The Resurrection - Luke 24, John 20
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[00:00:00] He has risen. He is risen indeed. If you would please take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. We're gonna read the first 18 verses. Then we'll be back in Luke for a little while and then we'll jump back to John. But if you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. And hear this for what it is, the words of the true and living God.
John chapter 20 beginning in verse one. Now, on the first of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and she said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb.
And we don't know where they have laid him. So Peter and the other disciple went forth [00:01:00] and they were going to the tomb, and the two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and stopping and looking in. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
And so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth, which had been on his head. Not lying with the line rapids, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
So the disciples went away again to their own homes, but Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked down into the tomb and. Saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been [00:02:00] lying, and they said to her Woman, 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. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, did not know that it was Jesus. And 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 have you laid him?
And I will take him away. And Jesus said to her, Mary. Mary, she turned and said to him in Hebrew, which means teacher, and Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father. My God. And your God. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said [00:03:00] these things to her.
May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and most of all the obedience to his word. Please be seated.
There are a couple of things in your bulletin, especially if you're new, there's a sermon outline to fill in the blank. And then there's another outline that's got some things on both sides. If you look at your sermon outline, number one on your sermon outline is The resurrection. The resurrection. If you wouldn't mind turning back to the Gospel of Luke, and we're gonna look at the account first in Luke, and then we'll jump to John and we'll fill in some of the blanks.
And kids. We're gonna start obviously with Luke chapter 24. We're gonna read verse one and kids. There are several things that we find in verse one that are gonna answer some of the first questions on your handout. So you may wanna look at your handout as we read this, but Luke 24, verse one. But on the first day of the week at early Dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices, which they had [00:04:00] prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
So several things about this verse, uh, the first few words, but on the first day of the week, believe it or not, that phrase in Greek can be translated a couple different ways, and there are debates on how we should best translate it, but I know this for sure, regardless of how you want to translate that.
And, and this really, and you can't say this much, uh, in terms of church history, but this is one of those things that really hasn't seriously been debated. In church history. This is one of those things that the church has pretty much held onto since day one, and that is that Jesus rose on the first day of the week.
That is that Jesus rose the day after the Jewish Sabbath, or what we would call Jesus rose on Sunday, and so that's why we worship on Sunday. That's why the church for centuries have referred to Sunday as the Lord's Day, the day of Worship, and we gather on Sunday. And we read that they came to the tomb on the first day of the [00:05:00] week.
They being the ladies and Luke will name them and we will talk about who came, but I'll just stick this in your, your head for now. No less than five. There were at least five women that came to the tomb that that morning, and they brought spices and they found the stone rolled away. And in Luke's gospel, it's a very common word and it just means rolled out of the way.
But John gives us a little bit more descriptive. Uh, story. And in John chapter 20, verse one, John says, the stone had had already, the stone had been already taken away from the tomb. And this phrase in John's gospel is a little bit more descriptive because what John is describing is it looked as if somebody lifted the stone and tossed it out of the way.
And this would've been a, a fairly large stone. It would've taken a couple of men to, to roll it out of the way. But what John is describing is something unique happened here. Something unique happened here. Now I'm gonna go over some of the [00:06:00] chronology momentarily, but I think the best way to understand this is the women come to the tomb and there's three women, we'll name 'em later, but Mary Magdalene is there with the women, and Mary Magdalene sees the stone moved and she sees what's going on.
And I believe the best way to understand the story is she immediately leaves, she runs back because she wants to tell Peter and John. She may have looked into the tomb. She may not have, but she immediately leaves and she runs back to tell Peter and John, but the rest of the women entered the tomb and did not find the body of the Lord.
Now, a couple of things about the tomb. If you're next to a child and they have one of the handouts, you may wanna look at the handout because there's a picture of the empty tomb in front and the picture of the empty tomb. Is typically how you'll see the picture. It's a large opening, a giant stone. You could literally walk into it.
