The Risen Jesus is No April Fool

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to Saint John chapter 20 verses 1 through 18.

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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.

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So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken the

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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.

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Both of them were running together but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

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And stooping to look in he saw the linen cloths lying there but he did not go in.

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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's head not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

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And then the other disciple 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.

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Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain.

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One at the head, one at the feet. They said to her, woman why are you weeping?

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She said to them, they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.

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Having said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing but she did not know that it was

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Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?

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Supposing him to be the gardener she said to him, sir if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.

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Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.

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Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. But go to my brothers and say to them

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I am ascending to my father and to your father, to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,

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I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. He is risen. You may be seated.

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In the name of Jesus. All right it's April Fool's Day.

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Have any of you seen people on social media trolling Christians who are saying on their social media he is risen, he is risen indeed.

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Yeah I've already seen all that kind of nonsense. Let me remind you that God's Word says it is the fool who says in his heart there is no

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God. Not the wise, but the fool. And Jesus is no April Fool. If you would, we're going to take a look at our gospel text but I want to pick up a few things from 1st

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Corinthians chapter 15 as we consider the glorious resurrection of our crucified and risen

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Savior Jesus Christ. Here is what it says starting at verse 1. We're going to read a few passages from this out of order and there's a reason for that.

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Here's what Paul writes. It says I would remind you brothers of the gospel. Gospel is good news.

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That I preach to you which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved.

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Oh so good words there. We are being saved because of the good news. And he says if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you unless of course you believed in vain.

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And then he says this for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. We learn from the

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Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians that the gospel that he preached was not one that he had heard from a human being.

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But the gospel that he preached was actually given to him by none other than Christ Jesus himself via a direct revelation.

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And here's the gospel that he received from Jesus. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

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That he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

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And that he appeared to Cephas and to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time.

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Most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep. They're all dead now by the way.

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They'd be really old if they were still living. Just want to put that in there. But note how the early Christian Church kept track of all of the eyewitnesses of Jesus's resurrection.

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He appeared also to James. Then to all the apostles. And last of all to one untimely born.

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He appeared also to me. And note this that the Apostle Paul before he was called by Christ was a murderer.

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His conversion to Christianity is akin to had Hitler converted to Judaism.

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That's how extreme the conversion was. So then last of all to one untimely born.

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He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the Apostles. Unworthy to be called an apostle.

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Because I persecuted the Church of God. And so we're going to note here the good news primarily begins with the announcement that Christ has died for our sins.

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And this is most important because each and every one of us after Adam and Eve's rebellion in the

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Garden of Eden. We are born dead and trespasses and sins. We are active belligerents against God.

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Each and every one of us is guilty before him. And if you were to stand before God in your self -righteousness.

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God would have nothing to do with you. And you would spend eternity in a lake of fire. Along with the devil and his angels whom we have listened to.

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This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It's a tough word but this is the truth. And so it is good news that Christ has died for our sins.

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But the thing is is that when it comes to the resurrection. The resurrection.

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How would we know that Jesus is God? The one thing we could say about Muhammad is that he's still moldering in a grave somewhere in Saudi Arabia.

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We can say of the Buddha that he also his bones are moldering in a grave somewhere.

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Everybody who's claimed to be anybody. Religious or otherwise. God and human flesh or otherwise.

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With one exception. They're all still dead. How do we know this? Because we have eyewitness testimony that comes to us in the scriptures.

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These were written by the eyewitnesses. And so it's important for us to recognize eyewitness testimony forms the basis of our faith.

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They have seen and they have reported. We believe them by faith. And when you check the evidence of their accounts.

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It all stacks up. Think of it this way. Every single one of these people that are recorded here in this text.

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They had much to lose by proclaiming that they were witnesses of the risen

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Christ. They had nothing earthly to gain. Many of them.

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In fact, eleven of the twelve apostles go to a martyr's death. Proclaiming that they were eyewitnesses of Christ.

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They had nothing to gain. We must keep this also in mind. The Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas and Annas and the

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Jews and Pharisees. They had every reason to say that he hadn't risen from the grave.

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They had much to gain in saying that he hadn't raised from the grave. But everything to lose if he truly did rise from the dead.

