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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
The Invulnerable Truth That Jesus Is Risen
It is really fun to come up here on a day like today, New Year's, where we're starting out, but I cannot go a whole lot farther without us rejoicing together for the very first Sunday that Petty Officer and Mr.
Jacob Hoke are here. Go for it, please.
There you go. All right. I'm glad you're with us this morning.
I'm going to open up with a word of encouragement that comes out of Proverbs 15, verse 3.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place. That's a powerful word of encouragement.
It actually goes on, and the next two phrases are really important as well. Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Now, here's my words of encouragement. Our God is sovereign. He is over all.
There is nothing that is beyond our God. There is nothing that our God is caught by surprise.
He is sovereign over all. He is omniscient. He is ruler of all, and He sustains all.
Now, here's part of the other words of encouragement. There is evil in this world. We cannot deny that.
But there is nothing that's going on in this world that God is not sovereign, and He knows and He sees all.
And when evil seems like it's having its way, we are assured, because we know the end of the book,
God wins. Not only does He win, but He sees and He knows all. He will deal with evil according to His sovereign will.
But here's the other part. Where there is righteousness in the world, God sees it. Where there is righteousness in the world, we can rejoice knowing that He blesses those
He loves. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Some announcements.
First of all, next Sunday at 6 o 'clock during the evening service time, normally we have a prayer meeting.
We will have our installation service for Pastor Tim. We'll have our normal morning worship services, but we expect to have a huge gathering at 6 o 'clock next
Sunday. So please be here for that. And when I say that, let's practice coming at 6 o 'clock tonight for our prayer meeting.
But I do encourage you to come back together this evening for our prayer of time.
Other things that are resuming this week, Monday night the men's apologetics class, the women's
Bible study, Tuesday morning the women's precept study, and on Wednesday we resume our study at noontime.
We're beginning the book of Galatians. That will also be online. All the care groups are going on.
So there's lots to be rejoicing as we launch into the new year. I want to announce that the first three
Sundays in February, we will have our starting point class. If you are new to Cornerstone, if you're new to the
E -Free, if you're interested in what's going on, join in our class. It's three weeks.
You'll get everything you want to know about Cornerstone, about E -Free. If you're interested in membership, that's a great starting point towards membership.
You do not have to pre -sign. Just show up. It's the first three Sundays, and it will be during the second service.
Gentlemen, you get to set your clocks real early. I don't know if she's going to give you a pass on this one,
Jacob, or not. Set your clocks early. Our six o 'clock men's breakfast fellowship time is a great time each month.
So that will be tomorrow. And then some look -aheads. Michael, you've already noted this.
A couple of things I'm just going to note. Highlight them, and next week, John Dottoli will come up, give you more details.
It's a tradition every year, and the NFC Championship Sunday, the men have a fellowship evening.
Is it at your house again? I didn't want to put you on the spot in front of Brenda. She knows about it.
Okay. It's a great time of fellowship, enjoying the game, enjoying guys together, and that's on the 28th.
And then in April on the 12th, 13th, 14th, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is the men's retreat.
John will give you more next week on this. Pastor Graham had a link.
It's on the church app. Guys, you've got no excuse. Join up and be with us. Let's turn to prayer.
Father, we rejoice this morning in your presence. You who are the creator of all, you who hold creation in your hand, you who sent your son to pay the penalty for our sin, and you who for eternity are
Lord of all. We are blessed to be called your children. We are blessed because you are sovereign over all.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place. Thank you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit that dwells within us, teaching us, correcting us, leading us.
Thank you, Lord, for your grace that gives us the ability that in the flesh we can't do on our own.
Thank you, Lord, that by your love we're considered worthy to be here today.
And we pray, Lord, for this service that our hearts will seek you, that all will be done for your glory.
Be with Pastor Jeff as he opens the word to us and open our hearts that we will hear and see your truth.
In Jesus' name, amen. All hail the power of Jesus' name.
Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him
Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him
Lord of all. Be chosen seed of Israel's race.
Ye ransom from the fall. Hail him who saves you by his grace and crown him
Lord of all. Hail him who saves you by his grace and crown him
Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial pole hail him, all -majesty a scribe and crown him
Lord of all. To him, all -majesty a scribe and crown him
Lord of all. All hail.