Chances are much more likely that Jesus's tomb would've had a much smaller opening and you would've had to stoop down [00:07:00] to get inside, maybe some tombs in those days you might've had to crawl in. Now, this was a rich man's tomb, so it may have, may have had a bigger opening, but either way, and we'll read this several times in the story, you have to stoop down to get into it.
And so they entered, but they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. Verse four. And they were perplexed. And I want to not caution, I, I wanna encourage you, pay attention to the words that are being used. It will come back to this after we see some of them. But the text says they were perplexed. And literally what this means is they were confused.
They were at a loss in what they saw. They were uncertain. They were doubting. In other words, they were confused skeptics. And that's important to keep in mind, and I'll point that out momentarily, but it's important to remember that throughout this whole thing, the women as well as the men, were doubting everything they were seeing, everything they were trying to comprehend and wrap their [00:08:00] minds around.
It was unexpected. They didn't expect the Messiah to be crucified, and they certainly weren't expecting him to rise again, even though Jesus had taught them. There are also a few differences between the accounts. So for instance, in Matthew and Mark, they only speak of one angel. The women encounter one angel, but in Luke and John, they encounter two angels and some people make a big deal of that.
But if there's two, there's one. Okay. And just because some of the gospels emphasize just one, maybe the the one that spoke the most, but there's no, you can't make a contradiction out of it. Where there are two, there are one. While they were perplexed about this, behold two men stood near them in dazzling clothing, and all of the gospels describe it as this bright white clothing, or it looked like lightning.
There was something special about these two men. And listen to how the women reacted in verse five. They were terrified. [00:09:00] They were terrified, and they bowed their faces to the ground. Now it's actually important to understand that. They were scared and they bowed their faces to the ground because that would've probably been common practice for women back then.
For a women, for a woman to encounter a strange man, it would've just been very cultural, very natural to in some sense look away or, or, or to bow down. But these were incredible men. These were men seemingly glowing, seemingly in bright white, and so they bow their faces to the ground. And the men start the conversation, and we know they're angels.
Why do you seek the living one among the dead? And it's fascinating when you look at the language, because when they ask the women, why do you seek the living one? It's it's continuous action. Why do you see the one that lives and continues to live? But when he mentions the dead, it's just an adjective.
It's just a descriptive term. [00:10:00] Why do you seek the one who continues to live? Among the dead and kids. This next verse is on your outline to fill in the blanks. Chapter 24 verse six. The angels are still speaking. He's not here, but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee.
And we can go back and we can read and we can see. So again, don't turn there in all these verses, and I'm gonna refer to a number of them today. All of them are in your, your bulletin on that other page of notes. But in Luke chapter nine, verse 22, Jesus is speaking and he says plainly, the son of man must suffer many things.
And the son of man was the common self-expression that he would use of himself, so they knew he was talking about himself. The son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and scribes, and be [00:11:00] killed and raised on the third day again in chapter nine, a little bit later in verse 44, let these words sink into your ears.
I'm trying to instruct you so that when it happens, you'll be ready. Let these words sink into your ears. The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.
He's not here, but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And we've talked about the third day motive, and throughout the Old Testament. Uh, the third day motive is used on many occasions, and it always refers to life, often to new life, often to resurrected life.
So, for instance, in Genesis chapter 22, the fourth verse, it was on the third day that Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a [00:12:00] distance. It was the third day that Abraham finally arrived at the place where he was supposed to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And in Jonah one 17, Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah.
And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights, and Jesus applies that to himself. He says, you know, the sign of Jonah that the, the Jews wanted signs. He said, I'm not gonna give any signs except for the sign of Jonah. And by that he was predicting that he would be dead three days and three nights, and that he, like Jonah, would rise again.
So the number three has this motive, and the angels are reminding the ladies, don't you remember we told you this, verse eight. And they remembered his words and they returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the 11 and to all the rest. And this Greek word translated reported. It's where we get the word gospel from.
