Probably the most nervous I've ever been to free. This is pretty nerve-racking. I'll be honest a Room of empty chairs is very nerve-racking. There is more nerve-racking when it's a room of 900 strangers But it's close. It's close. The most nervous I've ever been when I was preaching was once I was at a conference There were about 900 students there. I didn't know any of them You know, I take myself in the mirror like 10,000 times. I wanted everything to be just right And I walk into the room and the very first person that greets me asked me the question I hate to be asked more than any other question, which is what are you preaching on? and I so and I've been given the topic of Discipleship of growing in grace sanctification. It was all or the same thing. And I looked at him and said I'm preaching tonight on the bodily resurrection of Jesus and And I was nervous because that was not really the topic But to me and I said I just I think that matters. I think that's the the basis of everything and he looked and he said I'm so glad I'm so glad I brought a student with me who's had two deaths in her life very recently her father and her brother and and We've been talking and she's just wrestling and she's so Broken and she needs the resurrection and I said to him, you know The longer I spend in ministry the more I'm beginning to see That the bodily resurrection of Jesus might be all that matters and He said these words. I'll never forget them. He said without the resurrection of Jesus all I've got for this student Is a really good bedtime story and I want you to understand that I want you to understand that if if everything we're about to read If everything we have just sung about if all of that is not true Then all we have all this this gospel message is is a really good bedtime story There's no concrete life-changing truth to it But because it is true because Jesus really did get out of a grave with a real body That resurrection explains the mystery of life And it turns our morning into a mission that the bodily resurrection of Jesus the Easter Explains the mystery of life's darkness and turns our morning into a mission Please read with me from John chapter 20 He's great words I want to remind you that John wrote his gospel year decades after all the other Gospels have been written and he he chose his words carefully to teach that we're a meditation What he had been meditating on God spare John all the other apostles died martyr deaths pretty early in their ministry But God spared John to live well on his the next generation little to be a very old man To kind of protect the the transmission of the gospel to the next generation And he writes these words starting with verse 1 of chapter 20 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 rolled away from the tomb So she ran and went to Simon Peter to the other disciple the one whom Jesus loved and instead of them They've taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they've 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 the other disciple didn't Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb He saw the linen cloths lying there and a face cloth which had been on Jesus's head Not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself Then the other disciple 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 it's good weeping outside the tomb And as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain Wanted to head and the other at the feet They said to her woman Why are you weeping she said to them They've 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? Who are you seeking Supposing him to be the gardener she said to him sir if you carried him away Tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away Jesus said to her Mary She turned and said to him in Arabic Which means teacher Jesus said to her do not cling to me for I've 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 Very Magdalene went and announced the disciples. I have seen the Lord And that he had said these things to her This Father reading of God's holy word all men are like grass and all of our Glories like the flowers of field the grass withers and the flowers fall but not God's word God's word stands forever Amen Amen Only Easter Only the bodily resurrection of Jesus make sense of the mysteries of life in terms are mourning Into a mission I want you to see that first of all. I want you to see the mystery of this text John He chooses every word so carefully and he writes so Meditatively he wants us to really kind of feast on to meditate on these words And so he he gives it to a slowly says it's the first day of the week The first day of the week now what was that supposed to mean to us? It's not just reporting that it was Sunday. What does it mean? It takes us back doesn't it? Takes us back to the very first words of the Bible the same way John did it the beginning of his gospel when he said in the beginning There was the word now he takes us back to the very beginning of creation in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and there was darkness over the face of the deep What does John tell as he says it was the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early One that was still dark there was darkness and Genesis one we see that the Holy Spirit hovered over the face of the waters
We know that Mary was in the presence of Of God himself and all this power, but she couldn't see it. It was dark She was there in physical darkness. She was there in spiritual darkness. She was unknowing that she was still seeking
The first day of the week There was darkness Mary sees the stone. She sees an empty tomb. She doesn't understand any of it Where who did this is only the only thing confronting her there is mystery mystery after mystery who moved the stone? Where is the body? Who did this where have they taken him so she runs upon Peter and John and she she just reports the mystery that the body's gone Jesus is gone. We don't know where they taken him Mary Peter and John run back and they are unfolded in the mystery Where is he they see the mystery deepest they see the the clothes of the cloth so he was wrapped in just laying there like he just left They see even stranger they seem the the napkin the the towel that was over his head folded like someone said I don't need this anymore mystery They don't yet understand the scriptures
There's mystery. I want to ask you a question Did you wake up this Easter morning Feeling surrounded by mystery Why does God do what he does The overarching mystery the darkness over Mary and the disciples was Why why if Jesus was the one who was going to save us why did he die?
What's your mystery? Why why are my dreams on hold? Why am I sick? Why won't God give me a child? Why won't God save my marriage? Why won't he heal my pain? Why won't he save my daughter from her sin et cetera? Et cetera, we keep finding ourselves in that mystery of why why won't he do what we want him to do? Why won't he do what we expect him to do? Why won't he do what we would do if we were God? And in the fact that that Jesus himself has suffered this pain and has suffered death It might mean that Jesus that they got his plane fair
But it does not explain the mystery. So Peter and John run away And Mary goes further She goes in the morning verse 11 and so sad, isn't it? Mary stood weeping outside the tune And as she wept she stood to look into the tune Peter and John run back to be with the others. They believe Mary's words But they don't understand the scripture. If it not Mary Mary doesn't go anywhere She just stands there and weeps and and when she's asked why are you weeping? She says these tender words They've taken away
They've taken away Taken away my lord and I don't know where they've taken him That's really the heart of weeping isn't it? It's the heart of mourning You just feel the emptiness of what's been taken away
right now As a entire nation as an entire world we're feeling this this absence Where's the coronavirus taken from us? It's taken Graduations it's taken weddings it's taken friends it's taken lives it's taken It's just taking away. It's taking away
And it's on it seems odd for Easter to come in that context But I think it's important for us to realize that Easter comes in the context of mystery and of mourning That that was what was going on when we when we greet Easter with pink and white and and beauty and flowers and bunnies and duckies That's that sweet that but it's but it gives a false impression doesn't it? It makes it look like everything is finally right with the world and that things are not Right with the world they weren't right on that first day of the week and they're not right on this first day of the week This this is the setting for Easter quiet loneliness The disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood there weeping Mary isn't doing any of those things were supposed to do when when confronted with sad news she's not being thankful that it happened I hate that saying Don't be sad it's over be thankful to happen. She's not moving on to the next thing She's not being brave and painting a brave face on it She's not thinking about all those who have it worse at least. I'm not blank She's weeping And she's weeping in a precise place isn't she she is weeping Where she lasts saw Jesus She is weeping in the place where she expects to see Jesus Even though he is dead Even though she saw him buried there in her faith She knows that he is the only thing that can make it better Being near him is the only thing that will make it better
She weeps she mourns She's plunged into mystery and she mourns and what is all that weeping get her What is all that weeping in mourning give her it brings her to the miracle of Easter First of all visit from the angels were they there already or did that just appear? We don't know maybe angels can only be seen through tears
And they asked her what why are you weeping all they've taken away my lord and I don't know where to find him
Her weeping gets hurt Jesus She was willing to sit in her pain and seek him until she found him And Jesus answers the very promises that he gave he keeps his promises that those who seek find he keeps his promise that I'm near to the broken heart and close to the contrite and spirit He keeps his promise that I dwell with the the low and the broken of spirit and he he brings her the dawn of resurrection There was darkness over the face of the deep and and there was Chaos and and dark until God spoke let there be light there was darkness at the tomb until Mary hears those words. She hears his own voice saying her name Mary Mary and she finds normal person The the miracle doesn't look like we expect it's normal. She assumed he was the gardener It's physical. She cleansed to his feet. It's intimate Oh man, what a precious precious sound that must have been for Jesus to have said her name Mary it's incredibly incredibly Life giving she says he says to her Mary I have not even gone to my father yet
It's your tears brought me back here
How do you see that intimacy do you see that that promise he gives her and then he gives her a new family go to my brothers And say to them I'm ascending to my father and your father my god and your god He he's telling them that this this intimacy this family has been accomplished this adoption is complete You have a new family in this miracle You have a new creation in this miracle John is is careful to explain that to us right he shows it to us for those who look when when pilot presented Jesus to be condemned He introduces him as the man The first the second Adam and now on this the first day of the week when when the light is gone for the first time What is Mary think she sees she sees a gardener?
