Resurrection Sunday: “Two Enemies, One Empty Tomb” | John 20

Well, one week ago, we remember Jesus willingly riding to Jerusalem to face an inevitable future. A future which he chosen. A future of denial, rejection, ridicule, mockery, hate, and death. Jesus has now been dead for three days. His disciples are expecting nothing but to prepare a body as was tradition.

But this is no traditional burial. You see, and Jesus had come to seek and to save that which was lost. And to accomplish this, Jesus had triumphantly entered Jerusalem. Two enemies clearly in view, both sin and death. sin being literally the missing of God's mark. God had set a target that we had repeatedly missed.

But I love how our wana program states it. They say that sin is anything that we think, say, or do that displeases a holy God. That is God has said, "Hey, this is what it is to please me." And we have repeatedly missed that mark. Now, last week we mentioned that Jesus knew that without the shedding of blood, there was no remission. But remission from what?

Remission from sin. And then maybe you pause and say, "Okay, Chris, that's great. You just define sin, but what in the world does the word remission means?" Remission literally means forgiveness. It means pardon. That is the giving up of punishment due a crime.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no pardon for our sin. There is no giving up of that punishment for the crime that we committed. Now, I can hear an objection. But I'm a pretty good person. Anybody ever say that?

Anybody ever hear that? God should accept me. But the first question I have for you is, you're pretty good according to whom? You know, it's really easy to be good when you're the one setting the standard, but when someone else sets the standard, how good are we really? This is the reality of our state.

Not not just mine, not just yours, but every single man, woman, and child who exists on this earth. That we are all like an unclean thing in and of ourselves. And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. Righteousness is just meaning these things that we're trying to give over to God. These things that we're trying to um offer up to God.

And he's saying, "Look, everything that you offer to me is just not good enough. It's not worthy of me." And to clean that filth, to clean that filth required a price be paid. And that's the thing is there is an opportunity for us to be cleaned. There is an opportunity for us to be made right before God. But it's something that we cannot do ourselves.

Only God had the ability to pay the price that was necessary. That is why God became man and dwelt among us. We remember this from 2 Corinthians 5:21. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus would win victory over sin on the cross which we remembered on Friday evening.

But though sin was defeated on that Friday, though sin was defeated on that cross, one enemy still remained. That enemy being death. Now Jesus had already proven that he had power over death. He had just raised Lazarus from the dead. But now Jesus is the one lying in the grave.

Jesus is not there to approach his own grave and to raise himself. So how was Jesus going to be raised? No one could call them out of the grave themselves. Could they? So were the religious leaders correct when they mocked Jesus while he hung on the cross? where they said this in Matthew 27, he saved others.

Himself he cannot save. If he's the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross. And if he does that, well then I mean then we'll believe in him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now if he will have him.

For he said, "I am the son of God." Now the question remains for us all. Why did Jesus not come down from the cross? Why didn't he not prove these guys wrong and just come off the cross? Because again, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Don't miss this.

These men laid out a test for Jesus. Come down from the cross. They threw a gauntlet. They threw it down on the ground, but it flew in the face of what actually needed to be accomplished. These humans, as educated as they were, didn't know what was best.

Now, as already mentioned, Jesus willingly went to the cross. Jesus was no victim. He chose the cross. He chose the pain. He chose the rejection.

He chose torment. He chose death on our behalf. And why? Because he loves us. He could have come down at any time if he willed it.

But his will was to remain because of love. It was his will to go to the grave so that he could defeat that second enemy, so that he could defeat death. And this is where we pick up the narrative in John 20:es 1-18. We begin in verse 1. Now on 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.

Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, 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." So, it's the first day of the week. It's what we call Sunday after Jesus had been crucified. Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus's followers, has come to the tomb as part of the ritual of coming to prepare his body. Now, two things are peculiar here. First, the heavy stone has been rolled away.

But second, there had been an elite guard that had been placed there uh in previous days by Pilate at the request of the Jews to protect the tomb in case some should come and take Jesus's body because he had already declared that he would die and be raised again. And so the fear of the Jews was that Jesus's disciples would come and steal his body away and then be able to sell this lie that somehow Jesus had been resurrected. And so they put this elite guard there to protect along with a 2,000 plus pound rock that's in front of it. And so Mary comes and the guard is gone. The stone is rolled away.

And we're John tells us that she Mary h high tails it to Peter in what is called the other disciple who we believe to be the apostle John who is writing this gospel. And I mean, and she says, "They've taken him away." And and you think about it, in her mind, she's thinking, "What else could it possibly be?" I mean, often when we encounter something we've never experienced, we don't reach for the explanation we've never considered because we've never considered it. We reach for the one that fits what we already know. And more than likely, Mary knew about graves being robbed, but she didn't have a lot of experience with people being resurrected from the dead. I mean, yes, there was Lazarus, but again, Jesus did the raising, but now it's Jesus is in the grave.

But here's the thing. Mary had had seeds of what had happened planted in her mind. Just weeks before, Jesus had predicted his death, his burial, and his resurrection. Just weeks earlier, Jesus had asked his disciples, "Who do people say the son of man am?" Who do they say that I am? Peter would make a declaration that would be the foundation of all who believe, that you are the Christ, you are the son of the living God." Matthew records this.

From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and be raised on the third day. This would prompt the Apostle Peter to rebuke Jesus, which would in turn prompt Jesus to utter the ever so famous rebuke, "Get behind me, Satan." Jesus had made himself clear that he would die and that he would rise again the third day. And again, God can tell us something. We can hear it. We can acknowledge it, but we don't necessarily always fully comprehend it.

And this is Mary. She'd walked with Jesus. She'd loved Jesus along with many other disciples, but her humanity would not allow her in that moment to comprehend comprehend that Jesus had done what he had said that he would do, that he would die and that he would live again. And so she runs. She tells the apostles that Jesus's body has gone missing which then prompts Peter to to run to the along with the other disciple and they were going to the tomb.

And so they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first and stooping down and looking in saw the linen cloths lying there. Yet he did not go in. Peter and John upon hearing that Jesus's body is missing. They book it to the tomb. They have to see this for their own eyes.

And John has to get a little bit of a dig in, explaining to everybody in the world for the rest of history that he was faster than Peter at getting there. Now, John, for reasons that he doesn't mention, won't go into the tomb first. We're given the detail that he has to stoop down to see inside the tomb. And there he sees the linens and just lying there. And then Simon Peter came following him because he was slower obviously. 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 when the other disciple whom came to the tomb first, again, first went in also, he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. You get this? Weeks earlier Jesus plainly tells them. We just finished the Gospel of Mark.

Multiple times leading up to this time Jesus had continuously prepared them. And this is one of those things. We're going through a lot of stuff right now. This little side is not in the notes. We're going through a lot of stuff right now.

And I'm seeing this even starting to fill my YouTube feed. Oh, we're in the end times, family. We're in the end times. Look what's going on in the Middle East. It's the end times.

And you know what? It could be, but they've been saying this forever. We We plainly have the scripture in front of us. It tells us exactly what's going to happen. Let me ask you, Jesus himself told his guys, "This is exactly what's going to happen." They didn't comprehend it.

So, why do we think we do? Who do we trust in family? Trust in our king. Trust in the word of God. Don't trust in the talking heads on YouTube.

I say to those who are watching me right now on YouTube. Now, now notice Peter doesn't hesitate. He flies into the tomb. You can imagine him looking around to ensure that it's empty at first. And he sees Jesus's burial linens.

They're just lying there. They're just they're just lying there. And the handkerchief had been around his head neatly folded into place by itself. Great care had been taken in the removal, the folding, and the placement of the burial garments. This was not a hasty exit.

You just get this feel that this wasn't people just coming in trying to snatch a body. There's a lot of purposeful behavior that's going on here. And John enters the tomb seeing more clearly what Peter had seen. And we're told that he believed. He believed.

It's incredible. He just believed a great care again had been taken. He believes. He believes what? He believes that Jesus has risen just as he said.

So, how did Peter and John respond? Well, they go home. Of course, they do. We're We're getting there. We're We're fighting each other at the moment, I think.

Johnny, just just edit that part out later. It's okay. That's Imagine that. I have to talk to my editor someday. And Mary stood outside by the tomb.

She was weeping as all this was going on. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked in the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus lay. And then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? 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." Peter and John may have gotten to the belief stage, but Mary, she's not quite there yet.

She's not yet made the connection that Jesus has himself defeated death and risen from the grave. And so, she stands there and she's just weeping. Her grief is so great that she doesn't seem phased by two angels who are suddenly sitting where Jesus had been laid. Now to put this in perspective, typically in the Bible when angels appear, people are terrified. Mary is solely unmoved at this moment.

So the angels ask why she's weeping. Now they obviously know what's happened. Jesus has risen just as he said he would. And Mary reiterates why she's weeping. Because Jesus's body is missing.

Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Family, this woman had walked with Jesus likely for years at this point, but she doesn't recognize him, though he's standing right in front of her. Her focus, her expectations are in the wrong place. And this causes her to recog to not recognize the savior, her teacher and her friend. This is a challenge for us even today.

Have we set expectations as to how or what Jesus should look like in our lives? And as a result, we miss him when he's standing right in front of us. The Pharisees had already done this before. much to their their failure and much to their shame. They had looked for them for him for centuries. And yet they were the reason why he is in this grave because they refused to see him.

But thankfully the Savior, he's not stopped by our confusion. 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 carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away." Mary is still stuck in standard human thought. Jesus has been taken. It's got to be the only explanation.

It's the only possibility. And so she asks him, asks this man, Jesus, not just to bring back the body, but just let her know where it's at so she can go and get it. And of course, it would be easy for us to snicker at her in this moment, right? Because we have, you know, we can look back and we can see the story, be like, "How in the world this is silly? We could snicker.

We could chuckle. We might even mock her at this moment." But family, sometimes again, we completely miss what's right in front of us. And for me, I relate with her humanness, but I'm also thankful for the Savior's persistence. He desires that our eyes be opened to what it is that he's doing. And so Jesus said to her, "Mary," as if to say, "Mary, it's time to open your eyes." And she turned and said to him, "Raboni," which is to say, "Teacher." Now again, have you ever been looking at something, but for the life of you, you can't see it?

You ever been there? All the guys are relating with me right now. Maybe not so much the ladies. Like, I still remember this. And this is not an isolated thing.

This has like burned itself in my memory from when I was a kid. I I was a milkaholic. Like I I literally in my teens, just to prepare those of you who have younger kids, younger boys, I was drinking a gallon a day. Can you imagine that in today's economy how much that would cost? But I remember standing there and I'm like, "Mom, where's the milk?

It's on the top shelf, son. No, it's not." Yes, it is, son. It's not here, Mom. She walks in, opens up the door, and it's right there on the top shelf. Like, it just appears, and there it is.

And that's what it's like for Mary in this moment. She's standing here looking at this guy, and suddenly it's like it's Jesus. And then Mary, you know, finally recognizing who Jesus is, she presumably jumps into his arms. But Jesus doesn't even take the time for a hug. He says,"Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I'm ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God." And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and they had spoken and that he had spoken these things to her.

Mary, go make known to the others that I have risen just as I said. Now, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for Mary to have just been mourning the Savior. Now, she's in his living arms to then step away and to go and do the thing that he has asked. He's alive. He's defeated sin and he's defeated death.

He's accomplished what he had set out to do. Salvation, forever relationship with our creator God is now available to all who believe in him. Now, we started this morning at an empty tomb with a weeping woman who came expecting a corpse. We watched Peter and John find burial linens carefully folded. Not the scene of a robbery, but the evidence of purpose and intention.

We stood with Mary as she looked directly at the risen Jesus and only saw a gardener because her grief and expectations called her. Told her that resurrection, well, that wasn't an option. And then he spoke one word. He spoke her name and everything changed. Here's what I want us all to take from this room this morning is open your eyes.

Ask God this week to show you where grief, fear, or fixed expectations are keeping you from seeing what he's doing right in front of you. Amen. Rest in the finished work. Sin is defeated at the cross. Death was defeated at the tomb.

Stop carrying what Christ already conquered. Go and tell. When Mary left the arms of Jesus and ran to the disciples. And so maybe this week, family, that we tell one person what resurrection means to us. And if you're here this morning and you've never personally trusted in Jesus, I want you to hear me.

The tomb is empty because he conquered sin and death for you. Romans 10:9 tells us that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead that you will be saved. Not might be saved. might not possibly maybe sometimes we hope for saved. You will be saved. And that offer stands right now.

And if you want to respond to him today, there's many people in this room right now that would love to talk to you. I love to remind us it's not a special prayer. It's not a magical prayer. It literally is confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and you will be saved. And all of God's people said, "Amen." So, Father God, we are again thankful for what it is that you have done, what you have accomplished, what you are doing in and through your church in this world.

And I pray that we would continue to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before us endured the cross, scorning it to shame, and now sits at the right hand of you, right hand of your throne in heaven. We praise you and thank you Lord that we can come together and remember that truth that we can remember that truth not not just on uh resurrection Sunday but that we can remember that truth every day and certainly every Sunday and I pray that what we've talked about here today would indeed be something that would move that there would move all of us to deeper faith to greater love to greater joy to greater peace all of the things that you desire for us, Lord God, that we would find ourselves just clinging to you more and more and more and more. Thank you again, Lord God, for this morning in this time to worship you in this place. And we praise you in Jesus name.