Literally, they came back to the apostles and disciples, and they gossiped to them. They evangelized them. [00:13:00] And I just wanna point out one thing, and I'm sure you've heard this before, but if the apostles were making up the story, it would've failed right here. If the apostles were making up the story, they were very poor storytellers because nobody would've believed in that culture that Jesus would've appeared to women.
In fact, we have extra biblical books, apocryphal books, that try to fix that, that were written several hundred years after the gospels. And they try to paint a picture as if Christ appeared to the apostles first. But we know that didn't happen. He appeared to the women first, and the women were the first evangelists.
And the women took the message back to the other apostles, and the apostles found it incredible and hard to believe. Look at verse 10. And kids, this is a question on your handout. Now, there were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James also, and this is important to note other women with them who were telling [00:14:00] these things to the apostles.
So who were the women at the tomb? So this is in your handout, in the bulletin, but don't look at it now. Just, just listen. But it's there. You can look at it later. You can look up the verses and and everything. But every gospel account. Mentions Mary Magdalene. She plays a lead role in the resurrection of Jesus in terms of encountering him.
So every gospel account mentions Mary Magdalene. Luke mentions Joanna and Joanna if we read elsewhere in the gospel. She was the the wife of Cousa or Za, depending on how you wanna pronounce it. And Za was Herod's steward. And we read in the gospels that Joanna supported the ministry and she was a, a woman of some means because of the position of her husband.
And then we read Mary, the mother of James. And again, if we go elsewhere in the gospels and try to put this all together, this was Mary, the mother of James the Less, and James the Less, was actually an apostle. There were two James, [00:15:00] James, the brother of John, the son of Ze. And James the less, and we don't really know.
It might have been that he was smaller in stature. It may have been, who knows? Likely he was smaller in stature, but they nicknamed him James the less to make sure they could tell the difference. But not only was this Mary, the mother of James the Less, but she was also the mother of Josie's. It's another way to identify her, called Joseph in other gospels.
And in addition to them, Luke mentions other women. He mentions that there were other women, and what's important to remember here is he uses the plural. So we have these three, Mary, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and then we have other women. And in the gospel of Mark, one of those other women was named Sole Ma.
And interestingly enough, sole Ma was married to Zee. Solame was the mother of James and John. So her sons were apostles. Yet she followed Jesus as well, and she ends up at the [00:16:00] tomb. And then we don't know a hundred percent who the fifth woman was. We know there had to be at least a fifth one to make sense out of Luke's words, but there's good reason to believe that the fifth woman was probably a woman named Susanna.
Yeah. And that's what comes to us in church history and church tradition. But the, the gospels do talk about Susanna being one of the women who followed Jesus. One of the women who helped support Jesus and other gospels talk about it was the women who followed and supported that were watching at the crucifixion that watched where he was buried.
So if there's good reason to believe that it was Susanna. So you have at least five women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna Mary, the mother of James Solame and Susanna. Right. But why do the gospels differ? And I think it's important to at least understand this a little bit. We have four gospels, and all four gospels in one sense are telling the same story.
But all four gospels have a different emphasis. And when we're done with Hebrews and we go back to our survey of the New Testament, actually when we [00:17:00] start it, I'll go into more detail. But for now, the gospel of Matthew seems to emphasize the fact that Jesus is the promised king of David. It. Jesus is the promised coming king.
Mark seems to emphasize that he is the suffering servant, that he came to suffer on our behalf. Excuse me. Luke emphasizes his perfect humanity, that he was God incarnate, and John emphasizes his divinity. So they're all emphasizing a different story. And because they're emphasizing a different story, they all do what historians call.
They telescope, they combine things, they, they combine things, they shorten it. Uh, they're not lying. They're not inaccurate. They're just combining things, shortening things. Okay? So for instance, the women encounter two angels, but some of the gospels say they only encountered one. But what you're never gonna read is something like they only encountered one and only one and no other.
And like I said, where there's two, there's one. So they'll telescope [00:18:00] things and they'll combine things, and you should be used to that, okay? Because we do it in the modern day. One of the things Stacey and I like to do is we like to watch movies, but our favorite movies are movies based on real life or real events.
