The Dawn of a New Age: John 20:1-9 • James Sutton

Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, you suffered and you died for us. You are merciful in taking our punishment upon you. We've heard the testimony of many witnesses who saw you suffer and die on the cross. Lord, in this time of suffering and pain, help us to see what you always had in view, the finish line of your victorious resurrection. Will you reveal to us today not only the depths of your love, but also the heights of your power. Help us to worship and rejoice in you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Turn if you will in your bibles to John chapter 20 verses one through 10, which we'll consider this morning.

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'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 outran 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. 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. — John 20:1-10

This is God's word.

We've just completed a series at Christ the King looking at the witnesses of the cross. We've systematically gone through the trial, the many trials of Jesus, and his execution on our behalf. We saw, as I just prayed, the depths of his love in that. This morning, we're going to shift our attention to witnesses of the resurrection. We have three witnesses to consider this morning: Mary, Peter, and John.

Mary Magdalene

Mary—first of all, there's lots of Marys in the Bible, so let me clarify which Mary we're talking about. This is Mary Magdalene, the one whom Jesus had cast seven demons out of. You can imagine what Mary felt coming to the tomb. She had witnessed Christ's crucifixion, and here was the man who had saved her seven times from demonic attack. Imagine how it must have felt having been attacked by demons multiple times, having a man free you from that, and then seeing that man die. She must have felt very alone and very scared, very vulnerable. She had suffered. She was feeling isolated in the wake of the cross.

I feel like many of us can relate to Mary this morning. Many of us feel alone. We're all isolated. And we're feeling vulnerable. Is there anything invisible that haunts your dreams that makes you nervous, floating around in the air somewhere? This coronavirus has us all on edge. We're all feeling vulnerable. We're all feeling attacked, and we can all relate to Mary.

Peter

The second person that we see in this story is the Apostle Peter. Peter is someone that I can always relate to because he's such a knucklehead, right? Peter has to be feeling a little different from Mary. Some anxiety, some guilt, some shame in the wake of his behavior in Christ's trials. You remember the last time we saw Peter, he was denying Christ three times after having promised that he would never deny Jesus. The shame of those actions must have been carried with him as he walked to the tomb that morning. And I think we can relate to that as well.

I was talking to a friend the other day, and we were talking about how the squeeze of this is bringing all of us to the brink. And oftentimes we run to our idols. A lot of us are struggling with sin right now because we're isolated, we're alone, and when you squeeze us, we're sinners. Guess what comes out? Sin. So I think there's a lot of us that can relate to Peter coming to the tomb this morning, feeling guilt and shame because of our actions.

John

What about John? John had witnessed Christ's crucifixion. You remember the scene—Jesus was on the cross, John was there with his mother, and he said,

"Mother, behold your son. Son, behold your mother."

John must have felt incredible sadness. He was the disciple that Jesus loved. That's how he describes himself. Essentially, his best friend had just died. The man who was his North Star. He must have been feeling deep, deep sorrow. And I think many of us can relate to John this morning.

You know, I don't know if it's hit you yet. It hit me last week. It took a little while, but it was Palm Sunday when I was sitting with my family watching our worship service on TV and thinking about the fact that we're not together. Where is the church? I miss the church. I miss communion.

And all day on Palm Sunday I was just in a funk, and I realized it's because I'm sad. I'm broken hearted. Many of us are facing depression and sadness in the wake of this. So I think we can relate to all of these witnesses as they come to the tomb.

And what do they find? They find some new evidence—new evidence for them, old evidence for us. The stone's rolled away. How did the stone roll away? It's a big stone. It's not something just one person could have done by themselves. And then inside, there's no body. The body's gone. It's an empty tomb except that there's some linen cloths.

Now I don't know about you, but if I'm gonna steal a body from a tomb, I'm leaving it wrapped up. I'm not taking off the clothes and then taking the body. What happened to the cloths? This new evidence is in the wake of it. They don't know what to make of it. Mary and Peter especially are just puzzled, bewildered. They don't know.

