John: Life is the Final Word

So a few weeks ago, I was watching uh a movie with my six-year-old and my three-year-old.

We were watching Die Hard and no, we weren't seeing Die Hard.

Sorry if you gave me bad looks.

I'm not that bad of a parent.

We're watching Dolphin Tail.

No one, I'm not gonna ruin the cliffhanger of Dolphin Tail.

I know y'all should, you know, whenever we talk about a movie, I get very nervous.

I'm not gonna ruin this cliffhanger that dolphin tail is.

It is about a dolphin.

There is a tale involved in Dolphin Tail, but I'm not gonna ruin it too much.

But here it's a story of hope and hopelessness.

Right?

Has anybody seen dolphin tail?

Is anybody willing to admit it?

Anybody without kids willing to admit that they saw dolphin tail?

None of you are gonna admit that, even if it's you.

Um so my my sensitive heart, uh not my sensitive heart, my six-year-old with a sensitive heart, uh, she is on the couch and it's it's the middle of the movie, right?

Middle of the story, and it's not looking good.

Like, you know, I mean, it is hopelessness going on, and we're just not sure what's gonna happen here, and and she's tearing up, and I'm and and I'm you know, I'm the dad.

I'm saying, hey babe, hang on.

You know, hang on.

Like we're we're halfway through the story.

The story's not over.

You gotta hang on.

I'm telling you, the story's gonna get better.

You gotta hang on through this hopelessness.

Um death is not gonna win here, okay?

You got it.

Death's not gonna win, story is not over.

So two weeks ago we looked at the crucifixion, right?

And we could have left the crucifixion.

I we left it by the end of the sermon, we left it pretty positive, but we could leave the crucifixion feeling pretty hopeless, like death has one.

But it's the story is not over.

So there's the next day after the crucifixion, and that's not looking real good that next day, um, because Jesus was put in the tomb, big stone, Roman soldiers guarding the tomb, and then there's another morning, the third day.

And so this is John 20, and it's early on that third day.

So uh Mary Magdalene, she she heads to the tomb that morning, really early.

It's still dark out, and she gets there, and from a couple of the other books of the New Testament, we we learn she's probably a couple of other women with her, and she gets there and the tomb is empty, the stone is rolled away, and uh maybe you're maybe you're here, and this is just your problem is this, the empty tomb.

This is you'd go, you know, Christianity, I'm all for it.

Like, teach the teach these life lessons, give me some life lessons, love the life lessons.

Jesus has a great teacher, I'm on board, you know, that'd be so fantastic.

But empty tomb, resurrection, I'm not I'm not sure about that.

And I don't think I could argue into belief, argue you into belief, but but there's a couple things I always like to say when we talk about the resurrection.

And first is the historical nature of this event, and uh, just as much as you look at me and say, well, you've got to account for the resurrection, I gotta look at you and say, Well, you have to account for the resurrection.

You know, if the body was stolen, why didn't the robbers show the body when the church started up?

Why did the body never show up?

Why would the disciples who were on the run, their whole world, their hope of a Messiah who they thought was going to be a political king, has been totally ruined, and they are on the run and they are in hiding, and all of a sudden they turn and become courageous unto death, unto being crucified themselves.

What could create that kind of change in them?

No reasonable evidence the followers took the body.

I mean, the tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers.

I can't argue you into belief.

Maybe you should account for this question.

If there is a God and he wants to reveal himself to people, and the last word is not death but love, could this be a way God would reveal to humanity and to history that death is not the final word?

Could it be?

This has always been the plan, Isaiah 53, 10 and 11.

Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

And though the Lord makes his life an offspring, an offering for sin, he will see his offspring.

He will he will be alive and prolong his days.

And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Psalm 16, 9 and 10.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices, my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead.

It's David talking, and then he says this, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

Jesus' own words, Mark 8, 31, he then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, is Jesus teaching, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed, and after three days rise again.

John 2, verse 19, Jesus answered them, destroy this temple.

John 2:19

He's talking about himself, destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.

Matthew 12, 39.

He answered, a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

If we read the story of Jonah, we learn Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days and then comes back into the world.