And if you've ever watched a movie based on real life or real events, often at the beginning of the film, you'll have some writing come across the scene and they'll say, based on true events, but they'll also say something along the lines of, some characters have been combined to tell the story. Often they'll say, we've taken some liberty.
Now, the gospel writers didn't take liberty and they didn't combine characters. But they did telescope, and that's why we have different accounts citing the names of different women and that's why we have to do a little work putting them together. But in terms of understanding the resurrection event, it seems to me, and this can be debated, but it seems to me that Matthew and Mark do more telescoping, and Luke and John tend to give more detail.
And that's why I am going off of Luke's account. But look at verse [00:19:00] 11. The ladies come back. They're telling their story, but according to the apostles, these words appear to them as nonsense. And this is an interesting word, literally, it means devoid of anything worthwhile. It means empty talk idle. One Greek erian actually translated it humbug.
You've probably heard that from the Christmas Carol. Ebenezer screws ba humbug. It means nothing. This word, and it's only used here in the Greek New Testament, but this word is used in medical texts in the ancient world, and it literally means the words of a delusional man. So the apostles did not, at first believe these women, these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.
But look at verse 12. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. There was enough of a report that finally Peter and John, they get up according to Luke. Luke only mentions Peter, [00:20:00] but Peter gets up, he runs to the tomb and stooping down. Remember, it would've been a S much smaller entrance, closer to the ground, stooping down.
He saw the linen, linen wrappings, and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. And this word marveling is interesting because it can mean that he was very impressed, but more likely contextually, he was very disturbed. He was trying to figure out what had taken place, and we're not gonna read about it here, but we read about it in one Corinthians 15.
Jesus actually appeared to Peter and it was so gracious. God is so gracious to us. Peter had denied Jesus three times, but unlike Judas, Peter repented. And so Jesus appears to him personally. There's restoration between Peter and Jesus. Now, if you would turn to John chapter 20, and let's fill in some of the blanks.[00:21:00]
John chapter 20. We're gonna start in verse 11, and we're gonna try to fill in some of the blanks. How did this story take place? And in John chapter 20, and I read the whole uh, text to give you some context at the beginning of service. But in verse 11 we read this, but Mary Magdalene, it says, it says Only Mary, but we know from the context this was Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene was standing outside the tomb weeping, and I want you to focus in on the weeping and see how many times she's described as weeping. I want you to note something of the sadness that these women came to the tomb with. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb.
But before we go any further, and again, this is in your handout, but don't bother to look at it right now. Let me lay out how I see the order of events. This is how I understand it, and again, this is debated. There are others who would offer a slightly different view, but I think this might help you [00:22:00] as you read the accounts, Mary Magdalene.
Along with Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, they come early to the tomb. In fact, the gospel of John says they, they basically left it dark. They got up, it was dark. They started heading to the tomb. When they got to the tomb, the sun was coming up, so there was enough light to see, and Mary Magdalene and these ladies head to the tomb.
At the same time as you put the gospel accounts together, there was another group of women that headed to the tomb. Consisting of Solame and at least Susanna, maybe there was another one, maybe there wasn't, but at least two other women from a different direction. They came to the tomb and it would appear as you read the accounts that they meet up outside the tomb.
And they all realize right now, five women realize the stone is rolled away. And at that moment, I believe Mary runs. Mary Magdalene runs away. I don't know why. But she's, maybe it's excitement. Maybe it's sadness. But she runs away to tell, to tell Peter [00:23:00] and John. And when you look at the text, Peter and John May not have been together.
She may have gone to Peter and then to John, and basically, based on her report, the rest of the apostles and some of the disciples come together, and by the time they come together, the other women are back. But Mary runs at this point, the remaining four women enter the tomb. They enter the tomb, and they see that the body of Jesus is missing.
And they encounter angels and they speak to the angels, and the angels send them off and basically go tell Peter and John. Go tell the apostles. And as they leave the tomb, according to Matthew 28, these four women encounter the risen Christ. Jesus appears to women first. Again, if you were writing a story in this culture, in this day and age, that is not how you'd write the story if you want to be believed, but if it's true, you'd write it this way.
