#1539 John 20 Part 1 Resurrection

 

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene *came early to the tomb, while it *was still dark, and *saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. 2 So she *ran and *came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” 3 So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. 4 And the two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; 5 and stooping and looking in, he *saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. 6 And so Simon Peter also *came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he *saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but folded up in a place by itself. 8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. 9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 So the disciples went away again to where they were staying. John 20: 1-10 LSB

John 20: 1-10

Now on the first day of the week - This would be Sunday, and why we celebrate and gather together on the first day now rather than on Saturday. We are not to forget the Sabbath, because on that day we commemorate that God made the earth in six days and then rested on the seventh. Much of the church today could use a lesson in that. I hear old earth Theist now and wonder when they start to take God's word seriously? To them the six days of Creation in Genesis 1 is figurative, but this doesn't work well with a Bible that also tells us that death entered the world by sin, yet they believe that death, the fossil record, has been going on for millions of years. It is written historically and should be read the same. It tells us Who the Creator is, how long it took Him to create, and by this we know to Whom all things belong. He sent the answer to sin, an act of mercy and grace, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again on a Sunday, the resurrection, a new creation. 

…8Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates.… Exodus 20: 8-10

6And after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we sailed from Philippi, and five days later we rejoined them in Troas, where we stayed seven days. 7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Since Paul was ready to leave the next day, he talked to them and kept on speaking until midnight. 8Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.… Acts 20: 6-8

…24And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. 25 Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 26If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,… Hebrews 10: 24-26

V. 2 She ran and came to Simon Peter - Mary's reaction is interesting; it goes straight to a material explanation despite Jesus' own words about his coming death and rising on the third day. 

Mary Magdalene… she ran and came to Simon Peter: Other gospels explain she was not the only woman to come to the tomb that morning (at least three other women accompanied her). Mary was the one who ran back and told the disciples about the empty tomb, so John mentions her.

i. Jesus had cast seven demons out of this Mary (Luke 8:2, Mark 16:9). Her troubled past didn’t disqualify her from being the first witness of the resurrected Jesus and His first commissioned messenger of His resurrection.

ii. The women came to complete the work begun by Joseph and Nicodemus. “Probably, in view of the lateness of the hour and the nearness of the sabbath, Nicodemus was not able to use all the spices he had brought in the way intended.” (Morris)

V. 4 And the other disciple - I am more and more convinced from reading John that this is from humility. He doesn't say I, or John, but "the other disciple, the one who Jesus loved". Everything great about him is found in his relation to Christ. I think it a sign of spiritual maturity when men realize that God has no need of them. He has no needs. If you are brought into service, ministry, then take no pride in it. Like Macarthur rightly points out, he is a waiter, bringing what the Chef made to the table, his job is to not drop it or mess it up. He also refers to himself as a spectator, for it is Christ's body, Christ builds his church. It is not dependent upon a man or men. It is not dependent upon personality or humor. 

V.6 Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb - John hesitates, and tomb were considered unclean places because of the dead, but Peter runs straight in and sees the empty tomb. Now you have three witnesses who don't quite comprehend what they see, but they all know that Jesus' body is no longer there.  

V. 7 And the face-cloth which had been on His head - The author puts a lot of emphasis on this, and typically a tomb would stink from a body after this long, and that is part of the practical reason that they covered it with aloes and spices, probably to deter animals, and also to cover the offensive smell to passerbys. The chemicals may have even left behind a stain, similar to the descriptions of  the Shroud of Turin.

The neat, orderly arrangement of the linen cloths showed that a human hand, at least not in any way that was immediately apparent, did not remove the burial wrappings of Jesus. All this demonstrated that something absolutely unique had happened in that now-empty tomb.

· The linen cloths were there – the body had not been removed with them.

· The linen cloths were orderly – not removed in any normal way by the person wrapped in them.

