They go out and they're going towards the tomb verse four both of them are running together But the other disciple out ran Peter and he reached the tomb first can we just stop and pause for a moment that John put in scripture, so it's infallible that he's faster than Peter, okay I just think that's awesome like nobody can ever challenge that who's faster? Well, it's in the Bible John, okay love that Verse five now look at this And stooping to look in he saw the linen cloths lying there But he did not go in now that word saw is a Greek word It's bleppo and it does it has a certain nuance to it. It's kind of the seeing where you just kind of glance Okay, you just kind of notice something so he notices the linens, but he doesn't go in then verse six Peter comes charging through he gets there and he goes right in to the tomb and it says he saw the linen cloths as well as the face cloth That's another Greek word That also means to see Okay, it is the Greek word Thoreo and it's a little different than the glance that John gave this is more of a study An observation so Peter runs into the tomb and he's looking at these linens and he notices that the face cloth is folded up He see Mary probably assumed and maybe Peter and John assumed in the beginning of this of this scenario that there'd been a Gray robbing because back then that was a thing that happened from time to time People would break into fresh tombs and they would steal the burial linens and they would steal the spices and any other things that People had been buried with and then they would sell those things So they may have assumed this has been a grave robbing But now Peter is standing there and he's studying the scene and he sees these linens and he sees the face cloth and so at the very least We can assume he knows this is no grave robbing While he's standing there studying this scene Things may be beginning to click for him John comes in verse 8 says that the other disciple who had reached the tomb first he says it again so John Okay, he goes in And it says that he saw That's a third Greek word that also means to see except this one It means to see and to perceive to understand to get it and so it says he saw and Believed when he looked a second time the evidence lying there Helped him to believe that at the very least Jesus was alive We don't know exactly what he believed here. It does say in verse 9 that they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead And so he may not have totally understood that it was a full-on resurrection But in this moment John points out that he did believe He believed that Jesus was alive and so they went to their homes in verse 10 But that's what's so powerful about this is we see that Christ Jesus had have left this evidence In order to strengthen the faith in order to bring about the belief that he was alive at least within John Maybe Peter as well believed at that moment. We don't know for sure and the reality is there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact There's more evidence pointing to it being a true thing that happened then against it In fact the main argument against Jesus truly being completely dead and then completely alive again The main argument is that it's only happened once Well, there's only been one Jesus Christ the divine son of God and it's the proof that he is who he says he is And so what's beautiful about this is we're not called to blind faith
Jesus has left evidence throughout all of history To prove to you and me to strengthen our faith just like in that moment John believed we see the same things Recorded in history and we can believe as well in fact I want to take a minute and just talk about three three main pieces of evidence That make it really hard for even historians to suggest that the resurrection didn't happen that can't explain it But it's hard to suggest it didn't happen. There's lots and lots of reasons we could talk about it I just want to give you a few Number one the post-resurrection appearances I mean that's pretty solid evidence right there. He appeared two people in the flesh spent time with people eight with people They touched him They knew that he was really back from the dead There's several places in the New Testament that we see that Jesus appeared to people Paul and first Corinthians 15 Says that at one point he appeared to over five hundred people at the same time and when Paul was writing the letter He wrote and they're still alive in other words if you want to go talk to these people and ask them if they saw there isn't Christ do that So we have that eyewitness account. We have all those eyewitnesses eyewitness accounts But what we don't have is anything refuting that stuff just doesn't exist There's just no major source of reputation of these things and so as far as we can tell Historically speaking the eyewitness accounts Our solid evidence that Jesus really did rise from the dead not only that but you have the post-resurrection martyrdom of the apostles as well as many of the early Christians some of whom saw Jesus alive again I mean this is it's amazing what they went through These Christians who had seen Jesus alive it gave them the ability to go and suffer literally hell on earth In order to tell people that Jesus truly had risen from the dead that he really is the savior and that anybody who trusts in him Will not go to hell, but we'll have eternal life. They they were beat. They were Murdered they went through all sorts of things to continue to proclaim this message now Sometimes you know people want to say well, maybe the disciples just hit the body and that's actually in the Bible That suggestion is in the Bible the Jews were worried that the disciples would try to take his body and then tell people That he rose from the dead and that's why they put the extra guards there to guard the tomb But these guys it doesn't make any sense think about that if they had the body if they knew that Jesus didn't really rise from the dead How would they possibly go and suffer through all these things? No the only way That they could have suffered through these things in their ministry Is if they knew for a fact if they'd seen him and therefore they could fall back on the fact that they had seen him alive I mean think about this Peter tradition tells us Peter was crucified Upside down and Tradition tells us that James was beheaded that Bartholomew was flayed alive None of them Recanted none of them took the story back Mark the author of mark Apparently was dragged through the streets of Alexandria until he died from it The only thing that makes sense is that they saw him and so they knew For sure that he had risen from the dead So you've got the post-resurrection appearances. You got the post-resurrection ministry martyrdom and then you've also got the involvement of women in the announcement of the resurrection. This is awesome This is amazing see the reality is at this time culturally speaking nobody would believe the testimony of a woman In fact Josephus early Historians says that the testimony of even a group of women was never even admissible in court And so for Jesus To first appear to Mary Magdalene who's a woman a woman who was formerly possessed by several demons I mean this is just amazing