So they leave the tomb, they encounter the risen Christ. And then, and this is really important, and I told you to pay attention to the words. Everyone is [00:24:00] highly emotional. Everyone is perplexed, everyone is confused as to what they are experiencing and what they're seeing. But here's the important part.
This makes for detailed memories. Believe it or not, this emotional state. Translates into detailed memories. Let me ask you a question. Where were you? September 10th, 2001, and most of you couldn't tell me. Most of you would have no details on the day. Now I know where I was, I was at work, but that's the only thing I remember about the day.
And the only reason I remember it is based on my second question. Where were you on nine 11? See, I don't even have to give you the year. And most of us who experienced it. Know exactly where we were on nine 11, exactly what we were doing on nine 11. Many of us even remember the plans we made because of nine 11, because it was an emotional day and there was distress, and it was unbelievable [00:25:00] what we were watching on the screens.
But it makes for really good memories. And so these folks would've remembered what they had seen even though they were perplexed at the time. So the women end up coming back, they report what they found to the apostles. The apostles don't believe them, but there's enough of a report that finally Peter and John run back to the tomb.
And we can infer from John's account that not only do Peter and John run back to the tomb, but Mary follows them because Peter and John go to the tomb. They end up entering the tomb, they exit the tomb, they leave. And all of a sudden, and this is where we're gonna pick up the story in John chapter 20, verse 11, Mary's standing there outside the tomb.
She's weeping and the description of her weeping and the number of times that she's described as weeping is she is sobbing. She is weeping. Jesus was killed, was murdered two days earlier, three days if you count the way Jews [00:26:00] count. Jesus was murdered on Friday. He was crucified. And we talked a little about that last week and how horrific that would've been.
How excruciating that would've been. And now his body appears to be stolen. And this was common practice in the day. Bodies were often stolen, and it was horrible that they would do that because the Jews had certain rules and regulations in how they should bury a person. And now the, the women can't even carry it out.
But she stoops down this time for sure. And she looks into the tomb and it's very important to hear the description. She sees two angels. But listen to how the angels are arranged. She sees two angels, verse 12 in white in their city. One is at the head and one is at the feet where the body of Jesus had been laying.
Now there's a couple of ways that these tombs would've looked okay. They would've been hu out on the side of a rock, alright? And some of the tombs would've literally had a [00:27:00] rectangular. Uh, raised portion in the middle of the tomb, and oftentimes it would've just been rock that was coming out of the ground and it would've been raised.
And often they would lay the body there. Others, other of these tombs, they would, they would cut another hole into the side wall, and it would look like a shelf and they would put the body in the shelf. Okay? These were the two ways, and believe it or not, the second way, the shelf in the wall was the more common of this day.
However, Jesus was buried in the tomb of a rich man. Joseph of Arimathea, and it is likely based on the account, in order for the angel one to be sitting at the head and one to be sitting at the feet, it is likely that it would've been somewhere in the middle of the tomb on this raised portion, this rectangular raised portion.
One angel at the head, one angel at the feet. Does that remind you of anything? Does that bring anything to your mind? Because I submit to you. There are no haphazard things. There are [00:28:00] no, uh, mistakes in scripture. There are no coincidences in scripture, and I submit to you it would've looked like the arc of the covenant.
I think when Mary looked in there and she saw an angel at the head and an angel at the feet on this rectangular object, she would've immediately thought of the arc of the covenant and what happened on the arc of the covenant sin was removed, sin was atoned for God was propitiated.
Verse 13, and they said to her Woman, why are you weeping again, an ongoing weeping. This is the third time that her weeping is mentioned. And she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Verse 14. And when she had said this. She turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.
So let me again try to fill in the blanks. Mary comes to the tomb, she bends down, she [00:29:00] peers into the tomb. She sees these angels sitting there arranged as if it were the Ark of the Covenant, and the angels speak to her, but she must have heard something from behind her 'cause the text says she turned and she turns and she sees Jesus.