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Keep that in mind. And so their lie that the disciples had stolen the body continues to this day.

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But there's no evidence of such a thing. Because people who know that they have stolen a body are not generally willing to go to their graves to do so.

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Keep that in mind. Now I want to forward just a little bit in 1st Corinthians 15. Pick up a couple of passages of verses from starting at verse 35.

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This will be vital information when we go back to our gospel. And I know I'm reading this out of order.

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But I want to pick up a few things. And by reading it out of order, they'll stand out just a little bit more. Verse 35.

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Someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?

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Which is a valid question. But Paul says, you foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

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And what you sow is not the body that is to be. But a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

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But God gives it a body as he has chosen into each kind of seed its own body.

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Not all flesh is the same. But there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

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There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is one kind. The glory of the earthly is another.

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There is one glory of the sun, one glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For stars differ from star in glory.

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All of this then is the metaphor that he's using to basically say what's coming next. That what we are now is nothing compared to what we will be when

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Christ calls us from the grave. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown, perishable.

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Is raised, imperishable. You want a vivid picture of what that looks like? Look over there, outside the church, our graveyard.

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All of our saints who have departed this congregation, who are buried there, they were sown perishable.

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And when Jesus returns in glory, they will be raised imperishable. What is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.

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It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

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If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, and listen to these words, the first man

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Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life -giving spirit.

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But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of the dust.

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The second man is from heaven. As was the man of the dust, so also are those of the dust.

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As is the man of heaven, so also are those of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

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And this is good news. And so you'll note the comparison between Adam, the first Adam, and Jesus, the last

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Adam. This comes into play because what we will see in our gospel in just a minute is literally, if you would, many of the elements from the book of Genesis chapter 3, with the garden and all of that stuff being pulled in to the resurrection account in the gospel of John.

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And it is imperative that we view Jesus as the firstborn from the grave of the new creation.

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He is the last Adam of this earth. He is the first Adam of the new creation. And we are in him.

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This is vital. Now back up just a little bit in this text. And I want to read out a few verses from chapter 12.

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Here's what it says. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

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How do Christians speak this way? And Paul having to correct them. Years ago,

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I had coffee with a very famous liberal ELCA female pastor.

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Her name is Nadia Bowles -Weber. You may be familiar with her. And it was a cordial conversation, but as we were sipping lattes and talking cordially, she steered the conversation into the resurrection of Jesus.

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And she asked me straight up, Chris, what if they find the body of Jesus in Israel?

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What would that do to your faith? Answer, if they find the body of Jesus moldering somewhere in a tomb in Judea, I've got better things to do than be here on a

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Sunday. Because Jesus is not the Easter Bunny. He is not Santa Claus. He's not anything like that.

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If they can prove definitively they found the body of Christ, then Christianity is absolutely false.

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And you all need to find something better to do with your time. This is most certainly true.

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Now she was quite taken aback by my response. And so I asked her, what would you do?

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And she said, well, I would just kind of look at the text and where it says that he rose from the grave and realize that maybe it means something different than what everybody's thought all this time.

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No, he rose bodily from the grave. And here's what the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, says. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

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It's all or nothing with the resurrection. The resurrection proves that Jesus is none other than God in human flesh.

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The resurrection proves that his sacrifice for our sins was accepted by the Father. And he said he would rise from the grave.

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If he did not do it the way he said, then he's a liar and you shouldn't be listening to Jesus.

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This is most certainly true. Paul goes on to say, we are even found to be misrepresenting

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God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

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For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

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You better get busy because you don't have a right standing before God if Christ has not been raised from the dead.

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In fact, those who have fallen asleep in Christ, they've perished. So you better get busy working off your karma or figuring out what you need to get on God's good side if Christ has not been raised from the dead.

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And if you're thinking, well, that's too late for me, YOLO, I might as well go and do what

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I want. You only live once. Paul then says this, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we of all people are to be most pitied.

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It's all or nothing with the resurrection. If we were playing roulette, which I do not recommend that you do, we bet all the blue chips on Jesus, period.

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Trust me, it'll come up. Now with all of this framing our minds as to how to read what we're going to read next,

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I would like you to return with me now to the Gospel of John. We're going to go back a few verses into the context because I want to show you a few things.