All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him
Lord of all. To him, royal diadem and crown him
Lord of all. Lord, we are so grateful and so thankful that we can hail you as king, that your name is above every name, that you alone can be exalted far above the heavens and the earth.
We come to you this morning singing praises to your name because you are worthy.
Reaches of heaven, starry heights, lights of the evening, dancing in silent skies, brilliance of morning, breaking day.
Oh, let them praise him, praise his name.
Oh, praise his name. Oh, praise his name.
Let all his wondrous works declare his praise.
Mightiest mountains, peaceful plains, snowfall and fire, thundering ocean waves, kings and their kingdoms age to age.
King enthroned in majesty, all things made by his decree, hear creation's melody.
Praise him, praise him, everything with life and breath, everywhere from east to west, every heart raised from the dead.
Praise him, praise him. Angels echo the refrain,
Jesus' lamp for sinners slain, name above all other names.
Praise him. Oh, praise his name.
Oh, praise his name. Let all his wondrous works declare his praise.
Let's continue to sing about his wonderful works. When he left heaven, came to this earth and was mocked, he was crucified, and he laid down his life as a sacrifice for all of us.
You came down from heaven's throne.
This earth you formed was not your home.
A love like this the world had never known.
On of thorns to mock your name, forgiveness fell upon your face.
On the altar of our praise, let there be no higher name,
Jesus, Son of God. You laid down your perfect life.
You are the sacrifice, Jesus, Son of God.
You are Jesus, Son of God. You took our sin.
You bore our shame. You rose to life.
You defeated the grave. A love like this the world had never known.
Cause you took our sin. You bore our shame.
You rose to life. You defeated the grave.
You are Jesus, Son of God. Be lifted higher than all you've overcome.
Your name be louder than any other song.
There is no power that can come against your love.
The cross was enough. The cross was enough.
You are Jesus, Son of God. You may be seated.
Amen. He is worthy of that praise, of all the praise that we could ever give him.
Let's pray. Father God, this morning as we gather before you, and we're about to take communion, the
Lord's table, to remember the body and blood of Jesus, we ask,
Father, that you would open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your word, to see
Jesus Christ through eyes of faith. Lord, grant us, mere humans and sinners at that, the ability to see the
Holy One. Give us eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that believe.
Work in us this morning, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. The Israelites saw a picture of Jesus Christ in the
Passover. There is a theme that runs throughout the scripture about blood.
Seems gruesome to think about, but way back in the beginning of time, when
Adam and Eve were created, and they fell in the garden. Because sin is so egregious, because it is such an affront against a holy
God, God cannot just look at sin and wink, or just dismiss it as if it can have no effect.
But he must atone for sin, and atonement for sin requires the shedding of blood.
I want you to think about Adam and Eve in the garden. What did they do when they realized that they were sinful and shameful?
They covered their nakedness by making fig leaves and making a cover to cover themselves.
This is a picture of someone trying to establish their own righteousness. It is trying to cover, by human effort, the sin that they have committed.
But listen, it could not be done. And God understood, even in the garden, that sin required the shedding of blood.
And so we're told that God himself sacrificed an animal and made coats of skin for them.
This means that there was some lamb, some animal in the garden, that had to die.
Innocent blood was shed. And from the coats of skin, they were clothed.
Now, that event in the garden points us to the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin.
And that theme develops through the sacrifices of Israel, but nowhere more clearly than the
Passover. The Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt.
And they were not delivered by the plagues that God sent. It was only through the shedding of lamb's blood.
Each Israelite had to take a lamb, each family, and sacrifice the lamb.
And the blood of the lamb was marked on the doorposts of the houses. When the angel of death, who would bring judgment, rightful judgment, came and saw the blood, he passed over those houses that were marked with blood.
This event was called the Passover. And interestingly, for the next 1 ,500 years, 1 ,500 years, every spring, they would remember the
Passover, the shedding of blood. And they would eat the Passover meal. And this would remind them that they were brought out of Egypt by the blood of the lamb.
It was no coincidence that Jesus was crucified during the
Passover. His blood is the lamb's blood. When the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man hanging next to Jesus and the other who had been crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. They did not break his legs.