And again, most likely 'cause the text says she didn't recognize him. So most likely she either looked down or she was so focused on the tomb. She looked back into the tomb, but she still has a short conversation with Jesus. But the text is very clear. When Jesus finally identifies himself, she turns again.
So at some point she looks away from him, but the important thing is she doesn't understand him again. Verse 14, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. And so now Jesus talks to her woman, which would've been a common way to refer Jesus, refer to his mother with the same word, woman at the wedding in Cana.
Woman, [00:30:00] why are you weeping? That's the fourth time that we read. Mary is weeping. Whom are you seeking? This is fascinating. Supposing him to be the gardened gardener. Literally the garden keeper is what that word means. She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away.
Now before we go any further, four times. The account says she was weeping, she was heartbroken, she was sobbing throughout this account. How sad it must have been when Adam and Eve heard those words, the sound of the Lord walking. In the garden. Well, they didn't hear the words. They experienced it. They heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden.
How sad it must have been when they were literally thrown out of the garden. And the word there, and we've talked about this, the word there literally means to expel, to throw out. It can even be translated divorced. They [00:31:00] were divorced from the garden. They were divorced from the very presence of God. How sad it would've been.
And yet, what do we find John doing here? John is a word painter. And what is John painting? He's painting a return to Eden. What do we have? A woman and a man in a garden, and she's already seen the Ark of the Covenant. She's already been reminded that sin has been dealt with, and then eventually she recognizes Jesus and she sees Jesus only.
Jesus did what Adam didn't do. Jesus crushed the head of the serpent. It. And I've told you when we've looked at that text, that is exactly what Adam should have done. As soon as the serpent spoke. He should have killed it, and that's what Jesus did. And John is painting this picture again. There are no coincidences in the garden, Mary and Jesus alone.
No [00:32:00] coincidences in the Bible, Mary and Jesus alone in the garden. And this is precious. Because the first time she sees Jesus, she doesn't recognize him. She barely pays him attention, but to ask him a question and she turns her attention away from him. And now Jesus said to her, verse 16, Mary, how I long to hear that from Jesus, Michael, and I pray someday welcome, good and faithful servant.
And I pray that that is the desire of everyone sitting here. Her, but Jesus simply says Mary, and the text says she turned. This would've been the second time that she turned around, and now she recognizes him because in Hebrew she says, Rabbini nee, which means teacher. John translates for it for us, and we learn elsewhere in the gospel of John in chapter 10, verse three, that Jesus is the good shepherd.[00:33:00]
And Jesus calls his own sheep by name and his sheep hear him and his sheep respond. She didn't recognize him. And then he says Mary, and all of a sudden it all changes and she turns around and she recognizes him. And Jesus says, stop clinging to me. And the text can also be translated, and I think this is probably more likely, don't cling to me.
He probably saw it in her eyes. She probably made movement towards him. Don't cling to me. For I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father. My God and your God. You see, after the resurrection, it's not the physical Jesus that we need to cling to, but it's the spiritual Jesus.
It's the Holy Spirit that he will send out and will dwell within us, and that's what we need to clinging to. And we clinging to Jesus by clinging to the Holy Spirit. We clinging to Jesus by spending time in this book. We clinging to Jesus by gathering on a weekly [00:34:00] basis and worshiping him together. We clinging to Jesus as we entertain and have friends and fellow.
With other Christians. We cling to Jesus as we confess our sins on our knees and acknowledge based on his promises that I'm forgiven. And we thank him for that. So we praise him on a regular basis. We clinging to Jesus in how we live our life, and we're empowered to live our life by that spirit that he sends our way and Jesus elevates his followers here, words reminiscent of the Lord's prayer.
