Introduction:
Answers from an Empty Tomb (John 20:1-18):
- Skeptic: Look at the Evidence of the resurrection. (John 20:1-7)
Romans 10:9 - because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
- Student: Look at God's Word to Understand the resurrection. (John 20:8-10)
Psalm 16:10 - For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
Romans 5:17 - For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:22 - For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
- Sorrowful: Look to Jesus for Comfort . (John 20:11-18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:06-01:08
Open up your Bibles to John 20.
01:13-01:15
John 20, are you there?
01:18-01:25
Many years ago when my son Cade was about four, he was kicked in the face by a horse.
01:25-01:36
And it is a long story, but I remember the horse had gotten out of the barn, and little four-year-old, he was excited, "Yay, there's a horse!" And he ran behind.
01:38-01:42
And before anybody could do anything, the horse reared back and just spooked.
01:43-01:44
And it startled him.
01:44-01:50
And the horse just double feet to the face, kicked him, launched him in the air.
01:50-01:54
He did a complete flip in the air and landed on his face.
01:57-01:59
And it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen in my life.
02:02-02:07
And I remember as I ran to him, I thought, "He couldn't possibly have survived that.
02:08-02:17
There's no way he's alive." And as I scooped him up, his eyes were half open, but he was lifeless.
02:20-02:27
And after what was probably only a few seconds, but seemed like an eternity, he coughed and then started crying.
02:28-02:31
And I remember that specific moment.
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He's alive! He's alive!" I was just bursting.
02:38-02:39
He's alive.
02:40-02:42
Why am I telling you that story?
02:42-02:53
Well, that moment was probably the closest that I've been to feeling what must have been felt in this passage that we're looking at today.
02:55-02:56
He's alive.
02:57-02:58
He's alive.
02:59-03:09
though my son didn't really actually die, though I thought he did, we're going to be looking at someone who did actually die.
03:09-03:11
We've been talking about this last couple of weeks.
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Our Lord, Jesus Christ, crucified, dead, verified dead.
03:18-03:22
And last week we saw two secret disciples, right?
03:22-03:24
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
03:24-03:27
They buried Jesus in a new tomb.
03:29-03:35
In this passage that we're going to look at today, this is it.
03:36-03:43
Like this is the moment that we have been driving towards for the past three years of this series of knowing Jesus.
03:44-03:50
And this is the highlight, this is the high point, this is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
03:51-03:58
And as we look at this passage, I just want to remind you, the resurrection of Jesus isn't part of our faith.
04:00-04:02
It's the basis of our faith.
04:02-04:03
It's the main event.
04:05-04:08
Because Jesus Christ lives, we too will live.
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This is the centerpiece of history.
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This is the heart of the gospel.
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This is the hope of every single Christian who ever lived.
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This event is the validation of Christ's sacrifice.
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Do you know it's actually why we meet on Sunday morning.
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Because the church has traditionally met on the day that Jesus rose from the dead.
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That's why we're here today.
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We preach the resurrection.
04:38-04:40
We sing about the resurrection.
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We celebrate the resurrection.
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But do you know the interesting thing about the resurrection?
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Nobody actually saw it happen.
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Think about that.
04:54-05:06
No one actually saw the very moment that Jesus' lifeless body had His spirit and vitality restored.
05:06-05:08
Nobody actually saw that moment.
05:12-05:13
But no one really needed to.
05:15-05:29
I mean if we're going to verify a resurrection, all we need to do is have someone who was obviously dead, is now obviously alive.
05:30-05:32
And that's what we have in this passage.
05:35-05:43
And as we look at this passage, maybe you're like me and you like to try to understand and explain things.
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And what we're looking at here, there's no explanation for this.
05:51-05:55
There's no understanding how He did this.
05:57-06:05
And as we live in a day when everybody says, "Follow the science," there's no following the science here.
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This is a supernatural event.
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This was a miracle from God.
06:12-06:15
And the reality is it doesn't matter how He did it.
06:17-06:19
It only matters that He did.
06:21-06:21
Right?
06:23-06:28
As we look at John's account, and we're going to stay focused on John's account.
06:28-06:34
I know there's a whole lot of stuff surrounding the resurrection.
06:36-06:40
We're in John though, and the message of John is in John.
06:41-06:45
John wrote what he wrote because he wants us to understand some things.
06:45-06:48
So we're not going to pile on all these cross-references.
06:48-06:51
Okay, so don't leave here and be like, oh, you know, you could have mentioned this and you could have mentioned that.
06:52-06:53
John doesn't do that.
06:56-06:58
Yeah, he doesn't mention the earthquake.
06:58-07:00
He doesn't mention the guards.
07:00-07:02
He doesn't mention the guards passing out.
07:02-07:05
And he doesn't mention all of that.
07:07-07:13
John is more focused on the effect that the resurrection had on people.
07:15-07:17
That's what he's looking at in this passage.
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That's what he's concerned about.
07:20-07:27
Not giving you an outline of here's minute by minute what happened in the actual resurrection itself.
07:27-07:38
John's like, "Let me show you the effect that it had on Jesus' disciples and His followers." So on your outline today, here it is.
07:39-07:42
His resurrection answers from an empty tomb.
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And in our outline today, I'm going to be addressing three different people here.
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Alright? And you're probably going to be in one of these categories.
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So first of all, I want to talk to the skeptic.
08:00-08:07
If you're sitting here today, or you're streaming this, or watching this later, and you're thinking, "Yeah, you know what?
08:07-08:15
I believe the Bible's got some good stuff in it, but I'm not really 100% convinced about this raising from the dead thing.
08:15-08:16
I want to talk to you first today.
08:18-08:21
All right, so skeptic, you need to look at the evidence of the resurrection.
08:24-08:24
Look at verse one.
08:25-08:30
It says, "Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early.
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While it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, Okay, so you know there's a massive stone that was rolled in front of the tomb to seal it.
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And the Bible says that stone was taken away.
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And somebody might say, "Oh yeah, yeah, the stone was taken away to let Jesus out." And that's really not the case.
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The stone was taken away to let us see into the tomb.
08:59-08:59
Right?
09:00-09:01
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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I know it's real easy for us because a lot of us know this story and you're like, "Oh, I know it's coming.
09:06-09:13
But can we just, as much as we can, try to stay in the narrative here and not jump ahead.
09:13-09:20
I understand at this point to Mary Magdalene, this didn't look like good news, okay?
09:21-09:21
That's where my mind jumped.
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She saw the stone rolled away.
09:23-09:25
She's like, "Woohoo!" No, no, it didn't go there.
09:26-09:30
She saw the stone rolled away and she would have been like, "What happened?
09:31-09:32
"What in the world is going on here?
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I came to the tomb of Jesus and what in the world is going on?
09:38-09:39
The body is gone.
09:39-09:41
Could you imagine the shock?
09:43-09:44
I mean, wrap your brain around that.
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Think of a dead relative that you have and maybe you go a memorial day or something to put flowers on the grave and the vault is open and nothing's in there.
09:55-09:57
Wouldn't you just be completely freaked out?
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Right?
09:59-10:02
So she did the most logical thing for us to do.
10:02-10:20
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, that's John, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him." So she runs to Peter and John.
10:21-10:28
There she says, "They took his body." And, huh, they, who?
10:29-10:30
Who is they?
10:31-10:35
And she's like, "They... they someone!
10:36-10:39
I don't know they who, but he's not in there!" Right?
10:40-10:41
Well, look at verse three.
10:41-10:47
It says, "So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.
10:47-10:53
Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
10:54-11:07
And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in." Okay, so Peter and John ran to the tomb, and John stopped outside the tomb.
11:08-11:13
Bible says he stooped in and he looked in and he saw the cloths.
11:15-11:21
Verse six, it says, "Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb.
11:21-11:32
He saw the linen cloth lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.
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And you know, if you go through the gospels and see the life of the disciples, this kind of makes sense.
11:39-11:41
John kind of stopped and looked outside.
11:41-11:44
Peter wasn't content with a peak, right?
11:44-11:47
When he shows up, he runs right into the tomb.
11:49-11:53
And he saw the cloths as John saw from more of a distance.
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and he saw the face covering was folded.
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You're like, "Okay, hang on a second, Jeff.