Why were Jesus's legs on the cross not broken? It is because in the
Passover, when they would eat the lamb, they were not allowed to break the legs as they ate the lamb.
This was a picture pointing us to the death of Jesus on the cross, that his legs would not be broken.
But we're told next in the text, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.
And at once there came out blood and water. Blood from his side, water from his side.
And church, this is a picture for us of our cleansing. The water is the washing of regeneration by the
Holy Spirit, that we would be cleansed of sin. The blood makes atonement for sin.
There must be a death penalty for sin. And Jesus dies that death penalty for us, his blood poured out.
Now listen. That water and that blood is then symbolized in baptism and the
Lord's table. In baptism, you are plunged under the water, picturing the washing of your sin.
It is really the Holy Spirit who regenerates you on the inside, but the outward picture is baptism.
In the same way, what we are about to do is to take a cup and you will see the redness of the wine.
It is a symbol of the blood of Jesus. We look back on the death of Jesus in the same way that the
Israelites were looking forward to it through the Passover. Jesus is the Passover lamb, once and for all slain.
And so now, we will take of the Lord's table. And as the ushers, if you would come, as the bread is distributed,
I want you to take this bread only if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. If you are able to look back on his life, don't be embarrassed if you need to let that pass by you, but don't take this as a flippant thing.
Take some time as you hold this just to close your eyes, pray, and confess your sin because Jesus died for sinners and we must come before him and confess our sins.
And after that, we will pass the cup to symbolize the blood of the lamb. To you in the privacy of our own hearts.
And let's pray. Father, we have received the bread and the cup to remind us that Jesus died on a cross like a lamb, the
Passover lamb, giving his life for sinners like us.
Now, Lord, as we open your word to study the page of the text, we ask that we would also believe and understand that Jesus rose from the dead.
He did not stay in the grave, but rose, and he is alive.
Now help us to encounter the risen Christ through the preaching of the word and the hearing of the word.
In Jesus' name we ask, amen. It seems in this life that nothing is invulnerable, that everything is subject to attack, subject to damage.
Nothing is ultimately safe. I think as Americans, at times, our country has felt like we were safe, only to find out that not entirely so.
Before World War II, there was a, before we entered World War II, the conflict was raging on another continent and we felt safe because we were protected by oceans keeping us.
And then there was Pearl Harbor. We as a nation, I think, felt safe in 2000 and 2001 when the
US military was so much more dominant than any other nation with nuclear subs that no other country could match.
And there was really no threat to the United States of America. And then 9 -11, right in New York City.
Have you ever heard the expression safe as Fort Knox? Safe as Fort Knox.
Well, Fort Knox is a fort, a military base in Kentucky. It's away from the shore so that all of the national treasure could be kept safely from invaders.
And it's kept behind several feet of steel reinforcements. It's underground.
There are electric fences. There are guards with machine guns. Just a year ago, someone tried to break in and he got killed, got mowed down.
You just can't get into Fort Knox. The gold in Fort Knox is invulnerable, isn't it?
Or so some would think. There are 147 million ounces of gold in Fort Knox.
That is $300 billion worth of gold. And the debt that the
United States of America services in a given year is more than double that.
What has happened is the United States has decoupled from the gold standard and simply prints money.
Now the United States owes $34 trillion while we hold a measly $300 billion in a fort.
We have given away the national treasure without ever breaking into the fort.
It wasn't so invulnerable after all. In this world, it appears that nothing is invulnerable.
And that is because, listen, you as you listen to me preach cannot even keep your own heart beating.
You are always vulnerable. We are human. We are frail. And so we look at the world, and we think nothing is invulnerable.
But church, there is a God in heaven who is utterly and completely invulnerable.
He is not subject to damage. He is not weary, and he never wrings his hands.
He is never afraid. And there is nothing that can touch or harm him.
Because he is utterly omnipotent. He knows all things.
In this world, even our knowledge seems vulnerable, doesn't it? Postmodernism would say that you can't really know anything because, hey, maybe what you think you know is only a dream or a hallucination.
Or maybe you're just some kind of computer program that someone else is running. And so the world is teetering towards insanity in that regard because people aren't even sure they can know anything.
Even knowledge seems vulnerable. But here is what I would like to say this morning.
There is an invulnerable knower. There is a
God in heaven who proclaims things and reveals things with absolute certainty.
There is something that you can know that is not simply a matter of weighing evidence and hoping that it's true, hoping that the evidence for it outweighs the contradiction of it.
You can know with certainty because there is a God who reveals things to man.
You can know that Jesus is risen.
Jesus Christ was crucified and laid in a grave. And I declare to you, not as a matter of opinion, but as a matter of absolute fact with utter confidence,
Jesus is alive. He rose from the dead. This can be known.
And we're going to see how from John chapter 20. Surprisingly, turn there if you will. Surprisingly, John does not present this truth as something he must prove, something that could be disproven.
He proclaims this truth with such certainty that he puts the word of it on the faltering lips of a woman, on the stumbling legs of a man, and then grounds it in a truth that cannot be denied.
We're going to read John chapter 20. And as we do, I want you to think about how sure a foundation we have that Jesus is alive.
If you were to try to prove the case to someone, you would create an airtight defense.
You would answer every objection. You would seek to present a case that no one can deny.
John does not do that. As we read through, I want you to notice he puts the testimony on the lips of a woman in a culture in which they did not even believe that women could be believed.
Their testimony was not admissible in court. He does this strategically for a reason.
He puts the testimony on faltering lips. And I want you to notice the weakness of Peter's legs as he runs to the empty tomb.
And then we'll see the foundation of the scripture. So let's read John chapter 20. Get there.
If you don't have a Bible with you, you can just find it on your phone. Just Google John 20. It'll pop right up.
It says, now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the
Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.
Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths 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.
Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.
For as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Here we have testimony that, on the third day, when Mary Magdalene and then
Peter and John, and later the other disciples, go to the place where Jesus was buried, they do not find his body behind the stone.
Rather, they find the stone has been rolled away, and the tomb is empty.
Here is evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. His body was not there.
As a matter of fact, they even found the burial cloths that he had been wrapped in folded up neatly.
I just learned from one of the ladies, it was Neva, as she was leaving. She said, did you know there was a Jewish custom that when you were at the dinner table and you were to put your cloth, your napkin down, if you were coming back, you would fold it up neatly and leave it as an indication that you're coming back.
But if you drop it on the table, which is still accustomed to this day, if you throw your towel, your napkin on the table, it indicates to the waitress that you're done and you're gone.
But to fold it up neatly is to say, I will come back again. And Neva was right. When those cloths were found folded up neatly in the tomb, they're saying he's coming back.
He rose from the dead and he's coming back. But notice the big picture here. When they came to the empty tomb, they found evidence that Jesus is risen.
Now let's talk for a moment about how the world views that evidence. Early on, did most of the people believe the disciples' testimony?
No, the Jewish people believe that the disciples stole the body and put it somewhere.
They thought, this is just a ruse. They want to believe that their master, their teacher, is still alive.
And so they propagated that story. Hundreds of years later, Muhammad came along, teaching in Islam, that Jesus never died on the cross.
He says it only appeared that way. But they teach in the Hadith that Judas replaced
Jesus on the cross. And it was actually Judas who died. So Jesus never did.
Isn't that interesting? Because in their theology, they have someone else dying for Jesus instead of Jesus dying for sinners like us.
And so they say he was never crucified, therefore never resurrected. And this is written right in their book.
That was a theory. In our day, there was what is called higher criticism. That emerged in the 1800s as a product of the
Enlightenment. Investigators looking at the text determined in their mind that there are contradictions between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And their theory is that Mark was written first. And then there was development as different authors came along.
And by the time you get to John, you have a developed idea that Jesus rose from the dead.
It is a skepticism that does not believe in the supernatural. And it tries to tear apart, to deconstruct, and criticize what they find in the
Bible. If you were to survey most people in our culture today, very few would come out and attack the
Christian message and say, no, Jesus hasn't risen from the dead. And what they would say, more than likely, is if you believe that, that's good.
That's your truth. But what's happened is most people have believed the scholarship, the quote unquote scholarship, of higher criticism.
They don't believe that Jesus objectively rose from the dead. They think only that certain people believe that.
There's no way to know. And in their heart of hearts, what they're really saying is, I don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
The ultimate question that settles every dispute is the fact that Jesus did rise from the dead.
If he rose, then this book is true. Christianity is true. And all of the ethics of the Bible are true.
If not, then we are to be pitied above all people for believing such a lie and putting our faith in such things.
And so the question becomes, how can we know? And is it, in fact, true that Jesus rose from the dead?
I want to call as the first witness Mary Magdalene. Then we'll see
Peter and John. Mary Magdalene is in chapter 20, verses 1 and 2. Notice on the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early. It was still dark. And saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one whom
Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.
She testifies, and no one has ever questioned that the tomb was empty.
This is the evidence that she brings. But notice how her lips falter in declaring that Jesus actually rose from the dead.
Matthew's account, in chapter 28, tells us that when she and the other women got there, she saw an angel.
And an angel proclaimed that Jesus rose from the dead. But by the time we get to the text here, what do we see in verse 2?
She is not confidently proclaiming he is risen. In fact, what does she say?
Look carefully at the text, verse 2. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.
Her first word of testimony, when given the opportunity to preach the gospel for the first time, that Jesus is alive, she says they took his body and put it somewhere.
In other words, she completely fumbled the opportunity. And I have a question for you.
If this is the concoction of man, would you include that detail in the text?
The faltering lips of the witness? Now later, next week in fact, we'll see how
Mary herself comes to believe, what convinces her, and how her heart is open to it.
But I want to say this to you. God is not afraid of us fumbling the ball.
His testimony that Jesus rose from the dead is sure and settled and confident, so much so that he disregards the cultural norms.
Does the Bible say that a woman's testimony is not admissible in court? It never says that.
In fact, women do give testimony. That came from the custom, the tradition of the first century.
We find it in the Mishnah, in the Talmud, recounting what things were like.
The testimony of a woman was not admitted in a court of law. And yet God, destroying the tradition of man, calls women to be the first to testify, as we see in the other gospels.
Isn't that interesting? But I want to say this. It also rings true.
If this was the invention of any man, writing a story and trying to make it sound believable, he wouldn't have put the testimony in the mouth of someone who was unbelievable in the culture.
So the very fact that it is women, first of all Mary Magdalene, who sees the empty tomb, is evidence that this is actually what it claims to be, the way things unfolded.
It was the fact that a woman was the first to go that explains why it's written this way.
Contrary to the great scholars and skeptics who are looking for a reason to disprove, what is actually found here is evidence that this is true.
I'll say one more thing to you, though. John has a purpose in how he's telling this story.
He's putting the testimony here and sharing this detail of what
Mary Magdalene says to say something to you, the reader. He's not claiming that this is the only thing she said.
Surely she was telling about the angel and we saw this, and maybe she's doubting her own self at this point.
Faith did not come by what she saw, but later as a gift of God. And what
I think John is doing in this text here is he's saying to you, are your lips faltering?
Do you mess it up sometimes? How many times have you been given an opportunity to share the gospel with a co -worker or a friend and you drop the ball?
Does the advancement of the gospel depend on how clever we are and how faithful we are and how good we are at preaching?
Or is the testimony of God invulnerable? Was it not
Jesus who said in Matthew 11, 25 to 27, that God hides the testimony from the wise and the learned?
In other words, those who are so prideful in their understanding. And he reveals them to children, for this was your gracious will.
No one knows the Father but the Son. And no one knows the Son but the Father and those that he wills to reveal him.
In other words, the God of heaven, who created heaven and earth, who raised Jesus from the dead, doesn't need me, the preacher.
As faltering and stammering as these lips are, and yours, like Mary Magdalene, he doesn't need us to bring the gospel.
He chooses to use the weak things of the world to shame the wise. And his truth of a resurrected
Savior will go to every ear and every heart that he opens to that.
It is God controlling this. He didn't need Mary Magdalene. So the very first preaching of the gospel was a swing and a miss.
I think they took the body. I'm sure she also said an angel was there, and she's in fear.
She's confused. She's not yet believing. Let's go to the second witness.
This is a fun one. So Peter went out with the other disciples, and they were going toward the tomb.
Both of them were running together. And here's what I love, that John the author includes this.