Jesus says, I ascend to my father and your father. I ascend to my God and your God, he's yours. The work has been finished. The Holy of Holies is open,
and so Mary Magdalene came once again and evangelized the disciples. I have seen the Lord and she repeats what Jesus has said to her. [00:35:00] The Lord, he has risen. That's your cue. He has risen. He has risen indeed. And like the apostles, you were a little slow there. Okay. But they caught on number three on your outline.
The commission. The commission. How should we respond? And there's two ways to take that question. You could take it as if I'm asking an unbeliever and the correct answer would be faith. How should we respond? Bow the knee to Jesus Christ. And if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, maybe you believe the story, maybe you believe the the accounts, but you've never bowed your knee to Jesus Christ.
You've never recognized him. Not as just Savior, but as Lord, king of kings and Lord of lords. And then I would exhort you that in response today. You need to exercise faith. You need to put your faith in Jesus. But believe it or not, this question is directed towards the [00:36:00] church as a church. If you claim Christ here today, how should you respond?
And in order to answer this question, turn back to Luke 24 and we're gonna look at verses 46 and forward. But turn back to Luke 24, verse 46.
And it's very simple, but in Luke chapter 24 46, Jesus has already done the road to Emmaus and now he's in a room somewhere and he appears to the apostles, he appears the text says he appears to the 11 to the 11, and then there were other disciples there as well, probably close to the same people that were in the upper room in the first chapter of Acts.
And he appears to them and he again reminds them. Thus, it is written. The entire gospel is found in the Old Testament. Thus, it is written that the Christ should suffer. [00:37:00] Isaiah 52 and 53. How can you miss it? The Christ, the suffering servant, the Christ ought to, or the Christ will suffer and rise again.
Rise again from the dead on the third day. And because Jesus suffers and because Jesus rises from the dead, repentance should follow. We are to repent. We are to turn from our old way of life. Literally. This word means we're to think differently. We're to think differently about our sin. We're to begin to hate our sin.
Be appalled by our sin. Want to turn from our sin? We are to vent. Why for the forgiveness of sins. Because that's why Jesus went to the cross. We talked about the atonement. He went to the cross that our sins would be forgiven. But not only should we repent, not only should we turn, but we ought to proclaim in his name to all nations beginning in [00:38:00] Jerusalem.
We are to proclaim this message of repentance and forgiveness, and I think it's fair to ask ourselves, and each one of you needs to ask yourself, do you proclaim this message? I'll come back to it, but the simple question, do you proclaim this message? See, do you really believe this? Do you really believe that Jesus went to the cross and suffered, and that's shorthand for this horrendous execution that he experienced.
And I, I, I, I listen to podcasts and, and watch videos and stuff throughout the week. And it's interesting 'cause one of the guys that was being interviewed, uh, and he said this, and it dawned on me very true, but he, he had a, a nail, he had one of the nails, an actual nail from a crucifixion. They actually found it in, in Jerusalem.
And the nail was all bent up. And one of the explanations is they reused the nails. So they would use the nail, and then after the victim died, they'd pull the nail and they'd, you [00:39:00] reuse it. And these nails would get. Bent up and the interviewer said, so that's what kept Jesus on the cross, and the guy looks at him.
No, those nails didn't keep Jesus on the cross. Love kept Jesus on the cross because he loved those for whom he died. And if you're in Christ today, it's because he loved you. And that is what kept Jesus on the cross. No one can take my life from me. Jesus said. I lay it down on my own accord. And I pick it up when I'm ready.
Love kept Jesus on the cross. Look at verse 48. We are to be his witnesses of all these things, and Jesus says, behold, I'm sending forth the promise of my Father upon you, but you are to stay in this city until you are clothed with power on high. And we know from reading the rest of the gospels in Acts chapter one, it was the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent [00:40:00] upon his people.
It was the spirit of God. And I don't know about you, but I've always struggled with this. I'm supposed to rely on the Holy Spirit, but I'm also supposed to act. How do I, how do I put this together? Wh where do I start and end and the spirit starts and ends. And I know that all analogies fall short, and this one will probably fall short, but it actually helps me, and I'm gonna relate it to something, uh, recent, but it's helpful for me.
