RESURRECTION SUNDAY (Easter)

TEXT: John 20:10-18

MESSAGE: “Understanding the Resurrection”

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v. 9 — They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:14;19 — “14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

  • “No one fact in the history of mankind…is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort” than the fact that “Christ died and rose from the dead.” — Thomas Arnold (Professor of modern history at Oxford)
  • “I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. Of [these gospel texts] there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage … pretty close up to the facts…Or else, some unknown writer in the second century, without known predecessors, or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern, novelistic, realistic narrative…The reader who doesn’t see this has simply not learned to read.” — C.S. Lewis

“(The gospel of) Matthew uses Mary to get across the fact that the Easter event really happened, that the resurrection truly occurred. But I think John takes this same woman, Mary, and fills out the details and shows us how, when you meet the risen Christ, you get resurrected. The Christian gospel is that when you meet the raised Christ, he begins to raise you. When you meet the risen Christ, he begins to pump his own spiritual power and spiritual life into you, and it begins to replace the deadness. John looks at Mary…The Easter event is not just a historical event, but it’s also a pattern of personal, spiritual resurrection when we meet Christ. — Timothy Keller

Q: What does Jesus’ resurrection mean for me? To understand the resurrection we must see the invitation to…(1. Come near 2. Hold tightly 3. Leave changed)

       1. Come near (v. 10-13)

“Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 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.”

“Mary was…standing outside the tomb, alone, uninformed, and weeping. More accurately, she was sobbing and wailing, because the word used in v. 11 is the same used to describe the mourners at Lazarus’ grave. This was the traditional eastern death wail, and it came from the depths of her broken heart. Jesus had cast seven devils from Mary. She had sinned much, she had forgiven much, and she loved much. Her heart was in indescribable anguish. On top of the horror of his death came this last indignity — the had taken his body and were undoubtedly going to make further sport of him.” — Kent Hughes

        2. Hold tightly (v. 14-17a)

“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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father…”

“It is very significant that here, as in the other three Gospels, Christ first appears to the woman Mary Magdalene — not to an apostle, not to the great in society or in the church, but to a particular woman. Christ appeared first to one who in the culture of the time was oppressed, a woman who had known great sin. What a great comfort it should be to us that Christ always comes first to the poor in spirit.” — Kent Hughes

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” — Matthew 28:20

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” — Blaise Paschal

        3. Leave changed (v. 17-18)

“…but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.”

TAKEAWAY: Has the joy of the resurrection hit your heart?

  • Are you willing to stay? 
  • Are you willing to ask questions? 
  • Are you willing to open up and listen?

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