But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Why did
John include that? I was in Florida last week playing basketball with my little brother, which is, it happens every few years.
And I'm the older one, so I always think I should win. And I'm telling you, in that first game,
I was raining threes. I was making little hook shots. Like, I was Kareem Abdul -Jabbar, and I was
Steph Curry all in one. And I beat him. I outran him, so to speak.
And I started to think in my mind, like, oh, he's really declined. You know, he played for the
Gators. But he was a Florida Gator. And I was, like, Division II Eckerd College. But I'm thinking, oh, yeah,
I've got this guy. Wouldn't you know, games two and three, he utterly destroyed me.
He's hitting every three. He's beating me off the dribble. I'm fumbling and stumbling and missing. Did John include this detail about Peter as a form of boasting?
He actually says it twice. Look at verse five and following. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there but did not go in.
So John says, I didn't go in when I got to the tomb. He's sharing how kind of shy he was, a little bit timid.
He got there. He was kind of scared. I don't want to go into the grave. But Simon Peter, following him, went into the tomb.
He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloth but folded up by itself.
Verse eight says, then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first. Is John doing this to brag?
Imagine yourself in 90 AD. Peter testified from 33 to 60 something, 65, let's say.
By 65 AD, Peter was a rock. That's what his name means, rock.
So all these believers in 90 AD who had known Peter, they think of him as solid, immovable, steadfast, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. When Peter was martyred for his testimony, he said, don't crucify me like my
Lord. I'm not worthy. Crucify me upside down. And he died victorious in faith.
And the only thing these believers ever knew of Peter was he's a rock. John isn't boasting.
And he's not trying to diminish Peter, his friend. What he's doing here is showing the human frailty, the weakness of a brother, that Peter just didn't become the rock.
He was stumbling and fumbling. And so John says,
I outran him. Here comes Peter on weak, human, frail legs of clay.
He's just a man. Don't look at him as something unattainable.
He's just a man. And when he gets there, he's investigating like anybody else.
He's trying to figure out what happened. And it will be later on, and we'll see this as the second to last sermon in John, when he's restored for having doubted so much when they ate together on the beach.
And Jesus will say to him, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know
I love you. And it's the building up of his faith, faith replacing failure.
We'll learn this in coming weeks. The point here, the gospel is carried on frail legs.
Weakness, God's strength displayed in weakness. There is a theme running through the book of John.
And it is about a God who is not needy, but is the one who is truly free, all powerful.
He says in John 644, no one comes to the Father, no one comes to the Son, except the
Father draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. He goes on to say that all of us, all of those who believe, will be taught by the
Lord. John 10, 16, those who belong will hear the voice of the shepherd.
John 17, the high priestly prayer. And now into this point. The gospel, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is something that God himself, the omnipotent creator of all, is able to reveal to human hearts.
He's not dependent on faltering Mary or on stumbling Peter. He can teach a person to believe.
And so the third and final witness is John himself. And I want you to notice what happens in verse 8.
The other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in. And this is the thrust of what
John is doing in telling this story. What does he say? He saw and believed.
Mary saw the empty tomb. Peter saw it. But John saw, and the evidence was enough.
He saw the tomb is empty, and he began to think of everything Jesus said. It was like a light bulb just went off in his mind.
He knew Jesus is alive. Why is this tomb empty? They didn't take his body. He rose from the dead.
He knew it. He just knew it. And this was taught by God, not by man.
It was not the evidence itself. Although that corroborated, that brought faith, it was this teaching from on high.
He was brought to belief. Now, this is the point that I wanted to drive home, because when
I was in college, I encountered a professor who was a religious studies professor.
And I thought, well, this guy is going to believe just like I believe. But what he did is he took the resurrection accounts from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And he said, see, here's a contradiction. There's only one angel on top of the stone that was rolled away, but the other author says there's two angels.
And he brought up these things that he was claiming was contradictions and tried to tear down my faith.
And part of me was intimidated by this. Maybe I'm just believing what my parents taught me.
Maybe there's actually contradictions that I was scared to look into it. I was scared to look into the details.
In fact, not long after that, I was with my friend named Josh. And we went into this restaurant, and he saw a guy across the way who owned a bunch of strip clubs in Tampa.
