Disclaimer: This transcription is provided for informational purposes, reference, and convenience. Please note that it may contain errors, omissions, or spelling mistakes due to the nature of live audio transcriptions. While we strive for accuracy, this document should not be considered a fully authoritative record of the sermon. For clarification, we recommend referring to the original source. Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

Everything that has life has an appetite. If you're here today and you have no appetite for the Word of God, then you probably do not have the life that he has given you. When we are born again, we are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, and as a result of that, we crave the nourishment that we receive from the Scriptures. And this morning, we have an opportunity to feast on those scriptures yet again, out of John 19. We're going to be looking at verses 31 through verse 10 of chapter 20, under the heading “Demystifying Easter.”

Most people, including many Christians, approach Easter with more enthusiasm about pagan things like bunnies and eggs and bonnets, and I don't know if you still have Easter bonnets, you did when I was growing up. I don't see any Easter bonnets in here today, but these are all things that really have nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. And frankly, the commercialization of Easter in our culture is blasphemous to say the least. If you were to ask the average Christian to summarize what really transpired in the last week of Christ's life, his ministry, very few would know what to tell you. If you were to ask them, what really culminated in his death and in his burial and his resurrection, and how do those things fit into God's plan, and how do those things impact you? All of us, as believers, many Christians, would not really know what to say. So I wish to help you understand these things better today. Many of you do understand them. Isn't it great to just be able to rehearse them, just to remember them yet afresh? But to be sure, we're starving as believers. We are starving to know more of the glory of God, especially during these times of decay and darkness in our culture. It is staggering, it's infuriating; we live in a world that is hell bent on mocking him and all who belong to him. In fact, in his book, "Dark Agenda, the War to Destroy Christian America," Jewish author and New York Times best-selling author, David Horowitz, who, by the way, as a self-proclaimed agnostic, he exposes, "The left's calculated efforts to create a secular, socialist society." And he talks about how, "the rising attacks on Christians and their beliefs threaten all Americans because they are attacks on the founding principles of America's democracy." He argues, “The liberal establishment and their radical allies envision a new millennium in which Christianity is banished."

Certainly, this is nothing new, Satan has always tried to thwart the purposes of God, and it will ultimately be futile. Nevertheless, we endure great difficulty. So naturally in our culture, there is a disdain for biblical Christianity. And I say that because there's such a thing as unbiblical, non-Biblical, Christianity that really dominates evangelicalism today. So to say that Jesus is the Son of God and that he came to earth to save sinners as our substitute and to satisfy the just wrath of God against all of us as sinners, is now considered to be the rantings of fools, religious fanatics. In fact, now to say certain things out of the Bible is considered hate speech. I'm sure you've read about the Finland Supreme Court ruling against a 2004 pamphlet called "Male and female - He Created Them," they believe that it insults homosexuals. You can read about it on the internet, but this is the type of thing that's invading, certainly secular Europe, but it's coming our way as well.

Moreover, to believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead after being in the grave for three days is considered, by most, a religious myth and a sure sign of some serious mental disorder on anybody that would believe anything so ridiculous. And then worse yet, to be able to say that God is coming again - Christ is returning in judgment - is considered to be totally absurd. And yet we read in Second Thessalonians 1:7, and by the way, imagine if this was read from the bully pulpit of our president,

"The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

"dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

"These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,

"when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day."

Obviously, people in our culture would think you would have to be insane to believe anything so ridiculous. And of course, these attacks are to be expected. Jesus said in John 15:16, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you." And these attacks can certainly weaken every believer, even the most robust, mature believer, to constantly be scorned and humiliated and mocked. So we need to be reminded of the truth, so that we can somehow transcend the damning decay of deception.

Now, as we come to this text this morning, we are going to see, once again, the validation of the fact that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, the Messiah. He is the Almighty Creator and Sovereign King, and it's going to be proven by the events surrounding his death, his burial and his resurrection. Events that were prophesied hundreds of years earlier, and therefore events that fulfill Bible prophecy.

Now I want to look at these things under three headings that I hope will prove helpful to you. We're going to look at the providence of God in three areas here: in his death, his burial and resurrection. Now remember, providence is the doctrine that God is continually involved in his creation. He sustains all things. He causes all things to function according to their intended purpose, especially for example, in the laws of physics. And by directing all of his creation, including man and angels, demons and all the events of history, he is ultimately accomplishing all that he has decreed in eternity past to bring glory to himself. And we see this in John's narrative, beginning, first of all with the providence of God in Jesus' death.