· The linen cloths were orderly – not removed by grave robbers or vandals.

iv. It has been suggested that the burial wrappings of Jesus have been preserved in the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud of Turin can probably never be positively proved to be part of the burial wrappings of Jesus. But, “The evidence thus far indicates the probable conclusions that the shroud is ancient (perhaps from the first century), that it does not contradict the NT accounts, and that the image is not a fake. It may well be the actual burial garment of Jesus.” (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology)

v. The image on the shroud is of a crucified male, bearded, 5’11” in height, weighing about 175 pounds. His physique was muscular and well built, and he is an estimated age of 30-35 years. His long hair is tied into a pigtail and there is no evidence on decomposition on the cloth. Results of the Shroud of Turin Research Project in October 1978 determined that the Shroud is not a painting or a forgery. They determined that its blood is real blood and the image seems to be some type of scorch, though they cannot account for how it was made.

vi. The Shroud of Turin is an interesting object, yet there are also reasons for skepticism.

· John described two aspects of the grave wrappings: the linen cloths and the handkerchief that had been around His head. This would imply that the head and the body of Jesus were wrapped separately, while the Shroud of Turin presents an image of an entire body on one cloth. It is possible that the Shroud was underneath those two sets of wrappings and unmentioned by John, but we can’t say that John describes a fabric such as the Shroud of Turin.

· However, Trench suggests: “The winding sheet which had been folded over all (Matthew, Mark, Luke) must have been unfolded and laid back along either side so as to leave the bandage-casing exposed.”

· We may suppose a good reason why God would not want or allow the preservation of Jesus’ burial wrappings, not wanting to leave behind a relic that would be inevitably worshipped.

vii. The handkerchief that had been around His head: “This means the headcloth still retained the shape the contour of Jesus’ head had given it and that It was still separated from the other wrappings by a space that suggested the distance between the neck of the deceased and the upper chest, where the wrappings of the body would have begun.” (Tenney) - E Word

V. 8 And he saw and believed - The significance of the moment was not lost on John. Oh my, was this not what Jesus meant, what He talked about?

After Peter went into the tomb John also went in. He then saw (the ancient Greek word eiden meaning, “to understand, to perceive the significance of”) and then John believed. The distinctive arrangement of the burial wrappings convinced him.

i. Generally, the very first Christians did not believe in the resurrection only because the tomb was empty, but because they saw and met the resurrected Jesus. John was something of an exception; he believed simply by seeing the empty tomb, before meeting the resurrected Jesus.

ii. “He believed that Jesus was risen from the dead. He received into his mind, embraced with his assent, THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION, for the first time. He did this, on the ocular testimony before him; for as yet neither of them knew the Scripture.” (Alford)

iii. “John believed, but Peter was still in the dark. Again the former had outrun his friend.” (Maclaren)

iv. “Some of the best books on the Resurrection have been written by lawyers, some of whom originally set out to disprove it. I am thinking of men like Frank Morrison, Gilbert West, J.N.D. Anderson, and others. Sir Edward Clark, another English jurist, once wrote: ‘As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the first Easter day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling… As a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as the testimony of men to facts that they were able to substantiate.” (Boice) - E Word

21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22“The Son of Man must suffer many things,” He said. “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” 23Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.… Luke 9: 21-23

Vs. 9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture - They were reluctant to speak about or contemplate His atoning work, very slow to understand. Even seeing the evidence of the resurrection, they still do not comprehend it's meaning. It is interesting that Peter earlier on, speaking on behalf of the other disciples acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, and when pressed by Jesus further, acknowledges Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. He also bows to Him. This resurrection further demonstrates Christ's deity, but also the promise of our own resurrection in Him, contrary to the belief of the Sadducees. It is of note that though they walked and learned from Him for 3 years, they were still learning things about Him and their faith was continually increasing.

· The resurrection means that God has an eternal plan for these bodies of ours. “There was nothing in the teaching of Jesus approaching the Gnostic heresy that declared that the flesh is inherently evil. Plato could only get rid of sin by getting rid of the body. Jesus retains the body; and declares that God feeds the body as well as the soul, that the body is as sacred thing as the soul, since the soul makes it its sanctuary.” (Morgan)

· The resurrection means that Jesus has a continuing ministry: He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).

· The resurrection means that Christianity and its God are unique and completely different and unique among world religions.

· The resurrection proves that though it looked like Jesus died on the cross as a common criminal He actually died as a sinless man, out of love and self-sacrifice to bear the guilt of our sin. The death of Jesus on the cross was the payment, but the resurrection was the receipt, showing that the payment was perfect in the sight of God the Father. - E Word

…3regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.… Romans 1: 3-5

13Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. 15By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep.… 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-15

…24But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. 26Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.… Hebrews 7: 24-26