And my friend said, hey, that's so -and -so. We should go talk to him and share the gospel.
And first of all, I don't know how he knew that this guy owned all these strip clubs, but that's a question for another day. How'd you know that?
But so my friend and I, we went and we shared the gospel with him. And we told him about Jesus. And this guy said exactly what most people in the culture believe, that these are just tales, there's contradictions, the gospel authors.
And I said, you know, I don't think that's really a contradiction. It says one angel here, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't another angel.
It's just that the one spoke. And he said to me, you know something about you? Water slips off.
He said, logic slips off of you like water off of a duck's back. I was like, oh.
Well, thank you. He thought I was completely illogical, because I didn't understand the law of contradiction.
The logic of the law of contradiction is simple. Two statements cannot contradict one another when they are made in the same sense and at the same time.
In other words, if someone said P is the case and P is not the case, that would be a contradiction.
Because in the same sense and at the same time that you're making two statements, they contradict one another.
The laws of logic applied to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John clearly demonstrate that there is no logical contradiction in the telling of the story.
There's never a place where something that is directly said is contradicted by any other. If you doubt me, there's an entire article on this on a website called
GotQuestions. You just look up Harmonizing the Gospels on GotQuestions.
Just Google it. It'll be there. And it shows the chronology of how all of these things actually do fit together without contradiction.
You do not need to fear the attacks of those who assail the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Just like there was an attack on Pearl Harbor, there was an attack on 9 -11 against this country.
And this country was able to withstand that. From the very moment that Jesus rose from the dead and the soldiers ran off scared, there has been attack after attack after attack on the foundational truth that Jesus rose from the dead.
And here we are 2 ,000 years later. These attacks will never be victorious because they have no leg to stand on.
There's nothing to fear. And as I've looked farther and farther into the scripture and investigated each of these claims that were made against the
Bible, every one of them proves to be spurious and vacuous and empty.
And the Bible stands up to the charges of the enemy. John simply believed by the fact that the tomb was empty.
The evidence was there. But here is where confidence comes from. And this is the last point, verses 9 and 10.
At this point, John simply believed by the empty tomb. For as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.
John only had the evidence of the tomb, but he hadn't connected the dots of everything that was written prophetically that the
Messiah must rise from the dead. Consider a couple of them.
Jesus said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the earth, so the
Son of Man must be three days and three nights in the earth. Sorry, let me start that over. Should have just read it.
Jesus said about Jonah, as he was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, that's where Jonah was, so the
Son of Man must be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What is he saying?
When Jonah emerged from that great fish, it was a picture of resurrection, and in the same way,
Jesus would arise. David foretold this in Psalm 16, the famous chapter about the death of the
Lamb. All we like sinners, all we like sheep, have gone astray, but the
Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Remember that, Isaiah 53? It goes on to say that after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life.
He will see that generation come and believe in him. It was necessary that Jesus rise from the dead.
I once had the opportunity to debate a Muslim imam in inner city Philadelphia, and the room was packed with Muslims and Christians, and we brought different arguments about whether Jesus rose from the dead.
One of the things that he said stuck with me. He claimed that 1
Corinthians 15 is wrong. 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, we're told that I will tell you the gospel, remind you because it's first importance, listen, that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose on the third day.
According to the scriptures, and this Muslim imam said, there was nowhere in the
Old Testament where it says the third day, that Messiah would rise on the third day.
So you guys made that up, and Paul made it up in 1 Corinthians 15. I didn't have an answer at the time.
And have you ever not had an answer for a claim? That's okay, we don't know all things. We have weak legs and faltering lips.
I don't know, I'm sure it's there somewhere. And I subsequently learned where it is.
Turn with me to Genesis 22, 4. And this will be the last passage that we look at before wrapping it up, because I'm going long again.
Would you guys rather have the word of God or a football game? Let's go then. All right, who cares if we're running a little late?
Listen to this. There is a type of the resurrection of Jesus in the story of Abraham and Isaac.
We all know this, that Abraham was to take his only son to a mountain carrying the wood of his sacrifice and sacrifice his one and only son.
When did Abraham suffer from sacrificing his own son?
