WWUTT 1006 The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus?

John's account of the resurrection of Jesus is one of the most detailed descriptions that we have of the resurrection, because it comes from an eyewitness who was there and saw the empty tomb himself when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 20 today, and I'll begin by reading the first 10 verses.

The Apostle John wrote, 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. So here we are.

We've arrived at the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our study of the gospel of John.

And what I want to be looking at today is not just John's account of the resurrection, but we'll also consider some of the other things that have been written about the resurrection in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And we'll talk about the significance of the resurrection as we go through John's recollection of these events.

As we read in verse 9, for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

So as we go through this, not just today, but even tomorrow and Wednesday, we'll talk about why the resurrection is so relevant and why it's necessary for us to believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, not just that he rose from the dead, but that he rose bodily from the dead.

So we come back to John 20, verse 1, now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark.

In Matthew 28, 1, it says, now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week,

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. In Mark 16, 2, it says, and very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

Luke 24, 1 says, but on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices that they had prepared.

Now a skeptic will look at these four accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they will say that these accounts are in disagreement because 1,

John 20, verse 1, says that Mary, and it only mentions Mary, it doesn't mention the others.

Now it doesn't mean that the others aren't there, but it does only mention Mary Magdalene, and it says that she went to the tomb before dawn.

Well the likelihood is that she set out before dawn. She started when it was still dark.

Remember this was right after the Sabbath of the Passover. It was regarded as a high

Sabbath. When Jesus was crucified on a Friday, the priests asked that the bodies not be left on their crosses.

It was a very sacred Sabbath with it being the Sabbath of the Passover.

They didn't want bodies hanging out on the Sabbath, so they wanted them taken down and put in their tombs.

And Jesus was laid in a tomb that was nearby. It was a quick burial. That's the way John lays it out for us, that all of this happened quickly, being the day of preparation.

The Sabbath was about to be on them. They had to be done with this by sundown because that was the start of the

Sabbath. Sundown on Friday was the beginning of the Sabbath. So all of this had to be done by then.

And we read that Nicodemus came with some spices. This was in chapter 19, verse 39,

Nicodemus also, who had earlier come to Jesus by night, no longer coming to Jesus in the covering of night, but seen as a follower of his even in the day.

He came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. Nicodemus would have taken these spices and placed them in the tomb.

But Jesus' body had not yet been anointed or embalmed. That had not happened.

So what the women were doing and going to the tomb, they were going on that Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus.

They would have been allowed to leave their homes as early as sundown on the

Sabbath. So the possibility is that either at sundown after the Sabbath was over on Saturday.

So Saturday night after sundown, they may have gone out and bought their spices or they awoke early in the morning on Sunday when it was still dark.

And they went out and bought their spices. But the effort of going to the tomb all started before dawn.

And one of the things this demonstrates is the love that these women had for their

Lord. They started out before the sun had even come up. They were just waiting for the first opportunity that they could get to be able to go to the tomb, to the body of Jesus.

So if they were wanting to go at the first opportunity, why didn't they go Saturday night after the Sabbath was over?

Because it would have been too dark. There just would have been no way for them to get to the tomb and see anything inside the tomb with as dark as it was.

So they set out as early as they could on Sunday morning with the expectation that when they arrived at the tomb, the sun would be coming up, light would be coming in, and it would be much easier for them to work, to be there with the body of Jesus and embalm him and show their love and affection for him, which they were hoping that they would get the chance to do.

So they started before dawn, and by the time they get to the tomb, it's dawn.

So there's no discrepancies here in these gospel accounts. Matthew 28, one after the

Sabbath toward the dawn of the first day. See, that even demonstrates they had already been setting out to go to the tomb before the sun had even risen.

Mark 16, two very early on the first day of the week. Of course, this being Sunday when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

They got there to the tomb by the time the sun had risen. Luke 24 one. But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.

Now, again, this is the first day of the week. This is Sunday, and it's because Jesus Christ rose on Sunday early in the morning.

This is why we gather together as saints, as Christians on Sunday to worship our

Lord God. Now, you don't have to, but the tradition of the church has been that day and that that would be designated as the

Lord's Day because it was the day that Christ rose from the dead. So our Sabbath, our day of rest, our day of commitment unto the

Lord is Sunday and not Saturday. Jesus died on Friday. He rested from his work on Saturday, which is exactly what that day was designated as.

Well, why that day was designated as a day of rest. It was the end of the week going all the way back to the creation story.

After God had created everything in six days, he rested from his work on the seventh.

So the Sabbath, a day of rest, became the day that the Jews would recognize as that time to rest from their work.

But then Sunday comes. Jesus completes the work of the atonement. He's resting from his work on Saturday.

He rises on Sunday, the first day of the week, and it's a new dawn.

It is now a new creation. As the apostle Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5 17.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come. Numbers have significance in the

Bible, and I'm not talking about numerology, like adding up these numbers to find out when this is going to happen to Israel and calculating the day that Jesus is going to return.