But it says that John believed. But this is very curious. It says:

"John believed and he's writing this. He said, but that disciple, he believes, but they yet did not understand that Christ had to rise from the scriptures." — John 20:8-9

He believed, but he didn't understand. He saw the evidence and he thought, "Man, Jesus is raised." But he didn't fully understand the implications of that. He didn't realize what that meant. Is it you just take a second to consider that? It's miraculous that he believed. On the one hand, maybe it's that he just remembered Jesus saying multiple times—because he did multiple times to his disciples say, "Hey, I have to die and I have to rise." Maybe he remembered that and he thought, maybe he's risen. But Mary and Peter don't know what to make of it.

What About Us This Morning?

As we come to this old evidence for us, many of you listening, you probably believe. If you got up at 6:30 in the morning to watch an Easter sunrise, I'm guessing you believe. Maybe you don't. Maybe you're watching this later in the afternoon. You're like, totally not a believer, you're kind of like, "I wonder what the weird Christians are doing today," and you turn this on. Well, here's what we're doing. We're celebrating the rising of our Savior from the dead.

Maybe you don't believe. If you don't believe, I'd encourage you to consider the evidence. There's really strong evidence that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I'd love to talk to you about it. Look me up on our website. That is a Zoom call that I can't wait to have. Contact me.

But if you believe this morning, I suspect that many of us, we can identify with John. We believe, but we don't fully understand. We certainly understand more than John or Peter or Mary did at that time. There's certain implications of this resurrection that if you're a believer, you probably get.

For example, Mary who felt vulnerable and alone because of the resurrection will never be alone. She's invulnerable because Jesus Christ rising from the dead means that she'll have eternal life. Demons may attack, they may come, coronaviruses and pandemics of all sorts may come, but at the end of the day, resurrection means you're with Jesus for eternity.

And what about Peter? Peter's struggling with all of his guilt and shame. Here's what it means for him, the resurrection. He's gonna have an encounter just a few bits after this with Jesus where Jesus is gonna look him in the eye and say, "Peter, do you love me? If so, then feed my sheep." Jesus is gonna restore him and make him a leader in his church despite his sin.

So whatever sin or guilt or shame you're struggling with this morning, remember: Christ's resurrection means that his death was sufficient to pay for your sin. He has rose victorious over Satan, your accuser, and he has forgiven you of your sin, and he calls you to an eternity with himself.

And what about John? John who was sad. Any sadness that we're carrying this morning, we've got to remember that John ultimately will have this grand vision of eternity. This worship service, this celebration of pure joy, no sadness, where God himself will wipe every tear from our eyes. That's what the resurrection means for John. And it means all of that for all of us too. But so much more.

We believe, but we don't yet fully understand. Every day, Paul says in our call to worship—what was it again? Let's look:

"Every day we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." — 2 Corinthians 4:16

Every day, every sunrise is an opportunity to return to the resurrection, to look within ourselves and to see Christ at work and discover new implications of that resurrection and to rejoice in it. Even though we might be wasting away on the outside. Even though we might be a tomb of a person. On the inside, we find the tomb empty, the grave cloths, Jesus Christ is risen, and he is transforming us into his likeness so that we might worship him forever.

One of my favorite bands is a band called Delta Ray, and they have a song that has some lyrics that go like this: "Oh, oh, rain don't change the sun. And jealous is the night when the morning comes and it always comes. It always comes."

You might be in a rainstorm. You might be in the shadow of the earth. But guess what? Rain and the earth don't change the sun. It's burning. Jesus Christ is risen, CTK. Rejoice in that. Explore the implications of that this morning. May you explore them every day and rejoice in them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you rose from the dead and conquered all of our foes. Your victory gave us hope and peace and restored purpose. Help us, your church, to be light to the city even in this dark time. Use the resurrection hope in us to reveal the true power of your resurrection to others. May people rush to you as the apostles rushed to find you after hearing of the empty tomb.

Lord bless the city of Raleigh. Make the light of your love to shine upon all who dwell here. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.