It was when God told him to take a knife and the wood and his son and go to the place.
Imagine the walk. Dads, think about this. You were to go for three days knowing in your mind that you're going to a mountain to slay your only son.
Imagine the torment of his soul. Imagine the thoughts of his mind. Imagine the turmoil inside of him.
When he was commanded to take his son, he immediately decided to obey God. He had faith.
Genesis 22, three and four. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and his son
Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which
God had told him. That was Abraham's death. That was his sacrifice. That was the pain of his soul.
His heart torn out of him. And imagine what it was like for that period of time.
But look what the word of God planted in verse four. On the third day.
On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. He goes.
And on the third day, he raises the knife to finish the sacrifice, which really began three days earlier.
And God stops him and gives him his son back.
The book of Hebrews, chapter 11, says that Abraham received his son back from the dead, figuratively speaking.
It was on that first day that he made the sacrifice in the intentions of his heart. He suffered as none of us have ever suffered before for three days.
And in that moment, when his hand was stopped and his son was untied, he receives his son back from the dead explicitly when?
On the third day. The scripture actually prophetically planted that there in order that we would believe when
Jesus rises from the dead on the third day. And there are a thousand other details like that that prove that Jesus is the
Messiah who he claimed to be. And so, in closing, I want you to be confident.
I want you to leave here today and go tell somebody that Jesus is risen from the dead.
The first witness, Mary Magdalene, completely messed it up. You might as well.
But God didn't need you anyway. You were privileged and blessed to go carry that. And it's true whether you say it well or you say it wrong.
The fact of the resurrection is not vulnerable. I want you to go from this place like Peter however weak your legs are and proclaim the truth that Jesus is risen.
The evidence is all there and the further you dig into the scriptures to see what
God said ahead of time, the deeper your faith will go. The confidence will build. The word of God always stands.
The last thing I'll say in the story that we read today. They came to the tomb and they discovered strips of cloth, it says in the
Greek. Nowadays, in the Roman Catholic Church, they say that there is something called the
Shroud of Turin. Have you heard of that? The Shroud of Turin is supposedly one giant piece of cloth that wrapped around the body of Jesus.
And today they can do some kind of electromagnetic testing to bring out an image and it looks like whoever was wrapped in that had wounds similar to what
Jesus would have had. And many people try to base their faith on the
Shroud of Turin. But John told us Jesus was not wrapped in a shroud.
What did it say? Strips of cloth wrapping his body and a separate piece over his head.
Church, we don't need relics or any superstitious thing.
If we had a piece of the cross or a shroud or something like that, people would begin to venerate that and worship it.
Just like when Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, pointing by the word to Jesus lifted up on the cross.
What did Israel do with that? They took that thing and they made an idol of it. They began to venerate and worship it.
They even named it Nehushtan. They named it and worshipped it. In the same way, any relic would become an object of devotion.
We don't need a shroud or a piece of the cross or any such thing because here is what you have and on this you can stand.
You have the prophetic word made more sure and you would do well to pay attention to it as a light in a dark place.
This word, the testimony of God in the scripture that Jesus is risen is all that you need.
Go and read this and proclaim it and God will bring to faith those whom he will.
You have no fear when you approach it this way. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the testimony of scripture.
This is no ordinary book. This is no ordinary evidence. This is the very testimony of God.
We love the way that you have done it and every word that you have given us. We thank you for the testimony of Mary Magdalene who we'll look at next week.
We thank you for Peter and for John and Lord my prayer right now is that anybody listening to this sermon who has been weak with doubts and fears and anxieties, not sure if Jesus rose from the dead.
I pray God that you would reveal that to them right now through your word, through the testimony.
The grave was empty. The prophecies were fulfilled and Jesus is alive.
Grant faith to those who hear your word. We pray in Jesus name.
Amen. God sent his son they called him
Jesus he came to love heal and forgive he lived and died to buy my pardon an empty grave is there to prove my savior lives because he lives
I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives and then one day
I'll cross the river I'll fight life's fire no war is brave and then as death gives way to victory
I'll see the light of glory and I'll know he lives because he lives
I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives because he lives
I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives and life is worth the living just because he lives
Amen For I delivered to you as of first importance what
I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures