John 20: 24-29
Theme: Resurrection
WHAT IS THE RESURRECTION?
In the book, Man In Black, Johnny Cash told the story of the death of his brother Jack. It was the year 1944 in Dyess, Arkansas. Johnny was 12 and his brother Jack was 14. Just the year before, his brother said that he thought God was calling him to preach. On Saturday, May 12, 1944, Johnny tried to talk his brother into going fishing with him. He had a bad feeling about things and tried his best to convince him to come along. Instead, Jack went to work at a workshop cutting fence posts. He felt the family needed the three dollars that he would earn. Even his mother tried to get him to go fishing.
While at the workshop, he got tangled up in the swing saw he was using and he was dragged across the saw and it cut him across his abdomen, from the rib cage through the pelvis. He was rushed to the rural hospital but there was not much they could do. They expected him to die that day. Rather, he lingered for a week. The doctor told the family that it was out of his hand. He even joined the family in prayer for the boy. He was swollen with gangrene and he was on the verge of death. So, the family was called into the room.
The following is from that narrative:
I remember standing in line to tell him good-bye. He was still unconscious. I bent over his bed and put my cheek against his and said "good-bye Jack." That’s all I could get out.
My mother and daddy were on their knees, At 6:30 A.M. He woke up. He opened his eyes and looked around and said, "Why is everybody crying over me? Mama, don’t cry over me. Did you see the river?"
And she said, "No, I didn’t, son."
"Well, I thought I was going toward the fire, but I am headed in the other direction now, Mama. I was going down a river, and there was a fire on one side and heaven on the other. I was crying, God, I’m supposed to go to heaven. Don’t you remember? Don’t take me to the fire. All of a sudden I turned, and now Mama, can you hear the angels sing?"
She said, "No, son, I can’t hear it."
And he squeezed her hand and shook her arm, saying, "But Mama, you got to hear it." Tears started rolling off his cheeks and he said, "Mama listen to the angels. I’m going there, Mama."
We listened with astonishment.
"What a beautiful city," he said. "And the angels sing. Oh Mama, I wish you could hear the angels singing." Those where his last words. And he died (Man in Black, 40-48).
Johnny Cash said "The memory of Jack’s death, his vision of heaven, the effect of his life had on the lives of others, and the image of Christ he projected have been more of an inspiration to me, I suppose, than anything else that has ever come to me through any man."
We long for the hints of heaven, these affirmations of the resurrection. What can be more revolutionary in one’s life than to understand the reality of the resurrection? We want to know, don’t we? I ask you a very important question, how would it change your life if you were fairly certain that there is a resurrection?
Christianity exists only because there was a resurrection. It fact, it is one of the five fundamentals of the Christian faith. We believe in the physical return of Jesus which requires a real physical resurrection. It is interesting that some of the enemies of the faith have insisted that Jesus did not die, but that he swooned and revived in the cool of the tomb. But if anyone has watched the movie, The Passion of the Christ, this argument falls flat on its face. How could he have lived through the scourging much less survive crucifixion on a cross?
There was doubt about the resurrection, even among Jesus’ own disciples. I don’t think any of them expected it, even though Jesus had told them over and over again. The disciples hid from the authorities fearing for their lives. Only the women returned to the tomb to finish the burial, not to look for a resurrection. What they found was shocking.
When Mary arrived at the tomb, the tomb was not just open, it was damaged. The language here indicates that the stone was not just rolled away, but it was lifted up out of its tracks. She does not enter but runs to Peter and John. She told them what she found.
Peter and John went to the tomb to see for themselves. In the dim light, they saw the linen cloths lying there and the face-coth lying in another location. There were a few hints as to what took place. First, the tomb was not just entered, it was violently opened which required some strength to do so. Second, the burial cloth was there. If someone wanted to steal a body, why would they take the time to remove the burial cloth? Third, the face cloth was draped over the head and tied under the chin to keep the mouth of the corpse closed. Clearly, Jesus was dead when they buried him. Yet, the face cloth was still tied as if it was wrapped around his head and his head just disappeared from the cloth! So, the linens were laying, undisturbed, where the body had laid. And the face cloth was laying, still tied together, where he head would have been.
John said that he entered and saw and believed. Believed what? I think he believed the report of Mary. John says "For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." They still did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. It was only later that John and the disciples realized that the resurrection was not just a possibility but a mandate, it must happen because God decreed it!
Peter and John go back into hiding. It was not safe for them to be seen in public. But Mary stayed in the garden to grieve. As she cried, a man appeared and spoke to her. She assumed it was the gardener. But it was Jesus! Mary returned to the disciples and reported what she had seen. That evening they gathered together. Don’t you imagine that had a lot to talk about? "Could it be true? Could He have risen from the dead?" Then behind the locked doors, Jesus came to them. "Peace be with you" was his greeting to them. There was great rejoicing for Jesus was alive! They had experienced the resurrected Jesus!
But, there was one disciple who was not at that gathering. "We have seen the Lord," they said. Thomas said, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
One week later while they were meeting, again behind closed doors, Jesus came to them. He turned to Thomas and said, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." The word here is apistis, unbelief. Stop unbelieving and believe. Thomas refused to believe until he saw with his own eyes. But when Jesus appeared before him, he could do nothing else but confess him as Lord and God.
Notice what Jesus said to Thomas. "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." The intention was never that every person who comes to faith must see Jesus. The intention is that we believe the biblical witness and believe. The fact is, none of them believed until they saw Him. They were skeptical until, like Thomas, they saw for themselves. We are not asked to believe fantasy or mythology. We are asked to believe the testimony of eyewitnesses. John wrote these words so that we could believe.
God chose to raise him from the dead for his sake and ours. For his sake, the resurrection tells us that everything about Jesus is true. He was God in the flesh. He died for our sins as our sin offering, as our substitute, as our sacrifice. And for our sakes in that through the death of Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins. Through his resurrection we have eternal life and the promise of resurrection for us as well.
Paul said that if we have died in him, we will be raised with him. John would later write, "We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." The resurrection is the goal of every Christian.
What is the resurrection? The resurrection is our promise of eternal life. It is the affirmation that our guilt and sin have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west. The resurrection is our guarantee that we have salvation in Jesus and that believing, we may have life in his name.