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When we last left off with Jesus on our Good Friday service, we read the last part of chapter 19.

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I want to point out a highlight here, and that is, is that where Jesus was buried, we're going to note that verse 41 says this.

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Now, in the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a, what's the word? Garden.

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There was a garden. In the garden, a new tomb in which no one had been laid.

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A garden. Hmm, I seem to recall somewhere in Scripture about a garden.

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Genesis 1, 2, and 3. You remember what Adam's vocation was?

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Do you remember? He was a gardener, and then he became a thieving gardener, and he got kicked out.

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But Adam was a gardener. So this is going to play into this because all of the imagery crackles with Genesis chapter 3 here, and you'll see why in a minute.

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So, now chapter 20, verse 1. On the first day of the week, which is

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Sunday, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

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Now, she, at this point, and you'll see this as the story develops, is thinking that the

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Roman soldiers or the Jews had taken Jesus' body away, as if somehow it wasn't enough that they had flogged him, put a crown of thorns on him, punched him, beat him to an unrecognizable state, which is what

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Isaiah 52 says, and then crucified him, and he died, and then they pierced his body with a spear, as if that wasn't enough.

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There, she's thinking they've stolen his body as if they're going to insult his corpse even more, which is a terrible thing.

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So this is what her fear is. So she ran, went to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one whom

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Jesus loved. You've got to love this, because the one whom Jesus loved, the disciple he loved, that's John, the author of this gospel, and you're going to note, this has some little orneriness to it.

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John is saying the one Jesus loved, and he's going to talk about his race to the tomb and note the fact that he beat

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Peter there. Ah, young kids, I've got to tell you. Anyway, he's the youngest of the disciples as well.

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So, the one whom Jesus loved, and they said, and she said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

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So Peter went out with the other disciple. They were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran

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Peter and reached the tomb first. By the way, this has all of the hallmark, classic earmarks of eyewitness testimony, which is certainly what this is.

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They got to the tomb, and stooping in to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

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Then Peter came following him. You can almost hear him writing in the subtext, huffing and puffing, because he's older and out of shape, and he went into the tomb.

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He saw the linen cloths lying there. 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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I remember years ago, a church lady in the Nazarene church told me, Jesus folded his clothes.

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He made sure to do his laundry right. You need to do that too. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

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It's not the point of this text, but I digress. So then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, why does he have to keep putting that in there?

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He went in and he saw and he believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

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Then the disciples went back to their homes. So you're going to note something fascinating here.

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We, as we were leading up to Good Friday, Sunday after Sunday, we were noting that Jesus was speaking explicitly about what would happen to him.

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Boys, we're going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man is going to be delivered over to the Gentiles. He's going to be beaten and flogged and crucified and die and rise on the third day.

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And they were always scratching their head going, what does that mean? You're going to note they didn't get it because nobody was waiting for Jesus to come out of the tomb that were his disciples.

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None of them were raving with the praise band and the smoke machine, ready to start strumming and singing praises to God as soon as the tombstone rolled away.

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That wasn't what was going on. And that little embarrassing fact adds even more credibility to this as being an eyewitness account.

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Because if we were making up a story, we'd like to write ourselves as the hero and say, well, we believe

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Jesus all along and we were there at four in the morning with candle lights and singing hymns and holding vigil waiting for Jesus to come out like it was

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Groundhog Day. But that's not what happened.

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They didn't get it. And Mary at this point still doesn't get it.

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It hasn't dawned on her yet. Verse 11, Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.

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And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And what follows next is a vivid, vivid picture that actually hearkens to something in the

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Old Testament. Let me explain. She saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

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Y 'all remember the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indiana Jones? And they did a really good job of trying to replicate what the ark looked like.

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The top of the ark was called the mercy seat. And the mercy seat, what you saw on it was two angels facing each other.

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You're gonna note, I think if you want a really good picture of what the empty tomb looked like, don't show the front of the tomb with the stone rolled away.

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Show the empty slab with the two angels facing each other the way they did on the

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Ark of the Covenant. I think the Ark of the Covenant depicts this right here. That's my personal opinion, but I've got good reason for it.