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Why is this making such a big deal out of the cloths?
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What are the cloths? We see these cloths." Well, understand in Jesus' day for Jewish burial, what they would do is they would get these linen cloths, and remember Nicodemus brought the 75 pounds of spices, right?
12:23-12:35
Well, the way they would bury is they would put a layer of the cloths on, and then a layer of the spices, and then another layer of cloths, and then another layer of spices, and another layer of cloths, you see.
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And the purpose was to combat the smell of a decomposing body.
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That's why they wrapped in that way.
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And you're like, "Well, that is a fascinating tidbit, but what's the significance?
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Why is there so much emphasis being placed here on these cloths?
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Well, this is the significance.
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Mary's reaction immediately was, "Somebody stole His body." And if you remember, that was the lie that the Pharisees tried to get going tell people that they stole His body.
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And here's the significance of the cloths.
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If someone stole the body of Jesus, they wouldn't have unwrapped it first.
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Right?
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It was being guarded by Roman guards.
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It was sealed.
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And there was all this controversy around Jesus.
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Do you think somebody in stealing His body is going to go in and, "All right boys, we're going to unwrap this thing before we get it out of here." And take like a couple of hours to unwrap.
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Oh, and don't just throw the head cloth over there, make sure you fold it.
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Right?
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Let's be respectable grave robbers.
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So the cloths being there is evidence that his body wasn't stolen.
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And again, they tried to get this lie going.
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You remember Matthew 28, they had told the guards, like, "Look, here's what we're gonna tell people.
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We're all gonna get the lie together here.
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We're all gonna be on the same page here, right?" And I'm paraphrasing here, but they said, "Here's what we're gonna do.
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You're gonna say, 'We fell asleep and the disciples stole the body.'" All right, and they bribed them, and that was the lie that they were trying to push.
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but there's a huge problem with that lie, isn't there?
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Huge problem with that lie.
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You don't know what's happening when you're sleeping, right?
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So how do these guards who were sleeping, how are they able to testify that while they were sleeping, they know exactly not only what happened to the body of Jesus, but they know who took it.
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Makes no sense.
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But it makes even less sense when you consider That the disciples, you know, if they stole the body of Jesus, then that means they knew that Jesus didn't raise from the dead.
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When you study your church history, every single disciple was willing to suffer and die for believing and preaching that Jesus resurrected.
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Only John was not martyred and he was exiled to Patmos, which was an island prison.
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Every one of them said, "You can do whatever you want to me, but I believe that Jesus rose from the dead." Are they going to keep promoting that lie if they stole the body?
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Absolutely not.
15:59-16:07
So if you're the skeptic here, I just want to tell you the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most celebrated, verified, and significant event in history.
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And if you're skeptical, "Yeah, I'm not so sure about that," then you need to take a really hard look at it.
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And there's a lot of resources out there, I don't have time to really dive into this any more than I have today.
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But things like "Evidence that Demands a Verdict," "More Than a Carpenter," "The Case for Christ," there's so many excellent resources that have been written for you to do your own investigation.
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But you have to do it because the Bible says that your eternal destination hinges on what you do with this truth.
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Romans 10.9 says, "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord..." Look at this, "and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." That has to be the very centerpiece of what you believe about Jesus.
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That God raised Him from the dead.
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So we see some evidence of the resurrection.
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Now we're going to move on from that. I want to address the student.
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The person that may be here is like, "You know what?
17:21-17:38
I believe that something happened, and I'm not exactly sure, but I'm willing to try to understand what the significance of all of this is." I would say, "Student, look at God's Word to understand the resurrection." Alright?
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Here's what I mean. Look at verses 8 and 9.
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It says, "Then the other disciple," that's John, "who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed.
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For as yet they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead." Stop there for a second.
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I love this, it says, "The other disciple who reached the tomb first." Do you realize that's the third time in this passage that John pointed out that he beat Peter to the tomb?
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Do you notice that?
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I mean, John's writing the Gospel, and I do believe it's under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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Come on, can we be honest here?
