"He Must Rise" Sermon: John 20:1-18 (manuscript)

 

“He Must Rise”

[John 20:1-18]

April 21, 2019, Second Reformed Church

March 31, 2024 YouTube Second Reformed Church

            Jesus had been savagely tormented, flogged, crucified, forsaken by God the Father, and died that first Good Friday.  Most of the men went into hiding, but John, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea and the women took Jesus’ body and lay it in the garden tomb that Joseph had purchased for himself.  They left Jesus there – partially embalmed – and a stone was rolled across the door and numerous Roman centurions were set to guard the tomb to make sure nobody stole the body.  The Sabbath – Saturday – was upon them, and the Jews had to observe the Sabbath.

            Diane raised the interesting question of what the disciples did during the hours from Friday evening through Sunday morning.  Did they observe the Passover as God had instructed?  Did they go about the Sabbath as they were commanded?  All we know is that they were afraid and in hiding for fear of the Jews and the Romans coming after Jesus’ disciples.

            Knowing this and hearing our text this morning, we see:

            First, Jesus’ disciples did not understand that He must rise.

John gives us an abbreviated account of the women going early the morning of the first day of the week to finish the embalming of Jesus.  In fact, John only mentions Mary Magdalene.  She comes to the tomb and finds the stone rolled away – and – implied as it is – the centurions are not there.  And as Mary looks into the tomb, she sees that Jesus is not there and her understanding is that someone must have stolen the body – she certainly didn’t think that Jesus had physically risen from the dead.

If we consider that theory now, it seems utterly unlikely that someone could have stolen Jesus’ body from the tomb with the heavy stone in the way, the Roman seal on the tomb, and the numerous centurions guarding the tomb.

So Mary runs to where the men are hiding and tells Peter and John, and Peter and John run to the tomb, and they go into the tomb and see the grave clothes lying in the tomb, but the body of Jesus is missing.  And they see and believe the testimony of Mary – someone has stolen Jesus’ body.

And our text tells us, “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.”

Why must Jesus rise?

Two reasons:  Jesus must rise for the Scripture to be authoritative.  And Jesus must rise to be the Savior.

Jesus must rise for the Scripture to be authoritative.

There are many Scriptures that say that the Savior must physically rise from the dead.  Some examples:  Paul mentions three of them from the Psalms, and another is found in Isaiah 53:

            “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize [Jesus] nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,

            “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’

            “And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

            “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’

            “Therefore he says also in another psalm,

            “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

            “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:26-39, ESV).

            Paul explains that these three verses from the Psalms show that Jesus – the Savior – must physically rise from the dead – and those who killed Him fulfilled the very prophesies that are read every day in the Temple, but they didn’t understand them – those who were supposedly the teachers of Israel, did not understand what they were supposed to teach – the Word of God.

            Isaiah familiarly prophesies:

“By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

            “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; then his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:8-10, ESV).

            Isaiah prophesies that Jesus – the Savior – will be taken away, killed, buried in a rich man’s grave, although He didn’t sin.  Yet, this was God’s will for Him to be our Substitute – a perfect offering before God.  And God will allow Him to see His offspring – those who follow Him, after death, His life will be prolonged – He will physically rise from the dead.

            And we might think, “Ok, these Scriptures say that the Savior will physically rise from the dead, but why does John say He ‘must’ rise from the dead?”

            The answer is in understanding what the Scripture is.  We call the Bible – the Scripture – the Word of God.  If the Scripture is the Word of God – even though we affirm that the Bible was written in history by a number of people in their own writing styles and according to their own abilities – if the Scripture is the Word of God, then it is infallible and inerrant – everything it says must be true – in its context – and every prophecy given by God and through His prophets must come to pass, because God can’t make a mistake – God can’t be wrong.

            If the Scripture is the Word of God, it is authoritative and is to be understood as coming from God, by human authors superintended over by God the Holy Spirit so there would be no errors.

            If Jesus – the Savior – did not physically rise from the dead, then the Bible is not the Word of God – we have no reason to believe any of it – and we should just go home.

Jesus must rise for the Scripture to be authoritative.

          And Jesus must rise to be the Savior.

The Savior will take upon Himself all of our sin and pay the debt for it – securing that we will be free from sin and death and evil in the Kingdom.  If Jesus does not physically rise from the dead, He has not conquered death, and He is not the Savior.

So, Jesus must rise to be the Savior.

The Good News is that Jesus did physically rise from the dead.  He is the Savior.  The Word of God is God’s Word.  Or salvation is secure in Jesus.  And so we celebrate.

The second thing we see in our text is Jesus’ disciples wanted Him to stay.

Mary returns to the tomb after Peter and John leave, and she looks in and she seems two angels, but she is so fixated on finding Jesus, that seeing angels doesn’t faze her, she just wants to know if they moved Him or know where He is.

Mary hears something and turns to find Jesus, standing in the Garden outside of the tomb.  However, her eyes are not yet open.  She doesn’t recognize that this is Jesus, physically risen from the dead, until He says her name, “Mary.”

“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; 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.”

Have you ever lost something meaningful to you and then found it sometime later?  Have you ever lost touch with a friend you deeply cared about and then reconnected?  Have you ever had a family member seriously injured or deathly ill and then have them recover?  The way you feel in those situations begin to approximate what Mary and the other disciples felt when they realized that Jesus is physically alive.  They had seen Him die.  They had buried Him.  Yet, here He is alive – in the flesh!

The other Gospels tell us that Mary and the other women fall down before Him and grab His ankles and feet.  And Jesus invites Thomas to touch Him to see that He has truly, physically risen from the dead.  And Jesus eats fish with the disciples during the forty days after the resurrection.  Jesus is physically alive – He is risen!

Once they believed that, their reaction is to hold on to Jesus and not let Him go – to not let Him be seen by anyone who might hurt Him again – to cover over the windows and put bubble wrap all over the Upper Room and lock Jesus in so they will never lose Him again.

Jesus knew that would be their reaction, and that is why He immediately told Mary not to cling to Him.  Jesus told Mary not to covet His physical presence with her – He could not stay on earth – He had to return to the Father and sit on His throne and reign sovereignly over all of creation and prepare the Kingdom for all who will ever believe in Him.

We understand not wanting to let someone go.  The disciples had been with Jesus for three years and watched Him die – they didn’t want to let go – they didn’t want to lose Him again.  But He had to assume His rightful place in Heaven at the right hand of the Father as our Mediator.

When Jesus did leave after forty days, the disciples couldn’t keep from staring up into the sky.  Luke tells us:

“And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:10-11, ESV).

And that’s our hope, isn’t it?  We rejoice that Jesus physically rose from the dead – proving the authority of the Scripture and that He is our victorious Savior.  Yet, our hope is that He is returning – with the Kingdom – to glorify us and bring us in with Him forever.

We hope with great assurance and in great comfort as we hear John’s vision:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4, ESV).

As we prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper, let us receive the ancient Memorial Acclamation:

 “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

          “Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory.

          “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory.

            “Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Acclamation).

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we rejoice and celebrate and give thanks to You for sending Your Son to be a human being, to live, and suffer, and die, and rise again that we would receive salvation.  May our hearts rejoice and our lives be changed that all would be to You and to Your Glory.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.