He Is Our Risen Savior Series

Who Is This Jesus?

19. He is our Risen Savior

John 20

MAIN IDEA: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name. (v. 31)

OBJECTIVES:

• Listeners will be reminded of the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and challenged to explain the evidence any other way.

• Listeners will be encouraged to examine what they have done with the life they have been given by God, and to receive the LIFE that comes through belief in Jesus.

INTRO:

Man’s “headache” is a nail in the head.

Construction worker Patrick Lawler thought he had a toothache. For almost a week, he tried painkillers and ice packs to reduce the swelling. When nothing he did brought relief, he finally went to the dental office where his wife works. Only after the dentist took an x-ray did Patrick learn the true source of the toothache. He had a four-inch nail in his head.

When the dentists reported their discovery to Patrick’s wife, she thought they were joking. But the x-ray revealed the truth. The nail had entered through his mouth, just missing Patrick’s right eye.

The incident occurred six days earlier. Patrick was working with a nail gun that backfired. Although one of the nails shot into his mouth and embedded itself, Patrick didn’t realize it. He merely complained of a toothache and blurry vision, and even tried ice cream to soothe the pain.

After the nail was discovered, surgeons at a Denver hospital successfully removed it through four hours of surgery. Although it is a "pretty rare injury," one neurosurgeon admitted, "this is the second one we’ve seen in this hospital where the person was injured by the nail gun and didn’t actually realize the nail had been embedded in their skull."

A wrong diagnosis only leads to a wrong remedy. In the spiritual realm, unless we recognize the deadly reality of sin, we will never turn to the only solution, which is found in Christ. Today we celebrate the solution to the deadly reality of sin in our lives – the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Before I say anything else I want to go back to the ancient story that really says more than I can possibly say today. Let’s hear what the apostle John recorded about what happened on the Sunday after Jesus died.

30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit….

The Burial of Jesus

38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John 20

The Empty Tomb

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”