Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
January 28, 2024
INTRO
Good morning! My name is Pastor Brent, it is wonderful to be here with you.
Today we are going to learn about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Without question, the resurrection is central to everything we believe and is the fountain from which flows all our hope for today and our hope for the future. We serve a risen Savior. The empty tomb is proof that Jesus has the victory over sin and evil and death! Your life, my life, and indeed all of history hangs on the truth that there is resurrection hope in Jesus.
If you’re new with us this morning, I want to tell you what we do here. We believe that God has spoken in his Word, and I am passionate about making God the center of our attention as we hear from him.
ILLUST — I want to remind you of this…Whenever I preach, I have this image in my mind: I imagine that the Scriptures are here, at the center (hold up the Bible). God’s Word is at the center because God is at the center of our church. I imagine myself standing off to the side because its not about me! Its not about what clever things I have to say to you! Instead, I want to explain, illustrate, and apply what God has said to you in as passionate and compelling a way as possible. This isn’t a pep talk. This is not a self-help seminar. This isn’t a comedy routine. I want you to hear from God today.
Let me ask you a question to get us started: Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
Often when we hear this word “believe”, we associate it with fairytales or myths. We think of superstitions that can’t really be proved. And honestly, many people in our world today simply call Jesus’ resurrection from the dead a myth.
ILLUST — I have two daughters that love books. Sarah and I read to them every night, and typically I read with my older daughter Annabelle. She loves adventure novels and classic fiction books, so we’ve read the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Adventures of Sherlock Homes, and a number of classic Jules Verne adventure stories. Right now, we are reading the original Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie from 1911. (SLIDE 2)
It occurred to me while reading this that sometimes our culture treats believing in Jesus like believing in Peter Pan, and thinks that the goal of Christianity like a trip to Neverland. Some people think that what is means to be a Christian is to believe in a mythical person who will someday show up and teach us how to fly away to a magical place. The Holy Spirit is like pixie dust and we just need to think happy thoughts in order to make it to Heaven.
Now, some of us may be like the grumpy dad, George, who refuses to believe.
Others may feel like the dog Nanna and are afraid we will get left behind!
(SLIDE 3, title) But friends, the word “believe” in the Bible is much more than that, and believing in Jesus is not wishful thinking or a baseless myth. Rather, the Scriptures present real historical evidence, a true account of a Savior who rose from the dead, and the honest struggles of those who know him to understand and accept that he really is alive!
So, let me ask you the question again: Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
Open with me to John 20. This chapter is the account of Jesus’ resurrection, and the whole chapter is centered on a key word: “believe.” This word occurs 6 times in our passage this morning, and 87 times total in the Gospel of John. The biblical word “believe” means more than simply believing that someone exists: It means “to trust”. It is a word that defines your heart’s devotion, what you give your life to, what you rely upon in an ultimate sense.
ORG SENT — Here’s what we are going to do over the next two messages from the Gospel of John, this week and then on February 11: We are going to look at four examples of people who came to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and came to trust in him and have faith in him.
These four examples of faith are very much like you and me. They each represent the struggles we can have to believe. As we study John 20 over the course of two sermons, we will see this: When we are told that Jesus rose from the dead, we can have one of four reactions: shock, confusion, fear, or doubt. The four main characters of this chapter experience shock, confusion, fear, and doubt, and yet they come to believe in the risen Lord Jesus.
So we are going to focus our attention on the first two reactions this morning: shock and confusion, which are experienced by the Apostle John and Mary Magdalene.
Let’s read our text for this morning. This is the account of the resurrection of Jesus, and the reactions of the first people who discovered the empty tomb. READ John 20:1-18.
Again, we are going to look at two examples of faith as the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection overcome their shock and confusion to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. So, let’s look at the first example.
MAIN 1 — John’s shock (vv. 1-10). (SLIDE 4)
Remember that “The other disciple” or “the one Jesus loved,” is the Apostle John himself. (SLIDE 5) He is the main character of this first section in verses 1-10.
Here’s how the scene unfolded:
It was early Sunday morning, just before dawn. A woman named Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried in order to complete the burial process by pouring more spices and oils over the body, which we know from Mark’s and Luke’s gospels.