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Because they would pour the blood of the sacrifices on the top of the mercy seat. So when you connect that all to Jesus, you sit there and you go, hmm, very fascinating.

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Verse 13. So the angels, they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? See, they know, they're in on it.

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They know that Jesus is raised from the dead. So she said to them, they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him.

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And in this account, we learn that the angels are not the ones to announce the resurrection of Christ.

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Christ does something amazing. And like I said, it harkens all the way back to Genesis 3.

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They said to the woman, why are you weeping? She said, well, they've taken away my Lord. I don't know where they've laid him.

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And having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing. Now she's seeing

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Jesus from her peripheral vision, but she did not know that it was Jesus. So peripheral vision, she's been weeping.

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You can only imagine the state that she's in. And Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

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Whom are you seeking? And supposing him to be the gardener?

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Huh. I seem to recall a gardener in a garden at one point. She said to him, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away.

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Beautiful moment. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned to him in Aramaic, and you could almost hear the squeal of excitement.

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Rabboni, which means teacher. And Jesus said to her, do not cling to me.

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Let me translate that idiom for you. That's a straight translation. It's probably best translated if you want to catch the idiom.

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Do not detain me, because at this point, Mary probably has given him a bear hug or is holding onto him for dear life.

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Like I've lost you once. I'm never going to lose you again. It's a beautiful picture.

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And so he says, don't detain me, for I have not yet ascended to the father. But go to my brothers and say to them,

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I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and to your God.

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Mary Magdalene, a woman, went and announced to the disciples,

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I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.

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Now, work the biblical typology. It was a woman who was first deceived by the serpent who then told her husband and her husband listened to her and he ate.

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All of this took place in a garden and watched the reversal, the reversal now that Christ has bled and died for our sins.

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It is a woman who now gets to go tell the men, take and eat.

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The Lord is risen. I've got a new fruit for you. It's amazing.

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It's wonderful. It is so perfect in its details. And I want you to understand that although God has forbidden women from holding the pastoral office, it is women who got to announce that Christ is risen from the grave first.

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And it is appropriate that they did so. Let us never despise our sisters in Christ or hold them in low esteem because they were given the privilege to proclaim

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Christ and him raised from the grave first. And it all happened in a garden.

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You see it. And so with these things in mind, I would like to return to our

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Old Testament text. And I know our Old Testament text seems like an odd bird.

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It is a song that was sung after the forces of Pharaoh and his army were drowned in the

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Red Sea. Why anyone would pick Exodus 15 as a resurrection

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Sunday text might seem a little elusive, but I want you to think of it this way.

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Scripture is so clear that when you were baptized in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you were united with Christ in his death and his resurrection.

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Your baptism has everything to do with Easter and the resurrection of Christ.

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And by the way, Brenda and Deanne, happy anniversary on your baptism.

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And so as we read this text, read it now as a resurrection

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Easter Sunday text. And when you hear about the forces of Pharaoh in Egypt, see them for what they really always represented, the devil and his demon horde, and then sing these praises because it's amazing what our

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God has done for us, because we could not do it for ourselves because of our sinful condition.

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Moses sang, the people of Israel sang this song to Yahweh saying, I will sing to the

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Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

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The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. This is my

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God and I will praise him. My father's God and I will exalt him.

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The Lord is a man of war. Yahweh is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea.

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His chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea, in the sea that flowed from his pierced side.

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The floods covered them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand,

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O Lord, glorious in power. Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.

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In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries. You send out your fury.

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It consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up.

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The flood stood up in a heap. The deep congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue.

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I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword.

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My hand shall destroy them. Such is the murderous thoughts of the devil. But God blew his wind.

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The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you,

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O Lord, among the gods? There is no other God. Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

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Who is like you, Lord Jesus, who went into the very depths of hell, having died on a cross, and rose from the grave victorious on the third day?

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You, Lord, who is like you, who takes sinners dead and trespasses in sins and raises them to new life, unites them with him in his death and his resurrection, promises them the forgiveness of sins, and when he returns will say to each and every one of them, well done, good and faithful servant.

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Who is like this God, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and pardoning iniquity?

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He is awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders. He is risen.

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Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Lutheran Church, 15950 470th