Now notice John 19, verse 31,

"Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation."

Let me pause there for a moment, "the day of preparation." It was the preparation of the Passover that celebrated the time when God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage and the slavery and so forth and brought them out of that horrible situation. And you will hopefully recall in 1446 BC, in Egypt, the blood of the lamb was spread over the doorpost and the lintels of every Jewish home to protect them from the angel of death that visited every home in Egypt as one of the plagues. And whenever the Angel of Death saw the blood, he would pass over that house and spare the firstborn. And of course, all of that is a picture, or was a picture, of the coming Savior. Exodus 12, beginning in verse 12,

"'For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments - I am the LORD.

"'The blood shall be a sign for you in the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.'"

And then later on, in verse 23 we read,

"'For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.'"

So that's the background here. The Jews are preparing now to celebrate that great event of deliverance. Now back to verse 31, "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." Obviously, he's referring here to the body of Jesus and the two thieves that hung on either side. Now, by Jewish reckoning, the Sabbath, which was Saturday, began at sundown on Friday evening, and this means Jesus was crucified on Friday, the day before the preparation of the Sabbath, which on that occasion, as we see here, was a special Sabbath because it occurred during the Passover feast. And this isn't just coincidental. This is all according to the providence of God, and because the second paschal, according to Leviticus 23:11, fell on the Sabbath, this was a day devoted to a very important, what was called a "sheaf offering" that would also include, according to verse 12 of Leviticus 23, "the offering of a male lamb, a year old without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord." So obviously, it was no accident here that Jesus, the unblemished lamb of God, would offer himself up as a sacrifice at this precise time and occasion that for centuries had pointed to him. Now it was the custom of the Jews, according to the Mosaic law, to never allow a person to remain hanging on the giblet overnight or on a cross overnight after an execution, lest the body that cursed body defile the land. So being self-righteous law keepers, they asked Pilate to have Jesus' legs broken so that he would die very quickly and they could quickly dispose of his body and therefore honor God; hypocrisy knows no bounds, right? Now, normally, the Romans would leave a crucified body on the cross, whether it was a man or a woman, and they would leave them on there until that person died. And sometimes it would take several days before that happened, and then as a final disgrace and warning to any other person in the world that might consider doing some criminal act, or be an insurrectionist in any way, they would leave the decaying body on the cross until the vultures essentially devoured all the meat off the bones. But if they needed to hasten the death, they would break the victim's legs with an iron bar or a big metal heavy mallet to practice what is called, In Latin, a "crurifragium," and the sudden excruciating pain and loss of blood that that would cause, combined with the victim's inability to now lift himself up, would allow air into his lungs to be diminished, and it would hasten that person's death by suffocation; a hideous, gruesome form of execution. And when the legs were broken, the chest cavity then would bear the total pressure of the body's weight, and the person would hang, you might say, like a "v" with the full weight being on their arms, causing excruciating pain in all of the shoulder and arm joints, and because of the tension on the on the muscles, on the tendons and even in the chest, death would come very quickly.

So what the Spirit of God is pointing out here through his inspired author, is that the hypocrisy was staggering, because the law keepers did not want to jeopardize what they perceived to be their good standing of righteousness before God by violating their high Sabbath. So verse 31 they, "asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."

Verse 32, "So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs." Beloved, get the scene here. As the sun set on the day that Christ died, John is making it clear that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was fulfilling every single aspect of Bible prophecy. Jesus as the true Passover lamb that God provided did not have any of his bones broken. And that was consistent with the Mosaic law in Exodus 12 and verse 46 that says that the paschal lamb could not have any of the bones broken. And it's amazing that even as God provided a sacrifice, you will recall for Abraham as a substitute for Isaac, God now provides a substitute for us. He slew his own perfect Lamb to die in our place as our substitute. Indeed, it's an amazing thing to consider that Christ is our Passover Lamb, and by the provision of the blood of Jesus, when the judgment of God comes upon us, he will see the blood of his Son and pass over us, because his blood covers all of our sins. The angel of judgment, you might say, will pass over all who trust in God's lamb to atone for their sins.

Now, Jesus was hung upon the cross at the third hour. That would be 9am according to Mark 15:25, and then we read in verse 34 that he died at the ninth hour. So he died at 3pm, so he was on the cross for a total of six hours before he voluntarily gave up his life, as he said he would, which is the point John is going to make abundantly clear. You will recall in John 10, verse 17, Jesus himself declared, "'I lay down my life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.'" So it was a relatively short period of time that Jesus hung upon the cross, and no doubt, the prior beatings, the loss of blood from the crown of thorns, the double floggings that he endured, that are just unimaginably painful, all of the suffering associated with sin, bearing all of those things would have contributed to an early death. And you will recall, in John 19, the end of verse 30, he gave a final shout on the cross, "Tetelestai," which is "It is finished."

Isn't it amazing he still had the strength to cry out, which tells us that he had not totally been drained of life. In fact, it's interesting as we read the text, when Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate to ask for ask for Jesus' body, Pilate didn't think that Jesus would be dead already, and so therefore he summoned the Centurion for confirmation. You read about that in Mark 15. And so John says, "He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." Gave up, by the way, can be translated, "handed over" his spirit, so no one took his life from him. He gave it up on his own authority. Jesus, in that moment, summoned death, you might say, to serve him, as our substitute, as our sacrifice. John doesn't say he "died," he says that he "gave up His spirit." So John's emphasizing the voluntary nature of the act. Augustine said it correctly, "He gave up his life because he willed it, when he willed it, and as he willed it."

But we must not neglect the providence of God at work here again, which I would submit to you, points yet again, to the glory, to the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You see, Jesus had predicted that he would be killed on the third day and he would rise again, Luke 18:33, and for this to be fulfilled, he had to be buried on the same day that he died. And once again, God uses wicked men to execute orders that he had made in eternity past; a marvel of marvels to me as I study the Scripture; yet another testimony to the fact that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. So the soldiers break the legs of the men on either side of Jesus, but when they saw that Jesus was already dead, they did not break his leg. My what a coincidence, right? No, this was again God orchestrating all these events according to his sweet providence.

Verse 34, "But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out." Now you must understand that the ancients understood that the body was made up by blood and water, and this proved that Jesus was physically dead. And it's very important that John pointed this out. He wanted to underscore the error, the heresy, of a very popular heresy in that day, known as Docetism. It comes from "dokéō" in the Greek, which means "it seems." Many people were saying that Jesus only appeared to have a body, but he really wasn't God incarnate, because we know that material things are evil, only nonmaterial things are spiritual. That was part of Greek dualistic philosophy that they believed. They believed that matter was inherently evil, so God could not be associated with matter. "Don't tell me that this guy was God, that he was God incarnate. God's a perfect and infinite being, and he would never suffer." And so, Docetism became a common heresy in that day, and obviously that particular error that Satan had initiated denies not only the incarnation of Christ, but disallows the fact that Jesus actually suffered and died on the cross, and that he rose again from physical death. So Jesus, therefore, never took on human flesh. It only seemed like he did. It seemed as though he did. He only appeared to be human. Likewise, he only appeared to be dead, but he really wasn't. And like all heretics, they wanted nothing to do with Christ, and so they did everything they possibly could with that demonic doctrine to discredit him. And I could give you 100 other examples where they do the same today.

Well, John witnessed the rise of this satanically inspired heresy, and according to the inspiration of the Scripture, he is attacking it here. And so he adds this in verse 35 not only does he say that out came the water and the blood, which indicate, well, my goodness, this guy was a human being, and now he's dead, but he says in verse 35, "He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe." I might point out that additionally, the blood and the water that flowed from Jesus' side may also be symbolic of the life and the cleansing that flowed from Jesus' death. I mean, the blood of Jesus is the basis of eternal life in the believer; it purifies us from every sin, First John 1:7; and while water also is seen symbolically in the scriptures as a symbol of cleansing, as we read in John 3:5, as a symbol of life in John 4:14, and also a symbol of the Spirit of God, as you would read in John seven. And these incomparable blessings are all conditioned upon the death of the Lamb of God that flow from the lifting up of the Son of Man. In other words, the purification of our sin, the cleansing, the eternal life, the indwelling Spirit, all of that proceeds from the death of the Lamb of God. And it's from this verse and these themes that the great hymn writer Fanny Crosby derived her inspiration for the first verse of her hymn "Near the Cross, which says,

Jesus, keep me near the Cross,

there a precious fountain

Free to all, a healing stream

flows from Calvary's mountain.

Other scholars point out, like Burge, that it is also possible, but not certain, that the evangelist here is alluding to Exodus 17, especially verse six, where strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink. And the reasoning for that, and I think it's worth mentioning, is that John has already used water to refer to the Holy Spirit and has apparently alluded to the two water from the rock episodes that you read about in Exodus, 17 and Numbers 20. And so you see that in John's gospel, and the long-suffering Yahweh himself is the rock of his people, as we read in the Psalter. And so he discloses himself through his Word. And they would say, "He is stricken for his people that they may receive the promised spirit." And I might also point out, because we sing this so often, that this is at the heart of Augustus Toplady's, great hymn, "Rock of Ages."

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide thyself in Thee,

Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed

be of sin, the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

So the soldiers pierced Jesus' side, but he was spared the "crurifragium." They did not break his legs.

Verse 36 says, "For these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture," and here he's quoting from Psalm 34 verse 20, "'Not a bone of him shall be broken.'" By the way that was prophesied about 1000 years before this happened. There's about 2500 prophecies in Scripture, and over 300 of them were fulfilled perfectly at Jesus' first coming.

Verse 37 goes on to say, "And again, another Scripture says, 'They shall look on him whom they pierced.'" And of course, this was from Zechariah 12 and verse 10 and that was prophesied about 520 years before this happened; a prophecy that speaks of a future repentant remnant of Israel that will confess Jesus as Messiah when he returns in glory. The text goes on to say, "'I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." Beloved, here again is yet another prophecy that affirms the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John proves it over and over again.

So we've seen the providence of God in his death, and secondly, we see the providence of God in his burial. Notice verse 38, "After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body." Now, the synoptic writers tell us that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, that he was a wealthy man that was looking for the kingdom of God and he was a man that did not agree with the decision to condemn Jesus. But both Matthew and John state that he was a good and a righteous man, that he was a disciple of Jesus, but we see that he was a secret disciple because of fear of the Jews. Now I might add, because I know this firsthand from my contacts in Israel in particular, that there are many Jews who are coming to faith in Christ. There are Orthodox rabbis who have come to faith in Christ, and they are studying online at certain institutions that I'm aware of because of fear from their families and others. Beloved, we serve a redeeming God, and he will save all that he has set his love upon.

So the soldiers, then we see, they've pierced his side, and now he's dead, and we see the burial here now with Joseph of Arimathea. Now, perhaps out of shame, certainly mixed with love, Joseph asks Pilate for Jesus' body, and because of his rank, evidently his request, was granted. Mark tells us in chapter 15, verse 43 that, "He gathered up courage and went in before Pilate." In other words, he was going to ask him to do something that they typically never do. And again, we see the providence of God at work here. You see, under Roman law, no man crucified for sedition would be allowed or could be taken down from the cross until the vultures had picked every single morsel off of his bones. Only then could the body be buried among other criminals, and the Jews would only bury criminals outside the walls of Jerusalem, but John wants us to know that this is no ordinary man. This was the son of God whose death and now burial was foreordained and predicted by Bible prophecy. In the Old Testament, we read, for example, in Isaiah 53, verse nine, the prophet declares that the Messiah's grave, was quote was "assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth." As best as I can calculate, that was prophesied 650 to 675 years before it happened. I can't prophesy what's going to happen for lunch, John goes on to introduce yet another member of the Sanhedrin that was also a secret disciple of Jesus that joined Joseph in the preparation of Jesus' body and burial. It's Nicodemus.

Verse 39, "Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight." Now bear in mind that the Jews did not embalm bodies like the Egyptians but used fragrant spices to partially cover up the stench of putrefaction. So Nicodemus brings 100 pounds of this mixture. He obviously had some guys with him. I don't know if they had wheelbarrows or what, but 100 pounds of spices. This would have been in powder form, that's what they used. And it would have been layered in strips of cloth, tightly wound around the body. And then they would pour more and do another layer, typically three layers of this powdery mixture. And obviously, when you think about it, neither Joseph nor Nicodemus, nor I might add, the other women who would later come to the empty tomb really expected that Jesus would literally rise from the dead, as he promised. They weren't contemplating that at all. So they prepared his body for the grave.

Verse 40, "So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now, in the place where He was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there." Now little did Joseph and Nicodemus know that by burying Jesus while it was still Friday before the Sabbath, they were fulfilling God's eternal plan pertaining to Jesus as prophesied earlier. For example, Jesus said in Matthew 12, verse 40, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." So Jesus was buried before sundown on Friday. He rose again then on Sunday. And according to Jewish reckoning, part of a day would be considered a day. So Jesus was in the tomb three days, part of Friday afternoon, Saturday and part of Sunday morning. And it's remarkable, when you think about it, how all of this was even pictured in the whole event of Abraham and Isaac. You will recall how God provided a substitute for Isaac, but it's interesting that he had been given up to death three days before. In fact, we read in Hebrews 11, verse 19, that Abraham, "considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead, from which he also received him," referring to Isaac, “back as a type."