Mary was one of Jesus’ earliest followers. She was from a small village on the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. So the gospel writers distinguish her from the other Marys by calling her Mary Magdalene, which means “Mary from Magdala”. (SLIDE 6)
We learned last week that Jesus was hastily buried on Friday afternoon because the Sabbath was to begin at sundown and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the crucified bodies of Jesus and the two other men hanging there during this special Sabbath and the continuing Passover celebration.
So here we are, Sunday morning after the Sabbath was complete, and Mary is at the tomb to pay her respects and finish the burial process.
As she walks up to the tomb, which was a cave cut into a hill of limestone just outside the city walls, she sees the stone that was in front of the tomb rolled away.
ILLUST — Here’s what a tomb looked like in ancient Israel. (SLIDE 7) I took this picture myself. There was typically a large room in the middle and then individual chambers cut into the rock where the bodies of family members would be buried alongside each other as the generations passed away. There was also a bench along the rim of the large center room where it is likely that Jesus’ body was laid until the burial process could be completed and his body slid into one of the chambers.
Grave robbery was fairly common in the ancient world, so as soon as Mary sees the stone rolled away, she assumes that something bad has happened and she runs back into the city of Jerusalem to tell the two leaders of the disciples: Peter and John.
(SLIDE 8) This is one of my favorite parts of the story: Peter and John start running to the tomb. Can you imagine the adrenaline? They don’t know what to think, but they need to get to the tomb fast!
Peter was the oldest of the disciples and apparently not in very good shape. But he takes off first and gets a head start.
John was younger and faster, and you can imagine John catching up to Peter and passing him on the path, and Peter huffing and puffing as he struggles to keep up.
John arrives at the tomb first, but he didn’t go in right away. It was barely dawn and the tomb would have been fairly dark, and for all he knew the robbers may still be in inside!
Listen: John was one of Jesus’ closest disciples. He had been with Jesus for three years and he had seen all of his miracles and heard all of his teaching.
Even though John had been a witness to everything Jesus had done and said, he was still in shock as he arrived at the tomb. He cautiously peered in and saw the linen burial cloths lying there, but he didn’t go inside.
But here comes Peter. We’ve gotten to know Peter by now, and we know he is more of a “shoot first, aim later” kind of personality. He finally gets to the tomb, trying to catch his breath, and he goes straight inside and finds the burial cloths laying there in the exact place where Jesus had been laid, but there was no one there! It was like his body just vanished!
Finally John goes in also and sees the cloths lying on the bench. The text says these profound words in verse 8: (SLIDE 9) “Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.”
Do you hear the weightiness of these words? Can you put yourself in John’s shoes, shocked and unable to even step inside the tomb at first because he can’t wrap his mind around what is happening.
John writes these words about himself for a reason: He wants us to grapple with our own honest reactions to the truth of the resurrection.
APPLY: Friends, maybe you’re someone standing on the outside, hanging around the edges, still reserving judgment, not willing yet to take the leap of faith. Maybe you feel that tug and pull in your heart, but because you’ve been burned in the past, or hurt by the church, or wondered if God really loves you, you might hear me say, “Jesus rose from the dead” and this might feel like its too much for you. You might feel like its beyond your understanding or that you can’t open your heart to this reality and all the implications that will follow as this Risen Savior demands full surrender of your life. You may feel like you just can’t even go there, you can’t step inside to see for yourself if it is real.
KEY: If this is you, I want you to see this…John admits in verse 9 that he still didn’t fully understand, and yet he still believed! He couldn’t quite put the pieces together in his mind about how the Scriptures foretold of the resurrection, he couldn’t totally point to a rational explanation, and he couldn’t understand how coming back from the dead is even possible. Yet he chose to step inside that tomb, and he was confronted with a truth that demanded his trust, it called forth his devotion, it moved his heart at a level he couldn’t completely explain. This is what we call faith.
So, if you don’t feel like you fully understand the resurrection, this is the challenge for you: step inside and trust that Jesus is alive!
Let’s go now to look at the second example of faith from this passage.
MAIN 2 — Mary’s confusion (vv. 11-18). (SLIDE 10)
Let’s pick up the story in verse 11. Mary stayed at the tomb. She apparently followed Peter and John back to the tomb after she had delivered the news that the stone had been rolled away. Here she remains, outside the tomb, weeping, and after Peter and John leave, she gathers up the courage to look inside. And this woman is privileged to be the first recipient of the announcement of the best news in the history of the world.
As she looks into the tomb, two angels are there on the bench where Jesus’ body had been! They asked her, “Why are you crying?” In other words, (SLIDE 11) “There is no need to cry! Don’t you realize what has happened here!”
Mary responds with desperation and confusion: She doesn’t know who took Jesus’ body or where they have put him. Friends, I think this is exactly how all of us would respond! Mary is terrified that thieves have stolen Jesus, she is weeping and can hardly see and can hardly breathe or even think clearly, and suddenly two angels are speaking to her and she just wants to know where Jesus is!
Then she turns around and sees Jesus standing there — She thinks he is the gardener! (SLIDE 12)
This is pretty funny. ILLUST — Have you ever asked a question of someone at a store who you thought was an employee, and it turns out they aren’t? Years ago, I made the mistake of wearing a red polo shirt and khaki pants in Target. As I was walking through the store other customers started asking me questions. I was annoyed at first, but eventually I just started helping people!
This is basically what Mary does to Jesus. She turns around and see this figure standing in the doorway of the tomb, and she probably could only see his silhouette at first because of the bright light behind him, and she thinks he is one of the servants who takes care of the garden area around the tomb.
IMPORTANT: Jesus is the first to speak. Mary is so confused and distraught, and here Jesus’ question to her is very revealing: (SLIDE 13) “Who is it you are looking for?”
This question is loaded with meaning. It is not simply, “Tell me the name of the person you are looking for,” it is more a question that aims to reveal Mary’s expectations at this moment. In other words, Jesus is asking: (SLIDE 14) “What kind of Messiah are you expecting? Are you really looking for a dead Messiah?”
You see, although Mary had such great esteem for Jesus, and she was deeply devoted to him, she had seen his miracles and listened to his teaching, and yet this moment reveals that her view of Jesus was still too small!
But here’s the moment of truth. She is distraught and confused and can’t understand what is going on. But when Jesus calls her name (SLIDE 15) “Mary” she recognizes it is him!
KEY — Don’t miss this: Mary recognized Jesus because memories came flooding back into her mind at this moment. She had heard him call her name before when she was distraught and hopeless. You see, we know from Mark 16 and Luke 8 that Mary had been possessed by seven demons when Jesus first met her. When she was lost and helpless in her sin and in the darkness of evil that had enslaved her, Jesus called her by name and broke the power of sin and evil in her life!
APPLY: Maybe you are stuck in darkness, maybe you are enslaved to sin, maybe you are confused, broken, distraught, or hurting. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the only hope you have to bring true freedom, clarity, peace, and healing to your life. And you need to know this: Jesus knows your name. He calls you by name!
Did you notice what Mary does when she realizes her desperate need for Jesus? She clings to him, she clutches him, she reaches out to grasp him! This should be our reaction too when we are confused or disoriented by the harsh realities of this world. We should grab ahold of Jesus, placing our faith in him and trusting in him, clinging to him like our lives depend on it!
Now, Jesus here gently tells Mary that she has to let go because he still must ascend to the Father. In other words, even though her clinging to Jesus is inspiring as a picture of faith, as it should be, Jesus needs her to physically let go so that she can go tell the others, spreading the message that he is indeed alive!
And that is task of the church, all who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Remember what John wrote earlier in his gospel about Jesus as the Good Shepherd? (SLIDE 16) John 10:3-4 says, “…the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
Friends, Jesus has called YOUR name. Listen to his voice, follow him! Will you recognize him as the risen Savior and cry out to him and fall at his feet and grasp onto him? And just as Mary did, will you go tell others about him?
Friends, Jesus is risen and he is our hope and the one in whom we can believe and trust.