She sees Adam in the new garden and this is a the new birth This is the new birth that Jesus talked about this is the resurrection that we experience We experience as individuals when we hear him say our name
Jesus is raised as the the first fruit of the new creation and Paul tells us if anyone is in Christ he is the new creation The old is gone the new has come And And we've seen this we've experienced it if you are in Christ you have experienced that And if you've been in the church at all for any length of time you've seen it over and over yet You have seen resurrection grace over and over this morning I got a newsletter in my inbox from david french In his poorly named french press
He knows his poorly named and he needs to change it um He writes about the times that he's seen resurrection power I want to share to these stories just tremendous he says I'm never in my life forget the first time I saw it with my own eyes It was a Sunday night and there was a buzz and a pews because that kid the one in the church who had He grown up in the church but despised Christianity that kid who went out of his way to reject Christ and indulge every kind of sin That kid that that parents wouldn't let their kids go to use group if he was there because their kids were scared That kid was rebellious and angry and violent and that kid was at church on a Sunday night
And as the pastor prayed and appealed to Christ's resurrection power over the human heart In the silence of that prayer everyone heard a single word choked out through tears pastor And it was that kid trying to get to the altar that kid trying to rush to the altar He was in the middle of the pew And he didn't want to bother to go around the edges of poop use. He crawled over the ones in front of him Straight into the pastor's weep waiting arms and his parents came and collapsed on him in a sobbing heap resurrection power He goes on to say there was a young woman from Tennessee to lost and despair She'd been victimized as a kid by a petal file preacher Her best friend died in a terrible car accident a former boyfriend almost choked her to death in a brutal late-night attack She hated Christianity He's gonna see one There were times she felt dead inside But one day she went to church with her new husband A man she rushed to marry and barely knew And in Times Square Church in New York City she heard about Christ's resurrection power And the flame of life filled her soul and everything changed And that woman This is life of course you can tell by the way it tells the story she's alive now And for all eternity because of that resurrection life it is there for us It is still there And that new creation turns Our mystery and our morning into a missed mission Easter turns our morning into a mission a mission to go and tell what it what is Mary told go and tell them and she said I've seen the Lord our mission is to go and tell people that the resurrection hope is real and it's true that death does not have the final word The God is making all things new That we have a new intimacy a new brothers and a new father That we have a new hope This hope is quiet there's no trumpets there to blow horns and Mary's ears. It sneaks up on her in the darkness The hope is slow It takes a while to believe Faith doesn't come on you all at once. I wish it did It takes a while you have to live with it for a while and you find that you trust it You find that you look back and you realize yeah, I do believe everything in that creed I didn't But I do You find this new hope is unassuming you don't change all of a sudden you wish you would my favorite Christian-ish movie is Tendermercies with Robert DeVal It's a great scene when he's coming home from being baptized seeing a little boy get baptized together and he said Little boy looks at Robert DeVal says You feel different And he smiles he says not yet. I guess it takes a while It does But it's real It's substantive it's substantive Mary Cloned to Jesus. He was real. He was physical It was not abstract. It was not some general hope. It was real And if eternal Jesus will reign until he's put all enemies under his feet and the last enemy to be defeated is death It's eternal That is the hope that is here for you today So just come to where you see Jesus laugh Come and hear more until he comforts you Please pray with me our Father. We pray that we would find you find you in our tears find you in the darkness
And we pray that we would hear those words let there be light And if you would shine light into our hearts and shine a new hope upon us Father I pray for the many many of my friends throughout morning right now morning deaths morning disappointments morning injury and pain I pray for my friends for in the just absolute darkness of mystery wondering why why won't you answer prayer
Why won't you heal? Father I pray that you would comfort them just as Substantively just as concretely As you comforted Mary