And I find it fascinating as well that that Yahweh delivered his covenant people from the Egyptians in the parting of the Red Sea three days after the slaying of the paschal lamb, yet another picture of our deliverance from sin through Christ, right? Beloved, let me pause for a second. Only the most calloused hardened heart can possibly deny the obvious; that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God.

So we've seen the providence of God in His death and burial, finally, the providence of God in his resurrection. Verse one of chapter 20, "Now on the first day of the week." Let me pause there. This became known as the Lord's Day. We see, for example, in Revelation one and verse 10, the day believers set aside to worship Christ and to celebrate his resurrection, just as they did in the first century. First Corinthians 16:2 speaks of this. You read about it in Acts 20. So 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." Now there were other women who also made their way to the tomb that morning as well, but Mary must have gone on ahead of them more quickly, because she is arriving while it is still dark before sunrise, and obviously she longed to be near the body of her precious Savior. And this is quite remarkable, when you think about it, in Matthew 28:2 we read that there had been a great earthquake. That's what it says, a great earthquake; nobody would have missed that; and it's dark. She's unaccompanied by a male, and there would have been 1000s of people in Jerusalem.

Well, additionally, John's eyewitnesses account for the fact that Jesus was completely dead, contrary to what others were saying, and some would say that he was still alive and that he rallied his strength; that was a heresy that went around. In fact, some people believe that today, that he really wasn't dead. He rallied his strength, and he was able to unwrap himself and somehow, I guess, move the stone away and slip past all the soldiers, and I mean all of that easily refuted in scripture. But if you want me to believe such an absurdity, you have to explain to me how he could heal up so quickly; that he could appear to his disciples and convince them that he had vanquished death through a resurrection from the dead, and they would believe him if in fact that resurrection had not taken place. And then you have to explain to me how he could live for 40 days more and then ascend into glory. Such an explanation, dear friends, it's not only ludicrous, it's demonic. For if Jesus did not die, there is no atonement. And if he did not die, he did not rise from the dead. And our faith is in vain, and we remain in our sins. And that's exactly what Satan wants us to believe, folks. There is only one plausible explanation, and that is Jesus Christ died. He was buried, and he rose again from the dead. He passed through those grave clothes and all of the spices. And in a miracle that we cannot even fathom, his body dematerialized through all of those things. And in a miraculous demonstration of supernatural power, the Father caused the Son's body to go through the grave wrappings and out of the stone sepulcher and out of the restrictions of the kind of flesh that we know and replace that that torn up body. He recreated his body into one that is imperishable, one that is indestructible, one that is undefiled; an eternal habitation of immortal manhood, and folk, that is the transformation that every believer awaits.

Now, at the time of the Passover, there would have been strangers sleeping on the ground everywhere, alright? It would look kind of like a homeless encampment, like you see in liberal cities. And yet, out of her love and devotion to Jesus, she is compelled to venture toward his tomb. You know, I'm always moved when I see such love and devotion for Christ in anybody. And what a shock to arrive and the stones been rolled away. What would you think? An empty tomb? Moreover, there's no soldiers, and since it's still dark, she didn't look into the tomb, she wouldn't have been able to have seen anything. So what does she do? Verse two, "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." Naturally, that's what she's going to think. She's not going to think, "Oh, my look. What happened? You know, he rolled away the stone and he has been resurrected." No, somebody stole the body. You know, grave robbing was not uncommon in those days, and especially given the violent animosity that people had toward Jesus, Mary's conclusion would have been justified. And while she goes to get the disciples, the other women now come to the tomb and encounter the angels, remember that, in Matthew 28 verse five and following, "Do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come see the place where He was lying." And later in John 20 and verse 11, Mary returns to the tomb, and John says, quote, '"She was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so as she wept, she stopped and looked into the tomb, and she beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been 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 behold Jesus was standing there." The text goes on to say that Jesus called her name Mary. She recognized his voice and recognized who he was.

Well, back to our text in verse three then, we read that, "Peter and the other disciple went forth,” according to John and "they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead, faster than Peter and came to the tomb first;” You see John would have been the younger. He was much younger than Peter. In fact, he lived 60 years longer than Peter. And those of you my age know that young men typically outrun us, even though we would like to think that's not the case.

Verse 5,

"and stooping 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 linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself."

Folks, this is so significant, this eyewitness account of the linen wrappings and the neatly folded face cloth lying by itself rules out any possibility that the body of Jesus had been stolen by the disciples, as the Jewish leaders would later claim. Now you stop and think, just use common sense here. Who would possibly unwrap a corpse then rewrap it in the original position of the contour of the body? Who would do that if you're stealing a body? And John's description indicates that the wrappings were still tightly and rigidly wound around a former body. Really? You're going to expect me to believe that they did? That now lying there undisturbed in their original convolutions, and then you've got the face cloth neatly folded and placed by itself. Who's going to do that? And I ask you, what fool would possibly embark upon a gospel ministry based upon a resurrection lie that you yourself has fabricated? Who's going to do that? Risk your life based upon hypocrisy, knowing full well that you stole the body, there was no resurrection, and then how are you going to explain the radical transformation, the moral transformation, the miracle of regeneration? How are you going to explain that based upon a resurrection narrative that you yourself created?

And as I age, I long for that body more and more, don't you? You young people don't know what it's like, you will and what a testimony that the resurrection of Christ has on the resurrection that occurs when a sinner is radically transformed by the miracle of regeneration, who becomes a new creature in Christ, who is raised to walk in newness of life. Most of you understand that; you've experienced that. Some of you even recently. And it's a marvel to me. You know, I've been here for a long time. It's a marvel to see so many of you radically changed and grow in Christ, another testimony of the resurrection.  Well, this is what John wants us to understand.

Verse eight, "So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed." In other words, he believed that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. Verse nine, "For, as yet, they did not understand the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead." You see, they still did not fully understand what the Scriptures had taught concerning the life and the ministry and the death and the resurrection of the Lord at this point. Now they would later, obviously. And so this is the new beginning. Stop and think about it: for three years, Jesus had been telling them these things, preparing them for his death, for his resurrection, but they, like us, were heavily influenced by their own preconceived ideas. You know, so often we believe what we want to believe, even if there is great evidence to the contrary. And sometimes we don't want to hear evidence to the contrary. We just want to believe what we want to believe. And so they were influenced by their own preconceived ideas.

Verse 10, "So the disciples went away again to their own homes." Don't you know they had a lot to talk about. It'll be fun to talk to them someday. "Man, what was that like?" Oh, dear Christian, what a glorious future awaits us and what a blessed hope we have in Christ. And I want you to remember as we close this morning that the implications of the resurrection and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ exceed the importance and power of all other events in history. I'm going to talk about that next week, Lord willing, and only the actual creation of the universe rivals what happened there, because within the resurrection body of Jesus Christ exists the supernatural power source of the eternal life of God that is given to us as his people united to Christ. This is why Paul prayed for the Ephesians, Ephesians 1:19 that they would know, "what is the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe according to the working of His might, which He accomplished in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and made Him sit at His right hand in the heavenly places."  Folks, this is a prayer that we should pray for ourselves, for our children, that we would understand these great truths. And contained within the resurrection body of Christ was the supernatural seed of resurrection glory for all whom the Father had given him in eternity past. That was and that is the power source of the universe. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory, right (Colossians 1:27)? And to think that one day we will behold Him. We will see him (First John 3:2) and he's going to be dwelling in a body that will in many ways, look like ours, and yet from it will emanate the effulgence of his celestial majesty and the resplendent light of his glory in which we will bask throughout eternity. Indeed, Christ is, according to First Corinthians 15:23, the "first fruits of those who are asleep." Folks, you can't have first fruits unless you got a bunch of other fruits, right? We are the bunch of other fruits, which means our resurrection bodies will be much like his, minus the incommunicable attributes that are his alone. O, the wonder of what it means to be united to Christ in saving faith. Dear friends, I hope you know and you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you don't, I plead with you to humble your heart today, confess him as Lord and bow before him as your undeserved Savior; that today would be the day you experience the miracle of resurrection, this side of your physical resurrection, amen? Amen, let's pray together,

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that speaks so directly to our hearts. I pray that we will all be transformed by them, but especially those that may not truly know you and love you. Lord, may today be the day that you save them by your grace. So we commit all of this to you and give you praise for it in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen