STUDY THEME: WHAT DOES JESUS DO FOR US?
“JESUS LIVES FOR US.” JOHN 20: 1-18.
JOHN 20: 1-2, 3-7, 8-10, 11-15, 16-18.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 20.
In this series of lessons our study theme is: “What Does Jesus Do for Us?”
Today as we look at the resurrection of our Savior, the answer to the question “What Does Jesus Do for Us Now? Is, that because Jesus rose from the dead, He not only lives for us but we are to tell others that Jesus lives for them, and that He ascended to God the Father for them.
PLEASE READ JOHN 20: 1-2.
When people read the Bible to search for errors or contradictions they usually turn to John 20. According to tradition, this “first day of the week” was the morning of the third day after the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday. While John mentions only Mary Magdalene, Mark 16: 1 names not only Mary Magdalene, but also Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome, the wife of Zebedee, probably the sister of the virgin Mary.
Luke 24: 10 lists the women who returned from the sepulcher as Mary Magdalene and Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them.
Matthew 28: 1 names Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James and Joses, also called the wife of Cleopas in John 19: 25. Each of these Gospel writers named those they knew for certain were at the tomb on this first Easter morning. There is no error or contradiction.
Matt. 28: 2-4 says there was a great earthquake, and that an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and set upon it. “And for fear of him the guards because as dead men.” The guards were gone when the women arrived.
We are concerned now with the earlier part of the Sunday only. John gives an account of the morning and the evening of that third day after the crufixion. The story of the morning is found in the first 18 verse of Ch. 20.
These 18 verses fall naturally into two movements. In the first 10 verses we see the empty tomb and in vs. 11-18 we see the living Lord.
It is interesting that we have no historic account of the rising of Jesus; but we have accounts of the risen Jesus. It is quite evident that no eye watched Him as He left the tomb. His enemies were not permitted to see that; and His friends were not expecting Him back; and so they did not see it.
The first thing recorded by John was the arrival of Mary Magdalene, very early, while it was yet dark. Love had drawn her to the tomb of Jesus. When she arrived, the only thing she saw was that the stone door was lifted out. Mary came to the tomb searching for some way to honor her dead Lord, but she panicked when she found the tomb empty. At this point Mary represents people who are searching for the Lord but because they cannot see Him they assume He is lost to them.
Mary evidently did not stay to investigate. She ran to Simon Peter and to John,. How long the journey was we have no way of knowing; certainly the tomb was not very far away from Jerusalem. It is interesting that in Mary’s eyes Peter, despite his denial, was still the acknowledged leader of the group. John, to a degree responsible for Peter’s failure, had been seeking to comfort him.
In passing, notice where Peter was. He was with John and Mary the mother of Jesus. This is the only place in the Bible where we learn where Peter was after he had denied his Lord. The last picture we have of him prior to this is of the man with a broken heart, going out, having denied his Lord. Here we find John had taken him in. John found Peter and took him in during the dark intervening hours between the crucifixion of his Lord, and His rising.
PLEASE READ JOHN 20: 3-7.
The next thing in the sequence is the story of how Peter and John immediately left their home, and ran to the sepulcher to see if this thing could be so, and if the stone were really gone.
John out ran Peter. I think this is our warrant for thinking he was younger than Peter. I am quite sure he was not more eager.
When John arrived “he saw the linen clothing lying.” That was a little more than Mary saw. She had not stopped to investigate. John stooped down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying.
When Peter arrived, he did not stand outside, but went right in, and he beheld the linen
Clothes lying, and the napkin rolled up in a place by itself. Peter discovered that the grave clothes had not been disturbed. They were just as they were when Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus left them. The napkin was still in the folds that had been wound round the head. John saw and believed. His Lord was not there. He was risen! The ultimate Sign was completed.
This is the center and the heart of Christianity. Deny it, and we have no Christianity. The angel, who removed the stone, did not do so for Jesus to escape from the tomb, but to show others He was gone. He had gone before the angel rolled the stone away, and without disturbing the grave clothes.
Thieves would not have taken time to fold the head covering, and they probably would have taken the clothed corpse with them. The clothes left in the tomb show that the exit of Jesus’ body was not a rushed thing. One implication is that if Jesus body was not taken, He left the clothes Himself.
3. PLEASE READ JOHN 20: 8-10.
Then John, encouraged by the boldness of Peter, went in too, and we are told, that, “he saw and believed.” Then Peter and John went home. Mary did not. She stayed, when John and Peter went home. John is he only one of Jesus disciples who believed, based on the empty tomb, before the risen Lord appeared to them.
What was the extent and basis for John’s belief? Some think it was full-blown faith that Jesus had been raised from the dead. At the other extreme are those who think the meaning is only that he believed Mary’s report to be true. The real meaning probably lies between these two extremes. One factor was that “they still did not understand the Scripture that said He must rise from the dead.”