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Don't you just kind of wonder sometimes if John's writing this, and Peter's like, "Can you leave that part out, that you've beat me?" And John's like, "Hmm, I'm gonna put it in a couple more times." "I was faster than you, old man. You got nothing!" So anyways, I just thought that was kind of funny.
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John's like, "Yeah. By the way, in case Peter tells you otherwise, I totally beat him to the tomb. Totally faster." So, but here's the interesting thing.
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Look at the end of verse 8 again.
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This is really interesting.
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It says, "And he saw and believed." And I know our minds immediately jump. We talked about that at the beginning.
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Our minds jump.
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Like, "He saw and believed." So John saw, and he believed in a resurrection, and he believed in eternal life, and he believed that Jesus rose from the dead.
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But that's not what it says.
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Because look at verse 9.
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It says, "For as yet they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.
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So it says that he, verse 8, "believed." And the question is, "Believed what?" And when you put verse 8 and 9 together, somehow John believed without really understanding the significance of the moment.
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In other words, at this point when John went in, He saw the tomb was empty. He saw Jesus wasn't there. He saw the cloths.
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And he believed. He's like, "Something happened here." And at this point, I think he was still processing. Mind was racing.
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And I think what verse 9 is telling us is his mind didn't automatically jump to the Old Testament.
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Like, "Oh, Jesus isn't here. Well, this makes sense, because the Messiah was supposed to suffer and die and raise from the dead, just like the Old Testament says." His mind didn't go there right away.
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He was still trying to figure this out.
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He says he didn't yet understand.
20:27-20:50
"Whoa, he's not here." You see, the Old Testament tells us, the Scripture that's being talked about here, Psalm 16.10, this is the classic verse, prophesying the resurrection of the Messiah, it says, "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol." Sheol is the Old Testament word for the grave.
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That's the realm of the dead.
20:52-21:19
And the psalmist is saying, "You're not just going to leave me in the grave." He says, "Or let your..." Look at this, "Holy ones seek corruption." He says, "You're not going to let your Messiah..." "Seek corruption" is a fancy way of saying "decompose." "You're not going to let your Christ rot in the grave." And this is one of the classic Old Testament verses describing the resurrection of the Messiah.
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So John, again, he didn't jump there.
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He just didn't understand in the moment what any of this stuff meant.
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So verse 10 says, "Then the disciples went back to their homes." What do you do, right?
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Show up to the tomb, he's not there, what are you supposed to do?
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Like, let's wait and see if he comes back?
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Or if his body was stolen?
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What, do we look for clues? What are we supposed to do here?
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And he's like, "Well, let's just go home." And that's what they did.
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But I want you to understand here, church, that this scene happens every single Sunday where the gospel is preached.
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This scene right here happens every Sunday.
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What do you mean by that?
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I mean, people go to church, and they hear the message, and maybe they don't intellectually disagree with the message that Jesus rose from the dead, but like John in this moment here, they just don't catch the significance.
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See, that was the problem.
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John's like, "Something happened, but it's not making sense." That happens every week. That happens every week here.
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That there are people that come and hear the message, and, "Okay, yeah, okay, Jesus rose from the dead, so what?
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What does that have to do with me?" That's why I'm challenging you. You've got to be a student of the Bible.
22:58-23:01
What does it mean to me that Jesus rose from the dead?
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Because we can't just look at this account and say, "Good for Jesus." Like this is some feel-good Eye of the Tiger story, right?
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Like, "Almost as good as Rocky III. He overcame!" And that's what some people simply want to leave the story - it's this story of this overcomer.
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And when you do, you completely miss the significance.
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What does it mean for me that Jesus rose from the dead?
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Let's seek to understand the Scripture quickly.
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I just want to give you a couple.
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Romans 5.17 says, "If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ." Again, 1 Corinthians 15.22.
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Same truth, said a little more succinctly.
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He says, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." And this is the significance here that people miss.
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that Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world.
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When Adam sinned in the garden, when he transgressed the law of God, he brought sin and death, and that's why we are all sinners by nature, going to die.
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We inherited that from Adam.
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But Jesus Christ, the Bible calls Him the second Adam.
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He brought forgiveness and life.
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And we've inherited the sin nature.
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We're spiritually separated from God, and we're spiritually and eternally dead in our sin.
