Introduction
I am doing a short series by looking at three of Jesus’ final days from the perspective of an eye witness, the apostle John. Thursday night, we looked at the night Jesus served. Friday night, we looked at the day Jesus died. Today, we will look at the day Jesus arose. The material for this series comes from a book I recently read by Carl Laferton titled, Easter Uncut.
Each message contains two sections. First, what really happened. We look at what John saw. And second, why it really matters. We look at why John believed it was so important for us.
What Really Happened
Let’s begin by looking at what really happened the day Jesus arose. Let’s read John 20:1-23:
1 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. 2 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 have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
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.
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:1-23)
Why It Really Matters
The movie Gladiator is about a former Roman General who set out to exact vengeance against the corrupt Roman Emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery. The movie is an action-packed drama filled with battles and memorable lines. Lines like these:
• “What we do in life echoes in eternity!”
• “On my command, unleash hell!”
At the end of the movie, when the hero, Maximus, has killed the corrupt emperor in order to restore Rome to what it once was but has himself died in the fight, we have another memorable line, “He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him.”
Then the Roman senators and surviving gladiators bear the corpse of Maximus out of the Colosseum. That is the end of Maximus. And that is the end of the movie.
Except that it isn’t. In the next scene we see Maximus, alive beyond his own death, in a cornfield. His murdered wife and child are running through the cornfield towards him. And then we hear the voice of his friend who has been by his side for most of the movie whispering, “I will see you again. But not yet…not yet.”
Only then does the movie end.
So, why did the producers of the movie add the last section to the movie? Because there is something in us that refuses to believe that death is the end of our existence. A life well lived, a heroic final deed, it is not enough. Deep down, we want there to be more than the years we live on this earth. Even though we are repeatedly reminded that death brings an end to this life as we know it, we long for an ending that says, “And we lived happily ever after.”
People throughout the ages and in all cultures long for this. We cannot believe that death is the end, because then all our efforts and achievements in life are for nothing. The period at the end of death removes all meaning for living and takes away much of the point of life.
And so, even though we live in a culture that increasingly rejects God and the truth of Christianity, we still don’t talk about death as being the end. We use euphemisms for death so that we don’t have to talk about death as being the end. We talk about passing away, passing on, moving on, moving upstairs, becoming an angel, becoming a star, and so on—anything to suggest that death is not the final scene.
Of course, all of that could just be wishful thinking—just another idea that death mocks. Or, it could be because we really were made to live forever. In fact, the Bible affirms that we all have a sense of eternity in our hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11).
If John’s biography of Jesus (what we call The Gospel of John) were turned into a movie, we might expect it to end with the death of our hero, Jesus. Even Jesus himself acknowledged, just before he died, “It is finished.” He was then taken off the cross and buried in a grave. And then the movie’s credits roll. And that would be the end of the movie.
Except that it isn’t. The story carries on and there were two huge twists in what happened next.
First, the body of Jesus disappeared. A grieving woman went to pay her respects at her friend’s tomb. Grieving people often go and visit the graves of their dead friends. You may well know how emotional it can be to stand at the grave of a loved one for the first time: heartbroken, disbelief, numb, and sad.
But what you probably don’t know is what it feels like when you get to the grave and it is empty. Yet, that is what Mary saw: the grave was empty and the body of Jesus was gone. She did what we would do. She ran away to tell someone else. Perhaps her eyes had been playing tricks on her.
But they weren’t. Mary ran and went and told Simon Peter and John. They ran to the tomb of Jesus to check for themselves what Mary had told them. When they arrived at the tomb they took in the scene. They 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.
But the body of Jesus had disappeared. It was gone. It was not there!
That was the first twist. But there was a second twist in the story.
Second, the body of Jesus reappeared. But, even more amazing is that the body of Jesus reappeared alive! “On the evening of that day, Sunday, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said….” Jesus was alive. Jesus was walking. Jesus was talking. The king who had entered Jerusalem the previous Sunday, on Palm Sunday, was killed by Friday, just as the religious leaders had planned, and then buried in a tomb. But, on Sunday, Jesus was alive again!
The first twist—the disappearance of the body—was unexpected, but not unheard of. Mary actually thought that the gardener had carried his body away to another location.
The second twist—the reappearance of the body—was also unexpected, and utterly surprising. The disciples were in a room with doors being locked because of their fear of the Jews. They were terrified that the Jewish religious leaders might have them nailed to the cross as well because of their association with Jesus. But, stunning as it was, Jesus reappeared—alive!
If John’s account were a movie, it would be far-fetched. Dead people do not rise back to life again. Yet John has recorded that Jesus came back to life again. It sounds like Maximus walking through a cornfield with his family running to embrace him after their deaths.
Except here is the biggest twist. The claim about Jesus being alive is true.
John was an eyewitness. He stood at the cross. He saw Jesus die. He saw that the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs because they believed him to be already dead. Their belief was confirmed when a soldier plunged a spear into the side of Jesus, and blood and water flowed out—a sure sign that Jesus’ blood had stopped flowing through his veins, and that his blood and serum were separating. John was the second person to see the empty tomb on Sunday morning. Then, Peter arrived and he also saw the empty tomb. When they went back to where they were staying, John must have wondered what a missing body meant.
But then Mary came back. She announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” Again, John must have wondered what she meant.