So Caleb, my son-in-law who couldn't be here today, he's on duty, but Caleb, my son-in-law and I have started a new building project. Okay. And we're at the foundation plumbing stage of the project and I noticed last night in Amazon that he ordered some new tools, which is a good thing 'cause I like tools.
So he ordered some new crescent wrenches and pipe wrenches and, and all this stuff. And all of a sudden it dawned on me that this actually relates. You see, we're working on the foundation, we're working on the plumbing, and we could order all the tools, we could order all the parts, and we could take 'em out to the build [00:41:00] site and we could set 'em there.
We could back up and just wait for it to go, come together, right? I wish. Okay. No, we gotta do the work and we could start doing the work and we, we could start connecting pipe and we could hand tighten that pipe as hard as we can. But if that's all we did, it's gonna leak like a sieve, isn't it? Or we could pick up the tools and use the tools to accomplish what we can't do.
You see, we're reliant on tools. Again, all analogies fail, but that's the Holy Spirit. You still have to work. You still have to do things. You have to know the gospel message. You have to be in this book. But I had a really good friend once tell me, I never go speak to men about Jesus before I speak to Jesus about men.
That's relying. Holy Spirit. So I wanna, I do want to end with this question. Will you witness for Christ? And I wanna give you some [00:42:00] practical ways, and this will be very quick. But will you witness for Christ? Will you witness for Christ? In your words, do you know the right words? Do you know how to share the gospel?
Will you witness to Christ in your actions? When people see you, do you come across as odd? You see, if you're a Christian and you're walking with Jesus, you will look odd today 'cause you dress modestly. You don't pepper your words with cursing. There's things you won't do, things you won't look at, things you won't watch, places you won't go.
Do you witness for Christ in your actions? Do you witness for Christ in your living? In your private life, the way you live your life, do you witness for Christ in your thinking? You see, we've been commanded to love him with all of our thinking. Do you witness for him in what you read and what you watch and what you listen to and what you allow into your home?
Do you witness for Christ in your obedience? You see, the first answer is how do we respond by [00:43:00] faith? But the Bible is very clear. Faith is an act of faith. Faith is a working. You can recognize a Christian simply by what they do. That's what James says. Do people know you're a believer? Simply based on what you do, based on your works, you see saving faith is an obedient faith, an active faith.
Do you witness for Christ in your love for God and others?
Is church important? Not only important because it honors God, but because there's other Christians. There's people I wanna be around. Do you honor God in love? And last but not least, do you witness for Christ on your reliance upon His spirit? Do you rely on the Holy Spirit? Do you pray? Do you ask him to fill you?
In Ephesians five 18, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you ever pray that [00:44:00] prayer, spirit of God fill me, spirit of God, transform me, spirit of God, help me put this armor on spirit of God. Teach me the scripture, spirit of God, give me the courage to go out there and proclaim my faith.
Do you witness for Christ? Because he gave it all for us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for Easter. Thank you for resurrection Sunday. Thank you for Good Friday. Thank you, Jesus, that you went to the cross that you suffered in ways we don't even want to talk about. And honestly, if we're honest, father, the physical suffering was nothing compared to the spiritual torment compared to and again.
It's so hard for us to wrap our hands, our heads around it, Lord. But the spiritual suffering you experience the [00:45:00] wrath of your father for the sin, for those whom you died for. Thank you. Just doesn't seem like it's enough. May we translate those words into action, Lord. Not because we're trying to earn something.
There's nothing we can earn. Not because we're trying to get you to love us more. There's no way to get you to love us anymore. But because we love you and we grow in gratitude, and we grow in love for you, spirit of God, transform us, transform this body, transform this church so that the people in Bonner's Ferry know that we're up here.
Know that we take a stand. Know that we love our community, but we're not gonna let sin go by and just ignore it. Father of God make us witnesses unashamed, unafraid witnesses on your behalf. For we ask this in the name of Christ Jesus. And all of God's people [00:46:00] said, amen. Amen. Take your.
