Freedom Christian Center : 100404 Easter Sunday

100404 Easter Sunday

Jn 20:11-18

Tim Franklin

Introduction:

John 20:11-18 Hit me as one of the funniest passages on the resurrection of Jesus. Scripture is sometimes comical in my opinion but it only serves to show us ourselves so we can laugh at ourselves. It is good when we can see ourselves in the Word of God.
- I have come to two conclusions after reading this passage.
- One, under those long beautiful dark locks of hair was blonde Jewish girl.
- Two, Jesus is so happy to be in bodily form among the angels—He says, “check this out!’ and proceeds to set Mary up in such a way they would laugh every time the story was told.
John 20:30-31 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. NKJV

Who Stole Jesus? Vs.13
1. That has to be the question of the ages! How do you steal Jesus? How does someone sneak in and steal God? Lets back up a bit and ask another question. How do you kill God? 1 Cor 2:8 says “had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” It takes a real small minded person to reach the conclusion that someone could kill God and/or steal God. You have to make God pretty small to believe that it would even be possible. The truth is: we make God to small all the time. The very moment you think something is impossible—you just made God to small.
2. They got past Mary
  1. John 20:13 Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." NKJV
  2. Peter and John did not mention anyone in the tomb when they went in there.
  3. Did they walk by her? Did they just do that ‘angel thing’ and appear in there?
  4. Can’t you just see their faces when she first looked in? All smiling and angelic!
  5. The question: Why are you weeping? A profound question for her.
    1. Were they confused? They were under the assumption that Jesus being raised from the dead was a very good thing. Why was Mary sad about that?
    2. Were they leading her to an answer? Often some of the most profound instruction and learning come from answering the right question. As parents we use this all the time because that which you discover for yourself has lasting impact. They could have went into a dialogue teaching her the same things that Jesus said about his death. But they did not. People who discover Jesus for themselves get radically saved. It is their own experience their own discovery.
  6. Mary was looking for a body! The angles were directing her to a person.
3. Mary Did Not Understand the Word of God
  1. Jesus clearly taught:
    1. Matthew 26:2 "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." NKJV
    2. Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. NKJV
    3. John 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." NKJV
    4. Mark 8:31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. NKJV
  2. Therefore she began to make false assumptions
    1. Jesus is dead
    2. Someone stole his body
    3. He is no longer here
  3. Many people make false assumptions about God because they do not know his word, or they have been taught by others who did not know it.
    1. Some people were given dead religion rather than a life giving relationship with God.
    2. Some assumed that because they can’t see Him He does not exist or He is not here.
4. Mary was doing the right thing—she was looking for God. She just reached the wrong conclusion—I can’t find God. Many people today are still looking for God but are reaching the wrong conclusion.
  1. She was looking in the right place but for the wrong reason. Mary knew in the natural that Jesus had died. She knew in the natural that He had been place in the tomb. It was only natural that the tomb would be the first place to look for Him but had she understood His word it would have only served to confirm what she knew from his preaching—He is Risen Indeed.
  2. The good news is—when you can’t find Him-He has a way of finding you.
    1. She hears the same question a second time: “Woman why are you weeping?”
    2. This time it is a voice behind her and it is none other than Jesus.
A Terrible Misunderstanding
1. John 20:15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, "Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away." NKJV God may have rolled the stone away but if I were Mary I would have been looking to crawl under that rock.
  1. Supposing Him to be the gardener—that can’t be a good thing! Supposing comes from a word that means to be of the opinion of, to think or to suppose. That is part of the problem. Many people have opinions of Jesus but we need to know Him by the Word—the Bible.
2. A case of mistaken identity. I have always found those times to be very embarrassing or a lot of fun.
  1. Have you ever put your foot in your mouth? Both feet? When we were starting the church a family visited. I introduced myself to a white haired gentleman, welcomed him and his wife—only to find out she was his mother. A case of mistaken identity.
  2. Texas youth meeting. I was invited to speak at a youth camp in Houston Texas. Upon arrival I was cared for and the next morning went with the youth pastor to the church where they youth were gathering to travel by bus to the youth camp. They youth thought I was one of the crowd.
  3. Many people mistake Jesus to be someone or something that He is not.
    1. Some have mistaken Him to be irrelevant. Wrong message for the wrong culture.
    2. Some have mistaken Him to be old fashioned. That doesn’t apply any more.
    3. Some have mistaken Him to be a mean, unforgiving ogre that exists to make our lives painful.
    4. Some have mistaken Him to be a God ‘out there’ somewhere who just is not concerned about us.
    5. The reason we have mistake Him is that we do not know him by the Word. The good news is that Jesus works with us to get us to the place of truth that we might know Him.
3. Jesus repeats the question of the angels. “Woman, why are you weeping?” and adds a question, “Whom are you seeking.”
  1. Again, the question is to get her looking in the right place. Mary was looking for a corpse and she should have been looking for a person!
  2. Mary goes into this emotional tirade once again, “Did you take him? Where is he? I will get him.”
  3. Jesus speaks her name, “Mary!” There is something about hearing God call your name! He knows me. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. That is a whole lot of love you never forget!
  4. I will give her the credit here, two men on the road to Emmaus had the same problem. Peter James and John did not recognize him at first when they were fishing and He was cooking.
A Case to Believe
1. She responds to Jesus, “Rabbi!’ She received a revelation of who He is and that He was alive and her faith soared!
2. So what have we learned?
  1. The majority of the world can’t find Jesus because they are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing/wrong person.
  2. It is easy for Jesus to show up in our lives but we miss Him because we are not familiar with the Word of God.
  3. Those two things won’t stop Jesus. His desire is to make himself known to us so He will always be fixin fixes for us to run into him at.
  4. His ultimate goal is to connect us with the Father! He connects her with the Father vs 17.
3. John 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. NKJV
  1. Notice that these things were written that we might believe—that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God
  2. In believing we have life.
  3. In believing we can anticipate being raise up with Jesus. Jn 6:39,40.
    1. The will of the Father is that we be raised up at the last day.
    2. The will of the Father is that whoever:
      1. Sees the Son
      2. Believe in Him
      3. Will be raised up at the last day.

Conclusion:

Everyone at some point will be raised—believers and non-believers alike.
Some will be raise to eternal life just as the scripture has said.
Other will be raise to eternal death—forever separate from God, and that pain will never cease.
If Mary could have taken Jesus at his word she never would have lost Jesus or experienced mistaken identity.
I am encouraging you today, take Jesus at his word: you will be raise, rest assured of that. What you will be raised up to is your choice today.

Pastor Tim Franklin, 4/3/2010