Not the kind of numerology I'm talking about, but numbers do have significance. For example, the number 12. There were 12 tribes of Israel.

Jesus chose 12 disciples. The number seven. That's a number that we refer to as God's number, but it's the number of completion.

Whenever we see that number seven appear in scripture, pay attention to it because it might signify something that has been assembled or put together or completed by God.

And in the case of creation, which God did in seven days, he did all of his creation in six made man on the six because, by the way, the number six is the number of man and the number seven is the number of God rested on the seventh, thereby sanctifying the week of creation, which had been completed.

The number eight has significance. Also, the number eight is often a number of new beginnings.

Whenever you see that number eight, it signifies that God is now doing something new.

And so technically, Jesus rises from the dead on the eighth day.

First day of the week is Sunday. You go all the way through the Sabbath, which is the seventh day.

Jesus resting in the tomb. He rises on Sunday, which is now day eight in this mission that started with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday was the Sunday right before. So now it's been eight days. Jesus rises from the dead and there is an indication there of God doing something new.

So therefore, since this day has been sanctified as a day of resurrection and that all who are in Christ, Jesus have been forgiven their sins and risen again to new life.

This is why that day has become the Lord's day and becomes the day throughout the history of the church that we gather together and worship.

Now, the apostle Paul clarifies in Romans 14 that some will see one day is sacred and some will see another day is sacred.

And we shouldn't quarrel about days. I believe that Sunday is the day that we should be gathering for worship.

That is the day that we should designate as the Lord's day, because it shows a unity in the church of Christ when we make that day the day that we rest from our work and gather to rejoice in the work that God has done for us.

That's the day that we should gather and do that. I think universally should be the case. I'll be honest with you on a personal level.

I'm not really all that thrilled about Easter. I will utilize the holiday because it's on the calendar and I will use it to encourage other

Christians and and maybe even use that as an opportunity to share with unbelievers because they know something's going on.

Hey, the church gets excited about this every time, every year, something that has to do with Easter. And so while the community of people is abuzz about this,

I can utilize that interest to try to talk to somebody about the gospel.

Maybe their heart is a little bit more open to listen to it than any other time of the year. Both Christmas and Easter are useful for that.

But as a holiday itself, I don't really look forward to Easter. And the reason for that is because we commemorate the

Lord's resurrection every time we gather on Sunday, because that was the day that he rose from the dead.

So we are rejoicing in that resurrection every Sunday that we get together for church. Therefore, the

Easter Sunday is not really any more special. I think that any other ordinary

Sunday is more special than that Easter Sunday, because we together as Christians demonstrate we're here because we love our

Lord and we love the people that he is sanctifying to himself. That's why we're here.

That's why we gather together for church, not because it's a day, but because of our

Lord. And we're gathering here to celebrate that we have likewise risen from the dead.

Everyone who is in Christ Jesus has been buried with him in their sins and risen again to new life.

We are dead to our sins. We are alive in Christ. That's the significance of this day.

That's why Sunday for us as believers is such a sacred day, should be a sacred day.

It's the Lord's day. John 20, verse one. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark.

So I hope that we've kind of settled what would otherwise be a discrepancy concerning that day and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Now, somebody may may raise this particular question. According to Matthew's gospel, a seal was placed on the tomb.

So what were the women doing going to the tomb when they wouldn't have been able to roll the stone away?

Anyway, the priest had gone to pilot and said, hey, this Jesus said that he would rebuild the temple in three days.

And we think that was code for saying that he was going to rise from the dead. So his disciples might come and try to steal his body.

So Pilate said, OK, we're going to place a seal over the tomb and you have a guard to be able to go in place in front of the tomb and we'll protect the tomb from anybody who comes and tries to steal his body.

Well, then why were the women even bothering going to the tomb if a guard was there? It's a possibility they didn't know that.

They didn't even know that the guard was there. Remember, the Sabbath had just come and gone and everybody is in their homes weeping their mourning.

Those who loved Jesus, they've gone back to their own homes for the Passover. They're resting there because of the

Sabbath. They're even afraid of the priest because look what they just did to Jesus.

And so they're in their homes and they're in mourning. They probably didn't even know there was a seal there at the tomb. So the women had no reason to believe when they went to the tomb that they weren't going to be able to roll the stone.

Or perhaps they could have asked the guard, hey, can you move the stone so we can go into the tomb and we can anoint the body of Jesus one way or another?

There's an explanation regarding the guard. There's no reason to think that there's some sort of inconsistency there.

So they saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, verse two.

So she ran and went to Simon, Peter and the other disciple, the one whom

Jesus loved. And as we've established, as we've been going through the gospel of John, this is specifically the apostle

John. John, in his humility, doesn't identify himself as anything other than the one whom

Jesus loved. Mary goes to Peter and John and said to them, they have taken the

Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Now, notice how she says this to those two disciples.