There's the two points to guide us as we look at John 20.

The first point is the presence of despair, just the reality of despair.

And then the second is the creation of faith.

So the first one is the presence of despair.

Mary Magdalene sees the empty tomb.

You know what she doesn't do?

She doesn't go, oh, he's alive.

Like everything he was saying is true.

She doesn't look at the empty tomb and go, oh, like like miracle after miracle that I saw in my life.

This is amazing.

Another miracle.

He's risen from the dead.

She doesn't do any of that.

Isn't it interesting that that's not her reaction?

She's seen these miracles.

Her reaction is they stole him.

And she is distraught.

She's crushed.

There's no arrival of faith.

She is crushed, and she runs back to Peter in verse 3.

So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb because she goes back and she tells them, They've taken the Lord out of the tomb.

We don't know where they've put him.

And then verse 4, both were running.

Two disciples are running.

But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He bent over and he looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in.

Then Simon and Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb.

I love that.

Peter's just always kind of rushing into stuff.

He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head, which is also an interesting thing.

If the body was stolen, I mean, are you going to unwrap the dead body and leave all the stuff there?

I'm not quite sure about that.

Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, he also went inside.

He saw and believed.

Now he didn't believe Jesus had resurrected, he just believed the body was stolen.

Verse 9, they still did not understand from the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

Then the disciple went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying, just distraught.

Just despair.

Right, I mean this is this is the this is just this continued moment.

They thought it couldn't get any worse.

And now even where her teacher, like the one she loved, her friend, somebody stole his body out of a grave, and she's just, she's already mourning, and now this and she is just weeping.

And this is this Magdalene moment.

Where the story's just over.

And I'm just wondering, like, how many of us are there today?

Where you just you think the story is over, right?

Like the tragedy hits, you know, the parent spoke that word to you, the boy rejected you, the girl rejected you, the spouse left you, the job didn't work out, your child did get sick, you are sick.

That child did die?

That friend did die.

And you just think, right?

You just think the story is over.

And this is how it feels.

This is how it feels when we when we lose something or we lose someone, and we had that plan and we had that dream, and it doesn't work out, and then and then we're outside that tomb, like Mary is, and we're just distraught.

And it just feels like the story's over.

It feels the same way when we fail, right?

Like, I mean, it feels like the story is over when you fail.

You don't reach the standard you want to reach.

You didn't get that job, you're not the success you thought you'd be at the age you are.

You look back over your life and you never were the success you thought you would be.

You failed at the standard that you read in the scriptures, you read the scriptures, you go, well, I don't do that well, I don't do that well, I don't do that well, and you start to just kind of feel the shame.

Or maybe you maybe you degrade another person, right?

And then like you're driving home and you just keep reliving it.

Or that thing you did and it was 20 years ago, and you just still can't shake it.

And you just feel like the stor this is over, this despair, it's just this is it, this is where I will stay.

Verse eleven.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot, and they asked her, woman, Why are you crying?

They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him.

At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

Now you'd think, okay, Mary, get a clue here, but you've got to realize it's dark out, she's a hot mess, she's crying, she's loud, she's distraught, you know, everything's pouring out of everywhere, and she just doesn't get it that that's him, plus she thinks, you know, they stole him, how could that be him?

And he asked her, verse 15, Woman, why are you crying?

Who is it you're looking for?

And thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I will get him.

And Jesus said to her, Mary.

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabbi, which means teacher.

Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers and tell them.

I am ascending to my Father and your Father to my God and your God.

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, I have seen the Lord.

And she told them that he had said these things to her.

So the point one was just the presence of despair, just the reality of despair when we think the story's over.

And then all of a sudden, point number two is this creation of faith.

But the creation of faith doesn't come from Mary.

Right?

She's not crying and she doesn't like, okay, I'm just going to get myself together.

I'm going to gather up all that faith in me and create my own faith.

No, no, the faith comes by Jesus engaging her.

Right?

I mean, this is how faith is created.

Jesus engaging disbelief.

God himself beginning to engage disbelief.

And this is what we see over and over in this chapter, we see over and over throughout the scriptures.