Another factor is that there is no record of John telling others of his belief that Jesus was alive. Why didn’t he tell Peter and Mary?
John believed in the sense that he felt the first glimmer of faith at the empty tomb. The grave clothes may have been a factor in his faith.
Peter does not seem to have believed at the time John did. Luke 24:12 tells us Peter “departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.” Later that day, Jesus appeared to Simon. We are not told details of this meeting, but it must have been wonderful..
At this point in the narrative John is representative of all who believe but who lack and understanding of what they believe. John believed but he did not yet understand the scriptural meaning of the resurrection. One of the goals of the risen Lord was to show His disciples the prophecies of the 0.T. that were fulfilled in Him---especially in His death and resurrection. Of course no believer---however mature---understands all the deepest mysteries of God and His ways.
Romans 11:33 says, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”
4. PLEASE READ JOHN 20: 11-15.
And now in vs. 11-18 we have the risen Lord. The central value of this is of course the Lord Himself, but the relation gathers around Mary of Magdala. We see her in three relationships. First, alone, in vs. 11; secondly, with the angels, in verses 12 and 13; and then with her Lord, in vs. 14-17.
In vs. 11 Mary was standing without at the tomb weeping. The stone was gone, but she had not understood it. Peter and John do not seem to have stopped and talked to her. A little fellowship might have been helpful, but they had gone away and left her. But she stayed on.
What was she doing? Weeping. The Greek word there means sobbing. It is not merely that tears were trickling down her face. She was convulsed with her weeping.
Peter had been in the tomb and then John. It would seem that they had come out and left suddenly, possibly understandably silently. But this sobbing woman wanted to see for herself.
I can see her there, Mary of Magdala, out of whom He had cast seven demons; the woman who through Him had been set free from the appalling domination pf seven evil spirits. She had lost him. She saw them put Him on His cross. She had tarried longer than any one else. She stayed all through the first night after they had placed Him in the tomb. She was back the first day, after the Sabbath, for He was in the tomb all of the Sabbath.
While sobbing and convulsed Mary bent over and looked in the tomb. There she saw two angels sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. She knew the body was gone. She had found that out, but angels were sitting there.
The angels asker her, “Woman, why weepest thou?’ She replied, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I now not where thy have laid Him.” In her mind He was dead, but that did not matter to Mary. He was still her Lord. Now she uses the personal word. “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.”
She had lost even his dead body. That is how she thought of Him. She did not think of a living Lord. She thought of a dead body. He might be dead and buried but He was still her Lord.
She turned herself back and beholdeth Jesus standing. But she did not know it was Jesus.
She supposed Him to be the gardener. She said, “Sir, if you have borne Him hence, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away. That was the splendid language of loyal love.
5. PLEASE READ JOHN 20: 16-18.
Then Jesus said “Mary.”
That was the name of His mother. It was the name he had heard so often in the home in Nazareth, and it was the name now of a poor saved sinner, out of whom he had cast seven demons.
It is possible to utter a name in such a way as to call back all memories, and reveal all endearment. That is what Jesus did. He just said “Mary.” Then she said, “Rabboni.” Then John says, “which is to say Master.” Mary’s immediate response was to grab hold of Him. Jesus said to her, “Touch me not.” This sounds like a contradiction to what He told Thomas, whom Jesus challenged to touch Him in vs. 27. Two factors show that these verses do not contradict each other. One is that Thomas had said that he would not believe unless he touched the nail marks and the side where the spear was thrust. Therefore Jesus challenged Thomas to do that in order to convince him that He was the risen Lord.
Mary’s case was different. Jesus was trying to prepare her for living after He was no longer a body to be touched.
The second factor is that the words to Mary indicate either that she had grabbed hold of Him or that she was about to do so. Either way, He wanted her to begin to learn a new way of knowing His presence. Rather than “touch me not,” the Greek reading is “stop clinging to Me.” Later, Jesus did not rebuke the other women for holding His feet in Matt. 28:9 for this was an act of worship; nor did He shrink from inviting Thomas to touch him in John 20:27.
In effect He said, “Mary, there is a new way coming. I have not yet ascended to the Father.” He did not then say any more about that. He commanded Mary to go unto My brethren, and say unto them, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Then Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples, “I have seen the Lord; and how He had said these things unto her.”
She did not announce the fact of His resurrection. They knew that by this time. She announced His coming ascension. She told them He was going to ascend. Thus we have seen the empty grave, but a living Lord.
NEXT SUNDAY WE BEGING A NEW SERIES OF LESSONS
TITLED “WHAT DOES JESUS WANT FROM US?” THE FIRST REQUEST IS “HUMBLE SERVICE.” JOHN 13. 1-17. A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>