The First Announcement of The Best News Ever Heard John 20: 11-18
What a difference a few days makes! On Friday night most of us gathered for probably the most somber event in all of history when the cries of “Crucify Him” were realized as the King of Glory took all the wrath of God toward sin upon himself: He was CRUSHED for our sins! Jesus torturous death left His friends and family grieving, and probably in shock and disbelief: The unfolding of events in the past week no doubt left them stunned. And a few days later, as the women and several disciples came to the tomb to pay their respects, the grave was empty, an angel greets them with the words, “He is Risen!” and we read part of this account in John 20:11 when Mary Magdalene meets Our Risen Lord.
John 20: 11: “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic,"Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have 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.'" 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"--and that he had said these things to her.”
NEWS THAT IS TRUE
WHY is THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS THE BEST NEWS ON EARTH? Because it is TRUE! Sometimes you may receive what you THINK is good news, only to find later that it didn’t happen. False reports do not bring good news but that’s not the case with Jesus’ resurrection. We read in the Gospel accounts how diligently Pilate and the Jewish leaders plotted to discount the news of Jesus’ Resurrection with false accounts and considerable payoffs, but they did not stand up to the outstanding truth that JESUS WAS INDEED RISEN. There are four independent accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels which have apparent discrepancies, however, there is far more agreement in large measure, including the setting, the characters, and their testimony, showing that there certainly was no collusion in their stories.
There is the evidence of the empty tomb, the moved grave stone, and the undisturbed grave clothes. If you take all the stories and rumors that were being passed around, you still have to add the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, after He had been crucified, pierced in the side, wrapped in burial cloths, placed very DEAD into a tomb guarded by Roman Soldiers and SEALED, that He appeared not just one or two women in a garden, but to a wide variety of people in many different circumstances, not just on one day, but over the course of FORTY days, at which time He was visibly witnessed by many to have ascended back to Heaven where He said He had come from. To top it all 1 Corinthians 15: 6 tells us and “then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. The things that Jesus promised BEFORE HIS DEATH did indeed occur and He proved His Resurrection by appearing BODILY in the flesh on many occasions, proving His Resurrection to be one of the most important and stupendous FACTS in all of History.
An apparent DEFEAT
A victory is always good news, and the crowds on Palm Sunday had anticipated their king being crowned but not with thorns. They had hoped that he would rise to a throne and not be nailed to a cross. The cheerleaders in the parade had hopelessly disappeared because the battle they had been looking for apparently had been lost…but wait…did I hear right? Jesus is ALIVE. The good news becomes the Greatest NEWS when victory appears after an apparent DEFEAT! No one had ever recovered from a crucifixion before, but greater yet, no one had ever been raised from the dead, never to die again. Revelation 1:18 records Jesus' words to the Apostle John: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.” Christ was not defeated at the cross; the enemy, satan was defeated: The proof is the resurrection.
Romans 4:25 speaks of Jesus, “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” You cannot separate the crucifixion from the resurrection, or vice versa, they are two aspects of the one saving work. On the cross Christ bore the legal penalty for the guilt of your sin. His Resurrection confirms that the price was a sufficient and effective offering for sin, pleasing the Supreme God: Praise God for the victory of Jesus over sin AND death.
PROOF
The human race is a dubious bunch and they always demand PROOF. Faith is not mindless or blind: God has given us all the proof that we need to come to faith. I read this week again about the value of apologetics, a defense of systematically proving what you believe. . Jesus’ Resurrection is Good News because it provides PROOF that there is a TRUE GOD and that He alone is the God of the Bible. I have been reading through the Psalms this week and have been awed by how many verses point directly toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His magnificent work to provide salvation. I was struck by the way God victoriously freed the Israel from Egypt and provided ALL THE PROOF anyone would need for the existence of the Creator, Provider and Redeemer God. God has always existed in all that He is and does, and will never change; He is faithful to ALL His promises. There is NO God like our God.
Secondly, Jesus’ Resurrection is Good News because it provides PROOF that Jesus is God; that He is deity. That is one of the themes of the John in particular, and generally the entire New Testament. In these last days God has revealed Himself in His Son. Jesus predicted His own death, the means of His death, and predicted numerous times that He would be raised FROM the dead…and He was! The resurrection is God’ seal, His mark of guarantee that Christ claim to divinity and deity is indeed true. That is why Paul could declare in Romans 1:4 that He “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“This is good news! If Jesus is God, then God is like Jesus. It means that God is not distant, arbitrary, or unreal. He is a God who loves us and who came to earth to give himself a ransom for our sins.” (As I says in Matt. 20:28) (“The Gospel of John”, vol. 5, James M. Boice, p. 1585) It means as God’s Word promises, that we are justified before God, by faith in Jesus Christ as the only payment for our sins and the only way to enter the Kingdom of God.
“When Jesus died, he died as my representative, and I died in Him; when he arose, he rose as my representative, and I arose in Him; when He ascended up on high and took his place at the right hand of the Father in the glory, he ascended as my representative and I ascended in Him, and today I am seated in Christ with God in the heavenlies. I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know the atonement has been accepted. There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my sins may have been.” (“The Bible and Its Christ”, Reuben A. Torrey, p. 107-108)
Since this is absolutely true, Believers in the Risen Christ can have victory over sin in this life. Rom. 6:4 tells us: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” Those who have been united with Christ have died to sin. We indeed are helpless but He is strong to give help and deliverance. “Victory is never a question of our strength, but of His Power. His power is what we need.” (James M. Boice, p. 1585)
Jesus’ Resurrection is also Good News because it provides PROOF that Believers can positively hope for their own RESURRECTIONS and Eternal Life in Glory. Jesus Himself promised in John 14:2-3: “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 relays it this way: 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead…54-55: When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,(WHEN BELIEVERS RECEIVE THEIR RESURRECTED BODIES) then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
The Scope of the Good News
The scope of the Goods News is UNRESTRICTED in its proclamation. It go out to the entire world and is not limited to one time or one place or one people! And it continues today to impact every nation where the Gospel of God’s Grace alone by faith in Jesus Christ is preached, but the Good News is RESTRICTED in its reception. At first, the testimony of the women concerning Jesus’ resurrection was not received and believed by all: Luke 24:11 reports this reaction by some of the disciples: “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” The Resurrection exhibits God’s saving power and triumph through the tragedy of Christ’s Suffering on the Cross. The Heart of Christianity, the heart of the Good News of the Gospel is the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 and John 20:31 says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Has the Christ of the Cross and the Risen Christ brought you from death to life? He still holds out His invitation to put your life in His Hands alone for salvation. Praise be to our God and Savior.
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “(Rom. 11:33)
Outline: WHY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS IS THE BEST NEWS ON EARTH!
1. Jesus’ Resurrection is Good News because it is TRUE. (1 Cor. 15:6)
2. Jesus’ Resurrection is Good News because it came after an apparent DEFEAT. (Rev 1:18, Rom. 4:25)
3. Jesus’ Resurrection is Good News because it provides PROOF that:
a. There is a TRUE GOD and that He alone is the God of the Bible.
b. Jesus is God. (Romans 1:4)
c. Believers in the Risen Christ can have victory over sin in this life. (Rom. 6:4,8-12)
d. Believers can hope for their own RESURRECTIONS and Eternal Life in Glory. (John 14:2-3, 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, 54-55)
4. Jesus’ Resurrection is Good News and demands a response in faith.The Good News is UNRESTRICTED in its proclamation.The Good News is RESTRICTED in its reception. (John 3:16, 20:31) Has the Christ of the Cross and the Risen Christ brought you from death to life?