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And Jesus came to not only pay the penalty for our sin on the cross, to tell us to die, but He resurrected - and here's the significance - He resurrected to defeat death.
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Jesus resurrected to give us life. Eternal life.
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As Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again." That's why Jesus rose from the dead.
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to defeat death, to give us the life that we forfeited in the Garden of Eden.
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Do you understand the significance of the resurrection?
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It's not just good for Jesus, He sure showed them.
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He had to rise from the dead to fulfill the Scriptures, to prove He's the Christ and to give us eternal life.
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So if you're skeptical, I encourage you to take that hard look.
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And if you're not sure the significance, you need to understand the line that the Bible draws for Jesus Christ's resurrection and what it means to you.
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But finally today, I want to address the sorrowful.
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Look to Jesus for comfort.
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And I do imagine we have a few skeptics here, and I imagine we have a few people that need to be Bible students to understand, but my guess is, if I had to pick where most of us would fall, to some degree it would be under the sorrowful category.
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We'll see why here in a second.
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Look at verse 11.
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It says, "But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
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As she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb." Now look, I know John made such a big deal out of how much faster he was than Peter, but I don't know, can we just acknowledge here that in this moment they weren't being very gentlemanly?
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It says, "The disciples went home and they just left Mary standing there weeping." Like, come on guys!
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So she's standing there, weeping and looking in the tomb, still thinking his body is stolen, but this time, it says she looked in the tomb, look at what she sees, verse 12, it says, "She saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet." Like, well, that's interesting.
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But it's more than interesting, the positioning is very significant for these angels.
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Because your Bible says you had one on either side of where Jesus was laying before He resurrected.
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Do you see how significant that is?
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Like, what do you mean?
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Well, here's what I mean.
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Flashback to the Old Testament, right?
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Do you remember God instructed Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant?
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Do you remember the Ark?
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The Ark was this box that was kept in the Holy of Holies, and inside the box, what it was like, a copy of the Ten Commandments, and Aaron's staff, and a jar of manna.
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But in this box, kept in the Holy of Holies, the lid of the box was called the mercy seat.
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So when the high priest would offer atonement for sin, in Leviticus 16, day of atonement.
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They would take the blood and sprinkle it on top of the ark.
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And the top of the ark was known as the mercy seat.
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But do you know what was carved on either side of the top of the ark?
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Do you know?
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Angels.
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Do you see the significance here?
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Remember we talked about the hyssop when Jesus was on the cross, and they took the hyssop with the wine to give Him the drink?
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And to the Jew, that would have looked like the Passover, because you took the hyssop to put the blood on the doorpost.
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You get the same kind of thing happening here.
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Just like the hyssop foreshadowed the true Passover lamb, the ark, two angels on either side of the mercy seat, was God's way of foreshadowing.
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The resurrection of His Son.
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Look at verse 13.
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It says, "They (the angels) 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.'" Interestingly, that's like the exact same thing she said up in verse 2.
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Verse 14 says, "Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing.
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But she did not know that it was Jesus." Remember, she wasn't expecting anything here. She didn't know.
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"Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?
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Whom are you seeking?' Supposing him to be the gardener.
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She said to him, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, "Tell me where you've laid Him and I will take Him away." So why are you weeping? First from the angels, then from Jesus, whom Mary didn't recognize, she thought He was just the gardener.
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And like, "Look, if you took the body, just tell me." And then verse 16, "Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" Which means "teacher." What was the difference there?
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She recognized his voice when he said her name.
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And you could imagine the reaction for this poor woman who stood outside weeping, to recognize that Jesus is alive.
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Look at verse 17. It says, "Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
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But go to My brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'" Jesus says, "Don't cling to Me." Like, what did He mean by that?
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I did a lot of reading this week trying to understand why Jesus would say, "Don't cling to Me." He wasn't like, "Do no touchies." It wasn't that.
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But here's my best understanding.
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I think Jesus was telling Mary, "Listen, I am alive." But that doesn't mean things are going back to normal.
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Right?
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I think Mary might have thought, "This is great, we'll go back to Galilee, and it'll just be like old times.
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We'll get the gang back together, and obviously Judas, he's out, but we'll get everybody together, and it'll be just like old times.