And historians look at that and they say well If you were making this up that's probably not something that you would put in there Because it would have made it hard to believe And so the only way that this story has continued throughout the centuries It's because it's true It's true and so again. There's a lot more things we could talk about but the reality is we've been given this evidence The historical evidence points to the resurrection truly actually happening in fact There are plenty of events in history that we consider as facts that we have far less evidence for So the evidence points to the truth of the resurrection and the difference that makes Is that we know that our faith is intricately Connected to history. It means that our faith is time tested. It has staying power People have continued to come to Christ to believe in Christ Something continues to draw people to Christ through the generations And we would say that that's the truth the truth tends to be unstoppable Millions billions of people through the generations through the centuries have lived lives to glorify God through faith in Christ In fact, uh, interesting fact in 1914 it's estimated there were 600 million Christians in the world Now here we are a hundred years later 2014. It's estimated there is nearly 2.2 billion Christians in the world Not amazing The truth is unstoppable and Jesus left this evidence to strengthen our faith Third this morning let's look at these expectations of the grace of Christ looking at verses 11 through 18 And the reality is is because of what Jesus has done in the cross believers can expect Grace from God our Father and the resurrection is the proof This is so amazing such amazing news because of what he's done on the cross We can expect grace from God our Father the resurrection is the proof look at verse 11 Mary stood there weeping Verse 12 she sees these angels they start talking to her. She's still unfaithed. I mean she is so distraught. She doesn't even Skip a beat in her agony as the angels are talking to her verse 14 She turns around actually sees Jesus Doesn't realize that it's him He says woman verse 15. Why are you weeping? Who are you seeking and she thinks he's the gardener She says sir if you've carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away It's so amazing because here she is Again feeling hopeless feeling helpless just completely destroyed And Jesus is gonna completely lift her out of that with one word her name What a moment 15 16 I mean verse 16 Jesus said to her Marry And she turns and she says in her mimic Rabona, which means teacher And she clearly grows and with everything she's got he's real he was physically there We see that because she's squeezing him so tight. He says Mary don't cling to me Don't cling to me. He says I've not yet ascended to the Father but go to my brothers and say to them I am ascended I am ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God And Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples I have seen the Lord And that he had said these things to her what an amazing thing he says he says I'm ascending to my Father and your Father including her as well obviously and the disciples all the people who were following him My Father and your Father my God and your God and what is so amazing about that it is what he's saying is because of what he's done on the cross God is our Father when Jesus was dying on the cross paying for sin what he was doing is literally removing all that would cause God to judge us From our record from our lives. He was removing our sin from us taking away the only thing that would cause God to judge us And we deserve judgment That's clear. We're all sinners. We're all guilty. We've all broken God's law God is a holy and just judge. He must punish sin any judge who would see a convicted criminal and just say okay run along You don't have to go to jail. We would have thrown out God is a holy and just judge. He must punish sin And he did punish sin. He punished Christ instead of us And that has an incredible effect on us who believe notice that Jesus did not say Go tell my brothers. I'm ascending to my judge and your judge
He said to my Father and your Father God has no need to judge us anymore. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because of what he has done And the Father then has nothing but love for us He is our Father and can extend to us Fatherly grace forever if our faith is in Christ God is our Father and as our Father he continually extends his grace to us And here's the difference that that makes What it means is that we can expect nothing but grace from God That all we receive from God is grace It's never judgment the judgment has been paid. It's always grace now Sometimes we don't think some of the things that we're going through are God's grace But that's because we have some more things to understand about God and his glory and about Jesus But the reality is we can live every day expecting grace from God Grace that forgives us of our sins grace that shapes us and molds us grace that changes our lives Grace that makes us more like his son It is endless and it is amazing and perhaps best of all we can wake up every day Knowing that God Almighty our Father in heaven absolutely loves us And Has plans for our lives you know so much So much of our longings of our desires of our striving even of our sin Is rooted in the fact that we so desperately long to know that we are Absolutely loved and cherished and here Jesus is saying that the resurrection is the proof that our sin Has been paid for and therefore God is our loving and gracious Father forever And does indeed love us perfectly powerfully All day every day and that makes a huge difference in our lives I know these two guys Tim and Ted And their brothers and I know not everybody had a real great dad But they did they seem to really think their dad was awesome and they love to tell stories about their dad Tim and Ted And they love to talk about how Experiencing this great love from their dad With such a helpful thing in experiencing and knowing the reality of the great love they have from Their Father in heaven because of what Jesus has done and they they tell this one story About how when they were almost teenagers they they shared a room together And they had bunk beds and Tim slept on the top bunk and Ted slept on the bottom bunk and They say that every day their dad would come in And he would To wake them up and get them ready for school. He would kind of burst in the door And say good morning guys. It's gonna be a great day And then he would go on his merry way and they would kind of roll out of bed and go get in the shower and whatnot Every single day boom door breaks open Good morning guys. It's gonna be a great day One time The door slams open Their dad walks in and says good morning guys It's gonna be a great day and as he's walking out Tim who's on the top bunk Says to Ted who's on the bottom bunk Why does he do that every day and their dad heard And so he turns around and he walks back in And he walks right up to Tim who's about I level with him because he's on the top bunk and he says You know why today's gonna be a great day
Because at some point today You're gonna get at it. It's gonna sink in You're gonna realize Your dad is wild about you and what's so powerful About knowing that we've been completely forgiven in Christ Is to live every single day No matter what happens At any point in any day we can stop And we can let it sink in and we can realize that our Father in heaven Is wild about us all because of Christ and so we celebrate and we praise his name Let's pray Our Father Which we can only say because of our big brother and Savior and Lord and King Jesus we thank you We give you praise this morning That you would forgive us of our sin that you would declare us righteous in Christ that you would give us the gift of faith Father we pray that as we celebrate this morning Christ and the salvation that we have through faith in him That you would use this Celebration to continue to change us Continue to show us how glorious our Lord Jesus is Help us to feel the fact that you are wild about us
In Jesus name we pray Amen