We’ve already spent four weeks looking at the passion or suffering of Jesus in preparation for Easter. This morning, we will look at the hope of Easter, and next Sunday, we will look at the peace of Easter.
The dictionary defines hope as a “desire supported by some confidence of its fulfillment.” The Bible defines hope as a “promise that will be realized.” Hope is not only a distant reality but also a present power. Hope is like the rainbow after the storm. Hope is like the water for a thirsty hiker. Hope is like the forklift coming to rescue a person crushed under a fallen tree.
Hope gives us the will to live. If you take the hope away from a sick person, his will to live may die before his body. If you give hope to a sick person, his will to live has the potential to heal his body. The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12).”
We live with different hopes. Some hope for acceptance into a particular college. Some hope for an improved marriage or family relationship. Others hope for job security or financial independence. Because you see evidence that these desires are fulfilled in others, you believe and work toward their fulfillment in your own life and family.
We also live with shared hopes. One of the common hopes of mankind is the hope of immortality. Medical advances work toward fulfillment of this hope. From the time we are born, our parents have fought to keep us alive until we are able to keep ourselves alive. In some ways, legends and religions keep the hope of immortality alive in us.
But for immortality to move from a dream to a hope, there must be some degree of evidence or confidence of its fulfillment. Otherwise, we only have a common dream, not a common hope. Hope is a distant reality and a promise that will be realized.
Our text is John 20:1-18.
The celebration of Easter is the celebration of the hope of immortality. Because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, we who trust Him have the same hope for ourselves. The hope of Easter is not a dream. We can have the same confidence demonstrated by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:52-54, “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’”
Do you want to live with this hope, this distant reality? Do you want to realize this promise from God? 2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish….” God wants all of us to live out this hope. And we can learn how to receive this hope from our text this morning.
First, we need to ponder the evidences for this hope. Verses 1, 6, 10-12
God gives us enough evidences to have this hope. The stone had been removed not so Jesus could exit, but that we might see He has risen. The strips of linen and burial cloth were left behind not because grave thieves had too much time on their hands but that we might see He has risen. The angels did not ask out of curiosity why Mary was crying but that she might ponder the evidence for the hope of resurrection.
An old issue of the Focus on the Family magazine had an interview with Johnny Hart, the cartoonist for the comic strip, “BC.” The magazine reprinted one of his cartoons.
The caveman is on his knees praying, and he says, "It’s not easy to believe in you, God. We never see you. How come you never show yourself?"
In the next frame he asks: "How do we know you exist?" Just then a volcano blows up in the background, a daisy sprouts from the ground and topples a rock, a wave washes over him, two meteors converge in the sky to form the image of a cross.
Then the drenched caveman stands up and says: "Okay, Okay...I give up!" And as he walks by a burning bush and an empty tomb, he mutters, "Every time I bring up this subject all we get are interruptions."
Many see God’s evidences as interruptions, because we have our own ideas, agendas and expectations. A Muslim man told me that his worshipping Allah made him wealthy. I told him that his agenda to be wealthy kept him from believing that Jesus Christ is the only true God.
Have you pondered the evidences of the resurrection or have you put them aside because of your own prejudices? Have you ever wondered why Jesus’ disciples ran away at the crucifixion but returned boldly to proclaim his resurrection? They risked their lives. Eleven of the twelve were killed because they claimed they had seen Jesus after He died. What changed these men? What gave them courage enough risk death?
Romans 8:24-25 tells us, “For in this hope [of the resurrection] we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Paul is reminding us that hope is something that will become reality in the future. And this reality has evidences we need to ponder in the present.
Second, we need to pursue the Giver of this hope. Verses 15-17a
Mary was not there to pursue immortality as some look for the fountain of youth. She was there because of her love for Jesus Christ. Her pursuit of Jesus Christ led her to the evidence of life after death.
The hope of life after death or permanence is a universal hope. But when people pursue this hope without pursuing the only true Giver of this hope, God, they often seek to achieve this hope through useless means. Some may settle for living forever through their accomplishments, their children or their possessions. Others may settle for cosmetic or cryogenic treatments. Still others may fall prey to the cults of self-effort.
The Bible tells us that to possess the true hope of immortality, we must pursue the God who gives us this hope. We will not find eternal life in a bottle, in a treatment or through self-effort. The hope of the resurrection is found in relationship with the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
Someone tells about a man sentenced to death. He struck a deal with the King that if he would teach His majesty’s horse to fly within the year he would be allowed to live. But if he were unsuccessful, he would be put to death at the end of the year. To the man’s friends, he explained, “Within a year the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly.”
Such hope is centered on self or on chance. Such hope is not biblical hope. The hope God offers depends on God, not on self or chance. Jeremiah 29:11-13 reminds us, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” To possess this hope from God, we must pursue the God who gives us this hope.
Third, we need to personalize the offer of this hope. Verses 17b-18.
This hope of being raised from the dead was Mary’s hope because the God of Jesus Christ was also her God. Unless we have a personal relationship with the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, we cannot personalize this hope of the resurrection for ourselves.
The good news is that we can become a child of God simply by trusting in Jesus Christ. John 1:12-13 reads, “Yet to all who received [Jesus Christ], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
Before Kathy became a Christian, she asked the following question at a Mandarin Fellowship Bible study: “I can believe that Jesus rose from the dead because He was the Son of God, but what makes us think we can do the same?”
My answer from the Bible is that God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus did not raise himself from the dead. And God the Father promised that we, who trust in Christ, will also be raised. 1 Peter 1:21 tells us, “Through [Jesus Christ] you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours.
Why? Not because they were given time to rest, but because they experienced evidence that relief would eventually come, that someone would reach down and rescue them. Because of Easter, we have evidence that God would reach down and rescue us to eternal life. Our hope is not based on self-effort or chance, but on our Faithful God, whose promise is reliable.