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Come on, Jesus, come on." And I think this was Jesus' way of saying to her, "Mary, things are going to be different from now on.
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I'm not going to be in close physical proximity to you because we're going to have a new relationship." You're like, "Why do I think that?" Well, because Jesus in this said to her, "For I have not yet ascended to the Father." And if you've been with us for the past few months as we've been going through Jesus' discussion with the disciples at the Last Supper.
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What did He always connect with ascending to the Father?
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"I will ascend and we will ascend the Holy Spirit." "Mary, things aren't going to be the same. The Holy Spirit is coming.
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He's going to reside in your heart.
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He's going to reside in the heart of everyone who follows Me.
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Verse 18 says, "Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord,' and that He had said these things to her." And as we close here, you know, I so appreciate Mary Magdalene's heart.
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And I've got to be honest with you, it's convicting to me.
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Because when she thought Jesus was gone, she just stood there weeping.
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She was thinking, "He is all that I need, And I don't know what I'm going to do without Him.
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And that's convicting because, you know, I have to ask myself, as you do, do you have a love for the Lord like that?
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Would you notice if you went a day without Him?
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Or a week without Him?
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And Mary here is like, "I can't imagine a moment without Him." Love her heart for the Lord.
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But as we wrap up here, church, maybe right now, you're feeling like Mary.
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Before Jesus made Himself known to her, she was completely helpless and hopeless.
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As we pointed out in verse 2 and verse 13, she just kept saying the same thing over and over.
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That's a sign of depression. That's a sign of despair.
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She was absolutely stuck in that place.
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Have you ever been there?
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That you're stuck in a situation, and you're like, "I don't see any way out.
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I don't know what to do." Maybe some of us are there now.
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Maybe COVID has brought some of these feelings to you, not just the health-related issues, even though that's more than enough, but it's also resulted in separation of families.
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It's also destroyed some relationships.
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It's also put a big question mark over your finances.
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Because I know there are people here that are still facing the threat of losing your job.
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And maybe you sort of feel like Mary standing outside the tomb right now.
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Like, what am I going to do?
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I can't fix this!
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But I just want to remind you of this simple truth.
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If you didn't hear another word that I said the entire time, I want you to hear this one.
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So listen up.
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Like Mary Magdalene, our despair is going to turn to joy when we turn and recognize that Jesus Christ is alive.
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Because He lives, we too shall live.
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And as dark as things look now, Our best days are ahead of us.
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We all need reminded of this truth from Mary Magdalene's story.
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Even when she didn't see Jesus, He was alive and victorious.
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She just needed to recognize that truth.
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I find myself in that place.
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Maybe you do too.
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So the resurrection of Jesus Christ, do you believe it?
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Do you believe it?
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Do you understand it?
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Are you willing to turn and recognize it for what it is?
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, This truly is the thing that changes everything.
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The death of Jesus Christ was the end of the story.
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We'd be in sad shape.
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We'd always wonder.
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We'd never have confidence.
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Father, we come today celebrating that He is alive.
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And Father, I just want to pray for my brothers and sisters here.
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Some who don't know You.
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Some who maybe don't understand the significance of it, but Father, there's a lot here that are struggling and suffering right now.
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And I just pray, Father, that like Mary Magdalene, we would have this recognition that Jesus is alive.
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Maybe we've taken our eyes off of that.
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Maybe we've forgotten about that.
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Maybe we've gotten so focused on the things that we should be sorrowful over that we haven't turned our eyes upon the living God who's promised to someday wipe away every tear from our eyes and death will be no more and sorrow will be no more.
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God, You've promised us that things will not always be as they are now.
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And our guarantee is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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So Father, let us celebrate it today, but let us understand and embrace it for all that it is.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 20:1-18
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be the first person to witness His resurrection? Why do you think He revealed Himself to her in the way that He did (John 20:14-16)?
If Jesus' death paid for our sin (recall John:19:30), why was it necessary that He resurrect?
Bonus: Explain the significance of the linen clothes (John 20:6-7). Explain the significance of the two angels (John 20:12). Why do these details matter?
Breakout
Pray for one another.