She says they've taken the Lord out of the tomb. They so she's assuming that the disappearance of the

Lord has happened at the hands of somebody else and we do not know where they have laid him.

We do not know where they have laid him. So even though John has only mentioned

Mary Magdalene here as going to the tomb, though we know it was more women than that, according to the other gospel accounts, nevertheless, she refers to herself in a plurality because there were more women with her.

It's just that Mary Magdalene is the witness that John names for the purposes of how he has recalled the resurrection.

He's not saying there weren't other women with her, but this is the one whom he he names for the story that he is telling.

And of course, when I say story, I'm not saying a fiction story. This is absolutely true. And all of these accounts line up Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

They are all unanimous in the resurrection of the Lord. In fact, John even includes some details that only he would know because he was there with Peter and looked in the tomb himself.

That's where we go next. Verse three. 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.

Why? Because John was younger. He was younger than Peter. So a little more spry maybe was able to get there to the tomb first, outrun

Peter and stooping to look in. He saw the linen cloths lying there. At this point, the sun is up.

They don't have torches. They don't have the aid of any other light. And by the way, where the tombs were located, this was not a lit area.

So you would have had to have had a torch at dark or the sun would have had to have been up.

So by this point, the sun is shining bright. They get to the tomb. They look inside. And he is able to see just from standing there outside the tomb, stooping to look in.

So it's a low cut tomb in the ground. It's not like we typically picture the tomb is this big hole, almost like, you know, like a seven foot doorway.

Like most doors are what, six and a half, seven feet tall or something like that. So we typically think of the entrance to the tomb as being like that.

It's large enough for a man to walk into. There was just a little hole cut into the rock.

It wasn't a great big hole. This stone that was rolled in front of the tomb was not the size of a man.

It was probably a little bit smaller than that. Still a very, very heavy stone. But the hole was small enough that you had to stoop to get into it.

You had to bend down to get into this hole. It was large enough for a body to slide in, but it wasn't large enough that a man could just walk in just standing upright.

So with this hole cut in the ground, cut at a low level, John gets to the tomb first and he stoops down to look inside and he saw the linen cloths lying there.

But he did not go in. Why did he not go in? For a couple of reasons. First, it's not really all that convenient to get into a tomb and climb back out of it again.

It's like a little small cave. A second reason why John didn't go in. We've already seen over the course of the

Gospel of John that John, the apostle, has a connection with the high priest.

John was the one who was able to get him and Peter in when Jesus had been arrested because he had a connection with the high priest family, whatever that connection might have been.

So because John seemed to have this this proper standing with the high priest, he would have considered it unclean to step into a tomb.

So John and his youth and maybe his immaturity decided, hey,

I'm not going to go step foot in there. It's unclean. But when Peter gets there, who doesn't have that same regard for cleanliness because he doesn't have a close association with the priesthood, he gets there and he gets in the tomb.

Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and 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.

Now, what is the significance of this? There are some people who try to turn this into a kind of myth.

You'll even find this. I remember before there was just a plethora of websites propagating the kind of mythological stuff surrounding

Jesus crucifixion and resurrection before there was those wonky websites, this stuff would be typed into email forwards and it would be forwarded all over the place.

And I would see those things printed off and they'd get they'd even get handed around at work. Hey, look at this. Look at this neat little story somebody told.

So back when they were email forwards, you didn't even go to websites to read this. There was

I was reading about this particular account of Jesus face cloth being a representation of a napkin.

And like back in the Jewish culture, they would place their napkin a certain way to show that they were done.

And so Jesus was showing that he was done by placing his napkin, the face cloth a certain way. That's all myth.

There's no way to verify that that had anything to do with some sort of napkin etiquette in ancient

Jewish Israel. All this indicates with the face cloth being folded up in a place by that by itself.

All this is suggesting is that Jesus himself took the cloth off of his face and folded it up and laid it in a spot neatly apart from the rest of the of the linen cloths, which were not folded neatly.

But that face cloth Jesus took off, folded neatly and set it to the side. By the way, this is how we also know the whole

Shroud of Turin thing is a complete hoax. The Shroud of Turin, in case you don't know, is a body length of linen cloth that bears the negative image of a man.

And some believe that to be the the image of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the cloth that he was buried in.

But we know that it's not because Jesus was not buried in a body length cloth.

He was wrapped in linen cloths and he had a separate face cloth over his face.

So the Shroud of Turin disregarded it is a complete myth versus eight and nine now.

Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed

John who got there. He stooped and looked in. He didn't go in with Peter. But now that he's gotten in, he sees the body is not there for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

Verse 10. Then the disciples went back to their homes. So as we continue on in reading this story, we'll understand more deeply the significance of Christ's resurrection.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the resurrection of our Lord Christ, that in him we have the forgiveness of sins and the promise that we too with Christ will rise from the grave.

The grave will not hold us down. So may we not be discouraged by anything, but rejoice in all things in our

Lord Christ. Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.