But then, later on that Sunday evening, John saw Jesus with his own eyes. He saw Jesus breathe. He saw Jesus speak. He saw Jesus’ hands and side—the places where the nails and the spear had torn into his flesh. Jesus, who had been crucified, certified dead, and buried, was now alive!
Bear in mind that when John wrote his biography of the life of Jesus, decades had passed. Almost all the people who were in the room with him when Jesus had appeared alive had been killed by the officials for their insistence that Jesus was alive. John faced prison and death by writing and publishing his biography of Jesus. And yet, he insisted until his dying day that Jesus was indeed alive.
John was not writing a movie script with a nice ending. No. He was writing about something that really happened in time and history that he saw and witnessed with his own eyes. He wanted people to know that the resurrection of Jesus makes all the difference in the world.
So, what difference does the resurrection of Jesus make?
I. Peace Is Available
First, the resurrection of Jesus means that peace is available.
Jesus’ first words to his followers after he arose from the dead was peace. “Peace be with you,” he said. In fact, to stress what he was offering, he repeated himself. “Peace be with you” he said again. Remember, he was speaking to those who had misunderstood him, and who had run away instead of being there for him at the bitter end. But Jesus did not say, “I hope you are sorry for what you did.” Or ask, “Why did you let me down?” No. Jesus came to them and said, “Peace be with you.”
But that is who Jesus is. He is the risen king of kings, he is the supreme, all-powerful lord of lords who offers peace terms to a world that has said, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Jesus is so powerful that death could not defeat him. Jesus rules over death. Jesus rules over everything. And yet, he offers peace—wonderful, glorious peace—to rebels like us who want to have nothing to do with him.
II. He Is Present with His People
Second, the resurrection of Jesus means that he is present with his people.
After Jesus had spoken a word of peace to his friends, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” During his ministry Jesus had taught that there is one God in three Persons. The Father had chosen a vast number of people to be with him in heaven throughout all eternity. He sent his Son, Jesus, to this world to announce this good news and to save a people for himself by dying to pay the penalty for their sins. Then, the Father raised Jesus back to life again so that he could offer terms of peace to his people, and also to give the Holy Spirit to all those who accepted the terms of peace.
Jesus was assuring his people that he would be with them always—in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Every person who accepts Jesus’ offer of peace receives the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer to empower and enable that person never to be alone or powerless or hopeless or helpless. Jesus would be present with his disciples every day of their lives until they moved into his heaven the moment they stopped breathing their last breath on earth.
III. It Is Possible to Live with Purpose
And third, the resurrection of Jesus means that it is possible to live with purpose.
When Jesus told his followers, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld,” he was not giving them the power to give a royal pardon—only he could do that. Jesus was telling his disciples to tell others that a royal pardon is possible. It was their task to tell others that if they believed in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, then they would be forgiven, have peace with God, and be part of God’s eternal family. But, if people did not believe, then there was no forgiveness, no peace, and no eternal family.
Everyone wants to live on purpose. No one wants to live without purpose in his or her life. As we go through our daily lives, we want to be part of something that will last long after we are gone. If we live for ourselves and our own pleasures, nothing will last after we are gone. But Jesus invites us to accept his terms of peace. He offers us his presence for all eternity. And he calls us to live with purpose: to tell others about the peace they can have, along with Jesus’ eternal presence.
Conclusion
The day Jesus arose was an incredible day.
It was an incredible day because Jesus’ resurrection from the dead gives us hope, hope for today and hope for eternity.
Because Jesus is alive we can have peace, peace with God and peace with one another as well.
Because Jesus is alive we can have his presence, now and throughout all eternity.
And because Jesus is alive we can live with purpose, telling others about the peace and presence they too can have.
About a month ago, on March 26, 2019, British Airways Flight 3271 took off from London City Airport en route to…well, that depends on who you ask. All of the passengers had purchased tickets to Dusseldorf, Germany, but the pilots, flight crew and air traffic controllers were operating off another flight plan. The pleasant trip became rather tense when the plane landed in Edinburgh, Scotland. Safety was never an issue. The passengers just ended up at the wrong destination—about 520 miles from where they expected. London City Airport apologized via Twitter stating, “As pleasant as Edinburgh is this time of year, we’re sorry that passengers traveling to Dusseldorf on BA 3271…initially landed in the Scottish capital.” The plane refueled and took off again “after the involuntary stopover in Edinburgh.”
Events such as this remind us that you can be simultaneously sincere and wrong. When it is a plane, you can eventually get to your destination, but when your eternity is at stake, make sure that you have chosen correctly because there is no rerouting after death.
Not long after I graduated from seminary, my wife and I visited her parents before a planned trip to see my family in Europe. My father-in-law was dying and he was in the hospital. I will always remember my last visit to him. As I left his hospital room, both of us knowing that this was the last time we would see each other on earth, he said to me, “I will see you in heaven!”
That was not wishful thinking. That was a sure and certain hope that he had, knowing that he had the peace and presence of Jesus in his life. He had made the right choice in his life. He was not embarked on the wrong route.
My friend, today we particularly celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I urge you, if you have never done so, to accept the terms of peace Jesus offers to you. Believe that he is alive. Believe that he paid the penalty for all your sin. Repent of your sin. And ask him to forgive you.
If you do that, your life will be changed. Changed for the rest of your earthly life, as well as for all eternity.
Do it today. Amen.