I mean, just in this little story, we see with Mary, Jesus engages her and calls her name.

With John, we see Jesus talk with him and give him some evidence.

And then we're going to see next week with Thomas.

He says, Thomas, touch my side.

Touch my wounds.

So if we jump back to the beginning, Genesis 2, God creates heaven and earth.

The story says in Genesis 2 that he reaches down into his creation and he gets a fistful of dirt.

And he creates a man.

He creates this man and it's like a shell.

It's our bodies.

And the man's lying there.

This is Adam.

And then it says this in Genesis 2, verse 7, it says that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Genesis 2:7

And the man became a living being.

So life itself came from the exhale of God into man.

Now we know the story.

A lot of us, you've been around church a while.

We know the story in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3.

And so man goes on and Eve comes along, and then Adam and Eve, they decide to rebel against God.

So they say to God, okay, all right, so you're saying you're enough and you're good.

But I don't know if I really trust all that.

So I'm going to trust in my own thinking a little bit.

I'm going to be my own savior a little bit.

And so I'm going to rebel against you.

And we see this as they eat of the fruit.

They go their own way.

And what we see when this happens, right?

You know the story, is that all of a sudden they look at each other and they see that they're naked.

I mean, before they've been frolic around this garden naked, and where I come from, you're naked, and they've been running around naked, and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, they see each other and they are naked.

And all the insecurity and the shame of sin.

See, before they could be fully seen, fully known, and fully able to receive love.

And now all of a sudden, because they distrust God and they're going to be their own saviors, sin enters the world and they experience death.

Their bodies keep living, but they experience death.

And all of a sudden they can't be fully seen and fully known and receive love fully.

And they are insecure and they are worried, and so they cover themselves with fig leaves and they're afraid, and fear enters, and anxiety enters, like everything we wrestle with our entire lives.

And then the Lord God's coming back into the garden and they're afraid, and they weren't afraid before, but they're afraid now, and so they hide, and then another breath comes.

Where are you?

Right?

Like he's engaging them.

Where are you?

Some of you are hearing this for the first time in your life.

But you thought Christianity was rules and moralistic, and that was just sort of the end of it, and stifling, and all of a sudden you're starting to learn that Christ on the cross is about freeing us and relieving us of demand and sin for a new kind of life that glorifies Him.

And you're hearing this.

You're hearing this inside of you.

You're hearing the breath of God coming toward you.

Say, Where are you?

Where are you?

Some of us who have believed for a long time, this is what we hear.

Right?

I mean, we kind of go our own way in a little ways and big ways.

And then we hear this breath.

Where are you?

And you go, yeah, what am I doing?

What am I thinking?

And you hear this, you're in this confession of repentance.

I know this, you're right, you're right.

I'm way off.

I'm hidden, and I need to come before you.

I don't know everything about you.

But I know you're like me, and I know you're like Adam.

Paul expounds on this in 1 Corinthians 15, which will take us back to John 20.

1 Corinthians 15, 20 and through 22.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, for since death came through a man, Adam, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man, being Christ, verse 22 ties it all together.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

This brings us back into John 20, verse 19.

John 20:19

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked, for the fear of the Jewish leaders, they were afraid, they're on the run.

This whole thing has fallen apart for them.

Jesus came and stood among them.

That'll freak you out.

The doors were locked.

Peace be with you, he says.

I mean, you need that to be said to you after the doors are locked and you saw him crucified, and you need that word.

Peace be with you.

After he said this, he showed them his hands and sighed.

And the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you.

Because you've got to assume they're freaking out.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that he breathed on them.

So this past week we went on a Disney cruise with Christy's family.

Christy's mom turned 16, so for her 60th birthday, she's been planning up to this for several years.

The whole big Christie side of the family, all going on Disney cruise for her 60th birthday.

It's not a bad birthday gift when the birthday gift for the uh the mother-in-law ends up a trip for you.

That's a good birthday, right?

When somebody else's birthday gift gives you a trip is a great birthday for somebody else and for us.

And so we go on this Disney cruise for four days.

It's tons of fun, right?

I mean, there's characters, there's shows, there's all sorts of stuff.

There's water side, and there's stuff going on all over the place.

Our kids have so much fun.

And in between all of that, you come back to a room.

You've been on a cruise ship?

Maybe I've been on a cruise ship.

You seen these rooms?

Now our room was nice, mind you.

It was nice.

There's a lot of polished wood in that room.

I mean, I never seen so much polished wood going on.

But at the end of the there's five of us in a cruise ship room, and we have a little one-year-old, and she is bumping into everything.

The ship moves and she bonks her head, and then she hits something else, and so that's going on.

And then the two other ones are there's just not there's not a playroom in that room, by the way.

If you're wondering, no playroom going on.

You can't do the playroom on the balcony because it's like a hundred feet down to the ocean.

And so it's just us in there.

And so we're just in each other's way in that room a little bit, and over three days that starts to get a little cramped, not big time, not complaining.

It was fantastic, a lot of polished wood.

But so like the last day, uh, I think they discovered the little stationary.

I mean, we're researching anything in this room, right, at this point.

So they discovered the stationary.

This is a big fine, you know, in the supply and demand world of a cruise ship room for a little child, discovering the stationary is a big deal.

So this one envelope in there is a big deal on whose envelope this is.

And so they're going back and forth, my six-year-old and my three-year-old, who whose envelope is this and who found it first, and who gets to draw on it, and they're back and forth over there.

And that each of them wants to have the last word, and then I kind of come into it, I'm like, hey, what's going on?

And we got the envelope, and I had it, and she had it, and she took it, and she did this, and right, and it's back and forth, and I come into it, and and they each want to have the last word to me about what's going on.

You know who gets the last word?

Well, mama gets the last word, but mama I think is in the shower.

So in this situation, uh dad, daddy gets the last word.

Right?

And I'll take the envelope, I'll rip it up, I'll throw it off the balcony, I'll flush it down the toilet, and it doesn't matter, right?

Like it's my envelope.

But the father gets the last word.

Period.

Done.

See, the the empty tomb is the father's declarative word of finality to sin and to Satan's attempt to destroy the lives of people.

That's what the empty tomb is.

It's the declarative word of finality.

Hope and life win over despair and death.

Period.

It's over.

Sin and Satan, you have no more say in this.

So Jesus breathed on the disciples in that room.

And he's sending them out.

So this is the missional call of the church begins in verse 22.

He says, This, receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven.

If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

So this is the missional call of the church.

Now, what this is not, you could read that and go, oh, well, we we're the ones who control forgiveness.

Well, we're not the ones who control it.

We're not the originators of forgiveness, we're the extenders of forgiveness.

And if we as if the church does not forgive, who forgives?

Who forgives?

Because every other place, every other place says this.

You can be forgiven if you do this.

Get a little bit better, work it off.

You know, I'm trying to do a little bit better than the bad I did before.

And the missional call of the church is to breathe out over our family and our neighbors and our city and our country and the world, every tribe, every language to breathe out over them the breath that we have received, and to breathe out over them forgiveness.

What we get to say is what we must say to ourselves every evening, every morning, every hour in between, that the cross was enough and the tomb is empty, and the Father's final word has been spoken.

It's over.

The declarative word has been spoken.

He really loves you.

Like with all that flaw and all that sin, all that shame, and that all of despair and all of death will one day be redeemed to life.

And maybe you don't get it because maybe you're in that Magdalene moment in front of the tomb.

But redemption will come.

He has already spoken it.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you that redemption is not even a reliant upon our understanding of when and how, for so many of us, we don't see how certain despair in our life, certain death that was created by our own sin or sin of others, how it could ever be redeemed.

But we do know this.

You've spoken the final word that death and despair, they do not win.

They do not have to hold control over us, and they are not the final word in this universe, in this world.

We thank you for that though we are sinners and flawed, that is not the end of who we are.

That the tomb is empty and that there is victory, and the victory to life is not based on ourselves creating our own faith, but based on you coming to us and breathing into us the breath of life.

And that you call to us, where are you?

May we come before you and say, here I am, sinner and flawed.

Thank you for the cross and thank you for the empty tomb.

Amen.